"Ah! ah!" the trapper murmured, fixing his eyes upon her with a singular expression, "everything is for the best, then." And he added in a loud voice: "Be without fear, señorita, if you follow strictly the advice I have given you, no evil will happen to you in the prairies, whatever be the treachery to which you may be exposed."
"Oh!" the girl cried, with great warmth, "in the hour of danger I will not hesitate to have recourse to you—I swear I will not!"
"That is settled," said the Black Elk, smiling; "now let us go and see the beavers."
They resumed their walk, and at the end of a few minutes arrived on the verge of the forest. The trapper then stopped, and making a sign to the young girl to be motionless, turned towards her, and whispered—
"Look!"
[CHAPTER XV.]
THE BEAVERS.
Doña Luz gently pushed aside the branches of the willows and bending her head forward, she surveyed the scene.