"I will never be taken," I said, between my teeth, "to suffer that. Bah! If I cannot, if we cannot, get out of the town again on the other side, have I not this, and this?" and I touched my pistol holsters. "They will be in my belt then."
After saying which I turned to Juan to ask him if he agreed with me, and saw that Señor Jaime's ghastly description of the garrote had made him as pale as death.
"What think you, comrade?" I asked. "Is it not best that you and I forego our vengeance on this man, Eaton, and push on as fast as may be, leaving him to our friend here, who also seems to have a reckoning to make--who appears, also, one who can extort it? Or will you disguise yourself and stay behind?"
"Nay. Nay," he answered. "Where you go, I go. And--God knows I am no poltroon--yet--yet--I could not suffer that. I have seen it in the Indies--oh!" and he put his hands to his eyes, letting his reins fall. "Not that, not that!"
"Will you push on with me, then, foregoing your vengeance?"
"Yes. Yes, since my vengeance risks such death as that. But," turning to the other, "you proposed a disguise for me. Was I to be a monk, too?"
"Nay," he said. "Nay. But you are a brave, handsome lad--I thought that in some way we might have transformed you into a woman. You would make a presentable one."
"A woman!" he echoed, looking mighty hot and raging at the suggestion. "A woman!--I, who have fought by Mervan's side! Never. Also," he added, after somewhat of a pause, "it is not as a woman that I intend to meet James Eaton, if at all; but as a man demanding swift justice. A woman would be like to get none of that from him."