"Here it is." The two men rose, and prepared to proceed to the place where the captain's emissary was to leave the camp; but, at the same moment, a shadow interposed itself between them, and a firm voice said;-- "You are traitors, and shall die!" In spite of their self-possession, the two men remained for an instant stupefied. Without giving them time to recover their presence of mind, the person who had spoken discharged two pistols, point blank at them. The miserable wretches uttered a loud cry. One fell, but the other, bounding like a tiger-cat, scrambled over the intrenchments and disappeared before a second shot could be fired at him. At the double report and the cry uttered by the bandits, the whole camp was roused, and all rushed to the barricades. The general and Captain Aguilar were the first to arrive at the spot where the scene we have described had taken place. They found Doña Luz, with two smoking pistols in her hands, whilst, at her feet, a man was writhing in the agonies of death. "What does all this mean, niece? What has happened, in the name of Heaven! Are you wounded?" the terrified general asked. "Be at ease, dear uncle, on my account, I am not wounded," the young lady replied. "I have only punished a traitor. Two wretches were plotting in the dark against our common safety; one of them has escaped, but I believe the other is at least seriously wounded." The general eagerly examined the dying man. By the light of the torch he held in his hand he at once recognized Kennedy, the guide whom the Babbler pretended had been burnt alive in the conflagration of the prairie. "Oh, oh!" he said, "what does all this mean?" "It means, uncle," the girl replied, "that if God had not come to my aid, we should have been, this very night, surprised by a troop of bandits, lying in ambush close to us." "Let us lose no time, then!" And the general, assisted by Captain Aguilar, hastened to prepare everything for a vigorous resistance, in case an attack should be attempted. The Babbler had fled, but a large track of blood proved that he was seriously wounded. If it had been light enough, they would have attempted to pursue him, and, perhaps, might have taken him; but, in the midst of darkness, and suspecting that their enemies were in ambush in the neighbourhood, the general was not willing to risk his soldiers out of the camp. He preferred leaving the villain that chance of saving himself. As to Kennedy, he was dead. The first moment of excitement past, Doña Luz, no longer sustained by the danger of her situation, began to be sensible she was a woman. Her energy disappeared, her eyes closed, a convulsive trembling shook her whole frame; she fainted, and would have fallen, if the doctor, who was watching her, had not caught her in his arms. He carried her in that state into the tent, and lavished upon her all the remedies usual in such cases.