Doña Luz followed her without resistance, but casting furtive looks behind her, to try if she could catch a glimpse of him she loved. "How happy are those who have mothers!" murmured Belhumeur, stifling a sigh, and looking after the two women, who disappeared in the shade of the grotto. All at once the Indian sentinels uttered a cry, which was immediately repeated by a man placed in front of the council lodge. At this signal the Comanche chiefs arose and left the hut in which they were assembled. The hunters and Indian warriors seized their arms, ranged themselves on either side of the grotto, and waited. A cloud of dust rolled towards the camp with great rapidity, but was soon dispersed, and revealed a troop of horsemen riding at full speed. These horsemen, for the most part, wore the costume of Mexican gambusinos. At their head, upon a magnificent horse, black as night, came a man whom all immediately recognized. This was Captain Waktehno, who came audaciously at the head of his troop, to claim the fulfilment of the odious bargain he had imposed three days before. Generally, in the prairies, when two troops meet, or when warriors or hunters visit a village, it is the custom to execute a sort of _fantasia_, by rushing full speed towards each other, yelling and firing off guns. On this occasion, however, nothing of the kind took place. The Comanches and the hunters remained motionless and silent, awaiting the arrival of the pirates. This cold, stern reception did not astonish the captain; though his eyebrows were a little contracted, he feigned not to perceive it, and entered the village intrepidly at the head of his band. When he arrived in front of the chiefs drawn up before the council lodge, the twenty horsemen stopped suddenly, as if they had been changed into statues of bronze. This bold manoeuvre was executed with such dexterity that the hunters, good judges of horsemanship, with difficulty repressed a cry of admiration. Scarcely had the pirates halted, ere the ranks of the warriors placed on the right and left of the lodge deployed like a fan, and closed behind them. The twenty pirates found themselves by this movement, which was executed with incredible quickness, enclosed within a circle formed of more than five hundred men, well armed and equally well mounted. The captain felt a slight tremor of uneasiness at the sight of this manoeuvre, and he almost repented having come. But surmounting this involuntary emotion, he smiled disdainfully; he believed he was certain he had nothing to fear. He bowed slightly to the chiefs ranged before him, and addressed Belhumeur in a firm voice,-- "Where is the girl?" he demanded. "I do not know what you mean," the hunter replied, in a bantering tone; "I do not believe that there is any young lady here upon whom you have any claim whatever."