"What is that?" Valentine, the first to regain his coolness, exclaimed. "By heavens! Can the redskins be beginning the attack already?"
"Let us wake our friends," said Don Pablo.
"A friend!" grunted Curumilla, who had pulled the arrow out and examined it attentively.
"What do you mean, chief?" the hunter asked.
"Look!" the Indian replied laconically, as he gave him the arrow, and pointed to the paper rolled round it.
"So it is," Valentine said, as he unfastened the paper, while Curumilla picked up a burning log and held it to him as a candle.
"Hum!" Don Pablo muttered, "this mode of corresponding appears to me rather strange."
"We will see what it all means," the hunter answered.
He unfolded the paper, on which a few lines were written in Spanish, and read the following—
"The palefaces are lost; the Indian tribes, assembled from all parts and helped by the Pirates of the Prairies, surround them. The white men have no help to expect from anybody. Unicorn is too far off, Bloodson too much engaged in defending himself to have time to think of them. Don Pablo de Zarate can, if he likes, escape the death that menaces him, and save those who are dear to him. His fate is in his own hands. So soon as he has received this, let him leave his camp and proceed alone to Elk Hill, where he will meet a person prepared to supply him with the means he must seek in vain elsewhere; this person will await Don Pablo till sunrise. He is implored not to neglect this warning; tomorrow will be too late to save him, for he would infallibly succumb in a mad struggle.