t ee come on?"

Whether Rube's comical interrogatory was understood or not, it elicited
a reply:--

"_Amigos! somos amigos_!" (We are friends!) shouted back the leader of
the band.

"Friends, be damned!" exclaimed the trapper, who knew enough of Spanish
to understand the signification of _amigos_. "Nice friends, you,
i'deed! Wagh! D'yur think to bamfoozle us thet-away? Keep yur
distance now!" continued he, raising his rifle in a threatening manner,
as a movement was perceptible among the horsemen. "Keep yur distance,
or, by the 'tarnal airthquake! I'll plug the fust o' ye thet rides
within reach. Damn sich friends as you!"

The leader now conversed in a low tone with his lieutenant, and some new
design seemed to be discussed between them. A change of tactics was
evidently devised during this pause in the action.

After a while the chief again addressed us, speaking as before in
Spanish.

"We are friends!" said he: "we mean you no harm. To prove it, I shall
order my men to fall back upon the prairie, while my lieutenant,
unarmed, will meet one of you on the neutral ground. Surely, you can
have no objection to that?"

"And why such an arrangement?" inquired Garey, who spoke Spanish
fluently. "We want nothing of _you_. What do you want from _us_, with
all this infernal fuss?"

"I have business with you," replied the Mexican; "and _you_, sir, in
particular. I have something to say to you I don't wish others to
hear."

As he said this, the speaker turned his head, and nodded significantly
towards his own following. He was candid with them at least.

This unexpected dialogue took all three of us by surprise. What could
the man want with Garey? The latter knew nothing of him--had never, as
he declared, "sot eyes on the niggur afore;" although at such a
distance--with the sun in his face, and the Mexican's sombrero slouched
as it was--Garey might be mistaken. It might be some one whom he had
met, though he could not recall him to mind.

After a short consultation, we agreed that Garey should accept the
proposal. No evil could result from it--none that we could think of.
Garey could easily get back, before any attack could be made upon him,
and Rube and I should still be ready to protect him with our pieces. If
they meditated treachery, we could not perceive the advantage they were
to gain from the proceeding.

The "parley" therefore was accepted, and the conditions arranged with
due caution