"Hilloah! what is this?" he asked.
Without speaking, Curumilla had lit a candle wood torch which he handed the hunter. Valentine bent over again and looked in.
"Ah!" he exclaimed, "Red Cedar's horse—I have you now, my fine fellow! but how the deuce did he manage to get the animal up here without leaving any trail?" After a moment he added: "Oh, what a goose I am! The horse was not dead, he led it up here, and then forced it into the hole. By Jove! It is a good trick: I must confess that Red Cedar is a very remarkable rogue, and had it not been for the eagle, I should not have discovered the road he took—but now I have him! Were he ten times as cunning he would not escape me."
And, all delighted, Valentine rejoined the Mexicans, who were anxiously awaiting the result of his researches.
[CHAPTER XXXIV.]
THE HUNT.
"Then," Don Miguel asked the hunter, "you believe, my friend, that we are on the right track, and that the villain cannot escape us."
"I am convinced," Valentine replied, "that we have followed his trail up to the present. As for assuring you that he will not escape us, I am unable to say that; I can only assert that I shall discover him."
"That is what I meant," the hacendero remarked, with a sigh.