"Perhaps I did. But enough of this. Here, take my rifle. Tell your friend, the barrel of whose rifle I see gleaming through the branches, to come from behind his bush. Perchance you will not be afraid to follow me now, when I am unarmed, and you two to one."
Stoneheart reflected for a moment, and then said: "Come forth, Estevan!"
His friend was at his side in a moment.
"Keep your rifle," said Stoneheart to the Tigercat; "no one must travel in the wilderness without weapons."
"Thanks, Fernando," replied the old chief; "I see you have not forgotten the old rule: a backwoodsman never quits his rifle."
The Tigercat turned and led the way to his camp, the two others following exactly in his footsteps. In about an hour they reached it, pitched halfway up the Voladero, in a spacious cavern. The chief had told the truth—only four out of all his men survived.
"Before going farther," he said, when they got there, "I have a condition to exact."
"To exact!" said Stoneheart ironically, emphasizing the words.
The Tigercat shrugged his shoulders. "At a sign from me, those men will stab Doña Hermosa to the heart without hesitation; you see, I have the power to exact."
"Speak, then," said Stoneheart, trembling for her sake.