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 respect for the ashes of their fathers. But Antinahuel had fallen into a snare, from which it was impossible for him to extricate himself. "Good!" he said, smiling; "let my sister be satisfied. I swear upon the bones of my father that I will not oppose her in anything she may please to do." "Thank you," the Linda answered; "my brother is a great warrior." Antinahuel had no other plausible pretext for remaining: he slowly, and, as if regretfully, rejoined his mosotones, got into his saddle, and set off, darting at the Linda a last glance, that would have congealed her with fear if she had seen it. "Poor puling creature!" she said. "Don Tadeo, it is you I wound in torturing your leman! Shall I at length force you to restore to me my daughter?" The Indian peons
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