Part 61 (1/2)
”Fools! to have been frightened at a scarecrow!
”_Carrambo_! It shan't long delay the event. To-morrow I go back to the Alamo. I'll touch that thousand yet, if I should have to spend twelve months in earning it; and, whether or not, the _deed_ shall be done all the same. Enough to have lost Isidora. It may not be true; but the very suspicion of it puts me beside myself. If I but find out that she loves him--that they have met since--since--Mother of G.o.d! I shall go mad; and in my madness destroy not only the man I hate, but the woman I love! O Dona Isidora Covarubio de los Llanos! Angel of beauty, and demon of mischief! I could kill you with my caresses--I can kill you with my steel! One or other shall be your fate. It is for you to choose between them!”
His spirit becoming a little tranquillised, partly through being relieved by this conditional threat--and partly from the explanation he had been able to arrive at concerning the other thought that had been troubling it--he soon after fell asleep.
Nor did he awake until daylight looked in at his door, and along with it a visitor.
”Jose!” he cried out in a tone of surprise in which pleasure was perceptible--”you here?”
”_Si, Senor; yo estoy_.”
”Glad to see you, good Jose. The Dona Isidora here?--on the Leona, I mean?”
”_Si, Senor_.”
”So soon again! She was here scarce two weeks ago, was she not? I was away from the settlement, but had word of it. I was expecting to hear from you, good Jose. Why did you not write?”
”Only, Senor Don Miguel, for want of a messenger that could be relied upon. I had something to communicate, that could not with safety be entrusted to a stranger. Something, I am sorry to say, you won't thank me for telling you; but my life is yours, and I promised you should know all.”
The ”prairie wolf” sprang to his feet, as if p.r.i.c.ked with a sharp-pointed thorn.
”Of her, and him? I know it by your looks. Your mistress has met him?”
”No, Senor, she hasn't--not that I know of--not since the first time.”
”What, then?” inquired Diaz, evidently a little relieved, ”She was here while he was at the posada. Something pa.s.sed between them?”
”True, Don Miguel--something did pa.s.s, as I well know, being myself the bearer of it. Three times I carried him a basket of _dulces_, sent by the Dona Isidora--the last time also a letter.”
”A letter! You know the contents? You read it?”
”Thanks to your kindness to the poor _peon_ boy, I was able to do that; more still--to make a copy of it.”
”You have one?”
”I have. You see, Don Miguel, you did not have me sent to school for nothing. This is what the Dona Isidora wrote to him.”
Diaz reached out eagerly, and, taking hold of the piece of paper, proceeded to devour its contents.
It was a copy of the note that had been sent among the sweetmeats.
Instead of further exciting, it seemed rather to tranquillise him.
”_Carrambo_!” he carelessly exclaimed, as he folded up the epistle.
”There's not much in this, good Jose. It only proves that your mistress is grateful to one who has done her a service. If that's all--”
”But it is not all, Senor Don Miguel; and that's why I've come to see you now. I'm on an errand to the _pueblita_. This will explain it.”
”Ha! Another letter?”