"Hum! This worthy officer does not seem in a very sweet temper this morning," the Canadian thought. "Rude though he was, I liked him better yesterday afternoon."
After some moments of silence, the general walked up to the adventurer, and stopped before him with a menacing look.
"Ah, ah," he said, "then you are here, Señor Pícaro?"
Instead of answering, the Canadian looked around him in surprise.
"What are you looking for?" the general asked him sharply.
"I am looking, Excellency," he replied placidly, "for the person to whom you are addressing that language."
"Ah, ah," he replied, "you are facetious. We shall soon see how long you keep up that part."
"Excellency," the adventurer said seriously, "I am playing no part. I will have the honour of observing to you that the man who, holding the power in his hands, amuses himself like a cat with a mouse, as you are doing with me, commits, no matter who he is, a bad action, for he knows that he is addressing a man who is unable to answer him."
The general resumed his hurried walk up and down the room, but almost immediately returned to the Canadian.
"Listen," he said to him sharply. "You produced a good impression on me when I first saw you. Your refusal to escape, when you had no other prospect but the gallows, proves to me that you are brave. I want men of your sort. Are you willing to serve me? You will have no cause to repent it."