"It is only two days' journey at the most from here. It is always best to manage one's own business; and besides, nobody can obtain from the colonists so much as I can."
"How so?"
"That is too long a story to tell you now. It is enough for you to know that, on a recent occasion, I rendered rather a great service to the colony, which I hope they have not yet had time to forget."[1]
"Oh, oh! if that be the case, I no longer object. In truth, no one can have a better hope of succeeding in the negotiation than yourself. Let us go, then; and may Heaven aid us!"
"Let us go," Louis answered.
"Well," Doña Angela said with a smile, "did I not say I should be a good counsellor?"
"I never doubted it, madam," the hunter replied gallantly. "Besides, it could not be otherwise, as my brother assured us that you would be our guardian angel."
Don Louis, after handing the command over to the first lieutenant, and recommending the greatest activity and vigilance, announced to his comrades his temporary absence, though he did not reveal to them the object of his journey, in order not to discourage them in case his negotiation failed; and at sunset, followed only by Valentine, and after saying farewell to Doña Angela once more, he left the mission, and started at a gallop on the road to Guetzalli.
[1] See "The Tiger Slayer." Same publishers.