"That is true. So you have been offered—"
"To take the whole herd off my hands this very day—yes."
"That is strange. Tell me all about it, my dear friend. What a pity that Don Louis has started!"
"Is it not?"
"Well, you said, then—"
"Permit me, if you have no objection, we will proceed to your cuarto, where we can converse much more agreeably than here."
"You are right, especially as people are beginning to get up in the house."
In fact, the servants of the hostelry and the muleteers were already stirring, and walking round our two friends, whom they examined curiously, while attending to their own business. Valentine and Don Cornelio left the patio, and proceeded to the hunter's cuarto. So soon as they had installed themselves Valentine said,—
"Now I am all attention. Speak, my good fellow. I confess I am anxious to hear the solution of this riddle."
Don Cornelio was aware of the friendship existing between Don Louis and Valentine; hence he had not the slightest difficulty in telling the hunter what had happened to him that night in the minutest details.