Chapter Sixty.
“Surrender!”
If the carriage horses were startled by the apparition, no less so were the Hussars formed round. Equally frightened these, though not from the same cause. The hunchback—for it was he—had become a familiar sight to them; but not agitated as he appeared to be now. He was panting for breath, barely able to gasp out the interrogation, “Adone ’stael Coronel?”
His distraught air and the tone told of some threatening danger.
“Here!” called out Santander, springing his horse a length or two forward, “What is it, sirrah?”
“The enemy, S’nor Colonel,” responded the dwarf, sliding close in to the stirrup.
“Enemy! What enemy?”
“Them we missed catching—Don Ruperto, the Irlandes, the big Tejano.”
“Ha!—They!—Where?”