"Come, you are jesting, captain."
"Not the least in the world, my lord; you will soon have a proof of it."
"I shall only believe it when I see it."
"If it is so," pursued the captain, hiding a smile, "believe, then, for here he is."
At that moment a Guaycurus Indian, armed as a warrior, and mounted on a magnificent horse, suddenly emerged from the high grass, and boldly reined up across the path, within a pistol shot of the Brazilians, waving in his hand a tapir skin.
"Fire on that vagabond," cried the marquis, shouldering his carbine.
"Do not do that," said the captain.
"What! Is he not an enemy?" pursued the marquis.
"That may be, your Excellency; but at this moment he is an envoy."
"As an envoy—that savage? You are jesting with me without doubt," cried the marquis.