The man smiled with pleasure at receiving this praise from his chief; after bowing respectfully before him, he made his horse curvet gracefully, and set off with his followers.
Antinahuel took the road towards the mountains at a sharp trot. After riding silently for some time by the side of Doña Maria, he turned towards her graciously, and said—
"Does my sister understand the tenor of the order I have just given?"
"No!" she replied, with a slight tinge of irony; "as my brother has well remarked, I am not a soldier."
"My intentions are very simple," he replied; "the Canyon del Rio Seco is in a narrow defile which the palefaces are obliged to cross. Fifty chosen warriors can here contend with advantage against twenty times their number. It is in that place I am determined to wait for the Huincas. The Moluchos will take possession of the heights; and when the palefaces have entered that passage without suspicion, I will attack them on all sides."
"Does there, then, exist no other road to Santiago?"
"None; they must go that way."
"Then they are doomed!" she joyfully exclaimed.
"Without doubt!" he said proudly; "the Canyon del Rio Seco is celebrated in our history."
"Then my brother can answer for saving Don Pancho Bustamente?"