"Maldición!" the adventurer exclaimed with an angry gesture on perceiving the carriage.
The young man looked at his companion: the latter was pale as a corpse, and a convulsive tremor ran over all his limbs.
"What is the matter?" the count asked him with interest.
"Nothing," he answered drily; "look—"
Behind the carriage a second squadron of cavalry came up at a gallop, following it at a slight distance, and raising clouds of dust as they passed.
Ere long cavalry and berlin entered the defile, when they soon disappeared.
"Confound it," the young man said with a laugh; "those are prudent travellers, at any rate; they will not run a risk of being plundered by the salteadores."
"Do you think so?" Oliver asked with an accent of biting sarcasm. "Well, you are mistaken, for they will be attacked within an hour, and probably by the soldiers paid to defend them."
"Nonsense—that is impossible."
"Would you like to see it?"