"Why, on the part of the Guaycurus, probably." "Come, you are jesting. On what do you base such supposition?" "I do not suppose, your Excellency, I see." "What, you see--" "Yes, and it is easy for you to do the same, for before a quarter of an hour the man whom I warn you of will be before you." "Oh, oh! That is good." "Look, your Excellency," said Diogo, stretching his arm in a certain direction; "do you see that grass which quivers and bends with a regular movement?" "Yes, I see it; well?" "You remark, do you not, that this movement is only partial, and continually advances towards us?" "Just so; but what does that prove?" "That proves, your Excellency, that an Indian is coming towards us at a gallop." "Come, you are jesting, captain." "Not the least in the world, my lord; you will soon have a proof of it." "I shall only believe it when I see it." "If it is so," pursued the captain, hiding a smile, "believe, then, for here he is." At that moment a Guaycurus Indian, armed as a warrior, and mounted on a magnificent horse, suddenly emerged from the high grass, and boldly reined up across the path, within a pistol shot of the Brazilians, waving in his hand a tapir skin. "Fire on that vagabond," cried the marquis, shouldering his carbine. "Do not do that," said the captain. "What! Is he not an enemy?" pursued the marquis. "That may be, your Excellency; but at this moment he is an envoy." "As an envoy--that savage? You are jesting with me without doubt," cried the marquis. "By no means, my lord; let us hear what this man has to say to us." "What good will it be?" said he, with scorn. "If it were only to know the projects of those who have sent him." The marquis hesitated an instant, then placing his carbine again in his shoulder belt-- "Well, that is possible," murmured he; "better allow him to explain himself. Who knows? Perhaps they desire to treat with us." "It is not probable," answered the captain laughing; "but, in any case, if you will permit me, my lord, I will go and question him." "Do so, do so, Don Diogo; I am curious to know this message." The captain bowed; then, after having thrown down his tromblon, his sabre, and his knife, he proceeded at a trot towards the Indian. "You are mad," cried Don Roque, darting towards him; "what, do you abandon your arms? Do you wish, then, to be assassinated?" Don Diogo smiled, shrugging his shoulders with disdain, and, holding back the marquis's horse by the bridle to prevent him advancing any further-- "Do you not see that that man is without arms?" said he. The marquis made a gesture of surprise, and stopped; he had not remarked that circumstance. CHAPTER X. THE GUAYCURUS. The vast territory of Brazil is even at the present time inhabited by numerous Indian tribes, spread over the sombre forests and the vast deserts which cover that country.