"Will you be faithful?" "Yes." "I shall know it; chastisement or reward I shall charge with giving you; you understand?" "I understand." "Now listen to me; your master and you will leave here tomorrow, at sunrise; nine days hence he must be at the fazenda do Rio d'Ouro." "He shall be there." "No equivocation between us; you understand." "I have promised," coldly answered the Indian. "Good; drink this trago de caña to revive you from the blows you have received, and go to sleep." The guide seized the gourd don Zeno offered him, emptied it in a draught with evident satisfaction, and withdrew without uttering a word. When he had gone out, I addressed myself to don Zeno with the most indifferent air I could affect. "All that is very good," I said; "but I vow, Señor, that notwithstanding his promises, I have not the least confidence in that fellow." "You are wrong, Señor," he answered me; "he will serve you faithfully; not from affection, but from fear. He knows very well that if anything happens to you he will have a sharp reckoning with me." "Hum," murmured I, "that only half assures me; but why, if, as you have allowed me to guess, you are again going towards the Brazilian frontiers, do you not permit me to accompany you?" "That was my intention, but unhappily certain reasons, with which it would be useless to acquaint you, render the execution of this project impossible. However, I reckon on seeing you at the fazenda do Rio d'Ouro, where probably I shall arrive before you. In any case, will you remain there till I have seen you, and then perhaps it will be permitted to me to acknowledge, as I have an earnest desire to do, the great service you have rendered me." "I will wait for you, since you desire it, Señor," I answered, boldly accepting these new circumstances, "not to remind you of the event to which you allude, but because I should be happy to become more intimately acquainted with you." On the next day, at sunrise, I rose, and after having affectionately taken leave of the people who had so well received me, and whom I thought I should never see again, I left the rancho without being able to bid adieu to don Zeno Cabral. [1] The word pampa belongs to the Quechua language, language of the Incas. It signifies flat country, savannah, or great plain. CHAPTER IV. THE FAZENDA DO RIO D'OURO. My journey was continued thus under rather singular circumstances--at the mercy of an Indian whose perfidy had been already abundantly proved, and from whom I could expect no good. However, I was well armed, vigorous, resolute, and set out in pretty good spirits, convinced that my guide would never attack me to my face.