The count, after ripe reflections, resolved to communicate his anxiety to Dominique and Leo Carral, when one evening on entering the patio he met don Melchior on horseback proceeding to the hacienda gate. The count then asked himself why, at so advanced an hour (it was about nine o'clock at night), don Melchior ventured on a moonless night to go alone into the country, at the risk of falling into an ambush of Juárez' guerilleros, whose scouts, as he was perfectly well aware, had been prowling round the hacienda for some days past.
This fresh departure of the young man, for which there was no apparent motive, dissipated the count's last doubts, and confirmed him in the resolution of immediately taking counsel with his two friends.
At this moment Leo Carral crossed the patio and Ludovic called to him.
The majordomo ran up directly.
"Where are you going now?" the count asked.
"I can hardly tell your Excellency," the majordomo answered. "This evening I feel more anxious than usual, and I am going to pay a visit to the neighbourhood of the hacienda."
"Can it be foreboding?" the count said pensively. "Will you let me accompany you?"
"I purpose going out and beating up the country a little," Ño Leo Carral continued.
"Very good: have my horse and don Carlos' saddled, we will join you in an instant."
"Mind, Excellency, not to take any servants, but do our business ourselves. I have a plan, so let us avoid all chances of treachery."