"My son will use all possible diligence," said Antinahuel, and hastened back to his post.
Joan and his men went forward at full gallop; they were watched by from a thousand to fifteen hundred invisible spies, who, at the smallest suspicion, created by a doubtful gesture even, would have massacred them without mercy.
Joan, after having made his men dismount and conceal their horses in the rear, distributed them with a calmness and collectedness that must have banished the suspicions of the chief. Ten minutes later the defile appeared as solitary as before. Joan had scarcely gone six paces into the thicket when a hand was laid upon his shoulder. He turned sharply round; Curumilla was before him.
"Good!" the latter murmured, in a voice low as a breath; "let my son follow me with his men."
Joan nodded assent, and with extreme precaution and in perfect silence three hundred soldiers began to escalade the rocks in imitation of the Ulmen. The three hundred men led by Joan, who had escaladed the wall of the defile on the opposite side of the canyon, were divided into two troops. The first had taken up a position above Black Stag, and the second, a hundred strong, were massed as a rear post. As soon as Curumilla had prepared the manoeuvre we have just described, he quitted Joan and rejoined his companions.
"At last!" they cried, both in a breath.
"I began to be afraid something had happened to you, chief," said the count.
Upon which Curumilla only smiled. "Everything is ready," he said; "and when the palefaces please, they can penetrate into the defile."
"Do you think your plan will succeed?" Don Tadeo asked anxiously.
"I hope it will," the Indian replied.