There are servants. You are rich. For some great freak you
leave all in the town down there and ride on alone. Foreigners often
act like madmen. Perhaps you meant to return to the town. Perhaps to
wait for them in the inn below the pass. You have not gold in your
purse because there is bountiful gold just behind you. Why hurt the
beautiful truth? Sancho and Pedro here were in the inn-yard last
night."
Sancho's hoarse voice emerged from the generality. "It was dusk, but
we saw you plainly enough, we are sure, senor! In your fine cloak,
speaking English, discussing with a big tall man who rode in with you
and sat down to supper with you and was of your rank and evidently, we
think, your brother or close kinsman!"
The chief nodded. "It is to him that we apply for your ransom. You,
senor, shall write the letter, and Sancho and Pedro shall carry it
down. It will be placed, without danger to us, in your brother's hand.
We have our ways.... Then, in turn, your brother shall ride forth,
with a single companion, from the town, and in a clear space that we
shall indicate, put the ransom beneath a certain rock, turning his
horse at once and returning the way he came. If the gold is put there,
as much as we ask, and according to our conditions, you shall go free
as a bird, senor, though perhaps with as little luggage as a bird.
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