"We will wait for Oliver here," the hunter said, as he dismounted. Don Aníbal raised his head. "Will he come soon?" he asked, with considerable eagerness. "I do not know. That will depend on the information he may have picked up." "Nonsense," said Don Aurelio Gutiérrez, who had joined the party through his warm affection for the hacendero, "he will not be long." "My hacienda is not very far from here, señor," the count said. "There would be time to send someone to fetch Don Melchior." Moonshine made a sign to Diego López, gave him an order in a low voice, and the latter at once went off. "Where are we?" Don Aurelio asked. "I do not know at all. What is that river running down there between the cottonwood trees?" "We are on the Indian border, señor, and that river you can see from here is the Río Bravo del Norte, which serves as a limit between Mexico and the great Indian prairies." "May I ask," the count then said, joining in the conversation, "why you have made us take this road sooner than another?" "For a very simple reason, señor. The man who carried off the two ladies whom we wish to deliver is an Indian--not a civilized Indian, but one of those to whom you give the name of Bravos, or untameable, is he not?" "You are quite correct." "Very well. That being so, there are heavy odds that this man, after carrying off the ladies, tried to rejoin his tribe and shelter himself from pursuit by entering the desert. On the other hand, Oliver and you, count, were attacked a little time ago by a party of Comanche marauders. It was on the same night that Doña Emilia and her daughter, after saving you by their unforeseen presence, disappeared--in all probability captured by the same men who attacked you, or another detachment of the tribe. You see, then, everything leads to the belief that the ravishers must have retired into the desert, where they are certain of meeting friends, instead of remaining in a hostile country, where it would be impossible for them to remain any length of time without running a risk of discovery." "Yes, you are right. We were attacked by Comanches, and most assuredly should have been massacred, had it not been for the providential intervention of Doña Emilia," he added, in a low voice, not to be heard by Don Aníbal. Time slipped away; the hacendero now and then raised his head, looked anxiously around him, and then fell back into his gloomy reverie. At length, at about five in the evening, the noise of horses could be heard, and the sentries signalled two riders coming up at a gallop. They were Don Melchior Díaz and Diego López. Moonshine was greatly puzzled by the young gentleman's arrival, for, having been warned by Oliver of the occurrences at the Hacienda del Río, he had told Diego López to remain absent for a time, and then return, saying that General Sandoval had told Don Melchior to come to him alone, and that the latter had at once left the hacienda in obedience to this order.