“With Captain Fly-by-Night? Did you ever play an honest game, señor?”
“An abundance of them, sergeant mine. What say you to a game now? We can make the stakes alluring.”
“I can guess now how you won the mule at Santa Barbara.”
“Indeed? Perhaps I can propose a more interesting game now, sergeant.... Gentile, close that door and bar it!... You are anxious, you say, to stand before me with naked blade. Let us play, then, and if you win you’ll have that chance.”
“And, if I do not win——?”
“If you lose, sergeant, you are to walk from this building, without weapons—and take what comes!”
The sergeant shivered. He visualised a throng of maniac hostiles crouching against the wall silently, waiting with eager hands to grasp him. He imagined tortures and indignities without a chance of resistance prior to a terrible death. He knew the caballero was watching him, yet the picture overcame him, and for the first time he could not meet another man’s eyes.
“Well?” the caballero asked.
“Make it that I can have a naked blade, at least, and die fighting as a soldier should, caballero. If you have good blood in your veins, if ever you rejoiced in the name of gentleman, grant me this!”
“You are taking the flavour out of our game. I did not think you would beg favours.”