[CHAPTER XXII.]
THE COMANCHES.
Valentine and his friends awoke at daybreak. The Comanches were already prepared to start; and Unicorn, dressed in his great war costume, presented himself to the hunter.
"Is my brother going?" Valentine asked him.
"Yes," the sachem answered. "I am returning to the Presidio to receive the answer of the chief of the palefaces."
"What is my brother's intention, should his demand be rejected?"
Unicorn smiled.
"The Comanches have long lances," he said; "the palefaces will not refuse."
"My anxiety will be extreme till you return, chief; the Spaniards are perfidious; take care they have not planned some treachery."
"They would not dare," Unicorn said, haughtily. "If the chief, whom my brother loves, is not delivered to me safe and sound, the Spanish prisoners shall be tortured on the plaza of Santa Fe, the town burned and sacked. I have spoken; my brother's mind may be at rest."