"If you insist on my knowing, very good. But," he added, with a smile, "if I could have thought that you wished to speak to me so anxiously in order to talk about a pearl, I should have begged you to let me sleep."
"A little patience, for this ring is more important than you seem to fancy."
"In that case tell me for what reason, and how it comes in your hands."
Leon looked at Diego's face, which indicated his entire good faith, and continued:
"You remember that when we reached the Indians' camp together, two Spanish prisoners were in their power."
"Yes, certainly."
"Now, this morning, when passing again through that camp with the caravan, Don Pedro Sallazar, after examining the sign, divined an Indian sojourn, and invited me to enter the huts with him. I found this ring in the one to which I saw the prisoners transported."
"In that case," said Diego, "it must have belonged to one of them, that is incontestable. But how do those prisoners concern us?"
"Our second, as victim of the barbarous sacrifice which I saw accomplished before my eyes, and he was a lancero. I allow that I saw that hapless man for the first time in my life. But the other."
"The other!" Diego interrupted, who was curiously listening to Leon's narrative.