"I will, then, with your permission, caballero, communicate my dispatches to you."
"A moment, sir," the captain said quickly. "I cannot listen to you unless I have by my side two of the principal men in the colony."
"For what object?"
"That is the law."
"Do so, then."
The captain struck a bell, and a peon entered.
"Ask the two gentlemen waiting in the green room to come here," he said.
The peon went out.
"What! the two persons who are waiting?" the colonel said suspiciously.
"Yes. As I presumed, colonel, that you were the bearer of dispatches, I warned these two persons in order to detain you as short a time as possible."