The persons collected in Don Miguel's tent could not repress a movement of surprise, almost of terror, at the sudden appearance of Brighteye, pale, bleeding, and with disordered garments. The hunter had stopped in the entrance of the tent, tottering, and looking around with haggard eyes, while his face gradually assumed an expression of sorrow and profound discouragement. All these men, accustomed to the incessantly changing life of the desert, whose courage, incessantly put to the rudest trials, was surprised at nothing, felt themselves, however, shudder, and a foreboding of misfortune.
Brighteye still remained motionless and dumb. Don Miguel was the first to recall his presence of mind, and succeeded in regaining sufficient mastery over himself to address the newcomer. "What is the matter, Brighteye?" he asked him in a voice which he tried in vain to render firm; "of what sad news are you the bearer?"
The Canadian passed his hand several times over his damp forehead, and, after casting a last suspicious glance around him, he at length found courage to reply in a low and inarticulate voice--"I have terrible news to announce."
The adventurer's heart beat audibly; still, he mastered his emotion, and said in a calm voice, with a sigh of resignation--"It will be welcome, for we can hear nothing from you which is not so. Speak, then, my friend, we are listening to you."
Brighteye hesitated, a feverish flush mounted over his face; but, making a supreme effort, he said, "I have betrayed you--betrayed you like a coward."
"You!" they all exclaimed, unanimously, in denial, and shrugging their shoulders.
These two words were uttered in the tone of a man whose resolution is definitely formed, and who loyally accepts the responsibility of an act which he recognises in his heart as culpable.
His hearers regarded him in stupor. "Hum!" Marksman muttered, shaking his head sorrowfully; "there is something incomprehensible in all this. Leave it to me to find it out," he continued, addressing Don Miguel, who seemed preparing to address fresh questions to the hunter. "I know how to make him speak."
The adventurer consented with a mute sign, and then fell back on his bed, while bending an interrogatory glance on the Canadian.