"You are, then, really the chief of the men who carried us off, and it was you probably who prepared the odious snare into which we fell?" "I will not attempt to deny it, madam," he said. "What harm have I done you, who have been, living for more than twenty years beneath my roof, where you were taken in through charity; you whom my husband loves and places entire confidence in?" "A confidence which I still possess, madam. But why lose our time in vain discussions? The open step I have taken must prove to you that my mind is irrevocably made up, and that I shall not hesitate or recoil in the execution of the plan I have formed." "What you are doing is horrible; you requite with the blackest ingratitude the kindness with which my family has overwhelmed you." "That is the very word, madam," he said, with a bitter smile; "but in order to cut short useless recriminations, and lay down the question distinctly, let me make a confession which will establish our position to each other." "Speak, speak! What frightful revelation have you to make to me?" "I, madam," he replied, drawing himself up majestically, and fixing on her a fiendish glance, "am the son of Running Water, the Chief of the tribe of Red Buffaloes, whom your family so cowardly and obstinately hunted down. Do you now understand why I hate you, and why you are here?" "Oh!" she shrieked, clasping her hands in despair, "We are lost." Doña Diana was annihilated; she fancied it was all a fearful dream. "No, madam," he replied in his calm and metallic voice, "your safety is in your own hands." "My safety?" she asked ironically. "Yes, madam, your safety. You are really conscious of the situation in which you are, I assume? You are thoroughly convinced that you are in my power, and that no human help can save you?" "Yes, but God remains--God, who sees, and will save us," she exclaimed fervently, "God who will foil your odious machinations!" "God!" he said, with a hoarse laugh. "You forget, madam, that I am a Comanche, and that your God is not mine. Bow your head before the fatality that crushes you. Your God, if He exist, is powerless against me. I deride his power!" "Silence, blasphemer! The God you dare to defy can, if He pleases, crush you in a moment." "Let Him do so then, and I will believe in Him." And he raised his head and looked up defiantly at the heavens. "But, no," he added a moment after, "all these things are falsehoods invented by the priests to hold men in awe. You are here in my power, I repeat, and no power, human or divine, will liberate you; but, as I said, it is easy for you to leave this place in freedom within an hour, if you please." "After insult, mockery, that is the right way," she said contemptuously. "I am no more mocking you now than I insulted you before; I am speaking frankly, and offering you an honourable bargain, which you can accept or refuse as you please." "A bargain," she murmured in a hollow voice.