"You are at liberty, Don Juan Melendez," he answered, "to laugh at these ideas; you are an educated man, and naturally believe in nothing. But I, Caballero, am a poor ignorant Indian, and set faith in what my fathers believed before me; look you, Captain, we Indians, whether civilized or savage, have hard heads, and your new ideas cannot get through our thick skulls." "Come, explain yourself," the Captain continued, desirous to break off the conversation without thwarting the arriero's prejudices; "what reason leads you to suppose that your journey will be unlucky? You are not the man to be frightened at your own shadow; I have been acquainted with you for a long while, and know that you possess incontestable bravery." "I thank you, Captain, for the good opinion you are pleased to have of me; yes, I am courageous, and believe I have several times proved it, but it was when facing dangers which my intellect understood, and not before perils contrary to the natural laws that govern us." The Captain twisted his moustache impatiently at the arriero's fatiguing prolixity: but, as he reminded him, he knew the worthy man, and was aware by experience that attempting to cut short what he had to say was a loss of time, and he must be allowed to do as he liked. There are certain men with whom, like the spur with restiff horses, any attempt to urge them on is a sure means of making them go back. The young man, therefore, mastered his impatience, and coldly said:-- "I presume, then, you saw some evil omen at the moment of your departure?" "Indeed I did, Captain; and certainly, after what I saw, I would not have started, had I been a man easily frightened." "What was the omen, then?" "Do not laugh at me, Captain; several passages of Scripture itself prove that GOD is often pleased to grant men salutary warnings, to which unhappily," he added with a sigh, "they are not wise enough to give credence." "That is true," the Captain muttered in the style of an interjection.