"Pardon me, my lord; I have, on the contrary, followed that track for more than three hours." "Then you have news to give me?" "I have, my lord, but not what you expect." "Explain yourself, my friend; my head is a little fatigued." "Here is the fact, in a few words, my lord. After having, as I have told you, followed for three hours, without the slightest deviation, the track of Malco--a track, let it be said to his honour, thoroughly devious, and as to which everybody but myself would inevitably have been deceived, so skilfully was it made--I arrived on the borders of a forest, into which I did not hesitate to enter. Absorbed by the care I took in not losing this frightfully involved track, I did not care to look much around me, so that I suddenly found myself in an Indian encampment." "An encampment of Indians so near us!" cried the marquis, with surprise. "Yes, my lord, of Indian bravos, and moreover, the bravest of this country." "H'm--already!" "Yes, I found myself suddenly face to face with three Indians, of whom one was a Guaycurus, the other a Payagoas; as to the other, he was simply a Monduruka slave." "Oh, oh! That is serious for us." "It could not be more serious, my lord." "And how did you escape from this trap?" "These savages have honour. Although my uniform revealed me as one of their most deadly enemies, they, nevertheless, received me in a friendly way, and invited me to sit near their fire." "That is strange," murmured the marquis. "Seeing that they received me thus, I accepted their invitation frankly, and sat myself near them. My design was to make them talk, in which I succeeded." "Aha! What did they say?" "They informed me that Malco had come to seek them some hours before me; that he had had a long conversation with them, and that he had informed them of your arrival, the number of men at your disposal, and even the very spot where you encamped." "The wretch! The double traitor!" cried the marquis. "This revelation, I admit, made me reflect seriously, and placed me in great embarrassment, from which I did not know how to escape, when the Indians themselves furnished me with the means to make an honourable retreat." "How is that?" "The Guaycurus chief informed me that the truce concluded with the whites had been broken." "Oh!" exclaimed the marquis, "What fatality! To fail so near the end." "Permit me to finish, my lord." "Speak! Speak!" "The chief added, that probably as you had for a long time left the plantations, you were ignorant of this rupture, and that consequently it would not be right to abuse your good faith by attacking you." "Ah!" said the marquis, breathing heavily. "As they do no not wish to be wanting in the laws of hospitality, they give you two days to go away." "H'm," cried the marquis, whom these last words plunged more profoundly into the perplexity from which, for an instant, he thought he had escaped; "What did you say then, Diogo?"