"If he has promised it, General, he will do so without doubt. I presume you have had a serious conversation with him?"
"Not at all. You understand, my friend, that I was not willing, till I had previously conversed with you, to listen to this man, who after all might have been a spy of the enemy."
"Capital reasoning; and what do you propose doing now?"
"Hearing him; he told me enough for me, in the prevision of what is happening at this moment, to have everything prepared for action at a moment's notice; hence no time will have been lost."
"Very good! We will listen to him then."
The General clapped his hands, and an aide-de-camp came in.
"Request Don Felix to come hither, Captain."
Five minutes later, the ex-Major-domo of the Larch-tree hacienda entered the room where the two officers were.
"Forgive me, Caballero," the General said courteously as he advanced to meet him, "for the rather cold manner in which I received you; but unfortunately we live in a period when it is so difficult to distinguish friends from enemies, that a man involuntarily runs the risk of confounding one with the other, and making a mistake."
"You have no occasion to apologise to me, General," Don Felix answered; "when I presented myself at your outposts in the way I did, I anticipated what would happen to me."