The horses had carelessly resumed their interrupted repast.
The dogs only preceded by a few minutes a second hunter, who made his appearance almost immediately in the clearing.
This new personage, much younger than the first,—for he did not appear to be more than twenty-two years old,—was a tall, thin, agile and powerfully-built man, with a slightly-rounded head, lighted by two grey eyes, sparkling with intelligence, and endowed with a physiognomy open and loyal, to which long light hair gave a somewhat childish appearance.
He was clothed in the same costume as his companion, and on arriving, threw down by the fire a string of birds which he was carrying at his shoulder.
The two hunters then, without exchanging a word, set about preparing one of those suppers which long exercise has always the privilege of causing to be considered excellent.
The night had completely set in; the desert awoke by degrees; the howlings of wild beasts already resounded in the prairie.
The hunters, after supping with a good appetite, lit their pipes, and placing their backs to the fire, in order that the flame should not prevent them from perceiving the approach of any suspicious visitor whom darkness might bring them, smoked with the enjoyment of people who, after a long and painful journey, taste an instant of repose which they may not meet with again for some time.
"Well!" the first hunter said laconically between two puffs of tobacco.
"You were right," the other replied.
"Ah!"