Tranquil hastened to call his friends.

"If that hunter has spoken the truth, and I believe he has," the Colonel continued, addressing the Major-domo, "I am convinced we shall have an excellent opportunity for repaying the rebels a hundredfold the harm they have done us. Do you accompany me, Don Felix?"

"I would not for a fortune leave you one inch, under such circ.u.mstances."

"Come, then, for the detachment must be ready by this time."

They went out.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE PROPOSAL.

On the same night, almost at the same hour, the Jaguar, seated on a modest oak equipal in his tent, with his elbow leaning on the table and his head on his hand, was reading, by the light of a candle that emitted but a dubious light, important despatches he had just received. Absorbed in the perusal, the young Commander of the insurgents paid no attention to the noises without, when suddenly a rather sharp puff of wind caused the flame of the candle to flicker, and the shadow of a man was darkly defined on the canvas of the tent.

The young man, annoyed at being disturbed, raised his head angrily, and looked toward the entrance of the tent, with a frown that promised nothing very pleasant for his inopportune intruder. But at the sight of the man who stood in the door-way, leaning on a long rifle, and fixing on him eyes that sparkled like carbuncles, the Jaguar restrained with difficulty a cry of surprise, and made a move to seize the pistols placed within reach on the table.

This man, whom we have already had occasion to present to the reader under very grave circ.u.mstances, had nothing, we must confess, in his appearance that spoke greatly in his favour. His stern glance, his harsh face, rendered still harsher by his long white beard, his tall stature and strange attire, all about him, in a word, inspired repulsion and almost terror. The Jaguar's movement produced a sinister smile on his pale lips.

"Why take up your weapons?" he said, in a hoa.r.s.e voice, as he struck the palm of his hand against his rifle barrel; "had I intended to kill you, you would have been dead long ago."

The young man wheeled round his equipal, which brought him face to face with the stranger. The two men examined each other for a moment with the most minute attention.

"Have you looked at me enough?" the stranger at length asked.

"Yes," the Jaguar answered; "now tell me who you are, what brings you here, and how you reached me."

"Those are a good many questions at once, still I will try to answer them. Who am I? No one knows, and there are moments when I am myself ignorant; I am an accursed, and a reprobate, prowling about the desert like a wild beast in search of prey; the Redskins, whose implacable enemy I am, and in whom I inspire a superst.i.tious terror, call me the Klein Stoman; is this information sufficient for you?"

"What?" the young man exclaimed utterly astounded, "The White Scalper!"

"I am the man," the stranger quietly answered; "I am also known at times by the name of the Pitiless."

All this had been said by the old man in that monotonous and hoa.r.s.e voice peculiar to men who, deprived for a long time of the society of their fellow men, have been restricted to a forced silence, and hence speaking has become almost a labour to them. The Jaguar gave a start of repulsion at the sight of this sinister man, whose mournful reputation had reached him with all its horrors. His memory immediately recalled all the traits of ferocity and cruelty imputed to this man, and it was under the impression of this recollection that he said to him with an accent of disgust he did not wish to conceal--

"What is there in common between you and me?"

The old man smiled sarcastically.

"G.o.d," he answered, "connects all men to each other by invisible bonds which render them responsible one for the other; He willed it so, in His supreme omniscience, in order to render society possible."

On hearing this wild, solitary man p.r.o.nounce the name of Deity, and utter so strange an argument, the Jaguar felt his surprise redoubled.

"I will not discuss the point with you," he said; "everyone in life follows the path destiny has traced for him, and it does not belong to me to judge you either favourably or unfavourably; still, I have the right of denying any connection with you, whatever may be your feelings toward me, or the motives that brought you hither; up to the present, we have been strangers to each other, and I desire to remain so for the future."

"What do you know of it? What certainty have you that this is the first time we have been face to face? Man can no more answer for the past than for the future; both are in the hands of One more powerful than him, of Him who judges of actions immediately, and for whom there is only one weight and one measure."

"I am astonished," the Jaguar answered, involuntarily interested, "that the name of Deity should be so often on your lips."

"Because it is deeply engraved on my heart," the old man said with an accent of gloomy sorrow which spread a veil of melancholy over his austere features. "You said yourself that you would not judge me; retain, if you will, the evil impression which the probable false statements of others have made on you. I care little for the opinion of men, for I recognise no other judge of my actions but my conscience."

"Be it so; but permit me to remark that time is rapidly slipping away, night is advancing. I have serious business to attend to, and need to be alone."

"In a word, you show me the door; unluckily, I am not disposed, for the present, to accede to your request, or, if you prefer it, obey your orders; I wish first to answer all your questions, and then, if you still insist on it, I will retire."

"Take care, for this obstinacy on your part may lead to dangerous consequences for you."

"Why threaten a man who does not insult you?" the old man replied with undiminished coolness; "Do you fancy that I put myself out of the way for nothing? No, no, serious motives bring me to you; and if I am not mistaken, ere long you will allow that the time you are unwilling to grant me, could not be better employed than in listening to me."

The Jaguar shrugged his shoulders impatiently; he felt a repugnance to employ violence against a man who, after all, had in no way infringed on the laws of politeness, and, spite of himself, a species of secret presentiment warned him that the visit of this singular old man would be useful to him.

"Speak then," he said a moment after, in the tone of a man who resigns himself to endure a thing that displeases him, but which he cannot elude; "but pray be brief."

"I am not so used to speaking as to find pleasure in making long harangues," the Scalper replied; "I will only say things strictly indispensable to be properly understood by you."

"Do so then without further preamble."

"Be it so. I now return to the second question you asked me: What reason brought me here? I will tell you presently, but first answer your third question--How I got here?"

"In truth," the Jaguar exclaimed, "that seems to me extraordinary."

"Not so extraordinary as you suppose; I might tell you that I am too old a hand on the prairies not to foil the most vigilant sentries; but I prefer confessing the truth, as it will be more profitable to you. You have this night confided the guard of the camp to Apache dogs, who, instead of watching, as they pledged themselves to do, are asleep on their posts, so thoroughly that the first comer can enter your lines as he thinks proper; and this is so true, that scarce two hours back a party of eight went through the whole length of your camp, and entered the hacienda, without encountering opposition from anyone."

"Viva Dios!" the Jaguar exclaimed, turning livid with pa.s.sion; "Can it possibly be so?"

"I am the proof of it, I fancy," the old man answered simply.

The young Chief seized his pistols, and made a hurried movement to rush out, but the stranger restrained him.

"What good will it do," he said, "to pick a quarrel with your allies? It is an accomplished fact, so it is better to undergo the consequences.

Still, let it serve you as a lesson to take better precautions another time."

"But these men who crossed the camp?" the Jaguar said sharply.

"You have nothing to fear from them; they are poor devils of hunters, who were probably seeking a refuge for the two women they brought with them."

"Two women?"

"Yes, a white and an Indian; although they were dressed in male attire, I recognized them the more easily, because I have been watching them for a long time."

"Ah," said the Jaguar thoughtfully, "do you know any of these hunters?"

"Only one, who is, I believe, tigrero to the hacienda."

"Tranquil!" the Jaguar exclaimed with aft expression impossible to render.