THE CHASE.
The unforeseen encounter with the mameluco had suddenly upset don Diogo's course of ideas.
The inquisitive look which the ex-guide had cast at him as he passed, the cry that he himself had, in the suddenness of his surprise, allowed to escape—all these circumstances gave him much to think of.
The eye of hatred is piercing. The Indian did not conceal from himself that the half-caste had in the depth of his heart a bitter hatred for him, not only for the manner in which he had pursued him after his departure from the camp, but because Diogo had in some respects taken his place near the marquis.
What gave a little hope to the Indian was, that the meeting had been so fortuitous, and at the same time so rapid, that, thanks to his disguise, the completeness of which had deceived Emavidi Chaime himself, it was almost impossible to recognise him without examination.
Diogo made a mistake, and he soon had a proof of it.
His very disguise had caused his enemy, if not to recognise, at least to suspect him.
Now, the very morning of the day on which we again meet with him, two hours before sunrise, Malco Diaz had had a rather long conversation with Tarou Niom relative to the last arrangements agreed upon between them.
During the course of this conversation, as Malco Diaz insisted that the chief should attack the whites without more delay, the latter had answered that he could not commence the assault before the arrival of his allies, the Payagoas; that he did not wish by precipitation, which nothing could justify, to compromise the success of an enterprise so well managed up to that time; that for that matter the delay was insignificant, and would not extend beyond a few hours, since he had dispatched to Emavidi Chaime one of his most faithful warriors, the Grand Sarigue, in order to urge him to make haste in joining them.