him. And so words ran high, and in the end the Senor Sarceda,
who is third in command among us, declared that he would be no party to
this peacemaking, but would be gone to Mexico with his servants, there
to report to the viceroy. Then the Captain Diaz bade him begone to hell
if he wished and report to the devil, saying that he had always believed
that he had escaped thence by mistake, and they parted in wrath who,
since the day of noche triste, never loved each other much; the end
of it being that Sarceda rides for Mexico within an hour, to make what
mischief he can at the viceroy's court, and I think that you are well
rid of him.'

'Father,' said my son to me, 'who is that Spaniard who looks so cruelly
upon us?'

'That is he of whom I have told you, son, de Garcia, who has been the
curse of our race for two generations, who betrayed your grandfather to
the Holy Office, and murdered your grandmother, who put me to torture,
and whose ill deeds are not done with yet. Beware of him, son, now and
ever, I beseech you.'

Now we were come to the palace, almost the only house that was left
standing in the City of Pines. Here an apartment was given to us at the
end of the long building, and presently a command was brought to us that
I and my wife should wait upon the Spanish captain Diaz.

So we went, though Otomie desired to stay behind, leaving our son alone
in the chamber where food had been brought to him. I remember that I
kissed him before I left, though I do not know what moved me to do so,
unless it was because I thought that he might be asleep when I returned.
The Captain Diaz had his quarters at the other end of the palace,
some two hundred paces away. Presently we stood before him. He was a
rough-looking, thick-set man well on in years, with bright eyes and an
ugly honest face, like the face of a peasant who has toiled a lifetime
in all weathers, only the fields that Diaz tilled were fields of war,
and his harvest had been the lives of men. Just then he was joking with
some common soldiers in a strain scarcely suited to nice ears, but so
soon as he saw us he ceased and came forward. I saluted him after the
Indian fashion by touching the earth with my hand, for what was I but an
Indian captive?

'Your sword,' he said briefly, as he scanned me with his quick eyes.

I unbuckled it from my side and handed it to him, saying in Spanish:

'Take it, Captain, for you have conquered, also it does but come back
to it