All at once, and as if chance had wished to justify the hunter's sad forebodings, an immense noise was heard in the hacienda, amid which could be distinguished cries of distress, and a well-sustained musketry fire. Then, a sinister glare rose above the Larch-tree, which it coloured with the hues of fire. "Forward! Forward!" the Colonel cried; "The enemy have got into the fort!" At the first glance, the young officer understood what had taken place, and the truth at once struck his mind. All rushed toward the hacienda, inside which an obstinate contest seemed to be raging. They soon reached the gates, which, fortunately for them, still remained in the hands of their comrades, and rushed into the patio, where a horrible spectacle offered itself to their sight. This is what had happened. At the moment when White Scalper prepared to break in the door with the lever, the clamour made by the Mexicans in firing the camp, reached the ears of the Texans assembled in the grotto. "_Rayo de Dios!_" the Jaguar shouted; "What is the meaning of that?" "Probably the Mexicans are attacking your camp," the old man quietly answered. The young Chief gave him an ugly look. "We are betrayed," said John Davis, as he cocked a pistol, and pointed it at the old man. "I am beginning to believe it," the Jaguar muttered, all his suspicions coming back. "By whom?" the White Scalper asked with a smile of contempt. "By you, you villain!" the American answered roughly. "You are mad," the old man said with a disdainful shrug of his shoulders; "if I had betrayed you, should I have led you here?" "That is true," said the Jaguar; "but it is strange, and the noise is unceasing. The Mexicans are doubtless massacring our companions; we cannot abandon them thus, but must hurry to their assistance." "Do nothing of the sort," the Scalper sharply exclaimed. "Hasten, on the contrary, to invade the fortress, which I doubt not is abandoned by the greater part of its defenders; your companions, so soon as they have rallied, will be strong enough to repulse their assailants." The Jaguar hesitated. "What is to be done?" he muttered with an undecided air, as he bent an enquiring glance on the men as they passed round him. "Act without loss of a moment," the old man eagerly exclaimed, and with a vigorously dealt stroke he broke in the door, which fell in splinters to the ground; "here is the way open, will you recoil?" "No! No!" they shouted impetuously, and rushed into the gaping vault before them.