"You can hear nothing yet," he said, "for your ears are not accustomed, like mine, to catch the slightest sounds from the desert. Put faith in my words, trust to an experience which was never mistaken: your enemies are approaching." "What is to be done?" Doña Carmela murmured. "Fly," the half-breed exclaimed. "Listen," the hunter said, quietly; "the Apaches are numerous, they are cunning, but we can only conquer them by cunning. If we try to resist we are lost; if we fly all three together, sooner or later we shall fall into their hands. While I remain here you will fly with señorita, but be careful to muffle your horses' hoofs so as to dull the sound." "But you?" the maiden exclaimed quickly. "Have I not told you? I shall remain here." "Oh, in that case you will fall into the hands of the pagans, and be inevitably massacred." "Perhaps so," he replied with an indescribable expression of sadness; "but at any rate my death will be of some service, as it will save you." "Very well," said Lanzi; "I thank you for your offer, Caballero; unhappily, I cannot, and will not, accept it, for matters must not turn thus. I began the affair, and insist on ending it in my own way. Go away with the señorita, deliver her into her father's hands, and if you do not see me again, and he asks what has happened to me, tell him simply that I kept my promise, and laid down my life for her." "I will never consent," Doña Carmela exclaimed energetically. "Silence!" the half-breed hastily interrupted her, "Be off, you have not a moment to lose." In spite of the young lady's resistance, he raised her in his muscular arms, and ran off with her into the thicket. Carmela understood that nothing could change the half-breed's resolution, so she yielded to him. The hunter accepted Lanzi's devotion as simply as he had offered his own, for the half-breed's conduct appeared to him perfectly natural; he therefore made not the slightest objection, but busied himself with getting the horses ready. "Now begone," the half-breed said, so soon as the hunter and the maiden had mounted; "go, and may heaven be merciful to you!" "And you, my friend?" Doña Carmela remarked sadly. "I?" he answered with a careless toss of his head; "The red devils have not got me yet. Come, be off." To cut short the conversation, the half-breed roughly lashed the horses with his chicote; the noble animals started at a gallop, and soon disappeared from his sight. So soon as he was alone, the poor fellow gave vent to a sigh. "Hum!" he muttered sadly; "This time I am very much afraid that it is all up with me; no matter, Canarios, I will fight to the last, and if the pagans catch me, it shall cost them dearly." After forming this heroic resolution, which seemed to restore all his courage, the worthy man mounted his horse and prepared for action. The Apaches dashed up with a noise resembling thunder. The black outlines could already be distinguished through the darkness.