"Which way did they go?" the Jefe demanded, thrusting himself breathlessly forward from the rear of his gendarmes with whom he had just caught up.
And while the haciendado and his overseer temporized and prevaricated, and indicated an entirely different direction, Torres noted one of the peons, leaning on his spade, listen intently. And still while the Jefe was being misled and was giving orders to proceed on the false scent, Torres flashed a silver dollar privily to the listening peon. The peon nodded his head in the right direction, caught the coin unobserved, and applied himself to his digging at the root of the huge stump.
Torres countermanded the Jefe's order.
"We will go the other way," Torres said, with a wink to the Jefe. "A little bird has told me that our friend here is mistaken and that they have gone the other way."
As the posse departed on the hot trail, the haciendado and his overseer looked at each other in consternation and amazement. The overseer made a movement of his lips for silence, and looked swiftly at the group of laborers. The offending peon was working furiously and absorbedly, but another peon, with a barely perceptible nod of head, indicated him to the overseer.
"There's the little bird," the overseer cried, striding to the traitor and shaking him violently.
Out of the peon's rags flew the silver dollar.
"Ah, ha," said the haciendado, grasping the situation. "He has become suddenly affluent. This is horrible, that my peons should be wealthy. Doubtless, he has murdered some one for all that sum. Beat him, and make him confess."
The creature, on his knees, the stick of the overseer raining blows on his head and back, made confession of what he had done to earn the dollar.
"Beat him, beat him some more, beat him to death, the beast who betrayed my dearest friends," the haciendado urged placidly. "But no caution. Do not beat him to death, but nearly so. We are short of labor now and cannot afford the full measure of our just resentment. Beat him to hurt him much, but that he shall be compelled to lay off work no more than a couple of days."