"I ask your pardon, Señor," he said with perfect ease, "for not having advised you of my visit; but you are aware we are on delicate terms, and, as it is possible that if I had written, you would not have received me, I preferred bringing matters to the point."
"And pray what may you want with me, Señor?" the Scalper drily asked.
"You will permit me to remark, Señor," Tranquil replied still with the same placid air, "that the question appears to me singular at the least in your mouth. I simply wish to take back my daughter, whom you carried off."
"Your daughter?" the other said ironically.
"Yes, Señor, my daughter."
"Could you prove to me that this young person is really your daughter?"
"What do you mean by that remark?"
"I mean that Doña Carmela is no more your daughter than she is mine; that consequently our claims are equal, and that I am no more obliged to surrender her than you have a right to claim her."
"That is very vexatious," the hunter said mockingly.
"Is it not?" the White Scalper said.