ador (partly on account of Paco's threats, and
partly because he knew that his cries were unlikely to bring assistance)
made no attempt to call out, he did not, on the other hand, show any
disposition to communicativeness. Instead of replying to the questions
put to him, he maintained a surly, dogged silence. Paco repeated the
interrogatory without obtaining a better result, and then, as if weary
of questioning a man who would not answer, he continued his search
without further waste of words. The two rings and Rita's letter he had
already found; they were succeeded by a number of miscellaneous objects
which he threw carelessly aside; and having rummaged the esquilador's
various pockets, he proceeded to unfasten his sash. The first
demonstration of a design upon this receptacle of his wealth, produced,
on the part of the gipsy, a violent but fruitless effort to liberate his
wrists from the cords that confined them.

"Oho!" said Paco, "is that the sore place? Faith! there is reason for
your wincing," he added, as the gold contained in the girdle fell
jingling on the floor. "This was not all got by clipping mules."

"It was received from you, the greater part of it," exclaimed the gipsy,
forced out of his taciturnity by his agony at seeing Paco, after
replacing the money in the sash, deliberately bind it round his own
waist.

"I worked hard and ran risk for it, and you paid it me willingly. Surely
you will not rob me!"

Without attending to this expostulation, Paco secured the gold, and then
rising to his feet, again repeated the question he had already twice put
to his prisoner.

"To whom is this letter?" said he.

"You may read it yourself," returned Jaime, who, notwithstanding the
intelligible hint to be tractable which he had already received, found
it a hard matter to restrain his sulkiness. "It is addressed, and open."

Read it, was exactly what Paco would have done, had he been able; but it
so happened that the muleteer was a self-educated man, and that, whilst
teaching himself many things which he had on various occasions found of
much utility, he had given but a moderate share of his attention to the
acquirement of letters. When on the road with his mules, he could
distinguish the large printed capitals painted on the packages entrusted
to his care; he was also able, from long habit, fluently to read the
usual announcement of "_Vinos y licores finos_," inscribed above tavern
doors; and, when required, he