"Good!" Trangoil-Lanec murmured, looking at the wounded man, whose regular breathing proclaimed that he was sleeping peacefully: "what will Don Valentine say to all this?"
And he strode out hastily to meet the Parisian, whose face was the picture of anxiety.
"Chief!" he cried, in a tremulous voice, "can what the peons say be true?"
"Yes!" the chief replied coolly.
The young man sank down, as if thunder-struck. The Indian seated him gently upon a bale, and placing himself beside him, pressed his hand, saying in a soothing tone:
"My brother has much courage."
"Alas!" the young man exclaimed, in an agonized voice, "Louis, my poor Louis, dead, assassinated! Oh!" he added, with a terrible gesture, "I will avenge him! I will solely live to accomplish that sacred duty!"
The chief looked at him for an instant attentively.
"What does my brother mean?" he asked; "his friend is not dead."
"Oh! why do you seek to deceive me, chief?"