As good luck would have it, I knew something of Don Samuel. I knew him to be intelligent—and notwithstanding the ambiguous rôle he was oft compelled to play—honest.
I was not long in placing myself en rapport with him. As I had expected, I found him ready and right willing to “co-operate.”
There was at this time much talk of our permanently occupying the country. In that case he would have nothing to fear for his future; but in any case he was too gallant to regard consequences where a señorita was concerned.
There was yet another difficulty. Sam’s appointment with the robbers had been made for an early hour of the next morning—the place of rendezvous a treeless plain lying under the shadow of forest-clad hills—not far from the noted inn of Cordova.
Alone he might easily meet the parlamentarios of the other party; but it would be quite a different thing if he should go accompanied by a score of mounted men.
How was the difficulty to be got over?
I put the question to himself.
The intelligent Yankee soon bethought him of a scheme; and one that appeared feasible.
My party should make approach in the night; go into covert under the pine-forest that shrouded the slopes above the place of rendezvous; and leave Sam himself to come on in the morning—carrying the ransom-money along with him. That night he could go with us to a certain distance—as a guide all the way—returning, to return again, at the hour of daybreak.
The plan seemed excellent. There was but one drawback. Our ambuscade could only affect the envoy of the robbers, not the robbers themselves—whose den might be at a distance, among the passes of the mountains.