"Hum!" Valentine muttered, following him with a thoughtful glance; "either I am greatly mistaken, or, now that he is no longer here, to thwart by his presence the gloomy machinations of the scoundrels who wish to make him their dupe, we shall soon have something new."
After this aside, the hunter walked with his usual measured step toward the barrack, where he arrived in a few moments, and found the adventurers in a state of great excitement, produced by the departure of their leader.
[CHAPTER XIX.]
PITIC.
The distance is not great from Guaymas to Pitic, and the count covered it in a few hours.
Pitic, or Hermosillo, is a delightful town, enclosed with walls, and surrounded by kitchen gardens, whose produce is rather important. Unfortunately, the night had completely set in when the count arrived there, and he could only take a vague glance at the scenery, which, seen through the obscurity, had entirely changed its character, and assumed a gloomy appearance, which painfully contracted the adventurer's heart. The count had considerably recovered from his first illusions; the paltry annoyances of which he was the object now made him see the future under a different light, and he already doubted the success of an enterprise against which, from the outset, so many underhand obstacles were raised.
At the moment of mounting his horse, he had received from the general commandant of the province a note giving him peremptory orders to remain at Guaymas, with his company, and not to march forward until more ample information, that is to say, until the general had received positive instructions on the subject, from the central government at Mexico. As may be easily supposed, this order, intimated in so brutal a manner after all that had passed, had obtained the sole result of pressing the count's departure; for he was outraged by this flagrant violation of all the conditions stipulated in his treaty.
The little band entered Pitic without exciting the slightest attention. At this hour the streets were nearly deserted; and the few travellers they met en route, deceived by their Mexican costume, did not even take the trouble to look at them. The count dismounted in the Calle San Agostino, before a house which he had got in readiness for the occasion, without saying a word to anyone. After a gentle rap at the door, it opened, and the party entered. The house belonged to a Frenchman, who had gone on a journey in the interior, for commercial reasons; but during his absence, the servants, in obedience to his instructions, received the count with the utmost attention. The latter, after whispering a few words to Don Cornelio, who went out at once, retired to the cuarto prepared for him.
Don Louis was a man of powerful and energetic temper, a man of action before all. He understood that, after the turn that matters had taken, he must act energetically and without losing a moment, unless he wished to receive an irreparable check. His plan was formed, and he prepared to carry it out without delay.