Part 48 (1/2)
”From the camp,” replied Zapote, with wondrous impudence. ”Our Captain has sent--”
”Oh! the Captain knows, then, that we are in pursuit of a royalist who has taken shelter in the _chapparal_? We have had a time of it after him, and he's not found yet. We have scoured the thicket all the night in search of his hiding-place; and, out of ten of us who came after him, eight only remain. Two, Suarez and Pacheco, he has killed somewhere; but if I may judge by the signal cries to which we have responded, there should be at least twenty of our comrades at present looking after him.”
At this moment another man joined company with the three already on the ground. Fortunately for Juan el Zapote and the messenger, these four were precisely the same whom Pepe Lobos had ordered to go round by the Huaj.a.pam road, and as they had not yet been in communication with the party from the camp, they were ignorant of the fact that their old comrade, Zapote, was himself being pursued as a deserter. ”Well,”
continued Zapote, ”as I was saying, our Captain has sent me on an errand with my companion, Gaspar, here; and we are in the greatest haste.”
”What errand?” demanded Perico.
”_Carrambo_! A secret mission; one that I daren't disclose to you.
_Adios, amigo_! I am in a terrible hurry.”
”Before you go,” cried one of the men, ”tell us if you saw anybody?”
”Saw anybody? Who? The royalist you are in search of?”
”Yes; the mad Colonel.”
”No; I met no mad colonel,” said Zapote, turning away.
”Eh! _hombre_?” exclaimed Perico, with a significant glance; ”make it appear you are ignorant that it is the Colonel Tres-Villas we are pursuing? You know that well enough. You wish to capture him alone, and get the five hundred dollars to yourself?”
”Colonel Tres-Villas?” cried Zapote and the messenger in the same breath.
”Five hundred dollars reward!” exclaimed Zapote the instant after, raising his hand to his head, as if about to pluck out a fistful of his hair.
”Certainly, that same; a grand gentleman, with black moustachios, a felt hat of the same colour, a soldier's infantry jacket, and gold-laced cavalry pantaloons.”
”And he has killed two of our people?”
”Four. Since Suarez and Pacheco have not returned, we may also reckon them as dead men.”
Zapote no longer doubted that the man from whom they had just parted was he to whom they were bearing the message of Gertrudis de Silva, in other words, the Colonel Tres-Villas. He exchanged a significant glance with the messenger.
For a moment the new resolution of honesty made by the ex-bandit wavered upon its foundation, still but weakly laid; but the mute appealing glance of Gaspar, and the remembrance of the promise of fidelity he had just made, conquered the instinct of cupidity that had momentarily been aroused within him.
”Well--we have neither met nor seen any one,” he remarked drily; ”but we are losing our time. _Adios_!”
”_Vete con Dios_!” (G.o.d be with you), responded Perico.
Zapote and Gaspar, saluting the others, walked away--going at a moderate pace so long as they were in sight of the insurgents; but as soon as they were behind the bushes advancing with all the speed in their power.
Their object now was to put themselves as distant as possible from the danger; since their projected journey to Huaj.a.pam was no more to be thought of. When they had got to such a distance as not any longer to fear pursuit, Zapote flung himself down upon the gra.s.s with an air of profound disappointment.
”What are we to do now?” inquired Gaspar, in a lugubrious tone.
Zapote, overcome by his emotions, made no reply. About a minute after, however, he sprang suddenly to his feet, as if some interesting idea had occurred to him.
”A grand idea!” he exclaimed, ”a superb idea!”
”Ah! What is it?”