The pirate stood stupefied opposite to the curtain. "Our alliance broken off, the door shut in my face!" muttered he. "_Eh bien! nous verrons._" And so saying, he left the hut. The next minute he again put his head in at the door. "I suppose I may make use of my own boat?" said he. "It is likely that I may have unwelcome visitors during my absence." "When the chief of the Salt Lake is on the war-path, he knows how to meet his foes." "Sensibly spoken for once," said the pirate. "My brother is hungry," said the Miko, pointing to his daughter, who now entered the room with several dishes. "We'll come directly. Duty before pleasure." And so saying, the bucanier hurried down to the shore, and approached his companion, a short square-built man, who was walking up and down with folded arms, and whose dark olive countenance was so buried in an enormous beard, that scarcely any part of it, except a long fiery Bardolphian nose was visible. This man, so soon as he saw the pirate, assumed a less _nonchalant_ attitude, and his hands fell by his side into the position proper to a subordinate. "Nothing happened, lieutenant?" said Lafitte. "So little, that I should almost doubt this to be the Miko's village, did not my eyes convince me of it. Beg pardon, captain, but what does it all mean?" "I might ask you the same question," replied the other, sulkily. "On our former visits," continued the lieutenant, "it was like a fair; but to-day not a creature comes near us. The squaws and girls seemed inclined to come down, but the men prevented them." The lieutenant paused, for his commanding-officer was evidently getting more and more out of humour. "How many hands have we below on Lake Sabine?" "Thirty," was the reply. "To-morrow, the others will have finished clearing out." "Giacomo and George," said the pirate, in a sharp peremptory tone, "will go back and take them orders to come up here. Let every man bring his musket and bayonet, pistols and hanger, and let them wait instructions in the great bend of the river, two miles below this place. Don't look down stream, and then at me," said he angrily to the lieutenant, who had cast a glance down the river. "The young Englishman has been here, and the old savage has let him go." "That's what you did with his companions, captain. I wouldn't have done it." "There are many things that Monsieur Cloraud would not have done," replied the pirate, sarcastically. "But this younker has made an infernal confusion." "Any thing else happened, captain?" "Nothing particular, except that the old man is tired of our alliance." "Pshaw! we don't want him any more, and may well indulge the people with a merry hour." The bucanier glanced at his subordinate with unspeakable scorn. "And therefore, as Monsieur Cloraud thinks, do I send for the men. The hour's pleasure would be dearly bought. I hate such folly. You shall learn my intentions hereafter."