"I do not say that; but I wish to know what you intend doing, and what our chances of success are?"

During this conversation, the other bandits had left their cells and ranged themselves round the speakers, whose discussion they followed with the deepest interest.

"On my word, my dear child, I do not know what answer to make you. Last evening Red Cedar spoke to me of the affair, and it appeared to us grand; but if it does not please you we will give it up. We will not mention it again; and that's all about it."

"That is how you always are, Sandoval; it is impossible to discuss any point with you. At the slightest objection offered you flare up, and will not listen to the reasons which may be given to you."

"I am not so, my child; I only state facts. However, here is Red Cedar; have it out with him."

"That will not take long," the girl answered; and turning to the squatter, who entered the grotto, bearing on his shoulders a magnificent elk he had shot, and which he threw on the ground, she said--

"Answer me a single question, Red Cedar."

"Twenty, if it be agreeable to you, charming Gazelle," the bandit said, with a constrained smile, which rendered him hideous.

"No, one will be sufficient. Who are the people you are engaged with?"

"A Mexican family."

"I want to know their name."

"I will tell it you. It is the Zarate family, one of the most influential in New Mexico."

At this answer a vivid flush ran over the girl's face, and she displayed marks of profound emotion.

"I also propose," the bandit continued, whose notice this flush had not escaped, "to finish with that demon, Bloodson, on whom we have so many insults to avenge."

"Good!" she said with increasing emotion.

The astounded brigands gazed anxiously on the girl. At length, by a violent effort, the Gazelle succeeded in rea.s.suming an air of coolness; and, addressing the Pirates, said to them, in a voice whose accent revealed a great internal agitation--

"That entirely changes the question. Bloodson is our most cruel enemy.

If I had known that at first, I should not have opposed the enterprise as I did."

"Then--?" Sandoval ventured to interrupt. "I consider the idea excellent; and the sooner we put it in execution, the better."

"Very good," Red Cedar exclaimed. "I felt sure that the nina would support me."

The Gazelle smiled on him.

"Whoever could understand women?" Sandoval muttered in his moustache.

"Now," the young girl added, with extraordinary animation, "let us hasten to make our preparations for departure, as we have not an instant to lose."

"Caspita! I am glad we are going to do something at last," said Orson, as he prepared to cut up the elk brought in by Red Cedar: "we were beginning to moulder in this damp hole."

"Leonard," Sandoval said, "look after the horses; fetch them from the corral, and bring them to the subterraneous pa.s.sage."

"Hang it all," said Red Cedar; "talking about horses, I haven't one."

"That is true," Sandoval replied; "you arrived on foot yesterday; but I fancied you had left your horse in the chaparral."

"No, it was killed in an ambuscade, where I all but left my hide. Since then, my dog has carried the saddle."

"We have more horses than we want, so Leonard shall bring one to you."

"Thanks, I will make it up to you."

Leonard and another bandit collected the harness and went off. When the meal was finished, which did not take long, as the Pirates were anxious to start, the separations forming the rooms were taken down, and two or three Pirates, arming themselves with powerful levers, moved an enormous rock, under which was the hole, serving as cache to the band, when obliged to leave its den temporarily. In this hole they placed any objects of value which the grotto contained, and the rock was then returned to its place.

This duty accomplished, Sandoval shouted as he proceeded to the mouth of the grotto--

"Some men to help."

At a sign from Sandoval, half a dozen men seized the end of a tree serving as a bridge, lifted it, balanced it for a moment in the air, and hurled it into the precipice, down which it rolled, with a sound resembling the discharge of a park of artillery. The exterior of the grotto was then covered with shrubs, in order to conceal it as far as possible.

"Ouf," Sandoval said, "at present all is in order; we will start when you please."

"At once!" the girl said, who seemed a prey to a great impatience, and who during all these lengthened preparations had not ceased to, scold the Pirates for their delay.

The band entered the pa.s.sage without further delay; and, after a march of about half an hour, entered a ravine, where the horses, under the guard of a Pirate, were nibbling the pea vines and young tree shoots.

All mounted. The White Gazelle allowed her comrades to pa.s.s, and managed to remain a little in the rear. Then, approaching Red Cedar, she looked at him in a peculiar way, and laid her dainty hand on his shoulder.

"Tell me, scalp hunter," she muttered, in a low and concentrated voice, "it is really Don Miguel de Zarate, the father of Don Pablo, whom you wish to crush?"

"Yes, senorita," the squatter answered, feigning astonishment at this question. "Why do you ask me that?"

"Nothing," she said, with a shrug of her shoulders; "merely an idea."

And, spurring her horse, which bounded forward with a snort of pain, she rejoined the band, which started at a long trot.

"Why does she take such interest in Don Pablo?" Red Cedar asked himself, so soon as he was alone. "I must know that! Perhaps it may help me to--"

A sinister smile curled the corners of his thin lips, and he added, as he watched the girl gallop on--

"You fancy your secret well kept. Poor fool! I shall soon know it."

CHAPTER XI.

THE APACHES.

The little band galloped silently through one of those primitive landscapes which owe nothing to art, and whose imposing and grand aspect makes us understand the infinite power of the Creator, and plunges the soul into a gentle reverie. It was one of those fresh, but lovely autumn mornings, on which travelling is so pleasant. The sun, gently rising in the horizon, spread its vivifying heat over nature, which seemed smiling on it. When you look around you in the valleys, all seemed spotted with white and blackish gray. The hills bore on their crests enormous mushrooms of granite, which affected the quaintest shapes. The soil of these hills was grayish white, and was only covered with a few faded plants already in seed.

In the plain the vegetation was yellow; here and there in the distance a few male buffaloes were scattered over the prairie like black dots. The flying locusts, some with brown wings, but the majority of a light yellow colour, were so numerous, that they literally covered the earth at certain spots.