"Yes," murmured Dolores. "It's Forsetta and the Mazzani brothers." But, when Simon proposed to go after them, "No!" she said, without concealing her repugnance. "They're a bad lot. There's nothing to be gained by joining them." But he was not listening; and, as soon as they were within hearing, he shouted: "Is Antonio anywhere about?" The three men set down their bundles, while Simon and Dolores dismounted and Forsetta, who had a revolver in his hand, thrust it into his pocket. He was a great giant of a fellow. "Ah, so it's you, Dolores?" he said, after saluting Simon. "Faith, no, Antonio's nowhere hereabouts. We've not seen him." He smiled with a wry mouth and treacherous eyes. "That means," retorted Simon, pointing to their burdens, "that you and Mazzani thought it simpler to go hunting in this direction?" "May be," he said, with a leer. "But the old professor? Antonio left him in your charge." "We lost sight of him soon after the _Queen Mary_. He was looking for shells. So Mazzani and I came on." Simon was losing patience. Dolores interrupted him: "Forsetta," she said gravely. "Antonio was your chief. We four were fellow-workers; and he asked if you would come with him and me to avenge my uncle's death. You had no right to desert Antonio." The Indians looked at one another and laughed. It was obvious that notions of right and wrong, promises, obligations, duties of friendship, established rules, decent behaviour, all these had suddenly became things which they had ceased to understand. In the stupendous chaos of events, in the heart of this virgin soil, nothing mattered but the satisfaction of the appetites. It was a new situation, which they were unable to analyse, though they hastened to profit by its results without so much as discussing them. The brothers Mazzani lifted their bundles to their shoulders. Forsetta went up to Dolores and stared at her for a moment without speaking, with eyes that glittered between his half-closed lids. His face betrayed at the same time hesitation and a brutal desire, which he made no attempt to conceal, to seize the girl as his prey. But he restrained himself and, picking up his bag, moved off with his companions. Simon had watched the scene in silence. His eyes met Dolores'. She coloured slightly and said, in a low voice: "Forsetta used to know how to keep his distance. . . . The air of the prairie, as you say, has acted on him as it has on the others." Around them, a bed of dried wrack and other sea-weeds, beneath which the cable disappeared for a length of several miles, formed a series of hills and valleys. Dolores decided that they would halt there and led the horses a little way off, so that they should not disturb Simon's rest. As it happened, Simon, having lain down on the ground and fallen asleep, was attacked, knocked helpless, gagged and bound before he was able to offer the least resistance to his assailants. These were the three Indians, who had returned at a run.