The Tano continued his visits as heretofore.  He plied the woman with questions, sometimes of the most complex nature.  His conduct in this respect was characteristic of the suspicious nature of the Indian generally.  The leaders of the Tehuas mistrusted Shotaye still, notwithstanding her clear and positive talk; and they had instructed the Tano to keep her company and to probe her sincerity and veracity still further.  But she was more than a match for all of them.  She saw through the maze of the very confused and bewildering interrogatory, and her replies were such as to absolutely confirm the Tehuas in the good opinion they had conceived of her.  Whatever the interpreter reported to the tuyo that was of any value to the military operations impending, was immediately communicated to the war-chief through a special runner, for that functionary was in the field already with his men.

Shotaye made use of her conversations with the Tano Indian to direct the attention of the Tehuas toward Tyope.  She described him as the leading warrior and the most influential man on the Rito, as the pivot around which everything revolved and on whose life much would depend.  But she was artful enough not to depict Tyope as a bad man, lest the Tehuas might infer her real purpose.  She spoke of him as a man dangerous through his good qualities, and as a formidable adversary.  In short her words produced such an effect that the governor himself came to interrogate her on the subject, and even caused the war-chief to return from the field on the fourth day, and had him visit Shotaye in company with the interpreter and secure a detailed and accurate description of this dangerous individual.  Then they went to the medicine-man and consulted him about the propriety of taking Shotaye along into the field, that she might point out the great warrior who, so they had become convinced, must be killed at all hazards in order to insure success.  On the evening of the sixth day, therefore, Shotaye wandered over to Tzirege in company with the commander himself.

Shortly after their arrival among the group of warriors where the war-chief had taken his position, runners came from the south with news that they had detected several Queres in full war-paint creeping northward from the brink of the Rito.  These runners were at once ordered back, with strict injunctions to the scouts not to impede the enemy’s movements, but to suffer them to advance.  The Tehuas were quite scattered, particularly in the front, as is usually the case with bodies of Indians on the war-path.  The main bodies concealed themselves between the Tzirege and a deep and broad ravine farther south, called to-day Canada Ancha.  They kept in the woods toward the mountains, expecting their foes to approach on a line closer to the river.  The plan was to allow the Queres to come up undisturbed as far as the north side of the Canada.  As the men from the Rito advanced, the Tehua scouts were to close in from the rear and follow them cautiously, until the enemies were all gathered on the desired spot, with the woods to their left and rugged, barren cliffs and peaks to their right.  Then the trap would be sprung; and if the Queres took to those bleak fastnesses for defence it would be easy to surround them, cut them off from water, and thus exterminate them completely.