"Where are we going?" the hacendero said.
"To Santa Fe," the general answered, "where you will be tried with General Ibañez, who will doubtless soon be a prisoner like yourself."
"Oh!" Don Miguel muttered thoughtfully, "who betrayed us this time?"
"It was still Red Cedar," the general answered.
The hacendero let his head sink on his chest, and remained silent. A quarter of an hour later the prisoner left the Paso del Norte, escorted by a regiment of dragoons. When the last trooper had disappeared in the windings of the road three men left the shrubs that concealed them, and stood like three phantoms in the midst of the desolate plain.
"O heavens!" Don Pablo cried in a heart-rending voice, "my father, my sister—who will restore them to me?"
"I!" Valentine said in a grave voice, as he laid his hand on his shoulder. "Am I not the TRAIL-HUNTER?"