I am in Possession of the Street 



for you, we shall not act on your suggestion, and have 

 the honour of wishing you a good day." 



Hereupon, I put spurs to the Moor, waved my sombrero 

 to the company, and we rode along. But our friend the 

 caminero did not at all approve of this arrangement. He 

 ran after us, crying, "Stop thief!" Harry stopped, and I 

 was slowly moving on, when the man got before me, pre- 

 sented his musket, and shouted, " Will you stop, caraio ' or 

 shall I fire ? " 



" Fire, you old ass ! " said I ; « you know as well as I do, 

 that there is no more charge in your musket than there are 

 brains in your head ; and if it would go off, you can no more 

 shoot straight than you can look straight with your squint- 

 eyes. Will you rob me in the street, ladron, after the 

 alcalde has said you had no cause to molest us ? " 



In the midst of this, the alcalde came running up in a 

 great pucker, and said : 



" Put down your gun, man ! This is out of all course ot 

 law ; we must refer the matter to the maestro''' 



Harry now departed with the alcalde and the passports, 

 and I remained entertaining the crowd with an improved 

 rkhauffi of the gravelling things I had said to my enemy 

 before. He, thinking me the more dangerous man of the 

 two, had remained to keep an eye upon me, which I was 

 glad of, because I knew his absence would enable Harry to 

 get his statement made in peace and quiet, without inter- 

 ruption. Besides which, the audience was by this time 

 unanimously on my side, and laughed so much at the play- 

 ful little sarcasms with which I kept him in torture, that he 

 found it at last intolerably unpleasant, and, shouldering his 

 musket, departed, amid the jeers of the company. 



When he was gone, they told me he was not of this but 

 the next village, and they had always heard he was a very 



371 AA 



