The bombero exchanged a few words with the sentries, and passed through the barricade, followed by the two girls. Then he stopped.
"Doña Concha," he said, in a choking voice, "there is the Indian camp before us."
"I thank you, Don Pedro," she answered, offering him her hand.
"Señorita," Pedrito added, retaining the young lady's hand, "there is still time; give up your fatal plan, since your betrothed is saved, and return to San Julian."
"Good-bye," Doña Concha answered resolutely.
"Good-bye," the worthy man repeated sorrowfully. "Mercedes, I implore you to remain with me."
"Where she goes, I will go, brother."
The leave-taking was short, as may be supposed, and the bombero, so soon as he was alone, uttered a sigh, or rather a burst of sorrow, and returned to Carmen at a sharp pace.
"I trust I may not arrive too late," he said to himself, "and that he has not yet seen Don Antonio Valverde."
He reached the fort at the moment when Don Torribio and the governor were crossing the drawbridge, but absorbed in his own thoughts, he did not perceive the two horsemen. This accident was the cause of an irreparable misfortune.