"You startle me, friend. What, then, are your plans?"
"It is true, you know nothing, but you are worthy of such an enterprise. I wish, understand me thoroughly; I wish—"
At this moment an Indian, whose horse, reeking with perspiration, seemed to breathe fire through its nostrils, came up to the two Ulmens, before whom he shopped dead, by a prodigy of horsemanship, as if converted into a granite statue. He bent down to Nocobotha's ear.
"Already!" the latter exclaimed; "Oh, there is not a moment to lose. Quick, my horse."
"What is the matter?" Pincheira asked him.
"Nothing that can interest you. Tonight at the pass of the Guanaco you shall know all."
"Are you going alone?"
"I must. Tonight we meet again."
Nocobotha's horse snorted, and dashed off like an arrow from a bow.
Ten minutes later all the Indians had disappeared, and solitude and silence reigned round the tree of Gualichu.