“Your will would be law in this matter, even if I were not under such a deep debt of gratitude to you,” returned Pedro, “and it is all the more easy to obey you now that I have handed you over to your father and am no longer responsible. Are you aware that we start immediately in pursuit of the Indians who have attacked and murdered the poor people of Rolland’s Ranch?”
“Yes, my father has told me all about it.”
“Has he told you that you and Mariquita are to accompany the force so far on the road, and that when we get beyond the disturbed district I am to carry you on with a small party to Buenos Ayres, while the main body pursues the savages?”
“Yes, he told me that too,” replied Manuela; “but,” she added, with a little hesitation, “he did not say who was to go with our small detachment.”
The slightest possible twinkle in Pedro’s eye indicated suppressed feeling as he replied that he also was ignorant on that point—the only things which he was quite sure of being, that Senhor Armstrong and Quashy were to go with the main body.
“Indeed!” exclaimed the maiden in surprise. “I had thought Senhor Armstrong objected to fighting.”
Pedro laughed. “So he does, senhorina; but when the rescue of captive women and children is in the case, he holds fighting to be a duty, as you are aware. But I must go now,” continued Pedro, becoming grave and earnest as he took the girl’s hand. “Words can never express my feelings towards you and your father, dear Manuela. Indeed I have never been in the habit of saying much—least of all when I have felt much. Mariquita and I will bless you both to the latest hour of our lives. Adieu. We meet in the morning at the house in which you are staying—Lawrence has named it the house with the rustic porch—and we start from there. You are all ready, I suppose?”
“Yes. You know I have little luggage to look after,” said Manuela, with a laugh, “and I shall continue to travel as an Indian girl—as an Inca princess!”
“Indeed. Why so?”
“That, Senhor Pedro, is a matter with which you have nothing whatever to do!”