Part 56 (1/2)

”Ho!” cried the Lieutenant, angrily, as he started up from his chair; ”and it is only now you tell me of this, when you might have brought the news in an hour?”

”Pardon, Lieutenant: both my companion and myself were also hunted by the same brigands; and we were not able to escape from the woods one minute sooner than we have done.”

”Ah! in that case, I ask your pardon, and that of your companion there,”

continued the Lieutenant, turning to Zapote, ”whom I should certainly have taken for a friend of Arroyo, rather than an enemy to that worthy individual. Where the devil have I seen you, my good fellow?” he added, fancying he recognised the features of the deserter.

”Oh! your honour, I have travelled a great deal,” replied Zapote, whose presence of mind did not forsake him. ”It would not be strange if--”

”So the Colonel has sent you to apprise me of his situation?” said the Lieutenant, without waiting for Zapote's explanation.

”We met the Colonel without knowing him,” blundered out Gaspar. ”It was only afterwards we learnt it was he.”

”Ha! that is very strange!” remarked the Catalan, again turning his eye upon the men with a suspicious glance.

Gaspar now related how, as he and his companion were flying from the bandits of Arroyo, Don Rafael had leaped down between them from the branches of a tree; and how they had parted from him without recognising him.

So far the story was well enough; but the narrator was treading on ground that was dangerous for Juan el Zapote. It remained to be explained how they had been informed, by the ex-comrades of the deserter, that the fugitive they had encountered was the Colonel Tres-Villas.

At this point Gaspar hesitated, while the suspicion glances of the Lieutenant flitted alternately from one to the other. Zapote, however, came resolutely to the aid of his companion.

”My compadre,” said he, ”does not wish to tell the whole truth, out of regard for me. I shall speak for him; and this it is. In going away from here on his message to the Colonel, my friend Gaspar was captured by the scouts of Arroyo, and taken to the camp of the guerilleros.

There he stood a very fair chance of losing his life, when, out of regard for our _compadrazgo_, and old acquaintance' sake, I consented to a.s.sist him at the risk of losing my head.”

”Oh! you are then from the camp of Arroyo?”

”Yes,” muttered Zapote, in a tone of compunction, ”the lamb is sometimes found in the company of wolves.”

”Especially when the lamb so nearly resembles a wolf, that it is difficult to distinguish them,” rejoined the lieutenant with a smile.

”I have always been an honest man,” affirmed Zapote, with a demure look.

”Virtue has been my motto through life; and I a.s.sure your honour, that I was forced to consort with these brigands very much against my will.

I was only too glad, when, to save my old compadre here, I found an opportunity of making some amends for the wicked life I have been obliged to lead in their company.”

”Hum!” said the Lieutenant, with a dubious shrug of the shoulders, ”I suppose you expect your virtue to be well rewarded. But how did you ascertain that the man you encountered so unexpectedly was the Colonel?”

Zapote now recounted their subsequent interview with the brigands; and how he had learnt from them the object of their pursuit--as well as the adroit ruse he had practised to secure the escape of himself and his ”compadre.”

”It's all true as gospel!” affirmed Gaspar, when his companion had finished the relation.

Zapote also made known the advice he had given to Don Rafael: to conceal himself among the bamboos.

”At what place?” demanded the Lieutenant.

”Just below the ford,” answered the deserter.

”But, Senor Lieutenant,” added he, ”I shall be most happy to conduct you to the spot myself.”