"You know it!" don Diego exclaimed, with perfectly well-acted surprise.
"The sudden elevation of these two men, the almost unlimited credit which they enjoy with the President, has also caused me to reflect, for no one understands this so sudden favour."
"Hence, certain persons consider it necessary to elucidate the question by assuring themselves in a positive manner about what these two men are."
"Well," don Felipe exclaimed, "I will know it! I promise you, and will give you the proofs you require."
"You will do that?"
"Yes, I swear it! The more so because I consider it the duty of an honest man to take these rogues with their hand in the bag; and," he added, with a singular smile, "no one possesses the means to obtain the result better than I."
"I trust you may not be mistaken, Colonel, for, if this were to happen, I think I may assure you that the gratitude of the government toward you will not be limited to the sum of which I am going to hand you a portion."
Don Felipe smiled proudly at this transparent allusion to the new rank of which he was ambitious.
Don Diego, without appearing to remark the smile, took from a large pocketbook a sheet of paper, and handed it to the guerillero, who seized it with a gesture of delight, and an expression of satisfied rapacity, which imparted something vile and contemptible to his features, which were generally handsome and rather regular. This paper was a draft for ten thousand piastres, payable at sight on a large English banking house in Veracruz. Don Diego rose.
"Are you going?" the colonel asked him.