The Pearl of the Andes: A Tale of Love and Adventure. Gustave Aimard
he replied; "they had a chance; their horses gave them a great advantage over me; but, thanks to my precautions, I have forced them to abandon their horses, which alone could have saved them. Within an hour they will be in our hands."
"To horse, then; and let us delay no longer," Doña Maria exclaimed impatiently.
"To horse, then, be it!" replied the chief.
This time no false route was pursued; they followed in a straight line the track by which the prisoners had escaped.
In the meantime Curumilla had rejoined Rosario.
"Well?" she asked, in a voice half choked by fear.
"In a few moments we shall be taken," the chief replied mournfully.
"What! have we no hope left?"
"None! We are surrounded on all sides."
"Oh, my Maker! What have I done?" the poor girl sobbed.
Curumilla reclined upon the ground; he had taken his weapons from his belt, and placed them beside him; and with the stoical fatalism of the Indian when he knows that he cannot escape a destiny that threatens him, he waited impassively, his arms crossed upon his breast, the arrival of the enemy. They heard the tramp of the horses drawing nearer and nearer. In a quarter of an hour all would be over.
"Let my sister prepare," Curumilla said coolly: "Antinahuel approaches."
"Poor man," said Rosario; "why did you endeavour to save me?"
"The young blue-eyed maiden is the friend of my pale brothers; I would lay down my life for her."
"You must not die, chief," she said, in her soft clear tones; "you shall not!"
"Why not? I do not dread torture; my sister shall see how a chief can die."
"Listen to me. You have heard the threats of that woman; my life is in no danger."
He replied by a gesture of assent.
"But," she continued, "if you remain with me, if you are taken, they will kill you."
"Yes," he remarked, coolly.
"Then who will inform my friends of my fate? If you die, chief, what can they do to deliver me?"
"That is true; they can do nothing."
"You must live, then, chief, for my sake."
"Does my sister wish it?"
"I insist upon it."
"Good!" said the Indian. "I will go, then; but let not my sister be cast down."
At this moment the noise of the approaching cavalcade resounded with a loudness that announced they were close at hand. The chief gathered up his arms, replaced them in his belt, and, after bestowing a last sign of encouragement upon Rosario, he glided among the high grass and disappeared. Antinahuel and the Linda were within ten paces of her.
"Here I am," she said, in a firm voice; "do with me what you please."
Her persecutors, struck with such an exhibition of courage, pulled up their horses in astonishment. The courageous girl had saved Curumilla.
CHAPTER IV.
SERPENT AND VIPER
Doña Rosario stood motionless, her arms crossed, her head haughtily raised, and her look disdainful. The Linda leaped from her horse, and seizing her by the arm, shook her violently.
"Oh, oh!" she said, in a bitterly mocking tone, "my pretty dear! This is the way you oblige people to come after you: is it?"
Doña Rosario only replied to this flood of words by a look of cold contempt.
"Ah!" the exasperated courtesan exclaimed, clutching her arm, "I will bring down that proud spirit!"
"Madam," Rosario replied, mildly, "you hurt me very much."
"Serpent!" the Linda shrieked, "why can I not crush you beneath my heel?"
Rosario staggered a few paces; her foot struck against a root, and she fell. In her fall her forehead came in contact with a sharp stone; she uttered a feeble cry of pain, and fainted. The Indian chief, at the sight of the large gash in the young girl's forehead, uttered a roar like that of a wild beast. He leant over her raised her tenderly, and endeavoured to stop the bleeding.
"Fie!" said the Linda, with a jeering laugh; "are you going to play the old woman – you, the first chief of your nation?"
Antinahuel remained silent; for an instant he felt an inclination to stab the fury: he darted a glance at her so loaded with anger and hatred, that she was terrified, and instinctively made a movement as if to put herself on the defensive. As yet the attentions of Antinahuel had no effect; Rosario remained still senseless. In a few minutes the Linda was reassured by observing that love occupied more of the thoughts of the chief than hatred.
"Come, tie the creature upon a horse," she said.
"This woman belongs to me," Antinahuel replied, "and I alone have the right of disposing of her."
"Not yet, chief; a fair exchange: when you have delivered the general, I will give her up to you."
"My sister forgets," said Antinahuel, "that I have fifty mosotones with me."
"What does that signify?" she replied.
"It signifies," he replied, "that I am the stronger."
"Indeed!" she said, sneeringly, "is that the way you keep your promises?"
"I love this woman," he said, in a deep voice.
"Caray! I know that well enough," she replied.
"I will not have her suffer."
"See there, now," she cried, still jeering; "I give her up to you expressly that she may suffer."
"If such is my sisters thought, she is mistaken."
"Chief, my friend, you do not know what you are talking about; you are ignorant of the hearts of white women."
"I do not understand my sister."
"No; you do not comprehend that this woman will never love you – that she will never entertain for you anything but contempt and disdain."
"Oh!" Antinahuel replied, "I am too great a chief to be thus despised by a woman."
"You will see you are, though; in the meantime I demand my prisoner."
"My sister shall not have her."
"Then try to take her from me!" she shrieked; and springing like a tiger cat, she pushed away the chief, and seized the young girl, to whose throat she applied her dagger so closely that blood stained the point.
Antinahuel uttered a terrible cry.
"Stop!" he shouted in consternation; "I consent to everything."
"Ah!" cried the Linda, with a smile of triumph, "I knew I should have the last word."
The chief bit his fingers with powerless rage but he was too well acquainted with this woman to continue a struggle which he knew must infallibly terminate in the maiden's death. By a prodigy of self command he forced his face to assume a smile, and said in a mild voice —
"Wah! my sister is excited! Of what consequence is it to me whether this woman is mine now or in a few hours hence?"
"Yes, but only when General Bustamente is no longer in the hands of his enemies, Chief."
"Be it so!" he said, "since my sister requires it; let her act as she thinks fit."
"Very well; but my brother must prove his faith to me."
"What security can I give my sister, that will thoroughly satisfy her?" he said with a bitter smile.
"This," she replied, with a sneer; "let my brother swear by the bones of his ancestors that he will not oppose anything it shall please me to do, till the general is free."
The chief hesitated; the oath the Linda requested him to take was one held sacred by the Indians, and they dreaded breaking it in the highest degree; such is their