"Let me first restore you to your father, and then I will do all in my power to save your sister."
"What do I not owe you for so much devotion?"
"Have you not told me that you loved me?"
"Yes, Leon, I love you, and am proud of it."
"Oh, thanks!—thanks, Maria! God will bless our love, and I soon hope to tell your father of it. May he but approve of it."
"Does he not owe to you the life of his children? Oh, when I tell him how I love you, and how generous your conduct has been, be assured that he, too, will love you."
While the two young people were indulging in dreams of happiness and the future, Wilhelm was executing the captain's orders, and Crevel's posada was again filled by the members of the band. An hour had not elapsed when he came to tell Leon that everything was ready for departure.
"In that case," Leon said to him, "all you have to do is to select the best horse you can find in the landlord's corral, and get it ready for señorita Maria."
"All right, captain," Wilhelm answered, who knew no phrase better fitted to display his obedience than the one which he habitually used.
"All along the road to Santiago you and Joaquin will keep constantly by her side, and watch her carefully so that no accident may happen to her. Do you understand?"