"¿Qué gente?" the stranger continued.
"Don Miguel Zarate."
At these words twenty men hidden in the brushwood rose suddenly, and throwing their rifles on their shoulders, advanced to meet the horsemen. They were the hunters commanded by Curumilla, who, by Valentine's orders, were awaiting the hacendero's arrival to join him.
"Well," Don Miguel asked the chief, "is there anything new?"
Curumilla shook his head.
"Then we can advance?"
"Yes."
"What is the matter, chief? Have you seen anything alarming?"
"No; and yet I have a feeling of treachery."
"How so?"