"Oh! it is you? Come in, then."
The door opened, and a small dark man, of sharp weasel-like aspect,
entered the room. He had a skulking shuffling gait, and,
notwithstanding his soldier's dress, his sabre and his spurs, the man
looked mean. He spoke with a cringing accent, and saluted his officer
with a cringing gesture. He was just the sort of person to be employed
upon some equivocal service, and by such men as Vizcarra and Roblado;
and in that way he had more than once served them. It was the soldier
Jose.
"Well! what have you to say? Have you seen Vicenza?"
"I have, captain. Last night I met her out."
"Any news?"
"I don't know whether it may be news to the captain; but she has told me
that it was the senorita who sent her home yesterday."
"Her?"
"Yes, captain, the guera."
"Ha! go on!"
"Why, you know when you left her with the alcalde she was offered to
whoever would take her. Well, a young girl came up and claimed to be an
acquaintance, and a woman who was the girl's mother. She was given up
to them without more ado, and they took her away to a house in the
chapparal below the town."
"She did not stay there. I know she's gone down, but I have not yet
heard the particulars. How did she go?"
"Well, captain; only very shortly after she arrived at the house of the
woman, a carreta came up to the door, driven by a Tagno, and the girl--
that is, the daughter, who is called Josefa--mounted into the carreta,
taking the guera along with her; and off they went down below.
"Now, neither this girl nor her mother ever saw the guera before, and
who does captain think sent them, and the carreta too?"
"Who says Vicenza?"
"The senorita, captain."
"Ha!" sharply exclaimed Roblado. "Vicenza is sure of that."
"More than that, captain. About the time the carreta drove away, or a
little after, the senorita left the house on her horse, and with a
common serape over her, and a sombrero on her head, like any ranchera;
and in this--which I take to be a disguise for a lady of quality like
her--she rode off by the back road. Vicenza, however, thinks that she
turned into the _camino abajo_ after she got past the houses, and
overtook the carreta. She was gone long enough to have done so."
This communication seemed to make a deep impression upon the listener.
Shadows flitted over his dark brow, and gleams of some new intelligence
or design appeared in his eyes. He was silent for a moment, engaged in
communicating with his thoughts. At length he inquired--
"Is that all your information, Jose?"
"All, captain."
"There may be more from the same source. See Vicenza to-night again.
Tell her to keep a close watch. If she succeed in discovering that
there is a correspondence going on, she shall be well rewarded, and
_you_ shall not be forgotten. Find out more about this woman and her
daughter. Know the Tagno who drove them. Lose no time about it. Go,
Jose!"
The minion returned his thanks in a cringing tone, made another cringing
salute, and shuffled out of the room.
As soon as he had left, Roblado sprang to his feet, and, walking about
the room in an agitated manner, uttered his thoughts aloud:--
"By Heaven! I had not thought of this. A correspondence, I have no
doubt. Fiends! such a woman! She must know all ere this--if the fellow
himself is not deceived by us! I must watch in that quarter too. Who
knows but _that_ will be the trap in which we'll take him? Love is even
a stronger lure than brotherly affection. Ha! senorita; if this be
true, I'll yet have a purchase upon you that you little expect. I'll
bring you to terms without the aid of your stupid father!"
After figuring about for some minutes, indulging in these alternate
dreams of vengeance and triumph, he left his room, and proceeded towards
that of the Comandante, for the purpose of communicating to the latter
his new-gotten knowledge.