"How do you know?"
"I presume so, Excellency; hence I intend to offer you a bargain."
"A bargain!" Bloodson repeated, disdainfully.
"Yes, Excellency," the ranchero said, boldly; "and a bargain advantageous to yourself, I venture to say."
"And for you?"
"For me too, naturally."
Bloodson began laughing.
"The man is mad," he said, with a shrug of his shoulders, and, turning to his men, added—"where the deuce was your head when you brought him to me?"
"Nonsense," White Gazelle said, "you had better listen to him; that will do you no harm."
"The señora is right," the ranchero eagerly replied; "listen to me, Excellency, that pledges you to nothing; besides, you will be always able to decline if what I propose does not suit you."