"
"Oh, if it is to lead to that, senor, I can spare an hour, for I
don't think that anything is likely to come out of the job I came
here to try to arrange."
"We will walk away to a quieter place," Gerald said. "There are
too many people about here for us to talk comfortably. The ramparts
are but two or three minutes' walk; we can talk there without
interruption."
When they arrived upon the ramparts Gerald commenced the conversation.
"I think you were foolish, my friend, not to have taken us into
your confidence the other day before that little affair. You could
have made an opportunity well enough. We stopped to luncheon; if
you had drawn me aside, and told me frankly that some friends of
yours were about to make an attack upon the traders, and that you
would guarantee that they would make it worth my while --"
"What do you mean by saying my friends, or that I had any knowledge
of the affair beforehand?" the man asked furiously.
"I say so," Gerald replied, "because I had it on excellent authority.
The wounded robber made a clean breast of the whole affair, and of
your share in it, as well as that of the rascally clerk of one of
the traders. If it had not been for me the merchants would have
handed you over to the magistrates at the place where we stopped
that night; but I dissuaded them, upon the ground that they would
have to attend as witnesses against you, and that it was not
worth their while to lose valuable time merely for the pleasure of
seeing you hung.
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