"Yes, I admit it—I proclaim it!" he cried, with enthusiasm.
"If that is the case, as we ought to lose as little time as possible, get down from your horse and follow me."
"Where are we going?" asked Sacatripas, immediately alighting.
"To the chiefs. Is it not to them that we ought to address ourselves?"
The Guaycurus captains were sitting a little apart, in the shade of a cluster of forest trees which completely sheltered them from the heat of the sun. Instead of imitating the example of their warriors by sleeping, they were conversing, apparently on important matters, as their dignified gestures and their serious mode of talking would have led an observer to believe.
Notwithstanding the large share of effrontery with which they were by nature endowed, it was nevertheless with timidity that the gauchos approached the warriors, before whom they stopped, after having humbly bowed to them.
Arnal turned towards them, and after having with cool contempt eyed them from head to foot for a minute or two:
"What do you want?" he asked in Spanish.
"Honourable captain," answered Mataseis, making a bow which resembled a genuflexion, "my brother and I have the ambitious desire to obtain the kind consideration of your lordship, so that—that—"
And the poor devil stopped short in this intricate sentence, from which he did not know how to escape, upset by the stem and disdainful look of the chief.