"The stranger looked at me in his turn; then he said, in his cutting voice, and with the sarcastic accent habitual to him:—
"'You are wrong, my dear sir. This money is very necessary to you; and, if I were mad enough to play with you, I warn you that you would lose.'
"He laughed in my face, and turned his back on me.
"'Oh!' I said to him, 'you are afraid—and then, again, you probably do not possess one quarter the sum there, and that is why you dare not play.'
"Don Pacheco shrugged his shoulders without replying to me, and addressed the richest banker of Arispe, who was standing near him:—
"'Señor Don Julio Baldomero,' he said to him, 'how much do you think there is on that table?'
"The banker took a glance in my direction, and then answered:—
"'Six hundred thousand piastres, or nearly so, señor.'
"'Very good,' the other said. 'Don Julio, be good enough to give me a bill for twelve hundred thousand piastres, payable at sight, on your bank.'
"The banker bowed, took out his pocketbook, and wrote a few words on a leaf which he tore out, and handed to Don Pacheco.