Part 47 (1/2)
”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.”
”Are you sure that the will is not a false one?” inquired the Colonel, not without suspicions as to the veracity of Zapote.
”Neither of us knows how to read,” replied the ex-guerillero, with an air of affected innocence.
”But take my word for it, cavallero,” he hastily added, ”we had better get out of this place as quickly as we can. We have already lost too much time.”
”But my horse,” objected the Colonel, ”what's to be done with him?”
”Oh, you have a horse? Well, then, the best way is to leave him behind: he will only embarra.s.s you.”
”He would certainly do so,” interrupted the messenger, ”if he was like a horse I once knew. Ah, that was a devil of an animal! If you had only heard--”
The man was alluding to a horse he had once seen in the stables of his master, Don Mariano de Silva, and which was no other than Roncador himself. He was about to recount the peculiarities of this famous steed--which would no doubt have led to a recognition between himself and Don Rafael--when his speech was interrupted by voices heard in different directions, as if men were approaching the spot from different sides.
Both Don Rafael and the messenger interrogated with anxious regard the countenance of Zapote.
”_Carrambo_!” exclaimed the latter, ”it may be more serious than I thought.”
The voices had now broken forth into shouts and cries--as if uttered by men engaged in a chase; and the sounds expressed a sort of vengeful resolve--on the part of those who uttered them--not to show mercy or give quarter.
El Zapote looked for some moments with fixed gaze upon the royalist fugitive, who with the felt hat of an insurgent, the jacket of an infantry soldier, and the pantaloons of a dragoon officer, presented a somewhat motley appearance.
”You are a man who has just dropped down from a tree,” said he. ”I will not deny that fact; but if you are the only one about here, I should say there is a royalist in this wood, that these fellows are about to hunt to death.”
”On my side I shall be frank with you,” answered Don Rafael. ”You have guessed rightly: I am in the King's cause.”
”These shouts,” continued Zapote, ”the meaning of which I understand full well, denote that there is a royalist hidden in these woods, who is to be taken dead or alive. Have the men who are pursuing you ever seen you?”
”I killed two of their number yesterday evening. There were others who, no doubt, saw me.”
”Then there is no hope of my being able to pa.s.s you off as an ordinary prisoner, like my companion here, who is neither royalist nor insurgent.”
”It is very doubtful, to say the least,” remarked Don Rafael, in a desponding tone.
”Altogether impossible; but I can promise you one thing, however: that we shall not betray you, should we fall in with these pursuers.
Moreover, I shall endeavour to throw them off your scent: for I am beginning to tire of this brigand life of theirs. On one condition, how ever.”
”Name it!” said the Colonel.
”That you will permit us to part company with you. I can do nothing to save you--you know it--while you may only ruin us, without any profit to yourself. On the other hand your fate has become in a manner linked with ours; and to abandon you in the midst of danger would be a baseness for which I could never pardon myself.”