“Let you go! Let you go! Yes, I will let you go,” laughing like a man who has made a telling joke, or conceived a brilliant idea.
“When?”
“Don’t be impatient, señor; I should like to have the pleasure of your company for a day or two before we part. Perhaps after—What is the strength of Mejia’s army?”
“I decline to say.”
“I think I could make you say, though, if it were worth the trouble. As it happens, I know already. He has about two thousand infantry and one thousand cavalry. What has he come here for? Does the fool actually suppose that with a force like that he can capture San Felipe? Such presumption deserves punishment, and I shall give him a lesson he will not easily forget—if he lives to remember it. Your name and quality, señor” (to Carmen).
“Salvador Carmen, teniente in the patriot army.”
“I suppose you have heard how I treat patriots?”
“Yes, general, and I should like to treat you in the same way.”
“You mean you would like to hang me. In that case you cannot complain if I hang you. However I won’t hang you—to-day. I will either send you to the next world in the company of your general, or let you go with—”
“Señor Fortescue?”