“Stolen!” he answered in a broken voice. And then he proceeded rapidly to recount to her what had happened, ending up with the capture of Kai Chileno. “And yonder he lies,” he concluded savagely. “Graviel knows that he knows where La Guardia is, yet he will not open his lips, and but glares defiance upon me, as I ask him.” She rushed from his side towards the captive Indian, and as she did so the rescue party, with Topsie, Cuastral, and Piñone, hove in sight. Graviel stared. Then he rubbed his eyes, and stared again. What was it that he saw? Were they spectres of the lost and well-loved dead? Did others see them besides himself? What could they be?
In spite of their wild, unkempt appearance Graviel recognised at once the features of Cuastral and his own beloved master Piñone. Yet he never dreamed that they were themselves in living life. His tortured brain imagined them spectres, risen from the dead, and approaching to menace and destroy him, for the loss of the baby Cacique.
With a terrible cry he turned and fled, fear and horror gleaming in his eyes, and Willie and Mary, as they rushed forward to welcome the rescue party and their much-loved cousin, stopped petrified by the mad appearance which he presented. The Indians, who had been lying or squatting around the fire, all sprang up at the sight of Aniwee. Several of them set off in pursuit of Graviel, whom they thought had been stricken with madness, while the remainder stood and stared, as though turned to stone, at the sight of their long-lost chiefs, whom they had mourned as dead; for had not Inacayal testified most positively to their deaths?
Piñone was the first to break the silence. In a few brief words he sought to reassure the terrified Araucanians, and to impress them with the reality of his presence and that of Cuastral’s; for, like Graviel, they deemed they saw spectres before them—the spectres of those dead men whom Inacayal had so graphically described as stretched in life’s last sleep.
As they crowded round the great Cuastral and his son Graviel was led up, and then Piñone’s eye fell upon Aniwee, who was kneeling by Kai Chileno.
He at once hurried to her side. “Aniwee,” he cried, “why is Graviel here, and why does he look so wild? Where is La Guardia Chica?”
“Stolen!” she wailed forth, “and Kai Chileno knows where she is, as such Graviel affirms; but see, he will not speak or answer, as I entreat him.”
“Does a Queen entreat a common Indian?” inquired Piñone proudly. “The Warrior Queen in her grief forgets who she is. Come hither, Aniwee. We will have Kai Chileno brought before us, and he shall answer or die under torture.”
He drew the girl Queen away as he spoke, and in the old authoritative voice of yore bade the Warriors bring up the prisoner before Cuastral. All this while Mary and Willie had been hastily explaining to their parents and the others, the stirring events which had taken place during their absence in regard to the kidnapping of the baby Cacique, and at the recital of which the indignation of Sir Francis, Lady Vane, Topsie, Harry, and Freddy knew no bounds.
“You did well, my girl, to choose this route,” said Lady Vane approvingly. “What a wonderful providence of God that you did so, otherwise that scoundrel Kai Chileno would have escaped.”