While these things were going on in the defile, a few words exchanged between Antinahuel and the Linda filled the Toqui with uneasiness, by making him vaguely suspicious of some treachery.
"What is the matter?" Doña Maria asked.
"Nothing very extraordinary," he replied, carelessly; "some reinforcements have arrived rather late, upon which I did not reckon."
"Good Heavens!" said Doña Maria, "I have been perhaps deceived by an extraordinary resemblance; but, if the man I mean were not forty leagues off, I should declare it is he who commands that troop."
"Let my sister explain herself," said Antinahuel.
"Tell me, in the first place, chief," the Linda continued, "the name of the warrior to whom you spoke?"
"His name is Joan."
"That is impossible! Joan is at this moment more than forty leagues from this place, detained by his love for a white woman," the Linda cried.
"My sister must be mistaken, because I have just been conversing with him."
"Then he is a traitor!" she said passionately.