"Even cutthroats and _salteadores_ (highwaymen), cousin, if such is your good pleasure," replied the young man, with an ironical bow.
Don Fernando looked as if he were going to rush upon the man who had thus insulted him, but managed to contain himself.
"Will Don Torribio deign to explain himself," he said calmly, "and not speak in enigmas?"
"And whose fault is it, caballero, if I speak in enigmas? Are you not the cause of the mystery?"
"Enough, caballeros!" exclaimed Don Pedro; "He who utters another word on this subject, makes me his mortal enemy."
The two men bowed respectfully to the hacendero and separated, but not without having exchanged looks of terrible expression.
"Well, colonel," continued Don Pedro, addressing the governor, in the hopes of glossing over the lamentable altercation, "What news from La Ciudad? Is Mexico still tranquil?"
"Our great Santa Anna," replied the colonel, who was choking in his uniform, "has once more soundly beaten the audacious general who has dared to issue a _pronunciamiento_ (manifesto) against him."
"Thank God! Perhaps this victory will procure us the tranquillity of which commerce stands so much in need."
"Yes," said a rich hacendero, a neighbour of Don Pedro. "Communication has been so difficult of late, that we can forward nothing."
"Are the redskins at work?" asked a merchant, whom these words had troubled.
"No," said the governor; "there is no danger from them. The last lesson they got was a rude one, and they will not forget it. For a long time they have not dared to invade our frontiers."
An almost imperceptible smile curled the lips of Don Fernando. "You forget the Tigercat and his adherents," said he.
"Oh! the Tigercat is only a bandit," said the governor hastily. "Besides, Government is at this moment preparing an expedition against him, so as to finish, once and for all, with his band of brigands."
"It is an admirable idea," said Don Torribio, with a sarcastic sneer. "It is time this frontier should be cleared of the host of fellows, with more than equivocal habits, who infest it."
"I am quite of the same opinion; it seems a most sensible measure," said Don Fernando quietly, but giving back to his adversary a smile as bitter as his own.