"Had you no other object?" the general asked.
"I was only charged with a despatch; here it is."
The general seized it, broke the seal, and rapidly read its contents.
"Bah!" he said, crushing the paper, "there is not even common sense in this despatch."
Doña Maria put an end to this by saying—
"Go to Antinahuel, Don Pancho; he must demand an interview with the adventurers who are perched like owls at the summit of the rocks."
"I will, as you desire it so earnestly."
The general succeeded; when he rejoined the Linda, she was terminating her conversation with the senator, by saying to him in a sardonic voice—
"Manage it as well as you are able, my dear señor; if you fail, I will give you up to the Indians."
"Hum!" said the terrified senator; "and if they learn it is I who have done that, what will happen?"