The capataz looked at the persons who crowded the room. Doña Concha understood him, and dismissed them. Pedrito was about to follow with the rest.
"Remain," she said to him, "you can speak before Don Pedro, his sister, and my father. Who is the man that attacked you?"
"Permit me, señorita, I do not positively say that he was among the assassins, for I did not see him; but it is certainly he who let the cowards loose upon us, and directed them from a distance."
"Yes, Don Blas; he was the head, and these ten or twelve bandits were only the arms."
"The very thing. Among the dead I found the corpse of one of his confidants, the gaucho Corrocho, whom I surprised the other day conspiring with him against you."
A bitter smile for a moment curled the young lady's blanched lips.
"Will you tell me his name or no?" she exclaimed, stamping her foot passionately.
"Don Torribio Carvajal!"
"I knew it!" she said, with an accent of superb disdain. "Oh, Don Torribio, Don Torribio! Where is the man to be found at this hour; where is he? Oh, I would give my fortune, my life, to be face to face with him. Is it in order to assassinate his rivals with impunity that this mysterious man—"
She could not complete the sentence; she burst into tears, and fell into Don Valentine's arms, exclaiming with broken sobs—