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Rh that the robbers had divided their plunder, and gone off in a different direction. This thought, which discouraged us so much, produced quite a different effect upon the captain. Up to this time Don Blas had seemed to take no interest in the pursuit, but now he flew into a violent passion, and uttered the most violent menaces against the bandits, whose daring had caused us to lose so much.

"Ah!" cried he, "if chance but throws any of them into my hands, I shall shoot them without benefit of clergy."

Speaking thus, Don Blas walked: backward and forward, hitting the ferns which branched out above us with his sabre.

"Whom will you shoot?" I asked.

"Whom?" replied the captain; "why, the first man that happens to fall into my hands."

"That will be a right which it may be difficult to exercise, for robbers on the high road have generally long arms."

"That's my concern," answered Don Blas, with a strange smile; "I will find the means to have the law on my side."

The captain immediately gave the word to mount. The soldiers, delighted at the prospect of regaining their lost time, welcomed the order with acclamation. I must confess that I could not account for this sudden change in the conduct of Don Blas. Why so much zeal after so much coldness? I pleased myself by thinking that hitherto it had been only in appearance, and that the captain had shown so much apathy at first for the sake of propriety, that it might not be thought he was actuated by too lively a desire to gain the reward promised by the arriero.