"Forward!" Valentine exclaimed.
But an insurmountable obstacle rose before them. At the moment they were passing through the gate of the hacienda it was suddenly blocked up by the cattle the peons were driving back from the fields, probably to prevent them being carried off by marauders. The poor beasts pressed into the gateway, each anxious to be first, while uttering lamentable moans, and goaded behind by the peons. It was useless to hope getting out before the ganado had entered, and there was no chance of clearing the gateway by driving it back. Hence the fugitives were compelled to wait, whether they would or not. Valentine was half mad with anger.
"I knew it, I knew it," he muttered in a hoarse voice, and clenching his fists in rage.
At length, after nearly an hour (for Don Rafaël possessed numerous herds), the gate was free.
"Let us be off in Heaven's name!" Valentine shouted.
"It is too late," Eagle-head said, appearing suddenly in the gateway.
"Maldición!" the hunter yelled as he rushed forward.
Valentine looked around him, and uttered a cry of alarm. The hacienda was completely surrounded by nearly five hundred Mexican cavalry, in the midst of whom General Guerrero could be distinguished.
"Ah, the wretched traitor!" the hunter exclaimed.
"Come, let us not be discouraged," Loyal Heart said. "Cuerpo de Cristo! it is not so long since I gave up desert life that I should have forgotten all its stratagems. We will not give these troops time to look about them. Let us charge, and make a hole through them."