"Well?"
"Where is he? Since daybreak he has left us to go—the deuce alone knows where? Night has long set in, and, and as you see, he has not returned."
"What does that prove?"
"Canarios! That he has gone away, that is all."
"Do you believe it, señor?"
"I am sure of it, Niña."
Ellen gave a contemptuous look.
"Señor," she haughtily answered, "you do not know my father if you consider him capable of such cowardice."
"Hum! In our position he would almost have an excuse for doing so."
"He might have done so, perhaps," she went on, quickly, "if he had no other comrade but yourself, caballero; but he would leave his children here, and he is not the man to abandon them when in danger."