"We are lost!" he exclaimed with despair. "Here are the Apaches!"
"The Apaches!" they muttered with terror.
"O heavens save me!" Doña Anita said, falling on her knees and fervently clasping her hands.
The Tigrero bent over the fair girl, took her in his arms with a strength rendered tenfold by grief, and turning to the hacendero,—
"Come," he shouted, "follow me. Perhaps one chance of salvation is still left us."
And he hurried toward the extremity of the grotto, all eagerly following him. They hurried on for some time in this way. Doña Anita, almost fainting, leaned her lovely head on the Tigrero's shoulders. He still ran on.
"Come, come," he said, "we shall soon be saved."
His companions uttered a shout of joy: they had perceived a gleam of daylight before them. Suddenly, at the moment Don Martial reached the entrance, and was about to rush forth, a man appeared. It was the Black Bear.
The Tigrero leaped back with the howl of a wild beast.
"Wah!" the Apache said, with a mocking voice, "my brother knows that I love this woman, and to please me hastens to bring her to me."