ward the smoky torches. It was a
cavern of tulisanes. When Elias arrived, the men started to rise,
but at a gesture from the old man they remained quiet, contenting
themselves with examining the newcomer.

"Is it thou, then?" said the old chief, his sad eyes lighting a little
at sight of the young man.

"And you are here!" exclaimed Elias, half to himself.

The old man bent his head in silence, making at the same time a sign
to the men, who rose and went out, not without taking the helmsman's
measure with their eyes.

"Yes," said the old man to Elias when they were alone, "six months ago
I gave you hospitality in my home; now it is I who receive compassion
from you. But sit down and tell me how you found me."

"As soon as I heard of your misfortunes," replied Elias slowly,
"I set out, and searched from mountain to mountain. I've gone over
nearly two provinces." After a short pause in which he tried to read
the old man's thoughts in his sombre face, he went on:

"I have come to make you a proposition. After vainly trying to find
some representative of the family which caused the ruin of my own,
I have decided to go North, and live among the savage tribes. Will
you leave this life you are beginning, and come with me? Let me be
a son to you?"

The old man shook his head.

"At my age," he said, "when one has taken a desperate resolution it
is final. When such a man as I, who passed his youth and ripe age
laboring to assure his future and that of his children, who submitted
always to the will of superiors, whose conscience is clear--when such
a man, almost on the border of the tomb, renounces all his past, it is
because after ripe reflection he concludes that there is no such thing
as peace. Why go to a strange land to drag out my miserable days? I
had two sons, a daughter, a home, a fortune. I enjoyed consideration
and respect; now I am like a tree stripped of its branches, bare and
desolate. And why? Because a man dishonored my daughter; because my
sons wished to seek satisfaction from this man, placed above other by
his office; because this man, fearing them, sought their destruction
and accomplished it. And I have survived; but if I did not know how
to defend my sons, I shall know how to avenge them. The day my band is
strong enough, I shall go down into the plain and wipe out my vengeance
and my life in fire! Either this day will come or there is no God!"

The old man rose, and, his eyes glittering, his voice