The man--it was the effect of hunger, perhaps, and exposure and drunkenness on past marches--had an ugly, wolfish face; but his eyes, though cunning, were not altogether evil, not quite formidably evil. She divined that, though lust for the money was driving him, some weakness lay behind it. "You are a deserter," she said. "We'll pass that." He seated himself, flinging a leg over the block and laying the two guns side by side on his knees. "I can win back, maybe. As things go, between stragglers and deserters it's hard to choose in these times, and I'll get the benefit of the doubt. I've taken some risks," he repeated, glancing from the guns on his knees to the pile of silver and back: "pretty bad risks, and only to fill my knapsack. But, now it strikes me----Can't you come closer?" But she held her ground and waited. "It strikes me, why couldn't we collar the whole of this, we two? We're alone: no one knows; I've but to lift one of these"--he tapped the guns--"and where would you be? But I don't do it. I don't want to do it. You hear me?" "You don't do it," said Mercedes slowly, "because without me you can't get away with more than a handful of this money. And you want the whole of it." "You're a clever girl. Yes, I want the whole of it. Who wouldn't? And you can help. Can't you see how?" "No." He sat swinging his legs. "Well, that's where my notion comes in. I wish you'd drop that knife and be friendly: it's a fortune I'm offering you. Now my notion is that we two ought to marry." He stood up. Mercedes lifted the knife with its point turned inward against her breast. "If you take another step!" "Oh, but look here: look at it every way. I like you. You're a fine build of a woman, with plenty of spirit--the very woman to help a man. We should get along famously. One country's as good as another to me: I'm tired of soldiering, and there's no woman at home, s'help me!" He was speaking rapidly now, not waiting to cast about for words in Spanish, but falling back on English whenever he found himself at a loss. "I dare say you can fit me out with a suit of clothes." His glance ran round the hut and rested on the body of the old man. Mercedes had understood scarce half of his words: but she divined the meaning of that look and shuddered. "No, no; you cannot do that!" "Hark!" said he raising his head and listening. "What's that noise?" "The wolves. We hear them every night in winter." "A nice sort of place for a woman to live alone in! See here, my dear; it's sense I'm talking. Better fix it up with me and say 'yes.'" She appeared to be considering this. "One thing you must promise." "Well?" "You won't touch him"--she nodded towards her grandfather's corpse. "You won't touch him to--to----" "Is it strip him you mean? Very well, then, I won't." "You will help me to bury him? He cannot lie here. I can give you no answer while he lies here." "Right you are, again. Only, no tricks, mind!"