In spite of the gravity of the circumstances, and the anxiety of his hearers, they smiled at Pepe's singular arguments.
"Explain yourself, Pepe," the governor said to him.
"Ten minutes after my brother's departure," the bombero went on, "I examined some bushes which I had seen moving in an unusual manner. I discovered a Negro, who was pale in spite of his black hide, and whose tongue terror appeared to have tied. At length he made up his mind to speak. He belonged to a poor old gentleman of the name of Ignacio Bayal, one of the two men who alone escaped from the massacre on the peninsula of San José, during the last invasion of the Patagonians. The slave and his master were gathering wood, when the Indians appeared a short distance off; the slave had time to conceal himself behind a pile of biscacha, but the old man fell beneath the blows of the savages, who attacked him with lances and bolas perdidas. I began reassuring the Negro, but at the same moment perceived a multitude of Indians driving prisoners and cattle before them, burning and destroying everything as they passed in full march on Carmen. The Estancia of Punta Rosa and that of San Blas are at this moment a pile of ashes, and serve as tombs to the owners. That is my news, Excellency, and you can do what you like with it."
"And those bleeding scalps?" the major asked, pointing to the human trophies that hung from the bombero's belt.
"That is a personal matter," Pepe replied with a smile. "Through friendship for the Indians, I preferred to lift their hair rather than leave them my head."
"Perhaps it is only a band of plunderers of the Pampas, who have come to steal cattle, and will retire with their booty."
"Hum," said Pepe, with a shake of his head, "they are too numerous, too well equipped, and are advancing with too much regularity. No, colonel, it is not a skirmish, but an invasion."
"Thanks, Pepe," the colonel said, "I am satisfied with you. Return to your post, and redouble your vigilance."
"Juan is dead, colonel, and that will tell you how fond my brothers and I are of the Indians."
The bombero retired.