"Yes," he continued, "a bargain; and why not? Listen to me. I hate your family, madam, with all the hatred that a human heart can hold; but you personally never offended me, and I have, therefore, no reason to wish you harm. Then, there is another thing which pleads in your favour; why should I conceal it any longer? I love your daughter." "Villain!" Doña Emilia exclaimed, as she rose and walked toward him. Doña Diana threw herself wildly into her mother's arms, and buried her face in her hands, crying desperately. "Mother, mother, save me!" "Fear nothing, daughter," she replied; "this man can insult us, but he will never succeed in humiliating us to his own level." The Indian listened to these words without a muscle of his face quivering. "I expected this outburst," he said calmly; "but you will reflect; I repeat that I love your daughter, and intend her to be mine." "Never," the two ladies exclaimed desperately. "At that price alone," he continued stoically, "you will be free; if not, prepare for death." "Yes, yes," Doña Emilia burst forth passionately, "yes, we will die, but both by our own will. Ah! You feel very certain of the success of your odious plot, but you have calculated badly, villain; the death with which you threaten us, we invoke as the supreme refuge left us. You are masters of our life, but not of our death. We defy you." The Indian burst into a laugh. "Look at your vial," he said, in his calm, cutting tone, "it no longer contains any acid. Yesterday some harmless soporifics were mixed with your food, and, during your sleep, you were robbed of the formidable weapon in which you had trusted rather too prematurely. Believe me, madam, you had better yield. I give you eight days to reflect; it would be easy for me to carry off your daughter, but I prefer receiving her voluntarily from you." He accompanied these remarks with a mocking laugh, and left the room, without waiting for an answer, which the two unhappy women could not have given him, so annihilated were they by the frightful revelation which had just been made to them. CHAPTER XXVIII. PREPARATIONS FOR A RESCUE. We will now leave the Comanche camp for a season, and return to the Hacienda del Río, belonging to Count de Melgosa, whither we have before taken the reader, and to which the count ordered the wounded man to be conveyed. When they approached the hacienda, the Canadian remarked to the count that perhaps Don Melchior, owing to his weakness, could not be able to stand crossing the stream, and the ascent of the hill, which was rendered more fatiguing by the steepness of the path that led to the front gate. The count began laughing. "What is it that amuses your Excellency?" the Canadian asked. "Well," the count answered, "I am laughing at your simplicity, my friend." "My simplicity!" "Yes; I fancied you better acquainted with strategics." "What do you mean?"