"My brother will speak without loss of tune."

"That is what I intend doing,"

At this moment Tranquil came up. The young women laid the forefinger on their lips, recommending silence; the hunter understood what this meant, and advanced on tiptoe to listen.

"The Jaguar," the second speaker continued, "desires most eagerly that, in accordance with the promise you made him, you should join his army with your warriors."

"Up to the present that has been impossible."

"Blue-fox!" Tranquil muttered.

"I warn you that he accuses you of breach of faith."

"The Pale Chief is wrong; a Sachem is not a chattering old woman who knows not what he says. This evening I shall join him with two hundred picked warriors."

"We shall see, Chief."

"At the first song of the mankawis, the Apache warriors will enter the camp."

"All the better. The Jaguar is preparing a general a.s.sault on the fort, and only awaits your arrival to give the signal of attack."

"I repeat to my brother that the Apaches will not fail."

"Those confounded Mexicans fight like demons; the man who commands them seems to have galvanized them, they second him so well. There was only one good officer in the Mexican army, and we are obliged to fight against him. It is really most unlucky."

"The Chief of the Yoris is not invulnerable. The arrows of the Apaches are long--they will kill him."

"Nonsense," the other said ill-temperedly; "this man seems to have a charm that protects him. Our Kentuckian rifles are wonderfully true, and our marksmen possess a far from common skill; but no bullet can hit him."

"While coming to this grotto, Blue-fox raised the scalp of a Chief of the Yoris."

"Ah!" the first speaker observed with indifference.

"Here it is; this man was the bearer of a necklace."

"A letter, by Heavens!" the other exclaimed anxiously; "What have you done with it? You have not destroyed it, I trust?"

"No, the Chief has kept it."

"You did well. Show it to me, perhaps it is important."

"Wah! It is some medicine of the Palefaces; a Chief does not want it; my brother can take it."

"Thanks!"

There was a moment's silence, during which the hearts of the three hearers might have been heard beating in unison, so great was their anxiety.

"By Jove!" the white man suddenly burst out; "A letter addressed to Colonel Don Juan Melendez de Gongora, Commandant of the Larch-tree, by General Rubio. You were in luck's way, Chief. Are you sure that the bearer of this letter is dead?"

"It was Blue-fox who killed him."

"In that case I feel confident, for I can trust to you. Now, this is what you must do: so soon as----"

But while speaking thus, the two men had withdrawn, and the sound of their voices was lost in the distance, so that it was impossible to hear the termination of the sentence, or guess its purport.

The two women turned round. Tranquil had disappeared, and they were again alone. Carmela, after listening to this strange conversation, of which accident allowed her to catch a few fragments, had fallen into a profound reverie, which her companion, with that sense of propriety innate in Indians, was careful not to disturb.

In the meanwhile, time slipped away, the gloom grew denser in the grotto, for night had set in; the two young women, afraid to remain alone in the obscurity, were preparing to rejoin their companions, when they heard the sound of footsteps, and Tranquil entered.

"What!" he said to them, "Not ready yet? Make haste to put on your masculine attire, for every minute is an age."

The girls did not allow this to be repeated; they disappeared in an adjoining compartment, and returned a few minutes later, entirely disguised.

"Good," the Canadian said, after examining them for a moment; "we are going to try and enter the Larch-tree hacienda. Now follow me, and be prudent."

The eight persons left the grotto, gliding along in the darkness like phantoms.

No one, unless he has tried the experiment, can imagine what a night march on the desert is, when you are afraid each moment of falling into the hands of invisible enemies, who watch you behind every bush.

Tranquil had placed himself at the head of the little party, who marched in Indian file, at times stooping to the ground, going on his hands and knees, or crawling on his stomach so as to avoid notice.

Dona Carmela, in spite of the extraordinary difficulties she had to surmount, advanced with admirable courage, never complaining, and enduring, without seeming to notice them, the scratches of the roots and brambles, which lacerated her hands, and caused her atrocious suffering.

After three hours of gigantic effort in following Tranquil's trail, the latter stopped, and had them look around them. They raised their heads, and found themselves in the camp of the Texan insurgents. All around them, in the moonbeams, they could see the elongated shadows of Indian sentries, leaning on their long lances, motionless as equestrian statues, who were watching over the safety of their Paleface brothers.

The young women felt a thrill of terror run over their persons at this sight, which was not of a nature to rea.s.sure them.

Fortunately for them, the Indians keep very bad guard, and most generally only place sentries to frighten the enemy. On this occasion, as they knew very well, they had no sortie to apprehend on the part of the Larch-tree garrison, the sentinels were nearly all asleep; but the slightest badly-calculated move, the merest false step, might arouse them, for these men, who are habituated in keeping their senses alive, can hardly ever be taken unawares.

At about two hundred yards at the most from the adventurers were the advanced works of the Larch-tree, gloomy, silent, and apparently, at least, abandoned or plunged in sleep. Tranquil had only stopped to let his comrades fully understand the imminent danger to which they were exposed, and urge them to redouble their caution, for, at the slightest weakness, they would be lost. After this they started again. They advanced thus for one hundred yards, or about half the distance separating them from the Larch-tree, when suddenly, at the moment when Tranquil stretched out his arms to shelter himself behind a sandhill, several men, crawling in the opposite direction found themselves face to face with him. There was a second of terrible anxiety.

"Who goes there?" a low and menacing voice asked.

"Oh!" he said; "We are saved! It is I--Tranquil the Tigrero."

"Who are the persons with you?"

"Wood rangers, for whom I answer."

"Very good; pa.s.s on."

The two parties separated, and crawled in opposite directions. The band with which the hunters exchanged these few words was commanded by Don Felix Paz, who, more vigilant than the Texans, was making a round of the glacis to a.s.sure himself that all was quiet, and no surprise need be feared. It was very lucky for Tranquil and his companions that the Jaguar, in order to do honour to Blue-fox, had this night intrusted the camp guard to his warriors, and that, confiding in the Redskins, the Texans had gone to sleep, with that carelessness characteristic of Americans; for, with other sentries than those through whom they had glided unseen, the adventurers must infallibly have been captured.

Ten minutes after their encounter with Don Felix, which might have turned out so fatally for them, the hunters reached the gates, and at the mention of Tranquil's name a pa.s.sage was at once granted them. They were at length in safety within the hacienda, and it was high time that they should arrive; a few minutes longer and, Carmela and her companion would have fallen by the wayside. In spite of all their courage and goodwill, the girls could no longer keep up, their strength was exhausted. Hence, so soon as the danger had pa.s.sed, and the nervous excitement, which alone sustained them, ceased, they fell down unconscious.

Tranquil raised Carmela in his arms, and carried her to the interior of the hacienda; while Black-deer, who, in spite of his apparent insensibility, adored his squaw, hurried up to restore her to life.

The unexpected arrival of Tranquil caused a general joy among the inhabitants of the hacienda, who all had a deep friendship for this man, whose glorious character they had had so many opportunities of appreciating. The hunter was still busied with his daughter, who was just beginning to recover her senses, when Don Felix Paz, who had finished his rounds, entered the cuarto, with a message from the Colonel to the Canadian, begging the latter to come to him at once.

Tranquil obeyed, for Dona Carmela no longer required his a.s.sistance--the maiden had scarce regained her senses, ere she fell into a deep sleep, the natural result of the enormous fatigue she had endured during several days. While proceeding to the Colonel's apartments, Tranquil questioned the major-domo, with whom he had been connected for several years, and who had no scruples about answering the hunter's queries.