"You are traitors, and shall die!"
In spite of their self-possession, the two men remained for an instant stupefied. Without giving them time to recover their presence of mind, the person who had spoken discharged two pistols, point blank at them.
The miserable wretches uttered a loud cry. One fell, but the other, bounding like a tiger-cat, scrambled over the intrenchments and disappeared before a second shot could be fired at him.
At the double report and the cry uttered by the bandits, the whole camp was roused, and all rushed to the barricades.
The general and Captain Aguilar were the first to arrive at the spot where the scene we have described had taken place.
They found Doña Luz, with two smoking pistols in her hands, whilst, at her feet, a man was writhing in the agonies of death.
"What does all this mean, niece? What has happened, in the name of Heaven! Are you wounded?" the terrified general asked.
"Be at ease, dear uncle, on my account, I am not wounded," the young lady replied. "I have only punished a traitor. Two wretches were plotting in the dark against our common safety; one of them has escaped, but I believe the other is at least seriously wounded."
The general eagerly examined the dying man. By the light of the torch he held in his hand he at once recognized Kennedy, the guide whom the Babbler pretended had been burnt alive in the conflagration of the prairie.
"Oh, oh!" he said, "what does all this mean?"