Page:Vagabond life in Mexico.djvu/343

Rh and pugnacious peasants; but in a diversion in which there was so much interest, the greatest secresy must be employed, and every one rivaled his neighbor in discretion. The hut of Campos was noiselessly approached, and he was found inside stretched in his hammock. I could not help admiring the rare command of countenance which this man showed when he saw the pilot, whom he believed to be lying at that moment at the bottom of the neighboring river. He rose quietly, looked at us with a disdainful curiosity, and did not appear to be moved at seeing Calros.

"Who put you on my traces?" he asked of the Jarocho.

"Tia Josefa," was the reply. "It was by her order I came here from Manantial."

"A word is enough to the wise," answered Campos. "It is well; I am ready for you."

The conditions of the duel were immediately discussed, with a calmness and dignity which I did not expect in two such adversaries. Neither Calros nor the pilot deigned to make the slightest allusion to the events of last night. It was a duel to the death which was to be fought, and at such a solemn moment all recrimination was reckoned silly and trifling. The place of meeting was mutually agreed on; and Campos left to procure his seconds, while we directed our steps thither. I walked behind Calros, silent and sorrowful.

"Whatever happen," said he to me, in a low voice, "whether I fall or remain alive, in any case, you will have no message to deliver to her from me."

After walking about half an hour on a footpath that ran at right angles with the river, we arrived at the edge of one of those marshy ponds so common in certain parts of Mexico. On one side was a clump of