Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 1.djvu/166

136 "Have they then killed him? Is he lost? Woe, woe to them if they have slain my son!" Then, repressing his passion, he added, "Let my brothers now go quietly away. Go ye away to your place, but be on your guard and ready for the call."

All the Indians gradually took their departure, leaving Sambo and Manangani alone behind.

"Do you know," asked Manangani, "what was the motive that took your son that night to the quarter of San Lazaro? Are you sure of him?"

"Sure of him!" said Sambo, re-echoing the words, with a flash of indignant wrath in his eyes beneath which Manangani involuntarily recoiled, "sure of him! If Martin Paz should be a traitor to his friends, I would first slay every soul to whom he had given his friendship; nay, I would not spare them to whom he had yielded his dearest love; and then I would kill him; and, last of all, I would kill myself. Perish everything beneath the sun rather than dishonor shall befall our race."

His fervid speech was interrupted by the hostess bringing in a letter addressed to him.

"Who gave you this? " he asked.

"I cannot tell," replied the woman; "it was left, apparently by design, as if forgotten by one of the men who have been drinking at one of the tables."

"Have any but Indians been in here?" he inquired.

" None whatever but Indians," was her prompt reply.

As soon as the woman had gone he unfolded the document and read it aloud: "A young girl has been praying for Martin Paz. She cannot forget one who has imperiled his life for the sake of hers. Has Sambo any tidings of his son? If he has news of him, let him bind a scarlet band around his arm. There are eyes ever on the watch to see him pass."

Crumpling up the paper, he exclaimed: "Unhappy fool! to be entangled by the fascinations of a pretty girl!"

"Who is she?" inquired Manangani.

"No Indian maid," said Sambo, "some dainty damsel full of airs. Ah, Martin Paz, you are beside yourself! I know you not!"

"Do you mean to do what the woman asks?"

"No!" said the Indian vehemently, "let her abandon