"No doubt they are."
"It is there that Antinahuel will attack the palefaces with his mosotones."
"Sangre de Cristo!" Don Gregorio exclaimed, "What is to be done?"
"The escort will be defeated," Don Tadeo observed.
Curumilla remained silent.
"Perhaps not!" said the count: "I know the chief; he is not the man to cause his friends embarrassment without having the means of showing them how to avoid the peril he reveals to them."
"Unfortunately," Don Tadeo replied, "there exists no other passage but that cursed defile; it must absolutely be cleared, and five hundred resolute men might not there only hold a whole army in check, but cut it to pieces."
"That may be all very true," the young man replied persistently; "but I repeat what I have said—the chief is a skilful warrior, his mind is fertile in resources."
Curumilla smiled and nodded.
"I was sure of it!" Louis cried. "Now then, chief, speak out! Do you not know a means of enabling us to avoid this dangerous passage?"