On a sudden Malco Diaz bounded in advance, overturned the marquis, and seizing doña Laura by the hair, he lifted her up, threw her on the neck of his horse, and darted off across the desert.
The young girl uttered a terrible cry, and fainted.
This cry Diogo had heard. The captain leaped over the body of the marquis, and overturning everything before him, rushed off in pursuit.
But what can a man on foot do against a horseman riding at full speed?
Malco Diaz stopped, a flash of fury darted from his eyes, and he shouldered his gun.
"It is my last charge," murmured Diogo; "it shall be for her." And he fired.
Malco Diaz immediately staggered, his arms were thrown up convulsively, and he rolled on the ground, dragging the young girl in his fall.
He was dead.
Diogo darted towards him, but suddenly he made a bound on one side, and taking his gun by the barrel, he raised it above his head. An Indian was coming down upon him, but the former, immediately changing his position, bounded like a jaguar, clasped in his powerful arms the Indian who pursued him, overthrew him, and at the same moment put himself in the saddle in the Indian's place.
This prodigy of skill and agility accomplished, he flew to the aid of the young girl.