“Olotoraca!”
“Oui, monsieur. The Paracousi Olotoraca has been a good friend and brother to me.”
“Ah! I understand. He thought that you might be captured again. But why should you fear capture on such a journey? Is not the village of Tacatacourou to the northward of this place,—away from the fort of the Spaniards?”
“I do not fear, monsieur,” replied Debré with dignity; “but if the Paracousi Olotoraca did not wish me with him, it was not possible for me to go.”
“Then he did not desire you to go? That is what I wished to learn,” said De Brésac with a smile. Then after a pause, “Why did Olotoraca go to the village of Tacatacourou? Is he not the nephew of Satouriona? Is not his place by the side of his uncle the great Paracousi?”
“Monsieur, the Paracousi Olotoraca is a great brave and the first young chief in all the country. He looks about him that he may choose a squaw from the most beautiful maidens of the nation. Therefore he goes to Tacatacourou. This is the common report.”
“Then he loves? The women there are beautiful, Pierre?”
“So it is said, monsieur; though having seen none of them, I cannot say. Perhaps that is why he did not wish me to go; or perhaps that is not the reason,—I cannot say. That is all I know, and I pray that no harm may come of the words I have spoken.”
“Never fear, good Pierre. You have done well. Now if it pleases we will go forth to meet the Chevalier de Gourgues. You will tell him what you have told us, and as much more concerning the armament and condition of Fort Mateo as you have been able to learn from the Indians. Will you go too, Killigrew, or will you await us here?”
“I will stay,” said I with a sigh, dropping on a pile of skins.