“Ah! it might be indiscreet in me to tell you that,” replied Don Rafael. “I am a young man who has just sprung down from the tree above you, as you may see by my hat still sticking up there among the branches.”
Without letting go his hold of Zapote the Colonel raised himself on his toes; and, stretching his arm upwards, proceeded to disengage the insurgent’s hat from among the branches.
“So, amigos!” continued he as soon as he had recovered his hat. “You are fleeing from the guerilleros of Arroyo? Well—so am I: that is enough for you to know at present. You are two and I only one; but let me plainly tell you, that if you do not make common cause with me, I shall be under the necessity of killing you both. Now you may choose—Yes or no!”
“Carrambo!” exclaimed Zapote, not ill pleased with the frank, off-hand manner of the stranger, “what a capital trader you would make with your roundabout way of coming to terms! Well, cavallero! what can we do for you?”
“Pass me off with these fellows of Arroyo: as you are intending to do your comrade here. Say that I am charged with the ransom of a prisoner at the hacienda Del Valle, and thus obtain for me permission to pass the lines. If you do this, I promise you a recompense. And since you are both about to share the bounty of some one between you—”
“Only a little commission,” interrupted Zapote; “and if you knew what it is—”
“Oh, I have no intention of claiming my third in the reward. I don’t care to know what it is.”
“But you shall know, for all that,” replied Zapote, apparently carried away by an irresistible desire of giving his confidence. “Among friends—for we are so at present—there should be no concealment.”
“Well, then, what is it?” inquired the Colonel.
“It is the will of a rich uncle in favour of a nephew who believed himself disinherited, and to whom we are now taking it. You may fancy whether we have just grounds for expecting a good perquisite.”