"Who knows? At any rate we can question him."
"Yes—but let us first make sure of his identity, for it would not be pleasant to have captured one of our friends."
"May the Lord forbid!" Loyal Heart said.
The hunters bent over the prisoner, who was apparently motionless, and indifferent to what was said around.
"Oh," the Canadian suddenly said, "whom have we here? On my soul, compadre, I believe it is an old acquaintance."
"You are right," Loyal Heart answered, "it is Blue-fox."
"Blue-fox?" the hunters exclaimed, in surprise.
The adventurers were not mistaken; the Indian horseman, so skilfully lassoed by Loyal Heart, was really the Apache Chief. The shock he had received though very rude, had not been sufficiently so to make him entirely lose his senses; with open eyes and disdainful countenance, but with not a word of complaint at the treatment he had suffered, he waited calmly till it should please his captors to decide his fate, not considering it consistent with his dignity to be the first to speak. After examining him attentively for a moment, Loyal Heart unfastened the bonds that held him, and fell back a step.
"My brother can rise," he said: "only old women remain thus stretched on the ground for an insignificant fall."
Blue-fox reached his feet at a bound.