"Hanged if I don't think I will write a note to Pedro Gato!" chuckled
Tom.
"Do so, mi caballero; at your convenience."
Tom tore a page out of a notebook, and with his fountain pen wrote the following note in Spanish:
"Pedro Gato: If you had half the courage of a rabbit you would not go skulking through the hills, shooting at me without giving me any chance to tell you or show you what I think of you. A shot has just struck near my head, yet no glimpse was to be had of the man who fired the shot. If you did that, then you are a coward of a low, mean type. If you do not feel like accepting my opinion of you, then will you meet me and explain your conduct as one real man talks with another? If you will not give me this explanation, and persist in trying to shoot at me, then I warn you that I will and must pummel you with my fists if I ever have the pleasure of meeting you face to face."
"Thomas Reade."
Harry glanced through the note and smiled. "That ought to scare the bold, bad man," said he.
"Read this, Nicolas, and see if you think the note will shame the scoundrel," laughed Tom.
"Pardon, mi caballero," objected Nicolas, "but I am no scholar.
I do not know how to read or write."
"Oh!" said Tom simply. "Then let me read it to you."
Tom repeated what he had written, then asking: