After sunset the medicine-man made his appearance on the northern mesa and performed his incantations.  Tyope and most of the others breathed on their war-fetiches, and then group after group stealthily moved onward.  The plan, which had been communicated to every one in its main points, consisted in reaching before sunrise the very ground which the Tehuas had selected for their operations; passing the following day in the woods of that vicinity in concealment, and creeping up to the Puye the following night; then, after sunrise, when the Tehuas would begin to scatter, unarmed and unsuspecting, pouncing upon them and making a general slaughter.  Tyope had under his direction more than two hundred men, and they extended over a wide front.  About twenty experienced warriors, mostly uakanyi, glided in advance as scouts.  Behind them came at a suitable distance either single warriors or small bands.  The main body came last.  It was divided into several groups.  Near the centre were Tyope and the shaman.

Every one knew that his duty for the present consisted in searching for traces of the enemy without exposing himself to discovery.  Should a single Tehua be observed, and it became possible for a scout to overpower and kill him without noise, he might do it.  In case a number of foes were noticed, the spy was to give quiet warning to the man nearest to him, that one to those in his rear; and they were to send a runner to inform Tyope.  In the mean time all were to halt until orders came to move in a new direction.  For Tyope, although he did not in the least suspect that the Tehuas were forewarned, and still less on the alert so close by the Rito, used every possible precaution in order that the surprise might be complete and the blow as crushing as possible.

It was dark in the timber, and the main body of the Queres approached the brink of the first canon north of the Rito while the advance were cautiously descending into the bottom and the scouts were already farther on.  Tyope and the medicine-man were standing a short distance from the descent of the south side and listening to the news which a runner had just brought in from the front.

“Are you sure you have noticed a man?” the Chayan asked in a whisper.

“I am sure of it.  He crouched at the foot of a juniper-bush,” replied the messenger, positively.

“Has he seen you?” demanded Tyope.

“I believe not.”

“When you left was he there still?”

“I could not see any more of him.”

“How far is it from here?  Where stands the tree?” the Chayan asked.

“It is on the other side of the ravine, near the border to the left.”

Tyope pondered a while; then he said to the shaman,—­

“Nashtio yaya, I think we should go more toward the east.  What do you say?”

“It is well,” muttered the medicine-man.

“Satyumishe,” Tyope said to the runner, “go and tell the men to go along the ravine toward the Rio Grande until the trees become smaller.  Thence they may go to the north again, but slowly and carefully.  Ziua,” he called to one of the bystanders, “go and tell those toward the left to come where I stand.  Ohotika,” calling another, “run to the right and command those there to wait until we join them.”