“It is a magnificent scheme conceived by me,” interrupted Bocardo.
“Ah!” exclaimed the virago, “if you had only as much courage as intelligence, Señor Bocardo!”
“Bah! Arroyo has courage enough for both of us.”
“That,” said Arroyo, suddenly turning his anger upon his associate, who had not the advantage of possessing a charmed scapulary, “that is as much as to say that you have the intelligence for both of us?”
“God forbid I should either say or think so,” rejoined Bocardo in an humble tone; “you are as intelligent as you are brave, Señor Arroyo.”
“Wife!” continued Arroyo, without appearing to listen to the fulsome flattery of his associate, “go and interrogate once more the prisoner we have taken. Find out if possible what errand he was on—”
“The bird still sings the same tune,” responded the woman; “he repeats that he is in the service of Don Mariano de Silva; and that he is the bearer of a message to that mad Colonel, as you call him, Don Rafael Tres-Villas.”
At this hated name the shade deepened upon the brow of the bandit.
“Have you found out what this message is?” he inquired.
“The fellow insists upon it that it is of no importance. What do you suppose I found in his pockets, when we were searching him?”