The Mexicans, deprived of their Chief, now only thought of flight, and rushed in mad disorder to their boats; a moment later, they had all quitted the brig. Quoniam reappeared, the worthy Negro was dripping with water. He tottered a few paces and fell by the side of Tranquil, to whom Carmela and the Captain were paying the most assiduous attention, and who was beginning to recover his senses. A few minutes later the hunter felt strong enough to try and rise. "Well!" he asked Quoniam, "Is he dead?" "I believe so," the Negro replied; "look here," he added, as he offered him a small object he held in his hand. "What is it?" the hunter asked. Quoniam shook his head mournfully. "Look at it," he said. After having attentively regarded the Negro for an instant, whose features expressed singular despondency, strange in a man of this stamp, he asked him in alarm:-- "Are you seriously wounded?" The Negro shook his head. "No," he said, "I am not wounded." "What is the matter, then?" "Take this," he said, stretching his arm out a second time, "take this and you will know." Astonished at this singular persistence, Tranquil stretched out his arm, too. "Give it here," he said. Quoniam handed him an article which he seemed anxious to conceal from the persons present; the Canadian uttered a cry of surprise on seeing it. "Where did you find this?" he asked anxiously. "When I rushed on that man, I know not how it was, but this chain and the articles attached to it were placed, as it were, in my hand. When I fell into the sea, I clung to the chain; there it is, do what you please with it." Tranquil, after again examining the mysterious object, concealed it in his chest, and gave vent to a profound sigh. All at once, Carmela started up in horror. "Oh, look, look, father!" she shrieked, "Woe, woe, we are lost!" The hunter started at the sound of the girl's voice, and his eyes filled with tears. "What is the matter?" he asked in a weak voice "The matter is," the Captain said rudely, "that unless a miracle take place, we are really lost this time, as Doña Carmela says." And he pointed to some thirty armed boats, which were pulling up and converging round the brig, so as to enclose it in a circle, whence it would be impossible for it to escape. "Oh! Fate is against us!" Carmela exclaimed in despair. "No, it is impossible," Tranquil said quickly; "God will not abandon us thus!" "We are saved!" Master Lovel shouted; "we are saved! Look, look! The boats are turning back!" The crew burst into a shout of joy and triumph; in the beams of the rising sun, the _Libertad_ corvette could be seen passing through Galveston straits, hardly two cannon shots' distance from the brig. The Mexican boats pulled at full speed in the direction of land, and soon all had disappeared. The brig drifted down to the corvette, and both returned to their old anchorage, which they reached an hour later.