"Enough of lies, Señor;" she cried, "your first word on entering under this tent betrayed you."
"Señorita!"
"You believe yourself to have arrived in the latitude of the diamond country discovered by one of my ancestors, and you wish at last to try and obtain from me—for avarice blinds you—the revelation of the secret you believe I possess!"
[CHAPTER VIII.]
A NOBLE BANDIT.
There was, after this accusation, so energetically pronounced by the young girl, some minutes of deathlike silence in the tent.
Without, the wind lashed the trees, and intertwined the branches with sounds almost like human wailings; the leaves were whirled in the air, and fell quivering on the thicket; at short intervals the lugubrious note of the owl, concealed in the hollows of the rocks, was heard, repeated from the distance like a dismal echo. Vague and indefinable sounds arose, carried on the wings of the wind, dying away only to be continually repeated, and further adding to the mysterious horror of this sombre and moonless night, the thick darkness of which gave to the objects a fantastically deathlike appearance.
The marquis had risen, his arms crossed behind his back, his head reclining on his breast; he strode about the tent, a prey to an agitation which he made vain efforts to conceal.