The forests became more dense, the trees were larger and more closely packed to each other. Hidden streams might have been heard murmuring—torrents which precipitate themselves from the height of the mountains, and, uniting, form these rivers, which at some leagues in the plain acquire great importance, and are often large as arms of the sea.
Large flights of vultures wheeled slowly, high in the air, over the horsemen, uttering their harsh and discordant cries.
Gueyma had not neglected any precautions that the Cougar had recommended him; scouts had been dispatched in advance in order to search the woods, and to discover, if possible, the tracks that they suspected would not fail them in these regions.
Other Indians had quitted their horses, and, right and left, on the flanks of the troop, they searched the forests, whose mysterious depths could well conceal an ambuscade.
The Guaycurus advanced in a long and close column—thoughtful and silent—the eye on the watch and the hand on their arms, ready to make use of them at the first signal.
The two chiefs marched in front, about twenty paces from their companions.
When they were in the middle of a thick forest, the immense masses of verdure in which not only deprived them of a view of the sky, but also intercepted the burning rays of the sun; and when the horsemen, whose horses were passing through a long and thick grass, filed through the trees silently as a legion of phantoms, the Cougar placed his hand on the arm of his companion, and making use of the Castilian dialect—
"Let us speak Spanish," said he; "I do not wish any longer to delay giving you that information I have promised you. If we have to be attacked, it will only be in the neighbourhood of such an unlucky place as that in which we now find ourselves; it is one of the best chosen for an ambuscade. I am much deceived if we shall not soon hear resounding under these arches of foliage the war cry of our enemies. It is time, then that I explained myself clearly to you, for perhaps it will be too late when we arrive at the encampment. Listen to me, then, attentively, and whatever you hear me say, my dear Gueyma, concentrate in yourself your emotions, and do not exhibit in your features either anger, joy, or astonishment."
"Speak, Cougar; I will conform to your advice."
"The time has not yet come," pursued the old man, "to reveal to you the whole truth. Let it suffice, at present, to know that, brought up among the whites, whose faith and customs I had adopted, and for whom I professed, and profess still, the most sincere devotion, it is not for you, Gueyma—for you whose birth I remember, and whom I love as a son—that I have consented to abandon the numberless enjoyments of civilised life, to resume the life—precarious and full of dangers and privations—of a nomadic Indian. I had taken an oath of vengeance and devotion. This oath I believe, I have religiously kept. The vengeance, long time prepared by me in secret, will be, I am convinced, so much the more terrible as it, will have been slow to strike the guilty. In the great act that I meditate, Gueyma, you will aid me, for they are your interests alone that I have constantly defended in all I have done, and it is you, more than I, who are interested in the success of what I wish still to do."