"Is it possible!" cried the chapfallen doctor, without noticing the somewhat rough manner in which the hunter shook him. "You were charged with a message of life and death, fool that you are! Now, what is to be done? Perhaps it is too late!" "Oh! do not say so," said the savant, in great agitation, "I should die with despair if it were so." The poor man burst into tears, and gave unequivocal proofs of the greatest grief. Black Elk was obliged to console him. "Come, come, courage, my good sir!" he said, softening a little. "What the devil, perhaps all is not lost?" "Oh! if I were the cause of such a misfortune, I should never survive it!" "Well, what is done, is done; we must act accordingly," said the trapper philosophically. "I will think how they are to be assisted. Thanks be to God, I am not so much alone as might be supposed--I hope within two hours to have got together thirty of the best rifles in the prairies." "You will save them, will you not?" "At least, I will do all that can be done, and, if it please God, I shall succeed." "May Heaven hear you!" "Amen!" said the hunter, crossing himself devoutly. "Now, listen to me; you must return to the camp." "Immediately!" "But no more gathering of flowers, or pulling up of grass, if you please." "Oh, I swear I will not. Cursed be the hour in which I set myself to herbalize!" said the doctor, with comic despair. "Very well, that's agreed. You must comfort the young lady as well as her uncle; you must recommend them to keep good guard, and, in case of an attack, to make a vigorous resistance; and tell them they shall soon see friends come to their assistance." "I will tell them all that." "To horse, then, and gallop all the way to the camp." "Be satisfied, I will; but you, what are you going to do?" "Oh! don't trouble yourself about me. I shall not be idle; all you have to do is to rejoin your friends as soon as possible." "Within an hour I shall be with them." "Courage and good luck, then! Above all, don't despair." Black Elk let go the bridle which he had seized, and the doctor set off at a gallop, a pace to which the good man was so little accustomed, that he had great trouble to preserve his equilibrium. The trapper watched his departure for an instant, then, turning round, he strode with hasty steps into the forest. He had scarcely walked ten minutes when he met Nô Eusebio, who was conveying the mother of Loyal Heart across his saddle, in a fainting state. This meeting was for the trapper a piece of good fortune, of which he took advantage to obtain from the old Spaniard some positive information about the hunter--information which Eusebio hastened to give him. The two men then repaired to the hatto of the trapper, from which they were but a short distance, and in which they wished to place the mother of their friend for the present. CHAPTER V. THE ALLIANCE. We must now return to Loyal Heart.