Although Don Pedro had ceased speaking for some time, the Tigercat still seemed to be listening to his words; but suddenly lifting his head proudly, he cast a mocking glance around him, and burst into a laugh, dry and hard as that which Goethe ascribes to Mephistopheles.
This laugh cut the hacendero to the heart. He comprehended that the evil instincts of the freebooter had resumed their sway over the better thoughts which, for a moment, had seemed to assert their mastery.
After this bout of laughter, the countenance of the Tigercat resumed its usual rigid immobility.
"Good!" cried he in a tone of apparent glee, which did by no means deceive Don Pedro; "I expected a sermon, and find I was not mistaken. Well, at the risk of sinking in your estimation, – or, to speak more truly, in order to flatter your self-esteem by leaving you in the belief that you judge my feelings correctly, – I decree that you and your followers return to your Hacienda de las Norias de San Antonio, not only without the loss of a hair, but even as partakers of my hospitality. Does not this decision astonish you? You were far from expecting it."
"Not so; it is exactly what I anticipated."
"Indeed!" said he, with astonishment; "Then if I offer you the hospitality of my calli, you will accept it?"
"And why not, if the offer is made in good faith?"
"Then come without fear; I pledge you my word that you nor yours need fear any injury on my part."
"I follow you," said Don Pedro.
But the unknown had watched with increasing anxiety the erratic course of this conversation, and advancing abruptly in front of, and extending his arms towards, the hacendero—
"Stop, as you value your life!" he cried in a voice trembling with secret emotion. "Stop! Do not let yourself be deceived by the assumed benevolence of this man; he is spreading a snare for you; his offer conceals a treason."
The Tigercat drew himself up to his full height, stared disdainfully at the speaker, and replied, in an accent of supreme majesty:
"Your senses wander, boy; this man runs no risk in confiding in me. Granted that there are many things I do not respect in this world, still there is at least one which I have always respected, and have suffered no one to doubt, – my word, – my word, which I have given to this caballero. Come! Let us pass; the young woman whom you have succoured so opportunely is not yet out of danger; her state demands attentions which are beyond your power to afford."
The unknown trembled; his dark-blue eyes flashed, his lips parted as if to answer; but he remained silent, and retired a few paces, knitting his brow in concentrated passion.
"Moreover," imperturbably continued the freebooter, "whatever force may lie at your disposal in other parts of the wilderness, you know that here I am all-powerful, and that here my will is law. Leave me to act as I please. Do not force me to measures I should abhor; for if I raised but a finger I could tame your fool's pride."
"I know," said the young man, "that I am powerless; but beware how you treat these strangers, who placed themselves under my protection; for I shall know how to take my revenge."
"Yes, yes," said the Tigercat drearily; "I know you would not hesitate to revenge yourself even on me, if you fancied you had a cause. But I care not; I am master here."
"I shall follow you even into your haunt; think not I intend to desert these strangers now they are in your hands."
"As you please; I do not forbid you to accompany them; on the contrary, I should regret your leaving them."
The unknown held his peace, smiling disdainfully.
"Come," resumed the Tigercat, turning to the hacendero.
The troop began again to ascend the hillock, following in the footsteps of the old freebooter, close to whom rode their former guide.
After some turnings and windings in the path, of more or less abruptness, some of which caused the Mexicans no little difficulty, the Tigercat turned towards the hacendero, and addressed him in a voice perfectly free from embarrassment:
"I beg you to excuse my guiding you over such villainous roads; unfortunately they are the only ones leading to my dwelling. It is at hand; in a few minutes we shall be there."
"But I see no traces of habitation," replied Don Pedro, vainly, scanning the country in all directions.
"True," said the Tigercat, with a smile; "nevertheless, we are hardly an hundred paces from the end of our journey; and I can assure you the abode to which I am leading you would harbour a hundred times our present numbers."
"I have not much idea where this dwelling is to be found, unless it be subterranean, as I begin to suspect."
"You have almost guessed it. The place I inhabit, if not subterranean in the strict sense of the word, is at least a dwelling covered by the ground. Few have entered it to leave it again safe and sound, as you shall."
"So much the worse," retorted roundly the hacendero; "so much the worse for them – and for you."
The Tigercat frowned, but immediately replied, in the light and careless tone he had affected for the last few minutes:
"Look you, I will clear up this mystery. Listen; the story is interesting enough. When the Aztecs quitted Azlin, which signifies 'the country of herons,' to conquer Anahuac, or 'the country between the waters,' their peregrinations were long, extending over several centuries. Disheartened at times by long travel, they halted, founded cities, in which they installed themselves as if they never intended to abandon the place they had chosen; and, perhaps with the object of leaving behind them ineffaceable traces of their passage through the wild countries they traversed, they constructed pyramids. Hence the numerous ruins littering the soil of Mexico, and the teocalis one meets with occasionally, – last and mournful vestiges of a people that has disappeared. These teocalis built on a system of incredible solidity far from crumbling under the strenuous embrace of time, have ended in becoming a part of the ground which supported them, and so completely, that there is often difficulty in recognising them. I can give you no better proof of my assertion than what you have now before you. The elevation you are now ascending is not, as you might suppose, a hill caused by some perturbation of the earth, – it is an Aztec teocali."
"A teocali!" exclaimed Don Pedro, in astonishment.
"It is, indeed," continued the freebooter; "but so many centuries have elapsed since the day it was built, that, thanks to the vegetable matter incessantly conveyed by the winds, nature has apparently resumed her rights, and the Aztec watchtower has become a green hill. You are doubtless aware that the teocalis are hollow?"
"I am aware of it," answered the hacendero.
"It is in the interior of this one I have fixed my dwelling. See, we have reached it. Allow me to show you the way into it."
In fact, the travellers had arrived at a kind of coarse portal – a Cyclopean construction – which gave admittance to a subterranean building, in which a profound obscurity prevailed, forbidding any estimate of its dimensions.
The Tigercat stopped, and gave a peculiar whistle. Immediately a dazzling light broke forth from the interior, and illuminated it in all its vastness.
"Let us enter," said the freebooter, preceding his companions.
Without hesitation Don Pedro prepared to follow, after making a sign to his attendants, warning them to conceal their rising fears.
For a moment the unknown found himself, so to speak, alone with the hacendero, and bending swiftly down, whispered softly in his ear, "Be prudent; you are entering the tiger's den."
Saying this, he rapidly left them, as he feared the freebooter might perceive that he was giving a last word of warning to the stranger.
But, good or bad, the advice came too late: hesitation would have been folly,