"Which question?"

"The one I asked you about the General."

"Suppose I refuse?"

"I shall know how to compel you."

"That is haughty language, Colonel."

"Which I shall support by deeds."

"I do not think so: not that I doubt your courage, Heaven forbid, for I have long known it."

"Well! What will prevent me?"

"You have not the means to carry out your wishes."

"They are easily found."

"Try it."

While speaking, the Colonel had mechanically taken a couple of steps into the room.

"I shall soon return," he said, as he laid his hand on the door latch.

The Jaguar only answered by a hoa.r.s.e laugh. The door was closed, in vain did the Colonel try to open it; it resisted all his efforts.

"I am your prisoner, then?" he said, addressing the young man.

"Perhaps so; it will depend on yourself."

"You wish me to fall into the same snare into which the General and his officers probably fell before me. Try it, Senor; still I warn you that I am on my guard, and will defend myself."

"Your words are harsh, Colonel. You gratuitously insult a man of whom, up to the present, you have no cause to complain, and whom you will regret having attacked when you know him."

"Tell me the fate of my companions, and what your intentions are with regard to myself."

"My intentions are better than yours, Colonel; for, if you had me in your power, as I have you in mine, it is probable that your General, if not yourself, would make me pay dearly for the imprudence I have committed; but enough of this, we have lost too much time already.

General Rubio and his officers are my prisoners, and you feel in your heart that I can do what I please with you; withdraw the soldiers who surround my house, pledge me your word of honour that no attempt shall be made on me by the Mexican Government for four-and-twenty hours, and I will immediately restore you all to liberty."

"I know not who you are, Senor; the conditions you wish to impose on me are those a conqueror would offer to enemies reduced to impotence."

"What else are you at this moment?" the young man interrupted violently.

"Be it so; but I cannot take it on myself to accept or decline these conditions, as the General alone has the right to form a determination and pledge his word."

"Then, ask himself what his intentions are, and he will answer you."

"Is he here, then?" the Colonel exclaimed eagerly, as he moved a step forward.

"It is of little consequence to you where he is, provided he hear and answer you; do not stir from where you are; one step further, and you are a dead man; what is your resolve?"

"I accept."

"In that case speak to him."

The Jaguar worked the spring that opened the trap, and displayed the entrance of the vault into which the Mexican officers had been so suddenly hurled; but the darkness was so intense, that the Colonel could perceive nothing, in spite of his efforts to try and distinguish a gleam; he merely heard a slight sound produced by the grating of the trap in its groove. The Colonel understood that he must get out of the difficulty as well as he could.

"General," he said raising his voice, "can you hear me?"

"Who speaks?" the General answered immediately.

"I, Colonel Melendez de Gongora."

"Heaven be praised!" the General shouted; "in that case all goes well."

"On the contrary, all goes ill."

"What do you mean?"

"That, like yourself, I am in the hands of the accursed insurgents who have captured you."

"Mil Demonios!" the old soldier shouted angrily.

"Are you all right?"

"Bodily, yes; my officers and myself have received no wounds; I must confess that the demon who played us this trick was so far civil."

"Thanks, General," the Jaguar said in a tone of mockery.

"Ah, Salteador," the General exclaimed in a rage; "I swear by Heaven that we shall settle our accounts some day."

"I hope so too, General; but for the present, believe me, you had better listen to what Colonel Melendez has to say to you."

"I suppose I must," the Governor muttered. "Speak, Colonel," he added aloud.

"General, we are offered our liberty on condition," the Colonel immediately replied, "that we pledge our word of honour to attempt nothing against the man whose prisoner we are."

"Or against his adherents, whoever they may be," the Jaguar interrupted.

"Be it so, or against his adherents, during the next twenty-four hours, and that the house shall be left free."

"Hum:" said the General, "that requires reflection."

"I give you five minutes."

"Demonios! That is very short; you are not at all generous."

"It is impossible for me to grant a longer period."