The gaucho's keen eyes could even penetrate the darkness of the forest, and as he sat on his heels, waiting for the man who had fired to show himself, he saw a barrel pushed through the fork of a trunk within three feet of where he sat. A white blotch behind showed where the man's face was, and gave Pepito all the information he required. With one bound he reached the tree and threw the muzzle of the weapon up just as the man pulled the trigger. Then, ere the flash had died down, he had reached behind the trunk, had dragged the ruffian who had fired closer to him, and with one stroke of his knife had sent him to his end.
"So let all robbers die," he murmured, as he stooped over the man. "We will speak to the others in the same way."
Assuring himself that the man was dead, he fell on all fours again, and crept back towards Dudley, narrowly missing a shot which one of his own gauchos fired at him as he came.
"A blow for a blow, señor," he said. "The ruffian hit me through the thigh and has been punished. The others have gone, I think, for they know well that here in the forest we are equal to them."
"Then get the men together and set a watch all round," was the sharp order. "After that we will place two men to cover the horses with their rifles, for it would never do to have them captured."
"And then, señor?"
"We will wait. There is nothing more that we can do, for if we attempt to move through the forest we shall certainly be attacked. Those fellows have a clever leader, who saw at once that in the darkness of this place we had as much chance as he and his men. But you may be sure that the rascals are all round us, ready to fire a volley into us the instant we move or rise to our feet. As to how long we shall wait I do not know; but if only the moon would go down our course would be open. We should rush to the horses and ride for our lives."
The predicament in which Dudley and his following found themselves was indeed by no means a pleasant one. It is true that they had escaped capture for the moment, but it was very doubtful if they were any the better off for that; for retreat across the pampas meant disaster, and the volley which had greeted them as they threw themselves on to the ground had told them plainly that they had an overwhelming number to deal with. The wonder was, in fact, that one only of their party had been wounded, and that the bullets had whistled over the heads of the others. A minute later the aspect of affairs was seen to be even worse, for no sooner had Pepito placed his guards on every side than he himself went to look at the horses, creeping like a snake through the forest as he made for the edge, for to have stood up would have meant to invite a bullet.
"Gone!" he exclaimed, with an exclamation of dismay, as he stared into the open. "Those robbers have been too quick for us. We are cornered, and can never escape."
He crept back to Dudley's side with his tale, and there for some few minutes lay at full length, whispering to him.