"Well, we shall see."
"Probably so. However, as I foresaw the objections you would make, I have arranged everything to go. The horses are ready saddled, the peones in waiting: we will set off as soon as you choose."
"Thanks, Estevan; you are really a friend."
"I know it," said the latter, with a gay smile. Estevan Diaz whistled shrilly, and the peones entered the court, leading two horses by their bridles.
"Let us be off," said Don Fernando, springing into the saddle.
"Let us be off," repeated Don Estevan.
They gave the horses their heads, and began to push their way slowly through the crowd of idlers assembled before the gates of the fortress to learn the latest news, and trotted down the steep incline leading from the fort to the old presidio, replying, as well as they could, to the questions with which they were assailed on all sides. As soon as they had threaded the town, they increased their speed along the road to the Hacienda del Cormillo, without noticing the repeated signals of several more than suspicious-looking individuals, carefully wrapped in thick cloaks, who had followed them at a distance since they left the fort, talking eagerly the while to each other.
It was a stormy day. The sky was gray and lowering; the birds wheeled screaming around; and the wind, blowing in squalls, roared in the deep defiles of the road, filling the air with clouds of impalpable dust.
The two peones who had brought the news of the Indians' march upon the presidio rode twenty paces in advance, and scanned the country on each side of the road with startled looks, expecting every instant to see the redskins make their appearance, and to hear the dreaded war whoop. Don Fernando and Don Estevan rode side by side, without exchanging a syllable, each sufficiently occupied by his own thoughts.
In the meanwhile, the nearer the travellers got to the river, the more the storm increased in intensity. The rain fell in torrents, the lightning flashed incessantly, and the peals of thunder rolled majestically among the high cliffs, from which enormous crags were constantly detached, and hurled crashing into the river.