"
"Good," said Rodriguez. "We will eat it." And he waited to hear
what Morano had come to say, for he could see that it was more
than this.
"Master," said Morano, "I have been talking with the bowman. And
they will give you whatever you ask. They are good people, master,
and they will give you all things, whatever you asked of them."
Rodriguez would not show to his servant that it all still puzzled
him.
"They are very amiable men," he said.
"Master," said Morano, coming to the point, "that Garda, they will
have walked after us. They must be now in Lowlight. They have all
to-night to get new shoes on their horses. And to-morrow, master,
to-morrow, if we be still on foot..."
Rodriguez was thinking. Morano seemed to him to be talking sense.
"You would like another ride?" he said to Morano.
"Master," he answered, "riding is horrible. But the public
garrotter, he is a bad thing too." And he meditatively stroked the
bristles under his chin.
"They would give us horses?" said Rodriguez.
"Anything, master, I am sure of it. They are good people."
"They'll have news of the road by which they left Lowlight," said
Rodriguez reflectively. "They say la Garda dare not enter the
forest," Morano continued, "but thirty miles from here the forest
ends. They could ride round while we go through."
"They would give us horses?" said Rodriguez again.
"Surely," said Morano.
And then Rodriguez asked where they cooked the banquet, since he
saw that there were only two rooms in the great cottage and his
inquiring eye saw no preparations for cooking about the fireplace
of either.
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