Part 26 (2/2)
”Are these your men?” inquired Tom.
”Yes,” nodded the lieutenant.
”Why have they stopped me?” Tom demanded, calmly.
”On suspicion, senor.”
”Suspicion of what?” demanded Reade, his eyes opening wider.
”Is it suspicious for a foreigner to be walking about in Mexico?”
”I am not here to answer questions, senor,” replied the young officer. ”You will be good enough not to resist.”
”I haven't any intention of resisting,” Tom retorted. ”I know better than to think that I can thrash the whole Mexican Army that is behind you.”
”You are as sensible as I had hoped you would be, senor,” continued the lieutenant, with a slight bow.
”But I wish you would tell us why you are holding us,” Tom insisted.
”I am not obliged to tell you, senor, and I am not certain that it would be wise of me to do so,” the officer answered. ”However, I will say that I found your party with a Mexican citizen as a prisoner.”
”And you seem to have made a prisoner of the same fellow yourself,”
Reade retorted.
”As an officer of the Mexican Army, senor, that is my privilege,”
came the lieutenant's response. ”As to your right, however, to arrest and hold a Mexican citizen, there may be some question.
I shall have to satisfy myself on this point before I can release you.”
”Why, I'll be wholly frank with you,” Tom Reade offered. ”This fellow, Gato, is a rascal whom I had occasion to thrash. In revenge for the humiliation he has given me to understand that he would kill me. Last night he held us up at the point of his rifle.
Our servant, Nicolas, threw a stone that bowled Gato over. Then, for our own safety, we tied him up and brought him with us.”
”Why was it necessary to your safety, senor, since you had the fellow's rifle and his ammunition? You see, I have gained this much from your friend.”
”Why was it necessary?” Tom repeated, wonderingly. ”Why, Lieutenant, do you feel that we should have turned a deadly enemy loose?”
”But you had no right to arrest him, senor.”
”Nor did we arrest him in the sense that you mean, Lieutenant.
All we did was to render Gato helpless and bring him along with us until we should have pa.s.sed out of the bit of country in which he might have been dangerous to our safety.”
”How could he be dangerous when you had his weapon?” the lieutenant demanded, argumentatively.
”Why, he had other men out with him. How long would it have taken Gato to find his men and bring them down upon us--three or four guns against one?”
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