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If I return hither to you, we will be married at once, in Mexican fashion, and go through the ceremony again, when we join the Spaniards." A few minutes later Cuitcatl returned, as did Maclutha and Bathalda, the latter bearing a basket with some provisions.
They will be posted as thick as blades of grass at the mouth of every valley leading down from the mountains. "You have resisted the emperor's officers, and have killed numbers of his soldiers. They will know that the wrath of Montezuma will be terrible, if they fail to arrest you." "Then you think that it will almost be impossible to make our way through them?" Bathalda nodded his head.
After rowing for three hours the canoe, having made a circuit of the city and crossed the lake, reached the shore at a distance of a few miles from Tezcuco. Cacama's body was lifted ashore, then Cuitcatl said to Bathalda: "Bathalda, you will be glad to know that we have saved Cacama's friend, and mine, Roger Hawkshaw." The forester gave an exclamation of pleasure.
Until a late hour in the night, Roger sat talking to Cacama and his family. Although they had heard, from Bathalda, all that had happened from the time of their leaving Tezcuco to their arrival at Tlascala, he had to go over it again.
"It is a great deal stiffer than that I made before, Bathalda; and is about the strength of those we use at home. Now for the arrows." These had been made by another set of men, and were an inch or two over a yard in length, with copper tips. While he was examining them Cacama had taken up the bow, but though a strong and vigorous man for his race, he could bend it but a very short distance.
Bathalda, without a word, moved forward in the direction indicated. The trees grew thinner in front, and through them they could see rocky ground rising steeply up. They issued out and began to climb, when the sound of a horn rose loudly in the air, and a moment afterwards a number of men were seen, running from the right along the edge of the trees. "They will not shoot," Roger said.
Amenche's face was bloodless, and her eyes were closed. But it was not this that had caused Roger's cry. There was a dark stain on her white dress, and in its center the feathered head of an arrow. While Bathalda and Roger had escaped the missiles, with which those in the boat heralded their attack; an arrow had struck Amenche, as she turned, when Roger sprang on board.
Bathalda was cooking some flesh over the embers of the fire. "You have been asleep, I hope, Bathalda?" Roger said, as he rose to his feet and shook himself. "I have slept, my lord," the hunter said, although in fact it was not until morning began to break that he had relaxed his watchfulness. "We will be off as soon as we have eaten.
You will serve him as you would me." The man took Roger's hand, and carried it to his forehead. "My life is yours, my lord," he said. "Is everything ready, Bathalda?" asked Cuitcatl. "Yes, my lord. I have the canoe hidden among the rocks, with the arms and some food. It is but a few hundred yards away." "Let us be off then, at once," Cuitcatl said.
Juan had gone, and Roger had been much moved at parting with him more so, indeed, than the old soldier himself, who had kept up firmly, and was prepared to meet his fate with contempt for his enemies, in the assurance that his death would be terribly avenged. Bathalda had not reappeared.
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