Cosetta might detail a couple of his worthless desperadoes to bury their knives in your back.

This bandit has done such things before, nor is it at all easy to punish him, for the scoundrel has many surprisingly loyal friends in Vera Cruz.

In a more strictly-governed country he would be arrested in the city streets as soon as pointed out, but in Mexico the bandit is likely to be a popular hero, and certainly Cosetta is that in Vera Cruz.

If he were wanted here for a crime, there are hundreds of citizens who would gladly hide him in their homes.
On any day in the week Cosetta could easily recruit a hundred men for his band.

Perhaps he is now in town on that errand." "I have an idea that the fellow is dangerous," Darrin nodded.
"Still, here in Vera Cruz, with scores of American sailors usually in sight on the streets, it seems to me hardly likely that Cosetta would instruct his men to attack me.