Part 32 (2/2)
”Nor I either--how unfortunate! We must--”
”Never mind money, your ladyshi+ps; money's worth will do quite as well
A _reloja_, rings, anything in the way of jewellery I chance to know a place in the village where I can convert them into cash”
”Here, take this!” cried the Countess, handing him her watch, the same which had been hypothecated to Jose, but redeemed by a money pay out a watch, both of which he speedily took possession of
”'Tis very generous of your ladyshi+ps,” he said, stowing theht to support us for a long ti for the reduced rate I'll have to accept from the pawnbroker Afterwards we must do the best we can”
As he spoke, his little sparkling eyes were avariciously bent upon certain other objects he saw scintillating in the ers and in their ears The hint was hardly needed
Enough for theht be required by those dear to them, and at a time when they could not extend it
In less than five minutes after both had divested the the all indiscriminately into the outstretched hands of the hunchback
”_Gracias!-- into his pocket ”But your ladyshi+ps will scarce care to accept thanks from me
'Twill be enerosity will be the saving of valuable lives, two of them, if I mistake not, very dear to you Oh! won't the Senores Don Ruperto and Don Florencio be delighted at the tale I shall take back--the Virgin seeing me safe! Not for the provisions Ithe, Senorita, I won't say a wordfor permission to depart, or rejoinder of any kind, he slipped down from the wall, and disappeared on its other side
It was an abrupt leave-taking, which alike surprised and disappointed the him--many anxieties they wished set at rest
CHAPTER FIFTY
AN ENCOUNTER WITH OLD ACQUAINTANCES
Passing out of the San Augustin towards the city, the great National Road, as already said, touches upon the Pedregal, the lava rocks here and there rising cliff-like over it On the other side are level una de Xochietation called the _cinta_, at a distance appearing e is afforded on the strip between; that end of it adjacent to the _pueblo_ being apportioned a several of the rich proprietors of villas, who turn their household stock upon it, as e
Just about the ti ”Adios” to the ladies, athis part of the road at soe, with face turned cityward But that he had no intention of journeying so far was evident both by his gait and the character of his dress He was going at a sloalk, now and then loitering, as if time was of little consequence Moreover, he was in his shi+rt sleeves, and without the universal _serape_, which often serves for both cloak and coat
Otherwise his garb was the ordinary stable wear of a Mexican gentle the outer seams, and fended with leather at breech and bottolaze hat completed his habiliments, with a scarf of China crape, the _cha the face shadowed by the broad rinacio's groouessed, by seeing what he carried over his arm--a couple of slip halters The horses, for whoate, a little further, having browsed their fill; a pair of greys, recognisable as the fa a split ear
They had been turned out to cool their hoofs on the soft meadoard, and he was on his way to take the the other side of the road, for a stretch of soe with a precipitous face towards the causeway As the _cochero_ got up to where his pets were expecting hi upon the crest cliff, just opposite the horses, in an attitude and with an air as if it had been holding conversation with the a swoop and swinging the halters around his head Of course, the affrighted ani froht The little spurt had carried him in under the shadow of the rocks; and as he faced round to recross theit that which, by some mysterious instinct, prompted him to keep his place After all, no mystery about it; for in the dinised the dwarf-hunchback who had shared the box seat with hi had been heard of the creature since, so far as Jose knew; and therefore it ht be supposed his appearance would have been welco some news of those hom he had been last seen But so far fro out into the road to receive him, he but drew closer to the cliff, where an embayment in black shadow promised hi along through the dust, keeping close to the shaded side of the road Having cleared the skirts of the village, however, he was less careful now Not likely there would be any one abroad at that hour--for it had gone ten--but if so, there was the Pedregal alongside, to which he could retreat Evidently he had not seen Jose as when first seen hi a corner, and the other had been for soate he alsothe two horses' heads stretched over it, one with a cleft ear! His start canition of them
”Oho!” he exclaimed, ”you there, too,one's old acquaintances all in a heap! It now only needs to encounter _cochero_, and the party will be complete! Well, I may live in hope to see hi e're all together again?”
He was about to pass on, when a clattering of hoofs was heard behind, in the direction of the _pueblo_, as if horse out of it
Shortly after, a dark clu the white ribband of road The sabres clanking against stirrup-irons proclai to its tree-cave, the dwarf darted in under the cliff, there crouching down--so close to Jose that the latter could have alers He had no desire to do so, no thought of it; but the very opposite His as to avoid an encounter; and good reason for it, as he was soon after made aware Fortunately for him, the hunchback neither saw nor had a suspicion of his proxiether occupied with the party approaching