The comandante surveyed him for a moment, as though still disturbed by the interruption, and then shook his head impatiently.``You can hire a mule from one Pulido Paul, at the corner of the plaza,'' he said.And as MacWilliams still stood uncertainly, he added, ``You say you have come from Los Bocos.Did you meet any one on your way?''
The two younger men looked up at him anxiously, but before he could answer, the instrument began to tick out the signal, and they turned their eyes to it again, and one of them began to take its message down on paper.
The instrument spoke to MacWilliams also, for he was used to sending telegrams daily from the office to the mines, and could make it talk for him in either English or Spanish.So, in his effort to hear what it might say, he stammered and glanced at it involuntarily, and the comandante, without suspecting his reason for doing so, turned also and peered over the shoulder of the man who was receiving the message.Except for the clicking of the instrument, the room was absolutely still; the three men bent silently over the table, while MacWilliams stood gazing at the ceiling and turning his hat in his hands.The message MacWilliams read from the instrument was this: ``They are reported to have left the city by the south, so they are going to Para, or San Pedro, or to Los Bocos.She must be stopped--take an armed force and guard the roads.If necessary, kill her.She has in the carriage or hidden on her person, drafts for five million sols.You will be held responsible for every one of them.Repeat this message to show you understand, and relay it to Los Bocos.If you fail--''
MacWilliams could not wait to hear more; he gave a curt nod to the men and started toward the stairs.``Wait,'' the comandante called after him.
MacWilliams paused with one hand on top of the banisters balancing himself in readiness for instant flight.
``You have not answered me.Did you meet with any one on your ride here from Los Bocos?''
``I met several men on foot, and the mail carrier passed me a league out from the coast, and oh, yes, I met a carriage at the cross roads, and the driver asked me the way of San Pedro Sula.''