"It is true, Marksman, it is true, and anyone who said the contrary would lie," the hunter replied with emotion.
"My friend, my brother, a great crime has been committed, or is on the point of being committed. Let us watch--watch carefully; who knows if we may not be the instruments chosen by Providence to unmask the guilty, and cause the innocent to triumph? This Don José, you say, wishes me to join you; well, I accept. Yourself, Ruperto, and I, will go to the ford of the Rubio, and, believe me, my friend, now that I am warned, I will discover the guilty party, whoever he may be."
"I prefer things to be so," the hunter answered, simply. "I confess that the strange position in which I found myself weighed heavily upon me. I am only a poor hunter, and do not at all understand these infamies of the cities."
"You are an honest man, whose heart is just and mind upright. But time is slipping away. Now that we are agreed as to our parts, and understand one another, I believe we shall do well by starting."
"One moment. Can you do without Ruperto for a little while?"
"No man can foresee the future. Perhaps, in a few days we shall need allies on whom we may be able to count. These allies the Chief here present will give us whenever we ask for them. Accompany him to his village, Ruperto: and, so soon as he has arrived there, leave him, and take up our trail--not positively joining us, but managing so that, if necessary, we should know where to find you."
"I have understood," the hunter said, laconically, as he rose. "All right."
Marksman turned to Flying Eagle, and explained what he wanted of him.
"My brother saved Eglantine," the Chief answered, nobly; "Flying Eagle is a sachem of his tribe. Two hundred warriors will follow the warpath at the first signal from my father. The Comanches are men; the words they utter come from the heart."
"Thanks, Chief," Marksman answered, warmly pressing the hand the Redskin extended to him; "may the Wacondah watch over you during your journey!"
After hastily eating a slice of venison cooked on the ashes, and drinking a draught of pulque--from which, after the custom of his nation, the only one which does not drink strong liquors, the Comanche declined to take a share--the four men separated; Ruperto, Flying Eagle, and Eglantine going into the prairie in a western direction; while Brighteye and Marksman, bending slightly to the left, proceeded in an easterly course, in order to reach the ford of the Rubio, where the latter was expected.