As we have said, the scalper rushed into the chaparral to discover who had given the signal that startled him; his researches were minute, but they produced no other result than that of enabling him to discover that he was not mistaken, and that a spy hidden in the bushes had really seen all that took place in the clearing, and heard all that was said.
Blue-fox, after summoning his comrades, cautiously retired, convinced that if he fell into the hands of the Scalper, he would be lost in spite of all his courage.
The latter returned thoughtfully to the side of the monk, whose praying still went on, and had assumed such proportions that it threatened to become interminable.
The Scalper looked for a moment at the Fray, an ironical smile playing round his pale lips the while, and then gave him a hearty blow with the butt of his rifle between the shoulders.
"Get up!" he said, roughly.
The monk fell on his hands, and remained motionless. Believing that the other intended to kill him, he resigned himself to his fate, and awaited the death-blow which, in his opinion, he must speedily receive.
"Come, get up, you devil of a monk!" the Scalper went on; "Have you not mumbled paternosters enough?"
Fray Ambrosio gently raised his head; a gleam of hope returned to him.
"Forgive me, Excellency," he replied; "I have finished; I am now at your orders; what do you desire of me?"
And he quickly sprung up, for there was something in the other's eye which told him that disobedience would lead to unpleasant results.