The two Frenchmen inwardly enjoyed the sight of the happiness of Don Tadeo, happiness which in part he owed to them. The Chilian approached them, pressed their hands warmly, and then turning to Rosario, said—
"My child, love these two gentlemen, you never can discharge your debt to them."
Both the young men blushed.
"Come, come, Don Tadeo," cried Valentine, "we have lost too much time already. To horse, and let us be gone!"
In spite of the roughness of this reply, Doña Rosario, who comprehended the delicacy that had dictated it, gave the young man a look of ineffable sweetness.
The party resumed their march. The Linda was henceforward treated with respect by all. The pardon of Don Tadeo, a pardon so nobly granted, had reinstated her in their eyes. Doña Rosario herself sometimes unconsciously smiled upon her, although she could not yet feel courage enough to respond to her caresses.
At the expiration of an hour they reached the "Sorcerer's Leap." At this place the mountain was divided in two by a fissure of inconceivable depth, and about twenty-five feet wide.
This difficult passage has been thus named by the Aucas because, according to the legend, at the period when the conquest of Araucania was attempted, a Huiliche sorcerer, being closely pursued by Castilian soldiers, leaped without hesitation over the chasm, sustained in his perilous passage by the genii of the air. Whatever be the truth of this legend, a bridge exists now, and our travellers passed over it without accident.
"Ah!" Trangoil-Lanec exclaimed, "now we have room before us, we are safe!"
"Not yet," Curumilla replied, pointing with his finger to a thin column of blue smoke, which curled up towards the heavens.