"Wull, now, that's so; I was doin' some talkin', I reckon, but it was to myself. Ye see, stranger, when a feller's alone 'bout all the time, as I am, he gets real sociable with 'imself, an' falls into that way o' doin'. No, there's no one 'long o' me, an' ef I did any conversin', it was entirely onesided," returned the hunter, in his peculiar manner of expression. "Ye've got a right snug place here," he continued, taking a look at the fugitives' shelter. "Goin' to stop a while, eh?" "That will depend on circumstances," replied the prince. "Do you live near here?" "Wull, no; it's some distance to my place. There are folks livin' hereabout, but their way o' livin's kind o' tough. Ye'd better go round 'em, stranger. Some good people on the plateaus, though. Now, there's Tezcot--lives th' other side of yon mountain. He's a man ye can fasten to an' know ye're safe. He's a kind o' chief 'mong the mountain people. Ef ye happen to run onto Tez, ye'll find 'im true as his arrer, an' that's sayin' a heap." "We'll try to remember your friend Tezcot, hunter, and should we meet him, will feel that we are fortunate." "S'pose ye're on a huntin' excursion, eh?" said Menke, forgetting the strangers could not be supplied with arms, else the animal would hardly have held them prisoners. "Well, not exactly. Our business is, to some extent, searching for roots and berries," replied the prince, expressing a sudden thought which suggested a way of misleading the hunter and avoiding immediate discovery. "Medicine man, eh?" responded the hunter, in an ejaculatory manner. The prince found it necessary to change the subject, which he did by inquiring: "Do you ever get any news from the valley, hunter?" "Wull, yes. 'Casionally meet a hunter from there who has news; an' then the soldiers--thick as mosquitoes round here o' late--they have a heap to say. Some o' them--the Tepanecs, are lookin' for the Tezcucan prince, who's hidin' somewhere in the mountains. Maxtla, the new Tepanec king, is after his life." "Have you seen this prince you speak of?" "Wull, no; haven't had that pleasure." "What would you do, hunter, should you meet with the prince on the mountain--make him a prisoner and claim the reward?" "No, stranger, I'd do nothin' o' the sort; I'd let 'im alone." "You certainly have not heard of the extraordinary reward which, I understand, has been offered for his capture, dead or alive--a noble lady's hand in marriage, and a rich domain with it, to him who takes the prince. Is that not worth considering?" said Hualcoyotl, endeavoring to draw the hunter out still farther, to be more fully assured that he might trust him. "Not to a man o' family, stranger," replied the hunter. "With the wealth included in the reward you could support several wives. The matter of a family would be of small consequence," pursued the prince.