“We play with stacked cards, excellency. Who can forestall the treachery of trusted associates?”
“Sir, your apology for me is very generous, no less so than the terms you offer,” returned Megales sardonically.
O’Halloran laughed. “Well, if you don’t like my explanations I shall have to let you make your own. And, by the way, may I venture on a delicate personal matter, your excellency?”
“I can deny you nothing to-night, señor,” answered Megales, mocking at himself.
“Young Valdez is in love with your daughter. I am sure that she is fond of him, but she is very loyal to you and flouts the lad. I was thinking, sir, that—”
The Spaniard’s eye flashed, but his answer came suavely as he interrupted: “Don’t you think you had better leave Señor Valdez and me to arrange our own family affairs? We could not think of troubling you to attend to them.”
“He is a good lad and a brave.”
Megales bowed. “Your recommendation goes a long way with me, señor, and, in truth, I have known him only a small matter of twenty years longer than you.”
“Never a more loyal youngster in the land.”
“You think so? A matter of definitions, one may suppose. Loyal to the authorized government of his country, or to the rebels who would illegally overthrow it?”