Page:Tales of Today.djvu/225

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THE CIGARETTE.
209

when the partisan said: 'I feel better already!' Then, addressing Juan: 'You are free.'

"'But, general——,' interjected an officer.

"Zucarraga raised his head. 'The least that I can do, sir,' said he, 'for this good youth is to repay his service by another.' Then, addressing Araquil: 'What will you have beside?'

"'Nothing,' answered the other.

"Zucarraga took from the pocket of his tunic a little cigarette case of Manilla straw and handed it to Juan: 'In remembrance of me!'

"'No,' said Juan.

"'Oh! oh!'—and Zucarraga smiled—'I fear that you don't cherish very kindly feelings toward the servants of Don Carlos. Will you accept nothing from me?'

"'Yes, a cigarette.'

"Araquil selected a papelito from the cigarette case and was looking at it and turning it about in his fingers in a mechanical sort of way before putting it in his pocket, when Zucarraga asked him:

"'Your name?'

"'Juan Araquil.'

"'Well! Araquil, go, and God be with you! And if you want to see your relations, wait until we make our entry into Bilbao. It won't be long!—Give me your hand!'

"Araquil, who was very pale, shook the hand that the wounded man held out to him, put on his jacket, and with a salute to the officers and a salute to the prisoners, forthwith took himself off, very leisurely, without hurrying, followed still by the penetrating look of the Carlist hero.