"I—I—I fancy you are."
"This time, bear in mind, we must understand each other thoroughly, in order to avoid any future misunderstanding, which might entail regret."
"Be at your ease. I believe there will no longer be any misapprehension between us. An affair, as you know, does not always strike a man at the first glance."
"That is true; but now you fully understand it?"
"Perfectly."
"All the better. Now we can have a frank explanation."
"Yes," Don Antonio said, with a mocking accent; "and, to begin, Señor Garrucholo, doff for a moment your borrowed character, for I like to know with whom I am dealing."
El Garrucholo, for the ex-bandit was really hidden under Colonel Francisco Florés, shuddered involuntarily at finding himself thus detected. He cast a viper's glance at the man who had unmasked him, and seized him fiercely by the arm.
"Take care, Don Antonio, there are secrets which kill those who hold them."
"That is possible, my master," the other answered, triumphing in his heart at the effect his revelation had produced. "But as, if I am not mistaken, we are about to complete together a very dirty transaction, I wished to prove to you that, if you held my secret, I had yours; and that it is to your interest to deal fairly by me."