He gathered together fifteen great
bags of money, each all he could lift, and carried them to the door
ready to put on the horses. He found all the rich food and wine of
the robbers in the cave, and could not resist the temptation to make
merry at their expense; so he ate their food and drank their fine
wines till he was foolishly drunk. When he had reached this state,
he began to think of returning home. Beating on the door with both
hands, he cried out, "Open, beast. Open, fool. May lightning blast
you if you do not open!" and a hundred other foolish things, but
never once saying, "Open the door."

While he was thus engaged, the robbers returned, and hearing them
coming he hid under a great pile of money with only his nose sticking
out. The robbers saw that some one had visited the cave in their
absence and hunted for the intruder till one of them discovered him
trembling under a heap of coin. With a shout they hauled him forth
and beat him until his flesh hung in ribbons. Then they split him into
halves and threw the body into the river, and cut his horses into bits,
[15] which they threw after him.

When Pedro did not return, his wife became anxious and told Juan
where he had gone. Juan stole quietly to the place by night, and
recovered the body, carried it home, and had the pieces sewn together
by the tailor.

Now the robbers knew that they had been robbed by some one else, and
so, when Pedro's body was taken away, the captain went to town to see
who had buried the body, and by inquiring, found that Juan had become
suddenly rich, and also that it was his brother who had been buried.

So the captain of the robbers went to Juan's house, where he found
a ball going on. Juan knew the captain again and that he was asking
many questions, so he made the captain welcome and gave him a great
deal to eat and drink. One of the servants came in and pretended
to admire the captain's sword till he got it into his own hands;
and then he began to give an exhibition of fencing, making the sword
whirl hither and thither and ending with a wonderful stroke that made
the captain's head roll on the floor.

A day or two later, the lieutenant also came to town, and began to make
inquiries concerning the captain. He soon found out that the captain
had been killed in Juan's house, but Juan now had soldiers on guard
at his door, so that it was necessary to use strategy. He went to
Juan and asked if he could start a "tienda," or wine-sh