"Oh; I know you are very adroit and devoted comrades, therefore I perfectly rely upon you. Watch the Babbler, likewise; that half-breed only inspires me with moderate confidence."
"That shall be done!"
"Farewell, then, till we meet again. You shall soon hear of me."
Notwithstanding the darkness, the three men set off at a gallop, and were soon far in the desert, in two different directions.
[CHAPTER XII.]
PSYCHOLOGICAL.
The general had kept the causes which made him undertake a journey into the prairies from the west of the United States so profound a secret, that the persons who accompanied him had not even a suspicion of them.
Several times already, at his command, and without any apparent reason, the caravan had encamped in regions completely desert, where he had passed a week, and sometimes a fortnight, without any apparent motive for such a halt.