Besides, he had just seen Morla sitting bound upon the ground between two guardians, and with the rope beside him, with which he was to be hung so soon as the priest should have been fetched back to the camp to confess him. And the poor wretch had appealed to his superior with a mixture of pitifulness and indignation. "Ah, Captain! save me from this dismal fate. You should, in very justice you should, for you contented not yourself with stealing skin and bone done up in feathers. And yet you came off with no punishment at all." "Thou impudent fellow!" exclaimed Alvarado. "Callest thou a furious rebuke before the whole force, and accompanied with threats too, nothing? Thinkest thou that thy beggarly life is worth a Spanish noble's honour?" Morla was in no great haste to answer this peremptory question; but at last he grumbled out-- "If one has not the honour, I suppose, then, one may at least value the life; and I call it hard lines to lose all one's got." A grim laugh was the reply to this undeniable statement. "Well, well, fellow, maybe there I can agree with thee. And yet more; know that I have already given thee more of my thoughts than thou shouldst venture to expect." The man's eyes brightened. "Ah! and I am not to be hung after all, thou wouldst say, my Captain?" "After all, I would say that thou art to be hung," was the curt retort, and with it Pedro de Alvarado turned short round, and went his way. But before he did so he had managed to cast a warning, significant glance at the condemned culprit, which gave the poor fellow comfort in spite of the sinister words, and the brutal laugh of his guardians. The Captain betook himself, as has been said, at once to Montoro's tent, and was greeted instantly with a ready alacrity that proved time and reflection had not cooled his promise. "Now, Captain, what wouldst thou?" Don Pedro had marched in quickly enough, but his tongue seemed unwilling to second the agility of his feet. He paused so long ere speaking, that Montoro said at last, between jest and earnest-- "Perhaps, Captain, your suggestion is that I should substitute my own neck for that of the poor culprit, Morla?" "And if it were," was the reply, "I verily believe that you would accept it. At any rate, you would accept it as easily as that which I am about to make; that--that--" "Well!" rather impatiently. Alvarado made a dash at it. "I want you to beg the post of hangman." Montoro started back with a cry of horror. It was bad enough to him to kill men in fair fight, but to destroy a fellow-creature in cold blood was a thing too horrible to be thought of. He felt stunned, and it was not until his companion had broken into a short, smothered laugh that he could recall his scattered senses. "Why, Diego," muttered Don Pedro, "you could not look more horror-struck if I had asked you to murder the man, instead of only--" "Don't, don't," gasped Montoro. "To me, hanging the man would be like murdering him."