“Do not let that concern you, gentile.”
“It is, perhaps, a trick to fool them, to draw them into a trap?”
“Did I not say for you to attend to your own affairs, gentile? In a moment I shall be angry. Watch outside, as I instructed. If any one approaches, warn me at once. Look in at the window now and then, and be sure those in the other room do not get free. And come here to awaken me in three hours’ time.”
“It shall be done, señor.”
The gentile went out; the caballero sat at the table and wrote his message, and read it, and laughed lightly.
“I risk capture perhaps, but I must get some sleep,” he told himself. He extinguished the lantern the gentile had carried from the other room, barred the door, saw that the window was fastened securely, and stretched himself on the floor close to the wall.
A pounding on the door awakened him; he sprang to his feet.
“Señor! Señor!” the voice of the Indian was calling.
“I am here!”
“The time is up, señor!”