"What do you mean?"
"Then you did not guess why I, general, military governor of Sonora, supported so warmly your petition to the President?"
"But——"
"You did not guess," he went on sharply, "why I demanded that your companions should be well armed, and organised as soldiers?"
"It appears to me——"
"You did not understand why I had you invested with a military power as extensive as if you were chief of an army? Come, count, you are not speaking seriously at this moment; or else you wish to play a cunning game with me."
While pronouncing these words with a certain degree of vehemence, this time real, the general had left his chair, and was walking about the room in agitation. The count listened to him with the greatest attention, while watching him closely. When he was silent, he replied:—
"I will tell you, general, what I did understand."
"Speak."
"I understood, that the Mexican government, too weak to recover for itself the rich placers of the Plancha de la Plata, which by its carelessness, had fallen once more into the hands of the Indians, would gladly see strangers carry out an expedition from which it would reap the greatest profit. I understood, besides, that the government, unable effectively to protect the inhabitants of Sonora against the incursions of the Apaches and Comanches, would be delighted if the same strangers took on themselves at their risk and peril to restrain these ferocious plunderers within their frontiers. I understood lastly, that General Don Guerrero, (whose life and his daughter's I had been so fortunate as to save, and who felt such deep gratitude toward me), had gladly seized on the opportunity to do me a service in his turn, by placing at my disposal that great influence he possesses, to obtain for me that which I had so long solicited in vain. That is all I understood, general."