And without waiting for a reply he left the room hurriedly, closing the door carefully after him. This brusque departure totally discountenanced the colonel.
"Oh!" he muttered, repeating in Spanish, though unconsciously, what the captain had said in French. "What can be the matter?"
As he was a true Mexican, fond of knowing everything, and, above all, of discovering anything people wished to keep secret from him, he rose gently, walked to the window, pulled the mosquito curtain aside, and looked out curiously into the yard. But it was labour in vain: the courtyard was deserted. He then returned on tiptoe to his seat, and began carelessly rolling a papelito, while muttering half aloud,—
"Patience! The man who knows how to wait always gains his end. I shall obtain the clue to this mystery sooner or later."
This aside having doubtlessly consoled him for the disappointment he had experienced, he philosophically lit his cigarette, and soon disappeared in the midst of a dense cloud of smoke which issued from his mouth and nostrils simultaneously. We will leave the worthy colonel enjoying this amusement at his ease, and follow de Laville, in order to explain to the reader the meaning of the exclamation that escaped from him on reading the paper which the peon so unexpectedly handed to him.
[CHAPTER IX.]
DOÑA ANGELA.
Before relating, however, what took place at Guetzalli between de Laville and the colonel, we must return to the adventurers' encampment.
Louis, still holding the maiden pressed to his breast, carried her to the interior of the hut of branches which his comrades had built for him at the entrance of the church. On arriving there he laid her in a chair, and seated himself on a stool. There was a long silence, during which both reflected deeply. A strange phenomenon took place in Louis' heart. In spite of himself he felt hope returning to his soul: he inhaled life through every pore—a desire to live came back to him. He thought of the future—that future he had wished to destroy in himself, by choosing as his mode of suicide the mad and rash expedition at the head of which he had placed himself.