"Lost!" she exclaimed, turning pallid as a corpse; "What do you mean?"
The half-breed laid a finger on his lip to command silence, made her a sign to follow him, and glided noiselessly into the corral.
Carmela followed him.
The corral was enclosed with a plank wall about six feet high; Lanzi went up to a spot where a wide cleft allowed a prospect of the plain.
"Look," he said to his mistress.
The girl obeyed, and laid her face against the plank.
Night was beginning to fall, and a denser shadow was each moment invading the plain. Still, the obscurity was not great enough to prevent Carmela distinguishing, about two hundred yards away, a numerous party of horsemen coming at full speed in the direction of the venta.
A glance sufficed the maiden to perceive that these horsemen were Indios Bravos.
The warriors, more than fifty in number, were in their full war paint; and as they bent over the necks of their horses, which were as untamable as themselves, they brandished their long lances over their heads with an air of defiance.
"These are Apaches," Carmela exclaimed, as she recoiled in terror. "How comes it that they have reached this place before we are warned of their arrival?"