"Who are the men about to join you in a few hours?" she asked.
"Fray Ambrosio, Andrés Garote—our old friends, in short."
"That is just," the girl murmured, with a gesture of disgust, "a common danger brings you together. Well, my father, you and your friends are all cowards."
At this violent insult which his daughter coldly hurled in his teeth, the squatter turned pale, and rose suddenly.
"Silence!" he shouted, furiously.
"The tiger, when attacked in its lair, turns on the hunters," the girl went on, without displaying any emotion; "why do you not follow their example?"
A sinister smile played round the corners of the bandit's mouth.
"I have something better in my pocket," he said, with an accent impossible to describe.
The maiden looked at him for a moment.
"Take care," she at length said to him in a deep voice; "take care! The hand of God is on you, and His vengeance will be terrible."