"The dogs!" exclaimed Antonio Sarvisti, emerging from the cover of a tree some twenty yards away. "That cheer sounds as if they were full of confidence. They surely can have no hope of escape, and when the light comes they will have no other course but to surrender, for we shall be able to shoot them down like rabbits. Eh, amico?"
His sour-faced lieutenant, a gaucho who had been in the rascal's employ for many a year, and whose predatory life seemed to have embittered him, growled a reply, and he stood for a while beside him, listening to the faint sound of conversation which came from Dudley's party, while he chewed a leaf thoughtfully. It was clear that if his employer were sanguine as to the result of this contest, this rascal had many doubts, for he shook his head, tossed the leaf to the ground, and carefully sheltered himself behind a tree.
"A cheer is a cheer anywhere," he answered surlily. "We have been expecting a call to say that they wished to surrender, and now they set up a shout which proves that they are still of good heart. What if the cheer means that one of their number has escaped?"
The very idea of such a thing caused the Italian leader to grind his teeth. But a moment's reflection reassured him.
"Pshaw!" he exclaimed, with a somewhat feeble attempt at a laugh. "That, we know, is not the case. They have made the attempt, and have failed. True, the dog who tried to slip through killed one of our number; at least that is the report brought to me. But I swear that not even a mouse could break through. They are cooped in, and when the dawn comes, ah!"
"You will not be able to shoot better than they," exclaimed his right-hand man. "Think! We are here in the forest, which is as dense as can be. Can we see them better than they can see us? Are we under finer cover than they? Pooh! They have a smart leader, who took the only possible course, and for my part I believe that we have hard work before us. That young fellow who leads them will not give in too hurriedly. He has seen some fighting, you must remember, and he knows the value of his position as well as you do. Besides——"
"Besides what?" demanded Antonio, an oath escaping his lips, for the words of his lieutenant roused his smouldering anger. "What, man? You are ever the one to croak. What is the trouble now?"
"I was about to say that even if this youngster were inclined to surrender, for the sake of his own skin, there is something else which will keep him fighting."
"Something else? And that is something even more important than his own skin?" exclaimed Antonio with a sneer.
"More important still," went on the rascal beside him, seeming to take a delight in putting the dark side to his leader. "Something which you have often been troubled with yourself. This man Blunt is a Britisher you say. An Italian, a Spaniard, a man of any nation you please to pick, would perhaps have given in before now, and have slipped away from this country. Has this man Blunt shown a sign of doing that?"