"Come, tell me, comrade, do you think of sleeping here, eh?"
Diego rose, and, with an anxious glance around him, felt all his limbs to make sure they were intact; then, when he was quite certain that he was perfectly sound and free from any wound, he gave a sigh of satisfaction, devoutly crossed himself, and said to his defender, who, with folded arms and a smile on his lips, had followed all his movements with the utmost interest—
"Thanks, man. Tell me your name, that I may retain it in my heart along with my father's."
"Leon," the other answered.
"Leon," the gaucho repeated, "it is well; my name is Diego; you have saved my life; at present we are brothers, and do with me as you will."
"Thanks," said Leon, affectionately pressing the hard, rugged hand which the half-breed offered him.
"Brother, where is your rancho?"
"I have none," Leon answered, with a cloud of sorrow over his face.
"You have none? What were you doing all alone, then, in the middle of the Pampas at this hour of the night?"
The young man hesitated for a moment, and then, regaining his good spirits, replied—