There was silence for a moment, and then the owner of the mule threw himself backward in a gale of loud laughter, and the soldiers in the corner looked up in astonishment.
“Dice? Cards?” he cried. “You would play me for my own mule? It is amusing! And what would I stand to win, señor?”
“What you will—money, such jewels as I have on my person——”
“A note of promise to pay, perhaps?”
“Not so, señor, since to give you that I would of a necessity be obliged to disclose my name.”
“I understand. It appears that there are two of us not anxious to disclose names. Did we not have passes from his excellency, we might have trouble with our friend the ensign here. You would play me—stake gold and jewels against my poor mule, eh? My journey is urgent, señor, but never have I refused to play.”
“Then you agree?”
“I do señor, except that you wait for half an hour. I never throw dice or flip a card while exhausted. In the meantime we can converse. It would avail me nothing, I suppose, to ask your business at San Diego de Alcalá?”
“No more than for me to ask yours, señor,” replied the caballero, smiling.
The mule’s owner sipped at his wine.