"What hour is it?" pursued the unknown.
"The hour of vengeance," again said the chief.
These passwords exchanged, the two men put up their guns, and advanced towards each other with the utmost confidence.
They recognised each other.
The stranger immediately alighted, and grasped cordially, as that of an old friend, the hand which the chief held out to him.
The unknown was a white. He wore the elegant and picturesque costume of the gauchos of the Pampas of Buenos Aires.
"I have waited a long time for you, chief," said the stranger. "Has anything happened to prevent your coming?"
"Nothing," replied the latter; "only the camp is far off; I have been obliged, before setting out, to wait till my companion was decidedly asleep."
"He still knows nothing?"
"Is it not agreed between us?"