"Natah Otann?"
"Himself."
"Upon my word, he must be a somnambulist, to amuse himself by walking about the desert at night."
"He does not walk, he watches."
"Oh, I am in a bother; so keep me no longer in suspense; tell me what passed between you. Natah Otann is not the man to put himself out of the way without strong reasons, and I am burning to know them."
"You shall judge."
Without any further preface, the hunter described in its fullest details the conversation he had with the chief.
"By Jove! that's serious," the Count said when Bright-eye had ended his story. "This Natah Otann is a gloomy scoundrel, whose plans you fully penetrated, and you behaved splendidly in answering him so categorically. For what has this villain taken me? Does he fancy, I wonder, that I shall act as his accomplice? Let him dare to attack those poor devils of emigrants down there, and by the saints, I swear to you, Bright-eye, that blood will be shed between us, if you help me."
"Can you doubt it?"
"No, my friend, I thank you; with you and my coward of an Ivon, I shall manage to put them to flight."