ree of their men, what
stuff we are made of, have retired to concoct some stratagem. You hear
how silent all is after so much noise?"

The desert, indeed, had recovered its silence, the leaves only trembled
in the evening breeze, and the water began to display brilliant colours
in the setting sun.

"Well, Pepe, they are but seventeen now!" continued Bois-Rose, in a tone
of triumph.

"Oh! we may succeed, if they do not get reinforcements."

"That is a chance and a terrible one; but our lives are in God's hands,"
replied Bois-Rose. "Tell me, friend!" said he to Gayferos, "you
probably belong to the camp of Don Estevan?"

"Do you know him then?" said the wounded man, in a feeble voice.

"Yes; and by what chance are you so far from the camp?"

The wounded man recounted how, by Don Estevan's orders, he had set off
to seek for their lost guide, and that his evil star had brought him in
contact with the Indians as they were hunting the wild horses.

"What is the name of your guide?"

"Cuchillo."

Fabian and Bois-Rose glanced at each other.

"Yes," said the latter, "there is some probability that your suspicions
about that white demon were correct, and that he is conducting the
expedition to the Golden Valley; but, my child, if we escape these
Indians, we are close to it; and once we are installed there, were they
a hundred, we should succeed in defending ourselves."

This was whispered in Fabian's ear.

"One word more," said Bois-Rose to the wounded man, "and then we shall
leave you to repose. How many men has Don Estevan with him?"

"Sixty."

Bois-Rose now again bathed the head of the wounded Gayferos with cold
water: and the unhappy man, refreshed for the moment, and weakened by
loss of blood, fell into a lethargic sleep.

"Now," continued Bois-Rose, "let us endeavour to build up a rampart
which shall be a little more ball and arrow-proof than this fringe of
moving leaves and reeds. Did you count how many rifles the Indians
had?"

"Seven, I believe," said Pepe.

"Then ten of them are less to be feared. They cannot attack us either
on the right or the left--but perhaps they have made a detour to cross
the river, and are about to place us between two fires."

The side of the islet opposite the shore on which the Indians had shown
themselves was sufficiently defended by enormous roots, bristling like
chevaux-de-frise; but the side where the attack was probably about to
recommence was defended only