"Whom are you alluding to?"
"You shall see," Valentine answered, and clapped his hands thrice softly.
Immediately a slight sound and a gentle rustling of leaves was heard in a neighbouring thicket, and a man suddenly emerged, about four paces from the hunters. It was Carnero, the capataz of General Guerrero. He wore a vicuna skin hat, of which the large brim was bent over his eyes, and he was wrapped up in a spacious cloak.
"Good evening, señores," he said, with a polite bow, "I have been awaiting your coming for nearly an hour, and almost despaired of seeing you tonight."
"We were detained longer than we expected by General Guerrero."
"Do you come from him?"
"Did I not tell you I should call on him?"
"Yes; but I hardly believed that you would have the temerity to venture so imprudently into the lion's den."
"Nonsense," Valentine said with a disdainful smile, "the lion as you call him, I assure you, was remarkably tame; he drew in his claws completely, and received us with the most exquisite politeness."
"In that case take care," the capataz replied, with a significant shake of the head; "if he received you as you say, and I have no reason to doubt it, he is, be assured, preparing a terrible countermine against you."