She was, as it were, their palladium. The girl was perfectly well aware of the uncontrolled power she exercised over her terrible guardians, and abused it constantly, while they never attempted resistance. The Indians themselves, seduced by the grace, vivacity, and sympathetic charms of the young creature, had christened her the White Gazelle; a name harmonising so well with her character, that she was known by no other.
She wore a fanciful costume of extraordinary wildness and eccentricity, which was admirably suited to the gentle, though decided, and slightly dreamy expression of her face. It was composed of loose Turkish trousers, made of Indian cashmere, fastened at the knees with diamond garters; while boots of stamped deer hide protected her leg, and imprisoned her little foot. To her heels were fastened heavy gold Mexican spurs; double-barrelled pistols and a dagger were passed through her China crape girdle, which confined her delicate waist. A jacket of violet velvet, buttoned over the bosom with a profusion of diamonds, displayed her exquisite bust. A brilliant-hued Navajo zarapé, fastened at the neck with a clasp of rubies, served as her cloak, and a Panama hat of extreme fineness (doble paja), decorated with an eagle plume, covered her head, while allowing tresses of jet black hair to fall in disorder on her neck, and which, had they not been bound by a ribbon, would have trailed on the ground.
This girl was asleep when Red Cedar entered the cavern, and the pirates were accustomed to do nothing without her assent.
"Red Cedar is a man in whom we can place entire confidence," Pedro Sandoval said, as he summed up the affair, "but we cannot give him answer till we have consulted the niña."
"That is true," a second confirmed him—"hence, as any discussion will be useless, I think the best thing we can do, is to follow Red Cedar's example, and go to rest."
"Powerfully reasoned," said one of the bandits, called Orson; a little man with ignoble features, grey eyes, and a mouth extending from ear to ear, while laughing so as to display two rows of white teeth, wide and sharp as those of a wild beast; "so shall I say good night."
The other pirates did the same, and in a few minutes the deepest silence prevailed in the grotto, whose inhabitants, secure in the strength of their position, slept peacefully.
At daybreak Red Cedar opened his eyes, and rose from the hard bed on which he had rested, in order to stretch his limbs, and restore the circulation of the blood.
"Up already!" Sandoval said, as he emerged, cigarette in mouth, from one of the sleeping cells.
"My bed was not so attractive as to keep me longer," Red Cedar answered with a smile.