"I am beginning to believe it," the Jaguar muttered, all his suspicions coming back.
"By whom?" the White Scalper asked with a smile of contempt.
"By you, you villain!" the American answered roughly.
"You are mad," the old man said with a disdainful shrug of his shoulders; "if I had betrayed you, should I have led you here?"
"That is true," said the Jaguar; "but it is strange, and the noise is unceasing. The Mexicans are doubtless massacring our companions; we cannot abandon them thus, but must hurry to their assistance."
"Do nothing of the sort," the Scalper sharply exclaimed. "Hasten, on the contrary, to invade the fortress, which I doubt not is abandoned by the greater part of its defenders; your companions, so soon as they have rallied, will be strong enough to repulse their assailants."
The Jaguar hesitated.
"What is to be done?" he muttered with an undecided air, as he bent an enquiring glance on the men as they passed round him.
"Act without loss of a moment," the old man eagerly exclaimed, and with a vigorously dealt stroke he broke in the door, which fell in splinters to the ground; "here is the way open, will you recoil?"
"No! No!" they shouted impetuously, and rushed into the gaping vault before them.