"In order to know whether you share in my suspicions, and if they corroborate mine." "Good, I understand you. Read!" The Jaguar took up the paper again and read: "This letter, written in duplicate, is addressed by Doña Carmela to two persons, Señor El Jaguar and Colonel Melendez; but the second copy has not yet been delivered, as I am awaiting the Jaguar's answer ere doing so. It depends on him not only to save a young lady, interesting in every respect, but also, if he will, to secure the triumph of the cause for which he is combating so valiantly. For this purpose, he has only an easy thing to do: he will proceed, between eight and nine o'clock in the morning, to the Cueva del Venado; a man will issue from the grotto, and tell him on what conditions he consents to aid him in this double enterprise." The Jaguar folded up the paper, and placed it in his jacket pocket. "Is that all?" the American asked a second time. "This time, yes, it is all," the young man answered; "now what do you think of this epistle?" "Why, I think that the man who wrote it is the same who handed you the letter." "We are agreed, for I think so too. And what, in your opinion, ought I to do?" "Ah, that is a more difficult question than the first; the case is serious." "Remember that it concerns Carmela." "I am well aware of it. But reflect that this rendezvous may conceal a snare." "For what object?" "Why, to seize you." "Well, and what then?" "What do you mean?" "Why, supposing that it is a trap, what will be the result of it?" "In the first place that you will be a prisoner, and Texas be deprived of one of her most devoted defenders. In short, in your place I would not go, that is my brief and candid opinion. And," turning to his auditors, who had remained silent and motionless since their entrance, he asked them, "and you, Señores, what do you think of it?" "It would be madness for the Jaguar to trust a man he does not know, and whose intentions may be bad," said Lanzi. "He must remain here," Quoniam backed his friend up. "The antelope is the wildest of animals, and yet its instinct makes it escape the hunters," the Comanche Chief said sententiously; "my brother will remain with his friends." "The Jaguar walked up and down the jacal with visible annoyance and febrile impatience, while each thus gave his opinion. "No," he said, with some violence, as he suddenly stopped; "no, I will not abandon Doña Carmela when she claims my assistance, for it would be an act of cowardice, which I will not commit, whatever the consequences may be: I will go to the Cueva del Venado." "You will reflect, my friend," John Davis remarked. "My reflections are all made; I will save Doña Carmela, even at the risk of my life." "You will not do that, my friend," the American continued gently. "Why shall I not?"