"Don't you forget what was told you."
"What?"
"The burning the paper, goose. It is important, I rather agree."
"Must it be destroyed?"
"Decidedly, my dear; were the captain to find a line of it, you and your friend would be lost. Dearborn is the name of the new guide, who read Mr. Kidd a lesson in behaviour to a lady. He known as our friend, too, and a correspondent, we would be separated."
"Very well, then, I shall not hesitate. It's a painful sacrifice, for, somehow, that message seems written with a consoling angel's feather."
She began to tear the paper with an unsteady hand. But at that same instant a heavy foot was heard at the door. Ulla dropped the writing. But before it was half way to the ground, the Southerner had caught it, and snatching some tobacco, shredded, she began to make a cigarette as she lolled back with a good assumption of ease.
"Can a body come in without disturbing you too much?" inquired Captain Kidd in his well-known and little-liked voice at the door.
"There is no need, captain, for you to feign a politeness you little care for," was Rosario's reply. "Am I not your very slave, and as such obliged to obey you? As you are the master, come in if you like."
In came the chief of the gold grabbers with a little bow.