by drawing his knife to stab a chest with it: half a second, a resisting
flesh, then, crack! the blade entering brusquely, a jet of warm blood on
his hand, the man fallen, and he, fleeing in the obscure rocks--

And the voice which says these things with implacable tranquility, is the
same which for years sings piously every Sunday the liturgy in the old
sonorous church,--so much so that it seems to retain a religious and
almost sacred character!--

"When you are caught"--adds the speaker, scrutinizing them all with his
eyes, become piercing again--"When you are caught--What is the life of a
man worth in such a case? You would not hesitate, either, I suppose, if
you were caught--?"

"Sure not," replied Arrochkoa, in a tone of infantile bravado, "Sure not!
In such a case to take the life of a carabinero no one would hesitate!--"

The debonair Florentino, turned from Itchoua his disapproving eyes.
Florentino would hesitate; he would not kill. This is divined in the
expression of his face.

"You would not hesitate," repeated Itchoua, scrutinizing Ramuntcho this
time in a special manner; "you would not hesitate, either, I suppose, if
you were caught, would you?"

"Surely," replied Ramuntcho, submissively. "Oh, no, surely--"

But his look, like that of Florentino, has turned from Itchoua. A terror
comes to him of this man, of this imperious and cold influence, so
completely felt already; an entire soft and refined side of his nature is