d ironically:

"It's a special favour I'm going to give you--at the request of Senor
Colonel Santander, who, as I've seen, takes a friendly interest in some
of you. For your health's sake, he has asked me to give you a turn upon
the streets, which I trust you will enjoy and get benefit by."

Don Pedro was a born joker, and felt conceit in his powers as a
satirist. In the present instance his irony was shaftless, being
understood.

The dwarf was the only one who deigned rejoinder.

"Ha, ha, ha!" he yelled in his wild unearthly way. "Turn _upon_ the
streets! That's fine for you, Don Pedro. A turn _under_ the streets--
that's what you mean, isn't it?"

He had been long enough in the gaol-governor's charge to know the
latter's name, and was accustomed to address him thus familiarly. The
deformed creature was fearless from his very deformity, which in a way
gave him protection.

"_Vayate Zorillo_," returned the Governor, slightly put out and
evidently a little nettled, "you're too fond of jesting--or trying.
I'll take that out of you, and I mean to give you a lesson in good
manners this very day." Then fixing his eyes upon Rivas, he added:
"Senor Don Ruperto, I should be only too happy to let you off from the
little excursion your prison companions are about to make and save you
the fatigue. But my orders are rigorous. They come from the highest
quarter, and I dare not disobey them."

This was all pure irony, intended but to torment him; at least so the
robber seemed to understand it. For, instead of accepting it in a
friendly sense, he turned savagely on his tormentor, hissing out:

"I know you daren't disobey them, dog that you are! Only such as you
would be governor of a gaol like this: you, who turned coat and
disgraced the sword you wore at Zacatecas. Do your worst, Don Pedro
Arias! I defy you."

"_Cascaras_! how swelling big you talk, Senor Captain Rivas! Ah! well.
I'll let a little of the wind out of you too, before you bid good-bye to
the Acordada. Even the Condesa, grand dame though she is, won't be able
to get you clear of my clutches so easy as you may be thinking. La
Garrota is the lady likeliest to do that."

After thus spitefully delivering himself, he called to some prison
warders in waiting in the court outside, and commanded them to come up
to him.

"Here," he directed, "take these two pairs and hand them over to the
guard at the gate. You know what for, Dominguez?" The half