"Now," the young girl added, with extraordinary animation, "let us hasten to make our preparations for departure, as we have not an instant to lose."
"Caspita! I am glad we are going to do something at last," said Orson, as he prepared to cut up the elk brought in by Red Cedar: "we were beginning to moulder in this damp hole."
"Leonard," Sandoval said, "look after the horses; fetch them from the corral, and bring them to the subterraneous passage."
"Hang it all," said Red Cedar; "talking about horses, I haven't one."
"That is true," Sandoval replied; "you arrived on foot yesterday; but I fancied you had left your horse in the chaparral."
"No, it was killed in an ambuscade, where I all but left my hide. Since then, my dog has carried the saddle."
"We have more horses than we want, so Leonard shall bring one to you."
"Thanks, I will make it up to you."
Leonard and another bandit collected the harness and went off. When the meal was finished, which did not take long, as the Pirates were anxious to start, the separations forming the rooms were taken down, and two or three Pirates, arming themselves with powerful levers, moved an enormous rock, under which was the hole, serving as cache to the band, when obliged to leave its den temporarily. In this hole they placed any objects of value which the grotto contained, and the rock was then returned to its place.
This duty accomplished, Sandoval shouted as he proceeded to the mouth of the grotto—