"You were at the Pulido hacienda," the governor said.
"I admit it."
"A native saw you, and carried word to the presidio. The soldiers hurried out to effect your capture."
"A moment. Who said a native sounded the alarm?"
"Captain Ramón assured me so."
"Here is the first chance for the captain to speak the truth. As a matter of fact, comandante, was it not Don Carlos Pulido himself who sent the native? The truth!"
"It was a native brought word."
"And he did not tell your sergeant that Don Carlos had sent him? Did he not say that Don Carlos had slipped him the information in whispers while he was carrying his fainting wife to her room? Is it not the truth that Don Carlos did his best to hold me at his hacienda until the soldiers arrived, that I might be captured? Did not Don Carlos thus try to show his loyalty to the governor?"
"By the saints, Ramón, you never told me as much!" his excellency cried.