The Border Rifles Part 59

"Good," he carelessly replied.

"You have this dispatch?"

"Here it is."

The Jaguar took it, examined it attentively, turning it over and over, and then prepared to break the seal.

"Stop!" the soldier hurriedly exclaimed.

"What for?"

"Because, if you open it, I cannot deliver it to the man for whom it is intended."

"What do you mean?"

"You do not understand me," the soldier said, with ill-concealed impatience.

"That is probable," the Captain answered.

"I only ask you to listen to me for five minutes."

"Speak."

"The meeting-place appointed for the Captain and the General is the Laguna del Venado. Before reaching the Laguna there is a very narrow and densely-wooded gorge."

"The Paso de Palo Muerto; I know it."

"Good. You will hide yourself there, on the right and left, in the bushes; and when the conducta pa.s.ses, you will attack it on all sides at once; it is impossible for it to escape you, if, as I suppose, your arrangements are properly made."

"Yes, the spot is most favourable for an attack. But who guarantees that the conducta will pa.s.s through this gorge?"

"I do."

"What do you mean?"

"Certainly, as I shall act as guide."

"Hum! We no longer understand one another."

"Excuse me, we do, perfectly. I will leave you, and go to the Captain, to whom I will deliver the General's dispatch; he will be compelled to take me for his guide, whether we like it or not; and I will lead him into your hands as surely as a novillo taken to the shambles."

The Jaguar gave the soldier a glance which seemed trying to read the bottom of his heart.

"You are a daring fellow," he said to him, "but I fancy you settle events a little too much as you would like them. I do not know you; I see you to-day for the first time, and, excuse my frankness, it is to arrange an act of treachery. Who answers for your good faith? If I am foolish enough to let you go quietly, what a.s.sures me that you will not turn against me?"

"My own interest, in the first place; if you seize the conducta by my aid, you will give me five hundred ounces."

"That is not too dear: still, allow me to make a further objection."

"Do so, Excellency."

"Nothing proves to me that you have not been promised double the amount to trap me."

"Oh!" he said, with a shake of the head.

"Hang it all! Listen to me; more singular things than that have been known, and though my head may be worth little, I confess to you that I have the weakness of attaching remarkable value to it; hence I warn you, that unless you have better security to offer, the affair is broken off."

"That would be a pity."

"I am well aware of that, but it is your fault, not mine; you should have taken your measures better before coming to me."

"Then nothing can convince you of my good faith?"

"Nothing."

"Come, we must have an end of this!" the soldier exclaimed, impatiently.

"I ask for nothing better."

"It is clearly understood between us, Excellency, that you will give me five hundred ounces?"

"If by your aid I carry off the conducta de plata; I promise it."

"That is enough; I know that you never break your word."

He then unb.u.t.toned his uniform, drew out a bag hung round his neck by a steel chain, and offered it to the Captain.

"Do you know what this is?" he asked him.

"Certainly," the Jaguar replied, crossing himself fervently; "it is a relic."

"Blessed by the Pope! As this attestation proves."

"It is true."

He took it from his neck, and laid it in the young man's hand, then crossing his right thumb over the left, he said, in a firm and marked voice--

"I, Gregorio Felpa, swear on this relic to accomplish faithfully all the clauses of the bargain I have just concluded with the n.o.ble Captain called the Jaguar: if I break this oath, I renounce from this day and for ever the place I hope for in Paradise, and devote myself to the eternal flames of h.e.l.l. Now," he added, "keep that precious relic; you will restore it to me on my return."

The Captain, without replying, immediately hung it round his own neck.

Strange contradiction of the human heart, and inexplicable anomaly; these Indians, for the most part pagans, in spite of the baptism they have received, and who, while affecting to follow ostensibly the rules of the Catholic religion, secretly practise the rites of their wors.h.i.+p, have a lively faith in relics and amulets; all wear them round their necks in little bags, and these perverse and dissolute men, to whom nothing is sacred, who laugh at the most n.o.ble feelings, whose life is pa.s.sed in inventing roguery, and preparing acts of treachery, profess so great a respect for these relics, that there is no instance of an oath taken on one of them having ever been broken.

Anyone who pleases may explain this extraordinary fact; we content ourselves with telling it.

Before the oath taken by the soldier, the Jaguar's suspicions at once faded away to make room for the most perfect confidence.

The conversation lost the stiff tone it had up to the present, the soldier sat down on a buffalo skull, and the three men, henceforth in good harmony, quietly discussed the best means to be employed to prevent a failure.