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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Headless Horseman, by Mayne Reid
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Headless Horseman
+       A Strange Tale of Texas
+
+Author: Mayne Reid
+
+Release Date: March 16, 2011 [EBook #35587]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+The Headless Horseman
+A Strange Tale of Texas
+By Captain Mayne Reid
+Published by George Routledge and Sons, London, Glasgow and New York..
+This edition dated 1888.
+
+The Headless Horseman, by Captain Mayne Reid.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN, BY CAPTAIN MAYNE REID.
+
+
+
+PROLOGUE.
+
+The stag of Texas, reclining in midnight lair, is startled from his
+slumbers by the hoofstroke of a horse.
+
+He does not forsake his covert, nor yet rise to his feet.  His domain is
+shared by the wild steeds of the savannah, given to nocturnal straying.
+He only uprears his head; and, with antlers o'ertopping the tall grass,
+listens for a repetition of the sound.
+
+Again is the hoofstroke heard, but with altered intonation.  There is a
+ring of metal--the clinking of steel against stone.
+
+The sound, significant to the ear of the stag, causes a quick change in
+his air and attitude.  Springing clear of his couch, and bounding a
+score of yards across the prairie, he pauses to look back upon the
+disturber of his dreams.
+
+In the clear moonlight of a southern sky, he recognises the most
+ruthless of his enemies--man.  One is approaching upon horseback.
+
+Yielding to instinctive dread, he is about to resume his flight: when
+something in the appearance of the horseman--some unnatural seeming--
+holds him transfixed to the spot.
+
+With haunches in quivering contact with the sward, and frontlet faced to
+the rear, he continues to gaze--his large brown eyes straining upon the
+intruder in a mingled expression of fear and bewilderment.
+
+What has challenged the stag to such protracted scrutiny?
+
+The horse is perfect in all its parts--a splendid steed, saddled,
+bridled, and otherwise completely caparisoned.  In it there appears
+nothing amiss--nothing to produce either wonder or alarm.  But the man--
+the rider?  Ah!  About him there _is_ something to cause both--something
+weird--something _wanting_!
+
+By heavens! it is the head!
+
+Even the unreasoning animal can perceive this; and, after gazing a
+moment with wildered eyes--wondering what abnormal monster thus mocks
+its cervine intelligence--terror-stricken it continues its retreat; nor
+again pauses, till it has plunged through the waters of the Leona, and
+placed the current of the stream between itself and the ghastly
+intruder.
+
+Heedless of the affrighted deer--either of its presence, or precipitate
+flight--the Headless Horseman rides on.
+
+He, too, is going in the direction of the river.  Unlike the stag, he
+does not seem pressed for time; but advances in a slow, tranquil pace:
+so silent as to seem ceremonious.
+
+Apparently absorbed in solemn thought, he gives free rein to his steed:
+permitting the animal, at intervals, to snatch a mouthful of the herbage
+growing by the way.  Nor does he, by voice or gesture, urge it
+impatiently onward, when the howl-bark of the prairie-wolf causes it to
+fling its head on high, and stand snorting in its tracks.
+
+He appears to be under the influence of some all-absorbing emotion, from
+which no common incident can awake him.  There is no speech--not a
+whisper--to betray its nature.  The startled stag, his own horse, the
+wolf, and the midnight moon, are the sole witnesses of his silent
+abstraction.
+
+His shoulders shrouded under a _serape_, one edge of which, flirted up
+by the wind, displays a portion of his figure: his limbs encased in
+"water-guards" of jaguar-skin: thus sufficiently sheltered against the
+dews of the night, or the showers of a tropical sky, he rides on--silent
+as the stars shining above, unconcerned as the cicada that chirrups in
+the grass beneath, or the prairie breeze playing with the drapery of his
+dress.
+
+Something at length appears to rouse from his reverie, and stimulate him
+to greater speed--his steed, at the same time.  The latter, tossing up
+its head, gives utterance to a joyous neigh; and, with outstretched
+neck, and spread nostrils, advances in a gait gradually increasing to a
+canter.  The proximity of the river explains the altered pace.
+
+The horse halts not again, till the crystal current is surging against
+his flanks, and the legs of his rider are submerged knee-deep under the
+surface.
+
+The animal eagerly assuages its thirst; crosses to the opposite side;
+and, with vigorous stride, ascends the sloping bank.
+
+Upon the crest occurs a pause: as if the rider tarried till his steed
+should shake the water from its flanks.  There is a rattling of
+saddle-flaps, and stirrup-leathers, resembling thunder, amidst a cloud
+of vapour, white as the spray of a cataract.
+
+Out of this self-constituted _nimbus_, the Headless Horseman emerges;
+and moves onward, as before.
+
+Apparently pricked by the spur, and guided by the rein, of his rider,
+the horse no longer strays from the track; but steps briskly forward, as
+if upon a path already trodden.
+
+A treeless savannah stretches before--selvedged by the sky.  Outlined
+against the azure is seen the imperfect centaurean shape gradually
+dissolving in the distance, till it becomes lost to view, under the
+mystic gloaming of the moonlight!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+THE BURNT PRAIRIE.
+
+On the great plain of Texas, about a hundred miles southward from the
+old Spanish town of San Antonio de Bejar, the noonday sun is shedding
+his beams from a sky of cerulean brightness.  Under the golden light
+appears a group of objects, but little in unison with the landscape
+around them: since they betoken the presence of human beings, in a spot
+where there is no sign of human habitation.
+
+The objects in question are easily identified--even at a great distance.
+They are waggons; each covered with its ribbed and rounded tilt of
+snow-white "Osnaburgh."
+
+There are ten of them--scarce enough to constitute a "caravan" of
+traders, nor yet a "government train."  They are more likely the
+individual property of an emigrant; who has landed upon the coast, and
+is wending his way to one of the late-formed settlements on the Leona.
+
+Slowly crawling across the savannah, it could scarce be told that they
+are in motion; but for their relative-position, in long serried line,
+indicating the order of march.
+
+The dark bodies between each two declare that the teams are attached;
+and that they are making progress is proved, by the retreating antelope,
+scared from its noonday _siesta_, and the long-shanked curlew, rising
+with a screech from the sward--both bird and beast wondering at the
+string of strange _behemoths_, thus invading their wilderness domain.
+
+Elsewhere upon the prairie, no movement may be detected--either of bird
+or quadruped.  It is the time of day when all tropical life becomes
+torpid, or seeks repose in the shade; man alone, stimulated by the love
+of gain, or the promptings of ambition, disregarding the laws of nature,
+and defying the fervour of the sun.
+
+So seems it with the owner of the tilted train; who, despite the
+relaxing influence of the fierce mid-day heat, keeps moving on.
+
+That he is an emigrant--and not one of the ordinary class--is evidenced
+in a variety of ways.  The ten large waggons of Pittsburgh build, each
+hauled by eight able-bodied mules; their miscellaneous contents:
+plenteous provisions, articles of costly furniture, even of _luxe_, live
+stock in the shape of coloured women and children; the groups of black
+and yellow bondsmen, walking alongside, or straggling foot-sore in the
+rear; the light travelling carriage in the lead, drawn by a span of
+sleek-coated Kentucky mules, and driven by a black Jehu, sweltering in a
+suit of livery; all bespeak, not a poor Northern-States settler in
+search of a new home, but a rich Southerner who has already purchased
+one, and is on his way to take possession of it.
+
+And this is the exact story of the train.  It is the property of a
+planter who has landed at Indianola, on the Gulf of Matagorda; and is
+now travelling overland--_en route_ for his destination.
+
+In the _cortege_ that accompanies it, riding habitually at its head, is
+the planter himself--Woodley Poindexter--a tall thin man of fifty, with
+a slightly sallowish complexion, and aspect proudly severe.  He is
+simply though not inexpensively clad: in a loosely fitting frock of
+alpaca cloth, a waistcoat of black satin, and trousers of nankin.  A
+shirt of finest linen shows its plaits through the opening of his vest--
+its collar embraced by a piece of black ribbon; while the shoe, resting
+in his stirrup, is of finest tanned leather.  His features are shaded by
+a broad-brimmed Leghorn hat.
+
+Two horsemen are riding alongside--one on his right, the other on the
+left--a stripling scarce twenty, and a young man six or seven years
+older.  The former is his son--a youth, whose open cheerful countenance
+contrasts, not only with the severe aspect of his father, but with the
+somewhat sinister features on the other side, and which belong to his
+cousin.
+
+The youth is dressed in a French blouse of sky-coloured "cottonade,"
+with trousers of the same material; a most appropriate costume for a
+southern climate, and which, with the Panama hat upon his head, is
+equally becoming.
+
+The cousin, an ex-officer of volunteers, affects a military undress of
+dark blue cloth, with a forage cap to correspond.
+
+There is another horseman riding near, who, only on account of having a
+white skin--not white for all that--is entitled to description.  His
+coarser features, and cheaper habiliments; the keel-coloured "cowhide"
+clutched in his right hand, and flirted with such evident skill,
+proclaim him the overseer--and whipper up--of the swarthy pedestrians
+composing the _entourage_ of the train.
+
+The travelling carriage, which is a "carriole"--a sort of cross between
+a Jersey waggon and a barouche--has two occupants.  One is a young lady
+of the whitest skin; the other a girl of the blackest.  The former is
+the daughter of Woodley Poindexter--his only daughter.  She of the sable
+complexion is the young lady's handmaid.
+
+The emigrating party is from the "coast" of the Mississippi--from
+Louisiana.  The planter is not himself a native of this State--in other
+words a _Creole_; but the type is exhibited in the countenance of his
+son--still more in that fair face, seen occasionally through the
+curtains of the carriole, and whose delicate features declare descent
+from one of those endorsed damsels--_filles a la casette_--who, more
+than a hundred years ago, came across the Atlantic provided with proofs
+of their virtue--in the _casket_!
+
+A grand sugar planter of the South is Woodley Poindexter; one of the
+highest and haughtiest of his class; one of the most profuse in
+aristocratic hospitalities: hence the necessity of forsaking his
+Mississippian home, and transferring himself and his "penates,"--with
+only a remnant of his "niggers,"--to the wilds of south-western Texas.
+
+The sun is upon the meridian line, and almost in the zenith.  The
+travellers tread upon their own shadows.  Enervated by the excessive
+heat, the white horsemen sit silently in their saddles.  Even the dusky
+pedestrians, less sensible to its influence, have ceased their garrulous
+"gumbo;" and, in straggling groups, shamble listlessly along in the rear
+of the waggons.
+
+The silence--solemn as that of a funereal procession--is interrupted
+only at intervals by the pistol-like crack of a whip, or the loud
+"wo-ha," delivered in deep baritone from the thick lips of some sable
+teamster.
+
+Slowly the train moves on, as if groping its way.  There is no regular
+road.  The route is indicated by the wheel-marks of some vehicles that
+have passed before--barely conspicuous, by having crushed the culms of
+the shot grass.
+
+Notwithstanding the slow progress, the teams are doing their best.  The
+planter believes himself within less than twenty miles of the end of his
+journey.  He hopes to reach it before night: hence the march continued
+through the mid-day heat.
+
+Unexpectedly the drivers are directed to pull up, by a sign from the
+overseer; who has been riding a hundred yards in the advance, and who is
+seen to make a sudden stop--as if some obstruction had presented itself.
+
+He comes trotting back towards the train.  His gestures tell of
+something amiss.  What is it?
+
+There has been much talk about Indians--of a probability of their being
+encountered in this quarter.
+
+Can it be the red-skinned marauders?  Scarcely: the gestures of the
+overseer do not betray actual alarm.
+
+"What is it, Mr Sansom?" asked the planter, as the man rode up.
+
+"The grass air burnt.  The prairy's been afire."
+
+"_Been_ on fire!  Is it on fire _now_?" hurriedly inquired the owner of
+the waggons, with an apprehensive glance towards the travelling
+carriage.  "Where?  I see no smoke!"
+
+"No, sir--no," stammered the overseer, becoming conscious that he had
+caused unnecessary alarm; "I didn't say it air afire now: only thet it
+hez been, an the hul ground air as black as the ten o' spades."
+
+"Ta--tat! what of that?  I suppose we can travel over a black prairie,
+as safely as a green one?
+
+"What nonsense of you, Josh Sansom, to raise such a row about nothing--
+frightening people out of their senses!  Ho! there, you niggers!  Lay
+the leather to your teams, and let the train proceed.  Whip up!--whip
+up!"
+
+"But, Captain Calhoun," protested the overseer, in response to the
+gentleman who had reproached him in such chaste terms; "how air we to
+find the way?"
+
+"Find the way!  What are you raving about?  We haven't lost it--have
+we?"
+
+"I'm afeerd we hev, though.  The wheel-tracks ain't no longer to be
+seen.  They're burnt out, along wi' the grass."
+
+"What matters that?  I reckon we can cross a piece of scorched prairie,
+without wheel-marks to guide us?  We'll find them again on the other
+side."
+
+"Ye-es," naively responded the overseer, who, although a "down-easter,"
+had been far enough west to have learnt something of frontier life; "if
+theer air any other side.  I kedn't see it out o' the seddle--ne'er a
+sign o' it."
+
+"Whip up, niggers! whip up!" shouted Calhoun, without heeding the
+remark; and spurring onwards, as a sign that the order was to be obeyed.
+
+The teams are again set in motion; and, after advancing to the edge of
+the burnt tract, without instructions from any one, are once more
+brought to a stand.
+
+The white men on horseback draw together for a consultation.  There is
+need: as all are satisfied by a single glance directed to the ground
+before them.
+
+Far as the eye can reach the country is of one uniform colour--black as
+Erebus.  There is nothing green--not a blade of grass--not a reed nor
+weed!
+
+It is after the summer solstice.  The ripened culms of the _gramineae_,
+and the stalks of the prairie flowers, have alike crumbled into dust
+under the devastating breath of fire.
+
+In front--on the right and left--to the utmost verge of vision extends
+the scene of desolation.  Over it the cerulean sky is changed to a
+darker blue; the sun, though clear of clouds, seems to scowl rather than
+shine--as if reciprocating the frown of the earth.
+
+The overseer has made a correct report--there is no trail visible.  The
+action of the fire, as it raged among the ripe grass, has eliminated the
+impression of the wheels hitherto indicating the route.  "What are we to
+do?"
+
+The planter himself put this inquiry, in a tone that told of a
+vacillating spirit.
+
+"Do, uncle Woodley!  What else but keep straight on?  The river must be
+on the other side?  If we don't hit the crossing, to a half mile or so,
+we can go up, or down the bank--as the case may require."
+
+"But, Cassius: if we should lose our way?"
+
+"We can't.  There's but a patch of this, I suppose?  If we do go a
+little astray, we must come out somewhere--on one side, or the other."
+
+"Well, nephew, you know best: I shall be guided by you."
+
+"No fear, uncle.  I've made my way out of a worse fix than this.  Drive
+on, niggers!  Keep straight after _me_."
+
+The ex-officer of volunteers, casting a conceited glance towards the
+travelling carriage--through the curtains of which appears a fair face,
+slightly shadowed with anxiety--gives the spur to his horse; and with
+confident air trots onward.
+
+A chorus of whipcracks is succeeded by the trampling of fourscore mules,
+mingled with the clanking of wheels against their hubs.  The
+waggon-train is once more in motion.
+
+The mules step out with greater rapidity.  The sable surface, strange to
+their eyes, excites them to brisker action--causing them to raise the
+hoof, as soon as it touches the turf.  The younger animals show fear--
+snorting, as they advance.
+
+In time their apprehensions become allayed; and, taking the cue from
+their older associates, they move on steadily as before.
+
+A mile or more is made, apparently in a direct line from the point of
+starting.  Then there is a halt.  The self-appointed guide has ordered
+it.  He has reined up his horse; and is sitting in the saddle with less
+show of confidence.  He appears to be puzzled about the direction.
+
+The landscape--if such it may be called--has assumed a change; though
+not for the better.  It is still sable as ever, to the verge of the
+horizon.  But the surface is no longer a plain: it _rolls_.  There are
+ridges--gentle undulations--with valleys between.  They are not entirely
+treeless--though nothing that may be termed a tree is in sight.  There
+have been such, before the fire--_algarobias, mezquites_, and others of
+the acacia family--standing solitary, or in copses.  Their light pinnate
+foliage has disappeared like flax before the flame.  Their existence is
+only evidenced by charred trunks, and blackened boughs.
+
+"You've lost the way, nephew?" said the planter, riding rapidly up.
+
+"No uncle--not yet.  I've only stopped to have a look.  It must lie in
+this direction--down that valley.  Let them drive on.  We're going all
+right--I'll answer for it."
+
+Once more in motion--adown the slope--then along the valley--then up the
+acclivity of another ridge--and then there is a second stoppage upon its
+crest.
+
+"You've lost the way, Cash?" said the planter, coming up and repeating
+his former observation.
+
+"Damned if I don't believe I have, uncle!" responded the nephew, in a
+tone of not very respectful mistrust.  "Anyhow; who the devil could find
+his way out of an ashpit like this?  No, no!" he continued, reluctant to
+betray his embarrassment as the carriole came up.  "I see now.  We're
+all right yet.  The river must be in this direction.  Come on!"
+
+On goes the guide, evidently irresolute.  On follow the sable teamsters,
+who, despite their stolidity, do not fail to note some signs of
+vacillation.  They can tell that they are no longer advancing in a
+direct line; but circuitously among the copses, and across the glades
+that stretch between.
+
+All are gratified by a shout from the conductor, announcing recovered
+confidence.  In response there is a universal explosion of whipcord,
+with joyous exclamations.
+
+Once more they are stretching their teams along a travelled road--where
+a half-score of wheeled vehicles must have passed before them.  And not
+long before: the wheel-tracks are of recent impress--the hoof-prints of
+the animals fresh as if made within the hour.  A train of waggons, not
+unlike their own, must have passed over the burnt prairie!
+
+Like themselves, it could only be going towards the Leona: perhaps some
+government convoy on its way to Fort Inge?  In that case they have only
+to keep in the same track.  The Fort is on the line of their march--but
+a short distance beyond the point where their journey is to terminate.
+
+Nothing could be more opportune.  The guide, hitherto perplexed--though
+without acknowledging it--is at once relieved of all anxiety; and with a
+fresh exhibition of conceit, orders the route to be resumed.
+
+For a mile or more the waggon-tracks are followed--not in a direct line,
+but bending about among the skeleton copses.  The countenance of Cassius
+Calhoun, for a while wearing a confident look, gradually becomes
+clouded.  It assumes the profoundest expression of despondency, on
+discovering that the four-and-forty wheel-tracks he is following, have
+been made by ten Pittsburgh waggons, and a carriole--the same that are
+now following him, and in whose company he has been travelling _all the
+way from the Gulf of Matagorda_!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+THE TRAIL OF THE LAZO.
+
+Beyond doubt, the waggons of Woodley Poindexter were going over ground
+already traced by the tiring of their wheels.
+
+"Our own tracks!" muttered Calhoun on making the discovery, adding a
+fierce oath as he reined up.
+
+"Our own tracks!  What mean you, Cassius?  You don't say we've been
+travelling--"
+
+"On our own tracks.  I do, uncle; that very thing.  We must have made a
+complete circumbendibus of it.  See! here's the hind hoof of my own
+horse, with half a shoe off; and there's the foot of the niggers.
+Besides, I can tell the ground.  That's the very hill we went down as we
+left our last stopping place.  Hang the crooked luck!  We've made a
+couple of miles for nothing."
+
+Embarrassment is no longer the only expression upon the face of the
+speaker.  It has deepened to chagrin, with an admixture of shame.  It is
+through him that the train is without a regular guide.  One, engaged at
+Indianola, had piloted them to their last camping place.  There, in
+consequence of some dispute, due to the surly temper of the ex-captain
+of volunteers, the man had demanded his dismissal, and gone back.
+
+For this--as also for an ill-timed display of confidence in his power to
+conduct the march--is the planter's nephew now suffering under a sense
+of shame.  He feels it keenly as the carriole comes up, and bright eyes
+become witnesses of his discomfiture.
+
+Poindexter does not repeat his inquiry.  That the road is lost is a fact
+evident to all.  Even the barefooted or "broganned" pedestrians have
+recognised their long-heeled footprints, and become aware that they are
+for the second time treading upon the same ground.
+
+There is a general halt, succeeded by an animated conversation among the
+white men.  The situation is serious: the planter himself believes it to
+be so.  He cannot that day reach the end of his journey--a thing upon
+which he had set his mind.
+
+That is the very least misfortune that can befall them.  There are
+others possible, and probable.  There are perils upon the burnt plain.
+They may be compelled to spend the night upon it, with no water for
+their animals.  Perhaps a second day and night--or longer--who can tell
+how long?
+
+How are they to find their way?  The sun is beginning to descend; though
+still too high in heaven to indicate his line of declination.  By
+waiting a while they may discover the quarters of the compass.
+
+But to what purpose?  The knowledge of east, west, north, and south can
+avail nothing now: they have lost their _line of march_.
+
+Calhoun has become cautious.  He no longer volunteers to point out the
+path.  He hesitates to repeat his pioneering experiments--after such
+manifest and shameful failure.
+
+A ten minutes' discussion terminates in nothing.  No one can suggest a
+feasible plan of proceeding.  No one knows how to escape from the
+embrace of that dark desert, which appears to cloud not only the sun and
+sky, but the countenances of all who enter within its limits.
+
+A flock of black vultures is seen flying afar off.  They come nearer,
+and nearer.  Some alight upon the ground--others hover above the heads
+of the strayed travellers.  Is there a boding in the behaviour of the
+birds?
+
+Another ten minutes is spent in the midst of moral and physical gloom.
+Then, as if by a benignant mandate from heaven, does cheerfulness
+re-assume its sway.  The cause?  A horseman riding in the direction of
+the train!
+
+An unexpected sight: who could have looked for human being in such a
+place?  All eyes simultaneously sparkle with joy; as if, in the approach
+of the horseman, they beheld the advent of a saviour!
+
+"He's coming this way, is he not?" inquired the planter, scarce
+confident in his failing sight.
+
+"Yes, father; straight as he can ride," replied Henry, lifting the hat
+from his head, and waving it on high: the action accompanied by a shout
+intended to attract the horseman.
+
+The signal was superfluous.  The stranger had already sighted the halted
+waggons; and, riding towards them at a gallop, was soon within speaking
+distance.
+
+He did not draw bridle, until he had passed the train; and arrived upon
+the spot occupied by the planter and his party.
+
+"A Mexican!" whispered Henry, drawing his deduction from the habiliments
+of the horseman.
+
+"So much the better," replied Poindexter, in the same tone of voice;
+"he'll be all the more likely to know the road."
+
+"Not a bit of Mexican about him," muttered Calhoun, "excepting the rig.
+I'll soon see.  _Buenos dias, cavallero!  Esta V. Mexicano_?"  (Good
+day, sir! are you a Mexican?)
+
+"No, indeed," replied the stranger, with a protesting smile.  "Anything
+but that.  I can speak to you in Spanish, if you prefer it; but I dare
+say you will understand me better in English: which, I presume, is your
+native tongue?"
+
+Calhoun, suspecting that he had spoken indifferent Spanish, or
+indifferently pronounced it, refrains from making rejoinder.
+
+"_American_, sir," replied Poindexter, his national pride feeling
+slightly piqued.  Then, as if fearing to offend the man from whom he
+intended asking a favour, he added: "Yes, sir; we are all Americans--
+from the _Southern States_."
+
+"That I can perceive by your following."  An expression of contempt--
+scarce perceptible--showed itself upon the countenance of the speaker,
+as his eye rested upon the groups of black bondsmen.  "I can perceive,
+too," he added, "that you are strangers to prairie travelling.  You have
+lost your way?"
+
+"We have, sir; and have very little prospect of recovering it, unless we
+may count upon your kindness to direct us."
+
+"Not much kindness in that.  By the merest chance I came upon your
+trail, as I was crossing the prairie.  I saw you were going astray; and
+have ridden this way to set you right."
+
+"It is very good of you.  We shall be most thankful, sir.  My name is
+Poindexter--Woodley Poindexter, of Louisiana.  I have purchased a
+property on the Leona river, near Fort Inge.  We were in hopes of
+reaching it before nightfall.  Can we do so?"
+
+"There is nothing to hinder you: if you follow the instructions I shall
+give."
+
+On saying this, the stranger rode a few paces apart; and appeared to
+scrutinise the country--as if to determine the direction which the
+travellers should take.
+
+Poised conspicuously upon the crest of the ridge, horse and man
+presented a picture worthy of skilful delineation.
+
+A steed, such as might have been ridden by an Arab sheik--blood-bay in
+colour--broad in counter--with limbs clean as culms of cane, and hips of
+elliptical outline, continued into a magnificent tail sweeping rearward
+like a rainbow: on his back a rider--a young man of not more than
+five-and-twenty--of noble form and features; habited in the picturesque
+costume of a Mexican _ranchero_--spencer jacket of
+velveteen--_calzoneros_ laced along the seams--_calzoncillos_ of
+snow-white lawn--_botas_ of buff leather, heavily spurred at the heels--
+around the waist a scarf of scarlet crape; and on his head a hat of
+black glaze, banded with gold bullion.  Picture to yourself a horseman
+thus habited; seated in a deep tree-saddle, of Moorish shape and Mexican
+manufacture, with housings of leather stamped in antique patterns, such
+as were worn by the caparisoned steeds of the Conquistadores; picture to
+yourself such a _cavallero_, and you will have before your mind's eye a
+counterpart of him, upon whom the planter and his people were gazing.
+
+Through the curtains of the travelling carriage he was regarded with
+glances that spoke of a singular sentiment.  For the first time in her
+life, Louise Poindexter looked upon that--hitherto known only to her
+imagination--a man of heroic mould.  Proud might he have been, could he
+have guessed the interest which his presence was exciting in the breast
+of the young Creole.
+
+He could not, and did not.  He was not even aware of her existence.  He
+had only glanced at the dust-bedaubed vehicle in passing--as one might
+look upon the rude incrustation of an oyster, without suspecting that a
+precious pearl may lie gleaming inside.
+
+"By my faith!" he declared, facing round to the owner of the waggons, "I
+can discover no landmarks for you to steer by.  For all that, I can find
+the way myself.  You will have to cross the Leona five miles below the
+Fort; and, as I have to go by the crossing myself, _you_ can follow the
+tracks of my horse.  Good day, gentlemen!"
+
+Thus abruptly bidding adieu, he pressed the spur against the side of his
+steed; and started off at a gallop.
+
+An unexpected--almost uncourteous departure!  So thought the planter and
+his people.
+
+They had no time to make observations upon it, before the stranger was
+seen returning towards them!
+
+In ten seconds he was again in their presence--all listening to learn
+what had brought him back.
+
+"I fear the tracks of my horse may prove of little service to you.  The
+_mustangs_ have been this way, since the fire.  They have made
+hoof-marks by the thousand.  Mine are shod; but, as you are not
+accustomed to trailing, you may not be able to distinguish them--the
+more so, that in these dry ashes all horse-tracks are so nearly alike."
+
+"What are we to do?" despairingly asked the planter.
+
+"I am sorry, Mr Poindexter, I cannot stay to conduct you, I am riding
+express, with a despatch for the Fort.  If you _should_ lose my trail,
+keep the sun on your right shoulders: so that your shadows may fall to
+the left, at an angle of about fifteen degrees to your line of march.
+Go straight forward for about five miles.  You will then come in sight
+of the top of a tall tree--a _cypress_.  You will know it by its leaves
+being _in the red_.  Head direct for this tree.  It stands on the bank
+of the river; and close by is the crossing."
+
+The young horseman, once more drawing up his reins, was about to ride
+off; when something caused him to linger.  It was a pair of dark
+lustrous eyes--observed by him for the first time--glancing through the
+curtains of the travelling carriage.
+
+Their owner was in shadow; but there was light enough to show that they
+were set in a countenance of surpassing loveliness.  He perceived,
+moreover, that they were turned upon himself--fixed, as he fancied, in
+an expression that betokened interest--almost tenderness!
+
+He returned it with an involuntary glance of admiration, which he made
+but an awkward attempt to conceal.  Lest it might be mistaken for
+rudeness, he suddenly faced round; and once more addressed himself to
+the planter--who had just finished thanking him for his civility.
+
+"I am but ill deserving thanks," was his rejoinder, "thus to leave you
+with a chance of losing your way.  But, as I've told you, my time is
+measured."
+
+The despatch-bearer consulted his watch--as though not a little
+reluctant to travel alone.
+
+"You are very kind, sir," said Poindexter; "but with the directions you
+have given us, I think we shall be able to manage.  The sun will surely
+show us--"
+
+"No: now I look at the sky, it will not.  There are clouds looming up on
+the north.  In an hour, the sun may be obscured--at all events, before
+you can get within sight of the cypress.  It will not do.  Stay!" he
+continued, after a reflective pause, "I have a better plan still:
+_follow the trail of my lazo_!"
+
+While speaking, he had lifted the coiled rope from his saddlebow, and
+flung the loose end to the earth--the other being secured to a ring in
+the pommel.  Then raising his hat in graceful salutation--more than half
+directed towards the travelling carriage--he gave the spur to his steed;
+and once more bounded off over the prairie.
+
+The lazo, lengthening out, tightened over the hips of his horse; and,
+dragging a dozen yards behind, left a line upon the cinereous surface--
+as if some slender serpent had been making its passage across the plain.
+
+"An exceedingly curious fellow!" remarked the planter, as they stood
+gazing after the horseman, fast becoming hidden behind a cloud of sable
+dust.  "I ought to have asked him his name?"
+
+"An exceedingly conceited fellow, I should say," muttered Calhoun; who
+had not failed to notice the glance sent by the stranger in the
+direction of the carriole, nor that which had challenged it.  "As to his
+name, I don't think it matters much.  It mightn't be his own he would
+give you.  Texas is full of such swells, who take new names when they
+get here--by way of improvement, if for no better reason."
+
+"Come, cousin Cash," protested young Poindexter; "you are unjust to the
+stranger.  He appears to be educated--in fact, a gentleman--worthy of
+bearing the best of names, I should say."
+
+"A gentleman!  Deuced unlikely: rigged out in that fanfaron fashion.  I
+never saw a man yet, that took to a Mexican dress, who wasn't a _Jack_.
+He's one, I'll be bound."
+
+During this brief conversation, the fair occupant of the carriole was
+seen to bend forward; and direct a look of evident interest, after the
+form of the horseman fast receding from her view.
+
+To this, perhaps, might have been traced the acrimony observable in the
+speech of Calhoun.
+
+"What is it, Loo?" he inquired, riding close up to the carriage, and
+speaking in a voice not loud enough to be heard by the others.  "You
+appear impatient to go forward?  Perhaps you'd like to ride off along
+with that swaggering fellow?  It isn't too late: I'll lend you my
+horse."
+
+The young girl threw herself back upon the seat--evidently displeased,
+both by the speech and the tone in which it was delivered.  But her
+displeasure, instead of expressing itself in a frown, or in the shape of
+an indignant rejoinder, was concealed under a guise far more galling to
+him who had caused it.  A clear ringing laugh was the only reply
+vouchsafed to him.
+
+"So, so!  I thought there must be something--by the way you behaved
+yourself in his presence.  You looked as if you would have relished a
+_tete-a-tete_ with this showy despatch-bearer.  Taken with his stylish
+dress, I suppose?  Fine feathers make fine birds.  His are borrowed.  I
+may strip them off some day, along with a little of the skin that's
+under them."
+
+"For shame, Cassius! your words are a scandal!"
+
+"'Tis you should think of scandal, Loo!  To let your thoughts turn on a
+common scamp--a masquerading fellow like that!  No doubt the letter
+carrier, employed by the officers at the Fort!"
+
+"A letter carrier, you think?  Oh, how I should like to get love letters
+by such a postman!"
+
+"You had better hasten on, and tell him so.  My horse is at your
+service."
+
+"Ha! ha! ha!  What a simpleton you show yourself!  Suppose, for
+jesting's sake, I _did_ have a fancy to overtake this prairie postman!
+It couldn't be done upon that dull steed of yours: not a bit of it!  At
+the rate he is going, he and his blood-bay will be out of sight before
+you could change saddles for me.  Oh, no! he's not to be overtaken by
+me, however much I might like it; and perhaps I _might like it_!"
+
+"Don't let your father hear you talk in that way."
+
+"Don't let him hear _you_ talk in that way," retorted the young lady,
+for the first time speaking in a serious strain.  "Though you _are_ my
+cousin, and papa may think you the pink of perfection, I don't--not I!
+I never told you I did--did I?"  A frown, evidently called forth by some
+unsatisfactory reflection, was the only reply to this tantalising
+interrogative.
+
+"You _are_ my cousin," she continued, in a tone that contrasted
+strangely with the levity she had already exhibited, "but you are
+nothing more--nothing more--Captain Cassius Calhoun!  You have no claim
+to be my counsellor.  There is but one from whom I am in duty bound to
+take advice, or bear reproach.  I therefore beg of you, Master Cash,
+that you will not again presume to repeat such sentiments--as those you
+have just favoured me with.  I shall remain mistress of my own
+thoughts--and actions, too--till I have found a master who can control
+them.  It is not you!"
+
+Having delivered this speech, with eyes flashing--half angrily, half
+contemptuously--upon her cousin, the young Creole once more threw
+herself back upon the cushions of the carriole.
+
+The closing curtains admonished the ex-officer, that further
+conversation was not desired.
+
+Quailing under the lash of indignant innocence, he was only too happy to
+hear the loud "gee-on" of the teamsters, as the waggons commenced moving
+over the sombre surface--not more sombre than his own thoughts.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+THE PRAIRIE FINGER-POST.
+
+The travellers felt no further uneasiness about the route.  The
+snake-like trail was continuous; and so plain that a child might have
+followed it.
+
+It did not run in a right line, but meandering among the thickets; at
+times turning out of the way, in places where the ground was clear of
+timber.  This had evidently been done with an intent to avoid
+obstruction to the waggons: since at each of these windings the
+travellers could perceive that there were breaks, or other inequalities,
+in the surface.
+
+"How very thoughtful of the young fellow!" remarked Poindexter.  "I
+really feel regret at not having asked for his name.  If he belong to
+the Fort, we shall see him again."
+
+"No doubt of it," assented his son.  "I hope we shall."
+
+His daughter, reclining in shadow, overheard the conjectural speech, as
+well as the rejoinder.  She said nothing; but her glance towards Henry
+seemed to declare that her heart fondly echoed the hope.
+
+Cheered by the prospect of soon terminating a toilsome journey--as also
+by the pleasant anticipation of beholding, before sunset, his new
+purchase--the planter was in one of his happiest moods.  His
+aristocratic bosom was moved by an unusual amount of condescension, to
+all around him.  He chatted familiarly with his overseer; stopped to
+crack a joke with "Uncle" Scipio, hobbling along on blistered heels; and
+encouraged "Aunt" Chloe in the transport of her piccaninny.
+
+"Marvellous!" might the observer exclaim--misled by such exceptional
+interludes, so pathetically described by the scribblers in Lucifer's
+pay--"what a fine patriarchal institution is slavery, after all!  After
+all we have said and done to abolish it!  A waste of sympathy--sheer
+philanthropic folly to attempt the destruction of this ancient edifice--
+worthy corner-stone to a `chivalric' nation!  Oh, ye abolition fanatics!
+why do ye clamour against it?  Know ye not that some must suffer--must
+work and starve--that others may enjoy the luxury of idleness?  That
+some must be slaves, that others may be free?"
+
+Such arguments--at which a world might weep--have been of late but too
+often urged.  Woe to the man who speaks, and the nation that gives ear
+to them!
+
+The planter's high spirits were shared by his party, Calhoun alone
+excepted.  They were reflected in the faces of his black bondsmen, who
+regarded him as the source, and dispenser, of their happiness, or
+misery--omnipotent--next to God.  They loved him less than God, and
+feared him more; though he was by no means a bad master--that is, _by
+comparison_.  He did not absolutely take delight in torturing them.  He
+liked to see them well fed and clad--their epidermis shining with the
+exudation of its own oil.  These signs bespoke the importance of their
+proprietor--himself.  He was satisfied to let them off with an
+occasional "cow-hiding"--salutary, he would assure you; and in all his
+"stock" there was not one black skin marked with the mutilations of
+vengeance--a proud boast for a Mississippian slave-owner, and more than
+most could truthfully lay claim to.
+
+In the presence of such an exemplary owner, no wonder that the
+cheerfulness was universal--or that the slaves should partake of their
+master's joy, and give way to their garrulity.
+
+It was not destined that this joyfulness should continue to the end of
+their journey.  It was after a time interrupted--not suddenly, nor by
+any fault on the part of those indulging in it, but by causes and
+circumstances over which they had not the slightest control.
+
+As the stranger had predicted: the sun ceased to be visible, before the
+cypress came in sight.
+
+There was nothing in this to cause apprehension.  The line of the lazo
+was conspicuous as ever; and they needed no guidance from the sun: only
+that his cloud-eclipse produced a corresponding effect upon their
+spirits.
+
+"One might suppose it close upon nightfall," observed the planter,
+drawing out his gold repeater, and glancing at its dial; "and yet it's
+only three o'clock!  Lucky the young fellow has left us such a sure
+guide.  But for him, we might have floundered among these ashes till
+sundown; perhaps have been compelled to sleep upon them."
+
+"A black bed it would be," jokingly rejoined Henry, with the design of
+rendering the conversation more cheerful.  "Ugh!  I should have such
+ugly dreams, were I to sleep upon it."
+
+"And I, too," added his sister, protruding her pretty face through the
+curtains, and taking a survey of the surrounding scene: "I'm sure I
+should dream of Tartarus, and Pluto, and Proserpine, and--"
+
+"Hya! hya! hya!" grinned the black Jehu, on the box--enrolled in the
+plantation books as _Pluto Poindexter_--"De young missa dream 'bout _me_
+in de mids' ob dis brack praira!  Golly! dat am a good joke--berry!
+Hya! hya! hya!"
+
+"Don't be too sure, all of ye," said the surly nephew, at this moment
+coming up, and taking part in the conversation--"don't be too sure that
+you won't have to make your beds upon it yet.  I hope it may be no
+worse."
+
+"What mean you, Cash?" inquired the uncle.
+
+"I mean, uncle, that that fellow's been misleading us.  I won't say it
+for certain; but it looks ugly.  We've come more than five miles--six, I
+should say--and where's the tree?  I've examined the horizon, with a
+pair of as good eyes as most have got, I reckon; and there isn't such a
+thing in sight."
+
+"But why should the stranger have deceived us?"
+
+"Ah--why?  That's just it.  There may be more reasons than one."
+
+"Give us one, then!" challenged a silvery voice from the carriole.
+"We're all ears to hear it!"
+
+"You're all ears to take in everything that's told you by a stranger,"
+sneeringly replied Calhoun.  "I suppose if I gave my reason, you'd be so
+charitable as to call it a false alarm!"
+
+"That depends on its character, Master Cassius.  I think you might
+venture to try us.  We scarcely expect a false alarm from a soldier, as
+well as traveller, of your experience."
+
+Calhoun felt the taunt; and would probably have withheld the
+communication he had intended to make, but for Poindexter himself.
+
+"Come, Cassius, explain yourself!" demanded the planter, in a tone of
+respectful authority.  "You have said enough to excite something more
+than curiosity.  For what reason should the young fellow be leading us
+astray?"
+
+"Well, uncle," answered the ex-officer, retreating a little from his
+original accusation, "I haven't said for certain that he _is_; only that
+it looks like it."
+
+"In what way?"
+
+"Well, one don't know what may happen.  Travelling parties as strong,
+and stronger than we, have been attacked on these plains, and plundered
+of every thing--murdered."
+
+"Mercy!" exclaimed Louise, in a tone of terror, more affected than real.
+
+"By Indians," replied Poindexter.
+
+"Ah--Indians, indeed!  Sometimes it may be; and sometimes, too, they may
+be whites who play at that game--not all Mexican whites, neither.  It
+only needs a bit of brown paint; a horsehair wig, with half a dozen
+feathers stuck into it; that, and plenty of hullabalooing.  If we were
+to be robbed by a party of _white_ Indians, it wouldn't be the first
+time the thing's been done.  We as good as half deserve it--for our
+greenness, in trusting too much to a stranger."
+
+"Good heavens, nephew! this is a serious accusation.  Do you mean to say
+that the despatch-rider--if he be one--is leading us into--into an
+ambuscade?"
+
+"No, uncle; I don't say that.  I only say that such things have been
+done; and it's possible he _may_."
+
+"But not _probable_," emphatically interposed the voice from the
+carriole, in a tone tauntingly quizzical.
+
+"No!" exclaimed the stripling Henry, who, although riding a few paces
+ahead, had overheard the conversation.  "Your suspicions are unjust,
+cousin Cassius.  I pronounce them a calumny.  What's more, I can prove
+them so.  Look there!"
+
+The youth had reined up his horse, and was pointing to an object placed
+conspicuously by the side of the path; which, before speaking, he had
+closely scrutinised.  It was a tall plant of the _columnar cactus_,
+whose green succulent stem had escaped scathing by the fire.
+
+It was not to the plant itself that Henry Poindexter directed the
+attention of his companions; but to a small white disc, of the form of a
+parallelogram, impaled upon one of its spines.  No one accustomed to the
+usages of civilised life could mistake the "card."  It was one.
+
+"Hear what's written upon it!" continued the young man, riding nearer,
+and reading aloud the directions pencilled upon the bit of pasteboard.
+
+"The cypress in sight!"
+
+"Where?" inquired Poindexter.
+
+"There's a hand," rejoined Henry, "with a finger pointing--no doubt in
+the direction of the tree."
+
+All eyes were instantly turned towards the quarter of the compass,
+indicated by the cipher on the card.
+
+Had the sun been shining, the cypress might have been seen at the first
+glance.  As it was, the sky--late of cerulean hue--was now of a leaden
+grey; and no straining of the eyes could detect anything along the
+horizon resembling the top of a tree.
+
+"There's nothing of the kind," asserted Calhoun, with restored
+confidence, at the same time returning to his unworthy accusation.
+"It's only a dodge--another link in the chain of tricks the scamp is
+playing us."
+
+"You mistake, cousin Cassius," replied that same voice that had so often
+contradicted him.  "Look through this lorgnette!  If you haven't lost
+the sight of those superior eyes of yours, you'll see something _very
+like a tree_--a tall tree--and a cypress, too, if ever there was one in
+the swamps of Louisiana."
+
+Calhoun disdained to take the opera glass from the hands of his cousin.
+He knew it would convict him: for he could not suppose she was telling
+an untruth.
+
+Poindexter availed himself of its aid; and, adjusting the focus to his
+failing sight, was enabled to distinguish the red-leafed cypress,
+topping up over the edge of the prairie.
+
+"It's true," he said: "the tree is there.  The young fellow is honest:
+you've been wronging him, Cash.  I didn't think it likely he should have
+taken such a queer plan to make fools of us.  He there!  Mr Sansom!
+Direct your teamsters to drive on!"
+
+Calhoun, not caring to continue the conversation, nor yet remain longer
+in company, spitefully spurred his horse, and trotted off over the
+prairie.
+
+"Let me look at that card, Henry?" said Louise, speaking to her brother
+in a restrained voice.  "I'm curious to see the cipher that has been of
+such service to us.  Bring it away, brother: it can be of no further use
+where it is--now that we have sighted the tree."
+
+Henry, without the slightest suspicion of his sister's motive for making
+the request, yielded obedience to it.
+
+Releasing the piece of pasteboard from its impalement, he "chucked" it
+into her lap.
+
+"_Maurice Gerald_!" muttered the young Creole, after deciphering the
+name upon the card.  "Maurice Gerald!" she repeated, in apostrophic
+thought, as she deposited the piece of pasteboard in her bosom.
+"Whoever you are--whence you have come--whither you are going--what you
+may be--_Henceforth there is a fate between us_!  I feel it--I know it--
+sure as there's a sky above!  Oh! how that sky lowers!  Am I to take it
+as a type of this still untraced destiny?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+THE BLACK NORTHER.
+
+For some seconds, after surrendering herself to the Sybilline thoughts
+thus expressed, the young lady sate in silence--her white hands clasped
+across her temples, as if her whole soul was absorbed in an attempt,
+either to explain the past, or penetrate the future.
+
+Her reverie--whatever might be its cause--was not of long duration.  She
+was awakened from it, on hearing exclamations without--mingled with
+words that declared some object of apprehension.
+
+She recognised her brother's voice, speaking in tones that betokened
+alarm.
+
+"Look, father! don't you see them?"
+
+"Where, Henry--where?"
+
+"Yonder--behind the waggons.  You see them now?"
+
+"I do--though I can't say what they are.  They look like--like--"
+Poindexter was puzzled for a simile--"I really don't know what."
+
+"Waterspouts?" suggested the ex-captain, who, at sight of the strange
+objects, had condescended to rejoin the party around the carriole.
+"Surely it can't be that?  It's too far from the sea.  I never heard of
+their occurring on the prairies."
+
+"They are in motion, whatever they be," said Henry.  "See! they keep
+closing, and then going apart.  But for that, one might mistake them for
+huge obelisks of black marble!"
+
+"Giants, or ghouls!" jokingly suggested Calhoun; "ogres from some other
+world, who've taken a fancy to have a promenade on this abominable
+prairie!"
+
+The ex-officer was only humorous with an effort.  As well as the others,
+he was under the influence of an uneasy feeling.
+
+And no wonder.  Against the northern horizon had suddenly become
+upreared a number of ink-coloured columns--half a score of them--unlike
+anything ever seen before.  They were not of regular columnar form, nor
+fixed in any way; but constantly changing size, shape, and place--now
+steadfast for a time--now gliding over the charred surface like giants
+upon skates--anon, bending and balancing towards one another in the most
+fantastic figurings!
+
+It required no great effort of imagination, to fancy the Titans of old,
+resuscitated on the prairies of Texas, leading a measure after some wild
+carousal in the company of Bacchus!
+
+In the proximity of phenomena never observed before--unearthly in their
+aspect--unknown to every individual of the party--it was but natural
+these should be inspired with alarm.
+
+And such was the fact.  A sense of danger pervaded every bosom.  All
+were impressed with a belief: that they were in the presence of some
+_peril of the prairies_.
+
+A general halt had been made on first observing the strange objects: the
+negroes on foot, as well as the teamsters, giving utterance to shouts of
+terror.  The animals--mules as well as horses, had come instinctively to
+a stand--the latter neighing and trembling--the former filling the air
+with their shrill screams.
+
+These were not the only sounds.  From the sable towers could be heard a
+hoarse swishing noise, that resembled the sough of a waterfall--at
+intervals breaking into reverberations like the roll of musketry, or the
+detonations of distant thunder!
+
+These noises were gradually growing louder and more distinct.  The
+danger, whatever it might be, was drawing nearer!
+
+Consternation became depicted on the countenances of the travellers,
+Calhoun's forming no exception.  The ex-officer no longer pretended
+levity.  The eyes of all were turned towards the lowering sky, and the
+band of black columns that appeared coming on to crush them!
+
+At this crisis a shout, reaching their ears from the opposite side, was
+a source of relief--despite the unmistakable accent of alarm in which it
+was uttered.
+
+Turning, they beheld a horseman in full gallop--riding direct towards
+them.
+
+The horse was black as coal: the rider of like hue, even to the skin of
+his face.  For all that he was recognised: as the stranger, upon the
+trail of whose lazo they had been travelling.
+
+The perceptions of woman are quicker than those of man: the young lady
+within the carriole was the first to identify him.  "Onward!" he cried,
+as soon as within speaking distance.  "On--on! as fast as you can
+drive!"
+
+"What is it?" demanded the planter, in bewildered alarm.  "Is there a
+danger?"
+
+"There is.  I did not anticipate it, as I passed you.  It was only after
+reaching the river, I saw the sure signs of it."
+
+"Of what, sir?"
+
+"The _norther_."
+
+"You mean the storm of that name?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"I never heard of its being dangerous," interposed Calhoun, "except to
+vessels at sea.  It's precious cold, I know; but--"
+
+"You'll find it worse than cold, sir," interrupted the young horseman,
+"if you're not quick in getting out of its way.  Mr Poindexter," he
+continued, turning to the planter, and speaking with impatient emphasis,
+"I tell you, that you and your party are in peril.  A norther is not
+always to be dreaded; but this one--look yonder!  You see those black
+pillars?"
+
+"We've been wondering--didn't know what to make of them."
+
+"They're nothing--only the precursors of the storm.  Look beyond!  Don't
+you see a coal-black cloud spreading over the sky?  That's what you have
+to dread.  I don't wish to cause you unnecessary alarm: but I tell you,
+there's death in yonder shadow!  It's in motion, and coming this way.
+You have no chance to escape it, except by speed.  If you do not make
+haste, it will be too late.  In ten minutes' time you may be enveloped,
+and then--quick, sir, I entreat you!  Order your drivers to hurry
+forward as fast as they can!  The sky--heaven itself--commands you!"
+
+The planter did not think of refusing compliance, with an appeal urged
+in such energetic terms.  The order was given for the teams to be set in
+motion, and driven at top speed.
+
+Terror, that inspired the animals equally with their drivers, rendered
+superfluous the use of the whip.
+
+The travelling carriage, with the mounted men, moved in front, as
+before.  The stranger alone threw himself in the rear--as if to act as a
+guard against the threatening danger.
+
+At intervals he was observed to rein up his horse, and look back: each
+time by his glances betraying increased apprehension.
+
+Perceiving it, the planter approached, and accosted him with the
+inquiry:
+
+"Is there still a danger?"
+
+"I am sorry to answer you in the affirmative," said he: "I had hopes
+that the wind might be the other way."
+
+"Wind, sir?  There is none--that I can perceive."
+
+"Not here.  Yonder it is blowing a hurricane, and this way too--direct.
+By heavens! it is nearing us rapidly!  I doubt if we shall be able to
+clear the burnt track."
+
+"What is to be done?" exclaimed the planter, terrified by the
+announcement.
+
+"Are your mules doing their best?"
+
+"They are: they could not be driven faster."
+
+"I fear we shall _be too late, then_!"
+
+As the speaker gave utterance to this gloomy conjecture, he reined round
+once more; and sate regarding the cloud columns--as if calculating the
+rate at which they were advancing.
+
+The lines, contracting around his lips, told of something more than
+dissatisfaction.
+
+"Yes: too late!" he exclaimed, suddenly terminating his scrutiny.  "They
+are moving faster than we--far faster.  There is no hope of our escaping
+them!"
+
+"Good God, sir! is the danger so great?  Can we do nothing to avoid it?"
+
+The stranger did not make immediate reply.  For some seconds he remained
+silent, as if reflecting--his glance no longer turned towards the sky,
+but wandering among the waggons.
+
+"Is there no chance of escape?" urged the planter, with the impatience
+of a man in presence of a great peril.
+
+"There is!" joyfully responded the horseman, as if some hopeful thought
+had at length suggested itself.  "There _is a chance_.  I did not think
+of it before.  We cannot shun the storm--the danger we may.  Quick, Mr
+Poindexter!  Order your men to muffle the mules--the horses too--
+otherwise the animals will be blinded, and go mad.  Blankets--cloaks--
+anything will do.  When that's done, let all seek shelter within the
+waggons.  Let the tilts be closed at the ends.  I shall myself look to
+the travelling carriage."
+
+Having delivered this chapter of instructions--which Poindexter,
+assisted by the overseer, hastened to direct the execution of--the young
+horseman galloped towards the front.
+
+"Madame!" said he, reining up alongside the carriole, and speaking with
+as much suavity as the circumstances would admit of, "you must close the
+curtains all round.  Your coachman will have to get inside; and you,
+gentlemen!" he continued, addressing himself to Henry and Calhoun--"and
+you, sir;" to Poindexter, who had just come up.  "There will be room for
+all.  Inside, I beseech you!  Lose no time.  In a few seconds the storm
+will be upon us!"
+
+"And you, sir?" inquired the planter, with a show of interest in the man
+who was making such exertions to secure them against some yet
+unascertained danger.  "What of yourself?"
+
+"Don't waste a moment upon me.  I know what's coming.  It isn't the
+first time I have encountered it.  In--in, I entreat you!  You haven't a
+second to spare.  Listen to that shriek!  Quick, or the dust-cloud will
+be around us!"
+
+The planter and his son sprang together to the ground; and retreated
+into the travelling carriage.
+
+Calhoun, refusing to dismount, remained stiffly seated in his saddle.
+Why should _he_ skulk from a visionary danger, that did not deter a man
+in Mexican garb?
+
+The latter turned away; as he did so, directing the overseer to get
+inside the nearest waggon--a direction which was obeyed with alacrity--
+and, for the first time, the stranger was left free to take care of
+himself.
+
+Quickly unfolding his _serape_--hitherto strapped across the cantle of
+his saddle--he flung it over the head of his horse.  Then, drawing the
+edges back, he fastened it, bag-fashion, around the animal's neck.  With
+equal alertness he undid his scarf of China crape; and stretched it
+around his sombrero--fixing it in such a way, that one edge was held
+under the bullion band, while the other dropped down over the brim--thus
+forming a silken visor for his face.
+
+Before finally closing it, he turned once more towards the carriole;
+and, to his surprise, saw Calhoun still in the saddle.  Humanity
+triumphed over a feeling of incipient aversion.
+
+"Once again, sir, I adjure you to get inside!  If you do not you'll have
+cause to repent it.  Within ten minutes' time, you may be a dead man!"
+
+The positive emphasis with which the caution was delivered produced its
+effect.  In the presence of mortal foeman, Cassius Calhoun was no
+coward.  But there was an enemy approaching that was not mortal--not in
+any way understood.  It was already making itself manifest, in tones
+that resembled thunder--in shadows that mocked the darkness of midnight.
+Who would not have felt fear at the approach of a destroyer so
+declaring itself?
+
+The ex-officer was unable to resist the united warnings of earth and
+heaven; and, slipping out of his saddle with a show of reluctance--
+intended to save appearances--he clambered into the carriage, and
+ensconced himself behind the closely-drawn curtains.
+
+To describe what followed is beyond the power of the pen.  No eye beheld
+the spectacle: for none dared look upon it.  Even had this been
+possible, nothing could have been seen.  In five minutes after the
+muffling of the mules, the train was enveloped in worse than Cimmerian
+darkness.
+
+The opening scene can alone be depicted: for that only was observed by
+the travellers.  One of the sable columns, moving in the advance, broke
+as it came in collision with the waggon-tilts.  Down came a shower of
+black dust, as if the sky had commenced raining gunpowder!  It was a
+foretaste of what was to follow.
+
+There was a short interval of open atmosphere--hot as the inside of an
+oven.  Then succeeded puffs, and whirling gusts, of wind--cold as if
+projected from caves of ice, and accompanied by a noise as though all
+the trumpets of Aeolus were announcing the advent of the Storm-King!
+
+In another instant the _norther_ was around them; and the waggon train,
+halted on a subtropical plain, was enveloped in an atmosphere, akin to
+that which congeals the icebergs of the Arctic Ocean!
+
+Nothing more was seen--nothing heard, save the whistling of the wind, or
+its hoarse roaring, as it thundered against the tilts of the waggons.
+The mules having instinctively turned stern towards it, stood silent in
+their traces; and the voices of the travellers, in solemn converse
+inside, could not be distinguished amid the howling of the hurricane.
+
+Every aperture had been closed: for it was soon discovered, that to show
+a face from under the sheltering canvas was to court suffocation.  The
+air was surcharged with ashes, lifted aloft from the burnt plain, and
+reduced, by the whirling of the wind, to an impalpable but poisonous
+powder.
+
+For over an hour did the atmosphere carry this cinereous cloud; during
+which period lasted the imprisonment of the travellers.
+
+At length a voice, speaking close by the curtains of the carriole,
+announced their release.
+
+"You can come forth!" said the stranger, the crape scarf thrown back
+above the brim of his hat.  "You will still have the storm to contend
+against.  It will last to the end of your journey; and, perhaps, for
+three days longer.  But you have nothing further to fear.  The ashes are
+all swept off.  They've gone before you; and you're not likely to
+overtake them this side the Rio Grande."
+
+"Sir!" said the planter, hastily descending the steps of the carriage,
+"we have to thank you for--for--"
+
+"Our lives, father!" cried Henry, supplying the proper words.  "I hope,
+sir, you will favour us with your name?"
+
+"_Maurice Gerald_!" returned the stranger; "though, at the Fort, you
+will find me better known as _Maurice the mustanger_."
+
+"A mustanger!" scornfully muttered Calhoun, but only loud enough to be
+heard by Louise.
+
+"Only a mustanger!" reflected the aristocratic Poindexter, the fervour
+of his gratitude becoming sensibly chilled.
+
+"For guide, you will no longer need either myself, or my lazo," said the
+hunter of wild horses.  "The cypress is in sight: keep straight towards
+it.  After crossing, you will see the flag over the Fort.  You may yet
+reach your journey's end before night.  I have no time to tarry; and
+must say adieu."
+
+Satan himself, astride a Tartarean steed, could not have looked more
+like the devil than did Maurice the Mustanger, as he separated for the
+second time from the planter and his party.  But neither his ashy
+envelope, nor the announcement of his humble calling, did aught to
+damage him in the estimation of one, whose thoughts were already
+predisposed in his favour--Louise Poindexter.
+
+On hearing him declare his name--by presumption already known to her--
+she but more tenderly cherished the bit of cardboard, chafing against
+her snow-white bosom; at the same time muttering in soft pensive
+soliloquy, heard only by herself:--
+
+"Maurice the mustanger! despite your sooty covering--despite your modest
+pretence--you have touched the heart of a Creole maiden.  _Mon
+Dieu_--_mon Dieu!  He is too like Lucifer for me to despise him_!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+THE HOME OF THE HORSE-HUNTER.
+
+Where the _Rio de Nueces_ (River of Nuts) collects its waters from a
+hundred tributary streams--lining the map like the limbs of a grand
+genealogical tree--you may look upon a land of surpassing fairness.  Its
+surface is "rolling prairie," interspersed with clumps of post-oak and
+pecan, here and there along the banks of the watercourses uniting into
+continuous groves.
+
+In some places these timbered tracts assume the aspect of the true
+_chapparal_--a thicket, rather than a forest--its principal growth being
+various kinds of acacia, associated with copaiva and creosote trees,
+with wild aloes, with eccentric shapes of cereus, cactus, and
+arborescent yucca.
+
+These spinous forms of vegetation, though repulsive to the eye of the
+agriculturist--as proving the utter sterility of the soil--present an
+attractive aspect to the botanist, or the lover of Nature; especially
+when the cereus unfolds its huge wax-like blossoms, or the _Fouquiera
+splendens_ overtops the surrounding shrubbery with its spike of
+resplendent flowers, like a red flag hanging unfolded along its staff.
+
+The whole region, however, is not of this character.  There are
+stretches of greater fertility; where a black calcareous earth gives
+nourishment to trees of taller growth, and more luxuriant foliage.  The
+"wild China"--a true _sapindal_--the pecan, the elm, the hackberry, and
+the oak of several species--with here and there a cypress or
+Cottonwood--form the components of many a sylvan scene, which, from the
+blending of their leaves of various shades of green, and the ever
+changing contour of their clumps, deserves to be denominated fair.
+
+The streams of this region are of crystal purity--their waters tinted
+only by the reflection of sapphire skies.  Its sun, moon, and stars are
+scarcely ever concealed behind a cloud.  The demon of disease has not
+found his way into this salubrious spot: no epidemic can dwell within
+its borders.
+
+Despite these advantages, civilised man has not yet made it his home.
+Its paths are trodden only by the red-skinned rovers of the prairie--
+Lipano or Comanche--and these only when mounted, and upon the _maraud_
+towards the settlements of the Lower Nueces, or Leona.
+
+It may be on this account--though it would almost seem as if they were
+actuated by a love of the beautiful and picturesque--that the true
+children of Nature, the wild animals, have selected this spot as their
+favourite habitat and home.  In no part of Texas does the stag bound up
+so often before you; and nowhere is the timid antelope so frequently
+seen.  The rabbit, and his gigantic cousin, the mule-rabbit, are
+scarcely ever out of sight; while the polecat, the opossum, and the
+curious peccary, are encountered at frequent intervals.
+
+Birds, too, of beautiful forms and colours, enliven the landscape.  The
+quail whirrs up from the path; the king vulture wheels in the ambient
+air; the wild turkey, of gigantic stature, suns his resplendent gorget
+by the side of the pecan copse, and the singular tailor-bird--known
+among the rude Rangers as the "bird of paradise"--flouts his long
+scissors-like tail among the feathery fronds of the acacia.
+
+Beautiful butterflies spread their wide wings in flapping flight; or,
+perched upon some gay corolla, look as if they formed part of the
+flower.  Huge bees (_Meliponae_), clad in velvet liveries, buzz amid the
+blossoming bushes, disputing possession with hawkmoths and humming-birds
+not much larger than themselves.
+
+They are not all innocent, the denizens of this lovely land.  Here the
+rattlesnake attains to larger dimensions than in any other part of North
+America, and shares the covert with the more dangerous _moccasin_.
+Here, too, the tarantula inflicts its venomous sting; the scorpion
+poisons with its bite; and the centipede, by simply crawling over the
+skin, causes a fever that may prove fatal!
+
+Along the wooded banks of the streams may be encountered the spotted
+ocelot, the puma, and their more powerful congener, the jaguar; the last
+of these _felidae_ being here upon the northern limit of its
+geographical range.
+
+Along the edges of the chapparal skulks the gaunt Texan wolf--solitarily
+and in silence; while a kindred and more cowardly species, the _coyote_,
+may be observed, far out upon the open plain, hunting in packs.
+
+Sharing the same range with these, the most truculent of quadrupeds, may
+be seen the noblest and most beautiful of animals--perhaps nobler and
+more beautiful than man--certainly the most distinguished of man's
+companions--the horse!
+
+Here--independent of man's caprice, his jaw unchecked by bit or curb,
+his back unscathed by pack or saddle--he roams unrestrained; giving way
+to all the wildness of his nature.
+
+But even in this, his favourite haunt, he is not always left alone.  Man
+presumes to be his pursuer and tamer: for here was he sought, captured,
+and conquered, by _Maurice the Mustanger_.
+
+On the banks of the _Alamo_--one of the most sparkling streamlets that
+pay tribute to the Nueces--stood a dwelling, unpretentious as any to be
+found within the limits of Texas, and certainly as picturesque.
+
+Its walls were composed of split trunk of the arborescent yucca, set
+stockade-fashion in the ground; while its roof was a thatch furnished by
+the long bayonet-shaped loaves of the same gigantic lily.
+
+The interstices between the uprights, instead of being "chinked" with
+clay--as is common in the cabins of Western Texas--were covered by a
+sheeting of horse-skins; attached, not by iron tacks, but with the sharp
+spines that terminate the leaves of the _pita_ plant.
+
+On the bluffs, that on both sides overlooked the rivulet--and which were
+but the termination of the escarpment of the higher plain--grew in
+abundance the material out of which the hut had been constructed: tree
+yuccas and _magueys_, amidst other rugged types of sterile vegetation;
+whereas the fertile valley below was covered with a growth of heavy
+timber--consisting chiefly of red-mulberry, post-oak, and pecan, that
+formed a forest of several leagues in length.  The timbered tract was,
+in fact, conterminous with the bottom lands; the tops of the trees
+scarce rising to a level with the escarpment of the cliff.
+
+It was not continuous.  Along the edge of the streamlet were breaks--
+forming little meads, or savannahs, covered with that most nutritious of
+grasses, known among Mexicans as _grama_.
+
+In the concavity of one of these, of semicircular shape--which served as
+a natural lawn--stood the primitive dwelling above described; the
+streamlet representing the chord; while the curve was traced by the
+trunks of the trees, that resembled a series of columns supporting the
+roof of some sylvan coliseum.
+
+The structure was in shadow, a little retired among the trees; as if the
+site had been chosen with a view to concealment.  It could have been
+seen but by one passing along the bank of the stream; and then only with
+the observer directly in front of it.  Its rude style of architecture,
+and russet hue, contributed still further to its _inconspicuousness_.
+
+The house was a mere cabin--not larger than a marquee tent--with only a
+single aperture, the door--if we except the flue of a slender clay
+chimney, erected at one end against the upright posts.  The doorway had
+a door, a light framework of wood, with a horse-skin stretched over it,
+and hung upon hinges cut from the same hide.
+
+In the rear was an open shed, thatched with yucca leaves, and supported
+by half a dozen posts.  Around this was a small enclosure, obtained by
+tying cross poles to the trunks of the adjacent trees.
+
+A still more extensive enclosure, containing within its circumference
+more than an acre of the timbered tract, and fenced in a similar manner,
+extended rearward from the cabin, terminating against the bluff.  Its
+turf tracked and torn by numerous hoof-prints--in some places trampled
+into a hard surface--told of its use: a "corral" for wild
+horses--_mustangs_.
+
+This was made still more manifest by the presence of a dozen or more of
+these animals within the enclosure; whose glaring eyeballs, and excited
+actions, gave evidence of their recent capture, and how ill they brooked
+the imprisonment of that shadowy paddock.
+
+The interior of the hut was not without some show of neatness and
+comfort.  The sheeting of mustang-skins that covered the walls, with the
+hairy side turned inward, presented no mean appearance.  The smooth
+shining coats of all colours--black, bay, snow-white, sorrel, and
+skewbald--offered to the eye a surface pleasantly variegated; and there
+had evidently been some taste displayed in their arrangement.
+
+The furniture was of the scantiest kind.  It consisted of a counterfeit
+camp bedstead, formed by stretching a horse-hide over a framework of
+trestles; a couple of stools--diminutive specimens on the same model;
+and a rude table, shaped out of hewn slabs of the yucca-tree.  Something
+like a second sleeping place appeared in a remote corner--a "shakedown,"
+or "spread," of the universal mustang-skin.
+
+What was least to be expected in such a place, was a shelf containing
+about a score of books, with pens, ink, and _papeterie_; also a
+newspaper lying upon the slab table.
+
+Further proofs of civilisation, if not refinement, presented themselves
+in the shape of a large leathern portmanteau, a double-barrelled gun,
+with "Westley Richards" upon the breech; a drinking cup of chased
+silver, a huntsman's horn, and a dog-call.
+
+Upon the floor were a few culinary utensils, mostly of tin; while in one
+corner stood a demijohn, covered with wicker, and evidently containing
+something stronger than the water of the Alamo.
+
+Other "chattels" in the cabin were perhaps more in keeping with the
+place.  There was a high-peaked Mexican saddle; a bridle, with headstall
+of plaited horsehair, and reins to correspond; two or three spare
+_serapes_, and some odds and ends of raw-hide rope.
+
+Such was the structure of the mustanger's dwelling--such its
+surroundings--such its interior and contents, with the exception of its
+living occupants--two in number.
+
+On one of the stools standing in the centre of the floor was seated a
+man, who could not be the mustanger himself.  In no way did he present
+the semblance of a proprietor.  On the contrary, the air of the
+servitor--the mien of habitual obedience--was impressed upon him beyond
+the chance of misconstruction.
+
+Rude as was the cabin that sheltered him, no one entering under its roof
+would have mistaken him for its master.
+
+Not that he appeared ill clad or fed, or in any way stinted in his
+requirements.  He was a round plump specimen, with a shock of
+carrot-coloured hair and a bright ruddy skin, habited in a suit of stout
+stuff--half corduroy, half cotton-velvet.  The corduroy was in the shape
+of a pair of knee-breeches, with gaiters to correspond; the velveteen,
+once bottle green, now faded to a brownish hue, exhibited itself in a
+sort of shooting coat, with ample pockets in the breast and skirts.
+
+A "wide-awake" hat, cocked over a pair of eyes equally deserving the
+appellation, completed the costume of the individual in question--if we
+except a shirt of coarse calico, a red cotton kerchief loosely knotted
+around his neck, and a pair of Irish _brogues_ upon his feet.
+
+It needed neither the brogues, nor the corduroy breeches, to proclaim
+his nationality.  His lips, nose, eyes, air, and attitude, were all
+unmistakably Milesian.
+
+Had there been any ambiguity about this, it would have been dispelled as
+he opened his mouth for the emission of speech; and this he at intervals
+did, in an accent that could only have been acquired in the shire of
+Galway.  As he was the sole human occupant of the cabin, it might be
+supposed that he spoke only in soliloquy.  Not so, however.  Couched
+upon a piece of horse-skin, in front of the fire, with snout half buried
+among the ashes, was a canine companion, whose appearance bespoke a
+countryman--a huge Irish staghound, that looked as if he too understood
+the speech of Connemara.
+
+Whether he did so or not, it was addressed to him, as if he was expected
+to comprehend every word.
+
+"Och, Tara, me jewel!" exclaimed he in the corduroys, fraternally
+interrogating the hound; "hadn't yez weesh now to be back in
+Ballyballagh?  Wadn't yez loike to be wance more in the coortyard av the
+owld castle, friskin' over the clane stones, an bein' tripe-fed till
+there wasn't a rib to be seen in your sides--so different from what they
+are now--when I kyan count ivery wan av them?  Sowl! it's meself that ud
+loike to be there, anyhow!  But there's no knowin' when the young
+masther 'll go back, an take us along wid him.  Niver mind, Tara!  He's
+goin' to the Sittlements soon, ye owld dog; an he's promised to take us
+thare; that's some consolashun.  Be japers! it's over three months since
+I've been to the Fort, meself.  Maybe I'll find some owld acquaintance
+among them Irish sodgers that's come lately; an be me sowl, av I do,
+won't there be a dhrap betwane us--won't there, Tara?"
+
+The staghound, raising his head at hearing the mention of his name, gave
+a slight sniff, as if saying "Yes" in answer to the droll interrogatory.
+
+"I'd like a dhrap now," continued the speaker, casting a covetous glance
+towards the wickered jar; "mightily I wud that same; but the dimmyjan is
+too near bein' empty, an the young masther might miss it.  Besides, it
+wudn't be raal honest av me to take it widout lave--wud it, Tara?"
+
+The dog again raised his head above the ashes, and sneezed as before.
+
+"Why, that was _yis_, the last time ye spoke!  Div yez mane is for the
+same now?  Till me, Tara!"
+
+Once more the hound gave utterance to the sound--that appeared to be
+caused either by a slight touch of influenza, or the ashes having
+entered his nostrils.
+
+"`Yis' again?  In trath that's just fwhat the dumb crayther manes!
+Don't timpt me, ye owld thief!  No--no; I won't touch the whisky.  I'll
+only draw the cork out av the dimmyjan, an take a smell at it.  Shure
+the masther won't know anything about that; an if he did, he wudn't mind
+it!  Smellin' kyant do the pothyeen any harm."
+
+During the concluding portion of this utterance, the speaker had
+forsaken his seat, and approached the corner where stood the jar.
+
+Notwithstanding the professed innocence of his intent, there was a
+stealthiness about his movements, that seemed to argue either a want of
+confidence in his own integrity, or in his power to resist temptation.
+
+He stood for a short while listening--his eyes turned towards the open
+doorway; and then, taking up the demijohn, he drew out the stopper, and
+held the neck to his nose.
+
+For some seconds he remained in this attitude: giving out no other sign
+than an occasional "sniff," similar to that uttered by the hound, and
+which he had been fain to interpret as an affirmative answer to his
+interrogatory.  It expressed the enjoyment he was deriving from the
+_bouquet_ of the potent spirit.
+
+But this only satisfied him for a very short time; and gradually the
+bottom of the jar was seen going upwards, while the reverse end
+descended in like ratio in the direction of his protruding lips.
+
+"Be japers!" he exclaimed, once more glancing stealthily towards the
+door, "flesh and blood cudn't stand the smell av that bewtiful whisky,
+widout tastin' it.  Trath!  I'll chance it--jist the smallest thrifle to
+wet the tap av my tongue.  Maybe it'll burn the skin av it; but no
+matther--here goes!"
+
+Without further ado the neck of the demijohn was brought in contact with
+his lips; but instead of the "smallest thrifle" to wet the top of his
+tongue, the "gluck--gluck" of the escaping fluid told that he was
+administering a copious saturation to the whole lining of his larynx,
+and something more.
+
+After half a dozen "smacks" of the mouth, with other exclamations
+denoting supreme satisfaction, he hastily restored the stopper; returned
+the demijohn to its place; and glided back to his seat upon the stool.
+
+"Tara, ye owld thief!" said he, addressing himself once more to his
+canine companion, "it was you that timpted me!  No matther, man: the
+masther 'll niver miss it; besides, he's goin' soon to the Fort, an can
+lay in a fresh supply."
+
+For a time the pilferer remained silent; either reflecting on the act he
+had committed, or enjoying the effects which the "potheen" had produced
+upon his spirits.
+
+His silence was of short duration; and was terminated by a soliloquy.
+
+"I wondher," muttered he, "fwhat makes Masther Maurice so anxious to get
+back to the Sittlements.  He says he'll go wheniver he catches that
+spotty mustang he has seen lately.  Sowl! isn't he bad afther that
+baste!  I suppose it must be somethin' beyant the common--the more be
+token, as he has chased the crayther three times widout bein' able to
+throw his rope over it--an mounted on the blood-bay, too.  He sez he
+won't give it up, till he gets howlt of it.  Trath!  I hope it'll be
+grupped soon, or wez may stay here till the marnin' av doomsday.  Hush!
+fwhat's that?"
+
+Tara springing up from his couch of skin, and rushing out with a low
+growl, had caused the exclamation.
+
+"Phelim!" hailed a voice from the outside.  "Phelim!"
+
+"It's the masther," muttered Phelim, as he jumped from his stool, and
+followed the dog through the doorway.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+THE SPOTTED MUSTANG.
+
+Phelim was not mistaken as to the voice that had hailed him.  It was
+that of his master, Maurice Gerald.
+
+On getting outside, he saw the mustanger at a short distance from the
+door, and advancing towards it.
+
+As the servant should have expected, his master was mounted upon his
+horse--no longer of a reddish colour, but appearing almost black.  The
+animal's coat was darkened with sweat; its counter and flanks speckled
+with foam.
+
+The blood-bay was not alone.  At the end of the lazo--drawn taut from
+the saddle tree--was a companion, or, to speak more accurately, a
+captive.  With a leathern thong looped around its under jaw, and firmly
+embracing the bars of its mouth, kept in place by another passing over
+its neck immediately behind the ears, was the captive secured.
+
+It was a mustang of peculiar appearance, as regarded its markings; which
+were of a kind rarely seen--even among the largest "gangs" that roam
+over the prairie pastures, where colours of the most eccentric patterns
+are not uncommon.
+
+That of the animal in question was a ground of dark chocolate in places
+approaching to black--with white spots distributed over it, as regularly
+as the contrary colours upon the skin of the jaguar.
+
+As if to give effect to this pleasing arrangement of hues, the creature
+was of perfect shape--broad chested, full in the flank, and clean
+limbed--with a hoof showing half a score of concentric rings, and a head
+that might have been taken as a type of equine beauty.  It was of large
+size for a mustang, though much smaller than the ordinary English horse;
+even smaller than the blood-bay--himself a mustang--that had assisted in
+its capture.
+
+The beautiful captive was a mare--one of a _manada_ that frequented the
+plains near the source of the Alamo; and where, for the third time, the
+mustanger had unsuccessfully chased it.
+
+In his case the proverb had proved untrue.  In the third time he had not
+found the "charm"; though it favoured him in the fourth.  By the
+fascination of a long rope, with a running noose at its end, he had
+secured the creature that, for some reason known only to himself, he so
+ardently wished to possess.
+
+Phelim had never seen his master return from a horse-hunting excursion
+in such a state of excitement; even when coming back--as he often did--
+with half a dozen mustangs led loosely at the end of his lazo.
+
+But never before at the end of that implement had Phelim beheld such a
+beauty as the spotted mare.  She was a thing to excite the admiration of
+one less a connoisseur in horse-flesh than the _ci-devant_ stable-boy of
+Castle Ballagh.
+
+"Hooch--hoop--hoora!" cried he, as he set eyes upon the captive, at the
+same time tossing his hat high into the air.  "Thanks to the Howly
+Vargin, an Saint Pathrick to boot, Masther Maurice, yez have cotched the
+spotty at last!  It's a mare, be japers!  Och! the purthy crayther!  I
+don't wondher yez hiv been so bad about gettin' howlt av her.  Sowl! if
+yez had her in Ballinasloe Fair, yez might ask your own price, and get
+it too, widout givin' sixpence av luckpenny.  Oh! the purty crayther!
+Where will yez hiv her phut, masther?  Into the corral, wid the others?"
+
+"No, she might get kicked among them.  We shall tie her in the shed.
+Castro must pass his night outside among the trees.  If he's got any
+gallantry in him he won't mind that.  Did you ever see anything so
+beautiful as she is, Phelim--I mean in the way of horseflesh?"
+
+"Niver, Masther Maurice; niver, in all me life!  An' I've seen some nice
+bits av blood about Ballyballagh.  Oh, the purty crayther! she looks as
+if a body cud ate her; and yit, in trath, she looks like she wud ate
+you.  Yez haven't given her the schoolin' lesson, have yez?"
+
+"No, Phelim: I don't want to break her just yet--not till I have time,
+and can do it properly.  It would never do to spoil such perfection as
+that.  I shall tame her, after we've taken her to the Settlements."
+
+"Yez be goin' there, masther Maurice?  When?"
+
+"To-morrow.  We shall start by daybreak, so as to make only one day
+between here and the Fort."
+
+"Sowl!  I'm glad to hear it.  Not on me own account, but yours, Masther
+Maurice.  Maybe yez don't know that the whisky's on the idge of bein'
+out?  From the rattle av the jar, I don't think there's more than three
+naggins left.  Them sutlers at the Fort aren't honest.  They chate ye in
+the mizyure; besides watherin' the whisky, so that it won't bear a dhrap
+more out av the strame hare.  Trath! a gallon av Innishowen wud last
+ayqual to three av this Amerikin _rotgut_, as the Yankees themselves
+christen it."
+
+"Never mind about the whisky, Phelim--I suppose there's enough to last
+us for this night, and fill our flasks for the journey of to-morrow.
+Look alive, old Ballyballagh!  Let us stable the spotted mare; and then
+I shall have time to talk about a fresh supply of `potheen,' which I
+know you like better than anything else--except yourself!"
+
+"And you, Masther Maurice!" retorted the Galwegian, with a comical
+twinkle of the eye, that caused his master to leap laughingly out of the
+saddle.
+
+The spotted mare was soon stabled in the shed, Castro being temporarily
+attached to a tree; where Phelim proceeded to groom him after the most
+approved prairie fashion.
+
+The mustanger threw himself on his horse-skin couch, wearied with the
+work of the day.  The capture of the "yegua pinta" had cost him a long
+and arduous chase--such as he had never ridden before in pursuit of a
+mustang.
+
+There was a motive that had urged him on, unknown to Phelim--unknown to
+Castro who carried him--unknown to living creature, save himself.
+
+Notwithstanding that he had spent several days in the saddle--the last
+three in constant pursuit of the spotted mare--despite the weariness
+thus occasioned, he was unable to obtain repose.  At intervals he rose
+to his feet, and paced the floor of his hut, as if stirred by some
+exciting emotion.
+
+For several nights he had slept uneasily--at intervals tossing upon his
+_catre_--till not only his henchman Phelim, but his hound Tara, wondered
+what could be the meaning of his _unrest_.
+
+The former might have attributed it to his desire to possess the spotted
+mare; had he not known that his master's feverish feeling antedated his
+knowledge of the existence of this peculiar quadruped.
+
+It was several days after his last return from the Fort that the "yegua
+pinta" had first presented herself to the eye of the mustanger.  That
+therefore could not be the cause of his altered demeanour.
+
+His success in having secured the animal, instead of tranquillising his
+spirit, seemed to have produced the contrary effect.  At least, so
+thought Phelim: who--with the freedom of that relationship known as
+"foster-brother"--had at length determined on questioning his master as
+to the cause of his inquietude.  As the latter lay shifting from side to
+side, he was saluted with the interrogatory--
+
+"Masther Maurice, fwhat, in the name of the Howly Vargin, is the matther
+wid ye?"
+
+"Nothing, Phelim--nothing, _mabohil_!  What makes you think there is?"
+
+"_Alannah_!  How kyan I help thinkin' it!  Yez kyant get a wink av
+sleep; niver since ye returned the last time from the Sittlement.  Och!
+yez hiv seen somethin' there that kapes ye awake?  Shure now, it isn't
+wan av them Mixikin girls--_mowchachas_, as they call them?  No, I won't
+believe it.  You wudn't be wan av the owld Geralds to care for such
+trash as them."
+
+"Nonsense, my good fellow!  There's nothing the matter with me.  It's
+all your own imagination."
+
+"Trath, masther, yez arr mistaken.  If there's anything asthray wid me
+imaginashun, fhwat is it that's gone wrong wid your own?  That is, whin
+yez arr aslape--which aren't often av late."
+
+"When I'm asleep!  What do you mean, Phelim?"
+
+"What div I mane?  Fwhy, that wheniver yez close your eyes an think yez
+are sleepin', ye begin palaverin', as if a preast was confessin' ye!"
+
+"Ah!  Is that so?  What have you heard me say?"
+
+"Not much, masther, that I cud make sinse out av.  Yez be always tryin'
+to pronounce a big name that appares to have no indin', though it begins
+wid a _point_!"
+
+"A name!  What name?"
+
+"Sowl!  I kyan't till ye exakly.  It's too long for me to remimber,
+seein' that my edicashun was intirely neglicted.  But there's another
+name that yez phut before it; an that I kyan tell ye.  It's a wuman's
+name, though it's not common in the owld counthry.  It's Looaze that ye
+say, Masther Maurice; an then comes _the point_."
+
+"Ah!" interrupted the young Irishman, evidently not caring to converse
+longer on the subject.  "Some name I may have heard--somewhere,
+accidentally.  One does have such strange ideas in dreams!"
+
+"Trath! yez spake the truth there; for in your drames, masther, ye talk
+about a purty girl lookin' out av a carriage wid curtains to it, an
+tellin' her to close them agaynst some danger that yez are going to save
+her from."
+
+"I wonder what puts such nonsense into my head?"
+
+"I wondher meself," rejoined Phelim, fixing his eyes upon his young
+master with a stealthy but scrutinising look.  "Shure," he continued,
+"if I may make bowld to axe the quistyun--shure, Masther Maurice, yez
+haven't been makin' a Judy Fitzsummon's mother av yerself, an fallin' in
+love wid wan of these Yankee weemen out hare?  Och an-an-ee! that wud be
+a misforthune; an thwat wud she say--the purty colleen wid the goodlen
+hair an blue eyes, that lives not twinty miles from Ballyballagh?"
+
+"Poh, poh!  Phelim! you're taking leave of your senses, I fear."
+
+"Trath, masther, I aren't; but I know somethin' I wud like to take lave
+av."
+
+"What is that?  Not me, I hope?"
+
+"You, _alannah_?  Niver!  It's Tixas I mane.  I'd like to take lave of
+that; an you goin' along wid me back to the owld sad.  Arrah, now,
+fhwat's the use av yer stayin' here, wastin' the best part av yer days
+in doin' nothin'?  Shure yez don't make more than a bare livin' by the
+horse-catchin'; an if yez did, what mathers it?  Yer owld aunt at Castle
+Ballagh can't howld out much longer; an when she's did, the bewtiful
+demane 'll be yours, spite av the dhirty way she's thratin' ye.  Shure
+the property's got a tail to it; an not a mother's son av them can kape
+ye out av it!"
+
+"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the young Irishman: "you're quite a lawyer,
+Phelim.  What a first-rate attorney you'd have made!  But come!  You
+forget that I haven't tasted food since morning.  What have you got in
+the larder?"
+
+"Trath! there's no great stock, masther.  Yez haven't laid in anythin'
+for the three days yez hiv been afther spotty.  There's only the cowld
+venison an the corn-bread.  If yez like I'll phut the venison in the
+pat, an make a hash av it."
+
+"Yes, do so.  I can wait."
+
+"Won't yez wait betther afther tastin' a dhrap av the crayther?"
+
+"True--let me have it."
+
+"Will yez take it nate, or with a little wather?  Trath! it won't carry
+much av that same."
+
+"A glass of grog--draw the water fresh from the stream."
+
+Phelim took hold of the silver drinking-cup, and was about stepping
+outside, when a growl from Tara, accompanied by a start, and followed by
+a rush across the floor, caused the servitor to approach the door with a
+certain degree of caution.
+
+The barking of the dog soon subsided into a series of joyful
+whimperings, which told that he had been gratified by the sight of some
+old acquaintance.
+
+"It's owld Zeb Stump," said Phelim, first peeping out, and then stepping
+boldly forth--with the double design of greeting the new-comer, and
+executing the order he had received from his master.
+
+The individual, who had thus freely presented himself in front of the
+mustanger's cabin, was as unlike either of its occupants, as one from
+the other.
+
+He stood fall six feet high, in a pair of tall boots, fabricated out of
+tanned alligator skin; into the ample tops of which were thrust the
+bottoms of his pantaloons--the latter being of woollen homespun, that
+had been dyed with "dog-wood ooze," but was now of a simple dirt colour.
+A deerskin under shirt, without any other, covered his breast and
+shoulders; over which was a "blanket coat," that had once been green,
+long since gone to a greenish yellow, with most of the wool worn off.
+
+There was no other garment to be seen: a slouch felt hat, of greyish
+colour, badly battered, completing the simple, and somewhat scant,
+collection of his wardrobe.
+
+He was equipped in the style of a backwoods hunter, of the true Daniel
+Boone breed: bullet-pouch, and large crescent-shaped powder-horn, both
+suspended by shoulder-straps, hanging under the right arm; a waist-belt
+of thick leather keeping his coat closed and sustaining a skin sheath,
+from which protruded the rough stag-horn handle of a long-bladed knife.
+
+He did not affect either mocassins, leggings, nor the caped and fringed
+tunic shirt of dressed deerskin worn by most Texan hunters.  There was
+no embroidery upon his coarse clothing, no carving upon his
+accoutrements or weapons, nothing in his _tout ensemble_ intended as
+ornamental.  Everything was plain almost to rudeness: as if dictated by
+a spirit that despised "fanfaron."
+
+Even the rifle, his reliable weapon--the chief tool of his trade--looked
+like a rounded bar of iron, with a piece of brown unpolished wood at the
+end, forming its stock; stock and barrel, when the butt rested on the
+ground, reaching up to the level of his shoulder.
+
+The individual thus clothed and equipped was apparently about fifty
+years of age, with a complexion inclining to dark, and features that, at
+first sight, exhibited a grave aspect.
+
+On close scrutiny, however, could be detected an underlying stratum of
+quiet humour; and in the twinkle of a small greyish eye there was
+evidence that its owner could keenly relish a joke, or, at times,
+perpetrate one.
+
+The Irishman had pronounced his name: it was Zebulon Stump, or "Old Zeb
+Stump," as he was better known to the very limited circle of his
+acquaintances.
+
+"Kaintuck, by birth an raisin',"--as he would have described himself, if
+asked the country of his nativity--he had passed the early part of his
+life among the primeval forests of the Lower Mississippi--his sole
+calling that of a hunter; and now, at a later period, he was performing
+the same _metier_ in the wilds of south-western Texas.
+
+The behaviour of the staghound, as it bounded before him, exhibiting a
+series of canine welcomes, told of a friendly acquaintance between Zeb
+Stump and Maurice the mustanger.
+
+"Evenin'!" laconically saluted Zeb, as his tail figure shadowed the
+cabin door.
+
+"Good evening', Mr Stump!" rejoined the owner of the hut, rising to
+receive him.  "Step inside, and take a seat!"
+
+The hunter accepted the invitation; and, making a single stride across
+the floor, after some awkward manoeuvring, succeeded in planting himself
+on the stool lately occupied by Phelim.  The lowness of the seat brought
+his knees upon a level with his chin, the tall rifle rising like a
+pikestaff several feet above his head.
+
+"Durn stools, anyhow!" muttered he, evidently dissatisfied with the
+posture; "an' churs, too, for thet matter.  I likes to plant my starn
+upon a log: thur ye've got somethin' under ye as ain't like to guv way."
+
+"Try that," said his host, pointing to the leathern portmanteau in the
+corner: "you'll find it a firmer seat."
+
+Old Zeb, adopting the suggestion, unfolded the zigzag of his colossal
+carcase, and transferred it to the trunk.
+
+"On foot, Mr Stump, as usual?"
+
+"No: I got my old critter out thur, tied to a saplin'.  I wa'n't a
+huntin'."
+
+"You never hunt on horseback, I believe?"
+
+"I shed be a greenhorn if I dud.  Anybody as goes huntin' a hossback
+must be a durnation fool!"
+
+"But it's the universal fashion in Texas!"
+
+"Univarsal or no, it air a fool's fashion--a durned lazy fool's fashion!
+I kill more meat in one day afut, then I ked in a hul week wi' a hoss
+atween my legs.  I don't misdoubt that a hoss air the best thing for
+you--bein' as yur game's entire different.  But when ye go arter baar,
+or deer, or turkey eyther, ye won't see much o' them, trampin' about
+through the timmer a hossback, an scarrin' everythin' es hes got ears
+'ithin the circuit o' a mile.  As for hosses, I shodn't be bothered wi'
+ne'er a one no how, ef twa'n't for packin' the meat: thet's why I keep
+my ole maar."
+
+"She's outside, you say?  Let Phelim take her round to the shed.  You'll
+stay all night?"
+
+"I kim for that purpiss.  But ye needn't trouble about the maar: she air
+hitched safe enuf.  I'll let her out on the laryitt, afore I take to
+grass."
+
+"You'll have something to eat?  Phelim was just getting supper ready.
+I'm sorry I can't offer you anything very dainty--some hash of venison."
+
+"Nothin' better 'n good deermeat, 'ceptin it be baar; but I like both
+done over the coals.  Maybe I can help ye to some'at thet'll make a
+roast.  Mister Pheelum, ef ye don't mind steppin' to whar my critter air
+hitched, ye'll find a gobbler hangin' over the horn o' the seddle.  I
+shot the bird as I war comin' up the crik."
+
+"Oh, that is rare good fortune!  Our larder has got very low--quite out,
+in truth.  I've been so occupied, for the last three days, in chasing a
+very curious mustang, that I never thought of taking my gun with me.
+Phelim and I, and Tara, too, had got to the edge of starvation."
+
+"Whet sort o' a mustang?" inquired the hunter, in a tone that betrayed
+interest, and without appearing to notice the final remark.
+
+"A mare; with white spots on a dark chocolate ground--a splendid
+creature!"
+
+"Durn it, young fellur! thet air's the very bizness thet's brung me over
+to ye."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"I've seed that mustang--maar, ye say it air, though I kedn't tell, as
+she'd niver let me 'ithin hef a mile o' her.  I've seed her several
+times out on the purayra, an I jest wanted ye to go arter her.  I'll
+tell ye why.  I've been to the Leeona settlements since I seed you last,
+and since I seed her too.  Wal, theer hev kum thur a man as I knowed on
+the Mississippi.  He air a rich planter, as used to keep up the tallest
+kind o' doin's, 'specially in the feestin' way.  Many's the jeint o'
+deermeat, and many's the turkey-gobbler this hyur coon hes surplied for
+his table.  His name air Peintdexter."
+
+"Poindexter?"
+
+"Thet air the name--one o' the best known on the Mississippi from
+Orleens to Saint Looey.  He war rich then; an, I reck'n, ain't poor
+now--seein' as he's brought about a hunderd niggers along wi' him.
+Beside, thur's a nephew o' hisn, by name Calhoun.  He's got the dollars,
+an nothin' to do wi' 'em but lend 'em to his uncle--the which, for a
+sartin reezun, I think he _will_.  Now, young fellur, I'll tell ye why I
+wanted to see _you_.  Thet 'ere planter hev got a darter, as air dead
+bent upon hossflesh.  She used to ride the skittishest kind o' cattle in
+Loozeyanner, whar they lived.  She heern me tellin' the old 'un 'bout
+the spotted mustang; and nothin' would content her thur and then, till
+he promised he'd offer a big price for catchin' the critter.  He sayed
+he'd give a kupple o' hunderd dollars for the anymal, ef 'twur anythin
+like what I sayed it wur.  In coorse, I knowed thet 'ud send all the
+mustangers in the settlement straight custrut arter it; so, sayin'
+nuthin' to nobody, I kim over hyur, fast as my ole maar 'ud fetch me.
+You grup thet 'ere spotty, an Zeb Stump 'll go yur bail ye'll grab them
+two hunderd dollars."
+
+"Will you step this way, Mr Stump?" said the young Irishman, rising
+from his stool, and proceeding in the direction of the door.
+
+The hunter followed, not without showing some surprise at the abrupt
+invitation.
+
+Maurice conducted his visitor round to the rear of the cabin; and,
+pointing into the shed, inquired--
+
+"Does that look anything like the mustang you've been speaking of?"
+
+"Dog-gone my cats, ef 'taint the eyedenticul same!  Grupped already!
+Two hunderd dollars, easy as slidin' down a barked saplin'!  Young
+fellur, yur in luck: two hunderd, slick sure!--and durn me, ef the
+anymal ain't worth every cent o' the money!  Geehosofat! what a putty
+beest it air!  Won't Miss Peintdexter be pleezed!  It'll turn that young
+critter 'most crazy!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+NOCTURNAL ANNOYANCES.
+
+The unexpected discovery, that his purpose had been already anticipated
+by the capture of the spotted mustang, raised the spirits of the old
+hunter to a high pitch of excitement.
+
+They were further elevated by a portion of the contents of the demijohn,
+which held out beyond Phelim's expectations: giving all hands an
+appetising "nip" before attacking the roast turkey, with another go each
+to wash it down, and several more to accompany the post-cenal pipe.
+
+While this was being indulged in, a conversation was carried on; the
+themes being those that all prairie men delight to talk about: Indian
+and hunter lore.
+
+As Zeb Stump was a sort of living encyclopaedia of the latter, he was
+allowed to do most of the talking; and he did it in such a fashion as to
+draw many a wondering ejaculation, from the tongue of the astonished
+Galwegian.
+
+Long before midnight, however, the conversation was brought to a close.
+Perhaps the empty demijohn was, as much as anything else, the monitor
+that urged their retiring to rest; though there was another and more
+creditable reason.  On the morrow, the mustanger intended to start for
+the Settlements; and it was necessary that all should be astir at an
+early hour, to make preparation for the journey.  The wild horses, as
+yet but slightly tamed, had to be strung together, to secure against
+their escaping by the way; and many other matters required attending to
+previous to departure.
+
+The hunter had already tethered out his "ole maar"--as he designated the
+sorry specimen of horseflesh he was occasionally accustomed to
+bestride--and had brought back with him an old yellowish blanket, which
+was all he ever used for a bed.
+
+"You may take my bedstead," said his courteous host; "I can lay myself
+on a skin along the floor."
+
+"No," responded the guest; "none o' yer shelves for Zeb Stump to sleep
+on.  I prefer the solid groun'.  I kin sleep sounder on it; an
+bus-sides, thur's no fear o' fallin' over."
+
+"If you prefer it, then, take the floor.  Here's the best place.  I'll
+spread a hide for you."
+
+"Young fellur, don't you do anythin' o' the sort; ye'll only be wastin'
+yur time.  This child don't sleep on no floors.  His bed air the green
+grass o' the purayra."
+
+"What! you're not going to sleep outside?" inquired the mustanger in
+some surprise--seeing that his guest, with the old blanket over his arm,
+was making for the door.
+
+"I ain't agoin' to do anythin' else."
+
+"Why, the night is freezing cold--almost as chilly as a norther!"
+
+"Durn that!  It air better to stan' a leetle chillishness, than a
+feelin' o' suffercation--which last I wud sartintly hev to go through ef
+I slep inside o' a house."
+
+"Surely you are jesting, Mr Stump?"
+
+"Young fellur!" emphatically rejoined the hunter, without making direct
+reply to the question.  "It air now nigh all o' six yeer since Zeb Stump
+hev stretched his ole karkiss under a roof.  I oncest used to hev a sort
+o' a house in the hollow o' a sycamore-tree.  That wur on the
+Massissippi, when my ole ooman wur alive, an I kep up the 'stablishment
+to 'commerdate her.  Arter she went under, I moved into Loozeyanny; an
+then arterward kim out hyur.  Since then the blue sky o' Texas hev been
+my only kiver, eyther wakin' or sleepin'."
+
+"If you prefer to lie outside--"
+
+"I prefar it," laconically rejoined the hunter, at the same time
+stalking over the threshold, and gliding out upon the little lawn that
+lay between the cabin and the creek.
+
+His old blanket was not the only thing he carried along with him.
+Beside it, hanging over his arm, could be seen some six or seven yards
+of a horsehair rope.  It was a piece of a _cabriesto_--usually employed
+for tethering horses--though it was not for this purpose it was now to
+be used.
+
+Having carefully scrutinised the grass within a circumference of several
+feet in diameter--which a shining moon enabled him to do--he laid the
+rope with like care around the spot examined, shaping it into a sort of
+irregular ellipse.
+
+Stepping inside this, and wrapping the old blanket around him, he
+quietly let himself down into a recumbent position.  In an instant after
+he appeared to be asleep.
+
+And he was asleep, as his strong breathing testified: for Zeb Stump,
+with a hale constitution and a quiet conscience, had only to summon
+sleep, and it came.
+
+He was not permitted long to indulge his repose without interruption.  A
+pair of wondering eyes had watched his every movement--the eyes of
+Phelim O'Neal.
+
+"Mother av Mozis!" muttered the Galwegian; "fwhat can be the manin' av
+the owld chap's surroundin' himself wid the rope?"
+
+The Irishman's curiosity for a while struggled with his courtesy, but at
+length overcame it; and just as the slumberer delivered his third snore,
+he stole towards him, shook him out of his sleep, and propounded a
+question based upon the one he had already put to himself.
+
+"Durn ye for a Irish donkey!" exclaimed Stump, in evident displeasure at
+being disturbed; "ye made me think it war mornin'!  What do I put the
+rope roun' me for?  What else wud it be for, but to keep off the
+varmints!"
+
+"What varmints, Misther Stump?  Snakes, div yez mane?"
+
+"Snakes in coorse.  Durn ye, go to your bed!"
+
+Notwithstanding the sharp rebuke, Phelim returned to the cabin
+apparently in high glee.  If there was anything in Texas, "barrin' an
+above the Indyins themselves," as he used to say, "that kept him from
+slapin', it was them vinamous sarpints.  He hadn't had a good night's
+rest, iver since he'd been in the counthry for thinkin' av the ugly
+vipers, or dhramin' about thim.  What a pity Saint Pathrick hadn't paid
+Tixas a visit before goin' to grace!"
+
+Phelim in his remote residence, isolated as he had been from all
+intercourse, had never before witnessed the trick of the _cabriesto_.
+
+He was not slow to avail himself of the knowledge thus acquired.
+Returning to the cabin, and creeping stealthily inside--as if not
+wishing to wake his master, already asleep--he was seen to take a
+_cabriesto_ from its peg; and then going forth again, he carried the
+long rope around the stockade walls--paying it out as he proceeded.
+
+Having completed the circumvallation, he re-entered the hut; as he
+stepped over the threshold, muttering to himself--
+
+"Sowl!  Phalim O'Nale, you'll slape sound for this night, spite ov all
+the snakes in Tixas!"
+
+For some minutes after Phelim's soliloquy, a profound stillness reigned
+around the hut of the mustanger.  There was like silence inside; for the
+countryman of Saint Patrick, no longer apprehensive on the score of
+reptile intruders, had fallen asleep, almost on the moment of his
+sinking down upon his spread horse-skin.
+
+For a while it seemed as if everybody was in the enjoyment of perfect
+repose, Tara and the captive steeds included.  The only sound heard was
+that made by Zeb Stump's "maar," close by cropping the sweet _grama_
+grass.
+
+Presently, however, it might have been perceived that the old hunter was
+himself stirring.  Instead of lying still in the recumbent attitude to
+which he had consigned himself, he could be seen shifting from side to
+side, as if some feverish thought was keeping him awake.
+
+After repeating this movement some half-score of times, he at length
+raised himself into a sitting posture, and looked discontentedly around.
+
+"Dod-rot his ignorance and imperence--the Irish cuss!" were the words
+that came hissing through his teeth.  "He's spoilt my night's rest, durn
+him!  'Twould sarve him 'bout right to drag him out, an giv him a
+duckin' in the crik.  Dog-goned ef I don't feel 'clined torst doin' it;
+only I don't like to displeeze the other Irish, who air a somebody.
+Possible I don't git a wink o' sleep till mornin'."
+
+Having delivered himself of this peevish soliloquy, the hunter once more
+drew the blanket around his body, and returned to the horizontal
+position.
+
+Not to sleep, however; as was testified by the tossing and fidgeting
+that followed--terminated by his again raising himself into a sitting
+posture.
+
+A soliloquy, very similar to his former one, once more proceeded from
+his lips; this time the threat of ducking Phelim in the creek being
+expressed with a more emphatic accent of determination.
+
+He appeared to be wavering, as to whether he should carry the design
+into execution, when an object coming under his eye gave a new turn to
+his thoughts.
+
+On the ground, not twenty feet from where he sate, a long thin body was
+seen gliding over the grass.  Its serpent shape, and smooth lubricated
+skin--reflecting the silvery light of the moon--rendered the reptile
+easy of identification.
+
+"Snake!" mutteringly exclaimed he, as his eye rested upon the reptilian
+form.  "Wonder what sort it air, slickerin' aboout hyur at this time o'
+the night?  It air too large for a _rattle_; though thur air some in
+these parts most as big as it.  But it air too clur i' the colour, an
+thin about the belly, for ole rattle-tail!  No; 'tain't one o' them.
+Hah--now I ree-cog-nise the varmint!  It air a _chicken_, out on the
+sarch arter eggs, I reck'n!  Durn the thing! it air comin' torst me,
+straight as it kin crawl!"
+
+The tone in which the speaker delivered himself told that he was in no
+fear of the reptile--even after discovering that it was making approach.
+He knew that the snake would not cross the _cabriesto_; but on touching
+it would turn away: as if the horsehair rope was a line of living fire.
+Secure within his magic circle, he could have looked tranquilly at the
+intruder, though it had been the most poisonous of prairie serpents.
+
+But it was not.  On the contrary, it was one of the most innocuous--
+harmless as the "chicken," from which the species takes its trivial
+title--at the same time that it is one of the largest in the list of
+North-American _reptilia_.
+
+The expression on Zeb's face, as he sat regarding it, was simply one of
+curiosity, and not very keen.  To a hunter in the constant habit of
+couching himself upon the grass, there was nothing in the sight either
+strange or terrifying; not even when the creature came close up to the
+_cabriesto_, and, with head slightly elevated, rubbed its snout against
+the rope!
+
+After that there was less reason to be afraid; for the snake, on doing
+so, instantly turned round and commenced retreating over the sward.
+
+For a second or two the hunter watched it moving away, without making
+any movement himself.  He seemed undecided as to whether he should
+follow and destroy it, or leave it to go as it had come--unscathed.  Had
+it been a rattlesnake, "copperhead," or "mocassin," he would have acted
+up to the curse delivered in the garden of Eden, and planted the heel of
+his heavy alligator-skin boot upon its head.  But a harmless
+chicken-snake did not come within the limits of Zeb Stump's antipathy:
+as was evidenced by some words muttered by him as it slowly receded from
+the spot.
+
+"Poor crawlin' critter; let it go!  It ain't no enemy o' mine; though it
+do suck a turkey's egg now an then, an in coorse scarcities the breed o'
+the birds.  Thet air only its nater, an no reezun why I shed be angry
+wi' it.  But thur's a durned good reezun why I shed be wi' thet Irish--
+the dog-goned, stinkin' fool, to ha' woke me es he dud!  I feel
+dod-rotted like sarvin' him out, ef I ked only think o' some way as
+wudn't diskermode the young fellur.  Stay!  By Geehosofat, I've got the
+idee--the very thing--sure es my name air Zeb Stump!"
+
+On giving utterance to the last words, the hunter--whose countenance had
+suddenly assumed an expression of quizzical cheerfulness--sprang to his
+feet; and, with bent body, hastened in pursuit of the retreating
+reptile.
+
+A few strides brought him alongside of it; when he pounced upon it with
+all his ten digits extended.
+
+In another moment its long glittering body was uplifted from the ground,
+and writhing in his grasp.
+
+"Now, Mister Pheelum," exclaimed he, as if apostrophising the serpent,
+"ef I don't gi'e yur Irish soul a scare thet 'll keep ye awake till
+mornin', I don't know buzzart from turkey.  Hyur goes to purvide ye wi'
+a bedfellur!"
+
+On saying this, he advanced towards the hut; and, silently skulking
+under its shadow, released the serpent from his gripe--letting it fall
+within the circle of the _cabriesto_, with which Phelim had so craftily
+surrounded his sleeping-place.
+
+Then returning to his grassy couch, and once more pulling the old
+blanket over his shoulders, he muttered--
+
+"The varmint won't come out acrost the rope--thet air sartin; an it
+ain't agoin' to leave a yurd o' the groun' 'ithout explorin' for a place
+to git clur--thet's eequally sartin.  Ef it don't crawl over thet Irish
+greenhorn 'ithin the hef o' an hour, then ole Zeb Stump air a greenhorn
+hisself.  Hi! what's thet?  Dog-goned of 'taint on him arready!"
+
+If the hunter had any further reflections to give tongue to, they could
+not have been heard: for at that moment there arose a confusion of
+noises that must have startled every living creature on the Alamo, and
+for miles up and down the stream.
+
+It was a human voice that had given the cue--or rather, a human howl,
+such as could proceed only from the throat of a Galwegian.  Phelim
+O'Neal was the originator of the infernal _fracas_.
+
+His voice, however, was soon drowned by a chorus of barkings, snortings,
+and neighings, that continued without interruption for a period of
+several minutes.
+
+"What is it?" demanded his master, as he leaped from the _catre_, and
+groped his way towards his terrified servitor.  "What the devil has got
+into you, Phelim?  Have you seen a ghost?"
+
+"Oh, masther!--by Jaysus! worse than that: I've been murdhered by a
+snake.  It's bit me all over the body.  Blessed Saint Pathrick!  I'm a
+poor lost sinner!  I'll be shure to die!"
+
+"Bitten you, you say--where?" asked Maurice, hastily striking a light,
+and proceeding to examine the skin of his henchman, assisted by the old
+hunter--who had by this time arrived within the cabin.
+
+"I see no sign of bite," continued the mustanger, after having turned
+Phelim round and round, and closely scrutinised his epidermis.
+
+"Ne'er a scratch," laconically interpolated Stump.
+
+"Sowl! then, if I'm not bit, so much the better; but it crawled all over
+me.  I can feel it now, as cowld as charity, on me skin."
+
+"Was there a snake at all?" demanded Maurice, inclined to doubt the
+statement of his follower.  "You've been dreaming of one, Phelim--
+nothing more."
+
+"Not a bit of a dhrame, masther: it was a raal sarpint.  Be me sowl, I'm
+shure of it!"
+
+"I reck'n thur's been snake," drily remarked the hunter.  "Let's see if
+we kin track it up.  Kewrious it air, too.  Thur's a hair rope all roun'
+the house.  Wonder how the varmint could ha' crossed thet?  Thur--thur
+it is!"
+
+The hunter, as he spoke, pointed to a corner of the cabin, where the
+serpent was seen spirally coiled.
+
+"Only a chicken!" he continued: "no more harm in it than in a suckin'
+dove.  It kedn't ha' bit ye, Mister Pheelum; but we'll put it past
+bitin', anyhow."
+
+Saying this, the hunter seized the snake in his hands; and, raising it
+aloft, brought it down upon the floor of the cabin with a "thwank" that
+almost deprived it of the power of motion.
+
+"Thru now, Mister Pheelum!" he exclaimed, giving it the finishing touch
+with the heel of his heavy boot, "ye may go back to yur bed agin, an
+sleep 'ithout fear o' bein' disturbed till the mornin'--leastwise, by
+snakes."
+
+Kicking the defunct reptile before him, Zeb Stump strode out of the hut,
+gleefully chuckling to himself, as, for the third time, he extended his
+colossal carcase along the sward.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+THE CRAWL OF THE ALACRAN.
+
+The killing of the snake appeared to be the cue for a general return to
+quiescence.  The howlings of the hound ceased with those of the
+henchman.  The mustangs once more stood silent under the shadowy trees.
+
+Inside the cabin the only noise heard was an occasional shuffling, when
+Phelim, no longer feeling confidence in the protection of his
+_cabriesto_, turned restlessly on his horseskin.
+
+Outside also there was but one sound, to disturb the stillness though
+its intonation was in striking contrast with that heard within.  It
+might have been likened to a cross between the grunt of an alligator and
+the croaking of a bull-frog; but proceeding, as it did, from the
+nostrils of Zeb Stump, it could only be the snore of the slumbering
+hunter.  Its sonorous fulness proved him to be soundly asleep.
+
+He was--had been, almost from the moment of re-establishing himself
+within the circle of his _cabriesto_.  The _revanche_ obtained over his
+late disturber had acted as a settler to his nerves; and once more was
+he enjoying the relaxation of perfect repose.
+
+For nearly an hour did this contrasting duet continue, varied only by an
+occasional _recitative_ in the hoot of the great horned owl, or a
+_cantata penserosa_ in the lugubrious wail of the prairie wolf.
+
+At the end of this interval, however, the chorus recommenced, breaking
+out abruptly as before, and as before led by the vociferous voice of the
+Connemara man.
+
+"Meliah murdher!" cried he, his first exclamation not only startling the
+host of the hut, but the guest so soundly sleeping outside.  "Howly
+Mother!  Vargin av unpurticted innocence!  Save me--save me!"
+
+"Save you from what?" demanded his master, once more springing from his
+couch and hastening to strike a light.  "What is it, you confounded
+fellow?"
+
+"Another snake, yer hanner!  Och! be me sowl! a far wickeder sarpent
+than the wan Misther Stump killed.  It's bit me all over the breast.  I
+feel the place burnin' where it crawled across me, just as if the
+horse-shoer at Ballyballagh had scorched me wid a rid-hot iron!"
+
+"Durn ye for a stinkin' skunk!" shouted Zeb Stump, with his blanket
+about his shoulder, quite filling the doorway.  "Ye've twicest spiled my
+night's sleep, ye Irish fool!  'Scuse me, Mister Gerald!  Thur air fools
+in all countries, I reck'n, 'Merican as well as Irish--but this hyur
+follerer o' yourn air the durndest o' the kind iver I kim acrost.
+Dog-goned if I see how we air to get any sleep the night, 'less we
+drownd _him_ in the crik fust!"
+
+"Och!  Misther Stump dear, don't talk that way.  I sware to yez both
+there's another snake.  I'm shure it's in the kyabin yit.  It's only a
+minute since I feeled it creepin' over me."
+
+"You must ha' been dreemin?" rejoined the hunter, in a more complacent
+tone, and speaking half interrogatively.  "I tell ye no snake in Texas
+will cross a hosshair rope.  The tother 'un must ha' been inside the
+house afore ye laid the laryitt roun' it.  'Taint likely there keel ha'
+been two on 'em.  We kin soon settle that by sarchin'."
+
+"Oh, murdher!  Luk hare!" cried the Galwegian, pulling off his shirt and
+laying bare his breast.  "Thare's the riptoile's track, right acrass
+over me ribs!  Didn't I tell yez there was another snake?  O blissed
+Mother, what will become av me?  It feels like a strake av fire!"
+
+"Snake!" exclaimed Stump, stepping up to the affrighted Irishman, and
+holding the candle close to his skin.  "Snake i'deed!  By the 'tarnal
+airthquake, it air no snake!  It air wuss than that!"
+
+"Worse than a snake?" shouted Phelim in dismay.  "Worse, yez say,
+Misther Stump?  Div yez mane that it's dangerous?"
+
+"Wal, it mout be, an it moutn't.  Thet ere 'll depend on whether I kin
+find somethin' 'bout hyur, an find it soon.  Ef I don't, then, Mister
+Pheelum, I won't answer--"
+
+"Oh, Misther Stump, don't say thare's danger!"
+
+"What is it?" demanded Maurice, as his eyes rested upon a reddish line
+running diagonally across the breast of his follower, and which looked
+as if traced by the point of a hot spindle.  "What is it, anyhow?" he
+repeated with increasing anxiety, as he observed the serious look with
+which the hunter regarded the strange marking.  "I never saw the like
+before.  Is it something to be alarmed about?"
+
+"All o' thet, Mister Gerald," replied Stump, motioning Maurice outside
+the hut, and speaking to him in a whisper, so as not to be overheard by
+Phelim.
+
+"But what is it?" eagerly asked the mustanger.  "_It air the crawl o'
+the pisen centipede_."
+
+"The poison centipede!  Has it bitten him?"
+
+"No, I hardly think it hez.  But it don't need thet.  The _crawl_ o'
+itself air enuf to kill him!"
+
+"Merciful Heaven! you don't mean that?"
+
+"I do, Mister Gerald.  I've seed more 'an one good fellur go under wi'
+that same sort o' a stripe acrost his skin.  If thur ain't somethin'
+done, an thet soon, he'll fust get into a ragin' fever, an then he'll go
+out o' his senses, jest as if the bite o' a mad dog had gin him the
+hydrophoby.  It air no use frightenin' him howsomdever, till I sees what
+I kin do.  Thur's a yarb, or rayther it air a plant, as grows in these
+parts.  Ef I kin find it handy, there'll be no defeequilty in curin' o'
+him.  But as the cussed lack wud hev it, the moon hez sneaked out o'
+sight; an I kin only get the yarb by gropin'.  I know there air plenty
+o' it up on the bluff; an ef you'll go back inside, an keep the fellur
+quiet, I'll see what kin be done.  I won't be gone but a minute."
+
+The whispered colloquy, and the fact of the speakers having gone outside
+to carry it on, instead of tranquillising the fears of Phelim, had by
+this time augmented them to an extreme degree: and just as the old
+hunter, bent upon his herborising errand, disappeared in the darkness,
+he came rushing forth from the hut, howling more piteously than ever.
+
+It was some time before his master could get him tranquillised, and then
+only by assuring him--on a faith not very firm--that there was not the
+slightest danger.
+
+A few seconds after this had been accomplished, Zeb Stump reappeared in
+the doorway, with a countenance that produced a pleasant change in the
+feelings of those inside.  His confident air and attitude proclaimed, as
+plainly as words could have done, that he had discovered that of which
+he had gone in search--the "yarb."  In his right hand he held a number
+of oval shaped objects of dark green colour--all of them bristling with
+sharp spines, set over the surface in equidistant clusters.  Maurice
+recognised the leaves of a plant well known to him--the _oregano_
+cactus.
+
+"Don't be skeeart, Mister Pheelum!" said the old hunter, in a
+consolatory tone, as he stepped across the threshold.  "Thur's nothin'
+to fear now.  I hev got the bolsum as 'll draw the burnin' out o' yur
+blood, quicker 'an flame ud scorch a feather.  Stop yur yellin', man!
+Ye've rousted every bird an beast, an creepin' thing too, I reckon, out
+o' thar slumbers, for more an twenty mile up an down the crik.  Ef you
+go on at that grist much longer, ye'll bring the Kumanchees out o' thur
+mountains, an that 'ud be wuss mayhap than the crawl o' this
+hunderd-legged critter.  Mister Gerald, you git riddy a bandige, whiles
+I purpares the powltiss."
+
+Drawing his knife from its sheath, the hunter first lopped off the
+spines; and then, removing the outside skin, he split the thick
+succulent leaves of the cactus into slices of about an eighth of an inch
+in thickness.  These he spread contiguously upon a strip of clean cotton
+stuff already prepared by the mustanger; and then, with the ability of a
+hunter, laid the "powltiss," as he termed it, along the inflamed line,
+which he declared to have been made by the claws of the centipede, but
+which in reality was caused by the injection of venom from its
+poison-charged mandibles, a thousand times inserted into the flesh of
+the sleeper!
+
+The application of the _oregano_ was almost instantaneous in its effect.
+The acrid juice of the plant, producing a counter poison, killed that
+which had been secreted by the animal; and the patient, relieved from
+further apprehension, and soothed by the sweet confidence of security--
+stronger from reaction--soon fell off into a profound and restorative
+slumber.
+
+After searching for the centipede and failing to find it--for this
+hideous reptile, known in Mexico as the _alacran_, unlike the
+rattlesnake, has no fear of crossing a _cabriesto_--the improvised
+physician strode silently out of the cabin; and, once more committing
+himself to his grassy couch, slept undisturbed till the morning.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+At the earliest hour of daybreak all three were astir--Phelim having
+recovered both from his fright and his fever.  Having made their
+matutinal meal upon the _debris_ of the roast turkey, they hastened to
+take their departure from the hut.  The quondam stable-boy of
+Ballyballagh, assisted by the Texan hunter, prepared the wild steeds for
+transport across the plains--by stringing them securely together--while
+Maurice looked after his own horse and the spotted mare.  More
+especially did he expend his time upon the beautiful captive--carefully
+combing out her mane and tail, and removing from her glossy coat the
+stains that told of the severe chase she had cost him before her proud
+neck yielded to the constraint of his lazo.
+
+"Durn it, man!" exclaimed Zeb, as, with some surprise, he stood watching
+the movements of the mustanger, "ye needn't ha' been hef so purtickler!
+Wudley Pointdexter ain't the man as 'll go back from a barg'in.  Ye'll
+git the two hunderd dollars, sure as my name air Zeblun Stump; an
+dog-gone my cats, ef the maar ain't worth every red cent o' the money!"
+
+Maurice heard the remarks without making reply; but the half suppressed
+smile playing around his lips told that the Kentuckian had altogether
+misconstrued the motive for his assiduous grooming.
+
+In less than an hour after, the mustanger was on the march, mounted on
+his blood-bay, and leading the spotted mare at the end of his lazo;
+while the captive _cavallada_, under the guidance of the Galwegian
+groom, went trooping at a brisk pace over the plain.
+
+Zeb Stump, astride his "ole maar," could only keep up by a constant
+hammering with his heels; and Tara, picking his steps through the
+spinous _mezquite_ grass, trotted listlessly in the rear.
+
+The hut, with its skin-door closed against animal intruders, was left to
+take care of itself; its silent solitude, for a time, to be disturbed
+only by the hooting of the horned owl, the scream of the cougar, or the
+howl-bark of the hungering coyote.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+THE FRONTIER FORT.
+
+The "star-spangled banner" suspended above Fort Inge, as it flouts forth
+from its tall staff, flings its fitful shadow over a scene of strange
+and original interest.
+
+It is a picture of pure frontier life--which perhaps only the pencil of
+the younger Vernet could truthfully portray--half military, half
+civilian--half savage, half civilised--mottled with figures of men whose
+complexions, costumes, and callings, proclaim them appertaining to the
+extremes of both, and every possible gradation between.
+
+Even the _mise-en-scene_--the Fort itself--is of this _miscegenous_
+character.  That star-spangled banner waves not over bastions and
+battlements; it flings no shadow over casemate or covered way, fosse,
+scarpment, or glacis--scarce anything that appertains to a fortress.  A
+rude stockade, constructed out of trunks of _algarobia_, enclosing
+shed-stabling for two hundred horses; outside this a half-score of
+buildings of the plainest architectural style--some of them mere huts of
+"wattle and daub"--_jacales_--the biggest a barrack; behind it the
+hospital, the stores of the commissary, and quartermaster; on one side
+the guardhouse; and on the other, more pretentiously placed, the
+messroom and officers' quarters; all plain in their appearance--
+plastered and whitewashed with the lime plentifully found on the Leona--
+all neat and clean, as becomes a cantonment of troops wearing the
+uniform of a great civilised nation.  Such is Fort Inge.
+
+At a short distance off another group of houses meets the eye--nearly,
+if not quite, as imposing as the cluster above described bearing the
+name of "The Fort."  They are just outside the shadow of the flag,
+though under its protection--for to it are they indebted for their
+origin and existence.  They are the germ of the village that universally
+springs up in the proximity of an American military post--in all
+probability, and at no very remote period, to become a town--perhaps a
+great city.
+
+At present their occupants are a sutler, whose store contains
+"knick-knacks" not classed among commissariat rations; an hotel-keeper
+whose bar-room, with white sanded floor and shelves sparkling with
+prismatic glass, tempts the idler to step in; a brace of gamblers whose
+rival tables of _faro_ and _monte_ extract from the pockets of the
+soldiers most part of their pay; a score of dark-eyed senoritas of
+questionable reputation; a like number of hunters, teamsters,
+_mustangers_, and nondescripts--such as constitute in all countries the
+hangers-on of a military cantonment, or the followers of a camp.
+
+The houses in the occupancy of this motley corporation have been "sited"
+with some design.  Perhaps they are the property of a single speculator.
+They stand around a "square," where, instead of lamp-posts or statues,
+may be seen the decaying trunk of a cypress, or the bushy form of a
+hackberry rising out of a _tapis_ of trodden grass.
+
+The Leona--at this point a mere rivulet--glides past in the rear both of
+fort and village.  To the front extends a level plain, green as verdure
+can make it--in the distance darkened by a bordering of woods, in which
+post-oaks and pecans, live oaks and elms, struggle for existence with
+spinous plants of cactus and anona; with scores of creepers, climbers,
+and parasites almost unknown to the botanist.  To the south and east
+along the banks of the stream, you see scattered houses: the homesteads
+of plantations; some of them rude and of recent construction, with a few
+of more pretentious style, and evidently of older origin.  One of these
+last particularly attracts the attention: a structure of superior size--
+with flat roof, surmounted by a crenelled parapet--whose white walls
+show conspicuously against the green background of forest with which it
+is half encircled.  It is the hacienda of _Casa del Corvo_.
+
+Turning your eye northward, you behold a curious isolated eminence--a
+gigantic cone of rocks--rising several hundred feet above the level of
+the plain; and beyond, in dim distance, a waving horizontal line
+indicating the outlines of the Guadalupe mountains--the outstanding
+spurs of that elevated and almost untrodden plateau, the _Llano
+Estacado_.
+
+Look aloft!  You behold a sky, half sapphire, half turquoise; by day,
+showing no other spot than the orb of its golden god; by night, studded
+with stars that appear clipped from clear steel, and a moon whose
+well-defined disc outshines the effulgence of silver.
+
+Look below--at that hour when moon and stars have disappeared, and the
+land-wind arrives from Matagorda Bay, laden with the fragrance of
+flowers; when it strikes the starry flag, unfolding it to the eye of the
+morn--then look below, and behold the picture that should have been
+painted by the pencil of Vernet--too varied and vivid, too plentiful in
+shapes, costumes, and colouring, to be sketched by the pen.
+
+In the tableau you distinguish soldiers in uniform--the light blue of
+the United States infantry, the darker cloth of the dragoons, and the
+almost invisible green of the mounted riflemen.
+
+You will see but few in full uniform--only the officer of the day, the
+captain of the guard, and the guard itself.
+
+Their comrades off duty lounge about the barracks, or within the
+stockade enclosure, in red flannel shirts, slouch hats, and boots
+innocent of blacking.
+
+They mingle with men whose costumes make no pretence to a military
+character: tall hunters in tunics of dressed deerskin, with leggings to
+correspond--herdsmen and mustangers, habited _a la Mexicaine_--Mexicans
+themselves, in wide _calzoneros_, _serapes_ on their shoulders, _botas_
+on their legs, huge spurs upon their heels, and glazed _sombreros_ set
+jauntily on their crowns.  They palaver with Indians on a friendly visit
+to the Fort, for trade or treaty; whose tents stand at some distance,
+and from whose shoulders hang blankets of red, and green, and blue--
+giving them a picturesque, even classical, appearance, in spite of the
+hideous paint with which they have bedaubed their skins, and the dirt
+that renders sticky their long black hair, lengthened by tresses taken
+from the tails of their horses.
+
+Picture to the eye of your imagination this jumble of mixed
+nationalities--in their varied costumes of race, condition, and calling;
+jot in here and there a black-skinned scion of Ethiopia, the body
+servant of some officer, or the emissary of a planter from the adjacent
+settlements; imagine them standing in gossiping groups, or stalking over
+the level plain, amidst some half-dozen halted waggons; a couple of
+six-pounders upon their carriages, with caissons close by; a square tent
+or two, with its surmounting fly--occupied by some eccentric officer who
+prefers sleeping under canvas; a stack of bayoneted rifles belonging to
+the soldiers on guard,--imagine all these component parts, and you will
+have before your mind's eye a truthful picture of a military fort upon
+the frontier of Texas, and the extreme selvedge of civilisation.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+About a week after the arrival of the Louisiana planter at his new home,
+three officers were seen standing upon the parade ground in front of
+Fort Inge, with their eyes turned towards the hacienda of Casa del
+Corvo.
+
+They were all young men: the oldest not over thirty years of age.  His
+shoulder-straps with the double bar proclaimed him a captain; the
+second, with a single cross bar, was a first lieutenant; while the
+youngest of the two, with an empty chevron, was either a second
+lieutenant or "brevet."
+
+They were off duty; engaged in conversation--their theme, the "new
+people" in Casa del Corvo--by which was meant the Louisiana planter and
+his family.
+
+"A sort of housewarming it's to be," said the infantry captain, alluding
+to an invitation that had reached the Fort, extending to all the
+commissioned officers of the garrison.  "Dinner first, and dancing
+afterwards--a regular field day, where I suppose we shall see paraded
+the aristocracy and beauty of the settlement."
+
+"Aristocracy?" laughingly rejoined the lieutenant of dragoons.  "Not
+much of that here, I fancy; and of beauty still less."
+
+"You mistake, Hancock.  There are both upon the banks of the Leona.
+Some good States families have strayed out this way.  We'll meet them at
+Poindexter's party, no doubt.  On the question of aristocracy, the host
+himself, if you'll pardon a poor joke, is himself a host.  He has enough
+of it to inoculate all the company that may be present; and as for
+beauty, I'll back his daughter against anything this side the Sabine.
+The commissary's niece will be no longer belle about here."
+
+"Oh, indeed!" drawled the lieutenant of rifles, in a tone that told of
+his being chafed by this representation.  "Miss Poindexter must be
+deuced good-looking, then."
+
+"She's all that, I tell you, if she be anything like what she was when I
+last saw her, which was at a Bayou Lafourche ball.  There were half a
+dozen young Creoles there, who came nigh crossing swords about her."
+
+"A coquette, I suppose?" insinuated the rifleman.
+
+"Nothing of the kind, Crossman.  Quite the contrary, I assure you.
+She's a girl of spirit, though--likely enough to snub any fellow who
+might try to be too familiar.  She's not without some of the father's
+pride.  It's a family trait of the Poindexters."
+
+"Just the girl I should cotton to," jocosely remarked the young dragoon.
+"And if she's as good-looking as you say, Captain Sloman, I shall
+certainly go in for her.  Unlike Crossman here, I'm clear of all
+entanglements of the heart.  Thank the Lord for it!"
+
+"Well, Mr Hancock," rejoined the infantry officer, a gentleman of sober
+inclinings, "I'm not given to betting; but I'd lay a big wager you won't
+say that, after you have seen Louise Poindexter--that is, if you speak
+your mind."
+
+"Pshaw, Sloman! don't you be alarmed about me.  I've been too often
+under the fire of bright eyes to have any fear of them."
+
+"None so bright as hers."
+
+"Deuce take it! you make a fellow fall in love with this lady without
+having set eyes upon her.  She must be something extraordinary--
+incomparable."
+
+"She was both, when I last saw her."
+
+"How long ago was that?"
+
+"The Lafourche ball?  Let me see--about eighteen months.  Just after we
+got back from Mexico.  She was then `coming out' as society styles it:--
+
+"A new star in the firmament, to light and glory born!"
+
+"Eighteen months is a long time," sagely remarked Crossman--"a long time
+for an unmarried maiden--especially among Creoles, where they often get
+spliced at twelve, instead of `sweet sixteen.'  Her beauty may have lost
+some of its bloom?"
+
+"I believe not a bit.  I should have called to see; only I knew they
+were in the middle of their `plenishing,' and mightn't desire to be
+visited.  But the major has been to Casa del Corvo, and brought back
+such a report about Miss Poindexter's beauty as almost got him into a
+scrape with the lady commanding the post."
+
+"Upon my soul, Captain Sloman!" asseverated the lieutenant of dragoons,
+"you've excited my curiosity to such a degree, I feel already half in
+love with Louise Poindexter!"
+
+"Before you get altogether into it," rejoined the officer of infantry,
+in a serious tone, "let me recommend a little caution.  There's a _bete
+noir_ in the background."
+
+"A brother, I suppose?  That is the individual usually so regarded."
+
+"There is a brother, but it's not he.  A free noble young fellow he is--
+the only Poindexter I ever knew not eaten up with pride, he's quite the
+reverse."
+
+"The aristocratic father, then?  Surely he wouldn't object to a
+quartering with the Hancocks?"
+
+"I'm not so sure of that; seeing that the Hancocks are Yankees, and he's
+a _chivalric Southerner_!  But it's not old Poindexter I mean."
+
+"Who, then, is the black beast, or what is it--if not a human?"
+
+"It is human, after a fashion.  A male cousin--a queer card he is--by
+name Cassius Calhoun."
+
+"I think I've heard the name."
+
+"So have I," said the lieutenant of rifles.
+
+"So has almost everybody who had anything to do with the Mexican war--
+that is, who took part in Scott's campaign.  He figured there
+extensively, and not very creditably either.  He was captain in a
+volunteer regiment of Mississippians--for he hails from that State; but
+he was oftener met with at the _monte-table_ than in the quarters of his
+regiment.  He had one or two affairs, that gave him the reputation of a
+bully.  But that notoriety was not of Mexican-war origin.  He had earned
+it before going there; and was well known among the desperadoes of New
+Orleans as a _dangerous man_."
+
+"What of all that?" asked the young dragoon, in a tone slightly
+savouring of defiance.  "Who cares whether Mr Cassius Calhoun be a
+dangerous man, or a harmless one?  Not I.  He's only the girl's cousin,
+you say?"
+
+"Something more, perhaps.  I have reason to think he's her lover."
+
+"Accepted, do you suppose?"
+
+"That I can't tell.  I only know, or suspect, that he's the favourite of
+the father.  I have heard reasons why; given only in whispers, it is
+true, but too probable to be scouted.  The old story--influence
+springing from mortgage money.  Poindexter's not so rich as he has
+been--else we'd never have seen him out here."
+
+"If the lady be as attractive as you say, I suppose we'll have Captain
+Cassius out here also, before long?"
+
+"Before long!  Is that all you know about it?  He _is_ here; came along
+with the family, and is now residing with them.  Some say he's a partner
+in the planting speculation.  I saw him this very morning--down in the
+hotel bar-room--`liquoring up,' and swaggering in his old way."
+
+"A swarthy-complexioned man, of about thirty, with dark hair and
+moustaches; wearing a blue cloth frock, half military cut, and a Colt's
+revolver strapped over his thigh?"
+
+"Ay, and a bowie knife, if you had looked for it, under the breast of
+his coat.  That's the man."
+
+"He's rather a formidable-looking fellow," remarked the young rifleman.
+"If a bully, his looks don't belie him."
+
+"Damn his looks!" half angrily exclaimed the dragoon.  "We don't hold
+commissions in Uncle Sam's army to be scared by looks, nor bullies
+either.  If he comes any of his bullying over me, he'll find I'm as
+quick with a trigger as he."
+
+At that moment the bugle brayed out the call for morning parade--a
+ceremony observed at the little frontier fort as regularly as if a whole
+_corps-d'armee_ had been present--and the three officers separating,
+betook themselves to their quarters to prepare their several companies
+for the inspection of the major in command of the cantonment.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+CASA DEL CORVO.
+
+The estate, or "hacienda," known as Casa del Corvo, extended along the
+wooded bottom of the Leona River for more than a league, and twice that
+distance southwards across the contiguous prairie.
+
+The house itself--usually, though not correctly, styled the _hacienda_--
+stood within long cannon range of Fort Inge; from which its white walls
+were partially visible; the remaining portion being shadowed by tall
+forest trees that skirted the banks of the stream.
+
+Its site was peculiar, and no doubt chosen with a view to defence: for
+its foundations had been laid at a time when Indian assailants might be
+expected; as indeed they might be, and often are, at the present hour.
+
+There was a curve of the river closing upon itself, like the shoe of a
+racehorse, or the arc of a circle, three parts complete; the chord of
+which, or a parallelogram traced upon it, might be taken as the
+ground-plan of the dwelling.  Hence the name--Casa del Corvo--"the House
+of the Curve" (curved river).
+
+The facade, or entrance side, fronted towards the prairie--the latter
+forming a noble lawn that extended to the edge of the horizon--in
+comparison with which an imperial park would have shrunk into the
+dimensions of a paddock.
+
+The architecture of Casa del Corvo, like that of other large country
+mansions in Mexico, was of a style that might be termed Morisco-Mexican:
+being a single story in height, with a flat roof--_azotea_--spouted and
+parapeted all round; having a courtyard inside the walls, termed
+_patio_, open to the sky, with a flagged floor, a fountain, and a stone
+stairway leading up to the roof; a grand entrance gateway--the
+_saguan_--with a massive wooden door, thickly studded with bolt-heads;
+and two or three windows on each side, defended by a _grille_ of strong
+iron bars, called _reja_.  These are the chief characteristics of a
+Mexican hacienda; and Casa del Corvo differed but little from the type
+almost universal throughout the vast territories of Spanish America.
+
+Such was the homestead that adorned the newly acquired estate of the
+Louisiana planter--that had become his property by purchase.
+
+As yet no change had taken place in the exterior of the dwelling; nor
+much in its interior, if we except the _personnel_ of its occupants.  A
+physiognomy, half Anglo-Saxon, half Franco-American, presented itself in
+courtyard and corridor, where formerly were seen only faces of pure
+Spanish type; and instead of the rich sonorous language of Andalusia,
+was now heard the harsher guttural of a semi-Teutonic tongue--
+occasionally diversified by the sweeter accentuation of Creolian French.
+
+Outside the walls of the mansion--in the village-like cluster of
+yucca-thatched huts which formerly gave housing to the _peons_ and other
+dependants of the hacienda--the transformation was more striking.  Where
+the tall thin _vaquero_, in broad-brimmed hat of black glaze, and
+chequered _serape_, strode proudly over the sward--his spurs tinkling at
+every step--was now met the authoritative "overseer," in blue jersey, or
+blanket coat--his whip cracking at every corner; where the red children
+of Azteca and Anahuac, scantily clad in tanned sheepskin, could be seen,
+with sad solemn aspect, lounging listlessly by their _jacales_, or
+trotting silently along, were now heard the black sons and daughters of
+Ethiopia, from morn till night chattering their gay "gumbo," or with
+song and dance seemingly contradicting the idea: that slavery is a
+heritage of unhappiness!
+
+Was it a change for the better upon the estate of Casa del Corvo?
+
+There was a time when the people of England would have answered--no;
+with a unanimity and emphasis calculated to drown all disbelief in their
+sincerity.
+
+Alas, for human weakness and hypocrisy!  Our long cherished sympathy
+with the slave proves to have been only a tissue of sheer dissembling.
+Led by an oligarchy--not the true aristocracy of our country: for these
+are too noble to have yielded to such, deep designings--but an oligarchy
+composed of conspiring plebs, who have smuggled themselves into the
+first places of power in all the four estates--guided by these prurient
+conspirators against the people's rights--England has proved untrue to
+her creed so loudly proclaimed--truculent to the trust reposed in her by
+the universal acclaim, of the nations.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+On a theme altogether different dwelt the thoughts of Louise Poindexter,
+as she flung herself into a chair in front of her dressing-glass, and
+directed her maid Florinda to prepare her for the reception of guests--
+expected soon to arrive at the hacienda.
+
+It was the day fixed for the "house-warming," and about an hour before
+the time appointed for dinner to be on the table.  This might have
+explained a certain restlessness observable in the air of the young
+Creole--especially observed by Florinda; but it did not.  The maid had
+her own thoughts about the cause of her mistress's disquietude--as was
+proved by the conversation that ensued between them.
+
+Scarce could it be called a conversation.  It was more as if the young
+lady were thinking aloud, with her attendant acting as an echo.  During
+all her life, the Creole had been accustomed to look upon her sable
+handmaid as a thing from whom it was not worth while concealing her
+thoughts, any more than she would from the chairs, the table, the sofa,
+or any other article of furniture in the apartment.  There was but the
+difference of Florinda being a little more animated and companionable,
+and the advantage of her being able to give a vocal response to the
+observations addressed to her.
+
+For the first ten minutes after entering the chamber, Florinda had
+sustained the brunt of the dialogue on indifferent topics--her mistress
+only interfering with an occasional ejaculation.
+
+"Oh, Miss Looey!" pursued the negress, as her fingers fondly played
+among the lustrous tresses of her young mistress's hair, "how bewful you
+hair am!  Like de long 'Panish moss dat hang from de cyprus-tree; only
+dat it am ob a diff'rent colour, an shine like the sugar-house 'lasses."
+
+As already stated, Louise Poindexter was a Creole.  After that, it is
+scarce necessary to say that her hair was of a dark colour; and--as the
+sable maid in rude speech had expressed it--luxuriant as Spanish moss.
+It was not black; but of a rich glowing brown--such as may be observed
+in the tinting of a tortoise-shell, or the coat of a winter-trapped
+sable.
+
+"Ah!" continued Florinda, spreading out an immense "hank" of the hair,
+that glistened like a chestnut against her dark palm, "if I had dat
+lubbly hair on ma head, in'tead ob dis cuss'd cully wool, I fotch em all
+to ma feet--ebbry one oh dem."
+
+"What do you mean, girl?" inquired the young lady, as if just aroused
+from some dreamy reverie.  "What's that you've been saying?  Fetch them
+to your feet?  Fetch whom?"
+
+"Na, now; you know what dis chile mean?"
+
+"'Pon honour, I do not."
+
+"Make em lub me.  Dat's what I should hab say."
+
+"But whom?"
+
+"All de white gen'l'm.  De young planter, de officer ob de Fort--all ob
+dem.  Wif you hair, Miss Looey, I could dem all make conquess."
+
+"Ha--ha--ha!" laughed the young lady, amused at the idea of Florinda
+figuring under that magnificent chevelure.  "You think, with my hair
+upon your head, you would be invincible among the men?"
+
+"No, missa--not you hair alone--but wif you sweet face--you skin, white
+as de alumbaster--you tall figga--you grand look.  Oh, Miss Looey, you
+am so 'plendidly bewful!  I hear de white gen'l'm say so.  I no need
+hear em say it.  I see dat for masef."
+
+"You're learning to flatter, Florinda."
+
+"No, 'deed, missa--ne'er a word ob flattery--ne'er a word, I swa it.  By
+de 'postles, I swa it."
+
+To one who looked upon her mistress, the earnest asseveration of the
+maid was not necessary to prove the sincerity of her speech, however
+hyperbolical it might appear.  To say that Louise Poindexter was
+beautiful, would only be to repeat the universal verdict of the society
+that surrounded her.  A single glance was sufficient to satisfy any one
+upon this point--strangers as well as acquaintances.  It was a kind of
+beauty that needed no _discovering_--and yet it is difficult to describe
+it.  The pen cannot portray swell a face.  Even the pencil could convey
+but a faint idea of it: for no painter, however skilled, could represent
+upon cold canvas the glowing ethereal light that emanated from her eyes,
+and appeared to radiate over her countenance.  Her features were purely
+classic: resembling those types of female beauty chosen by Phidias or
+Praxiteles.  And yet in all the Grecian Pantheon there is no face to
+which it could have been likened: for it was not the countenance of a
+goddess; but, something more attractive to the eye of man, the face of a
+woman.
+
+A suspicion of sensuality, apparent in the voluptuous curving of the
+lower lip--still more pronounced in the prominent rounding beneath the
+cheeks--while depriving the countenance of its pure spiritualism, did
+not perhaps detract from its beauty.  There are men, who, in this
+departure from the divine type, would have perceived a superior charm:
+since in Louise Poindexter they would have seen not a divinity to be
+worshipped, but a woman to be loved.
+
+Her only reply vouchsafed to Florinda's earnest asseveration was a
+laugh--careless, though not incredulous.  The young Creole did not need
+to be reminded of her beauty.  She was not unconscious of it: as could
+be told by her taking more than one long look into the mirror before
+which her toilet was being made.  The flattery of the negress scarce
+called up an emotion; certainly not more than she might have felt at the
+fawning of a pet spaniel; and she soon after surrendered herself to the
+reverie from which the speech had aroused her.
+
+Florinda was not silenced by observing her mistress's air of
+abstraction.  The girl had evidently something on her mind--some
+mystery, of which she desired the _eclaircissement_--and was determined
+to have it.
+
+"Ah!" she continued, as if talking to herself; "if Florinda had half de
+charm ob young missa, she for nobody care--she for nobody heave do deep
+sigh!"
+
+"Sigh!" repeated her mistress, suddenly startled by the speech.  "What
+do you mean by that?"
+
+"Pa' dieu, Miss Looey, Florinda no so blind you tink; nor so deaf
+neider.  She you see long time sit in de same place; you nebber 'peak no
+word--you only heave de sigh--de long deep sigh.  You nebba do dat in de
+ole plantashun in Loozyanny."
+
+"Florinda!  I fear you are taking leave of your senses, or have left
+them behind you in Louisiana?  Perhaps there's something in the climate
+here that affects you.  Is that so, girl?"
+
+"Pa' dieu, Miss Looey, dat question ob youself ask.  You no be angry
+case I 'peak so plain.  Florinda you slave--she you lub like brack
+sisser.  She no happy hear you sigh.  Dat why she hab take de freedom.
+You no be angry wif me?"
+
+"Certainly not.  Why should I be angry with you, child?  I'm not.  I
+didn't say I was; only you are quite mistaken in your ideas.  What
+you've seen, or heard, could be only a fancy of your own.  As for
+sighing, heigho!  I have something else to think of just now.  I have to
+entertain about a hundred guests--nearly all strangers, too; among them
+the young planters and officers whom you would entangle if you had my
+hair.  Ha! ha! ha!  _I_ don't desire to enmesh them--not one of them!
+So twist it up as you like--without the semblance of a snare in it."
+
+"Oh!  Miss Looey, you so 'peak?" inquired the negress with an air of
+evident interest.  "You say none ob dem gen'l'm you care for?  Dere am
+two, tree, berry, berry, berry han'som'.  One planter dar be, and two ob
+de officer--all young gen'l'm.  You know de tree I mean.  All ob dem hab
+been 'tentive to you.  You sure, missa, tain't one ob dem dat you make
+sigh?"
+
+"Sigh again!  Ha! ha! ha!  But come, Florinda, we're losing time.
+Recollect I've got to be in the drawing-room to receive a hundred
+guests.  I must have at least half an hour to compose myself into an
+attitude befitting such an extensive reception."
+
+"No fear, Miss Looey--no fear.  I you toilette make in time--plenty ob
+time.  No much trouble you dress.  Pa' dieu, in any dress you look
+'plendid.  You be de belle if you dress like one ob de fiel' hand ob de
+plantashun."
+
+"What a flatterer you are grown, Florinda!  I shall begin to suspect
+that you are after some favour.  Do you wish me to intercede, and make
+up your quarrel with Pluto?"
+
+"No, missa.  I be friend nebber more wid Pluto.  He show hisseff such
+great coward when come dat storm on de brack prairee.  Ah, Miss Looey!
+what we boaf do if dat young white gen'l'm on de red hoss no come ridin'
+dat way?"
+
+"If he had not, cher Florinde, it is highly probable neither of us
+should now have been here."
+
+"Oh, missa! wasn't he real fancy man, dat 'ere?  You see him bewful
+face.  You see him thick hair, jess de colour ob you own--only curled
+leetle bit like mine.  Talk ob de young planter, or dem officer at de
+Fort!  De brack folk say he no good for nuffin, like dem--he only poor
+white trash.  Who care fo' dat?  He am de sort ob man could dis chile
+make sigh.  Ah! de berry, berry sort!"
+
+Up to this point the young Creole had preserved a certain tranquillity
+of countenance.  She tried to continue it; but the effort failed her.
+Whether by accident or design, Florinda had touched the most sensitive
+chord in the spirit of her mistress.
+
+She would have been loth to confess it, even to her slave; and it was a
+relief to her, when loud voices heard in the courtyard gave a colourable
+excuse for terminating her toilette, along with the delicate dialogue
+upon which she might have been constrained to enter.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL.
+
+"Say, ye durnationed nigger! whar's yur master?"
+
+"Mass Poindex'er, sar?  De ole massr, or de young 'un?"
+
+"Young 'un be durned!  I mean Mister Peintdexter.  Who else shed I?
+Whar air he?"
+
+"Ho--ho! sar! dey am boaf at home--dat is, dey am boaf away from de
+house--de ole massr an de young Massr Henry.  Dey am down de ribber, wha
+de folk am makin' de new fence.  Ho! ho! you find 'em dar."
+
+"Down the river!  How fur d'ye reck'n?"
+
+"Ho! ho! sar.  Dis nigga reck'n it be 'bout tree or four mile--dat at de
+berry leas'."
+
+"Three or four mile?  Ye must be a durnationed fool, nigger.  Mister
+Peintdexter's plantation don't go thet fur; an I reck'n he ain't the man
+to be makin' a fence on some'dy else's clarin'.  Lookee hyur!  What time
+air he expected hum?  Ye've got a straighter idee o' thet, I hope?"
+
+"Dey boaf 'pected home berry soon, de young massr and de ole massr, and
+Mass Ca'houn too.  Ho! ho! dar's agwine to be big dooin's 'bout dis yar
+shanty--yer see dat fo' yeseff by de smell ob de kitchen.  Ho! ho!  All
+sorts o' gran' feassin'--do roas' an de bile, an de barbecue; de
+pot-pies, an de chicken fixins.  Ho! ho! ain't thar agwine to go it hyar
+jess like de ole times on de coass ob de Massippy!  Hoora fo' ole Mass
+Poindex'er!  He de right sort.  Ho! ho! 'tranger! why you no holla too:
+you no friend ob de massr?"
+
+"Durn you, nigger, don't ye remember me?  Now I look into yur ugly mug,
+I recollex you."
+
+"Gorramighty! 'tain't Mass 'Tump--'t use to fotch de ven'son an de
+turkey gobbla to de ole plantashun?  By de jumbo, it am, tho'.  Law,
+Mass 'Tump, dis nigga 'members you like it wa de day afore yesserday.
+Ise heern you called de odder day; but I war away from 'bout de place.
+I'm de coachman now--dribes de carriage dat carries de lady ob de
+'tablishment--de bewful Missy Loo.  Lor, massr, she berry fine gal.  Dey
+do say she beat Florinday into fits.  Nebba mind, Mass 'Tump, you better
+wait till ole massr come home.  He am _a bound to be hya_, in de
+shortess poss'ble time."
+
+"Wal, if thet's so, I'll wait upon him," rejoined the hunter, leisurely
+lifting his leg over the saddle--in which up to this time he had
+retained his seat.  "Now, ole fellur," he added, passing the bridle into
+the hands of the negro, "you gi'e the maar half a dozen yeers o' corn
+out o' the crib.  I've rid the critter better 'n a score o' miles like a
+streak o' lightnin'--all to do yur master a sarvice."
+
+"Oh, Mr Zebulon Stump, is it you?" exclaimed a silvery voice, followed
+by the appearance of Louise Poindexter upon the verandah.
+
+"I thought it was," continued the young lady, coming up to the railings,
+"though I didn't expect to see you so soon.  You said you were going
+upon a long journey.  Well--I am pleased that you are here; and so will
+papa and Henry be.  Pluto! go instantly to Chloe, the cook, and see what
+she can give you for Mr Stump's dinner.  You have not dined, I know.
+You are dusty--you've been travelling?  Here, Morinda!  Haste you to the
+sideboard, and pour out some drink.  Mr Stump will be thirsty, I'm
+sure, this hot day.  What would you prefer--port, sherry, claret?  Ah,
+now, if I recollect, you used to be partial to Monongahela whisky.  I
+think there is some.  Morinda, see if there be!  Step into the verandah,
+dear Mr Stump, and take a seat.  You were inquiring for papa?  I expect
+him home every minute.  I shall try to entertain you till he come."
+
+Had the young lady paused sooner in her speech, she would not have
+received an immediate reply.  Even as it was, some seconds elapsed
+before Zeb made rejoinder.  He stood gazing upon her, as if struck
+speechless by the sheer intensity of his admiration.
+
+"Lord o' marcy, Miss Lewaze!" he at length gasped forth, "I thort when I
+used to see you on the Massissippi, ye war the puttiest critter on the
+airth; but now, I think ye the puttiest thing eyther on airth or in
+hewing.  Geehosofat!"
+
+The old hunter's praise was scarce exaggerated.  Fresh from the
+toilette, the gloss of her luxuriant hair untarnished by the notion of
+the atmosphere; her cheeks glowing with a carmine tint, produced by the
+application of cold water; her fine figure, gracefully draped in a robe
+of India muslin--white and semi-translucent--certainly did Louise
+Poindexter appear as pretty as anything upon earth--if not in heaven.
+
+"Geehosofat!" again exclaimed the hunter, following up his complimentary
+speech, "I hev in my time seed what I thort war some putty critters o'
+the sheemale kind--my ole 'ooman herself warn't so bad-lookin' when I
+fast kim acrost her in Kaintuck--thet she warn't.  But I will say this,
+Miss Lewaze: ef the puttiest bits o' all o' them war clipped out an then
+jeined thegither agin, they wudn't make up the thousanth part o' a angel
+sech as you."
+
+"Oh--oh--oh!  Mr Stump--Mr Stump!  I'm astonished to hear _you_ talk
+in this manner.  Texas has quite turned you into a courtier.  If you go
+on so, I fear you will lose your character for plain speaking!  After
+that I am sure you will stand in need of a very big drink.  Haste,
+Morinda!  I think you said you would prefer whisky?"
+
+"Ef I didn't say it, I thunk it; an that air about the same.  Yur right,
+miss, I prefar the corn afore any o' them thur furrin lickers; an I
+sticks to it whuriver I kin git it.  Texas hain't made no alterashun in
+me in the matter o' lickerin'."
+
+"Mass 'Tump, you it hab mix wif water?" inquired Florinda, coming
+forward with a tumbler about one-half full of "Monongahela."
+
+"No, gurl.  Durn yur water!  I hev hed enuf o' thet since I started this
+mornin'.  I hain't hed a taste o' licker the hul day--ne'er as much as
+the smell o' it."
+
+"Dear Mr Stump! surely you can't drink it that way?  Why, it will burn
+your throat!  Have a little sugar, or honey, along with it?"
+
+"Speil it, miss.  It air sweet enuf 'ithout that sort o' docterin';
+'specially arter you hev looked inter the glass.  Yu'll see ef I can't
+drink it.  Hyur goes to try!"
+
+The old hunter raised the tumbler to his chin; and after giving three
+gulps, and the fraction of a fourth, returned it empty into the hands of
+Florinda.  A loud smacking of the lips almost drowned the simultaneous
+exclamations of astonishment uttered by the young lady and her maid.
+
+"Burn my throat, ye say?  Ne'er a bit.  It hez jest eiled thet ere
+jugewlar, an put it in order for a bit o' a palaver I wants to hev wi'
+yur father--'bout thet ere spotty mow-stang."
+
+"Oh, true!  I had forgotten.  No, I hadn't either; but I did not suppose
+you had time to have news of it.  Have you heard anything of the pretty
+creature?"
+
+"Putty critter ye may well pernounce it.  It ur all o' thet.  Besides,
+it ur a maar."
+
+"A ma-a-r!  What is that, Mr Stump?  I don't understand."
+
+"A maar I sayed.  Shurly ye know what a maar is?"
+
+"Ma-a-r--ma-a-r!  Why, no, not exactly.  Is it a Mexican word?  _Mar_ in
+Spanish signifies the sea."
+
+"In coorse it air a Mexikin maar--all mowstangs air.  They air all on
+'em o' a breed as wur oncest brought over from some European country by
+the fust o' them as settled in these hyur parts--leesewise I hev heern
+so."
+
+"Still, Mr Stump, I do not comprehend you.  What makes this mustang a
+ma-a-r?"
+
+"What makes her a _maar_?  'Case she ain't a _hoss_; thet's what make
+it, Miss Peintdexter."
+
+"Oh--now--I--I think I comprehend.  But did you say you have heard of
+the animal--I mean since you left us?"
+
+"Heern o' her, seed her, an feeled her."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"She air grupped."
+
+"Ah, caught! what capital news!  I shall be so delighted to see the
+beautiful thing; and ride it too.  I haven't had a horse worth a piece
+of orange-peel since I've been in Texas.  Papa has promised to purchase
+this one for me at any price.  But who is the lucky individual who
+accomplished the capture?"
+
+"Ye mean who grupped the maar?"
+
+"Yes--yes--who?"
+
+"Why, in coorse it wur a mowstanger."
+
+"A mustanger?"
+
+"Ye-es--an such a one as thur ain't another on all these purayras--
+eyther to ride a hoss, or throw a laryitt over one.  Yo may talk about
+yur Mexikins!  I never seed neery Mexikin ked manage hoss-doin's like
+that young fellur; an thur ain't a drop o' thur pisen blood in his
+veins.  He ur es white es I am myself."
+
+"His name?"
+
+"Wal, es to the name o' his family, that I niver heern.  His Christyun
+name air Maurice.  He's knowed up thur 'bout the Fort as Maurice the
+mowstanger."
+
+The old hunter was not sufficiently observant to take note of the tone
+of eager interest in which the question had been asked, nor the sudden
+deepening of colour upon the cheeks of the questioner as she heard the
+answer.
+
+Neither had escaped the observation of Florinda.
+
+"La, Miss Looey!" exclaimed the latter, "shoo dat de name ob de brave
+young white gen'l'm--he dat us save from being smodered on de brack
+prairee?"
+
+"Geehosofat, yes!" resumed the hunter, relieving the young lady from the
+necessity of making reply.  "Now I think o't, he told me o' thet
+suckumstance this very mornin', afore we started.  He air the same.
+Thet's the very fellur es hev trapped spotty; an he air toatin' the
+critter along at this eyedentical minnit, in kump'ny wi' about a dozen
+others o' the same cavyurd.  He oughter be hyur afore sundown.  I pushed
+my ole maar ahead, so 's to tell yur father the spotty war comin', and
+let him git the fust chance o' buyin'.  I know'd as how thet ere bit o'
+hosdoin's don't get druv fur into the Settlements efore someb'dy snaps
+her up.  I thort o' _you_, Miss Lewaze, and how ye tuk on so when I tolt
+ye 'bout the critter.  Wal, make yur mind eezy; ye shell hev the fast
+chance.  Ole Zeb Stump 'll be yur bail for thet."
+
+"Oh, Mr Stump, it is so kind of you!  I am very, very grateful.  You
+will now excuse me for a moment.  Father will soon be back.  We have a
+dinner-party to-day; and I have to prepare for receiving a great many
+people.  Florinda, see that Mr Stump's luncheon is set out for him.
+Go, girl--go at once about it!"
+
+"And, Mr Stump," continued the young lady, drawing nearer to the
+hunter, and speaking in a more subdued tone of voice, "if the young--
+young gentleman should arrive while the other people are here--perhaps
+he don't know them--will you see that he is not neglected?  There is
+wine yonder, in the verandah, and other things.  You know what I mean,
+dear Mr Stump?"
+
+"Durned if I do, Miss Lewaze; that air, not adzackly.  I kin unnerstan'
+all thet ere 'bout the licker' an other fixins.  But who air the young
+gen'leman yur speakin' o'?  Thet's the thing as bamboozles me."
+
+"Surely you know who I mean!  The young gentleman--the young man--who,
+you say, is bringing in the horses."
+
+"Oh! ah!  Maurice the mowstanger!  That's it, is it?  Wal, I reck'n yur
+not a hundred mile astray in calling _him_ a gen'leman; tho' it ain't
+offen es a mowstanger gits thet entitlement, or desarves it eyther.  _He
+air one_, every inch o' him--a gen'leman by barth, breed, an raisin'--
+tho' he air a hoss-hunter, an Irish at thet."
+
+The eyes of Louise Poindexter sparkled with delight as she listened to
+opinions so perfectly in unison with her own.
+
+"I must tell ye, howsomdiver," continued the hunter, as some doubt had
+come across his mind, "it won't do to show that 'ere young fellur any
+sort o' second-hand hospertality.  As they used to say on the
+Massissippi, he air `as proud as a Peintdexter.'  Excuse me, Miss
+Lewaze, for lettin' the word slip.  I did think o't thet I war talkin'
+to a Peintdexter--not the proudest, but the puttiest o' the name."
+
+"Oh, Mr Stump! you can say what you please to me.  You know that I
+could not be offended with you, you dear old giant!"
+
+"He'd be meaner than a dwurf es ked eyther say or do anythin' to offend
+you, miss."
+
+"Thanks! thanks!  I know your honest heart--I know your devotion.
+Perhaps some time--some time, Mr Stump,"--she spoke hesitatingly, but
+apparently without any definite meaning--"I might stand in need of your
+friendship."
+
+"Ye won't need it long afore ye git it, then; thet ole Zeb Stump kin
+promise ye, Miss Peintdexter.  He'd be stinkiner than a skunk, an a
+bigger coward than a coyoat, es wouldn't stan' by sech as you, while
+there wur a bottle-full o' breath left in the inside o' his body."
+
+"A thousand thanks--again and again!  But what were you going to say?
+You spoke of second-hand hospitality?"
+
+"I dud."
+
+"You meant--?"
+
+"I meaned thet it 'ud be no use o' my inviting Maurice the mowstanger
+eyther to eat or drink unner this hyur roof.  Unless yur father do that,
+the young fellur 'll go 'ithout tastin'.  You unnerstan, Miss Lewaze, he
+ain't one o' thet sort o' poor whites as kin be sent roun' to the
+kitchen."
+
+The young Creole stood for a second or two, without making rejoinder.
+She appeared to be occupied with some abstruse calculation, that
+engrossed the whole of her thoughts.
+
+"Never mind about it," she at length said, in a tone that told the
+calculation completed.  "Never mind, Mr Stump.  You need not invite
+him.  Only let _me_ know when he arrives--unless we be at dinner, and
+then, of course, he would not expect any one to appear.  But if he
+_should_ come at that time, _you_ detain him--won't you?"
+
+"Boun' to do it, ef you bid me."
+
+"You will, then; and let me know he is here.  _I_ shall ask him to eat."
+
+"Ef ye do, miss, I reck'n ye'll speil his appetite.  The sight o' you,
+to say nothin' o' listenin' to your melodyus voice, ud cure a starvin'
+wolf o' bein' hungry.  When I kim in hyur I war peckish enuf to swaller
+a raw buzzart.  Neow I don't care a durn about eatin'.  I ked go 'ithout
+chawin' meat for month."
+
+As this exaggerated chapter of euphemism was responded to by a peal of
+clear ringing laughter, the young lady pointed to the other side of the
+patio; where her maid was seer emerging from the "cocina," carrying a
+light tray--followed by Pluto with one of broader dimensions, more
+heavily weighted.
+
+"You great giant!" was the reply, given in a tone of sham reproach; "I
+won't believe you have lost your appetite, until you have eaten Jack.
+Yonder come Pluto and Morinda.  They bring something that will prove
+more cheerful company than I; so I shall leave you to enjoy it.  Good
+bye, Zeb--good bye, or, as the natives say here, _hasta luego_!"
+
+Gaily were these words spoken--lightly did Louise Poindexter trip back
+across the covered corridor.  Only after entering her chamber, and
+finding herself _chez soi-meme_, did she give way to a reflection of a
+more serious character, that found expression in words low murmured, but
+full of mystic meaning:--
+
+"It is my destiny: I feel--I know that it is!  I dare not meet, and yet
+I cannot shun it--I may not--I would not--I _will not_!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+TAMING A WILD MARE.
+
+The pleasantest _apartment_ in a Mexican house is that which has the
+roof for its floor, and the sky for its ceiling--the _azotea_.  In fine
+weather--ever fine in that sunny clime--it is preferred to the
+drawing-room; especially after dinner, when the sun begins to cast
+rose-coloured rays upon the snow-clad summits of Orizava, Popocatepec,
+Toluca, and the "Twin Sister;" when the rich wines of Xeres and Madeira
+have warmed the imaginations of Andalusia's sons and daughters--
+descendants of the Conquistadores--who mount up to their house-tops to
+look upon a land of world-wide renown, rendered famous by the heroic
+achievements of their ancestors.
+
+Then does the Mexican "cavallero," clad in embroidered habiliments,
+exhibit his splendid exterior to the eyes of some senorita--at the same
+time puffing the smoke of his paper cigarito against her cheeks.  Then
+does the dark-eyed doncella favourably listen to soft whisperings; or
+perhaps only pretends to listen, while, with heart distraught, and eye
+wandering away, she sends stealthy glances over the plain towards some
+distant hacienda--the home of him she truly loves.
+
+So enjoyable a fashion, as that of spending the twilight hours upon the
+housetop, could not fail to be followed by any one who chanced to be the
+occupant of a Mexican dwelling; and the family of the Louisiana planter
+had adopted it, as a matter of course.
+
+On that same evening, after the dining-hall had been deserted, the roof,
+instead of the drawing-room, was chosen as the place of re-assemblage;
+and as the sun descended towards the horizon, his slanting rays fell
+upon a throng as gay, as cheerful, and perhaps as resplendent, as ever
+trod the azotea of Casa del Corvo.  Moving about over its tessellated
+tiles, standing in scattered groups, or lined along the parapet with
+faces turned towards the plain, were women as fair and men as brave as
+had ever assembled on that same spot--even when its ancient owner used
+to distribute hospitality to the _hidalgos_ of the land--the _bluest_
+blood in Coahuila and Texas.
+
+The company now collected to welcome the advent of Woodley Poindexter on
+his Texan estate, could also boast of this last distinction.  They were
+the _elite_ of the Settlements--not only of the Leona, but of others
+more distant.  There were guests from Gonzales, from Castroville, and
+even from San Antonio--old friends of the planter, who, like him, had
+sought a home in South-Western Texas, and who had ridden--some of them
+over a hundred miles--to be present at this, his first grand
+"reception."
+
+The planter had spared neither pains nor expense to give it _eclat_.
+What with the sprinkling of uniforms and epaulettes, supplied by the
+Fort--what with the brass band borrowed from the same convenient
+repository--what with the choice wines found in the cellars of Casa del
+Corvo, and which had formed part of the purchase--there could be little
+lacking to make Poindexter's party the most brilliant ever given upon
+the banks of the Leona.
+
+And to insure this effect, his lovely daughter Louise, late belle of
+Louisiana--the fame of whose beauty had been before her, even in Texas--
+acted as mistress of the ceremonies--moving about among the admiring
+guests with the smile of a queen, and the grace of a goddess.
+
+On that occasion was she the cynosure of a hundred pairs of eyes, the
+happiness of a score of hearts, and perhaps the torture of as many more:
+for not all were blessed who beheld her beauty.
+
+Was she herself happy?
+
+The interrogatory may appear singular--almost absurd.  Surrounded by
+friends--admirers--one, at least, who adored her--a dozen whose
+incipient love could but end in adoration--young planters, lawyers,
+embryo statesmen, and some with reputation already achieved--sons of
+Mars in armour, or with armour late laid aside--how could she be
+otherwise than proudly, supremely happy?
+
+A stranger might have asked the question; one superficially acquainted
+with Creole character--more especially the character of the lady in
+question.
+
+But mingling in that splendid throng was a man who was no stranger to
+either; and who, perhaps, more than any one present, watched her every
+movement; and endeavoured more than any other to interpret its meaning.
+Cassius Calhoun was the individual thus occupied.
+
+She went not hither, nor thither, without his following her--not close,
+like a shadow; but by stealth, flitting from place to place; upstairs,
+and downstairs; standing in corners, with an air of apparent
+abstraction; but all the while with eyes turned askant upon his cousin's
+face, like a plain-clothes policeman employed on detective duty.
+
+Strangely enough he did not seem to pay much regard to her speeches,
+made in reply to the compliments showered upon her by several would-be
+winners of a smile--not even when these were conspicuous and
+respectable, as in the case of young Hancock of the dragoons.  To all
+such he listened without visible emotion, as one listens to a
+conversation in no way affecting the affairs either of self or friends.
+
+It was only after ascending to the azotea, on observing his cousin near
+the parapet, with her eye turned interrogatively towards the plain, that
+his detective zeal became conspicuous--so much so as to attract the
+notice of others.  More than once was it noticed by those standing near:
+for more than once was repeated the act which gave cause to it.
+
+At intervals, not very wide apart, the young mistress of Casa del Corvo
+might have been seen to approach the parapet, and look across the plain,
+with a glance that seemed to interrogate the horizon of the sky.
+
+Why she did so no one could tell.  No one presumed to conjecture, except
+Cassius Calhoun.  He had thoughts upon the subject--thoughts that were
+torturing him.
+
+When a group of moving forms appeared upon the prairie, emerging from
+the garish light of the setting sun--when the spectators upon the azotea
+pronounced it a drove of horses in charge of some mounted men--the
+ex-officer of volunteers had a suspicion as to who was conducting that
+_cavallada_.
+
+Another appeared to feel an equal interest in its advent, though perhaps
+from a different motive.  Long before the horse-drove had attracted the
+observation of Poindexter's guests, his daughter had noted its
+approach--from the time that a cloud of dust soared up against the
+horizon, so slight and filmy as to have escaped detection by any eye not
+bent expressly on discovering it.
+
+From that moment the young Creole, under cover of a conversation carried
+on amid a circle of fair companions, had been slyly scanning the
+dust-cloud as it drew nearer; forming conjectures as to what was causing
+it, upon knowledge already, and as she supposed, exclusively her own.
+
+"Wild horses!" announced the major commandant of Fort Inge, after a
+short inspection through his pocket telescope.  "Some one bringing them
+in," he added, a second time raising the glass to his eye.  "Oh!  I see
+now--it's Maurice the mustanger, who occasionally helps our men to a
+remount.  He appears to be coming this way--direct to your place, Mr
+Poindexter."
+
+"If it be the young fellow you have named, that's not unlikely," replied
+the owner of Casa del Corvo.  "I bargained with him to catch me a score
+or two; and maybe this is the first instalment he's bringing me."
+
+"Yes, I think it is," he added, after a look through the telescope.
+
+"I am sure of it," said the planter's son.  "I can tell the horseman
+yonder to be Maurice Gerald."
+
+The planter's daughter could have done the same; though she made no
+display of her knowledge.  She did not appear to be much interested in
+the matter--indeed, rather indifferent.  She had become aware of being
+watched by that evil eye, constantly burning upon her.
+
+The _cavallada_ came up, Maurice sitting handsomely on his horse, with
+the spotted mare at the end of his lazo.
+
+"What a beautiful creature!" exclaimed several voices, as the captured
+mustang was led up in front of the house, quivering with excitement at a
+scene so new to it.
+
+"It's worth a journey to the ground to look at such an animal!"
+suggested the major's wife, a lady of enthusiastic inclinings.  "I
+propose we all go down!  What say you, Miss Poindexter?"
+
+"Oh, certainly," answered the mistress of the mansion, amidst a chorus
+of other voices crying out--
+
+"Let us go down!  Let us go down!"
+
+Led by the majoress, the ladies filed down the stone stairway--the
+gentlemen after; and in a score of seconds the horse-hunter, still
+seated in his saddle, became, with his captive, the centre of the
+distinguished circle.
+
+Henry Poindexter had hurried down before the rest, and already, in the
+frankest manner, bidden the stranger welcome.
+
+Between the latter and Louise only a slight salutation could be
+exchanged.  Familiarity with a horse-dealer--even supposing him to have
+had the honour of an introduction--would scarce have been tolerated by
+the "society."
+
+Of the ladies, the major's wife alone addressed him in a familiar way;
+but that was in a tone that told of superior position, coupled with
+condescension.  He was more gratified by a glance--quick and silent--
+when his eye changed intelligence with that of the young Creole.
+
+Hers was not the only one that rested approvingly upon him.  In truth,
+the mustanger looked splendid, despite his travel-stained habiliments.
+His journey of over twenty miles had done little to fatigue him.  The
+prairie breeze had freshened the colour upon his cheeks; and his full
+round throat, naked to the breast-bone, and slightly bronzed with the
+sun, contributed to the manliness of his mien.  Even the dust clinging
+to his curled hair could not altogether conceal its natural gloss, nor
+the luxuriance of its growth; while a figure tersely knit told of
+strength and endurance beyond the ordinary endowment of man.  There were
+stolen glances, endeavouring to catch his, sent by more than one of the
+fair circle.  The pretty niece of the commissary smiled admiringly upon
+him.  Some said the commissary's wife; but this could be only a slander,
+to be traced, perhaps, to the doctor's better half--the Lady Teazle of
+the cantonment.
+
+"Surely," said Poindexter, after making an examination of the captured
+mustang, "this must be the animal of which old Zeb Stump has been
+telling me?"
+
+"It ur thet eyedenticul same," answered the individual so described,
+making his way towards Maurice with the design of assisting him.
+"Ye-es, Mister Peintdexter; the eyedenticul critter--a maar, es ye kin
+all see for yurselves--"
+
+"Yes, yes," hurriedly interposed the planter, not desiring any further
+elucidation.
+
+"The young fellur hed grupped her afore I got thur; so I wur jess in the
+nick o' time 'bout it.  She mout a been tuck elswhar, an then Miss
+Lewaze thur mout a missed hevin' her."
+
+"It is true indeed, Mr Stump!  It was very thoughtful of you.  I know
+not how I shall ever be able to reciprocate your kindness?"
+
+"Reciperkate!  Wal, I spose thet air means to do suthin in return.  Ye
+kin do thet, miss, 'ithout much difeequilty.  I han't dud nothin' for
+you, ceptin' make a bit o' a journey acrost the purayra.  To see yur
+bewtyful self mounted on thet maar, wi' yur ploomed het upon yur head,
+an yur long-tailed pettykote streakin' it ahint you, 'ud pay old Zeb
+Stump to go clur to the Rockies, and back agin."
+
+"Oh, Mr Stump! you are an incorrigible flatterer!  Look around you! you
+will see many here more deserving of your compliments than I."
+
+"Wal, wal!" rejoined Zeb, casting a look of careless scrutiny towards
+the ladies, "I ain't a goin' to deny thet thur air gobs o' putty
+critters hyur--dog-goned putty critters; but es they used to say in ole
+Loozyanney, thur air but one Lewaze Peintdexter."
+
+A burst of laughter--in which only a few feminine voices bore part--was
+the reply to Zeb's gallant speech.
+
+"I shall owe you two hundred dollars for this," said the planter,
+addressing himself to Maurice, and pointing to the spotted mare.  "I
+think that was the sum stipulated for by Mr Stump."
+
+"I was not a party to the stipulation," replied the mustanger, with a
+significant but well-intentioned smile.  "I cannot take your money.
+_She_ is not for sale."
+
+"Oh, indeed!" said the planter, drawing back with an air of proud
+disappointment; while his brother planters, as well as the officers of
+the Fort, looked astonished at the refusal of such a munificent price.
+Two hundred dollars for an untamed mustang, when the usual rate of price
+was from ten to twenty!  The mustanger must be mad?
+
+He gave them no time to descant upon his sanity.
+
+"Mr Poindexter," he continued, speaking in the same good-humoured
+strain, "you have given me such a generous price for my other captives--
+and before they were taken too--that I can afford to make a present--
+what we over in Ireland call a `luckpenny.'  It is our custom there
+also, when a horse-trade takes place at the house, to give the
+_douceur_, not to the purchaser himself, but to one of the fair members
+of his family.  May I have your permission to introduce this Hibernian
+fashion into the settlements of Texas?"
+
+"Certainly, by all means!" responded several voices, two or three of
+them unmistakably with an Irish accentuation.
+
+"Oh, certainly, Mr Gerald!" replied the planter, his conservatism
+giving way to the popular will--"as you please about that."
+
+"Thanks, gentlemen--thanks!" said the mustanger, with a patronising look
+towards men who believed themselves to be his masters.  "This mustang is
+my luckpenny; and if Miss Poindexter will condescend to accept of it, I
+shall feel more than repaid for the three days' chase which the creature
+has cost me.  Had she been the most cruel of coquettes, she could scarce
+have been more difficult to subdue."
+
+"I accept your gift, sir; and with gratitude," responded the young
+Creole--for the first time prominently proclaiming herself, and stepping
+freely forth as she spoke.  "But I have a fancy," she continued,
+pointing to the mustang--at the same time that her eye rested
+inquiringly on the countenance of the mustanger--"a fancy that your
+captive is not yet _tamed_?  She but trembles in fear of the unknown
+future.  She may yet kick against the traces, if she find the harness
+not to her liking; and then what am I to do--poor I?"
+
+"True, Maurice!" said the major, widely mistaken as to the meaning of
+the mysterious speech, and addressing the only man on the ground who
+could possibly have comprehended it; "Miss Poindexter speaks very
+sensibly.  That mustang has not been tamed yet--any one may see it.
+Come, my good fellow! give her the lesson.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen!" continued the major, turning towards the
+company, "this is something worth your seeing--those of you who have not
+witnessed the spectacle before.  Come, Maurice; mount, and show us a
+specimen of prairie horsemanship.  She looks as though she would put
+your skill to the test."
+
+"You are right, major: she does!" replied the mustanger, with a quick
+glance, directed not towards the captive quadruped, but to the young
+Creole; who, with all her assumed courage, retired tremblingly behind
+the circle of spectators.
+
+"No matter, my man," pursued the major, in a tone intended for
+encouragement.  "In spite of that devil sparkling in her eye, I'll lay
+ten to one you'll take the conceit out of her.  Try!"
+
+Without losing credit, the mustanger could not have declined acceding to
+the major's request.  It was a challenge to skill--to equestrian
+prowess--a thing not lightly esteemed upon the prairies of Texas.
+
+He proclaimed his acceptance of it by leaping lightly out of his saddle,
+resigning his own steed to Zeb Stump, and exclusively giving his
+attention to the captive.
+
+The only preliminary called for was the clearing of the ground.  This
+was effected in an instant--the greater part of the company--with all
+the ladies--returning to the azotea.
+
+With only a piece of raw-hide rope looped around the under jaw, and
+carried headstall fashion behind the ears--with only one rein in hand--
+Maurice sprang to the back of the wild mare.
+
+It was the first time she had ever been mounted by man--the first insult
+of the kind offered to her.
+
+A shrill spiteful scream spoke plainly her appreciation of and
+determination to resent it.  It proclaimed defiance of the attempt to
+degrade her to the condition of a slave!
+
+With equine instinct, she reared upon her hind legs, for some seconds
+balancing her body in an erect position.  Her rider, anticipating the
+trick, had thrown his arms around her neck; and, close clasping her
+throat, appeared part of herself.  But for this she might have poised
+over upon her back, and crushed him beneath her.
+
+The uprearing of the hind quarters was the next "trick" of the mustang--
+sure of being tried, and most difficult for the rider to meet without
+being thrown.  From sheer conceit in his skill, he had declined saddle
+and stirrup, that would now have stood him in stead; but with these he
+could not have claimed accomplishment of the boasted feat of the
+prairies--_to tame the naked steed_.
+
+He performed it without them.  As the mare raised her hind quarters
+aloft, he turned quickly upon her back, threw his arms around the barrel
+of her body, and resting his toes upon the angular points of her fore
+shoulders, successfully resisted her efforts to unhorse him.
+
+Twice or three times was the endeavour repeated by the mustang, and as
+often foiled by the skill of the mustanger; and then, as if conscious
+that such efforts were idle, the enraged animal plunged no longer; but,
+springing away from the spot, entered upon a gallop that appeared to
+have no goal this side the ending of the earth.
+
+It must have come to an end somewhere; though not within sight of the
+spectators, who kept their places, waiting for the horse-tamer's return.
+
+Conjectures that he might be killed, or, at the least, badly "crippled,"
+were freely ventured during his absence; and there was one who wished it
+so.  But there was also one upon whom such an event would have produced
+a painful impression--almost as painful as if her own life depended upon
+his safe return.  Why Louise Poindexter, daughter of the proud Louisiana
+sugar-planter--a belle--a beauty of more than provincial repute--who
+could, by simply saying yes, have had for a husband the richest and
+noblest in the land--why she should have fixed her fancy, or even
+permitted her thoughts to stray, upon a poor horse-hunter of Texas, was
+a mystery that even her own intellect--by no means a weak one--was
+unable to fathom.
+
+Perhaps she had not yet gone so far as to fix her fancy upon him.  She
+did not think so herself.  Had she thought so, and reflected upon it,
+perhaps she would have recoiled from the contemplation of certain
+consequences, that could not have failed to present themselves to her
+mind.
+
+She was but conscious of having conceived some strange interest in a
+strange individual--one who had presented himself in a fashion that
+favoured fanciful reflections--one who differed essentially from the
+common-place types introduced to her in the world of social
+distinctions.
+
+She was conscious, too, that this interest--originating in a word, a
+glance, a gesture--listened to, or observed, amid the ashes of a burnt
+prairie--instead of subsiding, had ever since been upon the increase!
+
+It was not diminished when Maurice the mustanger came riding back across
+the plain, with the wild mare between his legs--no more wild--no longer
+desiring to destroy him--but with lowered crest and mien submissive,
+acknowledging to all the world that she had found her master!
+
+Without acknowledging it to the world, or even to herself, the young
+Creole was inspired with a similar reflection.
+
+"Miss Poindexter!" said the mustanger, gliding to the ground, and
+without making any acknowledgment to the plaudits that were showered
+upon him--"may I ask you to step up to her, throw this lazo over her
+neck, and lead her to the stable?  By so doing, she will regard you as
+her tamer; and ever after submit to your will, if you but exhibit the
+sign that first deprived her of her liberty."
+
+A prude would have paltered with the proposal--a coquette would have
+declined it--a timid girl have shrunk back.
+
+Not so Louise Poindexter--a descendant of one of the
+_filles-a-la-casette_.  Without a moment's hesitation--without the
+slightest show of prudery or fear--she stepped forth from the
+aristocratic circle; as instructed, took hold of the horsehair rope;
+whisked it across the neck of the tamed mustang; and led the captive off
+towards the _caballeriza_ of Casa del Corvo.
+
+As she did so, the mustanger's words were ringing in her ears, and
+echoing through her heart with a strange foreboding weird signification.
+
+"_She will regard you as her tamer; and ever after submit to your will,
+if you but exhibit the sign that first deprived her of her liberty_."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+A PRAIRIE PIC-NIC.
+
+The first rays from a rosy aurora, saluting the flag of Fort Inge, fell
+with a more subdued light upon an assemblage of objects occupying the
+parade-ground below--in front of the "officers' quarters."
+
+A small sumpter-waggon stood in the centre of the group; having attached
+to it a double span of tight little Mexican mules, whose quick impatient
+"stomping," tails spitefully whisked, and ears at intervals turning
+awry, told that they had been for some time in harness, and were
+impatient to move off--warning the bystanders, as well, against a too
+close approximation to their heels.
+
+Literally speaking, there were no bystanders--if we except a man of
+colossal size, in blanket coat, and slouch felt hat; who, despite the
+obscure light straggling around his shoulders, could be identified as
+Zeb Stump, the hunter.
+
+He was not standing either, but seated astride his "ole maar," that
+showed less anxiety to be off than either the Mexican mules or her own
+master.
+
+The other forms around the vehicle were all in motion--quick, hurried,
+occasionally confused--hither and thither, from the waggon to the door
+of the quarters, and back again from the house to the vehicle.
+
+There were half a score of them, or thereabouts; varied in costume as in
+the colour of their skins.  Most were soldiers, in fatigue dress, though
+of different arms of the service.  Two would be taken to be mess-cooks;
+and two or three more, officers' servants, who had been detailed from
+the ranks.
+
+A more legitimate specimen of this profession appeared in the person of
+a well-dressed darkie, who moved about the ground in a very
+authoritative manner; deriving his importance, from his office of _valet
+de tout_ to the major in command of the cantonment.  A sergeant, as
+shown by his three-barred chevron, was in charge of the mixed party,
+directing their movements; the object of which was to load the waggon
+with eatables and drinkables--in short, the paraphernalia of a pic-nic.
+
+That it was intended to be upon a grand scale, was testified by the
+amplitude and variety of the _impedimenta_.  There were hampers and
+baskets of all shapes and sizes, including the well known
+parallelopipedon, enclosing its twelve necks of shining silver-lead;
+while the tin canisters, painted Spanish brown, along with the universal
+sardine-case, proclaimed the presence of many luxuries not indigenous to
+Texas.
+
+However delicate and extensive the stock of provisions, there was one in
+the party of purveyors who did not appear to think it complete.  The
+dissatisfied Lucullus was Zeb Stump.
+
+"Lookee hyur, surgint," said he, addressing himself confidentially to
+the individual in charge, "I hain't seed neery smell o' corn put inter
+the veehicle as yit; an', I reck'n, thet out on the purayra, thur'll be
+some folks ud prefar a leetle corn to any o' thet theer furrin French
+stuff.  Sham-pain, ye call it, I b'lieve."
+
+"Prefer corn to champagne!  The horses you mean?"
+
+"Hosses be durned.  I ain't talkin' 'bout hoss corn.  I mean
+M'nongaheela."
+
+"Oh--ah--I comprehend.  You're right about that, Mr Stump.  The whisky
+mustn't be forgotten, Pomp.  I think I saw a jar inside, that's intended
+to go?"
+
+"Yaw--yaw, sagint," responded the dark-skinned domestic; "dar am dat
+same wesicle.  Hya it is!" he added, lugging a large jar into the light,
+and swinging it up into the waggon.
+
+Old Zeb appearing to think the packing now complete, showed signs of
+impatience to be off.
+
+"Ain't ye riddy, surgint?" he inquired, shifting restlessly in his
+stirrups.
+
+"Not quite, Mr Stump.  The cook tells me the chickens want another turn
+upon the spit, before we can take 'em along."
+
+"Durn the chickens, an the cook too!  What air any dung-hill fowl to
+compare wi' a wild turkey o' the purayra; an how am I to shoot one,
+arter the sun hev clomb ten mile up the sky?  The major sayed I war to
+git him a gobbler, whativer shed happen.  'Tain't so durnation eezy to
+kill turkey gobbler arter sun-up, wi' a clamjamferry like this comin'
+clost upon a fellur's heels?  Ye mustn't surpose, surgint, that thet ere
+bird air as big a fool as the sodger o' a fort.  Of all the cunnin'
+critters as ferquents these hyur purayras, a turkey air the cunninest;
+an to git helf way roun' one o' 'em, ye must be up along wi' the sun;
+and preehap a leetle urlier."
+
+"True, Mr Stump.  I know the major wants a wild turkey.  He told me so;
+and expects you to procure one on the way."
+
+"No doubt he do; an preehap expex me likeways to purvid him wi' a
+baffler's tongue, an hump--seein' as thur ain't sech a anymal on the
+purayras o' South Texas--nor hain't a been for good twenty yurs past--
+noterthstandin' what Eur-op-ean writers o' books hev said to the
+contrary, an 'specially French 'uns, as I've heern.  Thur ain't no
+burner 'bout hyur.  Thur's baar, an deer, an goats, an plenty o'
+gobblers; but to hev one o' these critters for yur dinner, ye must git
+it urly enuf for yur breakfist.  Unless I hev my own time, I won't
+promise to guide yur party, an git gobbler both.  So, surgint, ef ye
+expex yur grand kumpny to chaw turkey-meat this day, ye'll do well to be
+makin' tracks for the purayra."
+
+Stirred by the hunter's representation, the sergeant did all that was
+possible to hasten the departure of himself and his parti-coloured
+company; and, shortly after, the provision train, with Zeb Stump as its
+guide, was wending its way across the extensive plain that lies between
+the Leona and the "River of Nuts."
+
+The parade-ground had been cleared of the waggon and its escort scarce
+twenty minutes, when a party of somewhat different appearance commenced
+assembling upon the same spot.
+
+There were ladies on horseback; attended, not by grooms, as at the
+"meet" in an English hunting-field, but by the gentlemen who were to
+accompany them--their friends and acquaintances--fathers, brothers,
+lovers, and husbands.  Most, if not all, who had figured at Poindexter's
+dinner party, were soon upon the ground.
+
+The planter himself was present; as also his son Henry, his nephew
+Cassius Calhoun, and his daughter Louise--the young lady mounted upon
+the spotted mustang, that had figured so conspicuously on the occasion
+of the entertainment at Casa del Corvo.
+
+The affair was a reciprocal treat--a simple return of hospitality; the
+major and his officers being the hosts, the planter and his friends the
+invited guests.  The entertainment about to be provided, if less
+pretentious in luxurious appointments, was equally appropriate to the
+time and place.  The guests of the cantonment were to be gratified by
+witnessing a spectacle--grand as rare--a chase of wild steeds!
+
+The arena of the sport could only be upon the wild-horse prairies--some
+twenty miles to the southward of Fort Inge.  Hence the necessity for an
+early start, and being preceded by a vehicle laden with an ample
+_commissariat_.
+
+Just as the sunbeams began to dance upon the crystal waters of the
+Leona, the excursionists were ready to take their departure from the
+parade-ground--with an escort of two-score dragoons that had been
+ordered to ride in the rear.  Like the party that preceded them, they
+too were provided with a guide--not an old backwoodsman in battered felt
+hat, and faded blanket coat, astride a scraggy roadster; but a horseman
+completely costumed and equipped, mounted upon a splendid steed, in
+every way worthy to be the chaperone of such a distinguished expedition.
+
+"Come, Maurice!" cried the major, on seeing that all had assembled,
+"we're ready to be conducted to the game.  Ladies and gentlemen! this
+young fellow is thoroughly acquainted with the haunts and habits of the
+wild horses.  If there's a man in Texas, who can show us how to hunt
+them, 'tis Maurice the mustanger."
+
+"Faith, you flatter me, major!" rejoined the young Irishman, turning
+with a courteous air towards the company; "I have not said so much as
+that.  I can only promise to show you where you may _find_ them."
+
+"Modest fellow!" soliloquised one, who trembled, as she gave thought to
+what she more than half suspected to be an untruth.
+
+"Lead on, then!" commanded the major; and, at the word, the gay
+cavalcade, with the mustanger in the lead, commenced moving across the
+parade-ground--while the star-spangled banner, unfurled by the morning
+breeze, fluttered upon its staff as if waving them an elegant adieu!
+
+A twenty-mile ride upon prairie turf is a mere bagatelle--before
+breakfast, an airing.  In Texas it is so regarded by man, woman, and
+horse.
+
+It was accomplished in less than three hours--without further
+inconvenience than that which arose from performing the last few miles
+of it with appetites uncomfortably keen.
+
+Fortunately the provision waggon, passed upon the road, came close upon
+their heels; and, long before the sun had attained the meridian line,
+the excursionists were in full pic-nic under the shade of a gigantic
+pecan tree, that stood near the banks of the Nueces.
+
+No incident had occurred on the way--worth recording.  The mustanger, as
+guide, had ridden habitually in the advance; the company, with one or
+two exceptions, thinking of him only in his official capacity--unless
+when startled by some feat of horsemanship--such as leaping clear over a
+prairie stream, or dry arroyo, which others were fain to ford, or cross
+by the crooked path.
+
+There may have been a suspicion of bravado in this behaviour--a desire
+to exhibit.  Cassius Calhoun told the company there was.  Perhaps the
+ex-captain spoke the truth--for once.
+
+If so, there was also some excuse.  Have you ever been in a
+hunting-field, at home, with riding habits trailing the sward, and
+plumed hats proudly nodding around you?  You have: and then what?  Be
+cautious how you condemn the Texan mustanger.  Reflect, that he, too,
+was under the artillery of bright eyes--a score pair of them--some as
+bright as ever looked love out of a lady's saddle.  Think, that Louise
+Poindexter's were among the number--think of that, and you will scarce
+feel surprised at the ambition to "shine."
+
+There were others equally demonstrative of personal accomplishments--of
+prowess that might prove manhood.  The young dragoon, Hancock,
+frequently essayed to show that he was not new to the saddle; and the
+lieutenant of mounted rifles, at intervals, strayed from the side of the
+commissary's niece for the performance of some equestrian feat, without
+looking exclusively to her, his reputed sweetheart, as he listened to
+the whisperings of applause.
+
+Ah, daughter of Poindexter!  Whether in the _salons_ of civilised
+Louisiana, or the prairies of savage Texas, peace could not reign in thy
+presence!  Go where thou wilt, romantic thoughts must spring up--wild
+passions be engendered around thee!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
+
+THE MANADA.
+
+Had their guide held the prairies in complete control--its denizens
+subject to his secret will--responsible to time and place--he could not
+have conducted the excursionists to a spot more likely to furnish the
+sport that had summoned them forth.
+
+Just as the sparkling Johannisberger--obtained from the German
+wine-stores of San Antonio--had imparted a brighter blue to the sky, and
+a more vivid green to the grass, the cry "Mustenos!" was heard above the
+hum of conversation, interrupting the half-spoken sentiment, with the
+peal of merry laughter.  It came from a Mexican _vaquero_, who had been
+stationed as a vidette on an eminence near at hand.
+
+Maurice--at the moment partaking of the hospitality of his employers,
+freely extended to him--suddenly quaffed off the cup; and springing to
+his saddle, cried out--
+
+"_Cavallada_?"
+
+"No," answered the Mexican; "_manada_."
+
+"What do the fellows mean by their gibberish?" inquired Captain Calhoun.
+
+"_Mustenos_ is only the Mexican for mustangs," replied the major; "and
+by `manada' he means they are wild mares--a drove of them.  At this
+season they herd together, and keep apart from the horses; unless
+when--"
+
+"When what?" impatiently asked the ex-officer of volunteers,
+interrupting the explanation.
+
+"When they are attacked by asses," innocently answered the major.
+
+A general peal of laughter rendered doubtful the _naivete_ of the
+major's response--imparting to it the suspicion of a personality not
+intended.
+
+For a moment Calhoun writhed under the awkward misconception of the
+auditory; but only for a moment.  He was not the man to succumb to an
+unlucky accident of speech.  On the contrary, he perceived the chance of
+a triumphant reply; and took advantage of it.
+
+"Indeed!" he drawled out, without appearing to address himself to any
+one in particular.  "I was not aware that mustangs were so dangerous in
+these parts."
+
+As Calhoun said this, he was not looking at Louise Poindexter or he
+might have detected in her eye a glance to gratify him.
+
+The young Creole, despite an apparent coolness towards him, could not
+withhold admiration at anything that showed cleverness.  His case might
+not be so hopeless?
+
+The young dragoon, Hancock, did not think it so; nor yet the lieutenant
+of rifles.  Both observed the approving look, and both became imbued
+with the belief that Cassius Calhoun had--or might have--in his keeping,
+the happiness of his cousin.
+
+The conjecture gave a secret chagrin to both, but especially to the
+dragoon.
+
+There was but short time for him to reflect upon it; the manada was
+drawing near.
+
+"To the saddle!" was the thought upon every mind, and the cry upon every
+tongue.
+
+The bit was rudely inserted between teeth still industriously grinding
+the yellow corn; the bridle drawn over shoulders yet smoking after the
+quick skurry of twenty miles through the close atmosphere of a tropical
+morn; and, before a hundred could have been deliberately counted, every
+one, ladies and gentlemen alike, was in the stirrup, ready to ply whip
+and spur.
+
+By this time the wild mares appeared coming over the crest of the ridge
+upon which the vidette had been stationed.  He, himself a horse-catcher
+by trade, was already mounted, and in their midst--endeavouring to fling
+his lazo over one of the herd.  They were going at mad gallop, as if
+fleeing from a pursuer--some dreaded creature that was causing them to
+"whigher" and snort!  With their eyes strained to the rear, they saw
+neither the sumpter waggon, nor the equestrians clustering around it,
+but were continuing onward to the spot; which chanced to lie directly in
+the line of their flight.
+
+"They are chased!" remarked Maurice, observing the excited action of the
+animals.
+
+"What is it, Crespino?" he cried out to the Mexican, who, from his
+position, must have seen any pursuer that might be after them.
+
+There was a momentary pause, as the party awaited the response.  In the
+crowd were countenances that betrayed uneasiness, some even alarm.  It
+might be Indians who were in pursuit of the mustangs!
+
+"_Un asino cimmaron_!" was the phrase that came from the mouth of the
+Mexican, though by no means terminating the suspense of the picknickers.
+"_Un macho_!" he added.
+
+"Oh!  That's it!  I thought it was!" muttered Maurice.  "The rascal must
+be stopped, or he'll spoil our sport.  So long as he's after them,
+they'll not make halt this side the sky line.  Is the macho coming on?"
+
+"Close at hand, Don Mauricio.  Making straight for myself."
+
+"Fling your rope over him, if you can.  If not, cripple him with a
+shot--anything to put an end to his capers."
+
+The character of the pursuer was still a mystery to most, if not all,
+upon the ground: for only the mustanger knew the exact signification of
+the phrases--"un asino cimmaron," "un macho."
+
+"Explain, Maurice!" commanded the major.  "Look yonder!" replied the
+young Irishman, pointing to the top of the hill.
+
+The two words were sufficient.  All eyes became directed towards the
+crest of the ridge, where an animal, usually regarded as the type of
+slowness and stupidity, was seen advancing with the swiftness of a bird
+upon the wing.
+
+But very different is the "asino cimmaron" from the ass of
+civilisation--the donkey be-cudgelled into stolidity.
+
+The one now in sight was a male, almost as large as any of the mustangs
+it was chasing; and if not fleet as the fleetest, still able to keep up
+with them by the sheer pertinacity of its pursuit!
+
+The tableau of nature, thus presented on the green surface of the
+prairie, was as promptly produced as it could have been upon the stage
+of a theatre, or the arena of a hippodrome.
+
+Scarce a score of words had passed among the spectators, before the wild
+mares were close up to them; and then, as if for the first time,
+perceiving the mounted party, they seemed to forget their dreaded
+pursuer, and shied off in a slanting direction.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen!" shouted the guide to a score of people,
+endeavouring to restrain their steeds; "keep your places, if you can.  I
+know where the herd has its haunt.  They are heading towards it now; and
+we shall find them again, with a better chance of a chase.  If you
+pursue them at this moment, they'll scatter into yonder chapparal; and
+ten to one if we ever more get sight of them.
+
+"Hola, Senor Crespino!  Send your bullet through that brute.  He's near
+enough for your _escopette_, is he not?"
+
+The Mexican, detaching a short gun--"escopeta"--from his saddle-flap,
+and hastily bringing its butt to his shoulder, fired at the wild ass.
+
+The animal brayed on hearing the report; but only as if in defiance.  He
+was evidently untouched.  Crespino's bullet had not been truly aimed.
+
+"I must stop him!" exclaimed Maurice, "or the mares will run on till the
+end of daylight."
+
+As the mustanger spoke, he struck the spur sharply into the flanks of
+his horse.  Like an arrow projected from its bow, Castro shot off in
+pursuit of the jackass, now galloping regardlessly past.
+
+Half a dozen springs of the blood bay, guided in a diagonal direction,
+brought his rider within casting distance; and like a flash of
+lightning, the loop of the lazo was seen descending over the long ears.
+
+On launching it, the mustanger halted, and made a half-wheel--the horse
+going round as upon a pivot; and with like mechanical obedience to the
+will of his rider, bracing himself for the expected pluck.
+
+There was a short interval of intense expectation, as the wild ass,
+careering onward, took up the slack of the rope.  Then the animal was
+seen to rise erect on its hind legs, and fall heavily backward upon the
+sward--where it lay motionless, and apparently as dead, as if shot
+through the heart!
+
+It was only stunned, however, by the shock, and the quick tightening of
+the loop causing temporary strangulation; which the Mexican mustanger
+prolonged to eternity, by drawing his sharp-edged _machete_ across its
+throat.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+The incident caused a postponement of the chase.  All awaited the action
+of the guide; who, after "throwing" the macho, had dismounted to recover
+his lazo.
+
+He had succeeded in releasing the rope from the neck of the prostrate
+animal, when he was seen to coil it up with a quickness that betokened
+some new cause of excitement--at the same time that he ran to regain his
+saddle.
+
+Only a few of the others--most being fully occupied with their own
+excited steeds--observed this show of haste on the part of the
+mustanger.  Those who did, saw it with surprise.  He had counselled
+patience in the pursuit.  They could perceive no cause for the eccentric
+change of tactics, unless it was that Louise Poindexter, mounted on the
+spotted mustang, had suddenly separated from the company, and was
+galloping off after the wild mares, as if resolved on being foremost of
+the field!
+
+But the hunter of wild horses had not construed her conduct in this
+sense.  That uncourteous start could scarce be an intention--except on
+the part of the spotted mustang?  Maurice had recognised the manada, as
+the same from which he had himself captured it: and, no doubt, with the
+design of rejoining its old associates, it was running away with its
+rider!
+
+So believed the guide; and the belief became instantly universal.
+
+Stirred by gallantry, half the field spurred off in pursuit.  Calhoun,
+Hancock, and Crossman leading, with half a score of young planters,
+lawyers, and legislators close following--each as he rode off reflecting
+to himself, what a bit of luck it would be to bring up the runaway.
+
+But few, if any, of the gentlemen felt actual alarm.  All knew that
+Louise Poindexter was a splendid equestrian; a spacious plain lay before
+her, smooth as a race-track; the mustang might gallop till it tired
+itself down; it could not throw her; there could be little chance of her
+receiving any serious injury?
+
+There was one who did not entertain this confident view.  It was he who
+had been the first to show anxiety--the mustanger himself.
+
+He was the last to leave the ground.  Delayed in the rearrangement of
+his lazo--a moment more in remounting--he was a hundred paces behind
+every competitor, as his horse sprang forward upon the pursuit.
+
+Calhoun was a like distance in the lead, pressing on with all the
+desperate energy of his nature, and all the speed he could extract from
+the heels of his horse.  The dragoon and rifleman were a little in his
+rear; and then came the "ruck."
+
+Maurice soon passed through the thick of the field, overlapped the
+leaders one by one; and forging still further ahead, showed Cassius
+Calhoun the heels of his horse.
+
+A muttered curse was sent hissing through the teeth of the ex-officer of
+volunteers, as the blood bay, bounding past, concealed from his sight
+the receding form of the spotted mustang.
+
+The sun, looking down from the zenith, gave light to a singular tableau.
+A herd of wild mares going at reckless speed across the prairie; one of
+their own kind, with a lady upon its back, following about four hundred
+yards behind; at a like distance after the lady, a steed of red bay
+colour, bestridden by a cavalier picturesquely attired, and apparently
+intent upon overtaking her; still further to the rear a string of
+mounted men--some in civil, some in military, garb; behind these a troop
+of dragoons going at full gallop, having just parted from a mixed group
+of ladies and gentlemen--also mounted, but motionless, on the plain, or
+only stirring around the same spot with excited gesticulations!
+
+In twenty minutes the tableau was changed.  The same personages were
+upon the stage--the grand _tapis vert_ of the prairie--but the grouping
+was different, or, at all events, the groups were more widely apart.
+The manada had gained distance upon the spotted mustang; the mustang
+upon the blood bay; and the blood bay--ah! his competitors were no
+longer in sight, or could only have been seen by the far-piercing eye of
+the _caracara_, soaring high in the sapphire heavens.
+
+The wild mares--the mustang and its rider--the red horse, and his--had
+the savanna to themselves!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
+
+THE RUNAWAY OVERTAKEN.
+
+For another mile the chase continued, without much change.  The mares
+still swept on in full flight, though no longer screaming or in fear.
+The mustang still uttered an occasional neigh, which its old associates
+seemed not to notice; while its rider held her seat in the saddle
+unshaken, and without any apparent alarm.
+
+The blood bay appeared more excited, though not so much as his master;
+who was beginning to show signs either of despondency or chagrin.
+
+"Come, Castro!" he exclaimed, with a certain spitefulness of tone.
+"What the deuce is the matter with your heels--to-day of all others?
+Remember, you overtook her before--though not so easily, I admit.  But
+now she's weighted.  Look yonder, you dull brute!  Weighted with that
+which is worth more than gold--worth every drop of your blood, and mine
+too.  The yegua pinta seems to have improved her paces.  Is it from
+training; or does a horse run faster when ridden?
+
+"What if I lose sight of her?  In truth, it begins to look queer!  It
+would be an awkward situation for the young lady.  Worse than that--
+there's danger in it--real danger.  If I should lose sight of her, she'd
+be in trouble to a certainty!"
+
+Thus muttering, Maurice rode on: his eyes now fixed upon the form still
+flitting away before him; at intervals interrogating, with uneasy
+glances, the space that separated him from it.
+
+Up to this time he had not thought of hailing the rider of the runaway.
+
+His shouts might have been heard; but no words of warning, or
+instruction.  He had refrained: partly on this account; partly because
+he was in momentary expectation of overtaking her; and partly because he
+knew that acts, not words, were wanted to bring the mustang to a stand.
+
+All along he had been flattering himself that he would soon be near
+enough to fling his lazo over the creature's neck, and control it at
+discretion.  He was gradually becoming relieved of this hallucination.
+
+The chase now entered among copses that thickly studded the plain, fast
+closing into a continuous chapparal.  This was a new source of
+uneasiness to the pursuer.  The runaway might take to the thicket, or
+become lost to his view amid the windings of the wood.
+
+The wild mares were already invisible--at intervals.  They would soon be
+out of sight altogether.  There seemed no chance of their old associate
+overtaking them.
+
+"What mattered that?  A lady lost on a prairie, or in a chapparal--
+alone, or in the midst of a manada--either contingency pointed to
+certain danger."
+
+A still more startling peril suggested itself to the mind of the
+mustanger--so startling as to find expression in excited speech.
+
+"By heavens!" he ejaculated, his brow becoming more clouded than it had
+been from his first entering upon the chase.  "_If the stallions should
+chance this way_!  'Tis their favourite stamping ground among these
+mottos.  They were here but a week ago; and this--yes--'tis the month of
+their madness!"
+
+The spur of the mustanger again drew blood, till its rowels were red;
+and Castro, galloping at his utmost speed, glanced back upbraidingly
+over his shoulder.
+
+At this crisis the manada disappeared from, the sight both of the
+blood-bay and his master; and most probably at the same time from that
+of the spotted mustang and its rider.  There was nothing mysterious in
+it.  The mares had entered between the closing of two copses, where the
+shrubbery hid them from view.
+
+The effect produced upon the runaway appeared to proceed from some
+magical influence.  As if their disappearance was a signal for
+discontinuing the chase, it suddenly slackened pace; and the instant
+after came to a standstill!
+
+Maurice, continuing his gallop, came up with it in the middle of a
+meadow-like glade--standing motionless as marble--its rider, reins in
+hand, sitting silent in the saddle, in an attitude of easy elegance, as
+if waiting for him to ride up!
+
+"Miss Poindexter!" he gasped out, as he spurred his steed within
+speaking distance: "I am glad that you have recovered command of that
+wild creature.  I was beginning to be alarmed about--"
+
+"About what, sir?" was the question that startled the mustanger.
+
+"Your safety--of course," he replied, somewhat stammeringly.  "Oh, thank
+you, Mr Gerald; but I was not aware of having been in any danger.  Was
+I really so?"
+
+"Any danger!" echoed the Irishman, with increased astonishment.  "On the
+back of a runaway mustang--in the middle of a pathless prairie!"
+
+"And what of that?  The thing couldn't throw me.  I'm too clever in the
+saddle, sir."
+
+"I know it, madame; but that accomplishment would have availed you very
+little had you lost yourself, a thing you were like enough to have done
+among these chapparal copses, where the oldest Texan can scarce find his
+way."
+
+"Oh--_lost myself_!  That was the danger to be dreaded?"
+
+"There are others, besides.  Suppose you had fallen in with--"
+
+"Indians!" interrupted the lady, without waiting for the mustanger to
+finish his hypothetical speech.  "And if I had, what would it have
+mattered?  Are not the Comanches _en paz_ at present?  Surely they
+wouldn't have molested me, gallant fellows as they are?  So the major
+told us, as we came along.  'Pon my word, sir, I should seek, rather
+than shun, such an encounter.  I wish to see the noble savage on his
+native prairie, and on horseback; not, as I've hitherto beheld him,
+reeling around the settlements in a state of debasement from too freely
+partaking of our fire-water."
+
+"I admire your courage, miss; but if I had the honour of being one of
+your friends, I should take the liberty of counselling a little caution.
+The `noble savage' you speak of, is not always sober upon the prairies;
+and perhaps not so very gallant as you've been led to believe.  If you
+had met him--"
+
+"If I had met him, and he had attempted to misbehave himself, I would
+have given him the go-by, and ridden, straight back to my friends.  On
+such a swift creature as this, he must have been well mounted to have
+overtaken me.  You found some difficulty--did you not?"
+
+The eyes of the young Irishman, already showing astonishment, became
+expanded to increased dimensions--surprise and incredulity being equally
+blended in their glance.
+
+"But," said he, after a speechless pause, "you don't mean to say that
+you could have controlled--that the mustang was not running away with
+you?  Am I to understand--"
+
+"No--no--no!" hastily rejoined the fair equestrian, showing some slight
+embarrassment.  "The mare certainly made off with me--that is, at the
+first--but I--I found, that is--at the last--I found I could easily pull
+her up.  In fact I did so: you saw it?"
+
+"And could you have done it sooner?"
+
+A strange thought had suggested the interrogatory; and with more than
+ordinary interest the questioner awaited the reply.
+
+"Perhaps--perhaps--I might; no doubt, if I had dragged a little harder
+upon the rein.  But you see, sir, I like a good gallop--especially upon
+a prairie, where there's no fear of running over pigs, poultry, or
+people."
+
+Maurice looked amaze.  In all his experience--even in his own native
+land, famed for feminine _braverie_--above all in the way of bold
+riding--he had met no match for the clever equestrian before him.
+
+His astonishment, mixed with admiration, hindered him from making a
+ready rejoinder.
+
+"To speak truth," continued the young lady, with an air of charming
+simplicity, "I was not sorry at being run off with.  One sometimes gets
+tired of too much talk--of the kind called complimentary.  I wanted
+fresh air, and to be alone.  So you _see_, Mr Gerald, it was rather a
+bit of good fortune: since it saved explanations and adieus."
+
+"You wanted to be alone?" responded the mustanger, with a disappointed
+look.  "I am sorry I should have made the mistake to have intruded upon
+you.  I assure you, Miss Poindexter, I followed, because I believed you
+to be in danger."
+
+"Most gallant of you, sir; and now that I know there _was_ danger, I am
+truly grateful.  I presume I have guessed aright: you meant the
+Indians?"
+
+"No; not Indians exactly--at least, it was not of them I was thinking."
+
+"Some other danger?  What is it, sir?  You will tell me, so that I may
+be more cautious for the future?"
+
+Maurice did not make immediate answer.  A sound striking upon his ear
+had caused him to turn away--as if inattentive to the interrogatory.
+
+The Creole, perceiving there was some cause for his abstraction,
+likewise assumed a listening attitude.  She heard a shrill scream,
+succeeded by another and another, close followed by a loud hammering of
+hoofs--the conjunction of sounds causing the still atmosphere to vibrate
+around her.
+
+It was no mystery to the hunter of horses.  The words that came quick
+from his lips--though not designed--were a direct answer to the question
+she had put.
+
+"_The wild stallions_!" he exclaimed, in a tone that betokened alarm.
+"I knew they must be among those mottes; and they are!"
+
+"Is that the danger of which you have been speaking?"
+
+"It is."
+
+"What fear of them?  They are only mustangs!"
+
+"True, and at other times there is no cause to fear them.  But just now,
+at this season of the year, they become as savage as tigers, and equally
+as vindictive.  Ah! the wild steed in his rage is an enemy more to be
+dreaded than wolf, panther, or bear."
+
+"What are we to do?" inquired the young lady, now, for the first time,
+giving proof that she felt fear--by riding close up to the man who had
+once before rescued her from a situation of peril, and gazing anxiously
+in his face, as she awaited the answer.
+
+"If they should charge upon us," answered Maurice, "there are but two
+ways of escape.  One, by ascending a tree, and abandoning our horses to
+their fury."
+
+"The other?" asked the Creole, with a _sang froid_ that showed a
+presence of mind likely to stand the test of the most exciting crisis.
+"Anything but abandon our animals!  'Twould be but a shabby way of
+making our escape!"
+
+"We shall not have an opportunity of trying it, I perceive it is
+impracticable.  There's not a tree within sight large enough to afford
+us security.  If attacked, we have no alternative but to trust to the
+fleetness of our horses.  Unfortunately," continued he, with a glance of
+inspection towards the spotted mare, and then at his own horse, "they've
+had too much work this morning.  Both are badly blown.  That will be our
+greatest source of danger.  The wild steeds are sure to be fresh."
+
+"Do you intend us to start now?"
+
+"Not yet.  The longer we can breathe our animals the better.  The
+stallions may not come this way; or if so, may not molest us.  It will
+depend on their mood at the moment.  If battling among themselves, we
+may look out for their attack.  Then they have lost their reason--if I
+may so speak--and will recklessly rush upon one of their own kind--even
+with a man upon his back.  Ha! 'tis as I expected: they are in conflict.
+I can tell by their cries!  And driving this way, too!"
+
+"But, Mr Gerald; why should we not ride off at once, in the opposite
+direction?"
+
+"'Twould be of no use.  There's no cover to conceal us, on that side--
+nothing but open plain.  They'll be out upon it before we could get a
+sufficient start, and would soon overtake us.  The place we must make
+for--the only safe one I can think of--lies the other way.  They are now
+upon the direct path to it, if I can judge by what I hear; and, if we
+start too soon, we may ride into their teeth.  We must wait, and try to
+steal away behind them.  If we succeed in getting past, and can keep our
+distance for a two-mile gallop, I know a spot, where we shall be as safe
+as if inside the corrals of Casa del Corvo.  You are sure you can
+control the mustang?"
+
+"Quite sure," was the prompt reply: all idea of deception being
+abandoned in presence of the threatening peril.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
+
+CHASED BY WILD STALLIONS.
+
+The two sat expectant in their saddles--she, apparently, with more
+confidence than he: for she confided in him.  Still but imperfectly
+comprehending it, she knew there must be some great danger.  When such a
+man showed sign of fear, it could not be otherwise.  She had a secret
+happiness in thinking: that a portion of this fear was for her own
+safety.
+
+"I think we may venture now;" said her companion, after a short period
+spent in listening; "they appear to have passed the opening by which we
+must make our retreat.  Look well to your riding, I entreat you!  Keep a
+firm seat in the saddle, and a sure hold of the rein.  Gallop by my
+side, where the ground will admit of it; but in no case let more than
+the length of my horse's tail be between us.  I must perforce go ahead
+to guide the way.  Ha! they are coming direct for the glade.  They're
+already close to its edge.  Our time is up!"
+
+The profound stillness that but a short while before pervaded the
+prairie, no longer reigned over it.  In its stead had arisen a fracas
+that resembled the outpouring of some overcrowded asylum; for in the
+shrill neighing of the steeds might have been fancied the screams of
+maniacs--only ten times more vociferous.  They were mingled with a
+thunder-like hammering of hoofs--a swishing and crashing of branches--
+savage snorts, accompanied by the sharp snapping of teeth--the dull
+"thud" of heels coming in contact with ribs and rounded hips--squealing
+that betokened spite or pain--all forming a combination of sounds that
+jarred harshly upon the ear, and caused the earth to quake, as if
+oscillating upon its orbit!
+
+It told of a terrible conflict carried on by the wild stallions; who,
+still unseen, were fighting indiscriminately among themselves, as they
+held their way among the mottes.
+
+Not much longer unseen.  As Maurice gave the signal to start, the
+speckled crowd showed itself in an opening between two copses.  In a
+moment more it filled the gangway-like gap, and commenced disgorging
+into the glade, with the impetus of an avalanche!
+
+It was composed of living forms--the most beautiful known in nature: for
+in this man must give way to the horse.  Not the unsexed horse of
+civilisation, with hunched shoulders, bandied limbs, and bowed
+frontlet--scarce one in a thousand of true equine shape--and this, still
+further, mutilated by the shears of the coper and gentleman jockey--but
+the wild steed of the savannas, foaled upon the green grass, his form
+left free to develop as the flowers that shed their fragrance around
+him.
+
+Eye never beheld a more splendid sight than a _cavallada_ of wild
+stallions, prancing upon a prairie; especially at that season when,
+stirred by strong passions, they seek to destroy one another.  The
+spectacle is more than splendid--it is fearful--too fearful to be
+enjoyed by man, much less by timid woman.  Still more when the spectator
+views it from an exposed position, liable to become the object of their
+attack.
+
+In such situation were the riders of the blood bay and spotted mustang.
+The former knew it by past experience--the latter could not fail to
+perceive it by the evidence before her.
+
+"This way!" cried Maurice, lancing his horse's flanks with the spur, and
+bending so as to oblique to the rear of the cavallada.
+
+"By heaven--they've discovered us!  On--on!  Miss Poindexter!  Remember
+you are riding for your life!"
+
+The stimulus of speech was not needed.  The behaviour of the stallions
+was of itself sufficient to show, that speed alone could save the
+spotted mustang and its rider.
+
+On coming out into the open ground, and getting sight of the ridden
+horses, they had suddenly desisted from their internecine strife; and,
+as if acting under the orders of some skilled leader, come to a halt.
+In line, too, like cavalry checked up in the middle of a charge!
+
+For a time their mutual hostility seemed to be laid aside--as if they
+felt called upon to attack a common enemy, or resist some common danger!
+
+The pause may have proceeded from surprise; but, whether or no, it was
+favourable to the fugitives.  During the twenty seconds it continued,
+the latter had made good use of their time, and accomplished the circuit
+required to put them on the path of safety.
+
+Only on the path, however.  Their escape was still problematical: for
+the steeds, perceiving their intention, wheeled suddenly into the line
+of pursuit, and went galloping after, with snorts and screams that
+betrayed a spiteful determination to overtake them.
+
+From that moment it became a straight unchanging chase across country--a
+trial of speed between the horses without riders, and the horses that
+were ridden.
+
+At intervals did Maurice carry his chin to his shoulder; and though
+still preserving the distance gained at the start, his look was not the
+less one of apprehension.
+
+Alone he would have laughed to scorn his pursuers.  He knew that the
+blood-bay--himself a prairie steed--could surpass any competitor of his
+race.  But the mare was delaying him.  She was galloping slower than he
+had ever seen her--as if unwilling, or not coveting escape--like a horse
+with his head turned away from home!
+
+"What can it mean?" muttered the mustanger, as he checked his pace, to
+accommodate it to that of his companion.  "If there should be any baulk
+at the crossing, we're lost!  A score of seconds will make the
+difference."
+
+"We keep our distance, don't we?" inquired his fellow-fugitive, noticing
+his troubled look.
+
+"So far, yes.  Unfortunately there's an obstruction ahead.  It remains
+to be seen how we shall get over it.  I know you are a clever rider, and
+can take a long leap.  But your mount?  I'm not so sure of the mare.
+You know her better than I.  Do you think she can carry you over--"
+
+"Over what, sir?"
+
+"You'll see in a second.  We should be near the place now."
+
+The conversation thus carried on was between two individuals riding side
+by side, and going at a gallop of nearly a mile to the minute!
+
+As the guide had predicted, they soon came within sight of the
+obstruction; which proved to be an arroyo--a yawning fissure in the
+plain full fifteen feet in width, as many in depth, and trending on each
+side to the verge of vision.
+
+To turn aside, either to the right or left, would be to give the
+pursuers the advantage of the diagonal; which the fugitives could no
+longer afford.
+
+The chasm must be crossed, or the stallions would overtake them.
+
+It could only be crossed by a leap--fifteen feet at the least.  Maurice
+knew that his own horse could go over it--he had done it before.  But
+the mare?
+
+"Do you think she can do it?" he eagerly asked, as, in slackened pace,
+they approached the edge of the barranca.
+
+"I am sure she can," was the confident reply.
+
+"But are you sure you can sit her over it?"
+
+"Ha! ha! ha!" scornfully laughed the Creole.  "What a question for an
+Irishman to ask!  I'm sure, sir, one of your own countrywomen would be
+offended at your speech.  Even I, a native of swampy Louisiana, don't
+regard it as at all gallant.  Sit her over it!  Sit her anywhere she can
+carry me."
+
+"But, Miss Poindexter," stammered the guide, still doubting the powers
+of the spotted mustang, "suppose she cannot?  If you have any doubts,
+had you not better abandon her?  I know that my horse can bear us both
+to the other side, and with safety.  If the mustang be left behind, in
+all likelihood we shall escape further pursuit.  The wild steeds--"
+
+"Leave Luna behind!  Leave her to be trampled to death, or torn to
+pieces--as you say she would!  No--no, Mr Gerald.  I prize the spotted
+mare too much for that.  She goes with me: over the chasm, if we can.
+If not, we both break our necks at the bottom.  Come, my pretty pet!
+This is he who chased, captured, and conquered you.  Show him you're not
+yet so _subdued_, but that you can escape, when close pressed, from the
+toils of either friend or enemy.  Show him one of those leaps, of which
+you've done a dozen within the week.  Now for a flight in the air!"
+
+Without even waiting for the stimulus of example, the courageous Creole
+rode recklessly at the arroyo; and cleared it by one of those leaps of
+which she had "done a dozen within the week."
+
+There were three thoughts in the mind of the mustanger--rather might
+they be called emotions--as he sate watching that leap.  The first was
+simple astonishment; the second, intense admiration.  The third was not
+so easily defined.  It had its origin in the words--"_I prize the
+spotted mare too much for that_."
+
+"Why?" reflected he, as he drove his spur-rowels into the flanks of the
+blood bay; and the reflection lasted as long as Castro was suspended in
+mid-air over the yawning abysm.
+
+Cleverly as the chasm was crossed, it did not ensure the safety of the
+fugitives.  It would be no obstruction to the steeds.  Maurice knew it,
+and looked back with undiminished apprehension.
+
+Rather was it increased.  The delay, short as it was, had given the
+pursuers an advantage.  They were nearer than ever!  They would not be
+likely to make a moment's pause, but clear the crevasse at a single
+bound of their sure-footed gallop.
+
+And then--what then?
+
+The mustanger put the question to himself.  He grew paler, as the reply
+puzzled him.
+
+On alighting from the leap, he had not paused for a second, but gone
+galloping on--as before, close followed by his fugitive companion.  His
+pace, however, was less impetuous.  He seemed to ride with irresolution,
+or as if some half-formed resolve was restraining him.
+
+When about a score lengths from the edge of the arroyo, he reined up and
+wheeled round--as if he had suddenly formed the determination to ride
+back!
+
+"Miss Poindexter!" he called out to the young lady, at that moment just
+up with him.  "You must ride on alone."
+
+"But why, sir?" asked she, as she jerked the muzzle of the mustang close
+up to its counter, bringing it almost instantaneously to a stand.
+
+"If we keep together we shall be overtaken.  I must do something to stay
+those savage brutes.  Here there is a chance--nowhere else.  For
+heaven's sake don't question me!  Ten seconds of lost time, and 'twill
+be too late.  Look ahead yonder.  You perceive the sheen of water.  'Tis
+a prairie pond.  Ride straight towards it.  You will find yourself
+between two high fences.  They come together at the pond.  You'll see a
+gap, with bars.  If I'm not up in time, gallop through, dismount, and
+put the bars up behind you."
+
+"And you, sir?  You are going to undergo some great danger?"
+
+"Have no fear for me!  Alone, I shall run but little risk.  'Tis the
+mustang.--For mercy's sake, gallop forward!  Keep the water under your
+eyes.  Let it guide you like a beacon fire.  Remember to close the gap
+behind you.  Away--away!"
+
+For a second or two the young lady appeared irresolute--as if reluctant
+to part company with the man who was making such efforts to ensure her
+safety--perhaps at the peril of his own.
+
+By good fortune she was not one of those timid maidens who turn frantic
+at a crisis, and drag to the bottom the swimmer who would save them.
+She had faith in the capability of her counsellor--believed that he knew
+what he was about--and, once more spurring the mare into a gallop, she
+rode off in a direct line for the prairie pond.
+
+At the same instant, Maurice had given the rein to his horse, and was
+riding in the opposite direction--back to the place where they had
+leaped the arroyo!
+
+On parting from his companion, he had drawn from his saddle holster the
+finest weapon ever wielded upon the prairies--either for attack or
+defence, against Indian, buffalo, or bear.  It was the six-chambered
+revolver of Colonel Colt--not the spurious _improvement_ of Deane,
+Adams, and a host of retrograde imitators--but the genuine article from
+the "land of wooden nutmegs," with the Hartford brand upon its breech.
+
+"They must get over the narrow place where we crossed," muttered he, as
+he faced towards the stallions, still advancing on the other side of the
+arroyo.
+
+"If I can but fling one of them in his tracks, it may hinder the others
+from attempting the leap; or delay them--long enough for the mustang to
+make its escape.  The big sorrel is leading.  He will make the spring
+first.  The pistol's good for a hundred paces.  He's within range now!"
+
+Simultaneous with the last words came the crack of the six-shooter.  The
+largest of the stallions--a sorrel in colour--rolled headlong upon the
+sward; his carcass falling transversely across the line that led to the
+leap.
+
+Half-a-dozen others, close following, were instantly brought to a stand;
+and then the whole cavallada!
+
+The mustanger stayed not to note their movements.  Taking advantage of
+the confusion caused by the fall of their leader, he reserved the fire
+of the other five chambers; and, wheeling to the west, spurred on after
+the spotted mustang, now far on its way towards the glistening pond.
+
+Whether dismayed by the fall of their chief--or whether it was that his
+dead body had hindered them from approaching the only place where the
+chasm could have been cleared at a leap--the stallions abandoned the
+pursuit; and Maurice had the prairie to himself as he swept on after his
+fellow fugitive.
+
+He overtook her beyond the convergence of the fences on the shore of the
+pond.  She had obeyed him in everything--except as to the closing of the
+gap.  He found it open--the bars lying scattered over the ground.  He
+found her still seated in the saddle, relieved from all apprehension for
+his safety, and only trembling with a gratitude that longed to find
+expression in speech.
+
+The peril was passed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
+
+THE MUSTANG TRAP.
+
+No longer in dread of any danger, the young Creole looked
+interrogatively around her.
+
+There was a small lake--in Texan phraseology a "pond"--with countless
+horse-tracks visible along its shores, proving that the place was
+frequented by wild horses--their excessive number showing it to be a
+favourite watering place.  There was a high rail fence--constructed so
+as to enclose the pond, and a portion of the contiguous prairie, with
+two diverging wings, carried far across the plain, forming a
+funnel-shaped approach to a gap; which, when its bars were up, completed
+an enclosure that no horse could either enter or escape from.
+
+"What is it for?" inquired the lady, indicating the construction of
+split rails.
+
+"A mustang trap," said Maurice.
+
+"A mustang trap?"
+
+"A contrivance for catching wild horses.  They stray between the
+_wings_; which, as you perceive, are carried far out upon the plain.
+The water attracts them; or they are driven towards it by a band of
+mustangers who follow, and force them on through the gap.  Once within
+the _corral_, there is no trouble in taking them.  They are then lazoed
+at leisure."
+
+"Poor things!  Is it yours?  You are a mustanger?  You told us so?"
+
+"I am; but I do not hunt the wild horse in this way.  I prefer being
+alone, and rarely consort with men of my calling.  Therefore I could not
+make use of this contrivance, which requires at least a score of
+drivers.  My weapon, if I may dignify it by the name, is this--the
+lazo."
+
+"You use it with great skill?  I've heard that you do; besides having
+myself witnessed the proof."
+
+"It is complimentary of you to say so.  But you are mistaken.  There are
+men on these prairies `to the manner born'--Mexicans--who regard, what
+you are pleased to call skill, as sheer clumsiness."
+
+"Are you sure, Mr Gerald, that your modesty is not prompting _you_ to
+overrate your rivals?  I have been told the very opposite."
+
+"By whom?"
+
+"Your friend, Mr Zebulon Stump."
+
+"Ha--ha!  Old Zeb is but indifferent authority on the subject of the
+lazo."
+
+"I wish I could throw the lazo," said the young Creole.  "They tell me
+'tis not a lady-like accomplishment.  What matters--so long as it is
+innocent, and gives one a gratification?"
+
+"Not lady-like!  Surely 'tis as much so as archery, or skating?  I know
+a lady who is very expert at it."
+
+"An American lady?"
+
+"No; she's Mexican, and lives on the Rio Grande; but sometimes comes
+across to the Leona--where she has relatives."
+
+"A young lady?"
+
+"Yes.  About your own age, I should think, Miss Poindexter."
+
+"Size?"
+
+"Not so tall as you."
+
+"But much prettier, of course?  The Mexican ladies, I've heard, in the
+matter of good looks, far surpass us plain _Americanos_."
+
+"I think Creoles are not included in that category," was the reply,
+worthy of one whose lips had been in contact with the famed boulder of
+Blarney.
+
+"I wonder if I could ever learn to fling it?" pursued the young Creole,
+pretending not to have been affected by the complimentary remark.  "Am I
+too old?  I've been told that the Mexicans commence almost in childhood;
+that that is why they attain to such wonderful skill?"
+
+"Not at all," replied Maurice, encouragingly.  "'Tis possible, with a
+year or two's practice, to become a proficient lazoer.  I, myself, have
+only been three years at; and--"
+
+He paused, perceiving he was about to commit himself to a little
+boasting.
+
+"And you are now the most skilled in all Texas?" said his companion,
+supplying the presumed finale of his speech.
+
+"No, no!" laughingly rejoined he.  "That is but a mistaken belief on the
+part of Zeb Stump, who judges my skill by comparison, making use of his
+own as a standard."
+
+"Is it modesty?" reflected the Creole.  "Or is this man mocking me?  If
+I thought so, I should go mad!"
+
+"Perhaps you are anxious to get back to your party?" said Maurice,
+observing her abstracted air.  "Your father may be alarmed by your long
+absence?  Your brother--your cousin--"
+
+"Ah, true!" she hurriedly rejoined, in a tone that betrayed either
+pique, or compunction.  "I was not thinking of that.  Thanks, sir, for
+reminding me of my duty.  Let us go back!"
+
+Again in the saddle, she gathered up her reins, and plied her tiny
+spur--both acts being performed with an air of languid reluctance, as if
+she would have preferred lingering a little longer in the "mustang
+trap."
+
+Once more upon the prairie, Maurice conducted his protegee by the most
+direct route towards the spot where they had parted from the picnic
+party.
+
+Their backward way led them across a peculiar tract of country--what in
+Texas is called a "weed prairie," an appellation bestowed by the early
+pioneers, who were not very choice in their titles.
+
+The Louisianian saw around her a vast garden of gay flowers, laid out in
+one grand parterre, whose borders were the blue circle of the horizon--a
+garden designed, planted, nurtured, by the hand of Nature.
+
+The most plebeian spirit cannot pass through such a scene without
+receiving an impression calculated to refine it.  I've known the
+illiterate trapper--habitually blind to the beautiful--pause in the
+midst of his "weed prairie," with the flowers rising breast high around
+him, gaze for a while upon their gaudy corollas waving beyond the verge
+of his vision; then continue his silent stride with a gentler feeling
+towards his fellow-man, and a firmer faith in the grandeur of his God.
+
+"_Pardieu_! 'tis very beautiful!" exclaimed the enthusiastic Creole,
+reining up as if by an involuntary instinct.
+
+"You admire these wild scenes, Miss Poindexter?"
+
+"Admire them?  Something more, sir!  I see around me all that is bright
+and beautiful in nature: verdant turf, trees, flowers, all that we take
+such pains to plant or cultivate; and such, too, as we never succeed in
+equalling.  There seems nothing wanting to make this picture
+complete--'tis a park perfect in everything!"
+
+"Except the mansion?"
+
+"That would spoil it for me.  Give me the landscape where there is not a
+house in sight--slate, chimney, or tile--to interfere with the outlines
+of the trees.  Under their shadow could I live; under their shadow let
+me--"
+
+The word: "love" uppermost in her thoughts--was upon the tip of her
+tongue.
+
+She dexterously restrained herself from pronouncing it--changing it to
+one of very different signification--"die."
+
+It was cruel of the young Irishman not to tell her that she was speaking
+his own sentiments--repeating them to the very echo.  To this was the
+prairie indebted for his presence.  But for a kindred inclination--
+amounting almost to a passion--he might never have been known as
+_Maurice the mustanger_.
+
+The romantic sentiment is not satisfied with a "sham."  It will soon
+consume itself, unless supported by the consciousness of reality.  The
+mustanger would have been humiliated by the thought, that he chased the
+wild horse as a mere pastime--a pretext to keep him upon the prairies.
+At first, he might have condescended to make such an acknowledgment--but
+he had of late become thoroughly imbued with the pride of the
+professional hunter.
+
+His reply might have appeared chillingly prosaic.
+
+"I fear, miss, you would soon tire of such a rude life--no roof to
+shelter you--no society--no--"
+
+"And you, sir; how is it _you_ have not grown tired of it?  If I have
+been correctly informed--your friend, Mr Stump, is my authority--you've
+been leading this life for several years.  Is it so?"
+
+"Quite true: I have no other calling."
+
+"Indeed!  I wish I could say the same.  I envy you your lot.  I'm sure I
+could enjoy existence amid these beautiful scene for ever and ever!"
+
+"Alone?  Without companions?  Without even a roof to shelter you?"
+
+"I did not say that.  But, you've not told me.  How do you live?  Have
+_you_ a house?"
+
+"It does not deserve such a high-sounding appellation," laughingly
+replied the mustanger.  "Shed would more correctly serve for the
+description of my _jacale_, which may be classed among the lowliest in
+the land."
+
+"Where is it?  Anywhere near where we've been to-day?"
+
+"It is not very far from where we are now.  A mile, perhaps.  You see
+those tree-tops to the west?  They shade my hovel from the sun, and
+shelter it from the storm."
+
+"Indeed!  How I should like to have a look at it!  A real rude hut, you
+say?"
+
+"In that I have but spoken the truth."
+
+"Standing solitary?"
+
+"I know of no other within ten miles of it."
+
+"Among trees, and picturesque?"
+
+"That depends upon the eye that beholds it."
+
+"I should like to see it, and judge.  Only a mile you say?"
+
+"A mile there--the same to return--would be two."
+
+"That's nothing.  It would not take us a score of minutes."
+
+"Should we not be trespassing on the patience of your people?"
+
+"On your hospitality, perhaps?  Excuse me, Mr Gerald!" continued the
+young lady, a slight shadow suddenly overcasting her countenance.  "I
+did not think of it!  Perhaps you do not live _alone_?  Some other
+shares your--jacale--as you call it?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I have a companion--one who has been with me ever since I--"
+
+The shadow became sensibly darker.
+
+Before the mustanger could finish his speech, his listener had pictured
+to herself a certain image, that might answer to the description of his
+companion: a girl of her own age--perhaps more inclining to
+_embonpoint_--with a skin of chestnut brown; eyes of almond shade, set
+piquantly oblique to the lines of the nose; teeth of more than pearly
+purity; a tinge of crimson upon the cheeks; hair like Castro's tail;
+beads and bangles around neck, arms, and ankles; a short kirtle
+elaborately embroidered; mocassins covering small feet; and fringed
+leggings, laced upon limbs of large development.  Such were the style
+and equipments of the supposed companion, who had suddenly become
+outlined in the imagination of Louise Poindexter.
+
+"Your fellow tenant of the jacale might not like being intruded upon by
+visitors--more especially a stranger?"
+
+"On the contrary, he's but too glad to see visitors at any time--whether
+strangers or acquaintances.  My foster-brother is the last man to shun
+society; of which, poor fellow! he sees precious little on the Alamo."
+
+"Your foster-brother?"
+
+"Yes.  Phelim O'Neal by name--like myself a native of the Emerald Isle,
+and shire of Galway; only perhaps speaking a little better brogue than
+mine."
+
+"Oh! the Irish brogue.  I should so like to hear it spoken by a native
+of Galway.  I am told that theirs is the richest.  Is it so, Mr
+Gerald?"
+
+"Being a Galwegian myself, my judgment might not be reliable; but if you
+will condescend to accept Phelim's hospitality for half-an-hour, he
+will, no doubt, give you an opportunity of judging for yourself."
+
+"I should be delighted.  'Tis something so new.  Let papa and the rest
+of them wait.  There are plenty of ladies without me; or the gentlemen
+may amuse themselves by tracing up our tracks.  'Twill be as good a
+horse hunt as they are likely to have.  Now, sir, I'm ready to accept
+your hospitality."
+
+"There's not much to offer you, I fear.  Phelim has been several days by
+himself, and as he's but an indifferent hunter, his larder is likely to
+be low.  'Tis fortunate you had finished luncheon before the
+_stampede_."
+
+It was not Phelim's larder that was leading Louise Poindexter out of her
+way, nor yet the desire to listen to his Connemara pronunciation.  It
+was not curiosity to look at the jacale of the mustanger; but a feeling
+of a far more irresistible kind, to which she was yielding, as if she
+believed it to be her fate!
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+She paid a visit to the lone hut, on the Alamo; she entered under its
+roof; she scanned with seeming interest its singular _penates_; and
+noted, with pleased surprise, the books, writing materials, and other
+chattels that betokened the refinement of its owner; she listened with
+apparent delight to the _palthogue_ of the Connemara man, who called her
+a "coleen bawn;" she partook of Phelim's hospitality--condescendingly
+tasting of everything offered, except that which was most urgently
+pressed upon her, "a dhrap of the crayther, drawn fresh from the
+dimmyjan;" and finally made her departure from the spot, apparently in
+the highest spirits.
+
+Alas! her delight was short-lived: lasting only so long as it was
+sustained by the excitement of the novel adventure.  As she recrossed
+the flower prairie, she found time for making a variety of reflections;
+and there was one that chilled her to the very core of her heart.
+
+Was it the thought that she had been acting wrongly in keeping her
+father, her brother, and friends in suspense about her safety?  Or had
+she become conscious of playing a part open to the suspicion of being
+unfeminine?
+
+Not either.  The cloud that darkened her brow in the midst of that
+blossoming brightness, was caused by a different, and far more
+distressing, reflection.  During all that day, in the journey from the
+fort, after overtaking her in the chase, in the pursuit while protecting
+her, lingering by her side on the shore of the lake, returning across
+the prairie, under his own humble roof--in short everywhere--her
+companion had only been polite--_had only behaved as a gentleman_!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
+
+JEALOUSY UPON THE TRAIL.
+
+Of the two-score rescuers, who had started in pursuit of the runaway,
+but few followed far.  Having lost sight of the wild mares, the mustang,
+and the mustanger, they began to lose sight of one another; and before
+long became dispersed upon the prairie--going single, in couples, or in
+groups of three and four together.  Most of them, unused to tracking up
+a trail, soon strayed from that taken by the manada; branching off upon
+others, made, perhaps, by the same drove upon some previous stampede.
+
+The dragoon escort, in charge of a young officer--a fresh fledgling from
+West Point--ran astray upon one of these ramifications, carrying the
+hindmost of the field along with it.
+
+It was a rolling prairie through which the pursuit was conducted, here
+and there intersected by straggling belts of brushwood.  These, with the
+inequalities of the surface, soon hid the various pursuing parties from
+one another; and in twenty minutes after the start, a bird looking from
+the heavens above, might have beheld half a hundred horsemen,
+distributed into half a score of groups--apparently having started from
+a common centre--spurring at full speed towards every quarter of the
+compass!
+
+But one was going in the right direction--a solitary individual, mounted
+upon a large strong-limbed chestnut horse; that, without any claim to
+elegance of shape, was proving the possession both of speed and bottom.
+The blue frock-coat of half military cut, and forage cap of
+corresponding colour, were distinctive articles of dress habitually worn
+by the ex-captain of volunteer cavalry--Cassius Calhoun.  He it was who
+directed the chestnut on the true trail; while with whip and spur he was
+stimulating the animal to extraordinary efforts.  He was himself
+stimulated by a thought--sharp as his own spurs--that caused him to
+concentrate all his energies upon the abject in hand.
+
+Like a hungry hound he was laying his head along the trail, in hopes of
+an issue that might reward him for his exertions.
+
+What that issue was he had but vaguely conceived; but on occasional
+glance towards his holsters--from which protruded the butts of a brace
+of pistols--told of some sinister design that was shaping itself in his
+soul.
+
+But for a circumstance that assisted him, he might, like the others,
+have gone astray.  He had the advantage of them, however, in being
+guided by two shoe-tracks he had seen before.  One, the larger, he
+recollected with a painful distinctness.  He had seen it stamped upon a
+charred surface, amid the ashes of a burnt prairie.  Yielding to an
+undefined instinct, he had made a note of it in his memory, and now
+remembered it.
+
+Thus directed, the _ci-devant_ captain arrived among the copses, and
+rode into the glade where the spotted mustang had been pulled up in such
+a mysterious manner.  Hitherto his analysis had been easy enough.  At
+this point it became conjecture.  Among the hoof-prints of the wild
+mares, the shoe-tracks were still seen, but no longer going at a gallop.
+The two animals thus distinguished must have been halted, and standing
+in juxtaposition.
+
+Whither next?  Along the trail of the manada, there was no imprint of
+iron; nor elsewhere!  The surface on all sides was hard, and strewn with
+pebbles.  A horse going in rude gallop, might have indented it; but not
+one passing over it at a tranquil pace.
+
+And thus had the spotted mustang and blood bay parted from that spot.
+They had gone at a walk for some score yards, before starting on their
+final gallop towards the mustang trap.
+
+The impatient pursuer was puzzled.  He rode round and round, and along
+the trail of the wild mares, and back again, without discovering the
+direction that had been taken by either of the ridden horses.
+
+He was beginning to feel something more than surprise, when the sight of
+a solitary horseman advancing along the trail interrupted his
+uncomfortable conjectures.
+
+It was no stranger who was drawing near.  The colossal figure, clad in
+coarse habiliments, bearded to the buttons of his blanket coat, and
+bestriding the most contemptible looking steed that could have been
+found within a hundred miles of the spot, was an old acquaintance.
+Cassius Calhoun knew Zebulon Stump, and Zeb Stump knew Cash Calhoun,
+long before either had set foot upon the prairies of Texas.
+
+"You hain't seed nuthin' o' the young lady, hev ye, Mister Calhoun?"
+inquired the hunter, as he rode up, with an unusual impressiveness of
+manner.  "No, ye hain't," he continued, as if deducing his inference
+from the blank looks of the other.  "Dog-gone my cats!  I wonder what
+the hell hev becomed o' her!  Kewrious, too; sech a rider as she air,
+ter let the durned goat o' a thing run away wi' her.  Wal! thur's not
+much danger to be reeprehended.  The mowstanger air putty sartin to
+throw his rope aroun' the critter, an that 'll put an eend to its
+capers.  Why hev ye stopped hyur?"
+
+"I'm puzzled about the direction they've taken.  Their tracks show
+they've been halted here; but I can see the shod hoofs no farther."
+
+"Whoo! whoo! yur right, Mister Cashus!  They hev been halted hyur; an
+been clost thegither too.  They hain't gone no further on the trail o'
+the wild maars.  Sartin they hain't.  What then?"
+
+The speaker scanned the surface of the plain with an interrogative
+glance; as if there, and not from Cassius Calhoun, expecting an answer
+to his question.
+
+"I cannot see their tracks anywhere," replied the ex-captain.
+
+"No, kan't ye?  I kin though.  Lookee hyur!  Don't ye see them thur
+bruises on the grass?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Durn it! thur plain es the nose on a Jew's face.  Thur's a big shoe, an
+a little un clost aside o' it.  Thet's the way they've rud off, which
+show that they hain't follered the wild maars no further than hyur.
+We'd better keep on arter them?"
+
+"By all means!"
+
+Without further parley, Zeb started along the new trail; which, though
+still undiscernible to the eye of the other, was to him as conspicuous
+as he had figuratively declared it.
+
+In a little while it became visible to his companion--on their arrival
+at the place where the fugitives had once more urged their horses into a
+gallop to escape from the cavallada, and where the shod tracks deeply
+indented the turf.
+
+Shortly after their trail was again lost--or would have been to a
+scrutiny less keen than that of Zeb Stump--among the hundreds of other
+hoof-marks seen now upon the sward.
+
+"Hilloo!" exclaimed the old hunter, in some surprise at the new sign.
+"What's been a doin' hyur?  This air some 'at kewrious."
+
+"Only the tracks of the wild mares!" suggested Calhoun.  "They appear to
+have made a circuit, and come round again?"
+
+"If they hev it's been arter the others rud past them.  The chase must a
+changed sides, I reck'n."
+
+"What do you mean, Mr Stump?"
+
+"That i'stead o' them gallupin' arter the maars, the maars hev been
+gallupin' arter them."
+
+"How can you tell that?"
+
+"Don't ye see that the shod tracks air kivered by them o' the maars?
+Maars--no!  By the 'turnal airthquake!--them's not maar-tracks.  They
+air a inch bigger.  Thur's been _studs_ this way--a hul cavayurd o'
+them.  Geehosofat!  I hope they hain't--"
+
+"Haven't what?"
+
+"Gone arter Spotty.  If they hev, then thur will be danger to Miss
+Peintdexter.  Come on!"
+
+Without waiting for a rejoinder, the hunter started off at a shambling
+trot, followed by Calhoun, who kept calling to him for an explanation of
+his ambiguous words.
+
+Zeb did not deign to offer any--excusing himself by a backward sweep of
+the hand, which seemed to say, "Do not bother me now: I am busy."
+
+For a time he appeared absorbed in taking up the trail of the shod
+horses--not so easily done, as it was in places entirely obliterated by
+the thick trampling of the stallions.  He succeeded in making it out by
+piecemeal--still going on at a trot.
+
+It was not till he had arrived within a hundred yards of the arroyo that
+the serious shadow disappeared from his face; and, checking the pace of
+his mare, he vouchsafed the explanation once more demanded from him.
+
+"Oh! that was the danger," said Calhoun, on hearing the explanation.
+"How do you know they have escaped it?"
+
+"Look thur!"
+
+"A dead horse!  Freshly killed, he appears?  What does that prove?"
+
+"That the mowstanger hes killed him."
+
+"It frightened the others off, you think, and they followed no further?"
+
+"They follered no further; but it wa'n't adzackly thet as scared 'em
+off.  Thur's the thing as kep them from follerin'.  Ole Hickory, what a
+jump!"
+
+The speaker pointed to the arroyo, on the edge of which both riders had
+now arrived.
+
+"You don't suppose they leaped it?" said Calhoun.  "Impossible."
+
+"Leaped it clur as the crack o' a rifle.  Don't ye see thur toe-marks,
+both on this side an the t'other?  An' Miss Peintdexter fust, too!  By
+the jumpin' Geehosofat, what a gurl she air sure enuf!  They must both a
+jumped afore the stellyun war shot; else they kedn't a got at it.
+Thur's no other place whar a hoss ked go over.  Geeroozalem! wa'n't it
+cunnin' o' the mowstanger to throw the stud in his tracks, jest in the
+very gap?"
+
+"You think that he and my cousin crossed here together?"
+
+"Not adzackly thegither," explained Zeb, without suspecting the motive
+of the interrogatory.  "As I've sayed, Spotty went fust.  You see the
+critter's tracks yonner on t'other side?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Wal--don't ye see they air kivered wi' them o' the mowstanger's hoss?"
+
+"True--true."
+
+"As for the stellyuns, they hain't got over--ne'er a one o' the hul
+cavayurd.  I kin see how it hez been.  The young fellur pulled up on
+t'other side, an sent a bullet back inter this brute's karkidge.  'Twar
+jest like closin' the gap ahint him; an the pursooers, seein' it shet,
+guv up the chase, an scampered off in a different direckshun.  Thur's
+the way they hev gone--up the side o' the gully!"
+
+"They may have crossed at some other place, and continued the pursuit?"
+
+"If they dud, they'd hev ten mile to go, afore they ked git back hyur--
+five up, an five back agin.  Not a bit o' that, Mister Calhoun.  To
+needn't be uneezy 'bout Miss Lewaze bein' pursooed by _them_ any
+further.  Arter the jump, she's rud off along wi' the mowstanger--both
+on 'em as quiet as a kupple o' lambs.  Thur wa'n't no danger then; an by
+this time, they oughter be dog-goned well on torst rejoinin' the people
+as stayed by the purvision waggon."
+
+"Come on!" cried Calhoun, exhibiting as much impatience as when he
+believed his cousin to be in serious peril.  "Come on, Mr Stump!  Let
+us get back as speedily as possible!"
+
+"Not so fast, if you pleeze," rejoined Zeb, permitting himself to slide
+leisurely out of his saddle, and then drawing his knife from his sheath.
+"I'll only want ye to wait for a matter o' ten minutes, or thereabout."
+
+"Wait!  For what?" peevishly inquired Calhoun.
+
+"Till I kin strip the hide off o' this hyur sorrel.  It appear to be a
+skin o' the fust qualerty; an oughter fetch a five-dollar bill in the
+settlements.  Five-dollar bills ain't picked up every day on these hyur
+purayras."
+
+"Damn the skin!" angrily ejaculated the impatient Southerner.  "Come on,
+an leave it!"
+
+"Ain't a goin' to do anythin' o' the sort," coolly responded the hunter,
+as he drew the sharp edge of his blade along the belly of the prostrate
+steed.  "You kin go on if ye like, Mister Calhoun; but Zeb Stump don't
+start till he packs the hide of this hyur stellyun on the krupper o' his
+old maar.  Thet he don't."
+
+"Come, Zeb; what's the use of talking about my going back by myself?
+You know I can't find my way?"
+
+"That air like enough.  I didn't say ye ked."
+
+"Look here, you obstinate old case!  Time's precious to me just at this
+minute.  It 'll take you a full half-hour to skin the horse."
+
+"Not twenty minutes."
+
+"Well, say twenty minutes.  Now, twenty minutes are of more importance
+to me than a five-dollar bill.  You say that's the value of the skin?
+Leave it behind; and I agree to make good the amount."
+
+"Wal--that air durned gin'rous, I admit--dog-goned gin'rous.  But I
+mussent except yur offer.  It 'ud be a mean trick o' me--mean enuf for a
+yeller-bellied Mexikin--to take yur money for sech a sarvice as thet:
+the more so es I ain't no stranger to ye, an myself a goin' the same
+road.  On the t'other hand, I kan't afford to lose the five dollars'
+worth o' hoss-hide which ud be rotten as punk--to say nuthin' o' it's
+bein' tored into skreeds by the buzzarts and coyoats--afore I mout find
+a chance to kum this way agin."
+
+"'Tis very provoking!  What am I to do?"
+
+"You _air_ in a hurry?  Wal--I'm sorry to discommerdate ye.  But--stay!
+Thur's no reezun for yur waitin' on me.  Thur's nuthin' to hinder ye
+from findin' yur way to the waggon.  Ye see that tree stannin' up agin
+the sky-line--the tall poplar yonner?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Wal; do you remember ever to hev seed it afore?  It air a queery
+lookin' plant, appearin' more like a church steeple than a tree."
+
+"Yes--yes!" said Calhoun.  "Now you've pointed it out, I do remember it.
+We rode close past it while in pursuit of the wild mares?"
+
+"You dud that very thing.  An' now, as ye know it, what air to hinder
+you from ridin' past it agin; and follering the trail o' the maars
+back'ard?  That ud bring ye to yur startin'-peint; where, ef I ain't out
+o' my reck'nin', ye'll find yur cousin, Miss Peintdexter, an the hul o'
+yur party enjoying themselves wi' that 'ere French stuff, they call
+shampain.  I hope they'll stick to it, and spare the Monongaheela--of
+which licker I shed like to hev a triflin' suck arter I git back
+myself."
+
+Calhoun had not waited for the wind-up of this characteristic speech.
+On the instant after recognising the tree, he had struck the spurs into
+the sides of his chestnut, and gone off at a gallop, leaving old Zeb at
+liberty to secure the coveted skin.
+
+"Geeroozalem!" ejaculated the hunter, glancing up, and noticing the
+quick unceremonious departure.  "It don't take much o' a head-piece to
+tell why he air in sech a durned hurry.  I ain't myself much guv torst
+guessin'; but if I ain't doggonedly mistaken it air a clur case o'
+jellacy on the trail!"
+
+Zeb Stump was not astray in his conjecture.  It _was_ jealousy that
+urged Cassius Calhoun to take that hasty departure--black jealousy, that
+had first assumed shape in a kindred spot--in the midst of a charred
+prairie; that had been every day growing stronger from circumstances
+observed, and others imagined; that was now intensified so as to have
+become his prevailing passion.
+
+The presentation and taming of the spotted mustang; the acceptance of
+that gift, characteristic of the giver, and gratifying to the receiver,
+who had made no effort to conceal her gratification; these, and other
+circumstances, acting upon the already excited fancy of Cassius Calhoun,
+had conducted him to the belief: that in Maurice the mustanger he would
+find his most powerful rival.
+
+The inferior social position of the horse-hunter should have hindered
+him from having such belief, or even a suspicion.
+
+Perhaps it might have done so, had he been less intimately acquainted
+with the character of Louise Poindexter.  But, knowing her as he did--
+associating with her from the hour of childhood--thoroughly
+understanding her independence of spirit--the _braverie_ of her
+disposition, bordering upon very recklessness--he could place no
+reliance on the mere idea of gentility.  With most women this may be
+depended upon as a barrier, if not to _mesalliance_, at least to
+absolute imprudence; but in the impure mind of Cassius Calhoun, while
+contemplating the probable conduct of his cousin, there was not even
+this feeble support to lean upon!
+
+Chafing at the occurrences of the day--to him crookedly inauspicious--he
+hurried back towards the spot where the pic-nic had been held.  The
+steeple-like tree guided him back to the trail of the manada; and beyond
+that there was no danger of straying.  He had only to return along the
+path already trodden by him.
+
+He rode at a rapid pace--faster than was relished by his now tired
+steed--stimulated by bitter thoughts, which for more than an hour were
+his sole companions--their bitterness more keenly felt in the tranquil
+solitude that surrounded him.
+
+He was but little consoled by a sight that promised other companionship:
+that of two persons on horseback, riding in advance, and going in the
+same direction as himself, upon the same path.  Though he saw but their
+backs--and at a long distance ahead--there was no mistaking the identity
+of either.  They were the two individuals that had brought that
+bitterness upon his spirit.
+
+Like himself they were returning upon the trail of the wild mares;
+which, when first seen, they had just struck, arriving upon it from a
+lateral path.  Side by side--their saddles almost chafing against each
+other--to all appearance absorbed in a conversation of intense interest
+to both, they saw not the solitary horseman approaching them in a
+diagonal direction.
+
+Apparently less anxious than he to rejoin the party of picknickers, they
+were advancing at a slow pace--the lady a little inclining to the rear.
+
+Their proximity to one another--their attitudes in the saddle--their
+obvious inattention to outward objects--the snail-like pace at which
+they were proceeding--these, along with one or two other slighter
+circumstances observed by Calhoun, combined to make an impression on his
+mind--or rather to strengthen one already made--that almost drove him
+mad.
+
+To gallop rapidly up, and rudely terminate the _tete-a-tete_, was but
+the natural instinct of the _chivalric_ Southerner.  In obedience to it
+he spitefully plied the spur; and once more forced his jaded chestnut
+into an unwilling canter.
+
+In a few seconds, however, he slackened pace--as if changing his
+determination.  The sound of his horse's hoofs had not yet warned the
+others of his proximity--though he was now less than two hundred yards
+behind them!  He could hear the silvery tones of his cousin's voice
+bearing the better part of the conversation.  How interesting it must be
+to both to have hindered them from perceiving his approach!
+
+If he could but overhear what they were saying?
+
+It seemed a most unpropitious place for playing eavesdropper; and yet
+there might be a chance?
+
+The seeming interest of the dialogue to the individuals engaged in it
+gave promise of such opportunity.  The turf of the savannah was soft as
+velvet.  The hoof gliding slowly over it gave forth not the slightest
+sound.
+
+Calhoun was still too impatient to confine himself to a walk; but his
+chestnut was accustomed to that gait, peculiar to the horse of the
+South-Western States--the "pace"; and into this was he pressed.
+
+With hoofs horizontally striking the sward--elevated scarce an inch
+above the ground--he advanced swiftly and noiselessly; so quick withal,
+that in a few seconds he was close upon the heels of the spotted
+mustang, and the red steed of the mustanger!
+
+He was then checked to a pace corresponding to theirs; while his rider,
+leaning forward, listened with an eagerness that evinced some terrible
+determination.  His attitude proclaimed him in the vein for vituperation
+of the rudest kind--ready with ribald tongue; or, if need be, with knife
+and pistol!
+
+His behaviour depended on a contingency--on what might be overheard.
+
+As chance, or fate, willed it, there was nothing.  If the _two_
+equestrians were insensible to external sounds, their steeds were not so
+absorbed.  In a walk the chestnut stepped heavily--the more so from
+being fatigued.  His footfall proclaimed his proximity to the sharp
+ears, both of the blood-bay and spotted mustang; that simultaneously
+flung up their heads, neighing as they did so.
+
+Calhoun was discovered.
+
+"Ha! cousin Cash!" cried the lady, betraying more of pique than
+surprise; "you there?  Where's father, and Harry, and the rest of the
+people?"
+
+"Why do you ask that, Loo?  I reckon you know as well as I."
+
+"What! haven't you come out to meet us?  And they too--ah! your chestnut
+is all in a sweat!  He looks as if you had been riding a long race--like
+ourselves?"
+
+"Of coarse he has.  I followed you from the first--in hopes of being of
+some service to you."
+
+"Indeed!  I did not know that you were after us.  Thank you, cousin!
+I've just been saying thanks to this gallant gentleman, who also came
+after, and has been good enough to rescue both Luna and myself from a
+very unpleasant dilemma--a dreadful danger I should rather call it.  Do
+you know that we've been chased by a drove of wild steeds, and had
+actually to ride for our lives?"
+
+"I am aware of it."
+
+"You saw the chase then?"
+
+"No.  I only knew it by the tracks."
+
+"The tracks!  And were you able to tell by that?"
+
+"Yes--thanks to the interpretation of Zeb Stump."
+
+"Oh! he was with you?  But did you follow them to--to--how far did you
+follow them?"
+
+"To a crevasse in the prairie.  You leaped over it, Zeb said.  Did you?"
+
+"Luna did."
+
+"With you on her back?"
+
+"I _wasn't anywhere else_!  What a question, cousin Cash!  Where would
+you expect me to have been?  Clinging to her tail?  Ha! ha! ha!"
+
+"Did _you_ leap it?" inquired the laugher, suddenly changing tone.  "Did
+you follow us any farther?"
+
+"No, Loo.  From the crevasse I came direct here, thinking you had got
+back before me.  That's how I've chanced to come up with you."
+
+The answer appeared to give satisfaction.
+
+"Ah!  I'm glad you've overtaken us.  We've been riding slowly.  Luna is
+so tired.  Poor thing!  I don't know how I shall ever get her back to
+the Leona."
+
+Since the moment of being joined by Calhoun, the mustanger had not
+spoken a word.  However pleasant may have been his previous intercourse
+with the young Creole, he had relinquished it, without any apparent
+reluctance; and was now riding silently in the advance, as if by tacit
+understanding he had returned to the performance of the part for which
+he had been originally engaged.
+
+For all that, the eye of the ex-captain was bent blightingly upon him--
+at times in a demoniac glare--when he saw--or fancied--that another eye
+was turned admiringly in the same direction.
+
+A long journey performed by that trio of travellers might have led to a
+tragical termination.  Such finale was prevented by the appearance of
+the picknickers; who soon after surrounding the returned runaway, put to
+flight every other thought by the chorus of their congratulations.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN.
+
+WHISKY AND WATER.
+
+In the embryo city springing up under the protection of Fort Inge, the
+"hotel" was the most conspicuous building.  This is but the normal
+condition of every Texan town--whether new or founded forty years ago;
+and none are older, except the sparse cities of Hispano-Mexican origin--
+where the _presidio_ and convent took precedence, now surpassed by, and
+in some instances transformed into, the "tavern."
+
+The Fort Inge establishment, though the largest building in the place,
+was, nevertheless, neither very grand nor imposing.  Its exterior had
+but little pretence to architectural style.  It was a structure of hewn
+logs, having for ground-plan the letter T according to the grotesque
+alphabet--the shank being used for eating and sleeping rooms, while the
+head was a single apartment entirely devoted to drinking--smoking and
+_expectorating_ included.  This last was the bar-room, or "saloon."
+
+The sign outside, swinging from the trunk of a post-oak, that had been
+_pollarded_ some ten feet above the ground, exhibited on both sides the
+likeness of a well known military celebrity--the hero of that quarter of
+the globe--General Zachariah Taylor.  It did not need looking at the
+lettering beneath to ascertain the name of the hotel.  Under the
+patronage of such a portrait it could only be called "Rough and Ready."
+
+There was a touch of the apropos about this designation.  Outside things
+appeared rough enough; while inside, especially if you entered by the
+"saloon," there was a readiness to meet you half way, with a mint julep,
+a sherry cobbler, a gin sling, or any other _mixed_ drink known to
+trans-Mississippian tipplers--provided always that you were ready with
+the _picayunes_ to pay for them.
+
+The saloon in question would not call for description, had you ever
+travelled in the Southern, or South-Western, States of America.  If so,
+no Lethean draught could ever efface from your memory the "bar-room" of
+the hotel or _tavern_ in which you have had the unhappiness to sojourn.
+The counter extending longitudinally by the side; the shelved wall
+behind, with its rows of decanters and bottles, containing liquors, of
+not only all the colours of the prism, but every possible combination of
+them; the elegant young fellow, standing or sidling between counter and
+shelves, ycleped "clerk"--don't call him a "barkeeper," or you may get a
+decanter in your teeth--this elegant young gentleman, in blouse of blue
+_cottonade_, or white linen coat, or maybe in his shirt sleeves--the
+latter of finest linen and lace--ruffled, in the year of our Lord
+eighteen hundred and fifty--this elegant young gentleman, who, in mixing
+you a sherry cobbler, can look you straight in the face, talk to you the
+politics of the day, while the ice, and the wine, and the water, are
+passing from glass to glass, like an iris sparkling behind his
+shoulders, or an aureole surrounding his perfumed head!  Traveller
+through the Southern States of America you; cannot fail to remember him?
+
+If so, my words will recall him, along with his surroundings--the saloon
+in which he is the presiding administrator, with its shelves and
+coloured decanters; its counter; its floor sprinkled with white sand, at
+times littered with cigar stumps, and the brown asterisks produced by
+_expectoration_--its odour of mint, absinthe, and lemon-peel, in which
+luxuriate the common black fly, the blue-bottle, and the sharp-tongued
+mosquito.  All these must be sharply outlined on the retina of your
+memory.
+
+The hotel, or tavern, "Rough and Ready," though differing but little
+from other Texan houses of entertainment, had some points in particular.
+Its proprietor, instead of being a speculative Yankee, was a German--in
+this part of the world, as elsewhere, found to be the best purveyors of
+food.  He kept his own bar; so that on entering the saloon, instead of
+the elegant young gentleman with ruffled shirt and odorous chevelure,
+your "liquor" was mixed for you by a staid Teuton, who looked as sober
+as if he never tasted--notwithstanding the temptation of wholesale
+price--the delicious drinks served out to his customers.  Oberdoffer was
+the name he had imported with him from his fatherland; transformed by
+his Texan customers into "Old Duffer."
+
+There was one other peculiarity about the bar-room of the "Rough and
+Ready," though it scarce deserved to be so designated; since it was not
+uncommon elsewhere.  As already stated, the building was shaped like a
+capital T; the saloon representing the head of the letter.  The counter
+extended along one side, that contiguous to the shank; while at each end
+was a door that opened outward into the public square of the incipient
+city.
+
+This arrangement had been designed to promote the circulation of the
+air--a matter of primary importance in an atmosphere where the
+thermometer for half the year stands at 90 degrees in the shade.
+
+The hotels of Texas or the South-Western States--I may say every part of
+the American Union--serve the double purpose of exchange and club-house.
+Indeed, it is owing to the cheap accommodation thus afforded--often of
+the most convenient kind--that the latter can scarce be said to exist.
+
+Even in the larger cities of the Atlantic states the "club" is by no
+means a necessity.  The moderate charges of the hotels, along with their
+excellent _cuisine_ and elegant accommodations, circumscribe the
+prosperity of this institution; which in America is, and ever must be,
+an unhealthy exotic.
+
+The remark is still more true of the Southern and South-western cities;
+where the "saloon" and "bar-room" are the chief places of resort and
+rendezvous.
+
+The company, too, is there of a more miscellaneous character.  The proud
+planter does not disdain--for he does not dare--to drink in the same
+room with the "poor white trash;" often as proud as himself.
+
+There is no _peasant_ in that part of the world--least of all in the
+state called Texas; and in the saloon of "Rough and Ready" might often
+be seen assembled representatives of every class and calling to be met
+with among the settlements.
+
+Perhaps not upon any occasion since "Old Duffer" had hung out the sign
+of his tavern, was he favoured with a larger company, or served more
+customers across his counter, than upon that night, after the return of
+the horse-hunting party to Fort Inge.
+
+With the exception of the ladies, almost every one who had taken part in
+the expedition seemed to think that a half-hour spent at the "Rough and
+Ready" was necessary as a "nightcap" before retiring to rest; and as the
+Dutch clock, quaintly ticking among the coloured decanters, indicated
+the hour of eleven, one after another--officers of the Fort--planters
+living near along the river--Sutlers--commissariat
+contractors--"sportsmen"--and others who might be called nondescripts--
+came dropping in; each as he entered marching straight up to the
+counter, calling for his favourite drink, and then falling back to
+converse with some group already occupying the floor.
+
+One of these groups was conspicuous.  It consisted of some eight or ten
+individuals, half of them in uniform.  Among the latter were the three
+officers already introduced; the captain of infantry, and the two
+lieutenants--Hancock of the dragoons, and Crossman of the mounted
+rifles.
+
+Along with these was an officer older than any of them, also higher in
+authority, as could be told by the embroidery on his shoulder-strap,
+that proclaimed him of the rank of major.  As he was the only "field
+officer" at Fort Inge, it is unnecessary to say he was the commandant of
+the cantonment.
+
+These gentlemen were conversing as freely as if all were subalterns of
+equal rank--the subject of the discourse being the incidents of the day.
+
+"Now tell us, major!" said Hancock: "you must know.  Where did the girl
+gallop to?"
+
+"How should I know?" answered the officer appealed to.  "Ask her cousin,
+Mr Cassius Calhoun."
+
+"We have asked him, but without getting any satisfaction.  It's clear he
+knows no more than we.  He only met them on the return--and not very far
+from the place where we had our bivouac.  They were gone a precious long
+time; and judging by the sweat of their horses they must have had a hard
+ride of it.  They might have been to the Rio Grande, for that matter,
+and beyond it."
+
+"Did you notice Calhoun as he came back?" inquired the captain of
+infantry.  "There was a scowl upon his face that betokened some very
+unpleasant emotion within his mind, I should say."
+
+"He did look rather unhappy," replied the major; "but surely, Captain
+Sloman, you don't attribute it to--?"
+
+"Jealousy.  I do, and nothing else."
+
+"What! of Maurice the mustanger?  Poh--poh! impossible--at least, very
+improbable."
+
+"And why, major?"
+
+"My dear Sloman, Louise Poindexter is a lady, and Maurice Gerald--"
+
+"May be a gentleman for aught that is known to the contrary."
+
+"Pshaw!" scornfully exclaimed Crossman; "a trader in horses!  The major
+is right--the thing's improbable--impossible."
+
+"Ah, gentlemen!" pursued the officer of infantry, with a significant
+shake of the head.  "You don't know Miss Poindexter, so well as I.  An
+eccentric young lady--to say the least of her.  You may have already
+observed that for yourselves."
+
+"Come, come, Sloman!" said the major, in a bantering way; "you are
+inclined to be talking scandal, I fear.  That would be a scandal.
+Perhaps you are yourself interested in Miss Poindexter, notwithstanding
+your pretensions to be considered a Joseph?  Now, I could understand
+your being jealous if it were handsome Hancock here, or Crossman--
+supposing him to be disengaged.  But as for a common mustanger--poh--
+poh!"
+
+"He's an Irishman, major, this mustanger; and if he be what I have some
+reason to suspect--"
+
+"Whatever he be," interrupted the major, casting a side glance towards
+the door, "he's there to answer for himself; and as he's a sufficiently
+plain-spoken fellow, you may learn from him all about the matter that
+seems to be of so much interest to you."
+
+"I don't think you will," muttered Sloman, as Hancock and two or three
+others turned towards the new-comer, with the design of carrying out the
+major's suggestion.
+
+Silently advancing across the sanded floor, the mustanger had taken his
+stand at an unoccupied space in front of the counter.
+
+"A glass of whisky and water, if you please?" was the modest request
+with which to saluted the landlord.
+
+"Visky und vachter!" echoed the latter, without any show of eagerness to
+wait upon his new guest.  "Ya, woe, visky und vachter!  It ish two
+picayunsh the glass."
+
+"I was not inquiring the price," replied the mustanger, "I asked to be
+served with a glass of whisky and water.  Have you got any?"
+
+"Yesh--yesh," responded the German, rendered obsequious by the sharp
+rejoinder.  "Plenty--plenty of visky und vachter.  Here it ish."
+
+While his simple potation was being served out to him, Maurice received
+nods of recognition from the officers, returning them with a free, but
+modest air.  Most of them knew him personally, on account of his
+business relations with the Fort.
+
+They were on the eve of interrogating him--as the major had suggested--
+when the entrance of still another individual caused them to suspend
+their design.
+
+The new-comer was Cassius Calhoun.  In his presence it would scarce have
+been delicacy to investigate the subject any further.
+
+Advancing with his customary swagger towards the mixed group of military
+men and civilians, Calhoun saluted them as one who had spent the day in
+their company, and had been absent only for a short interval.  If not
+absolutely intoxicated, it could be seen that the ex-officer of
+volunteers was under the influence of drink.  The unsteady sparkle of
+his eyes, the unnatural pallor upon his forehead--still further clouded
+by two or three tossed tresses that fell over it--with the somewhat
+grotesque set of his forage cap--told that he had been taking one beyond
+the limits of wisdom.
+
+"Come, gentlemen!" cried he, addressing himself to the major's party, at
+the same time stepping up to the counter; "let's hit the waggon a crack,
+or old Dunder-und-blitzen behind the bar will say we're wasting his
+lights.  Drinks all round.  What say you?"
+
+"Agreed--agreed!" replied several voices.
+
+"You, major?"
+
+"With pleasure, Captain Calhoun."
+
+According to universal custom, the intended imbibers fell into line
+along the counter, each calling out the name of the drink most to his
+liking at the moment.
+
+Of these were ordered almost as many kinds as there were individuals in
+the party; Calhoun himself shouting out--"Brown sherry for me;" and
+immediately adding--"with a dash of bitters."
+
+"Prandy und pitters, you calls for, Mishter Calhoun?" said the landlord,
+as he leant obsequiously across the counter towards the reputed partner
+of an extensive estate.
+
+"Certainly, you stupid Dutchman!  I said brown sherry, didn't I?"
+
+"All rights, mein herr; all rights!  Prandy und pitters--prandy und
+pitters," repeated the German Boniface, as he hastened to place the
+decanter before his ill-mannered guest.
+
+With the large accession of the major's party, to several others already
+in the act of imbibing, the whole front of the long counter became
+occupied--with scarce an inch to spare.
+
+Apparently by accident--though it may have been design on the part of
+Calhoun--he was the outermost man on the extreme right of those who had
+responded to his invitation.
+
+This brought him in juxtaposition with Maurice Gerald, who alone--as
+regarded boon companionship--was quietly drinking his whisky and water,
+and smoking a cigar he had just lighted.
+
+The two were back to back--neither having taken any notice of the other.
+
+"A toast!" cried Calhoun, taking his glass from the counter.
+
+"Let us have it!" responded several voices.
+
+"America for the Americans, and confusion to all foreign interlopers--
+especially the damned Irish!"
+
+On delivering the obnoxious sentiment, he staggered back a pace; which
+brought his body in contact with that of the mustanger--at the moment
+standing with the glass raised to his lips.
+
+The collision caused the spilling of a portion of the whisky and water;
+which fell over the mustanger's breast.
+
+Was it an accident?  No one believed it was--even for a moment.
+Accompanied by such a sentiment the act could only have been an affront
+intended and premeditated.
+
+All present expected to see the insulted man spring instantly upon his
+insulter.  They were disappointed, as well as surprised, at the manner
+in which the mustanger seemed to take it.  There were some who even
+fancied he was about to submit to it.
+
+"If he does," whispered Hancock in Sloman's ear, "he ought to be kicked
+out of the room."
+
+"Don't you be alarmed about that," responded the infantry officer, in
+the same _sotto voce_.  "You'll find it different.  I'm not given to
+betting, as you know; but I'd lay a month's pay upon it the mustanger
+don't back out; and another, that Mr Cassius Calhoun will find him an
+ugly customer to deal with, although just now he seems more concerned
+about his fine shirt, than the insult put upon him.  Odd devil he is!"
+
+While this whispering was being carried on, the man to whom it related
+was still standing by the bar--to use a hackneyed phrase, "the observed
+of all observers."
+
+Having deposited his glass upon the counter, he had drawn a silk
+handkerchief from his pocket, and was wiping from his embroidered shirt
+bosom the defilement of the spilt whisky.
+
+There was an imperturbable coolness about the action, scarce compatible
+with the idea of cowardice; and those who had doubted him perceived that
+they had made a mistake, and that there was something to come.  In
+silence they awaited the development.
+
+They had not long to wait.  The whole affair--speculations and
+whisperings included--did not occupy twenty seconds of time; and then
+did the action proceed, or the speech which was likely to usher it in.
+
+"_I_ am an Irishman," said the mustanger, as he returned his
+handkerchief to the place from which he had taken it.
+
+Simple as the rejoinder may have appeared, and long delayed as it had
+been, there was no one present who mistook its meaning.  If the hunter
+of wild horses had tweaked the nose of Cassius Calhoun, it would not
+have added emphasis to that acceptance of his challenge.  Its simplicity
+but proclaimed the serious determination of the acceptor.
+
+"You?" scornfully retorted Calhoun, turning round, and standing with his
+arms _akimbo_.  "You?" he continued, with his eye measuring the
+mustanger from head to foot, "you an Irishman?  Great God, sir, I should
+never have thought so!  I should have taken you for a Mexican, judging
+by your rig, and the elaborate stitching of your shirt."
+
+"I can't perceive how my rig should concern you, Mr Cassius Calhoun;
+and as you've done my shirt no service by spilling half my liquor upon
+it, I shall take the liberty of unstarching yours in a similar fashion."
+
+So saying, the mustanger took up his glass; and, before the ex-captain
+of volunteers could duck his head, or get out of the way, the remains of
+the mixed Monongahela were "swilled" into his face, sending him off into
+a fit of alternate sneezing and coughing that appeared to afford
+satisfaction to more than a majority of the bystanders.
+
+The murmur of approbation was soon suppressed.  The circumstances were
+not such as to call for speech; and the exclamations that accompanied
+the act were succeeded by a hush of silence.  All saw that the quarrel
+could not be otherwise than a serious one.  The affair must end in a
+fight.  No power on earth could prevent it from coming to that
+conclusion.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY.
+
+AN UNSAFE POSITION.
+
+On receiving the alcoholic douche, Calhoun had clutched his six-shooter,
+and drawn it from its holster.  He only waited to get the whisky out of
+his eyes before advancing upon his adversary.
+
+The mustanger, anticipating this action, had armed himself with a
+similar weapon, and stood ready to return the fire of his antagonist--
+shot for shot.
+
+The more timid of the spectators had already commenced making their
+escape out of doors tumbling over one another, in their haste to get out
+of harm's way.
+
+A few stayed in the saloon from sheer irresolution; a few others, of
+cooler courage, from choice; or, perhaps, actuated by a more astute
+instinct, which told them that in attempting to escape they might get a
+bullet in the back.
+
+There was an interval--some six seconds--of silence, during which a pin
+might have been heard falling upon the floor.  It was but the interlude
+that often occurs between resolution and action; when the mind has
+completed its task, and the body has yet to begin.
+
+It might have been more brief with other actors on the scene.  Two
+ordinary men would have blazed away at once, and without reflection.
+But the two now confronting each other were not of the common kind.
+Both had seen _street fighting_ before--had taken part in it--and knew
+the disadvantage of an idle shot.  Each was determined to take sure aim
+on the other.  It was this that prolonged the interval of inaction.
+
+To those outside, who dared not even look through the doors, the
+suspense was almost painful.  The cracking of the pistols, which they
+expected every moment to hear, would have been a relief.  It was almost
+a disappointment when, instead, they heard the voice of the major--who
+was among the few who had stayed inside--raised in a loud authoritative
+tone.
+
+"Hold!" commanded he, in the accent of one accustomed to be obeyed, at
+the same time whisking his sabre out of its scabbard, and interposing
+its long blade between the disputants.
+
+"Hold your fire--I command you both.  Drop your muzzles; or by the
+Almighty I'll take the arm off the first of you that touches trigger!
+Hold, I say!"
+
+"Why?" shouted Calhoun, purple with angry passion.  "Why, Major
+Ringwood?  After an insult like that, and from a low fellow--"
+
+"You were the first to offer it, Captain Calhoun."
+
+"Damn me if I care!  I shall be the last to let it pass unpunished.
+Stand out of the way, major.  The quarrel is not yours--you have no
+right to interfere!"
+
+"Indeed!  Ha! ha!  Sloman!  Hancock!  Crossman! hear that?  I have no
+right to interfere!  Hark ye, Mr Cassius Calhoun, ex-captain of
+volunteers!  Know you where you are, sir?  Don't fancy yourself in the
+state of Mississippi--among your slave-whipping chivalry.  This, sir, is
+a military post--under military law--my humble self its present
+administrator.  I therefore command you to return your six-shooter to
+the holster from which you have taken it.  This instant too, or you
+shall go to the guard-house, like the humblest soldier in the
+cantonment!"
+
+"Indeed!" sneeringly replied the Mississippian.  "What a fine country
+you intend Texas to become!  I suppose a man mustn't fight, however much
+aggrieved, without first obtaining a licence from Major Ringwood?  Is
+that to be the law of the land?"
+
+"Not a bit of it," retorted the major.  "I'm not the man--never was--to
+stand in the way of the honest adjustment of a quarrel.  You shall be
+quite at liberty--you and your antagonist--to kill one another, if it so
+please you.  But not just now.  You must perceive, Mr Calhoun, that
+your sport endangers the lives of other people, who have not the
+slightest interest in it.  I've no idea of being bored by a bullet not
+intended for me.  Wait till the rest of us can withdraw to a safe
+distance; and you may crack away to your heart's content.  Now, sir,
+will that be agreeable to you?"
+
+Had the major been a man of ordinary character his commands might have
+been disregarded.  But to his official weight, as chief officer of the
+post, was added a certain reverence due to seniority in age--along with
+respect for one who was himself known to wield a weapon with dangerous
+skill, and who allowed no trilling with his authority.
+
+His sabre had not been unsheathed by way of empty gesticulation.  The
+disputants knew it; and by simultaneous consent lowered the muzzles of
+their pistols--still holding them in hand.
+
+Calhoun stood, with sullen brow, gritting his teeth, like a beast of
+prey momentarily withheld from making attack upon its victim; while the
+mustanger appeared to take things as coolly as if neither angry, nor an
+Irishman.
+
+"I suppose you are determined upon fighting?" said the major, knowing
+that, there was not much chance of adjusting the quarrel.
+
+"I have no particular wish for it," modestly responded Maurice.  "If Mr
+Calhoun will apologise for what he has said, and also what he has
+done--"
+
+"He ought to do it: he began the quarrel!" suggested several of the
+bystanders.
+
+"Never!" scornfully responded the ex-captain.  "Cash Calhoun ain't
+accustomed to that sort of thing.  Apologise indeed!  And to a
+masquerading monkey like that!"
+
+"Enough!" cried the young Irishman, for the first time showing serious
+anger; "I gave him a chance for his life.  He refuses to accept it: and
+now, by the Mother of God, we don't both leave this room alive!  Major!
+I insist that you and your friends withdraw.  I can stand his insolence
+no longer!"
+
+"Ha--ha--ha!" responded the Southerner, with a yell of derisive
+laughter; "a chance for my life!  Clear out, all of ye--clear out; and
+let me at him!"
+
+"Stay!" cried the major, hesitating to turn his back upon the duellist.
+"It's not quite safe.  You may fancy to begin your game of touch-trigger
+a second too soon.  We must get out of doors before you do.  Besides,
+gentlemen!" he continued, addressing himself to those around him, "there
+should be some system about this.  If they are to fight, let it be fair
+for both sides.  Let them be armed alike; and go at it on the square!"
+
+"By all means!" chorused the half-score of spectators, turning their
+eyes towards the disputants, to see if they accepted the proposal.
+
+"Neither of you can object?" continued the major, interrogatively.
+
+"I sha'n't object to anything that's fair," assented the
+Irishman--"devil a bit!"
+
+"I shall fight with the weapon I hold in my hand," doggedly declared
+Calhoun.
+
+"Agreed! the very weapon for me!" was the rejoinder of his adversary.
+
+"I see you both carry Colt's six-shooter Number 2," said the major,
+scanning the pistols held in hand.  "So far all right! you're armed
+exactly alike."
+
+"Have they any other weapons?" inquired young Hancock, suspecting that
+under the cover of his coat the ex-captain had a knife.
+
+"I have none," answered the mustanger, with a frankness that left no
+doubt as to his speaking the truth.
+
+All eyes were turned upon Calhoun, who appeared to hesitate about making
+a reply.  He saw he must declare himself.
+
+"Of course," he said, "I have my toothpick as well.  You don't want me
+to give up that?  A man ought to be allowed to use whatever weapon he
+has got."
+
+"But, Captain Calhoun," pursued Hancock, "your adversary has no knife.
+If you are not afraid to meet him on equal terms you should surrender
+yours."
+
+"Certainly he should!" cried several of the bystanders.  "He must! he
+must!"
+
+"Come, Mr Calhoun!" said the major, in a soothing tone.  "Six shots
+ought to satisfy any reasonable man; without having recourse to the
+steel.  Before you finish firing, one or the other of you--"
+
+"Damn the knife!" interrupted Calhoun, unbuttoning his coat.  Then
+drawing forth the proscribed weapon, and flinging it to the farthest
+corner of the saloon, he added, in a tone of bravado, intended to
+encowardice his adversary.  "I sha'n't want it for such a spangled
+jay-bird as that.  I'll fetch him out of his boots at the first shot."
+
+"Time enough to talk when you've done something to justify it.  Cry boo
+to a goose; but don't fancy your big words are going to frighten me, Mr
+Calhoun!  Quick, gentlemen!  I'm impatient to put an end to his boasting
+and blasphemy!"
+
+"Hound!" frantically hissed out the chivalric Southerner.  "Low dog of
+an Irish dam!  I'll send you howling to your kennel!  I'll--"
+
+"Shame, Captain Calhoun!" interrupted the major, seconded by other
+voices.  "This talk is idle, as it is unpolite in the presence of
+respectable company.  Have patience a minute longer; and you may then
+say what you like.  Now, gentlemen!" he continued, addressing himself to
+the surrounding, "there is only one more preliminary to be arranged.
+They must engage not to begin firing till we have got out of their way?"
+
+A difficulty here presented itself.  How was the engagement to be given?
+A simple promise would scarce be sufficient in a crisis like that?  The
+combatants--one of them at least--would not be over scrupulous as to the
+time of pulling trigger.
+
+"There must be a signal," pursued the major.  "Neither should fire till
+that be given.  Can any one suggest what it is to be?"
+
+"I think.  I can," said the quiet Captain Sloman, advancing as he spoke.
+"Let the gentlemen go outside, along with us.  There is--as you
+perceive--a door at each end of the room.  I see no difference between
+them.  Let them enter again--one at each door, with the understanding
+that neither is to fire before setting foot across the threshold."
+
+"Capital! the very thing!" replied several voices.  "And what for a
+signal?" demanded the major.  "A shot?"
+
+"No.  Ring the tavern bell!"
+
+"Nothing could be better--nothing fairer," conclusively declared the
+major, making for one of the doors, that led outward into the square.
+
+"Mein Gott, major!" screamed the German Boniface, rushing out from
+behind his bar; where, up to this time, he had been standing transfixed
+with fear.  "Mein Gott--surely the shentlemens pe not going to shoot
+their pisthols inside the shaloon: Ach! they'll preak all my pottles,
+and my shplendid looking-glashes, an my crystal clock, that hash cost me
+von--two hundred dollars.  They'll shpill my pesht liquors--ach!  Major,
+it'll ruin me--mein Gott--it will!"
+
+"Never fear, Oberdoffer!" rejoined the major, pausing to reply.  "No
+doubt you'll be paid for the damage.  At all events, you had better
+betake yourself to some place of safety.  If you stay in your saloon
+you'll stand a good chance of getting a bullet through your body, and
+that would be worse than the preaking of your pottles."
+
+Without further parley the major parted from the unfortunate landlord,
+and hurried across the threshold into the street, whither the
+combatants, who had gone out by separate doors, had already preceded
+him.
+
+"Old Duffer," left standing in the middle of his sanded floor, did not
+remain long in that perilous position.  In six seconds after the major's
+coat-tail had disappeared through the outer door, an inner one closed
+upon his own skirts; and the bar-room, with its camphine lamps, its
+sparkling decanters, and its costly mirrors, was left in untenanted
+silence--no other sound being heard save the ticking of its crystal
+clock.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
+
+A DUEL WITHIN DOORS.
+
+Once outside, the major took no further part in the affair.  As the
+commanding officer of the post, it would have been out of place for him
+to have given encouragement to a fight--even by his interfering to see
+that it should be a fair one.  This, however, was attended to by the
+younger officers; who at once set about arranging the conditions of the
+duel.
+
+There was not much time consumed.  The terms had been expressed already;
+and it only remained to appoint some one of the party to superintend the
+ringing of the bell, which was to be the signal for the combat to
+commence.
+
+This was an easy matter, since it made no difference who might be
+entrusted with the duty.  A child might have sounded the summons for the
+terrible conflict that was to follow.
+
+A stranger, chancing at that moment to ride into the rude square of
+which the hotel "Rough and Ready" formed nearly a side, would have been
+sorely puzzled to comprehend what was coming to pass.  The night was
+rather dark, though there was still light enough to make known the
+presence of a conglomeration of human beings, assembled in the proximity
+of the hotel.  Most were in military garb: since, in addition to the
+officers who had lately figured inside the saloon, others, along with
+such soldiers as were permitted to pass the sentries, had hastened down
+from the Fort on receiving intelligence that something unusual was going
+on within the "square."  Women, too, but scantily robed--soldiers'
+wives, washerwomen, and "senoritas" of more questionable calling--had
+found their way into the street, and were endeavouring to extract from
+those who had forestalled them an explanation of the _fracas_.
+
+The conversation was carried on in low tones.  It was known that the
+commandant of the post was present, as well as others in authority; and
+this checked any propensity there might have been for noisy
+demonstration.
+
+The crowd, thus promiscuously collected, was not in close proximity with
+the hotel; but standing well out in the open ground, about a dozen yards
+from the building.  Towards it, however, the eyes of all were directed,
+with that steady stare which tells of the attention being fixed on some
+engrossing spectacle.  They were watching the movements of two men,
+whose positions were apart--one at each end of the heavy blockhouse,
+known to be the bar-room of the hotel; and where, as already stated,
+there was a door.
+
+Though separated by the interposition of two thick log walls, and
+mutually invisible, these men were manoeuvring as if actuated by a
+common impulse.  They stood contiguous to the entrance doors, at
+opposite ends of the bar-room, through both of which glared the light of
+the camphine lamps--falling in broad divergent bands upon the rough
+gravel outside.  Neither was in front of the contiguous entrance; but a
+little to one side, just clear of the light.  Neither was in an upright
+attitude, but crouching--not as if from fear, but like a runner about to
+make a start, and straining upon the spring.
+
+Both were looking inwards--into the saloon, where no sound could be
+heard save the ticking of a clock.  Their attitudes told of their
+readiness to enter it, and that they were only restrained by waiting for
+some preconcerted signal.
+
+That their purpose was a serious one could be deduced from several
+circumstances.  Both were in their shirt sleeves, hatless, and stripped
+of every rag that might form an impediment to action; while on their
+faces was the stamp of stern determination--alike legible in the
+attitudes they had assumed.
+
+But there was no fine reflection needed to discover their design.  The
+stranger, chancing to come into the square, could have seen at a glance
+that it was deadly.  The pistols in their hands, cocked and tightly
+clutched; the nervous energy of their attitudes; the silence of the
+crowd of spectators; and the concentrated interest with which the two
+men were regarded, proclaimed more emphatically than words, that there
+was danger in what they were doing--in short, that they were engaged in
+some sort of a strife, with death for its probable consummation!
+
+So it was at that moment when the crisis had come.  The duellists stood,
+each with eye intent upon the door, by which he was to make entrance--
+perhaps into eternity!  They only waited for a signal to cross the
+threshold; and engage in a combat that must terminate the existence of
+one or the other--perhaps both.
+
+Were they listening for that fatal formulary:--One--two--fire?
+
+No.  Another signal had been agreed upon; and it was given.
+
+A stentorian voice was heard calling out the simple monosyllable--
+
+"Ring!"
+
+Three or four dark figures could be seen standing by the shorn trunk on
+which swung the tavern bell.  The command instantly set them in motion;
+and, along with the oscillation of their arms--dimly seen through the
+darkness--could be heard the sonorous tones of a bell.  That bell, whose
+sounds had been hitherto heard only as symbols of joy--calling men
+together to partake of that which perpetuates life--was now listened to
+as a summons of death!
+
+The "ringing in" was of short duration.  The bell had made less than a
+score of vibrations, when the men engaged at the rope saw that their
+services were no longer required.  The disappearance of the duellists,
+who had rushed inside the saloon, the quick, sharp cracking of pistols;
+the shivering of broken glass, admonished the ringers that theirs was
+but a superfluous noise; and, dropping the rope, they stood like the
+rest of the crowd, listening to the conflict inside.
+
+No eyes--save those of the combatants themselves--were witnesses to that
+strange duel.
+
+At the first dong of the bell both combatants had re-entered the room.
+Neither made an attempt to skulk outside.  To have done so would have
+been a ruin to reputation.  A hundred eyes were upon them; and the
+spectators understood the conditions of the duel--that neither was to
+fire before crossing the threshold.
+
+Once inside, the conflict commenced, the first shots filling the room
+with smoke.  Both kept their feet, though both were wounded--their blood
+spurting out over the sanded floor.
+
+The second shots were also fired simultaneously, but at random, the
+smoke hindering the aim.
+
+Then came a single shot, quickly followed by another, and succeeded by
+an interval of quiet.
+
+Previous to this the combatants had been heard rushing about through the
+room.  This noise was no longer being made.
+
+Instead there was profound silence.  Had they killed one another?  Were
+both dead?  No!  Once more the double detonation announced that both
+still lived.  The suspension had been caused as they stood peering
+through the smoke in the endeavour to distinguish one another.  Neither
+spoke or stirred in fear of betraying his position.
+
+Again there was a period of tranquillity similar to the former, but more
+prolonged.
+
+It ended by another exchange of shots, almost instantly succeeded by the
+falling of two heavy bodies upon the floor.
+
+There was the sound of sprawling--the overturning of chairs--then a
+single shot--the eleventh--and this was the last that was fired!
+
+The spectators outside saw only a cloud of sulphurous smoke oozing out
+of both doors, and dimming the light of the camphine lamps.  This, with
+an occasional flash of brighter effulgence, close followed by a crack,
+was all that occurred to give satisfaction to the eye.
+
+But the ear--that was gratified by a greater variety.  There were heard
+shots--after the bell had become silent, other sounds: the sharp
+shivering of broken glass, the duller crash of falling furniture, rudely
+overturned in earnest struggle--the trampling of feet upon the boarded
+floor--at intervals the clear ringing crack of the revolvers; but
+neither of the voices of the men whose insensate passions were the cause
+of all this commotion!  The crowd in the street heard the confused
+noises, and noted the intervals of silence, without being exactly able
+to interpret them.  The reports of the pistols were all they had to
+proclaim the progress of the duel.  Eleven had been counted; and in
+breathless silence they were listening for the twelfth.
+
+Instead of a pistol report their ears were gratified by the sound of a
+voice, recognised as that of the mustanger.
+
+"My pistol is at your head!  I have one shot left--an apology, or you
+die!"
+
+By this the crowd had become convinced that the fight was approaching
+its termination.  Some of the more fearless, looking in, beheld a
+strange scene.  They saw two men lying prostrate on the plank floor;
+both with bloodstained habiliments, both evidently disabled; the white
+sand around them reddened with their gore, tracked with tortuous trails,
+where they had crawled closer to get a last shot at each other--one of
+them, in scarlet scarf and slashed velvet trousers, slightly surmounting
+the other, and holding a pistol to his head that threatened to deprive
+him of life.
+
+Such was the tableau that presented itself to the spectators, as the
+sulphurous smoke, drifted out by the current between the two doors, gave
+them a chance of distinguishing objects within the saloon.
+
+At the same instant was heard a different voice from the one which had
+already spoken.  It was Calhoun's--no longer in roistering bravado, but
+in low whining accents, almost a whisper.  "Enough, damn it!  Drop your
+shooting-iron--I apologise."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
+
+AN UNKNOWN DONOR.
+
+In Texas a duel is not even a nine days' wonder.  It oftener ceases to
+be talked about by the end of the third day; and, at the expiration of a
+week, is no longer thought of, except by the principals themselves, or
+their immediate friends and relatives.
+
+This is so, even when the parties are well known, and of respectable
+standing in society.  When the duellists are of humble position--or, as
+is often the case, strangers in the place--a single day may suffice to
+doom their achievement to oblivion; to dwell only in the memory of the
+combatant who has survived it--oftener one than both--and perhaps some
+ill-starred spectator, who has been bored by a bullet, or received the
+slash of a knife, not designed for him.
+
+More than once have I been witness to a "street fight"--improvised upon
+the pavement--where some innocuous citizen, sauntering carelessly along,
+has become the victim--even unto death--of this irregular method of
+seeking "satisfaction."
+
+I have never heard of any punishment awarded, or damages demanded, in
+such cases.  They are regarded as belonging to the "chapter of
+accidents!"
+
+Though Cassius Calhoun and Maurice Gerald were both comparatively
+strangers in the settlement--the latter being only seen on occasional
+visits to the Fort--the affair between them caused something more than
+the usual interest; and was talked about for the full period of the nine
+days, the character of the former as a noted bully, and that of the
+latter as a man of singular habitudes, gave to their duello a certain
+sort of distinction; and the merits and demerits of the two men were
+freely discussed for days after the affair had taken place nowhere with
+more earnestness than upon the spot where they had shed each other's
+blood--in the bar-room of the hotel.
+
+The conqueror had gained credit and friends.  There were few who
+favoured his adversary; and not a few who were gratified at the result
+for, short as had been the time since Calhoun's arrival, there was more
+than one saloon lounger who had felt the smart of his insolence.  For
+this it was presumed the young Irishman had administered a cure; and
+there was almost universal satisfaction at the result.
+
+How the ex-captain carried his discomfiture no one could tell.  He was
+no longer to be seen swaggering in the saloon of the "Rough and Ready;"
+though the cause of his absence was well understood.  It was not
+chagrin, but his couch; to which he was confined by wounds, that, if not
+skilfully treated, might consign him to his coffin.
+
+Maurice was in like manner compelled to stay within doors.  The injuries
+he had received, though not so severe as those of his antagonist, were
+nevertheless of such a character as to make it necessary for him to keep
+to his chamber--a small, and scantily furnished bedroom in "Old
+Duffer's" hotel; where, notwithstanding the _eclat_ derived from his
+conquest, he was somewhat scurvily treated.
+
+In the hour of his triumph, he had fainted from loss of blood.  He could
+not be taken elsewhere; though, in the shabby apartment to which he had
+been consigned, he might have thought of the luxurious care that
+surrounded the couch of his wounded antagonist.  Fortunately Phelim was
+by his side, or he might have been still worse attended to.
+
+"Be Saint Pathrick! it's a shame," half soliloquised this faithful
+follower.  "A burnin' shame to squeeze a gintleman into a hole like
+this, not bigger than a pig-stoy!  A gintleman like you, Masther
+Maurice.  An' thin such aytin' and drinkin'.  Och! a well fid Oirish pig
+wud turn up its nose at such traytment.  An' fwhat div yez think I've
+heerd Owld Duffer talkin' about below?"
+
+"I hav'n't the slightest idea, my dear Phelim; nor do I care straw to
+know what you've heard Mr Oberdoffer saying below; but if you don't
+want him to hear what you are saying above, you'll moderate your voice a
+little.  Remember, _ma bohil_, that the partitions in this place are
+only lath and plaster."
+
+"Divil take the partitions; and divil burn them, av he loikes.  Av yez
+don't care fur fwhat's sed, I don't care far fwhat's heeurd--not the
+snappin' av me fingers.  The Dutchman can't trate us any worse than he's
+been doin' already.  For all that, Masther Maurice, I thought it bist to
+lit you know."
+
+"Let me know then.  What is it he has been saying?"
+
+"Will, thin; I heerd him tellin' wan av his croneys that besoides the
+mate an the dhrink, an the washin', an lodgin', he intinded to make you
+pay for the bottles, and glasses, an other things, that was broke on the
+night av the shindy."
+
+"Me pay?"
+
+"Yis, yerself, Masther Maurice; an not a pinny charged to the Yankee.
+Now I call that downright rascally mane; an nobody but a dhirty Dutchman
+wud iver hiv thought av it.  Av there be anythin' to pay, the man that's
+bate should be made to showldor the damage, an that wasn't a discindant
+av the owld Geralds av Ballyballagh.  Hoo--hooch! wudn't I loike to
+shake a shaylaylah about Duffer's head for the matther of two minutes?
+Wudn't I?"
+
+"What reason did he give for saying that I should pay?  Did you hear him
+state any?"
+
+"I did, masther--the dhirtiest av all raisuns.  He sid that you were the
+bird in the hand; an he wud kape ye till yez sittled the score."
+
+"He'll find himself slightly mistaken about that; and would perhaps do
+better by presenting his bill to the bird in the bush.  I shall be
+willing to pay for half the damage done; but no more.  You may tell him
+so, if he speak to you about it.  And, in troth, Phelim, I don't know
+how I am to do even that.  There must have been a good many breakages.
+I remember a great deal of jingling while we were at it.  If I don't
+mistake there was a smashed mirror, or clock dial, or something of the
+kind."
+
+"A big lookin'-glass, masther; an a crystal somethin', that was set over
+the clock.  They say two hunderd dollars.  I don't belave they were
+worth wan half av the money."
+
+"Even so, it is a serious matter to me--just at this crisis.  I fear,
+Phelim, you will have to make a journey to the Alamo, and fetch away
+some of the household gods we have hidden there.  To get clear of this
+scrape I shall have to sacrifice my spurs, my silver cup, and perhaps my
+gun!"
+
+"Don't say that, masther!  How are we to live, if the gun goes?"
+
+"As we best can, _ma bohil_.  On horseflesh, I suppose: and the lazo
+will supply that."
+
+"Be Japers! it wudn't be much worse than the mate Owld Duffer sits afore
+us.  It gives me the bellyache ivery time I ate it."
+
+The conversation was here interrupted by the opening of the chamber
+door; which was done without knocking.  A slatternly servant--whose sex
+it would have been difficult to determine from outward indices--appeared
+in the doorway, with a basket of palm sinnet held extended at the
+termination of a long sinewy arm.
+
+"Fwhat is it, Gertrude?" asked Phelim, who, from some previous
+information, appeared to be acquainted with the feminine character of
+the intruder.
+
+"A shentlemans prot this."
+
+"A gentleman!  Who, Gertrude?"
+
+"Not know, mein herr; he wash a stranger shentlemans."
+
+"Brought by a gentleman.  Who can he be?  See what it in, Phelim."
+
+Phelim undid the fastenings of the lid, and exposed the interior of the
+basket.  It was one of considerable bulk: since inside were discovered
+several bottles, apparently containing wines and cordials, packed among
+a paraphernalia of sweetmeats, and other delicacies--both of the
+confectionery and the kitchen.  There was no note accompanying the
+present--not even a direction--but the trim and elegant style in which
+it was done up, proved that it had proceeded from the hands of a lady.
+
+Maurice turned over the various articles, examining each, as Phelim
+supposed, to take note of its value.  Little was he thinking of this,
+while searching for the "invoice."
+
+There proved to be none--not a scrap of paper--not so much as a _card_!
+
+The generosity of the supply--well-timed as it was--bespoke the donor to
+be some person in affluent circumstances.  Who could it be?
+
+As Maurice reflected, a fair image came uppermost in his mind; which he
+could not help connecting with that of his unknown benefactor.  Could it
+be Louise Poindexter?
+
+In spite of certain improbabilities, he was fain to believe it might;
+and, so long as the belief lasted, his heart was quivering with a sweet
+beatitude.
+
+As he continued to reflect, the improbabilities appeared too strong for
+this pleasant supposition; his faith became overturned; and there
+remained only a vague unsubstantial hope.
+
+"A gintleman lift it," spoke the Connemara man, in semi-soliloquy.  "A
+gintleman, she sez; a kind gintleman, I say!  Who div yez think he was,
+masther?"
+
+"I haven't the slightest idea; unless it may have been some of the
+officers of the Port; though I could hardly expect one of them to think
+of me in this fashion."
+
+"Nayther yez need.  It wasn't wan av them.  No officer, or gintleman
+ayther, phut them things in the basket."
+
+"Why do you think that?"
+
+"Pwhy div I think it!  Och, masther! is it yerself to ask the quistyun?
+Isn't there the smell av swate fingers about it?  Jist look at the nate
+way them papers is tied up.  That purty kreel was niver packed by the
+hand av a man.  It was done by a wuman; and I'll warrant a raal lady at
+that."
+
+"Nonsense, Phelim!  I know no lady who should take so much interest in
+me."
+
+"Aw, murdher!  What a thumpin' big fib!  I know won that shud.  It wud
+be black ungratytude av she didn't--afther what yez did for her.  Didn't
+yez save her life into the bargain?"
+
+"Of whom are you speaking?"
+
+"Now, don't be desateful, masther.  Yez know that I mane the purty
+crayther that come to the hut ridin' Spotty that you presinted her,
+widout resavin' a dollar for the mare.  If it wasn't her that sint ye
+this hamper, thin Phaylim Onale is the biggest numskull that was iver
+born about Ballyballagh.  Be the Vargin, masther, speakin' of the owld
+place phuts me in mind of its paple.  Pwhat wud the blue-eyed colleen
+say, if she knew yez were in such danger heeur?"
+
+"Danger! it's all over.  The doctor has said so; and that I may go out
+of doors in a week from this time.  Don't distress yourself about that."
+
+"Troth, masther, yez be only talkin'.  That isn't the danger I was
+drhamin' av.  Yez know will enough what I mane.  Maybe yez have resaved
+a wound from bright eyes, worse than that from lid bullets.  Or, maybe,
+somebody ilse has; an that's why ye've had the things sint ye."
+
+"You're all wrong, Phelim.  The thing must have come from the Fort; but
+whether it did, or not, there's no reason why we should stand upon
+ceremony with its contents.  So, here goes to make trial of them!"
+
+Notwithstanding the apparent relish with which the invalid partook of
+the products--both of collar and _cuisine_--while eating and drinking,
+his thoughts were occupied with a still more agreeable theme; with a
+string of dreamy conjectures, as to whom he was indebted for the
+princely present.
+
+Could it be the young Creole--the cousin of his direst enemy as well as
+his reputed sweetheart?
+
+The thing appeared improbable.
+
+If not she, who else could it be?
+
+The mustanger would have given a horse--a whole drove--to have been
+assured that Louise Poindexter was the provider of that luxurious
+refection.
+
+Two days elapsed, and the donor still remained unknown.
+
+Then the invalid was once more agreeably surprised, by a second
+present--very similar to the first--another basket, containing other
+bottles, and crammed with fresh "confections."
+
+The Bavarian wench was again questioned; but with no better result.  A
+"shentlemans" had "prot" it--the same "stranger shentlemans" as before.
+She could only add that "the shentlemans" was very "_Schwartz_," wore a
+glazed hat, and came to the tavern mounted upon a mule.
+
+Maurice did not appear to be gratified with this description of the
+unknown donor; though no one--not even Phelim--was made the confidant of
+his thoughts.
+
+In two days afterwards they were toned down to their former sobriety--on
+the receipt of a third basket, "prot by the Schwartz gentleman" in the
+glazed hat, who came mounted upon a mule.
+
+The change could not be explained by the belongings in the basket--
+almost the counterpart of what had been sent before.  It might be
+accounted for by the contents of a _billet doux_, that accompanied the
+gift--attached by a ribbon to the wickerwork of palm-sinnet.
+
+"'Tis only Isidora!" muttered the mustanger, as he glanced at the
+superscription upon the note.
+
+Then opening it with an air of indifference, he read:--
+
+"_Querido Senor_!
+
+"_Soy quedando por una semana en la casa del tio Silvio.  De questra
+desfortuna he oido--tambien que V. esta mal ciudado en la fonda.  He
+mandado algunas cositas.  Sea graciosa usarlos, coma una chiquitita
+memoria del servicio grande de que vuestra deudor estoy.  En la silla
+soy escribando, con las espuelas preparadas sacar sangre de las ijadas
+del mio cavallo.  En un momento mas, partira por el Rio Grande_.
+
+"_Bienhichor_--_de mi vida Salvador_--_y de que a una mujer esa mas
+querida, la honra_--_adios_--_adios_!
+
+"Isidora Covarubio De Los Llanos.
+
+"_Al Senor Don Mauricio Gerald_."
+
+Literally translated, and in the idiom of the Spanish language, the note
+ran thus:--
+
+"Dear Sir,--I have been staying for a week at the house of Uncle Silvio.
+Of your mischance I have heard--also, that you are indifferently cared
+for at the hotel.  I have sent you some little things.  Be good enough
+to make use of them, as a slight souvenir of the great service for which
+I am your debtor.  I write in the saddle, with my spurs ready to draw
+blood from the flanks of my horse.  In another moment I am off for the
+Rio Grande!
+
+"Benefactor--preserver of my life--of what to a woman is dearer--my
+honour--adieu! adieu!
+
+"Isidora Covarubio De Los Llanos."
+
+"Thanks--thanks, sweet Isidora!" muttered the mustanger, as he refolded
+the note, and threw it carelessly upon the coverlet of his couch.  "Ever
+grateful--considerate--kind!  But for Louise Poindexter, I might have
+loved you!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
+
+VOWS OF VENGEANCE.
+
+Calhoun, chafing in his chamber, was not the object of such assiduous
+solicitude.  Notwithstanding the luxurious appointments that surrounded
+him, he could not comfort himself with the reflection: that he was cared
+for by living creature.  Truly selfish in his own heart, he had no faith
+in friendships; and while confined to his couch--not without some fears
+that it might be his death-bed--he experienced the misery of a man
+believing that no human being cared a straw whether he should live or
+die.
+
+Any sympathy shown to him, was upon the score of relationship.  It could
+scarce have been otherwise.  His conduct towards his cousins had not
+been such as to secure their esteem; while his uncle, the proud Woodley
+Poindexter, felt towards him something akin to aversion, mingled with a
+subdued fear.
+
+It is true that this feeling was only of recent origin; and rose out of
+certain relations that existed between uncle and nephew.  As already
+hinted, they stood to one another in the relationship of debtor and
+creditor--or mortgagor and mortgagee--the nephew being the latter.  To
+such an extent had this indebtedness been carried, that Cassius Calhoun
+was in effect the real owner of Casa del Corvo; and could at any moment
+have proclaimed himself its master.
+
+Conscious of his power, he had of late been using it to effect a
+particular purpose: that is, the securing for his wife, the woman he had
+long fiercely loved--his cousin Louise.  He had come to know that he
+stood but little chance of obtaining her consent: for she had taken but
+slight pains to conceal her indifference to his suit.  Trusting to the
+peculiar influence established over her father, he had determined on
+taking no slight denial.
+
+These circumstances considered, it was not strange that the ex-officer
+of volunteers, when stretched upon a sick bed, received less sympathy
+from his relatives than might otherwise have been extended to him.
+
+While dreading, death--which for a length of time he actually did--he
+had become a little more amiable to those around him.  The agreeable
+mood, however, was of short continuance; and, once assured of recovery,
+all the natural savageness of his disposition was restored, along with
+the additional bitterness arising from his recent discomfiture.
+
+It had been the pride of his life to exhibit himself as a successful
+bully--the master of every crowd that might gather around him.  He could
+no longer claim this credit in Texas; and the thought harrowed his heart
+to its very core.
+
+To figure as a defeated man before all the women of the settlement--
+above all in the eyes of her he adored, defeated by one whom he
+suspected of being his rival in her affections--a more nameless
+adventurer--was too much to be endured with equanimity.  Even an
+ordinary man would have been pained by the infliction.  Calhoun writhed
+under it.
+
+He had no idea of enduring it, as an ordinary man would have done.  If
+he could not escape from the disgrace, he was determined to revenge
+himself upon its author; and as soon as he had recovered from the
+apprehensions entertained about the safety of his life, he commenced
+reflecting upon this very subject.
+
+Maurice, the mustanger, must die!  If not by his (Calhoun's) own hand,
+then by the hand of another, if such an one was to be found in the
+settlement.  There could not be much difficulty in procuring a
+confederate.  There are _bravoes_ upon the broad prairies of Texas, as
+well as within the walls of Italian cities.  Alas! there is no spot upon
+earth where gold cannot command the steel of the assassin.
+
+Calhoun possessed gold--more than sufficient for such a purpose; and to
+such purpose did he determine upon devoting at least a portion of it.
+
+In the solitude of his sick chamber he set about maturing his plans;
+which comprehended the assassination of the mustanger.  He did not
+purpose doing the deed himself.  His late defeat had rendered him
+fearful of chancing a second encounter with the same adversary--even
+under the advantageous circumstances of a surprise.  He had become too
+much encowardised to play the assassin.  He wanted an accomplice--an arm
+to strike for him.  Where was he to find it?
+
+Unluckily he knew, or fancied he knew, the very man.  There was a
+Mexican at the time making abode in the village--like Maurice himself--a
+mustanger; but one of those with whom the young Irishman had shown a
+disinclination to associate.
+
+As a general rule, the men of this peculiar calling are amongst the
+greatest reprobates, who have their home in the land of the "Lone Star."
+By birth and breed they are mostly Mexicans, or mongrel Indians;
+though, not unfrequently, a Frenchman, or American, finds it a congenial
+calling.  They are usually the outcasts of civilised society--oftener
+its outlaws--who, in the excitement of the chase, and its concomitant
+dangers, find, perhaps, some sort of _salvo_ for a conscience that has
+been severely tried.
+
+While dwelling within the settlements, these men are not unfrequently
+the pests of the society that surrounds them--ever engaged in broil and
+debauch; and when abroad in the exercise of their calling, they are not
+always to be encountered with safety.  More than once is it recorded in
+the history of Texas how a company of mustangers has, for the nonce,
+converted itself into a band of _cuadrilla_ of _salteadores_; or,
+disguised as Indians, levied black mail upon the train of the prairie
+traveller.
+
+One of this kidney was the individual who had become recalled to the
+memory of Cassius Calhoun.  The latter remembered having met the man in
+the bar-room of the hotel; upon several occasions, but more especially
+on the night of the duel.  He remembered that he had been one of those
+who had carried him home on the stretcher; and from some extravagant
+expressions he had made use of, when speaking of his antagonist, Calhoun
+had drawn the deduction, that the Mexican was no friend to Maurice the
+mustanger.
+
+Since then he had learnt that he was Maurice's deadliest enemy--himself
+excepted.
+
+With these data to proceed upon the ex-captain had called the Mexican to
+his counsels, and the two were often closeted together in the chamber of
+the invalid.
+
+There was nothing in all this to excite suspicion--even had Calhoun
+cared for that.  His visitor was a dealer in horses and horned cattle.
+Some transaction in horseflesh might be going on between them.  So any
+one would have supposed.  And so for a time thought the Mexican himself:
+for in their first interview, but little other business was transacted
+between them.  The astute Mississippian knew better than to declare his
+ultimate designs to a stranger; who, after completing an advantageous
+horse-trade, was well supplied with whatever he chose to drink, and
+cunningly cross-questioned as to the relations in which he stood towards
+Maurice the mustanger.
+
+In that first interview, the ex-officer volunteers learnt enough, to
+know that he might depend upon his man for any service he might
+require--even to the committal of murder.
+
+The Mexican made no secret of his heartfelt hostility to the young
+mustanger.  He did not declare the exact cause of it; but Calhoun could
+guess, by certain innuendos introduced during the conversation, that it
+was the same as that by which he was himself actuated--the same to which
+may be traced almost every quarrel that has occurred among men, from
+Troy to Texas--a woman!
+
+The Helen in this case appeared to be some dark-eyed _doncella_ dwelling
+upon the Rio Grande, where Maurice had been in the habit of making an
+occasional visit, in whose eyes he had found favour, to the disadvantage
+of her own _conpaisano_.
+
+The Mexican did not give the name; and Calhoun, as he listened to his
+explanations, only hoped in his heart that the damsel who had slighted
+him might have won the heart of his rival.
+
+During his days of convalescence, several interviews had taken place
+between the ex-captain and the intended accomplice in his purposes of
+vengeance--enough, one might suppose, to have rendered them complete.
+
+Whether they were so, or not, and what the nature of their hellish
+designs, were things known only to the brace of kindred confederates.
+The outside world but knew that Captain Cassius Calhoun and Miguel
+Diaz--known by the nickname "El Coyote," appeared to have taken a fancy
+for keeping each other's company; while the more respectable portion of
+it wondered at such an ill-starred association.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
+
+ON THE AZOTEA.
+
+There are no sluggards on a Texan plantation.  The daybreak begins the
+day; and the bell, conch, or cow-horn, that summons the dark-skinned
+proletarians to their toil, is alike the signal for their master to
+forsake his more luxurious couch.
+
+Such was the custom of Casa del Corvo under its original owners: and the
+fashion was followed by the family of the American planter--not from any
+idea of precedent, but simply in obedience to the suggestions of Nature.
+In a climate of almost perpetual spring, the sweet matutinal moments
+are not to be wasted in sleep.  The _siesta_ belongs to the hours of
+noon; when all nature appears to shrink under the smiles of the solar
+luminary--as if surfeited with their superabundance.
+
+On his reappearance at morn the sun is greeted with renewed joy.  Then
+do the tropical birds spread their resplendent plumage--the flowers
+their dew-besprinkled petals--to receive his fervent kisses.  All nature
+again seems glad, to acknowledge him as its god.
+
+Resplendent as any bird that flutters among the foliage of south-western
+Texas--fair as any flower that blooms within it--gladdest was she who
+appeared upon the housetop of Casa del Corvo.
+
+Aurora herself, rising from her roseate couch, looked not fresher than
+the young Creole, as she stood contemplating the curtains of that very
+couch, from which a Texan sun was slowly uplifting his globe of burning
+gold.
+
+She was standing upon the edge of the azotea that fronted towards the
+east; her white hand resting upon the copestone of the parapet still wet
+with the dews of the night, under her eyes was the garden, enclosed
+within a curve of the river; beyond the bluff formed by the opposite
+bank; and further still, the wide-spreading plateau of the prairie.
+
+Was she looking at a landscape, that could scarce fail to challenge
+admiration?  No.
+
+Equally was she unconscious of the ascending sun; though, like some fair
+pagan, did she appear to be in prayer at its apprising!
+
+Listened she to the voices of the birds, from garden and grove swelling
+harmoniously around her?
+
+On the contrary, her ear was not bent to catch any sound, nor her eye
+intent upon any object.  Her glance was wandering, as if her thoughts
+went not with it, but were dwelling upon some theme, neither present nor
+near.
+
+In contrast with the cheerful brightness of the sky, there was a shadow
+upon her brow; despite the joyous warbling of the birds, there was the
+sign of sadness on her cheek.
+
+She was alone.  There was no one to take note of this melancholy mood,
+nor inquire into its cause.
+
+The cause was declared in a few low murmured words, that fell, as if
+involuntarily, from her lips.
+
+"He may be dangerously wounded--perhaps even to death?"
+
+Who was the object of this solicitude so hypothetically expressed?
+
+The invalid that lay below, almost under her feet, in a chamber of the
+hacienda--her cousin Cassius Calhoun?
+
+It could scarce be he.  The doctor had the day before pronounced him out
+of danger, and on the way to quick recovery.  Any one listening to her
+soliloquy--after a time continued in the same sad tone--would have been
+convinced it was not he.
+
+"I may not send to inquire.  I dare not even ask after him.  I fear to
+trust any of our people.  He may be in some poor place--perhaps
+uncourteously treated--perhaps neglected?  Would that I could convey to
+him a message--something more--without any one being the wiser!  I
+wonder what has become of Zeb Stump?"
+
+As if some instinct whispered her, that there was a possibility of Zeb
+making his appearance, she turned her eyes towards the plain on the
+opposite side of the river--where a road led up and down.  It was the
+common highway between Fort Inge and the plantations on the lower Leona.
+It traversed the prairie at some distance from the river bank;
+approaching it only at one point, where the channel curved in to the
+base of the bluffs.  A reach of the road, of half a mile in length, was
+visible in the direction of the Fort; as also a cross-path that led to a
+ford; thence running on to the hacienda.  In the opposite direction--
+down the stream--the view was open for a like length, until the
+chapparal on both sides closing in, terminated the savanna.
+
+The young lady scanned the road leading towards Fort Inge.  Zeb Stump
+should come that way.  He was not in sight; nor was any one else.
+
+She could not feel disappointment.  She had no reason to expect him.
+She had but raised her eyes in obedience to an instinct.
+
+Something more than instinct caused her, after a time, to turn round,
+and scrutinise the plain in the opposite quarter.
+
+If expecting some one to appear that way, she was not disappointed.  A
+horse was just stepping out from among the trees, where the road
+debouched from the chapparal.  He was ridden by one, who, at first
+sight, appeared to be a man, clad in a sort of Arab costume; but who, on
+closer scrutiny, and despite the style of equitation--_a la Duchesse de
+Berri_--was unquestionably of the other sex--a lady.  There was not much
+of her face to be seen; but through the shadowy opening of the
+_rebozo_--rather carelessly _tapado_--could be traced an oval facial
+outline, somewhat brownly "complected," But with a carmine tinting upon
+the cheeks, and above this a pair of eyes whose sparkle appeared to
+challenge comparison with the brightest object either on the earth, or
+in the sky.
+
+Neither did the loosely falling folds of the lady's scarf, nor her
+somewhat _outre_ attitude in the saddle, hinder the observer from coming
+to the conclusion, that her figure was quite as attractive as her face.
+
+The man following upon the mule, six lengths of his animal in the rear,
+by his costume--as well as the respectful distance observed--was
+evidently only an attendant.
+
+"Who can that woman be?" was the muttered interrogatory of Louise
+Poindexter, as with quick action she raised the lorgnette to her eyes,
+and directed it upon the oddly apparelled figure.  "Who _can_ she be?"
+was repeated in a tone of greater deliberation, as the glass came down,
+and the naked eye was entrusted to complete the scrutiny.  "A Mexican,
+of course; the man on the mule her servant.  Some grand senora, I
+suppose?  I thought they had all gone to the other side of the Rio
+Grande.  A basket carried by the attendant.  I wonder what it contains;
+and what errand she can have to the Port--it may be the village.  'Tis
+the third time I've seen her passing within this week?  She must be from
+some of the plantations below!"
+
+What an outlandish style of riding!  _Par Dieu_!  I'm told it's not
+uncommon among the daughters of Anahuac.  What if I were to take to it
+myself?  No doubt it's much the easiest way; though if such a spectacle
+were seen in the States it would be styled unfeminine.  How our Puritan
+mammas would scream out against it!  I think I hear them.  Ha, ha, ha!
+
+The mirth thus begotten was but of momentary duration.  There came a
+change over the countenance of the Creole, quick as a drifting cloud
+darkens the disc of the sun.  It was not a return to that melancholy so
+late shadowing it; though something equally serious--as might be told by
+the sudden blanching of her cheeks.
+
+The cause could only be looked for in the movements of the scarfed
+equestrian on the other side of the river.  An antelope had sprung up,
+out of some low shrubbery growing by the roadside.  The creature
+appeared to have made its first bound from under the counter of the
+horse--a splendid animal, that, in a moment after, was going at full
+gallop in pursuit of the affrighted "pronghorn;" while his rider, with
+her rebozo suddenly flung from her face, its fringed ends streaming
+behind her back, was seen describing, with her right arm, a series of
+circular sweeps in the air!
+
+"What is the woman going to do?" was the muttered interrogatory of the
+spectator upon the house-top.  "Ha!  As I live, 'tis a lazo!"
+
+The senora was not long in giving proof of skill in the use of the
+national implement:--by flinging its noose around the antelope's neck,
+and throwing the creature in its tracks!
+
+The attendant rode up to the place where it lay struggling; dismounted
+from his mule; and, stooping over the prostrate pronghorn, appeared to
+administer the _coup de grace_.  Then, flinging the carcass over the
+croup of his saddle, he climbed back upon his mule, and spurred after
+his mistress--who had already recovered her lazo, readjusted her scarf,
+and was riding onward, as if nothing had occurred worth waiting for!
+
+It was at that moment--when the noose was seen circling in the air--that
+the shadow had reappeared upon the countenance or the Creole.  It was
+not surprise that caused it, but an emotion of a different character--a
+thought far more unpleasant.
+
+Nor did it pass speedily away.  It was still there--though a white hand
+holding the lorgnette to her eye might have hindered it from being
+seen--still there, as long as the mounted figures were visible upon the
+open road; and even after they had passed out of sight behind the
+screening of the acacias.
+
+"I wonder--oh, I wonder if it be she!  My own age, he said--not quite so
+tall.  The description suits--so far as one may judge at this distance.
+Has her home on the Rio Grande.  Comes occasionally to the Leona, to
+visit some relatives.  Who are they?  Why did I not ask him the name?
+_I wonder--oh, I wonder if it be she_!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
+
+A GIFT UNGIVEN.
+
+For some minutes after the lady of the lazo and her attendant had passed
+out of sight, Louise Poindexter pursued the train of reflection--started
+by the somewhat singular episode of which she had been spectator.  Her
+attitude, and air, of continued dejection told that her thoughts had not
+been directed into a more cheerful channel.
+
+Rather the reverse.  Once or twice before had her mind given way to
+imaginings, connected with that accomplished _equestrienne_; and more
+than once had she speculated upon her purpose in riding up the road.
+The incident just witnessed had suddenly changed her conjectures into
+suspicions of an exceedingly unpleasant nature.
+
+It was a relief to her, when a horseman appeared coming out of the
+chapparal, at the point where the others had ridden in; a still greater
+relief, when he was seen to swerve into the cross path that conducted to
+the hacienda, and was recognised, through the lorgnette, as Zeb Stump
+the hunter.
+
+The face of the Creole became bright again--almost to gaiety.  There was
+something ominous of good in the opportune appearance of the honest
+backwoodsman.
+
+"The man I was wanting to see!" she exclaimed in joyous accents.  "_He_
+can bear me a message; and perhaps tell who _she_ is.  He must have met
+her on the road.  That will enable me to introduce the subject, without
+Zeb having any suspicion of my object.  Even with him I must be
+circumspect--after what has happened.  Ah, me!  Not much should I care,
+if I were sure of _his_ caring for me.  How provoking his indifference!
+And to me--Louise Poindexter!  _Par dieu_!  Let it proceed much further,
+and I shall try to escape from the toils if--if--I should crush my poor
+heart in the attempt!"
+
+It need scarce be said that the individual, whose esteem was so coveted,
+was not Zeb Stump.
+
+Her next speech, however, was addressed to Zeb, as he reined up in front
+of the hacienda.
+
+"Dear Mr Stump!" hailed a voice, to which the old hunter delighted to
+listen.  "I'm so glad to see you.  Dismount, and come up here!  I know
+you're a famous climber, and won't mind a flight of stone stairs.
+There's a view from this housetop that will reward you for your
+trouble."
+
+"Thur's suthin' on the house-top theear," rejoined the hunter, "the view
+o' which 'ud reward Zeb Stump for climbin' to the top o' a steamboat
+chimbly; 'an thet's yurself, Miss Lewaze.  I'll kum up, soon as I ha'
+stabled the ole maar, which shall be dud in the shakin' o' a goat's
+tail.  Gee-up, ole gal!" he continued, addressing himself to the mare,
+after he had dismounted, "Hold up yur head, an may be Plute hyur 'll gie
+ye a wheen o' corn shucks for yur breakfist."
+
+"Ho--ho!  Mass 'Tump," interposed the sable coachman, making his
+appearance in the _patio_.  "Dat same do dis nigga--gub um de shucks wi'
+de yaller corn inside ob dem.  Ho--ho!  You gwup 'tairs to de young
+missa; an Plute he no 'gleck yar ole mar."
+
+"Yur a dod-rotted good sample o' a nigger, Plute; an the nix occashun I
+shows about hyur, I'll fetch you a 'possum--wi' the meat on it as tender
+as a two-year old chicken.  Thet's what I'm boun' ter do."
+
+After delivering himself of this promise, Zeb commenced ascending the
+stone stairway; not by single steps, but by two, and sometimes three, at
+a stride.
+
+He was soon upon the housetop; where he was once more welcomed by the
+young mistress of the mansion.
+
+Her excited manner, and the eagerness with which she conducted him to a
+remote part of the azotea, told the astute hunter, that he had been
+summoned thither for some other purpose than enjoying the prospect.
+
+"Tell me, Mr Stump!" said she, as she clutched the sleeve of the
+blanket coat in her delicate fingers, and looked inquiringly into Zeb's
+grey eye--"You must know all.  How is he?  Are his wounds of a dangerous
+nature?"
+
+"If you refar to Mister Cal-hoon--"
+
+"No--no--no.  I know all about him.  It's not of Mr Calhoun I'm
+speaking."
+
+"Wall, Miss Lewasse; thur air only one other as I know of in these parts
+thet hev got wownds; an thet air's Maurice the mowstanger.  Mout it be
+thet ere individooal yur inquirin' abeout?"
+
+"It is--it is!  You know I cannot be indifferent to his welfare,
+notwithstanding the misfortune of his having quarrelled with my cousin.
+You are aware that he rescued me--twice I may say--from imminent peril.
+Tell me--is he in great danger?"
+
+Such earnestness could no longer be trifled with.  Zeb without further
+parley, made reply:--
+
+"Ne'er a morsel o' danger.  Thur's a bullet-hole jest above the
+ankle-jeint.  It don't signerfy more'n the scratch o' a kitting.  Thur's
+another hev goed through the flesh o' the young fellur's left arm.  It
+don't signerfy neyther--only thet it drawed a good sup o' the red out o'
+him.  Howsomdever, he's all right now; an expecks to be out o' doors in
+a kupple o' days, or tharabout.  He sez that an hour in the seddle, an a
+skoot acrosst the purayra, 'ud do him more good than all the docters in
+Texas.  I reckon it wud; but the docter--it's the surgint o' the Fort as
+attends on him--he won't let him git to grass yit a bit."
+
+"Where is he?"
+
+"He air stayin' at the hotel--whar the skrimmage tuk place."
+
+"Perhaps he is not well waited upon?  It's a rough place, I've heard.
+He may not have any delicacies--such as an invalid stands in need of?
+Stay here, Mr Stump, till I come up to you again.  I have something I
+wish to send to him.  I know I can trust you to deliver it.  Won't you?
+I'm sure you will.  I shall be with you in six seconds."
+
+Without waiting to note the effect of her speech, the young lady tripped
+lightly along the passage, and as lightly descended the stone stairway.
+
+Presently she reappeared--bringing with her a good-sized hamper; which
+was evidently filled with eatables, with something to send them down.
+
+"Now dear old Zeb, you will take this to Mr Gerald?  It's only some
+little things that Florinda has put up; some cordials and jellies and
+the like, such as sick people at times have a craving for.  They are not
+likely to be kept in the hotel.  Don't tell _him_ where they come
+from--_neither him, nor any one else_.  You won't?  I know you won't,
+you dear good giant."
+
+"He may depend on Zeb Stump for thet, Miss Lewaze.  Nobody air a goin'
+to be a bit the wiser about who sent these hyur delekissies; though, for
+the matter o' cakes an kickshaws, an all that sort o' thing, the
+mowstanger hain't had much reezun to complain.  He hev been serplied wi'
+enuf o' them to hev filled the bellies o' a hul school o'
+shugar-babbies."
+
+"Ha!  Supplied already!  By whom?"
+
+"Wal, thet theer this chile can't inform ye, Miss Lewaze; not be-knowin'
+it hisself.  I on'y hyurd they wur fetched to the tavern in baskets, by
+some sort o' a sarving-man as air a Mexikin.  I've seed the man myself.
+Fact, I've jest this minnit met him, ridin' arter a wuman sot stridy
+legs in her seddle, as most o' these Mexikin weemen ride.  I reck'n he
+be her sarvingt, as he war keepin' a good ways ahint, and toatin' a
+basket jest like one o' them Maurice hed got arready.  Like enuf it air
+another lot o' Rickshaws they wur takin' to the tavern."
+
+There was no need to trouble Zeb Stump with further cross-questioning.
+A whole history was supplied by that single speech.  The case was
+painfully clear.  In the regard of Maurice Gerald, Louise Poindexter had
+a rival--perhaps something more.  The lady of the lazo was either his
+_fiancee_, or his mistress!
+
+It was not by accident--though to Zeb Stump it may have seemed so--that
+the hamper, steadied for a time, upon the coping of the balustrade, and
+still retained in the hand of the young Creole, escaped from her clutch,
+and fell with a crash upon the stones below.  The bottles were broken,
+and their contents spilled into the stream that surged along the
+basement of the wall.
+
+The action of the arm that produced this effect, apparently springing
+from a spasmodic and involuntary effort, was nevertheless due to design;
+and Louise Poindexter, as she leant over the parapet, and contemplated
+the ruin she had caused, felt as if her heart was shattered like the
+glass that lay glistening below!
+
+"How unfortunate!" said she, making a feint to conceal her chagrin.
+"The dainties are destroyed, I declare!  What will Florinda say?  After
+all, if Mr Gerald be so well attended to, as you say he is, he'll not
+stand in need of them.  I'm glad to hear he hasn't been neglected--one
+who has done me a service.  But, Mr Stump, you needn't say anything of
+this, or that I inquired after him.  You know his late antagonist is our
+near relative; and it might cause scandal in the settlement.  Dear Zeb,
+you promise me?"
+
+"Swa-ar it ef ye like.  Neery word, Miss Lewaze, neery word; ye kin
+depend on ole Zeb."
+
+"I know it.  Come!  The sun is growing hot up here.  Let as go down, and
+see whether we can find you such a thing as a glass of your favourite
+Monongahela.  Come!"
+
+With an assumed air of cheerfulness, the young Creole glided across the
+azotea; and, trilling the "New Orleans Waltz," once more commenced
+descending the _escalera_.
+
+In eager acceptance of the invitation, the old hunter followed close
+upon her skirts; and although, by habit, stoically indifferent to
+feminine charms--and with his thoughts at that moment chiefly bent upon
+the promised Monongahela--he could not help admiring those ivory
+shoulders brought so conspicuously under his eyes.
+
+But for a short while was he permitted to indulge in the luxurious
+spectacle.  On reaching the bottom of the stair his fair hostess bade
+him a somewhat abrupt adieu.  After the revelations he had so
+unwittingly made, his conversation seemed no longer agreeable; and she,
+late desirous of interrogating, was now contented to leave him alone
+with the Monongahela, as she hastened to hide her chagrin in the
+solitude of her chamber.
+
+For the first time in her life Louise Poindexter felt the pangs of
+jealousy.  It was her first real love: for she was in love with Maurice
+Gerald.
+
+A solicitude like that shown for him by the Mexican senora, could scarce
+spring from simple friendship?  Some closer tie must have been
+established between them?  So ran the reflections of the now suffering
+Creole.
+
+From what Maurice had said--from what she had herself seen--the lady of
+the lazo was just such a woman as should win the affections of such a
+man.  Hers were accomplishments he might naturally be expected to
+admire.
+
+Her figure had appeared perfect under the magnifying effect of the lens.
+The face had not been so fairly viewed, and was still undetermined.
+Was it in correspondence with the form?  Was it such as to secure the
+love of a man so much master of his passions, as the mustanger appeared
+to be?
+
+The mistress of Casa del Corvo could not rest, till she had satisfied
+herself on this score.  As soon as Zeb Stump had taken his departure,
+she ordered the spotted mare to be saddled; and, riding out alone, she
+sought the crossing of the river; and thence proceeded to the highway on
+the opposite side.
+
+Advancing in the direction of the Fort, as she expected, she soon
+encountered the Mexican senora on her return; no _senora_ according to
+the exact signification of the term, but a _senorita_--a young lady, not
+older than herself.
+
+At the place of their meeting, the road ran under the shadow of the
+trees.  There was no sun to require the coifing of the rebozo upon the
+crown of the Mexican equestrian.  The scarf had fallen upon her
+shoulders, laying bare a head of hair, in luxuriance rivalling the tail
+of a wild steed, in colour the plumage of a crow.  It formed the framing
+of a face, that, despite a certain darkness of complexion, was
+charmingly attractive.
+
+Good breeding permitted only a glance at it in passing; which was
+returned by a like courtesy on the part of the stranger.  But as the two
+rode on, back to back, going in opposite directions, neither could
+restrain herself from turning round in the saddle, and snatching a
+second glance at the other.
+
+Their reflections were not very dissimilar: if Louise Poindexter had
+already learnt something of the individual thus encountered, the latter
+was not altogether ignorant of _her_ existence.
+
+We shall not attempt to portray the thoughts of the senorita consequent
+on that encounter.  Suffice it to say, that those of the Creole were
+even more sombre than when she sallied forth on that errand of
+inspection; and that the young mistress of Casa del Corvo rode back to
+the mansion, all the way seated in her saddle in an attitude that
+betokened the deepest dejection.
+
+"Beautiful!" said she, after passing her supposed rival upon the road.
+"Yes; too beautiful to be his friend!"
+
+Louise was speaking to her own conscience; or she might have been more
+chary of her praise.
+
+"I cannot have any doubt," continued she, "of the relationship that
+exists between them--He loves her!--he loves her!  It accounts for his
+cold indifference to me?  I've been mad to risk my heart's happiness in
+such an ill-starred entanglement!
+
+"And now to disentangle it!  Now to banish him from my thoughts!  Ah!
+'tis easily said!  Can I?"
+
+"I shall see him no more.  That, at least, is possible.  After what has
+occurred, he will not come to our house.  We can only meet by accident;
+and that accident I must be careful to avoid.  Oh, Maurice Gerald! tamer
+of wild steeds! you have subdued a spirit that may suffer long--perhaps
+never recover from the lesson!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
+
+STILL ON THE AZOTEA.
+
+To banish from the thoughts one who has been passionately loved is a
+simple impossibility.  Time may do much to subdue the pain of an
+unreciprocated passion, and absence more.  But neither time, nor
+absence, can hinder the continued recurrence of that longing for the
+lost loved one--or quiet the heart aching with that void that has never
+been satisfactorily filled.
+
+Louise Poindexter had imbibed a passion that could not be easily
+stifled.  Though of brief existence, it had been of rapid growth--
+vigorously overriding all obstacles to its indulgence.  It was already
+strong enough to overcome such ordinary scruples as parental consent, or
+the inequality of rank; and, had it been reciprocated, neither would
+have stood in the way, so far as she herself was concerned.  For the
+former, she was of age; and felt--as most of her countrywomen do--
+capable of taking care of herself.  For the latter, who ever really
+loved that cared a straw for class, or caste?  Love has no such meanness
+in its composition.  At all events, there was none such in the passion
+of Louise Poindexter.
+
+It could scarce be called the first illusion of her life.  It was,
+however, the first, where disappointment was likely to prove dangerous
+to the tranquillity of her spirit.
+
+She was not unaware of this.  She anticipated unhappiness for a while--
+hoping that time would enable her to subdue the expected pain.
+
+At first, she fancied she would find a friend in her own strong will;
+and another in the natural buoyancy of her spirit.  But as the days
+passed, she found reason to distrust both: for in spite of both, she
+could not erase from her thoughts the image of the man who had so
+completely captivated her imagination.
+
+There were times when she hated him, or tried to do so--when she could
+have killed him, or seen him killed, without making an effort to save
+him!  They were but moments; each succeeded by an interval of more
+righteous reflection, when she felt that the fault was hers alone, as
+hers only the misfortune.
+
+_No_ matter for this.  It mattered not if he had been her enemy--the
+enemy of all mankind.  If Lucifer himself--to whom in her wild fancy she
+had once likened him--she would have loved him all the same!
+
+And it would have proved nothing abnormal in her disposition--nothing to
+separate her from the rest of womankind, all the world over.  In the
+mind of man, or woman either, there is no connection between the _moral_
+and the _passional_.  They are as different from each other as fire from
+water.  They may chance to run in the same channel; but they may go
+diametrically opposite.  In other words, we may love the very being we
+hate--ay, the one we despise!
+
+Louise Poindexter could neither hate, nor despise, Maurice Gerald.  She
+could only endeavour to feel indifference.
+
+It was a vain effort, and ended in failure.  She could not restrain
+herself from ascending to the azotea, and scrutinising the road where
+she had first beheld the cause of her jealousy.  Each day, and almost
+every hour of the day, was the ascent repeated.
+
+Still more.  Notwithstanding her resolve, to avoid the accident of an
+encounter with the man who had made her miserable, she was oft in the
+saddle and abroad, scouring the country around--riding through the
+streets of the village--with no other object than to meet him.
+
+During the three days that followed that unpleasant discovery, once
+again had she seen--from the housetop as before--the lady of the lazo
+_en route_ up the road, as before accompanied by her attendant with the
+pannier across his arm--that Pandora's box that had bred such mischief
+in her mind--while she herself stood trembling with jealousy--envious of
+the other's errand.
+
+She knew more now, though not much.  Only had she learnt the name and
+social standing of her rival.  The Dona Isidora Covarubio de los
+Llanos--daughter of a wealthy haciendado, who lived upon the Rio Grande,
+and niece to another whose estate lay upon the Leona, a mile beyond the
+boundaries of her father's new purchase.  An eccentric young lady, as
+some thought, who could throw a lazo, tame a wild steed, or anything
+else excepting her own caprices.
+
+Such was the character of the Mexican senorita, as known to the American
+settlers on the Leona.
+
+A knowledge of it did not remove the jealous suspicions of the Creole.
+On the contrary, it tended to confirm them.  Such practices were her own
+predilections.  She had been created with an instinct to admire them.
+She supposed that others must do the same.  The young Irishman was not
+likely to be an exception.
+
+There was an interval of several days--during which the lady of the lazo
+was not seen again.
+
+"He has recovered from his wounds?" reflected the Creole.  "He no longer
+needs such unremitting attention."
+
+She was upon the azotea at the moment of making this reflection--
+lorgnette in hand, as she had often been before.
+
+It was in the morning, shortly after sunrise: the hour when the Mexican
+had been wont to make her appearance.  Louise had been looking towards
+the quarter whence the senorita might have been expected to come.
+
+On turning her eyes in the opposite direction, she beheld--that which
+caused her something more than surprise.  She saw Maurice Gerald,
+mounted on horseback, and riding down the road!
+
+Though seated somewhat stiffly in the saddle, and going at a slow pace,
+it was certainly he.  The glass declared his identity; at the same time
+disclosing the fact, that his left arm was suspended in a sling.
+
+On recognising him, she shrank behind the parapet--as she did so, giving
+utterance to a suppressed cry.
+
+Why that anguished utterance?  Was it the sight of the disabled arm, or
+the pallid face: for the glass had enabled her to distinguish both?
+
+Neither one nor the other.  Neither could be a cause of surprise.
+Besides, it was an exclamation far differently intoned to those of
+either pity or astonishment.  It was an expression of sorrow, that had
+for its origin some heartfelt chagrin.
+
+The invalid was convalescent.  He no longer needed to be visited by his
+nurse.  He was on the way to visit _her_!
+
+Cowering behind the parapet--screened by the flower-spike of the
+_yucca_--Louise Poindexter watched the passing horseman.  The lorgnette
+enabled her to note every movement made by him--almost to the play of
+his features.
+
+She felt some slight gratification on observing that he turned his face
+at intervals and fixed his regard upon Casa del Corvo.  It was
+increased, when on reaching a copse, that stood by the side of the road,
+and nearly opposite the house, he reined up behind the trees, and for a
+long time remained in the same spot, as if reconnoitring the mansion.
+
+She almost conceived a hope, that he might be thinking of its mistress!
+
+It was but a gleam of joy, departing like the sunlight under the certain
+shadow of an eclipse.  It was succeeded by a sadness that might be
+appropriately compared to such shadow: for to her the world at that
+moment seemed filled with gloom.
+
+Maurice Gerald had ridden on.  He had entered the chapparal; and become
+lost to view with the road upon which he was riding.
+
+Whither was he bound?  Whither, but to visit Dona Isidora Covarubio de
+los Llanos?
+
+It mattered not that he returned within less than an hour.  They might
+have met in the woods--within eyeshot of that jealous spectator--but for
+the screening of the trees.  An hour was sufficient interview--for
+lovers, who could every day claim unrestricted indulgence.
+
+It mattered not, that in passing upwards he again cast regards towards
+Casa del Corvo; again halted behind the copse, and passed some time in
+apparent scrutiny of the mansion.
+
+It was but mockery--or exultation.  He might well feel triumphant; but
+why should he be cruel, with kisses upon his lips--the kisses he had
+received from the Dona Isidora Covarubio de los Llanos?
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
+
+I LOVE YOU!--I LOVE YOU!
+
+Louise Poindexter upon the azotea again--again to be subjected to a
+fresh chagrin!  That broad stone stairway trending up to the housetop,
+seemed to lead only to spectacles that gave her pain.  She had mentally
+vowed no more to ascend it--at least for a long time.  Something
+stronger than her strong will combatted--and successfully--the keeping
+of that vow.  It was broken ere the sun of another day had dried the dew
+from the grass of the prairie.
+
+As on the day before, she stood by the parapet scanning the road on the
+opposite side of the river; as before, she saw the horseman with the
+slung arm ride past; as before, she crouched to screen herself from
+observation.
+
+He was going downwards, as on the day preceding.  In like manner did he
+cast long glances towards the hacienda, and made halt behind the clump
+of trees that grew opposite.
+
+Her heart fluttered between hope and fear.  There was an instant when
+she felt half inclined to show herself.  Fear prevailed; and in the next
+instant he was gone.
+
+Whither?
+
+The self-asked interrogatory was but the same as of yesterday.  It met
+with a similar response.
+
+Whither, if not to meet Dona Isidora Covarubio de los Llanos?
+
+Could there be a doubt of it?
+
+If so, it was soon to be determined.  In less than twenty minutes after,
+a parded steed was seen upon the same road--and in the same direction--
+with a lady upon its back.
+
+The jealous heart of the Creole could hold out no longer.  No truth
+could cause greater torture than she was already suffering through
+suspicion.  She had resolved on assuring herself, though the knowledge
+should prove fatal to the last faint remnant of her hopes.
+
+She entered the chapparal where the mustanger had ridden in scarce
+twenty minutes before.  She rode on beneath the flitting shadows of the
+acacias.  She rode in silence upon the soft turf--keeping close to the
+side of the path, so that the hoof might not strike against stones.  The
+long pinnate fronds, drooping down to the level of her eyes, mingled
+with the plumes in her hat.  She sate her saddle crouchingly, as if to
+avoid being observed--all the while with earnest glance scanning the
+open space before her.
+
+She reached the crest of a hill which commanded a view beyond.  There
+was a house in sight surrounded by tall trees.  It might have been
+termed a mansion.  It was the residence of Don Silvio Martinez, the
+uncle of Dona Isidora.  So much had she learnt already.
+
+There were other houses to be seen upon the plain below; but on this
+one, and the road leading to it, the eyes of the Creole became fixed in
+a glance of uneasy interrogation.
+
+For a time she continued her scrutiny without satisfaction.  No one
+appeared either at the house, or near it.  The private road leading to
+the residence of the haciendado, and the public highway, were alike
+without living forms.  Some horses were straying over the pastures; but
+not one with a rider upon his back.
+
+Could the lady have ridden out to meet him, or Maurice gone in?
+
+Were they at that moment in the woods, or within the walls of the house?
+If the former, was Don Silvio aware of it?  If the latter, was he at
+home--an approving party to the assignation?
+
+With such questions was the Creole afflicting herself, when the neigh of
+a horse broke abruptly on her ear, followed by the chinking of a shod
+hoof against the stones of the causeway.  She looked below: for she had
+halted upon the crest, a steep acclivity.  The mustanger was ascending
+it--riding directly towards her.  She might have seen him sooner, had
+she not been occupied with the more distant view.
+
+He was alone, as he had ridden past Casa del Corvo.  There was nothing
+to show that he had recently been in company--much less in the company
+of an _inamorata_.
+
+It was too late for Louise to shun him.  The spotted mustang had replied
+to the salutation of an old acquaintance.  Its rider was constrained to
+keep her ground, till the mustanger came up.
+
+"Good day, Miss Poindexter?" said he--for upon the prairies it is _not_
+etiquette for the lady to speak first.  "Alone?"
+
+"Alone, sir.  And why not?"
+
+"'Tis a solitary ride among the chapparals.  But true: I think I've
+heard you say you prefer that sort of thing?"
+
+"You appear to like it yourself, Mr Gerald.  To you, however, it is not
+so solitary, I presume?"
+
+"In faith I do like it; and just for that very reason.  I have the
+misfortune to live at a tavern, or `hotel,' as mine host is pleased to
+call it; and one gets so tired of the noises--especially an invalid, as
+I have the bad luck to be--that a ride along this quiet road is
+something akin to luxury.  The cool shade of these acacias--which the
+Mexicans have vulgarised by the name of _mezquites_--with the breeze
+that keeps constantly circulating through their fan-like foliage, would
+invigorate the feeblest of frames.  Don't you think so, Miss
+Poindexter?"
+
+"You should know best, sir," was the reply vouchsafed, after some
+seconds of embarrassment.  "You, who have so often tried it."
+
+"Often!  I have been only twice down this road since I have been able to
+sit in my saddle.  But, Miss Poindexter, may I ask how you knew that I
+have been this way at all?"
+
+"Oh!" rejoined Louise, her colour going and coming as she spoke, "how
+could I help knowing it?  I am in the habit of spending much time on the
+housetop.  The view, the breeze, the music of the birds, ascending from
+the garden below, makes it a delightful spot--especially in the cool of
+the morning.  Our roof commands a view of this road.  Being up there,
+how could I avoid seeing you as you passed--that is, so long as you were
+not under _the shade of the acacias_?"
+
+"You saw me, then?" said Maurice, with an embarrassed air, which was not
+caused by the innuendo conveyed in her last words--which he could not
+have comprehended--but by a remembrance of how he had himself behaved
+while riding along the reach of open road.
+
+"How could I help it?" was the ready reply.  "The distance is scarce six
+hundred yards.  Even a lady, mounted upon a steed much smaller than
+yours, was sufficiently conspicuous to be identified.  When I saw her
+display her wonderful skill, by strangling a poor little antelope with
+her lazo, I knew it could be no other than she whose accomplishments you
+were so good as to give me an account of."
+
+"Isidora?"
+
+"Isidora!"
+
+"Ah; true!  She has been here for some time."
+
+"And has been very kind to Mr Maurice Gerald?"
+
+"Indeed, it is true.  She has been very kind; though I have had no
+chance of thanking her.  With all her friendship for poor me, she is a
+great hater of us foreign invaders; and would not condescend to step
+over the threshold of Mr Oberdoffer's hotel."
+
+"Indeed!  I suppose she preferred meeting you under the _shade of the
+acacias_!"
+
+"I have not met her at all; at least, not for many months; and may not
+for months to come--now that she has gone back to her home on the Rio
+Grande."
+
+"Are you speaking the truth, sir?  You have not seen her since--she is
+gone away from the house of her uncle?"
+
+"She has," replied Maurice, exhibiting surprise.  "Of course, I have not
+seen her.  I only knew she was here by her sending me some delicacies
+while I was ill.  In truth, I stood in need of them.  The hotel
+_cuisine_ is none of the nicest; nor was I the most welcome of Mr
+Oberdoffer's guests.  The Dona Isidora has been but too grateful for the
+slight service I once did her."
+
+"A service!  May I ask what it was, Mr Gerald?"
+
+"Oh, certainly.  It was merely a chance.  I had the opportunity of being
+useful to the young lady, in once rescuing her from some rude Indians--
+Wild Oat and his Seminoles--into whose hands she had fallen, while
+making a journey from the Rio Grande to visit her uncle on the Leona--
+Don Silvio Martinez, whose house you can see from here.  The brutes had
+got drunk; and were threatening--not exactly her life--though that was
+in some danger, but--well, the poor girl was in trouble with them, and
+might have had some difficulty in getting away, had I not chanced to
+ride up."
+
+"A slight service, you call it?  You are modest in your estimate, Mr
+Gerald.  A man who should do that much for _me_!"
+
+"What would you do for _him_?" asked the mustanger, placing a
+significant emphasis on the final word.
+
+"I should _love_ him," was the prompt reply.
+
+"Then," said Maurice, spurring his horse close up to the side of the
+spotted mustang, and whispering into the ear of its rider, with an
+earnestness strangely contrasting to his late reticence, "I would give
+half my life to see you in the hands of Wild Cat and his drunken
+comrades--the other half to deliver you from the danger."
+
+"Do you mean this, Maurice Gerald?  Do not trifle with me: I am not a
+child.  Speak the truth!  Do you mean it?"
+
+"I do!  As heaven is above me, I do!"
+
+The sweetest kiss I ever had in my life, was when a woman--a fair
+creature, in the hunting field--leant over in her saddle and kissed me
+as I sate in mine.
+
+The fondest embrace ever received by Maurice Gerald, was that given by
+Louise Poindexter; when, standing up in her stirrup, and laying her hand
+upon his shoulder, she cried in an agony of earnest passion--
+
+"_Do with me as thou wilt: I love you, I love you_!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.
+
+A PLEASURE FORBIDDEN.
+
+Ever since Texas became the scene of an Anglo-Saxon immigration--I might
+go a century farther back and say, from the time of its colonisation by
+the descendants of the Conquistadores--the subject of primary importance
+has been the disposition of its aborigines.
+
+Whether these, the lawful lords of the soil, chanced to be in a state of
+open war--or whether, by some treaty with the settlers they were
+consenting to a temporary peace--made but slight difference, so far as
+they were talked about.  In either case they were a topic of daily
+discourse.  In the former it related to the dangers to be hourly
+apprehended from them; in the latter, to the probable duration of such
+treaty as might for the moment be binding them to hold their tomahawks
+entombed.
+
+In Mexican times these questions formed the staple of conversation, at
+_desayuno, almuerzo, comida, y cena_; in American times, up to this
+present hour, they have been the themes of discussion at the breakfast,
+dinner, and supper tables.  In the planter's piazza, as in the hunter's
+camp, bear, deer, cougar, and peccary, are not named with half the
+frequency, or half the fear-inspiring emphasis, allotted to the word
+"Indian."  It is this that scares the Texan child instead of the
+stereotyped nursery ghost, keeping it awake upon its moss-stuffed
+mattress--disturbing almost as much the repose of its parent.
+
+Despite the surrounding of strong walls--more resembling those of a
+fortress than a gentleman's dwelling--the inmates of Casa del Corvo were
+not excepted from this feeling of apprehension, universal along the
+frontier.  As yet they knew little of the Indians, and that little only
+from report; but, day by day, they were becoming better acquainted with
+the character of this natural "terror" that interfered with the slumbers
+of their fellow settlers.
+
+That it was no mere "bogie" they had begun to believe; but if any of
+them remained incredulous, a note received from the major commanding the
+Fort--about two weeks after the horse-hunting expedition--was calculated
+to cure them of their incredulity.  It came in the early morning,
+carried by a mounted rifleman.  It was put into the hands of the planter
+just as he was about sitting down to the breakfast-table, around which
+were assembled the three individuals who composed his household--his
+daughter Louise, his son Henry, and his nephew Cassius Calhoun.
+
+"Startling news!" he exclaimed, after hastily reading, the note.  "Not
+very pleasant if true; and I suppose there can be no doubt of that,
+since the major appears convinced."
+
+"Unpleasant news, papa?" asked his daughter, a spot of red springing to
+her cheek as she put the question.
+
+The spoken interrogatory was continued by others, not uttered aloud.
+
+"What can the major have written to him?  I met him yesterday while
+riding in the chapparal.  He saw me in company with--Can it be that?
+_Mon Dieu_! if father should hear it--"
+
+"`The Comanches on the war trail'--so writes the major."
+
+"Oh, that's all!" said Louise, involuntarily giving voice to the phrase,
+as if the news had nothing so very fearful in it.  "You frightened us,
+sir.  I thought it was something worse."
+
+"Worse!  What trifling, child, to talk so!  There is nothing worse, in
+Texas, than Comanches on the war trail--nothing half so dangerous."
+
+Louise might have thought there was--a danger at least as difficult to
+be avoided.  Perhaps she was reflecting upon a pursuit of wild steeds--
+or thinking of the _trail of a lazo_.
+
+She made no reply.  Calhoun continued the conversation.
+
+"Is the major sure of the Indians being up?  What does he say, uncle?"
+
+"That there have been rumours of it for some days past, though not
+reliable.  Now it is certain.  Last night Wild Cat, the Seminole chief,
+came to the Fort with a party of his tribe; bringing the news that the
+painted pole has been erected in the camps of the Comanches all over
+Texas, and that the war dance has been going on for more than a month.
+That several parties are already out upon the maraud, and may be looked
+for among the settlements at any moment."
+
+"And Wild Cat himself--what of him?" asked Louise, an unpleasant
+reminiscence suggesting the inquiry.  "Is that renegade Indian to be
+trusted, who appears to be as much an enemy to the whites as to the
+people of his own race?"
+
+"Quite true, my daughter.  You have described the chief of the Seminoles
+almost in the same terms as I find him spoken of, in a postscript to the
+major's letter.  He counsels us to beware of the two-faced old rascal,
+who will be sure to take sides with the Comanches, whenever it may suit
+his convenience to do so."
+
+"Well," continued the planter, laying aside the note, and betaking
+himself to his coffee and waffles, "I trust we sha'n't see any redskins
+here--either Seminoles or Comanches.  In making their marauds, let us
+hope they will not like the look of the crenelled parapets of Casa del
+Corvo, but give the hacienda a wide berth."
+
+Before any one could respond, a sable face appearing at the door of the
+dining-room--which was the apartment in which breakfast was being
+eaten--caused a complete change in the character of the conversation.
+
+The countenance belonged to Pluto, the coachman.
+
+"What do you want, Pluto?" inquired his owner.
+
+"Ho, ho!  Massr Woodley, dis chile want nuffin 't all.  Only look in t'
+tell Missa Looey dat soon's she done eat her brekfass de spotty am unner
+de saddle, all ready for chuck de bit into him mouf.  Ho! ho! dat
+critter do dance 'bout on de pave stone as ef it wa' mad to 'treak it
+back to de smoove tuff ob de praira."
+
+"Going out for a ride, Louise?" asked the planter with a shadow upon his
+brow, which he made but little effort to conceal.
+
+"Yes, papa; I was thinking of it."
+
+"You must not."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"I mean, that you must not ride out _alone_.  It is not proper."
+
+"Why do you think so, papa?  I have often ridden out alone."
+
+"Yes; perhaps too often."
+
+This last remark brought the slightest tinge of colour to the cheeks of
+the young Creole; though she seemed uncertain what construction she was
+to put upon it.
+
+Notwithstanding its ambiguity, she did not press for an explanation.  On
+the contrary, she preferred shunning it; as was shown by her reply.
+
+"If you think so, papa, I shall not go out again.  Though to be cooped
+up here, in this dismal dwelling, while you gentlemen are all abroad
+upon business--is that the life you intend me to lead in Texas?"
+
+"Nothing of the sort, my daughter.  I have no objection to your riding
+out as much as you please; but Henry must be with you, or your cousin
+Cassius.  I only lay an embargo on your going alone.  I have my
+reasons."
+
+"Reasons!  What are they?"
+
+The question came involuntarily to her lips.  It had scarce passed them,
+ere she regretted having asked it.  By her uneasy air it was evident she
+had apprehensions as to the answer.
+
+The reply appeared partially to relieve her.
+
+"What other reasons do you want," said the planter, evidently
+endeavouring to escape from the suspicion of duplicity by the Statement
+of a convenient fact--"what better, than the contents of this letter
+from the major?  Remember, my child, you are not in Louisiana, where a
+lady may travel anywhere without fear of either insult or outrage; but
+in Texas, where she may dread both--where even her life may be in
+danger.  Here there are Indians."
+
+"My excursions don't extend so far from the house, that I need have any
+fear of Indians.  I never go more than five miles at the most."
+
+"Five miles!" exclaimed the ex-officer of volunteers, with a sardonic
+smile; "you would be as safe at fifty, cousin Loo.  You are just as
+likely to encounter the redskins within a hundred yards of the door, as
+at the distance of a hundred miles.  When they are on the war trail they
+may be looked for anywhere, and at any time.  In my opinion, uncle
+Woodley is rights you are very foolish to ride out alone."
+
+"Oh! _you_ say so?" sharply retorted the young Creole, turning
+disdainfully towards her cousin.  "And pray, sir, may I ask of what
+service your company would be to me in the event of my encountering the
+Comanches, which I don't believe there's the slightest danger of my
+doing?  A pretty figure we'd cut--the pair of us--in the midst of a
+war-party of painted savages!  Ha! ha!  The danger would be yours, not
+mine: since I should certainly ride away, and leave you to your own
+devices.  Danger, indeed, within five miles of the house!  If there's a
+horseman in Texas--savages not excepted--who can catch up with my little
+Luna in a five mile stretch, he must ride a swift steed; which is more
+than you do, Mr Cash!"
+
+"Silence, daughter!" commanded Poindexter.  "Don't let me hear you talk
+in that absurd strain.  Take no notice of it, nephew.  Even if there
+were no danger from Indians, there are other outlaws in these parts
+quite as much to be shunned as they.  Enough that I forbid you to ride
+abroad, as you have of late been accustomed to do."
+
+"Be it as you will, papa," rejoined Louise, rising from the
+breakfast-table, and with an air of resignation preparing to leave the
+room.  "Of course I shall obey you--at the risk of losing my health for
+want of exercise.  Go, Pluto!" she added, addressing herself to the
+darkey, who still stood grinning in the doorway, "turn Luna loose into
+the corral--the pastures--anywhere.  Let her stray back to her native
+prairies, if the creature be so inclined; she's no longer needed here."
+
+With this speech, the young lady swept out of the _sala_, leaving the
+three gentlemen, who still retained their seats by the table, to reflect
+upon the satire intended to be conveyed by her words.
+
+They were not the last to which she gave utterance in that same series.
+As she glided along the corridor leading to her own chamber, others, low
+murmured, mechanically escaped from her lips.  They were in the shape of
+interrogatories--a string of them self-asked, and only to be answered by
+conjecture.
+
+"What can papa have heard?  Is it but his suspicions?  Can any one have
+told him?  Does he knew that we have met?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.
+
+EL COYOTE AT HOME.
+
+Calhoun took his departure from the breakfast-table, almost as abruptly
+as his cousin; but, on leaving the _sala_ instead of returning to his
+own chamber, he sallied forth from the house.
+
+Still suffering from wounds but half healed, he was nevertheless
+sufficiently convalescent to go abroad--into the garden, to the stables,
+the corrals--anywhere around the house.
+
+On the present occasion, his excursion was intended to conduct him to a
+more distant point.  As if under the stimulus of what had turned up in
+the conversation--or perhaps by the contents of the letter that had been
+read--his feebleness seemed for the time to have forsaken him; and,
+vigorously plying his crutch, he proceeded up the river in the direction
+of Fort Inge.
+
+In a barren tract of land, that lay about half way between the hacienda
+and the Fort--and that did not appear to belong to any one--he arrived
+at the terminus of his limping expedition.  There was a grove of
+_mezquit_, with, some larger trees shading it; and in the midst of this,
+a rude hovel of "wattle and dab," known in South-Western Texas as a
+_jacale_.
+
+It was the domicile of Miguel Diaz, the Mexican mustanger--a lair
+appropriate to the semi-savage who had earned for himself the
+distinctive appellation of _El Coyote_ ("Prairie Wolf.")
+
+It was not always that the wolf could be found in his den--for his
+_jacale_ deserved no better description.  It was but his occasional
+sleeping-place; during those intervals of inactivity when, by the
+disposal of a drove of captured mustangs, he could afford to stay for a
+time within the limits of the settlement, indulging in such gross
+pleasures as its proximity afforded.
+
+Calhoun was fortunate in finding him at home; though not quite so
+fortunate as to find him in a state of sobriety.  He was not exactly
+intoxicated--having, after a prolonged spell of sleep, partially
+recovered from this, the habitual condition of his existence.
+
+"_H'la nor_!" he exclaimed in his provincial patois, slurring the
+salutation, as his visitor darkened the door of the _jacale_.  "_P'r
+Dios_!  Who'd have expected to see you?  _Sientese_!  Be seated.  Take a
+chair.  There's one.  A chair!  Ha! ha! ha!"
+
+The laugh was called up at contemplation of that which he had
+facetiously termed a chair.  It was the skull of a mustang, intended to
+serve as such; and which, with another similar piece, a rude table of
+cleft yucca-tree, and a couch of cane reeds, upon which the owner of the
+_jacale_ was reclining, constituted the sole furniture of Miguel Diaz's
+dwelling.
+
+Calhoun, fatigued with his halting promenade, accepted the invitation of
+his host, and sate down upon the horse-skull.
+
+He did not permit much time to pass, before entering upon the object of
+his errand.
+
+"Senor Diaz!" said he, "I have come for--"
+
+"Senor Americano!" exclaimed the half-drunken horse-hunter, cutting
+short the explanation, "why waste words upon that?  _Carrambo_!  I know
+well enough for what you've come.  You want me to _wipe out_ that
+devilish _Irlandes_!"
+
+"Well!"
+
+"Well; I promised you I would do it, for five hundred _pesos_--at the
+proper time and opportunity.  I will.  Miguel Diaz never played false to
+his promise.  But the time's not come, _nor capitan_; nor yet the
+opportunity, _Carajo_!  To kill a man outright requires skill.  It can't
+be done--even on the prairies--without danger of detection; and if
+detected, ha! what chance for me?  You forget, _nor capitan_, that I'm a
+Mexican.  If I were of your people, I might slay Don Mauricio; and get
+clear on the score of its being a quarrel.  _Maldita_!  With us Mexicans
+it is different.  If we stick our machete into a man so as to let out
+his life's blood, it is called murder; and you Americanos, with your
+stupid juries of twelve _honest_ men, would pronounce it so: ay, and
+hang a poor fellow for it.  _Chingaro_!  I can't risk that.  I hate the
+Irlandes as much as you; but I'm not going to chop off my nose to spite
+my own face.  I must wait for the time, and the chance--_carrai_, the
+time and the chance."
+
+"Both are come!" exclaimed the tempter, bending earnestly towards the
+bravo.  "You said you could easily do it, if there was any Indian
+trouble going on?"
+
+"Of course I said so.  If there was that--"
+
+"You have not heard the news, then?"
+
+"What news?"
+
+"That the Comanches are starting on the war trail."
+
+"_Carajo_!" exclaimed El Coyote, springing up from his couch of reeds,
+and exhibiting all the activity of his namesake, when roused by the
+scent of prey.  "_Santissima Virgen_!  Do you speak the truth, _nor
+capitan_?"
+
+"Neither more nor less.  The news has just reached the Fort.  I have it
+on the best authority--the officer in command."
+
+"In that case," answered the Mexican reflecting!--"in that case, Don
+Mauricio may die.  The Comanches can kill him.  Ha! ha! ha!"
+
+"You are sure of it?"
+
+"I should be surer, if his scalp were worth a thousand dollars, instead
+of five hundred."
+
+"It _is_ worth that sum."
+
+"What sum?"
+
+"A thousand dollars."
+
+"You promise it?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Then the Comanches _shall_ scalp him, _nor capitan_.  You may return to
+Casa del Corvo, and go to sleep with confidence that whenever the
+opportunity arrives, your enemy will lose his hair.  You understand?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Get ready your thousand _pesos_."
+
+"They wait your acceptance."
+
+"_Carajo_!  I shall earn them in a trice.  Adios!  Adios!"
+
+"_Santissima Virgen_!" exclaimed the profane ruffian, as his visitor
+limped out of sight.  "What a magnificent fluke of fortune!  A perfect
+_chiripe_.  A thousand dollars for killing the man I intended to kill on
+my own account, without charging anybody a single _claco_ for the deed!
+
+"The Comanches upon the war trail!  _Chingaro_! can it be true?  If so,
+I must look up my old disguise--gone to neglect through these three long
+years of accursed peace.  _Viva la guerra de los Indios_!  Success to
+the pantomime of the prairies!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY.
+
+A SAGITTARY CORRESPONDENCE.
+
+Louise Poindexter, passionately addicted to the sports termed "manly,"
+could scarce have overlooked archery.
+
+She had not.  The how, and its adjunct the arrow, were in her hands as
+toys which she could control to her will.
+
+She had been instructed in their _manege_ by the Houma Indians; a
+remnant of whom--the last descendants of a once powerful tribe--may
+still be encountered upon the "coast" of the Mississippi, in the
+proximity of Point Coupe and the _bayou_ Atchafalaya.
+
+For a long time her bow had lain unbent--unpacked, indeed, ever since it
+had formed part of the paraphernalia brought overland in the waggon
+train.  Since her arrival at Casa del Corvo she had found no occasion to
+use the weapon of Diana; and her beautiful bow of Osage-orange wood, and
+quiver of plumed arrows, had lain neglected in the lumber-room.
+
+There came a time when they were taken forth, and honoured with some
+attention.  It was shortly after that scene at the breakfast table; when
+she had received the paternal command to discontinue her equestrian
+excursions.
+
+To this she had yielded implicit obedience, even beyond what was
+intended: since not only had she given up riding out alone, but declined
+to do so in company.
+
+The spotted mustang stood listless in its stall, or pranced frantically
+around the corral; wondering why its spine was no longer crossed, or its
+ribs compressed, by that strange caparison, that more than aught else
+reminded it of its captivity.
+
+It was not neglected, however.  Though no more mounted by its fair
+mistress, it was the object of her daily--almost hourly--solicitude.
+The best corn in the _granaderias_ of Casa del Corvo was selected, the
+most nutritions grass that grows upon the lavanna--the _gramma_--
+furnished for its manger; while for drink it had the cool crystal water
+from the current of the Leona.
+
+Pluto took delight in grooming it; and, under his currycomb and brushes,
+its coat had attained a gloss which rivalled that upon Pluto's own sable
+skin.
+
+While not engaged attending upon her pet, Miss Poindexter divided the
+residue of her time between indoor duties and archery.  The latter she
+appeared to have selected as the substitute for that pastime of which
+she was so passionately fond, and in which she was now denied
+indulgence.
+
+The scene of her sagittary performances was the garden, with its
+adjacent shrubbery--an extensive enclosure, three sides of which were
+fenced in by the river itself, curving round it like the shoe of a
+racehorse, the fourth being a straight line traced by the rearward wall
+of the hacienda.
+
+Within this circumference a garden, with ornamental grounds, had been
+laid out, in times long gone by--as might have been told by many ancient
+exotics seen standing over it.  Even the statues spoke of a past age--
+not only in their decay, but in the personages they were intended to
+represent.  Equally did they betray the chisel of the Spanish sculptor.
+Among them you might see commemorated the figure and features of the
+great Conde; of the Campeador; of Ferdinand and his energetic queen; of
+the discoverer of the American world; of its two chief
+_conquistadores_--Cortez and Pizarro; and of her, alike famous for her
+beauty and devotion, the Mexican Malinche.
+
+It was not amidst these sculptured stones that Louise Poindexter
+practised her feats of archery; though more than once might she have
+been seen standing before the statue of Malinche, and scanning the
+voluptuous outline of the Indian maiden's form; not with any severe
+thought of scorn, that this dark-skinned daughter of Eve had succumbed
+to such a conqueror as Cortez.
+
+The young creole felt, in her secret heart, that she had no right to
+throw a stone at that statue.  To one less famed than Cortez--though in
+her estimation equally deserving of fame--she had surrendered what the
+great conquistador had won from Marina--her heart of hearts.
+
+In her excursions with the bow, which were of diurnal occurrence, she
+strayed not among the statues.  Her game was not there to be found; but
+under the shadow of tall trees that, keeping the curve of the river,
+formed a semicircular grove between it and the garden.  Most of these
+trees were of indigenous growth--wild Chinas, mulberries, and pecans--
+that in the laying out of the grounds had been permitted to remain where
+Nature, perhaps some centuries ago, had scattered their seed.
+
+It was under the leafy canopy of these fair forest trees the young
+Creole delighted to sit--or stray along the edge of the pellucid river,
+that rolled dreamily by.
+
+Here she was free to be alone; which of late appeared to be her
+preference.  Her father, in his sternest mood, could not have denied her
+so slight a privilege.  If there was danger upon the outside prairie,
+there could be none within the garden--enclosed, as it was, by a river
+broad and deep, and a wall that could not have been scaled without the
+aid of a thirty-round ladder.  So far from objecting to this solitary
+strolling, the planter appeared something more than satisfied that his
+daughter had taken to these tranquil habits; and the suspicions which he
+had conceived--not altogether without a cause--were becoming gradually
+dismissed from his mind.
+
+After all he might have been misinformed?  The tongue of scandal takes
+delight in torturing; and he may have been chosen as one of its victims?
+Or, perhaps, it was but a casual thing--the encounter of which he had
+been told, between his daughter and Maurice the mustanger?  They may
+have met by accident in the chapparal?  She could not well pass, without
+speaking to, the man who had twice rescued her from a dread danger.
+There might have been nothing in it, beyond the simple acknowledgment of
+her gratitude?
+
+It looked well that she had, with such willingness, consented to
+relinquish her rides.  It was but little in keeping with her usual
+custom, when crossed.  Obedience to that particular command could not
+have been irksome; and argued innocence uncontaminated, virtue still
+intact.
+
+So reasoned the fond father; who, beyond conjecture, was not permitted
+to scrutinise too closely the character of his child.  In other lands,
+or in a different class of society, he might possibly have asked direct
+questions, and required direct answers to them.  This is not the method
+upon the Mississippi; where a son of ten years old--a daughter of less
+than fifteen--would rebel against such scrutiny, and call it
+inquisition.
+
+Still less might Woodley Poindexter strain the statutes of parental
+authority--the father of a Creole belle--for years used to that proud
+homage whose incense often stills, or altogether destroys, the simpler
+affections of the heart.
+
+Though her father, and by law her controller, he knew to what a short
+length his power might extend, if exerted in opposition to her will.  He
+was, therefore, satisfied with her late act of obedience--rejoiced to
+find that instead of continuing her reckless rides upon the prairie, she
+now contented herself within the range of the garden--with bow and arrow
+slaying the small birds that were so unlucky as to come under her aim.
+
+Father of fifty years old, why reason in this foolish fashion?  Have you
+forgotten your own youth--the thoughts that then inspired you--the
+deceits you practised under such inspiration--the counterfeits you
+assumed--the "stories" you told to cloak what, after all, may have been
+the noblest impulse of your nature?
+
+The father of the fair Louise appeared to have become oblivious to
+recollections of this kind: for his early life was not without facts to
+have furnished them.  They must have been forgotten, else he would have
+taken occasion to follow his daughter into the garden, and observe her--
+himself unobserved--while disporting herself in the shrubbery that
+bordered the river bank.
+
+By doing so, he would have discovered that her disposition was not so
+cruel as may have been supposed.  Instead of transfixing the innocent
+birds that fluttered in such foolish confidence around her, her greatest
+feat in archery appeared to be the impaling of a piece of paper upon the
+point of her arrow, and sending the shaft thus charged across the river,
+to fall harmlessly into a thicket on the opposite side.
+
+He would have witnessed an exhibition still more singular.  He would
+have seen the arrow thus spent--after a short interval, as if
+dissatisfied with the place into which it had been shot, and desirous of
+returning to the fair hand whence it had taken its departure--come back
+into the garden with the same, or a similar piece of paper, transfixed
+upon its shaft!
+
+The thing might have appeared mysterious--even supernatural--to an
+observer unacquainted with the spirit and mechanism of that abnormal
+phenomenon.  There was no observer of it save the two individuals who
+alternately bent the bow, shooting with a single arrow; and by them it
+was understood.
+
+"Love laughs at locksmiths."  The old adage is scarce suited to Texas,
+where lock-making is an unknown trade.
+
+"Where there's a will, there's a way," expresses pretty much the same
+sentiment, appropriate to all time and every place.  Never was it more
+correctly illustrated than in that exchange of bow-shots across the
+channel of the Leona.
+
+Louise Poindexter had the will; Maurice Gerald had suggested the way.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.
+
+A STREAM CLEVERLY CROSSED.
+
+The sagittary correspondence could not last for long.  They are but
+lukewarm lovers who can content themselves with a dialogue carried on at
+bowshot distance.  Hearts brimful of passion must beat and burn
+together--in close proximity--each feeling the pulsation of the other.
+"If there be an Elysium on earth, it is this!"
+
+Maurice Gerald was not the man--nor Louise Poindexter the woman--to shun
+such a consummation.
+
+It came to pass: not under the tell-tale light of the sun, but in the
+lone hour of midnight, when but the stars could have been witnesses of
+their social dereliction.
+
+Twice had they stood together in that garden grove--twice had they
+exchanged love vows--under the steel-grey light of the stars; and a
+third interview had been arranged between them.
+
+Little suspected the proud planter--perhaps prouder of his daughter than
+anything else he possessed--that she was daily engaged in an act of
+rebellion--the wildest against which parental authority may pronounce
+itself.
+
+His own daughter--his only daughter--of the best blood of Southern
+aristocracy; beautiful, accomplished, everything to secure him a
+splendid alliance--holding nightly assignation with a horse-hunter!
+
+Could he have but dreamt it when slumbering upon his soft couch, the
+dream would have startled him from his sleep like the call of the
+eternal trumpet!
+
+He had no suspicion--not the slightest.  The thing was too improbable--
+too monstrous, to have given cause for one.  Its very monstrosity would
+have disarmed him, had the thought been suggested.
+
+He had been pleased at his daughter's compliance with his late
+injunctions; though he would have preferred her obeying them to the
+letter, and riding out in company with her brother or cousin--which she
+still declined to do.  This, however, he did not insist upon.  He could
+well concede so much to her caprice: since her staying at home could be
+no disadvantage to the cause that had prompted him to the stern counsel.
+
+Her ready obedience had almost influenced him to regret the prohibition.
+Walking in confidence by day, and sleeping in security by night, he
+fancied, it might be recalled.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+It was one of those nights known only to a southern sky, when the full
+round moon rolls clear across a canopy of sapphire; when the mountains
+have no mist, and look as though you could lay your hand upon them; when
+the wind is hushed, and the broad leaves of the tropical trees droop
+motionless from their boughs; themselves silent as if listening to the
+concert of singular sounds carried on in their midst, and in which
+mingle the voices of living creatures belonging to every department of
+animated nature--beast, bird, reptile, and insect.
+
+Such a night was it, as you would select for a stroll in company with
+the being--the one and only being--who, by the mysterious dictation of
+Nature, has entwined herself around your heart--a night upon which you
+feel a wayward longing to have white arms entwined around your neck, and
+bright eyes before your face, with that voluptuous gleaming that can
+only be felt to perfection under the mystic light of the moon.
+
+It was long after the infantry drum had beaten tattoo, and the cavalry
+bugle sounded the signal for the garrison of Fort Inge to go to bed--in
+fact it was much nearer the hour of midnight--when a horseman rode away
+from the door of Oberdoffer's hotel; and, taking the down-river road,
+was soon lost to the sight of the latest loiterer who might have been
+strolling through the streets of the village.
+
+It is already known, that this road passed the hacienda of Casa del
+Corvo, at some distance from the house, and on the opposite side of the
+river.  It is also known that at the same place it traversed a stretch
+of open prairie, with only a piece of copsewood midway between two
+extensive tracts of chapparal.
+
+This clump of isolated timber, known in prairie parlance as a "motte" or
+"island" of timber, stood by the side of the road, along which the
+horseman had continued, after taking his departure from the village.
+
+On reaching the copse he dismounted; led his horse in among the
+underwood; "hitched" him, by looping his bridle rein around the topmost
+twigs of an elastic bough; then detaching a long rope of twisted
+horsehair from the "horn" of his saddle, and inserting his arm into its
+coil, he glided out to the edge of the "island," on that side that lay
+towards the hacienda.
+
+Before forsaking the shadow of the copse, he cast a glance towards the
+sky, and at the moon sailing supremely over it.  It was a glance of
+inquiry, ending in a look of chagrin, with some muttered phrases that
+rendered it more emphatic.
+
+"No use waiting for that beauty to go to bed?  She's made up her mind,
+she won't go home till morning--ha! ha!"
+
+The droll conceit, which has so oft amused the nocturnal inebriate of
+great cities, appeared to produce a like affect upon the night patroller
+of the prairie; and for a moment the shadow, late darkening his brow,
+disappeared.  It returned anon; as he stood gazing across the open space
+that separated him from the river bottom--beyond which lay the hacienda
+of Casa del Corvo, clearly outlined upon the opposite bluff, "If there
+_should_ be any one stirring about the place?  It's not likely at this
+hour; unless it be the owner of a bad conscience who can't sleep.
+Troth! there's one such within those walls.  If he be abroad there's a
+good chance of his seeing me on the open ground; not that I should care
+a straw, if it were only myself to be compromised.  By Saint Patrick, I
+see no alternative but risk it!  It's no use waiting upon the moon,
+deuce take her!  She don't go down for hours; and there's not the sign
+of a cloud.  It won't do to keep _her_ waiting.  No; I must chance it in
+the clear light.  Here goes?"
+
+Saying this, with a swift but stealthy step, the dismounted horseman
+glided across the treeless tract, and soon readied the escarpment of the
+cliff, that formed the second height of land rising above the channel of
+the Leona.
+
+He did not stay ten seconds in this conspicuous situation; but by a path
+that zigzagged down the bluff--and with which he appeared familiar--he
+descended to the river "bottom."
+
+In an instant after he stood upon the bank; at the convexity of the
+river's bend, and directly opposite the spot where a skiff was moored,
+under the sombre shadow of a gigantic cotton-tree.
+
+For a short while he stood gazing across the stream, with a glance that
+told of scrutiny.  He was scanning the shrubbery on the other side; in
+the endeavour to make out, whether any one was concealed beneath its
+shadow.
+
+Becoming satisfied that no one was there, he raised the loop-end of his
+lazo--for it was this he carried over his arm--and giving it half a
+dozen whirls in the air, cast it across the stream.
+
+The noose settled over the cutwater of the skiff; and closing around the
+stem, enabled him to tow the tiny craft to the side on which he stood.
+
+Stepping in, he took hold of a pair of oars that lay along the planking
+at the bottom; and, placing them between the thole-pins, pulled the boat
+back to its moorings.
+
+Leaping out, he secured it as it had been before, against the drift of
+the current; and then, taking stand under the shadow of the cotton-tree,
+he appeared to await either a signal, or the appearance of some one,
+expected by appointment.
+
+His manoeuvres up to this moment, had they been observed, might have
+rendered him amenable to the suspicion that he was a housebreaker, about
+to "crack the crib" of Casa del Corvo.
+
+The phrases that fell from his lips, however, could they have been
+heard, would have absolved him of any such vile or vulgar intention.  It
+is true he had designs upon the hacienda; but these did not contemplate
+either its cash, plate, or jewellery--if we except the most precious
+jewel it contained--the mistress of the mansion herself.
+
+It is scarce necessary to say, that the man who had hidden his horse in
+the "motte," and so cleverly effected the crossing of the stream, was
+Maurice the mustanger.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.
+
+LIGHT AND SHADE.
+
+He had not long to chafe under the trysting-tree, if such it were.  At
+the very moment when he was stepping into the skiff, a casement window
+that looked to the rear of the hacienda commenced turning upon its
+hinges, and was then for a time held slightly ajar; as if some one
+inside was intending to issue forth, and only hesitated in order to be
+assured that the "coast was clear."
+
+A small white hand--decorated with jewels that glistened under the light
+of the moon--grasping the sash told that the individual who had opened
+the window was of the gentler sex; the tapering fingers, with their
+costly garniture, proclaimed her a lady; while the majestic figure--soon
+after exhibited outside, on the top of the stairway that led down to the
+garden--could be no other than that of Louise Poindexter.
+
+It was she.
+
+For a second or two the lady stood listening.  She heard, or fancied she
+heard, the dip of an oar.  She might be mistaken; for the stridulation
+of the cicadas filled the atmosphere with confused sound.  No matter.
+The hour of assignation had arrived; and she was not the one to stand
+upon punctilios as to time--especially after spending two hours of
+solitary expectation in her chamber, that had appeared like as many.
+With noiseless tread descending the stone stairway, she glided
+sylph-like among the statues and shrubs; until, arriving under the
+shadow of the cotton-wood, she flung herself into arms eagerly
+outstretched to receive her.
+
+Who can describe the sweetness of such embrace--strange to say, sweeter
+from being stolen?  Who can paint the delicious emotions experienced at
+such a moment--too sacred to be touched by the pen?
+
+It is only after long throes of pleasure had passed, and the lovers had
+begun to converse in the more sober language of life, that it becomes
+proper, or even possible to report them.
+
+Thus did they speak to each other, the lady taking the initiative:--
+
+"To-morrow night you will meet me again--to-morrow night, dearest
+Maurice?"
+
+"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,--if I were free to say the
+word."
+
+"And why not?  Why are you not free to say it?"
+
+"To-morrow, by break of day, I am off for the Alamo."
+
+"Indeed!  Is it imperative you should go?"
+
+The interrogatory was put in a tone that betrayed displeasure.  A vision
+of a sinister kind always came before the mind of Louise Poindexter at
+mention of the lone hut on the Alamo.
+
+And why?  It had afforded her hospitality.  One would suppose that her
+visit to it could scarce fail to be one of the pleasantest recollections
+of her life.  And yet it was not!
+
+"I have excellent reasons for going," was the reply she received.
+
+"Excellent reasons!  Do you expect to meet any one there?"
+
+"My follower Phelim--no one else.  I hope the poor fellow is still above
+the grass.  I sent him out about ten days ago--before there was any
+tidings of these Indian troubles."
+
+"Only Phelim you expect to meet?  Is it true, Gerald?  Dearest! do not
+deceive me!  Only him?"
+
+"Why do you ask the question, Louise?"
+
+"I cannot tell you why.  I should die of shame to speak my secret
+thoughts."
+
+"Do not fear to speak them!  I could keep no secret from you--in truth I
+could not.  So tell me what it is, love!"
+
+"Do you wish me, Maurice?"
+
+"I do--of course I do.  I feel sure that whatever it may be, I shall be
+able to explain it.  I know that my relations with you are of a
+questionable character; or might be so deemed, if the world knew of
+them.  It is for that very reason I am going back to the Alamo."
+
+"And to stay there?"
+
+"Only for a single day, or two at most.  Only to gather up my household
+gods, and bid a last adieu to my prairie life."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"You appear surprised."
+
+"No! only mystified.  I cannot comprehend you.  Perhaps I never shall!"
+
+"'Tis very simple--the resolve I have taken.  I know you will forgive
+me, when I make it known to you."
+
+"Forgive you, Maurice!  For what do you ask forgiveness?"
+
+"For keeping it a secret from you, that--that I am not what I seem."
+
+"God forbid you should be otherwise than what you seem to me--noble,
+grand, beautiful, rare among men!  Oh, Maurice! you know not how I
+esteem--how I love you!"
+
+"Not more than I esteem and love you.  It is that very esteem that now
+counsels me to a separation."
+
+"A separation?"
+
+"Yes, love; but it is to be hoped only for a short time."
+
+"How long?"
+
+"While a steamer can cross the Atlantic, and return."
+
+"An age!  And why this?"
+
+"I am called to my native country--Ireland, so much despised, as you
+already know.  'Tis only within the last twenty hours I received the
+summons.  I obey it the more eagerly, that it tells me I shall be able
+soon to return, and prove to your proud father that the poor
+horse-hunter who won his daughter's heart--have I won it, Louise?"
+
+"Idle questioner!  Won it?  You know you have more than won it--
+conquered it to a subjection from which it can never escape.  Mock me
+not, Maurice, nor my stricken heart--henceforth, and for evermore, your
+slave!"
+
+During the rapturous embrace that followed this passionate speech, by
+which a high-born and beautiful maiden confessed to have surrendered
+herself--heart, soul, and body--to the man who had made conquest of her
+affections, there was silence perfect and profound.
+
+The grasshopper amid the green herbage, the cicada on the tree-leaf, the
+mock-bird on the top of the tall cotton-wood, and the nightjar soaring
+still higher in the moonlit air, apparently actuated by a simultaneous
+instinct, ceased to give utterance to their peculiar cries: as though
+one and all, by their silence, designed to do honour to the sacred
+ceremony transpiring in their presence!
+
+But that temporary cessation of sounds was due to a different cause.  A
+footstep grating upon the gravelled walk of the garden--and yet touching
+it so lightly, that only an acute ear could have perceived the contact--
+was the real cause why the nocturnal voices had suddenly become stilled.
+
+The lovers, absorbed in the sweet interchange of a mutual affection,
+heard it not.  They saw not that dark shadow, in the shape of man or
+devil, flitting among the flowers; now standing by a statue; now
+cowering under cover of the shrubbery, until at length it became
+stationary behind the trunk of a tree, scarce ten paces from the spot
+where they were kissing each other!
+
+Little did they suspect, in that moment of celestial happiness when all
+nature was hushed around them, that the silence was exposing their
+passionate speeches, and the treacherous moon, at the same time,
+betraying their excited actions.
+
+That shadowy listener, crouching guilty-like behind the tree, was a
+witness to both.  Within easy earshot, he could hear every word--even
+the sighs and soft low murmurings of their love; while under the silvery
+light of the moon, with scarce a sprig coming between, he could detect
+their slightest gestures.
+
+It is scarce necessary to give the name of the dastardly eavesdropper.
+That of Cassius Calhoun will have suggested itself.
+
+It was he.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.
+
+A TORTURING DISCOVERY.
+
+How came the cousin of Louise Poindexter to be astir at that late hour
+of the night, or, as it was now, the earliest of the morning?  Had he
+been forewarned of this interview of the lovers; or was it merely some
+instinctive suspicion that had caused him to forsake his
+sleeping-chamber, and make a tour of inspection within the precincts of
+the garden?
+
+In other words, was he an eavesdropper by accident, or a spy acting upon
+information previously communicated to him?
+
+The former was the fact.  Chance alone, or chance aided by a clear
+night, had given him the clue to a discovery that now filled his soul
+with the fires of hell.
+
+Standing upon the housetop at the hour of midnight--what had taken him
+up there cannot be guessed--breathing vile tobacco-smoke into an
+atmosphere before perfumed with the scent of the night-blooming
+_cereus_; the ex-captain of cavalry did not appear distressed by any
+particular anxiety.  He had recovered from the injuries received in his
+encounter with the mustanger; and although that bit of evil fortune did
+not fail to excite within him the blackest chagrin, whenever it came up
+before his mind, its bitterness had been, to some extent, counteracted
+by hopes of revenge--towards a plan for which he had already made some
+progress.
+
+Equally with her father, he had been gratified that Louise was contented
+of late to stay within doors: for it was himself who had secretly
+suggested the prohibition to her going abroad.  Equally had he remained
+ignorant as to the motive of that garden archery, and in a similar
+manner had misconceived it.  In fact, he had begun to flatter himself,
+that, after all, her indifference to himself might be only a feint on
+the part of his cousin, or an illusion upon his.  She had been less
+cynical for some days; and this had produced upon him the pleasant
+impression, that he might have been mistaken in his jealous fears.
+
+He had as yet discovered no positive proof that she entertained a
+partiality for the young Irishman; and as the days passed without any
+renewed cause for disquiet, he began to believe that in reality there
+was none.
+
+Under the soothing influence of this restored confidence, had he mounted
+up to the azotea; and, although it was the hour of midnight, the
+careless _insouciance_ with which he applied the light to his cigar, and
+afterwards stood smoking it, showed that he could not have come there
+for any very important purpose.  It may have been to exchange the sultry
+atmosphere of his sleeping-room for the fresher air outside; or he may
+have been tempted forth by the magnificent moon--though he was not much
+given to such romantic contemplation.
+
+Whatever it was, he had lighted his cigar, and was apparently enjoying
+it, with his arms crossed upon the coping of the parapet, and his face
+turned towards the river.
+
+It did not disturb his tranquillity to see a horseman ride out from the
+chapparal on the opposite side, and proceed onward across the open
+plain.
+
+He knew of the road that was there.  Some traveller, he supposed, who
+preferred taking advantage of the cool hours of the night--a night, too,
+that would have tempted the weariest wayfarer to continue his journey.
+It might be a planter who lived below, returning home from the village,
+after lounging an hour too long in the tavern saloon.
+
+In daytime, the individual might have been identified; by the moonlight,
+it could only be made out that there was a man on horseback.
+
+The eyes of the ex-officer accompanied him as he trotted along the road;
+but simply with mechanical movement, as one musingly contemplates some
+common waif drifting down the current of a river.
+
+It was only after the horseman had arrived opposite the island of
+timber, and was seen to pull up, and then ride into it, that the
+spectator upon the housetop became stirred to take an interest in his
+movements.
+
+"What the devil can that mean?" muttered Calhoun to himself, as he
+hastily plucked the cigar stump from between his teeth.  "Damn the man,
+he's dismounted!" continued he, as the stranger re-appeared, on foot, by
+the inner edge of the copse.
+
+"And coming this way--towards the bend of the river--straight as he can
+streak it!
+
+"Down the bluff--into the bottom--and with a stride that shows him well
+acquainted with the way.  Surely to God he don't intend making his way
+across into the garden?  He'd have to swim for that; and anything he
+could get there would scarce pay him for his pains.  What the old
+Scratch can be his intention?  A thief?"
+
+This was Calhoun's first idea--rejected almost as soon as conceived.  It
+is true that in Spanish-American countries even the beggar goes on
+horseback.  Much more might the thief?
+
+For all this, it was scarce probable, that a man would make a midnight
+expedition to steal fruit, or vegetables, in such cavalier style.
+
+What else could he be after?
+
+The odd manoeuvre of leaving his horse under cover of the copse, and
+coming forward on foot, and apparently with caution, as far as could be
+seen in the uncertain light, was of itself evidence that the man's
+errand could scarce be honest and that he was approaching the premises
+of Casa del Corvo with some evil design.
+
+What could it be?
+
+Since leaving the upper plain he had been no longer visible to Calhoun
+upon the housetop.  The underwood skirting the stream on the opposite
+side, and into which he had entered, was concealing him.
+
+"What can the man be after?"
+
+After putting this interrogatory to himself, and for about the tenth
+time--each with increasing emphasis--the composure of the ex-captain was
+still further disturbed by a sound that reached his ear, exceedingly
+like a plunge in the river.  It was slight, but clearly the concussion
+of some hard substance brought in contact with water.
+
+"The stroke of an oar," muttered he, on hearing it.  "Is, by the holy
+Jehovah!  He's got hold of the skiff, and's crossing over to the garden.
+What on earth can he be after?"
+
+The questioner did not intend staying on the housetop to determine.  His
+thought was to slip silently downstairs--rouse the male members of the
+family, along with some of the servants; and attempt to capture the
+intruder by a clever ambuscade.
+
+He had raised his arm from the copestone, and was in the act of stepping
+back from the parapet, when his ear was saluted by another sound, that
+caused him again to lean forward and look into the garden below.
+
+This new noise bore no resemblance to the stroke of an oar; nor did it
+proceed from the direction of the river.  It was the creaking of a door
+as it turned upon its hinge, or, what is much the same, a casement
+window; while it came from below--almost directly underneath the spot
+where the listener stood.
+
+On craning over to ascertain the cause, he saw, what blanched his cheeks
+to the whiteness of the moonlight that shone upon them--what sent the
+blood curdling through every corner of his heart.
+
+The casement that had been opened was that which belonged to the
+bed-chamber of his cousin Louise.  He knew it.  The lady herself was
+standing outside upon the steps that led to the level of the garden, her
+face turned downward, as if she was meditating a descent.
+
+Loosely attired in white, as though in the neglige of a _robe de
+chambre_, with only a small kerchief coifed over her crown, she
+resembled some fair nymph of the night, some daughter of the moon, whom
+Luna delighted to surround with a silvery effulgence!
+
+Calhoun reasoned rapidly.  He could not do otherwise than connect her
+appearance outside the casement with the advent of the man who was
+making his way across the river.
+
+And who could this man be?  Who but Maurice the mustanger?
+
+A clandestine meeting!  And by appointment!
+
+There could be no doubt of it; and if there had, it would have been
+dissolved, at seeing the white-robed figure glide noiselessly down the
+stone steps, and along the gravelled walks, till it at length
+disappeared among the trees that shadowed the mooring-place of the
+skiff.
+
+Like one paralysed with a powerful stroke, the ex-captain continued for
+some time upon the azotea--speechless and without motion.  It was only
+after the white drapery had disappeared, and he heard the low murmur of
+voices rising from among the trees, that he was stimulated to resolve
+upon some course of proceeding.
+
+He thought no longer of awaking the inmates of the house--at least not
+then.  Better first to be himself the sole witness of his cousin's
+disgrace; and then--and then--
+
+In short, he was not in a state of mind to form any definite plan; and,
+acting solely under the blind stimulus of a fell instinct, he hurried
+down the _escalera_, and made his way through the house, and out into
+the garden.
+
+He felt feeble as he pressed forward.  His legs had tottered under him
+while descending the stone steps.  They did the same as he glided along
+the gravelled walk.  They continued to tremble as he crouched behind the
+tree trunk that hindered him from being seen--while playing spectator of
+a scene that afflicted him to the utmost depths of his soul.
+
+He heard their vows; their mutual confessions of love; the determination
+of the mustanger to be gone by the break of the morrow's day; as also
+his promise to return, and the revelation to which that promise led.
+
+With bitter chagrin, he heard how this determination was combated by
+Louise, and the reasons why she at length appeared to consent to it.
+
+He was witness to that final and rapturous embrace, that caused him to
+strike his foot nervously against the pebbles, and make that noise that
+had scared the cicadas into silence.
+
+Why at that moment did he not spring forward--put a termination to the
+intolerable _tete-a-tete_--and with a blow of his bowie-knife lay his
+rival low--at his own feet and that of his mistress?  Why had he not
+done this at the beginning--for to him there needed no further evidence,
+than the interview itself, to prove that his cousin had been
+dishonoured?
+
+There was a time when he would not have been so patient.  What, then,
+was the _punctilio_ that restrained him?  Was it the presence of that
+piece of perfect mechanism, that, with a sheen of steel, glistened upon
+the person of his rival, and which under the bright moonbeams, could be
+distinguished as a "Colt's six-shooter?"
+
+Perhaps it may have been.  At all events, despite the terrible
+temptation to which his soul was submitted, something not only hindered
+him from taking an immediate vengeance, but in the mid-moments of that
+maddening spectacle--the final embrace--prompted him to turn away from
+the spot, and with an earnestness, even keener than he had yet
+exhibited, hurry back in the direction of the house: leaving the lovers,
+still unconscious of having been observed, to bring their sweet
+interview to an ending--sure to be procrastinated.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.
+
+A CHIVALROUS DICTATION.
+
+Where went Cassius Calhoun?
+
+Certainly not to his own sleeping-room.  There was no sleep for a spirit
+suffering like his.
+
+He went not there; but to the chamber of his cousin.  Not hers--now
+untenanted, with its couch unoccupied, its coverlet undisturbed--but to
+that of her brother, young Henry Poindexter.
+
+He went direct as crooked corridors would permit him--in haste, without
+waiting to avail himself of the assistance of a candle.
+
+It was not needed.  The moonbeams penetrating through the open bars of
+the _reja_, filled the chamber with light--sufficient for his purpose.
+They disclosed the outlines of the apartment, with its simple
+furniture--a washstand, a dressing-table, a couple of chairs, and a bed
+with "mosquito curtains."
+
+Under those last was the youth reclining; in that sweet silent slumber
+experienced only by the innocent.  His finely formed head rested calmly
+upon the pillow, over which lay scattered a profusion of shining curls.
+
+As Calhoun lifted the muslin "bar," the moonbeams fell upon his face,
+displaying its outlines of the manliest aristocratic type.
+
+What a contrast between those two sets of features, brought into such
+close proximity!  Both physically handsome; but morally, as Hyperion to
+the Satyr.
+
+"Awake, Harry! awake!" was the abrupt salutation extended to the
+sleeper, accompanied by a violent shaking of his shoulder.
+
+"Oh! ah! you, cousin Cash?  What is it? not the Indiana, I hope?"
+
+"Worse than that--worse! worse!  Quick!  Rouse yourself, and see!
+Quick, or it will be too late!  Quick, and be the witness of your own
+disgrace--the dishonour of your house.  Quick, or the name of Poindexter
+will be the laughing-stock of Texas!"
+
+After such summons there could be no inclination for sleep--at least on
+the part of a Poindexter; and at a single bound, the youngest
+representative of the family cleared the mosquito curtains, and stood
+upon his feet in the middle of the floor--in an attitude of speechless
+astonishment.
+
+"Don't wait to dress," cried his excited counsellor, "stay, you may put
+on your pants.  Damn the clothes!  There's no time for standing upon
+trifles.  Quick!  Quick!"
+
+The simple costume the young planter was accustomed to wear, consisting
+of trousers and Creole blouse of Attakapas _cottonade_, were adjusted to
+his person in less than twenty seconds of time; and in twenty more,
+obedient to the command of his cousin--without understanding why he had
+been so unceremoniously summoned forth--he was hurrying along the
+gravelled walks of the garden.
+
+"What is it, Cash?" he inquired, as soon as the latter showed signs of
+coming to a stop.  "What does it all mean?"
+
+"See for yourself!  Stand close to me!  Look through yonder opening in
+the trees that leads down to the place where your skiff is kept.  Do you
+see anything there?"
+
+"Something white.  It looks like a woman's dress.  It is that.  It's a
+woman!"
+
+"It _is_ a woman.  Who do you suppose she is?"
+
+"I can't tell.  Who do you say she is?"
+
+"There's another figure--a dark one--by her side."
+
+"It appears to be a man?  It is a man!"
+
+"And who do you suppose _he_ is?"
+
+"How should I know, cousin Cash?  Do you?"
+
+"I do.  That man is Maurice the mustanger!"
+
+"And the woman?"
+
+"_Is Louise--your sister--in his arms_!"
+
+As if a shot had struck him through the heart, the brother bounded
+upward, and then onward, along the path.
+
+"Stay!" said Calhoun, catching hold of, and restraining him.  "You
+forget that you are unarmed!  The fellow, I know, has weapons upon him.
+Take this, and this," continued he, passing his own knife and pistol
+into the hands of his cousin.  "I should have used them myself, long ere
+this; but I thought it better that you--her brother--should be the
+avenger of your sister's wrongs.  On, my boy!  See that you don't hurt
+_her_; but take care not to lose the chance at him.  Don't give him a
+word of warning.  As soon as they are separated, send a bullet into his
+belly; and if all six should fail, go at him with the knife.  I'll stay
+near, and take care of you, if you should get into danger.  Now!  Steal
+upon him, and give the scoundrel hell!"
+
+It needed not this blasphemous injunction to inspire Henry Poindexter to
+hasty action.  The brother of a sister--a beautiful sister--erring,
+undone!
+
+In six seconds he was by her side, confronting her supposed seducer.
+
+"Low villain!" he cried, "unclasp your loathsome arm from the waist of
+my sister.  Louise! stand aside, and give me a chance of killing him!
+Aside, sister!  Aside, I say!"
+
+Had the command been obeyed, it is probable that Maurice Gerald would at
+that moment have ceased to exist--unless he had found heart to kill
+Henry Poindexter; which, experienced as he was in the use of his
+six-shooter, and prompt in its manipulation, he might have done.
+
+Instead of drawing the pistol from its holster, or taking any steps for
+defence, he appeared only desirous of disengaging himself from the fair
+arms still clinging around him, and for whose owner he alone felt alarm.
+
+For Henry to fire at the supposed betrayer, was to risk taking his
+sister's life; and, restrained by the fear of this, he paused before
+pulling trigger.
+
+That pause produced a crisis favourable to the safety of all three.  The
+Creole girl, with a quick perception of the circumstances, suddenly
+released her lover from the protecting embrace; and, almost in the same
+instant, threw her arms around those of her brother.  She knew there was
+nothing to be apprehended from the pistol of Maurice.  Henry alone had
+to be held doing mischief.
+
+"Go, go!" she shouted to the former, while struggling to restrain the
+infuriated youth.  "My brother is deceived by appearances.  Leave me to
+explain.  Away, Maurice! away!"
+
+"Henry Poindexter," said the young Irishman, as he turned to obey the
+friendly command, "I am not the sort of villain you have been pleased to
+pronounce me.  Give me but time, and I shall prove, that your sister has
+formed a truer estimate of my character than either her father, brother,
+or cousin.  I claim but six months.  If at the end of that time I do not
+show myself worthy of her confidence--her love--then shall I make you
+welcome to shoot me at sight, as you would the cowardly coyote, that
+chanced to cross your track.  Till then, I bid you adieu."
+
+Henry's struggle to escape from his sister's arms--perhaps stronger than
+his own--grew less energetic as he listened to these words.  They became
+feebler and feebler--at length ceasing--when a plunge in the river
+announced that the midnight intruder into the enclosed grounds of Casa
+del Corvo was on his way back to the wild prairies he had chosen for his
+home.
+
+It was the first time he had recrossed the river in that primitive
+fashion.  On the two previous occasions he had passed over in the skiff;
+which had been drawn back to its moorings by a delicate hand, the
+tow-rope consisting of that tiny lazo that had formed part of the
+caparison presented along with the spotted mustang.
+
+"Brother! you are wronging him! indeed you are wronging him!" were the
+words of expostulation that followed close upon his departure.  "Oh,
+Henry--dearest Hal, if you but knew how noble he is!  So far from
+desiring to do me an injury, 'tis only this moment he has been
+disclosing a plan to--to--prevent--scandal--I mean to make me happy.
+Believe me, brother, he is a gentleman; and if he were not--if only the
+common man you take him for--I could not help what I have done--I could
+not, for _I love him_!"
+
+"Louise! tell me the truth!  Speak to me, not as to your brother, but as
+to your own self.  From what I have this night seen, more than from your
+own words, I know that you love this man.  Has he taken advantage of
+your--your--unfortunate passion?"
+
+"No--no--no.  As I live he has not.  He is too noble for that--even had
+I--Henry! he is innocent!  If there be cause for regret, I alone am to
+blame.  Why--oh! brother! why did you insult him?"
+
+"Have I done so?"
+
+"You have, Henry--rudely, grossly."
+
+"I shall go after, and apologise.  If you speak truly, sister, I owe him
+that much.  I shall go this instant.  I liked him from the first--you
+know I did?  I could not believe him capable of a cowardly act.  I can't
+now.  Sister! come back into the house with me.  And now, dearest Loo!
+you had better go to bed.  As for me, I shall be off _instanter_ to the
+hotel, where I may still hope to overtake him.  I cannot rest till I
+have made reparation for my rudeness."
+
+So spoke the forgiving brother; and gently leading his sister by the
+hand, with thoughts of compassion, but not the slightest trace of anger,
+he hastily returned to the hacienda--intending to go after the young
+Irishman, and apologise for the use of words that, under the
+circumstances, might have been deemed excusable.
+
+As the two disappeared within the doorway, a third figure, hitherto
+crouching among the shrubbery, was seen to rise erect, and follow them
+up the stone steps.  This last was their cousin, Cassius Calhoun.
+
+He, too, had thoughts of _going after_ the mustanger.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.
+
+AN UNCOURTEOUS HOST.
+
+"The chicken-hearted fool!  Fool myself, to have trusted to such a hope!
+I might have known she'd cajole the young calf, and let the scoundrel
+escape.  I could have shot him from behind the tree--dead as a drowned
+rat!  And without risking anything--even disgrace!  Not a particle of
+risk.  Uncle Woodley would have thanked me--the whole settlement would
+have said I had done right.  My cousin, a young lady, betrayed by a
+common scamp--a horse, trader--who would have said a word against it?
+Such a chance!  Why have I missed it?  Death and the devil--it may not
+trump up again!"
+
+Such were the reflections of the ex-captain of cavalry, while at some
+paces distance following his two cousins on their return to the
+hacienda.
+
+"I wonder," muttered he, on re-entering the _patio_, "whether the
+blubbering baby be in earnest?  Going after to apologise to the man who
+has made a fool of his sister!  Ha--ha!  It would be a good joke were it
+not too serious to be laughed at.  He _is_ in earnest, else why that row
+in the stable?  'Tis he bringing but his horse!  It is, by the
+Almighty!"
+
+The door of the stable, as is customary in Mexican haciendas opened upon
+the paved _patio_.
+
+It was standing ajar; but just as Calhoun turned his eye upon it, a man
+coming from the inside pushed it wide open; and then stepped over the
+threshold, with a saddled horse following close after him.
+
+The man had a Panama hat upon his head, and a cloak thrown loosely
+around his shoulders.  This did not hinder Calhoun from recognising his
+cousin Henry, as also the dark brown horse that belonged to him.
+
+"Fool!  So--you've let him off?" spitefully muttered the ex-captain, as
+the other came within whispering distance.  "Give me back my bowie and
+pistol.  They're not toys suited to such delicate fingers as yours!
+Bah!  Why did you not use them as I told you?  You've made a mess of
+it!"
+
+"I have," tranquilly responded the young planter.  "I know it.  I've
+insulted--and grossly too--a noble fellow."
+
+"Insulted a noble fellow!  Ha--ha--ha!  You're mad--by heavens, you're
+mad!"
+
+"I should have been had I followed your counsel, cousin Cash.
+Fortunately I did not go so far.  I have done enough to deserve being
+called worse than fool; though perhaps, under the circumstances, I may
+obtain forgiveness for my fault.  At all events, I intend to try for it,
+and without losing time."
+
+"Where are you going?"
+
+"After Maurice the mustanger--to apologise to him for my misconduct."
+
+"Misconduct!  Ha--ha--ha!  Surely you are joking?"
+
+"No.  I'm in earnest.  If you come along with me, you shall see!"
+
+"Then I say again you are mad!  Not only mad, but a damned natural-born
+idiot! you are, by Jesus Christ and General Jackson!"
+
+"You're not very polite, cousin Cash; though, after the language I've
+been lately using myself, I might excuse you.  Perhaps you will, one day
+imitate me, and make amends for your rudeness."
+
+Without adding another word, the young gentleman--one of the somewhat
+rare types of Southern chivalry--sprang to his saddle; gave the word, to
+his horse; and rode hurriedly through the _saguan_.
+
+Calhoun stood upon the stones, till the footfall of the horse became but
+faintly distinguishable in the distance.
+
+Then, as if acting under some sudden impulse, he hurried along the
+verandah to his own room; entered it; reappeared in a rough overcoat;
+crossed back to the stable; went in; came out again with his own horse
+saddled and bridled; led the animal along the pavement, as gently as if
+he was stealing him; and once outside upon the turf, sprang upon his
+back, and rode rapidly away.
+
+For a mile or more he followed the same road, that had been taken by
+Henry Poindexter.  It could not have been with any idea of overtaking
+the latter: since, long before, the hoofstrokes of Henry's horse had
+ceased to be heard; and proceeding at a slower pace, Calhoun did not
+ride as if he cared about catching up with his cousin.
+
+He had taken the up-river road.  When about midway between Casa del
+Corvo and the Fort, he reined up; and, after scrutinising the chapparal
+around him, struck off by a bridle-path leading back toward the bank of
+the river.  As he turned into it he might have been heard muttering to
+himself--
+
+"A chance still left; a good one, though not so cheap as the other.  It
+will cost me a thousand dollars.  What of that, so long as I get rid of
+this Irish curse, who has poisoned every hour of my existence!  If true
+to his promise, he takes the route to his home by an early hour in the
+morning.  What time, I wonder.  These men of the prairies call it late
+rising, if they be abed till daybreak!  Never mind.  There's yet time
+for the Coyote to get before him on the road!  I know that.  It must be
+the same as we followed to the wild horse prairies.  He spoke of his hut
+upon the Alamo.  That's the name of the creek where we had our pic-nic.
+The hovel cannot be far from there!  The Mexican must know the place, or
+the trail leading to it; which last will be sufficient for his purpose
+and mine.  A fig for the shanty itself!  The owner may never reach it.
+There may be Indians upon the road!  There _must_ be, before daybreak in
+the morning!"
+
+As Calhoun concluded this string of strange reflections, he had arrived
+at the door of another "shanty"--that of the Mexican mustanger.  The
+_jacale_ was the goal of his journey.
+
+Having slipped out of his saddle, and knotted his bridle to a branch, he
+set foot upon the threshold.
+
+The door was standing wide open.  From the inside proceeded a sound,
+easily identified as the snore of a slumberer.
+
+It was not as of one who sleeps either tranquilly, or continuously.  At
+short intervals it was interrupted--now by silent pauses--anon by
+hog-like gruntings, interspersed with profane words, not perfectly
+pronounced, but slurred from a thick tongue, over which, but a short
+while before, must have passed a stupendous quantity of alcohol.
+
+"_Carrambo! carrai! carajo--chingara! mil diablos_!" mingled with more--
+perhaps less--reverential exclamations of "_Sangre de Cristo!  Jesus!
+Santissima Virgen!  Santa Maria!  Dios!  Madre de Dios_!" and the like,
+were uttered inside the _jacale_, as if the speaker was engaged in an
+apostrophic conversation with all the principal characters of the Popish
+Pantheon.
+
+Calhoun paused upon the threshold, and listened.
+
+"_Mal--dit--dit--o_!" muttered the sleeper, concluding the exclamation
+with a hiccup.  "_Buen--buenos nove-dad-es_!  Good news, _por sangre
+Chrees--Chreest--o!  Si S'nor Merican--cano!  Nove--dad--es s'perbos!
+Los Indyos Co--co--manchees_ on the war-trail--_el rastro de guerra_.
+God bless the Co--co--manchees!"
+
+"The brute's drunk!" said his visitor, mechanically speaking aloud.
+
+"_H'la S'nor_!" exclaimed the owner of the _jacale_, aroused to a state
+of semi-consciousness by the sound of a human voice.  "_Quien llama_!
+Who has the honour--that is, have I the happiness--I, Miguel Diaz--el
+Co--coyote, as the _leperos_ call me.  Ha, ha! coyo--coyot.  Bah! what's
+in a name?  Yours, S'nor?  _Mil demonios_! who are you?"
+
+Partially raising himself from his reed couch, the inebriate remained
+for a short time in a sitting attitude--glaring, half interrogatively,
+half unconsciously, at the individual whose voice had intruded itself
+into his drunken dreams.
+
+The unsteady examination lasted only for a score of seconds.  Then the
+owner of the _jacale_, with an unintelligible speech, subsided into a
+recumbent position; when a savage grunt, succeeded by a prolonged snore,
+proved him to have become oblivious to the fact that his domicile
+contained a guest.
+
+"Another chance lost!" said the latter, hissing the words through his
+teeth, as he turned disappointedly from the door.
+
+"A sober fool and a drunken knave--two precious tools wherewith, to
+accomplish a purpose like mine!  Curse the luck!  All this night it's
+been against me!  It maybe three long hours before this pig sleeps off
+the swill that has stupefied him.  Three long hours, and then what would
+be the use of him?  'Twould be too late--too late!"
+
+As he said this, he caught the rein of his bridle, and stood by the head
+of his horse, as if uncertain what course to pursue.
+
+"No use my staying here!  It might be daybreak before the damned liquor
+gets out of his skull.  I may as well go back to the hacienda and wait
+there; or else--or else--"
+
+The alternative, that at this crisis presented itself, was nor, spoken
+aloud.  Whatever it may have been, it had the effect of terminating the
+hesitancy that living over him, and stirring him to immediate action.
+
+Roughly tearing his rein from the branch, and passing it over his
+horse's head, he sprang into the saddle, and rode off from the _jacale_
+in a direction the very opposite to that in which he had approached it.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.
+
+THREE TRAVELLERS ON THE SAME TRACK.
+
+No one can deny, that a ride upon a smooth-turfed prairie is one of the
+most positive pleasures of sublunary existence.  No one _will_ deny it,
+who has had the good fortune to experience the delightful sensation.
+With a spirited horse between your thighs, a well-stocked valise
+strapped to the cantle of your saddle, a flask of French brandy slung
+handy over the "horn," and a plethoric cigar-case protruding from under
+the flap of your pistol holster, you may set forth upon a day's journey,
+without much fear of feeling weary by the way.
+
+A friend riding by your side--like yourself alive to the beauties of
+nature, and sensitive to its sublimities--will make the ride, though
+long, and otherwise arduous, a pleasure to be remembered for many, many
+years.
+
+If that friend chance to be some fair creature, upon whom you have fixed
+your affections, then will you experience a delight to remain in your
+memory for ever.
+
+Ah! if all prairie-travellers were to be favoured with such
+companionship, the wilderness of Western Texas would soon become crowded
+with tourists; the great plains would cease to be "pathless,"--the
+savannas would swarm with snobs.
+
+It is better as it is.  As it is, you may launch yourself upon the
+prairie: and once beyond the precincts of the settlement from which you
+have started--unless you keep to the customary "road," indicated only by
+the hoof-prints of half a dozen horsemen who have preceded you--you may
+ride on for hours, days, weeks, months, perhaps a whole year, without
+encountering aught that bears the slightest resemblance to yourself, or
+the image in which you have been made.
+
+Only those who have traversed the great plain of Texas can form a true
+estimate of its illimitable vastness; impressing the mind with
+sensations similar to those we feel in the contemplation of infinity.
+
+In some sense may the mariner comprehend my meaning.  Just as a ship may
+cross the Atlantic Ocean--and in tracks most frequented by sailing
+craft--without sighting a single sail, so upon the prairies of
+South-western Texas, the traveller may journey on for months, amid a
+solitude that seems eternal!
+
+Even the ocean itself does not give such an impression of endless space.
+Moving in its midst you perceive no change--no sign to tell you you are
+progressing.  The broad circular surface of azure blue, with the concave
+hemisphere of a tint but a few shades lighter, are always around and
+above you, seeming ever the same.  You think they _are_ so; and fancy
+yourself at rest in the centre of a sphere and a circle.  You are thus
+to some extent hindered from having a clear conception of "magnificent
+distances."
+
+On the prairie it is different.  The "landmarks"--there are such, in the
+shape of "mottes," mounds, trees, ridges, and rocks--constantly changing
+before your view, admonish you that you are passing through space; and
+this very knowledge imbues you with the idea of vastness.
+
+It is rare for the prairie traveller to contemplate such scenes alone--
+rarer still upon the plains of South-western Texas.  In twos at least--
+but oftener in companies of ten or a score--go they, whose need it is to
+tempt the perils of that wilderness claimed by the Comanches as
+ancestral soil.
+
+For all this, a solitary traveller may at times be encountered: for on
+the same night that witnessed the tender and stormy scenes in the garden
+of Casa del Corvo, no less than three such made the crossing of the
+plain that stretches south-westward from the banks of the Leona River.
+
+Just at the time that Calhoun was making his discontented departure from
+the _jacale_ of the Mexican mustanger, the foremost of these nocturnal
+travellers was clearing the outskirts of the village--going in a
+direction which, if followed far enough, would conduct him to the Nueces
+River, or one of its tributary streams.
+
+It is scarcely necessary to say, that he was on horseback.  In Texas
+there are no pedestrians, beyond the precincts of the town or
+plantation.
+
+The traveller in question bestrode a strong steed; whose tread, at once
+vigorous and elastic, proclaimed it capable of carrying its rider
+through a long journey, without danger of breaking down.
+
+Whether such a journey was intended, could not have been told by the
+bearing of the traveller himself.  He was equipped, as any Texan
+cavalier might have been, for a ten-mile ride--perhaps to his own house.
+The lateness of the hour forbade the supposition, that he could be
+going from it.  The serape on his shoulders--somewhat carelessly
+hanging--might have been only put on to protect them against the dews of
+the night.
+
+But as there was no dew on that particular night--nor any outlying
+settlement in the direction he was heading to--the horseman was more
+like to have been a real traveller--_en route_ for some distant point
+upon the prairies.
+
+For all this he did not appear to be in haste; or uneasy as to the hour
+at which he might reach his destination.
+
+On the contrary, he seemed absorbed in some thought, that linked itself
+with the past; sufficiently engrossing to render him unobservant of
+outward objects, and negligent in the management of his horse.
+
+The latter, with the rein lying loosely upon his neck, was left to take
+his own way; though instead of stopping, or straying, he kept steadily
+on, as if over ground oft trodden before.
+
+Thus leaving the animal to its own guidance, and pressing it neither
+with whip nor spur, the traveller rode tranquilly over the prairie, till
+lost to view--not by the intervention of any object, but solely through
+the dimness of the light, where the moon became misty in the far
+distance.
+
+Almost on the instant of his disappearance--and as if the latter had
+been taken for a cue--a second horseman spurred out from the suburbs of
+the village; and proceeded along the same path.
+
+From the fact of his being habited in a fashion to defend him against
+the chill air of the night, he too might have been taken for a
+traveller.
+
+A cloak clasped across his breast hung over his shoulders, its ample
+skirts draping backward to the hips of his horse.
+
+Unlike the horseman who had preceded him, he showed signs of haste--
+plying both whip and spur as he pressed on.
+
+He appeared intent on overtaking some one.  It might be the individual
+whose form had just faded out of sight?
+
+This was all the more probable from the style of his equitation--at
+short intervals bending forward in his saddle, and scanning the horizon
+before him, as if expecting to see some form outlined above the line of
+the sky.
+
+Continuing to advance in this peculiar fashion, he also disappeared from
+view--exactly at the same point, where his precursor had ceased to be
+visible--to any one whose gaze might have been following him from the
+Fort or village.
+
+An odd contingency--if such it were--that just at that very instant a
+third horseman rode forth from the outskirts of the little Texan town,
+and, like the other two, continued advancing in a direct line across the
+prairie.
+
+He, also, was costumed as if for a journey.  A "blanket-coat" of scarlet
+colour shrouded most of his person from sight--its ample skirts spread
+over his thighs, half concealing a short jager rifle, strapped aslant
+along the flap of his saddle.
+
+Like the foremost of the three, he exhibited no signs of a desire to
+move rapidly along the road.  He was proceeding at a slow pace--even for
+a traveller.  For all that, his manner betokened a state of mind far
+from tranquil; and in this respect he might be likened to the horseman
+who had more immediately preceded him.
+
+But there was an essential difference between the actions of the two
+men.  Whereas the cloaked cavalier appeared desirous of overtaking some
+one in advance, he in the red blanket coat seemed altogether to occupy
+himself in reconnoitring towards his rear.
+
+At intervals he would slue himself round in the stirrups--sometimes half
+turn his horse--and scan the track over which he had passed; all the
+while listening, as though he expected to hear some one who should be
+coming after him.
+
+Still keeping up this singular surveillance, he likewise in due time
+reached the point of disappearance, without having overtaken any one, or
+been himself overtaken.
+
+Though at nearly equal distances apart while making the passage of the
+prairie, not one of the three horsemen was within sight of either of the
+others.  The second, half-way between the other two, was beyond reach of
+the vision of either, as they were beyond his.
+
+At the same glance no eye could have taken in all three, or any two of
+them; unless it had been that of the great Texan owl perched upon the
+summit of some high eminence, or the "whip-poor-will" soaring still
+higher in pursuit of the moon-loving moth.
+
+An hour later, and at a point of the prairie ten miles farther from Fort
+Inge, the relative positions of the three travellers had undergone a
+considerable change.
+
+The foremost was just entering into a sort of alley or gap in the
+chapparal forest; which here extended right and left across the plain,
+far as the eye could trace it.  The alley might have been likened to a
+strait in the sea: its smooth turfed surface contrasting with the darker
+foliage of the bordering thickets; as water with dry land.  It was
+illumined throughout a part of its length--a half mile or so--the moon
+showing at its opposite extremity.  Beyond this the dark tree line
+closed it in, where it angled round into sombre shadow.
+
+Before entering the alley the foremost of the trio of travellers, and
+for the first time, exhibited signs of hesitation.  He reined up; and
+for a second or two sate in his saddle regarding the ground before him.
+His attention was altogether directed to the opening through the trees
+in his front.  He made no attempt at reconnoitring his rear.
+
+His scrutiny, from whatever cause, was of short continuance.
+
+Seemingly satisfied, he muttered an injunction to his horse, and rode
+onward into the gap.
+
+Though he saw not him, he was seen by the cavalier in the cloak,
+following upon the same track, and now scarce half a mile behind.
+
+The latter, on beholding him, gave utterance to a slight exclamation.
+
+It was joyful, nevertheless; as if he was gratified by the prospect of
+at length overtaking the individual whom he had been for ten miles so
+earnestly pursuing.
+
+Spurring his horse to a still more rapid pace, he also entered the
+opening; but only in time to get a glimpse of the other, just passing
+under the shadow of the trees, at the point where the avenue angled.
+
+Without hesitation, he rode after; soon disappearing at the same place,
+and in a similar manner.
+
+It was a longer interval before the third and hindmost of the horsemen
+approached the pass that led through the chapparal.
+
+He did approach it, however; but instead of riding into it, as the
+others had done, he turned off at an angle towards the edge of the
+timber; and, after leaving his horse among the trees, crossed a corner
+of the thicket, and came out into the opening on foot.
+
+Keeping along it--to all appearance still more solicitous about
+something that might be in his rear than anything that was in front of
+him--he at length arrived at the shadowy turning; where, like the two
+others, he abruptly disappeared in the darkness.
+
+An hour elapsed, during which the nocturnal voices of the chapparal--
+that had been twice temporarily silenced by the hoofstroke of a horse,
+and once by the footsteps of a man--had kept up their choral cries by a
+thousand stereotyped repetitions.
+
+Then there came a further interruption; more abrupt in its commencement,
+and of longer continuance.  It was caused by a sound, very different
+from that made by the passage of either horseman or pedestrian over the
+prairie turf.
+
+It was the report of a gun, quick, sharp, and clear--the "spang" that
+denotes the discharge of a rifle.
+
+As to the authoritative wave of the conductor's baton the orchestra
+yields instant obedience, so did the prairie minstrels simultaneously
+take their cue from that abrupt detonation, that inspired one and all of
+them with a peculiar awe.
+
+The tiger cat miaulling in the midst of the chapparal, the coyote
+howling along its skirts; even the jaguar who need not fear any forest
+foe that might approach him, acknowledged his dread of that quick, sharp
+explosion--to him unexplainable--by instantly discontinuing his cries.
+
+As no other sound succeeded the shot--neither the groan of a wounded
+man, nor the scream of a stricken animal--the jaguar soon recovered
+confidence, and once more essayed to frighten the denizens of the
+thicket with his hoarse growling.
+
+Friends and enemies--birds, beasts, insects, and reptiles--disregarding
+his voice in the distance, reassumed the thread of their choral strain;
+until the chapparal was restored to its normal noisy condition, when two
+individuals standing close together, can only hold converse by speaking
+in the highest pitch of their voices!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.
+
+A MAN MISSING.
+
+The breakfast bell of Casa del Corvo had sounded its second and last
+summons--preceded by a still earlier signal from a horn, intended to
+call in the stragglers from remote parts of the plantation.
+
+The "field hands" labouring near had collected around the "quarter;" and
+in groups, squatted upon the grass, or seated upon stray logs, were
+discussing their diet--by no means spare--of "hog and hominy" corn-bread
+and "corn-coffee," with a jocosity that proclaimed a keen relish of
+these, their ordinary comestibles.
+
+The planter's family assembled in the _sala_ were about to begin
+breakfast, when it was discovered that one of its members was missing.
+
+Henry was the absent one.
+
+At first there was but little notice taken of the circumstance.  Only
+the conjecture: that he would shortly make his appearance.
+
+As several minutes passed without his coming in, the planter quietly
+observed that it was rather strange of Henry to be behind time, and
+wonder where he could be.
+
+The breakfast of the South-western American is usually a well appointed
+meal.  It is eaten at a fixed hour, and _table-d'hote_ fashion--all the
+members of the family meeting at the table.
+
+This habit is exacted by a sort of necessity, arising out of the nature
+of some of the viands peculiar to the country; many of which, as
+"Virginia biscuit," "buckwheat cakes," and "waffles," are only relished
+coming fresh from, the fire: so that the hour when breakfast is being
+eaten in the dining-room, is that in which the cook is broiling her skin
+in the kitchen.
+
+As the laggard, or late riser, may have to put up with cold biscuit, and
+no waffles or buckwheat cakes, there are few such on a Southern
+plantation.
+
+Considering this custom, it _was_ somewhat strange, that Henry
+Poindexter had not yet put in an appearance.
+
+"Where can the boy be?" asked his father, for the fourth time, in that
+tone of mild conjecture that scarce calls for reply.
+
+None was made by either of the other two guests at the table.  Louise
+only gave expression to a similar conjecture.  For all that, there was a
+strangeness in her glance--as in the tone of her voice--that might have
+been observed by one closely scrutinising her features.
+
+It could scarce be caused by the absence of her brother from the
+breakfast-table?  The circumstance was too trifling to call up an
+emotion; and clearly at that moment was she subject to one.
+
+What was it?  No one put the inquiry.  Her father did not notice
+anything odd in her look.  Much less Calhoun, who was himself markedly
+labouring to conceal some disagreeable thought under the guise of an
+assumed _naivete_.
+
+Ever since entering the room he had maintained a studied silence;
+keeping his eyes averted, instead of, according to his usual custom,
+constantly straying towards his cousin.
+
+He sate nervously in his chair; and once or twice might have been seen
+to start, as a servant entered the room.
+
+Beyond doubt he was under the influence of some extraordinary agitation.
+
+"Very strange Henry not being here to his breakfast!" remarked the
+planter, for about the tenth time.  "Surely he is not abed till this
+hour?  No--no--he never lies so late.  And yet if abroad, he couldn't be
+at such a distance as not to have heard the horn.  He _may_ be in his
+room?  It is just possible.  Pluto!"
+
+"Ho--ho! d'ye call me, Mass' Woodley?  I'se hya."  The sable coachee,
+acting as table waiter, was in the _sala_, hovering around the chairs.
+
+"Go to Henry's sleeping-room.  If he's there, tell him we're at
+breakfast--half through with it."
+
+"He no dar, Mass' Woodley."
+
+"You have been to his room?"
+
+"Ho--ho!  Yas.  Dat am I'se no been to de room itseff; but I'se been to
+de 'table, to look atter Massa Henry hoss; an gib um him fodder an corn.
+Ho--ho!  Dat same ole hoss he ain't dar; nor han't a been all ob dis
+mornin'.  I war up by de fuss skreek ob day.  No hoss dar, no saddle, no
+bridle; and ob coass no Massa Henry.  Ho--ho!  He been an gone out 'fore
+anb'dy wor 'tirrin' 'bout de place."
+
+"Are you sure?" asked the planter, seriously stirred by the
+intelligence.
+
+"Satin, shoo, Mass' Woodley.  Dar's no hoss doins in dat ere 'table,
+ceppin de sorrel ob Massa Cahoon.  Spotty am in de 'closure outside.
+Massa Henry hoss ain't nowha."
+
+"It don't follow that Master Henry himself is not in his room.  Go
+instantly, and see!"
+
+"Ho--ho!  I'se go on de instum, massr; but f'r all dat dis chile no
+speck find de young genl'um dar.  Ho! ho! wha'ebber de ole hoss am, darr
+Massr Henry am too."
+
+"There's something strange in all this," pursued the planter, as Pluto
+shuffled out of the sala.  "Henry from home; and at night too.  Where
+can he have gone?  I can't think of any one he would be visiting at such
+unseasonable hours!  He must have been out all night, or very early,
+according to the nigger's account!  At the Port, I suppose, with those
+young fellows.  Not at the tavern, I hope?"
+
+"Oh, no!  He wouldn't go there," interposed Calhoun, who appeared as
+much mystified by the absence of Henry as was Poindexter himself.  He
+refrained, however, from suggesting any explanation, or saying aught of
+the scenes to which he had been witness on the preceding night.
+
+"It is to be hoped _he_ knows nothing of it," reflected the young
+Creole.  "If not, it may still remain a secret between brother and
+myself.  I think I can manage Henry.  But why is he still absent?  I've
+sate up all night waiting for him.  He must have overtaken Maurice, and
+they have fraternised.  I hope so; even though the tavern may have been
+the scene of their reconciliation.  Henry is not much given to
+dissipation; but after such a burst of passion, followed by his sudden
+repentance, he may have strayed from his usual habits?  Who could blame
+him if he has?  There can be little harm in it: since he has gone astray
+in good company?"
+
+How far the string of reflections might have extended it is not easy to
+say: since it did not reach its natural ending.
+
+It was interrupted by the reappearance of Pluto; whose important air, as
+he re-entered the room, proclaimed him the bearer of eventful tidings.
+
+"Well!" cried his master, without waiting for him to speak, "is he
+there?"
+
+"No, Mass' Woodley," replied the black, in a voice that betrayed a large
+measure of emotion, "he are not dar--Massa Henry am not.  But--but," he
+hesitatingly continued, "dis chile grieb to say dat--dat--_him hoss am
+dar_."
+
+"His horse there!  Not in his sleeping-room, I suppose?"
+
+"No, massa; nor in de 'table neider; but out da, by de big gate."
+
+"His horse at the gate?  And why, pray, do you grieve about that?"
+
+"'Ecause, Mass' Woodley, 'ecause de hoss--dat am Massa Henry
+hoss--'ecause de anymal--"
+
+"Speak out, you stammering nigger!  What because?  I suppose the horse
+has his head upon him?  Or is it his tail that is missing?"
+
+"Ah, Mass' Woodley, dis nigga fear dat am missin' wuss dan eider him
+head or him tail.  I'se feer'd dat de ole hoss hab loss him rider!"
+
+"What!  Henry thrown from his horse?  Nonsense, Pluto!  My son is too
+good a rider for that.  Impossible that _he_ should have been pitched
+out of the saddle--impossible!"
+
+"Ho! ho!  I doan say he war frown out ob de saddle.  Gorramity!  I fear
+de trouble wuss dan dat.  O! dear ole Massa, I tell you no mo'.  Come to
+de gate ob do hashashanty, and see fo youseff."
+
+By this time the impression conveyed by Pluto's speech--much more by his
+manner--notwithstanding its ambiguity, had become sufficiently alarming;
+and not only the planter himself, but his daughter and nephew, hastily
+forsaking their seats, and preceded by the sable coachman, made their
+way to the outside gate of the hacienda.
+
+A sight was there awaiting them, calculated to inspire all three with
+the most terrible apprehensions.
+
+A negro man--one of the field slaves of the plantation--stood holding a
+horse, that was saddled and bridled.  The animal wet with the dews of
+the night, and having been evidently uncared for in any stable, was
+snorting and stamping the ground, as if but lately escaped from some
+scene of excitement, in which he had been compelled to take part.
+
+He was speckled with a colour darker than that of the dewdrops--darker
+than his own coat of bay-brown.  The spots scattered over his
+shoulders--the streaks that ran parallel with the downward direction of
+his limbs, the blotches showing conspicuously on the saddle-flaps, were
+all of the colour of coagulated blood.  Blood had caused them--spots,
+streaks, and blotches!
+
+Whence came that horse?
+
+From the prairies.  The negro had caught him, on the outside plain, as,
+with the bridle trailing among his feet, he was instinctively straying
+towards the hacienda.
+
+To whom did he belong?
+
+The question was not asked.  All present knew him to be the horse of
+Henry Poindexter.
+
+Nor did any one ask whose blood bedaubed the saddle-flaps.  The three
+individuals most interested could think only of that one, who stood to
+them in the triple relationship of son, brother, and cousin.
+
+The dark red spots on which they were distractedly gazing had spurted
+from the veins of Henry Poindexter.  They had no other thought.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.
+
+THE AVENGERS.
+
+Hastily--perhaps too truly--construing the sinister evidence, the
+half-frantic father leaped into the bloody saddle, and galloped direct
+for the Fort.
+
+Calhoun, upon his own horse, followed close after.
+
+The hue and cry soon spread abroad.  Rapid riders carried it up and down
+the river, to the remotest plantations of the settlement.
+
+The Indians were out, and near at hand, reaping their harvest of scalps!
+That of young Poindexter was the firstfruits of their sanguinary
+gleaning!
+
+Henry Poindexter--the noble generous youth who had not an enemy in all
+Texas!  Who but Indians could have spilled such innocent blood?  Only
+the Comanches could have been so cruel?
+
+Among the horsemen, who came quickly together on the parade ground of
+Port Inge, no one doubted that the Comanches had done the deed.  It was
+simply a question of how, when, and where.
+
+The blood drops pretty clearly, proclaimed the first.  He who had shed
+them must have been shot, or speared, while sitting in his saddle.  They
+were mostly on the off side; where they presented an appearance, as if
+something had been slaked over them.  This was seen both on the
+shoulders of the horse, and the flap of the saddle.  Of course it was
+the body of the rider as it slipped lifeless to the earth.
+
+There were some who spoke with equal certainty as to the time--old
+frontiersmen experienced in such matters.
+
+According to them the blood was scarce "ten hours old:" in other words,
+must have been shed about ten hours before.
+
+It was now noon.  The murder must have been committed at _two_ o'clock
+in the morning.
+
+The third query was, perhaps, the most important--at least now that the
+deed was done.
+
+_Where_ had it been done?  Where was the body to be found?
+
+After that, where should the assassins be sought for?
+
+These were the questions discussed by the mixed council of settlers and
+soldiers, hastily assembled at Port Inge, and presided over by the
+commandant of the Fort--the afflicted father standing speechless by his
+side.
+
+The last was of special importance.  There are thirty-two points in the
+compass of the prairies, as well as in that which guides the ocean
+wanderer; and, therefore, in any expedition going in search of a
+war-party of Comanches, there would be thirty-two chances to one against
+its taking the right track.
+
+It mattered not that the home of these nomadic savages was in the west.
+That was a wide word; and signified anywhere within a semicircle of some
+hundreds of miles.
+
+Besides, the Indians were now upon the _war-trail_; and, in an isolated
+settlement such as that of the Leona, as likely to make their appearance
+from the east.  More likely, indeed, since such is a common strategic
+trick of these astute warriors.
+
+To have ridden forth at random would have been sheer folly; with such
+odds against going the right way, as thirty-two to one.
+
+A proposal to separate the command into several parties, and proceed in
+different directions, met with little favour from any one.  It was
+directly negatived by the major himself.
+
+The murderers might be a thousand, the avengers were but the tenth of
+that number: consisting of some fifty dragoons who chanced to be in
+garrison, with about as many mounted civilians.  The party must be kept
+together, or run the risk of being attacked, and perhaps cut off, in
+detail!
+
+The argument was deemed conclusive.  Even, the bereaved father--and
+cousin, who appeared equally the victim of a voiceless grief--consented
+to shape their course according to the counsels of the more prudent
+majority, backed by the authority of the major himself.
+
+It was decided that the searchers should proceed in a body.
+
+In what direction?  This still remained the subject of discussion.
+
+The thoughtful captain of infantry now became a conspicuous figure, by
+suggesting that some inquiry should be made, as to what direction had
+been last taken by the man who was supposed to be murdered.  Who last
+saw Henry Poindexter?
+
+His father and cousin were first appealed to.
+
+The former had last seen his son at the supper table; and supposed him
+to have gone thence to his bed.
+
+The answer of Calhoun was less direct, and, perhaps, less satisfactory.
+He had conversed with his cousin at a later hour, and had bidden him
+good night, under the impression that he was retiring to his room.
+
+Why was Calhoun concealing what had really occurred?  Why did he refrain
+from giving a narration of that garden scene to which he had been
+witness?
+
+Was it, that he feared humiliation by disclosing the part he had himself
+played?
+
+Whatever was the reason, the truth was shunned; and an answer given, the
+sincerity of which was suspected by more than one who listened to it.
+
+The evasiveness might have been more apparent, had there been any reason
+for suspicion, or had the bystanders been allowed longer time to reflect
+upon it.
+
+While the inquiry was going on, light came in from a quartet hitherto
+unthought of.  The landlord of the Rough and Ready, who had come
+uncalled to the council, after forcing his way through the crowd,
+proclaimed himself willing to communicate some facts worth their
+hearing--in short, the very facts they were endeavouring to find out:
+when Henry Poindexter had been last seen, and what the direction he had
+taken.
+
+Oberdoffer's testimony, delivered in a semi-Teutonic tongue, was to the
+effect: that Maurice the mustanger--who had been staying at his hotel
+ever since his fight with Captain Calhoun--had that night ridden out at
+a late hour, as he had done for several nights before.
+
+He had returned to the hotel at a still later hour; and finding it
+open--on account of a party of _bons vivants_ who had supped there--had
+done that which he had not done for a long time before--demanded his
+bill, and to Old Duffer's astonishment--as the latter naively
+confessed--settled every cent of it!
+
+Where he had procured the money "Gott" only knew, or why he left the
+hotel in such a hurry.  Oberdoffer himself only knew that he had left
+it, and taken all his `trapsh' along with him--just as he was in the
+habit of doing, whenever he went off upon one of his horse-catching
+expeditions.
+
+On one of these the village Boniface supposed him to have gone.
+
+What had all this to do with the question before the council?  Much
+indeed; though it did not appear till the last moment of his
+examination, when the witness revealed the more pertinent facts:--that
+about twenty minutes after the mustanger had taken his departure from
+the hotel, "Heinrich Poindexter" knocked at the door, and inquired after
+Mr Maurice Gerald;--that on being told the latter was gone, as also the
+time, and probable direction he had taken, the "young gentlemans" rode
+off a a quick pace, as if with the intention of overtaking him.
+
+This was all Mr Oberdoffer knew of the matter; and all he could be
+expected to tell.
+
+The intelligence, though containing several points but ill understood,
+was nevertheless a guide to the expeditionary party.  It furnished a
+sort of clue to the direction they ought to take.  If the missing man
+had gone off with Maurice the mustanger, or after him, he should be
+looked for on the road the latter himself would be likely to have taken.
+
+Did any one know where the horse-hunter had his home?
+
+No one could state the exact locality; though there were several who
+believed it was somewhere among the head-waters of the Nueces, on a
+creek called the "Alamo."
+
+To the Alamo, then, did they determine upon proceeding in quest of the
+missing man, or his dead body--perhaps, also, to find that of Maurice
+the mustanger; and, at the same time, avenge upon the savage assassins
+two murders instead of one.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY NINE.
+
+THE POOL OF BLOOD.
+
+Notwithstanding its number--larger than usual for a party of borderers
+merely in search of a strayed neighbour--the expedition pursued its way
+with, considerable caution.
+
+There was reason.  The Indians were upon the war-trail.  Scouts were
+sent out in advance; and professed "trackers" employed to pick up, and
+interpret the "sign."
+
+On the prairie, extending nearly ten miles to the westward of the Leona,
+no trail was discovered.  The turf, hard and dry, only showed the tracks
+of a horse when going in a gallop.  None such were seen along the route.
+
+At ten miles' distance from the Fort the plain is traversed by a tract
+of chapparal, running north-west and south-east.  It is a true Texan
+jungle, laced by llianas, and almost impenetrable for man and horse.
+
+Through this jungle, directly opposite the Fort, there is an opening,
+through which passes a path--the shortest that leads to the head waters
+of the Nueces.  It is a sort of natural avenue among the trees that
+stand closely crowded on each side, but refrain from meeting.  It may be
+artificial: some old "war-trail" of the Comanches, erst trodden by their
+expeditionary parties on the maraud to Tamaulipas, Coahuila, or New
+Leon.
+
+The trackers knew that it conducted to the Alamo; and, therefore, guided
+the expedition into it.
+
+Shortly after entering among the trees, one of the latter, who had gone
+afoot in the advance, was seen standing by the edge of the thicket, as
+if waiting to announce some recently discovered fact.
+
+"What is it?" demanded the major, spurring ahead of the others, and
+riding up to the tracker.  "Sign?"
+
+"Ay, that there is, major; and plenty of it.  Look there!  In that bit
+of sottish ground you see--"
+
+"The tracks of a horse."
+
+"Of two horses, major," said the man, correcting the officer with an air
+of deference.
+
+"True.  There are two."
+
+"Farther on they become four; though they're all made by the same two
+horses.  They have gone up this openin' a bit, and come back again."
+
+"Well, Spangler, my good fellow; what do you make of it?"
+
+"Not much," replied Spangler, who was one of the paid scouts of the
+cantonment; "not much of _that_; I hav'n't been far enough up the
+openin' to make out what it means--only far enough to know that _a man
+has been murdered_."
+
+"What proof have you of what you say?  Is there a dead body?"
+
+"No.  Not as much as the little finger; not even a hair of the head, so
+fur as I can see."
+
+"What then?"
+
+"Blood, a regular pool of it--enough to have cleared out the carcass of
+a hull buffalo.  Come and see for yourself.  But," continued the scout
+in a muttered undertone, "if you wish me to follow up the sign as it
+ought to be done, you'll order the others to stay back--'specially them
+as are now nearest you."
+
+This observation appeared to be more particularly pointed at the planter
+and his nephew; as the tracker, on making it, glanced furtively towards
+both.
+
+"By all means," replied the major.  "Yes, Spangler, you shall have every
+facility for your work.  Gentlemen! may I request you to remain where
+you are for a few minutes.  My tracker, here, has to go through a
+performance that requires him to have the ground to himself.  He can
+only take me along with him."
+
+Of course the major's request was a command, courteously conveyed, to
+men who were not exactly his subordinates.  It was obeyed, however, just
+as if they had been; and one and all kept their places, while the
+officer, following his scout, rode away from the ground.
+
+About fifty yards further on, Spangler came to a stand.
+
+"You see that, major?" said he, pointing to the ground.
+
+"I should be blind if I didn't," replied the officer.  "A pool of
+blood--as you say, big enough to have emptied the veins of a buffalo.
+If it has come from those of a man, I should say that whoever shed it is
+no longer in the land of the living."
+
+"Dead!" pronounced the tracker.  "Dead before that blood had turned
+purple--as it is now."
+
+"Whose do you think it is, Spangler?"
+
+"That of the man we're in search of--the son of the old gentleman down
+there.  That's why I didn't wish him to come forward."
+
+"He may as well know the worst.  He must find it out in time."
+
+"True what you say, major; but we had better first find out how the
+young fellow has come to be thrown in his tracks.  That's what is
+puzzling me."
+
+"How! by the Indians, of course?  The Comanches have done it?"
+
+"Not a bit of it," rejoined the scout, with an air of confidence.
+
+"Hu! why do you say that, Spangler?"
+
+"Because, you see, if the Indyins had a been here, there would be forty
+horse-tracks instead of four, and them made by only two horses."
+
+"There's truth in that.  It isn't likely a single Comanch would have had
+the daring, even to assassinate--"
+
+"No Comanche, major, no Indyin of any kind committed this murder.  There
+are two horse-tracks along the opening.  As you see, both are shod; and
+they're the same that have come back again.  Comanches don't ride shod
+horses, except when they've stolen them.  Both these were ridden by
+white men.  One set of the tracks has been made by a mustang, though it
+it was a big 'un.  The other is the hoof of an American horse.  Goin'
+west the mustang was foremost; you can tell that by the overlap.  Comin'
+back the States horse was in the lead, the other followin' him; though
+it's hard to say how fur behind.  I may be able to tell better, if we
+keep on to the place whar both must have turned back.  It can't be a
+great ways off."
+
+"Let us proceed thither, then," said the major.  "I shall command the
+people to stay where they are."
+
+Having issued the command, in a voice loud enough to be heard by his
+following, the major rode away from the bloodstained spot, preceded by
+the tracker.
+
+For about four hundred yards further on, the two sets of tracks were
+traceable; but by the eye of the major, only where the turf was softer
+under the shadow of the trees.  So far--the scout said the horses had
+passed and returned in the order already declared by him:--that is, the
+mustang in the lead while proceeding westward, and in the rear while
+going in the opposite direction.
+
+At this point the trail ended--both horses, as was already known, having
+returned on their own tracks.
+
+Before taking the back track, however, they had halted, and stayed some
+time in the same place--under the branches of a spreading cottonwood.
+The turf, much trampled around the trunk of the tree, was evidence of
+this.
+
+The tracker got off his horse to examine it; and, stooping to the earth,
+carefully scrutinised the sign.
+
+"They've been here thegither," said he, after several minutes spent in
+his analysis, "and for some time; though neither's been out of the
+saddle.  They've been on friendly terms, too; which makes it all the
+more unexplainable.  They must have quarrelled afterwards."
+
+"If you are speaking the truth, Spangler, you must be a witch.  How on
+earth can you know all that?"
+
+"By the sign, major; by the sign.  It's simple enough.  I see the shoes
+of both horses lapping over each other a score of times; and in such a
+way that shows they must have been thegither--the animals, it might be,
+restless and movin' about.  As for the time, they've taken long enough
+to smoke a cigar apiece--close to the teeth too.  Here are the stumps;
+not enough left to fill a fellow's pipe."
+
+The tracker, stooping as he spoke, picked up a brace of cigar stumps,
+and handed them to the major.
+
+"By the same token," he continued, "I conclude that the two horsemen,
+whoever they were, while under this tree could not have had any very
+hostile feelins, the one to the tother.  Men don't smoke in company with
+the design of cutting each other's throats, or blowing out one another's
+brains, the instant afterwards.  The trouble between them must have come
+on after the cigars were smoked out.  That it did come there can be no
+doubt.  As sure, major, as you're sittin' in your saddle, one of them
+has wiped out the other.  I can only guess which has been wiped out, by
+the errand we're on.  Poor Mr Poindexter will niver more see his son
+alive."
+
+"'Tis very mysterious," remarked the major.
+
+"It is, by jingo!"
+
+"And the body, too; where can _it_ be?"
+
+"That's what purplexes me most of all.  If 't had been Indyins, I
+wouldn't a thought much o' its being missin'.  They might a carried the
+man off wi them to make a target of him, if only wounded; and if dead,
+to eat him, maybe.  But there's been no Indyins here--not a redskin.
+Take my word for it, major, one o' the two men who rid these horses has
+wiped out the other; and sartinly he _have_ wiped him out in the
+litterlest sense o' the word.  What he's done wi' the body beats me; and
+perhaps only hisself can tell."
+
+"Most strange!" exclaimed the major, pronouncing the words with
+emphasis--"most mysterious!"
+
+"It's possible we may yet unravel some o' the mystery," pursued
+Spangler.  "We must follow up the tracks of the horses, after they
+started from this--that is, from where the deed was done.  We may make
+something out of that.  There's nothing more to be learnt here.  We may
+as well go back, major.  Am I to tell _him_?"
+
+"Mr Poindexter, you mean?"
+
+"Yes.  You are convinced that his son is the man who has been murdered?"
+
+"Oh, no; not so much as that comes to.  Only convinced that the horse
+the old gentleman is now riding is one of the two that's been over this
+ground last night--the States horse I feel sure.  I have compared the
+tracks; and if young Poindexter was the man who was on _his back_, I
+fear there's not much chance for the poor fellow.  It looks ugly that
+the other _rid after_ him."
+
+"Spangler! have you any suspicion as to who the other may be?"
+
+"Not a spark, major.  If't hadn't been for the tale of Old Duffer I'd
+never have thought of Maurice the mustanger.  True, it's the track o' a
+shod mustang; but I don't know it to be hisn.  Surely it can't be?  The
+young Irishman aint the man to stand nonsense from nobody; but as little
+air he the one to do a deed like this--that is, if it's been
+cold-blooded killin'."
+
+"I think as you about that."
+
+"And you may think so, major.  If young Poindexter's been killed, and by
+Maurice Gerald, there's been a fair stand-up fight atween them, and the
+planter's son has gone under.  That's how I shed reckon it up.  As to
+the disappearance o' the dead body--for them two quarts o' blood could
+only have come out o' a body that's now dead--that _trees me_.  We must
+follow the trail, howsoever; and maybe it'll fetch us to some sensible
+concloosion.  Am I to tell the old gentleman what I think o't?"
+
+"Perhaps better not.  He knows enough already.  It will at least fall
+lighter upon him if he find things out by piecemeal.  Say nothing of
+what we've seen.  If you can take up the trail of the two horses after
+going off from the place where the blood is, I shall manage to bring the
+command after you without any one suspecting what we've seen."
+
+"All right, major," said the scout, "I think I can guess where the off
+trail goes.  Give me ten minutes upon it, and then come on to my
+signal."
+
+So saying the tracker rode back to the "place of blood;" and after what
+appeared a very cursory examination, turned off into a lateral opening
+in the chapparal.
+
+Within the promised time his shrill whistle announced that he was nearly
+a mile distant, and in a direction altogether different from the spot
+that had been profaned by some sanguinary scene.
+
+On hearing the signal, the commander of the expedition--who had in the
+meantime returned to his party--gave orders to advance; while he
+himself, with Poindexter and the other principal men, moved ahead,
+without his revealing to any one of his retinue the chapter of strange
+disclosures for which he was indebted to the "instincts" of his tracker.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY.
+
+THE MARKED BULLET.
+
+Before coming up with the scout, an incident occurred to vary the
+monotony of the march.  Instead of keeping along the avenue, the major
+had conducted his command in a diagonal direction through the chapparal.
+He had done this to avoid giving unnecessary pain to the afflicted
+father; who would otherwise have looked upon the life-blood of his son,
+or at least what the major believed to be so.  The gory spot was
+shunned, and as the discovery was not yet known to any other save the
+major himself, and the tracker who had made it, the party moved on in
+ignorance of the existence of such a dread sign.
+
+The path they were now pursuing was a mere cattle-track, scarce broad
+enough for two to ride abreast.  Here and there were glades where it
+widened out for a few yards, again running into the thorny chapparal.
+
+On entering one of these glades, an animal sprang out of the bushes, and
+bounded off over the sward.  A beautiful creature it was, with its
+fulvous coat ocellated with rows of shining rosettes; its strong lithe
+limbs supporting a smooth cylindrical body, continued into a long
+tapering tail; the very type of agility; a creature rare even in these
+remote solitudes--the jaguar.
+
+Its very rarity rendered it the more desirable as an object to test the
+skill of the marksman; and, notwithstanding the serious nature of the
+expedition, two of the party were tempted to discharge their rifles at
+the retreating animal.
+
+They were Cassius Calhoun, and a young planter who was riding by his
+side.
+
+The jaguar dropped dead in its tracks: a bullet having entered its body,
+and traversed the spine in a longitudinal direction.
+
+Which of the two was entitled to the credit of the successful shot?
+Calhoun claimed it, and so did the young planter.
+
+The shots had been fired simultaneously, and only one of them had hit.
+
+"I shall show you," confidently asserted the ex-officer, dismounting
+beside the dead jaguar, and unsheathing his knife.  "You see, gentlemen,
+the ball is still in the animal's body?  If it's mine, you'll find my
+initials on it--C.C.--with a crescent.  I mould my bullets so that I can
+always tell when I've killed my game."
+
+The swaggering air with which he held up the leaden missile after
+extracting it told that he had spoken the truth.  A few of the more
+curious drew near and examined the bullet.  Sure enough it was moulded
+as Calhoun had declared, and the dispute ended in the discomfiture of
+the young planter.
+
+The party soon after came up with the tracker, waiting to conduct them
+along a fresh trail.
+
+It was no longer a track made by two horses, with shod hooves.  The turf
+showed only the hoof-marks of one; and so indistinctly, that at times
+they were undiscernible to all eyes save those of the tracker himself.
+
+The trace carried them through the thicket, from glade to glade--after a
+circuitous march--bringing them back into the lane-like opening, at a
+point still further to the west.
+
+Spangler--though far from being the most accomplished of his calling--
+took it; up as fast as the people could ride after him.  In his own mind
+he had determined the character of the animal whose footmarks he was
+following.  He knew it to be a mustang--the same that had stood under
+the cottonwood whilst its rider was smoking a cigar--the same whose
+hoof-mark he had seen deeply indented in a sod saturated with human
+blood.
+
+The track of the States horse he had also followed for a short
+distance--in the interval, when he was left alone.  He saw that it would
+conduct him back to the prairie through which they had passed; and
+thence, in all likelihood, to the settlements on the Leona.
+
+He had forsaken it to trace the footsteps of the shod mustang; more
+likely to lead him to an explanation of that red mystery of murder--
+perhaps to the den of the assassin.
+
+Hitherto perplexed by the hoof-prints of two horses alternately
+overlapping each other, he was not less puzzled now, while scrutinising
+the tracks of but one.
+
+They went not direct, as those of an animal urged onwards upon a
+journey; but here and there zigzagging; occasionally turning upon
+themselves in short curves; then forward for a stretch; and then
+circling again, as if the mustang was either not mounted, or its rider
+was asleep in the saddle!
+
+Could these be the hoof-prints of a horse with a man upon his back--an
+assassin skulking away from the scene of assassination, his conscience
+freshly excited by the crime?
+
+Spangler did not think so.  He knew not what to think.  He was mystified
+more than ever.  So confessed he to the major, when being questioned as
+to the character of the trail.
+
+A spectacle that soon afterwards came under his eyes--simultaneously
+seen by every individual of the party--so far from solving the mystery,
+had the effect of rendering it yet more inexplicable.
+
+More than this.  What had hitherto been but an ambiguous affair--a
+subject for guess and speculation--was suddenly transformed into a
+horror; of that intense kind that can only spring from thoughts of the
+supernatural.
+
+No one could say that this feeling of horror had arisen without reason.
+
+When a man is seen mounted on a horse's back, seated firmly in the
+saddle, with limbs astride in the stirrups, body erect, and hand holding
+the rein--in short, everything in air and attitude required of a rider;
+when, on closer scrutiny, it is observed: that there is something
+wanting to complete the idea of a perfect equestrian; and, on still
+closer scrutiny, that this something is the _head_, it would be strange
+if the spectacle did not startle the beholder, terrifying him to the
+very core of his heart.
+
+And this very sight came before their eyes; causing them simultaneously
+to rein up, and with as much suddenness, as if each had rashly ridden
+within less than his horse's length of the brink of an abyss!
+
+The sun was low down, almost on a level with the sward.  Facing
+westward, his disc was directly before them.  His rays, glaring redly in
+their eyes, hindered them from having a very accurate view, towards the
+quarter of the west.  Still could they see that strange shape above
+described--a horseman without a head!
+
+Had only one of the party declared himself to have seen it, he would
+have been laughed at by his companions as a lunatic.  Even two might
+have been stigmatised in a similar manner.
+
+But what everybody saw at the same time, could not be questioned; and
+only he would have been thought crazed, who should have expressed
+incredulity about the presence of the abnormal phenomenon.
+
+No one did.  The eyes of all were turned in the same direction, their
+gaze intently fixed on what was either a horseman without the head, or
+the best counterfeit that could have been contrived.
+
+Was it this?  If not, what was it?
+
+These interrogatories passed simultaneously through the minds of all.
+As no one could answer them, even to himself, no answer was vouchsafed.
+Soldiers and civilians sate silent in their saddles--each expecting an
+explanation, which the other was unable to supply.
+
+There could be heard only mutterings, expressive of surprise and terror.
+No one even offered a conjecture.
+
+The headless horseman, whether phantom or real, when first seen, was
+about entering the avenue--near the debouchure of which the searchers
+had arrived.  Had he continued his course, he must have met them in the
+teeth--supposing their courage to have been equal to the encounter.
+
+As it was, he had halted at the same instant as themselves; and stood
+regarding them with a mistrust that may have been mutual.
+
+There was an interval of silence on both sides, during which a cigar
+stump might have been heard falling upon the sward.  It was then the
+strange apparition was most closely scrutinised by those who had the
+courage: for the majority of the men sate shivering in their stirrups--
+through sheer terror, incapable even of thought!
+
+The few who dared face the mystery, with any thought of accounting for
+it, were baffled in their investigation by the glare of the setting sun.
+They could only see that there was a horse of large size and noble
+shape, with a man upon his back.  The figure of the man was less easily
+determined, on account of the limbs being inserted into overalls, while
+his shoulders were enveloped in an ample cloak-like covering.
+
+What signified his shape, so long as it wanted that portion most
+essential to existence?  A man without a head--on horseback, sitting
+erect in the saddle, in an attitude of ease and grace--with spurs
+sparkling upon his heels--the bridle-rein held in one hand--the other
+where it should be, resting lightly upon his thigh!
+
+Great God! what could it mean?
+
+Was it a phantom?  Surely it could not be human?
+
+They who viewed it were not the men to have faith either in phantoms, or
+phantasmagoria.  Many of them had met Nature in her remotest solitudes,
+and wrestled with her in her roughest moods.  They were not given to a
+belief in ghosts.
+
+But the confidence of the most incredulous was shaken by a sight so
+strange--so absolutely unnatural--and to such an extent, that the
+stoutest hearted of the party was forced mentally to repeat the words:--
+
+"_Is it a phantom?  Surely it cannot be human_?"
+
+Its size favoured the idea of the supernatural.  It appeared double that
+of an ordinary man upon an ordinary horse.  It was more like a giant on
+a gigantic steed; though this might have been owing to the illusory
+light under which it was seen--the refraction of the sun's rays passing
+horizontally through the tremulous atmosphere of the parched plain.
+
+There was but little time to philosophise--not enough to complete a
+careful scrutiny of the unearthly apparition, which every one present,
+with hand spread over his eyes to shade them from the dazzling glare,
+was endeavouring to make.
+
+Nothing of colour could be noted--neither the garments of the man, nor
+the hairy coat of the horse.  Only the shape could be traced, outlined
+in sable silhouette against the golden background of the sky; and this
+in every change of attitude, whether fronting the spectators, or turned
+stern towards them, was still the same--still that inexplicable
+phenomenon: _a horseman without a head_!
+
+Was it a phantom?  Surely it could not be human?
+
+"'Tis old Nick upon horseback!" cried a fearless frontiersman, who would
+scarce have quailed to encounter his Satanic majesty even in that guise.
+"By the 'tarnal Almighty, it's the devil himself."
+
+The boisterous laugh which succeeded the profane utterance of the
+reckless speaker, while it only added to the awe of his less courageous
+comrades, appeared to produce an effect on the headless horseman.
+Wheeling suddenly round--his horse at the same time sending forth a
+scream that caused either the earth or the atmosphere to tremble--he
+commenced galloping away.
+
+He went direct towards the sun; and continued this course, until only by
+his motion could he be distinguished from one of those spots that have
+puzzled the philosopher--at length altogether disappearing, as though he
+had ridden into the dazzling disc!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY ONE.
+
+CUATRO CAVALLEROS.
+
+The party of searchers, under the command of the major, was not the only
+one that went forth from Fort Inge on that eventful morning.
+
+Nor was it the earliest to take saddle.  Long before--in fact close
+following the dawn of day--a much smaller party, consisting of only four
+horsemen, was seen setting out from the suburbs of the village, and
+heading their horses in the direction of the Nueces.
+
+These could not be going in search of the dead body of Henry Poindexter.
+At that hour no one suspected that the young man was dead, or even that
+he was missing.  The riderless horse had not yet come in to tell the
+tale of woe.  The settlement was still slumbering, unconscious that
+innocent blood had been spilt.
+
+Though setting out from nearly the same point, and proceeding in a like
+direction, there was not the slightest similarity between the two
+parties of mounted men.  Those earliest a-start were all of pure Iberian
+blood; or this commingled with Aztecan.  In other words they were
+Mexicans.
+
+It required neither skill nor close scrutiny to discover this.  A glance
+at themselves and their horses, their style of equitation, the slight
+muscular development of their thighs and hips--more strikingly
+observable in their deep-tree saddles--the gaily coloured serapes
+shrouding their shoulders, the wide velveteen calzoneros on their legs,
+the big spurs on their boots, and broad-brimmed sombreros on their
+heads, declared them either Mexicans, or men who had adopted the Mexican
+costume.
+
+That they were the former there was not a question.  The sallow hue; the
+pointed Vandyke beard, covering the chin, sparsely--though not from any
+thinning by the shears--the black, close-cropped _chevelure_; the
+regular facial outline, were all indisputable characteristics of the
+Hispano-Moro-Aztecan race, who now occupy the ancient territory of the
+Moctezumas.
+
+One of the four was a man of larger frame than any of his companions.
+He rode a better horse; was more richly apparelled; carried upon his
+person arms and equipments of a superior finish; and was otherwise
+distinguished, so as to leave no doubt about his being the leader of the
+_cuartilla_.
+
+He was a man of between thirty and forty years of age, nearer to the
+latter than the former; though a smooth, rounded cheek--furnished with a
+short and carefully trimmed whisker--gave him the appearance of being
+younger than he was.
+
+But for a cold animal eye, and a heaviness of feature that betrayed a
+tendency to behave with brutality--if not with positive cruelty--the
+individual in question might have been described as handsome.
+
+A well formed mouth, with twin rows of white teeth between the lips,
+even when these were exhibited in a smile, did not remove this
+unpleasant impression.  It but reminded the beholder of the sardonic
+grin that may have been given by Satan, when, after the temptation had
+succeeded, he gazed contemptuously back upon the mother of mankind.
+
+It was not his looks that had led to his having become known among his
+comrades by a peculiar nick-name; that of an animal well known upon the
+plains of Texas.
+
+His deeds and disposition had earned for him the unenviable soubriquet
+"El Coyote."
+
+How came he to be crossing the prairie at this early hour of the
+morning--apparently sober, and acting as the leader of others--when on
+the same morning, but a few hours before, he was seen drunk in his
+jacale--so drunk as to be unconscious of having a visitor, or, at all
+events, incapable of giving that visitor a civil reception?
+
+The change of situation though sudden--and to some extent strange--is
+not so difficult of explanation.  It will be understood after an account
+has been given of his movements, from the time of Calhoun's leaving him,
+till the moment of meeting him in the saddle, in company with his three
+_conpaisanos_.
+
+On riding away from his hut, Calhoun had left the door, as he had found
+it, ajar; and in this way did it remain until the morning--El Coyote all
+the time continuing his sonorous slumber.
+
+At daybreak he was aroused by the raw air that came drifting over him in
+the shape of a chilly fog.  This to some extent sobered him; and,
+springing up from his skin-covered truck, he commenced staggering over
+the floor--all the while uttering anathemas against the cold, and the
+door for letting it in.
+
+It might be expected that he would have shut to the latter on the
+instant; but he did not.  It was the only aperture, excepting some holes
+arising from dilapidation, by which light was admitted into the interior
+of the jacale; and light he wanted, to enable him to carry out the
+design that had summoned him to his feet.
+
+The grey dawn, just commencing to creep in through the open doorway,
+scarce sufficed for his purpose; and it was only after a good while
+spent in groping about, interspersed with a series of stumblings, and
+accompanied by a string of profane exclamations, that he succeeded in
+finding that he was searching for: a large two-headed gourd, with a
+strap around its middle, used as a canteen for carrying water, or more
+frequently _mezcal_.
+
+The odour escaping from its uncorked end told that it had recently
+contained this potent spirit; but that it was now empty, was announced
+by another profane ejaculation that came from the lips of its owner, as
+he made the discovery.
+
+"_Sangre de Cristo_!" he cried, in an accent of angry disappointment,
+giving the gourd a shake to assure himself of its emptiness.  "Not a
+drop--not enough to drown a chiga!  And my tongue sticking to my teeth.
+My throat feels as if I had bolted a _brazero_ of red-hot charcoal.  Por
+Dios!  I can't stand it.  What's to be done?  Daylight?  It is.  I must
+up to the _pueblita_.  It's possible that Senor Doffer may have his trap
+open by this time to catch the early birds.  If so, he'll find a
+customer in the Coyote.  Ha, ha, ha!"
+
+Slinging the gourd strap around his neck, and thrusting his head through
+the slit of his serape, he set forth for the village.
+
+The tavern was but a few hundred yards from his hut, on the same side of
+the river, and approachable by a path, that he could have travelled with
+his eyes under "tapojos."  In twenty minutes after, he was staggering
+past the sign-post of the "Rough and Ready."
+
+He chanced to be in luck.  Oberdoffer was in his bar-room, serving some
+early customers--a party of soldiers who had stolen out of quarters to
+swallow their morning dram.
+
+"Mein Gott, Mishter Dees!" said the landlord, saluting the newly arrived
+guest, and without ceremony forsaking six _credit_ customers, for one
+that he knew to be _cash_.  "Mein Gott! is it you I sees so early
+ashtir?  I knowsh vat you vant.  You vant your pig coord fill mit ze
+Mexican spirits--ag--ag--vat you call it?"
+
+"_Aguardiente_!  You've guessed it, cavallero.  That's just what I
+want."
+
+"A tollar--von tollar ish the price."
+
+"_Carrambo_!  I've paid it often enough to know that.  Here's the coin,
+and there's the canteen.  Fill, and be quick about it!"
+
+"Ha! you ish in a hurry, mein herr.  Fel--I von't keeps you waitin'; I
+suppose you ish off for the wild horsh prairish.  If there's anything
+goot among the droves, I'm afeart that the Irishmans will pick it up
+before you.  He went off lasht night.  He left my housh at a late hour--
+after midnight it wash--a very late hour, to go a shourney!  But he's a
+queer cushtomer is that mushtanger, Mister Maurish Sherralt.  Nobody
+knows his ways.  I shouldn't say anythings againsht him.  He hash been a
+goot cushtomer to me.  He has paid his bill like a rich man, and he hash
+plenty peside.  Mein Gott! his pockets wash cramm mit tollars!"
+
+On hearing that the Irishman had gone off to the "horsh prairish," as
+Oberdoffer termed them, the Mexican by his demeanour betrayed more than
+an ordinary interest in the announcement.
+
+It was proclaimed, first by a slight start of surprise, and then by an
+impatience of manner that continued to mark his movements, while
+listening to the long rigmarole that followed.
+
+It was clear that he did not desire anything of this to be observed.
+Instead of questioning his informant upon the subject thus started, or
+voluntarily displaying any interest in it, he rejoined in a careless
+drawl--
+
+"It don't concern me, cavallero.  There are plenty of _mustenos_ on the
+plains--enough to give employment to all the horse-catchers in Texas.
+Look alive, senor, and let's have the aguardiente!"
+
+A little chagrined at being thus rudely checked in his attempt at a
+gossip, the German Boniface hastily filled the gourd canteen; and,
+without essaying farther speech, handed it across the counter, took the
+dollar in exchange, chucked the coin into his till, and then moved back
+to his military customers, more amiable because drinking _upon the
+score_.
+
+Diaz, notwithstanding the eagerness he had lately exhibited to obtain
+the liquor, walked out of the bar-room, and away from the hotel, without
+taking the stopper from his canteen, or even appearing to think of it!
+
+His excited air was no longer that of a man merely longing for a glass
+of ardent spirits.  There was something stronger stirring within, that
+for the time rendered him oblivious of the appetite.
+
+Whatever it may have been it did not drive him direct to his home: for
+not until he had paid a visit to three other hovels somewhat similar to
+his own--all situated in the suburbs of the _pueblita_, and inhabited by
+men like himself--not till then, did he return to his jacale.
+
+It was on getting back, that he noticed for the first time the tracks of
+a shod horse; and saw where the animal had been tied to a tree that
+stood near the hut.
+
+"_Carrambo_!" he exclaimed, on perceiving this sign, "_the Capitan
+Americano_ has been here in the night.  Por Dios!  I remember
+something--I thought I had dreamt it.  I can guess his errand.  He has
+heard of Don Mauricio's departure.  Perhaps he'll repeat his visit, when
+he thinks I'm in a proper state to receive him?  Ha! ha!  It don't
+matter now.  The thing's all understood; and I sha'n't need any further
+instructions from him, till I've earned his thousand dollars.  _Mil
+pesos_!  What a splendid fortune!  Once gained, I shall go back to the
+Rio Grande, and see what can be done with Isidora."
+
+After delivering the above soliloquy, he remained at his hut only long
+enough to swallow a few mouthfuls of roasted _tasajo_, washing them down
+with as many gulps of mezcal.  Then having caught and caparisoned his
+horse, buckled on his huge heavy spurs, strapped his short carbine to
+the saddle, thrust a pair of pistols into their holsters, and belted the
+leathern sheathed machete on his hip, he sprang into the stirrups, and
+rode rapidly away.
+
+The short interval that elapsed, before making his appearance on the
+open plain, was spent in the suburbs of the village--waiting for the
+three horsemen who accompanied him, and who had been forewarned of their
+being wanted to act as his coadjutors, in some secret exploit that
+required their assistance.
+
+Whatever it was, his trio of _confreres_ appeared to have been made
+acquainted with the scheme; or at all events that the scene of the
+exploit was to be on the Alamo.  When a short distance out upon the
+plain, seeing Diaz strike off in a diagonal direction, they called out
+to warn him, that he was not going the right way.
+
+"I know the Alamo well," said one of them, himself a mustanger.  "I've
+hunted horses there many a time.  It's southwest from here.  The nearest
+way to it is through an opening in the chapparal you see out yonder.
+You are heading too much to the west, Don Miguel!"
+
+"Indeed!" contemptuously retorted the leader of the cuartilla.  "You're
+a _gringo_, Senor Vicente Barajo!  You forget the errand we're upon; and
+that we are riding shod horses?  Indians don't go out from Port Inge and
+then direct to the Alamo to do--no matter what.  I suppose you
+understand me?"
+
+"Oh true!" answered Senor Vicente Barajo, "I beg your pardon, Don
+Miguel.  _Carrambo_!  I did not think of that."
+
+And without further protest, the three coadjutors of El Coyote fell into
+his tracks, and followed him in silence--scarce another word passing
+between him and them, till they had struck the chapparal, at a point
+several miles above the opening of which Barajo had made mention.
+
+Once under cover of the thicket, the four men dismounted; and, after
+tying their horses to the trees, commenced a performance that could only
+be compared to a scene in the gentlemen's dressing-room of a suburban
+theatre, preliminary to the representation of some savage and sanguinary
+drama.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY TWO.
+
+VULTURES ON THE WING.
+
+He who has travelled across the plains of Southern Texas cannot fail to
+have witnessed a spectacle of common occurrence--a flock of black
+vultures upon the wing.
+
+An hundred or more in the flock, swooping in circles, or wide spiral
+gyrations--now descending almost to touch the prairie award, or the
+spray of the chapparal--anon soaring upward by a power in which the wing
+bears no part--their pointed pinions sharply cutting against the clear
+sky--they constitute a picture of rare interest, one truly
+characteristic of a tropical clime.
+
+The traveller who sees it for the first time will not fail to rein up
+his horse, and sit in his saddle, viewing it with feelings of curious
+interest.  Even he who is accustomed to the spectacle will not pass on
+without indulging in a certain train of thought which it is calculated
+to call forth.
+
+There is a tale told by the assemblage of base birds.  On the ground
+beneath them, whether seen by the traveller or not, is stretched some
+stricken creature--quadruped, or it may be _man_--dead, or it may be
+_dying_.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+On the morning that succeeded that sombre night, when the three solitary
+horsemen made the crossing of the plain, a spectacle similar to that
+described might have been witnessed above the chapparal into which they
+had ridden.  A flock of black vultures, of both species, was disporting
+above the tops of the trees, near the point where the avenue angled.
+
+At daybreak not one could have been seen.  In less than an hour after,
+hundreds were hovering above the spot, on widespread wings, their
+shadows sailing darkly over the green spray of the chapparal.
+
+A Texan traveller entering the avenue, and observing the ominous
+assemblage, would at once have concluded, that there was death upon his
+track.
+
+Going farther, he would have found confirmatory evidence, in a pool of
+blood trampled by the hooves of horses.
+
+Not exactly over this were the vultures engaged in their aerial
+evolutions.  The centre of their swoopings appeared to be a point some
+distance off among the trees; and there, no doubt, would be discovered
+the quarry that had called them together.
+
+At that early hour there was no traveller--Texan, or stranger--to test
+the truth of the conjecture; but, for all that, it was true.
+
+At a point in the chapparal, about a quarter of a mile from the
+blood-stained path, lay stretched upon the ground the object that was
+engaging the attention of the vultures.
+
+It was not carrion, nor yet a quadruped; but a human being--a man!
+
+A young man, too, of noble lineaments and graceful shape--so far as
+could be seen under the cloak that shrouded his recumbent form--with a
+face fair to look upon, even in death.
+
+Was he dead?
+
+At first sight any one would have said so, and the black birds believed
+it.  His attitude and countenance seemed to proclaim it beyond question.
+
+He was lying upon his back, with face upturned to the sky--no care being
+taken to shelter it from the sun.  His limbs, too, were not in a natural
+posture; but extended stiffly along the stony surface, as if he had lost
+the power to control them.
+
+A colossal tree was near, a live oak, but it did not shadow him.  He was
+outside the canopy of its frondage; and the sun's beams, just beginning
+to penetrate the chapparal, were slanting down upon his pale face--paler
+by reflection from a white Panama hat that but partially shaded it.
+
+His features did not seem set in death: and as little was it like sleep.
+It had more the look of death than sleep.  The eyes were but half
+closed; and the pupils could be seen glancing through the lashes, glassy
+and dilated.  Was the man dead?
+
+Beyond doubt, the black birds believed that he was.  But the black birds
+were judging only by appearances.  Their wish was parent to the thought.
+They were mistaken.
+
+Whether it was the glint of the sun striking into his half-screened
+orbs, or nature becoming restored after a period of repose, the eyes of
+the prostrate man were seen to open to their full extent, while a
+movement was perceptible throughout his whole frame.
+
+Soon after he raised himself a little; and, resting upon his elbow,
+stared confusedly around him.
+
+The vultures soared upward into the air, and for the time maintained a
+higher flight.
+
+"Am I dead, or living?" muttered he to himself.  "Dreaming, or awake?
+Which is it?  Where am I?"
+
+The sunlight was blinding him.  He could see nothing, till he had shaded
+his eyes with his hand; then only indistinctly.
+
+"Trees above--around me!  Stones underneath!  That I can tell by the
+aching of my bones.  A chapparal forest!  How came I into it?
+
+"Now I have it," continued he, after a short spell of reflection.  "My
+head was dashed against a tree.  There it is--the very limb that lifted
+me out of the saddle.  My left leg pains me.  Ah!  I remember; it came
+in contact with the trunk.  By heavens, I believe it is broken!"
+
+As he said this, he made an effort to raise himself into an erect
+attitude.  It proved a failure.  His sinister limb would lend him no
+assistance: it was swollen at the knee-joint--either shattered or
+dislocated.
+
+"Where is the horse?  Gone off, of course.  By this time, in the stables
+of Casa del Corvo.  I need not care now.  I could not mount him, if he
+were standing by my side.
+
+"The other?" he added, after a pause.  "Good heavens! what a spectacle
+it was!  No wonder it scared the one I was riding!
+
+"What am I to do?  My leg may be broken.  I can't stir from this spot,
+without some one to help me.  Ten chances to one--a hundred--a
+thousand--against any one coming this way; at least not till I've become
+food for those filthy birds.  Ugh! the hideous brutes; they stretch out
+their beaks, as if already sure of making a meal upon me!
+
+"How long have I been lying here?  The surf don't seem very high.  It
+was just daybreak, as I climbed into the saddle.  I suppose I've been
+unconscious about an hour.  By my faith, I'm in a serious scrape?  In
+all likelihood a broken limb--it feels broken--with no surgeon to set
+it; a stony couch in the heart of a Texan chapparal--the thicket around
+me, perhaps for miles--no chance to escape from it of myself--no hope of
+human creature coming to help me--wolves on the earth, and vultures in
+the air!  Great God! why did I mount, without making sure of the rein?
+I may have ridden my last ride!"
+
+The countenance of the young man became clouded; and the cloud grew
+darker, and deeper, as he continued to reflect upon the perilous
+position in which a simple accident had placed him.
+
+Once more he essayed to rise to his feet, and succeeded; only to find,
+that he had but one leg on which he could rely!  It was no use, standing
+upon it; and he lay down again.
+
+Two hours were passed without any change in his situation; during which
+he had caused the chapparal to ring with a loud hallooing.  He only
+desisted from this, under the conviction: that there was no one at all
+likely to hear him.
+
+The shouting caused thirst; or at all events hastened the advent of this
+appetite--surely coming on as the concomitant of the injuries he had
+received.
+
+The sensation was soon experienced to such an extent that everything
+else--even the pain of his wounds--became of trifling consideration.
+
+"It will kill me, if I stay here?" reflected the sufferer.  "I must make
+an effort to reach water.  If I remember aright there's a stream
+somewhere in this chapparal, and not such a great way off.  I must get
+to it, if I have to crawl upon my hands and knees.  Knees! and only one
+in a condition to support me!  There's no help for it but try.  The
+longer I stay here, the worse it will be.  The sun grows hotter.  It
+already burns into my brain.  I may lose my senses, and then--the
+wolves--the vultures--"
+
+The horrid apprehension caused silence and shuddering.  After a time he
+continued:
+
+"If I but knew the right way to go.  I remember the stream well enough.
+It runs towards the chalk prairie.  It should be south-east, from here.
+I shall try that way.  By good luck the sun guides me.  If I find water
+all may yet be well.  God give me strength to reach it!"
+
+With this prayer upon his lips, he commenced making his way through the
+thicket--creeping over the stony ground, and dragging after him his
+disabled leg, like some huge Saurian whose vertebrae have been
+disjointed by a blow!
+
+Lizard-like, he continued his crawl.
+
+The effort was painful in the extreme; but the apprehension from which
+he suffered was still more painful, and urged him to continue it.
+
+He well knew there was a chance of his falling a victim to thirst--
+almost a certainty, if he did not succeed in finding water.
+
+Stimulated by this knowledge he crept on.
+
+At short intervals he was compelled to pause, and recruit his strength
+by a little rest.  A man does not travel far, on his hands and knees,
+without feeling fatigued.  Much more, when one of the four members
+cannot be employed in the effort.
+
+His progress was slow and irksome.  Besides, it was being made under the
+most discouraging circumstances.  He might not be going in the right
+direction?  Nothing but the dread of death could have induced him to
+keep on.
+
+He had made about a quarter of a mile from the point of starting, when
+it occurred to him that a better plan of locomotion might be adopted--
+one that would, at all events, vary the monotony of his march.
+
+"Perhaps," said he, "I might manage to hobble a bit, if I only had a
+crutch?  Ho! my knife is still here.  Thank fortune for that!  And
+there's a sapling of the right size--a bit of blackjack.  It will do."
+
+Drawing the knife--a "bowie"--from his belt, he cut down the dwarf-oak;
+and soon reduced it to a rude kind of crutch; a fork in the tree serving
+for the head.
+
+Then rising erect, and fitting the fork into his armpit, he proceeded
+with his exploration.
+
+He knew the necessity of keeping to one course; and, as he had chosen
+the south-east, he continued in this direction.
+
+It was not so easy.  The sun was his only compass; but this had now
+reached the meridian, and, in the latitude of Southern Texas, at that
+season of the year, the midday sun is almost in the zenith.  Moreover,
+he had the chapparal to contend with, requiring constant detours to take
+advantage of its openings.  He had a sort of guide in the sloping of the
+ground: for he knew that downward he was more likely to find the stream.
+
+After proceeding about a mile--not in one continued march, but by short
+stages, with intervals of rest between--he came upon a track made by the
+wild animals that frequent the chapparal.  It was slight, but running in
+a direct line--a proof that it led to some point of peculiar
+consideration--in all likelihood a watering-place--stream, pond, or
+spring.
+
+Any of these three would serve his purpose; and, without longer looking
+to the sun, or the slope of the ground, he advanced along the trail--now
+hobbling upon his crutch, and at times, when tired of this mode,
+dropping down upon his hands and crawling as before.
+
+The cheerful anticipations he had indulged in, on discovering the trail,
+soon, came to a termination.  It became _blind_.  In other words it ran
+out--ending in a glade surrounded by impervious masses of underwood.  He
+saw, to his dismay, that it led _from_ the glade, instead of _towards_
+it.  He had been following it the wrong way!
+
+Unpleasant as was the alternative, there was no other than to return
+upon his track.  To stay in the glade would have been to die there.
+
+He retraced the trodden path--going on beyond the point where he had
+first struck it.
+
+Nothing but the torture of thirst could have endowed him with strength
+or spirit to proceed.  And this was every moment becoming more
+unendurable.
+
+The trees through which he was making way were mostly acacias,
+interspersed with cactus and wild agave.  They afforded scarce any
+shelter from the sun, that now in mid-heaven glared down through their
+gossamer foliage with the fervour of fire itself.
+
+The perspiration, oozing through every pore of his skin, increased the
+tendency to thirst--until the appetite became an agony!
+
+Within reach of his hand were the glutinous legumes of the _mezquites_,
+filled with mellifluous moisture.  The agaves and cactus plants, if
+tapped, would have exuded an abundance of juice.  The former was too
+sweet, the latter too acrid to tempt him.
+
+He was acquainted with the character of both.  He knew that, instead of
+allaying his thirst, they would only have added to its intensity.
+
+He passed the depending pods, without plucking them.  He passed the
+succulent stalks, without tapping thorn.
+
+To augment his anguish, he now discovered that the wounded limb was,
+every moment, becoming more unmanageable.  It had swollen to enormous
+dimensions.  Every step caused him a spasm of pain.  Even if going in
+the direction of the doubtful streamlet, he might never succeed in
+reaching it?  If not, there was no hope for him.  He could but lie down
+in the thicket, and die!
+
+Death would not be immediate.  Although suffering acute pain in his
+head, neither the shock it had received, nor the damage done to his
+knee, were like to prove speedily fatal.  He might dread a more painful
+way of dying than from wounds.  Thirst would be his destroyer--of all
+shapes of death perhaps the most agonising.
+
+The thought stimulated him to renewed efforts; and despite the slow
+progress he was able to make--despite the pain experienced in making
+it--he toiled on.
+
+The black birds hovering above, kept pace with his halting step and
+laborious crawl.  Now more than a mile from the point of their first
+segregation, they were all of them still there--their numbers even
+augmented by fresh detachments that had become warned of the expected
+prey.  Though aware that the quarry still lived and moved, they saw that
+it was stricken.  Instinct--perhaps rather experience--told them it must
+soon succumb.
+
+Their shadows crossed and recrossed the track upon which he advanced--
+filling him with ominous fears for the end.
+
+There was no noise: for these birds are silent in their flight--even
+when excited by the prospect of a repast.  The hot sun had stilled the
+voices of the crickets and tree-toads.  Even the hideous "horned frog"
+reclined listless along the earth, sheltering its tuberculated body
+under the stones.
+
+The only sounds to disturb the solitude of the chapparal were those made
+by the sufferer himself--the swishing of his garments, as they brushed
+against the hirsute plants that beset the path; and occasionally his
+cries, sent forth in the faint hope of their being heard.
+
+By this time, blood was mingling with the sweat upon his skin.  The
+spines of the cactus, and the clawlike thorns of the agave, had been
+doing their work; and scarce an inch of the epidermis upon his face,
+hands, and limbs, that was not rent with a laceration.
+
+He was near to the point of despondence--in real truth, he had reached
+it: for after a spell of shouting he had flung himself prostrate along
+the earth, despairingly indifferent about proceeding farther.
+
+In all likelihood it was the attitude that saved him.  Lying with his
+ear close to the surface, he heard a sound--so slight, that it would not
+have been otherwise discernible.
+
+Slight as it was, he could distinguish it, as the very sound for which
+his senses were sharpened.  It was the murmur of moving water!
+
+With an ejaculation of joy, he sprang to his feet, as if nothing were
+amiss; and made direct towards the point whence proceeded the sound.
+
+He plied his improvised crutch with redoubled energy.  Even the disabled
+leg appeared to sustain him.  It was strength and the love of life,
+struggling against decrepitude and the fear of death.
+
+The former proved victorious; and, in ten minutes after, he lay
+stretched along the sward, on the banks of a crystal streamlet--
+wondering why the want of water could have caused him such indescribable
+agony!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY THREE.
+
+THE CUP AND THE JAR.
+
+Once more the mustanger's hut!  Once more his henchman, astride of a
+stool in the middle of the floor!  Once more his hound lying astretch
+upon the skin-covered hearth, with snout half buried in the cinders!
+
+The relative positions of the man and the dog are essentially the same--
+as when seen on a former occasion--their attitudes almost identical.
+Otherwise there is a change in the picture since last painted--a
+transformation at once striking and significant.
+
+The horse-hide door, standing ajar, still hangs upon its hinges; and the
+smooth coats of the wild steeds shine lustrously along the walls.  The
+slab table, too, is there, the trestle bedstead, the two stools, and the
+"shake down" of the servitor.
+
+But the other "chattels" wont to be displayed against the skin tapestry
+are either out of sight, or displaced.  The double gun has been removed
+from its rack; the silver cup, hunting horn, and dog-call, are no longer
+suspended from their respective pegs; the saddle, bridles, ropes, and
+serapes are unslung; and the books, ink, pens, and _papeterie_ have
+entirely disappeared.
+
+At first sight it might be supposed that Indians have paid a visit to
+the jacale, and pillaged it of its _penates_.
+
+But no.  Had this been the case, Phelim would not be sitting so
+unconcernedly on the stool, with his carroty scalp still upon his head.
+
+Though the walls are stripped nothing has been carried away.  The
+articles are still there, only with a change of place; and the presence
+of several corded packages, lying irregularly over the floor--among
+which is the leathern portmanteau--proclaims the purpose of the
+transposition.
+
+Though a clearing out has not been made, it is evident that one is
+intended.
+
+In the midst of the general displacement, one piece of plenishing was
+still seen in its accustomed corner--the demijohn.  It was seen by
+Phelim, oftener than any other article in the room: for no matter in
+what direction he might turn his eyes, they were sure to come round
+again to that wicker-covered vessel that stood so temptingly in the
+angle.
+
+"Ach! me jewel, it's there yez are!" said he, apostrophising the
+demijohn for about the twentieth time, "wid more than two quarts av the
+crayther inside yer bewtifull belly, and not doin' ye a bit av good,
+nayther.  If the tinth part av it was inside av me, it wud be a moighty
+binnefit to me intistines.  Trath wud it that same.  Wudn't it, Tara?"
+
+On hearing his name pronounced, the dog raised his head and looked
+inquiringly around, to see what was wanted of him.
+
+Perceiving that his human companion was but talking to himself, he
+resumed his attitude of repose.
+
+"Faix!  I don't want any answer to that, owld boy.  It's meself that
+knows it, widout tillin'.  A hape av good a glass of that same potyeen
+would do me; and I dar'n't touch a dhrap, afther fwhat the masther sid
+to me about it.  Afther all that packin', too, till me throat is
+stickin' to me tongue, as if I had been thryin' to swallow a pitch
+plaster.  Sowl! it's a shame av Masther Maurice to make me promise
+agaynst touchin' the dhrink--espacially when it's not goin' to be
+wanted.  Didn't he say he wudn't stay more than wan night, whin he come
+back heeur; an shure he won't conshume two quarts in wan night--unless
+that owld sinner Stump comes along wid him.  Bad luck to his greedy gut!
+he gets more av the Manongahayla than the masther himsilf.
+
+"There's wan consolashun, an thank the Lord for it, we're goin' back to
+the owld _sad_, an the owld place at Ballyballagh.  Won't I have a
+skinful when I get thare--av the raal stuff too, instid of this
+Amerikyan rotgut!  Hooch--hoop--horoo!  The thought av it's enough to
+sit a man mad wid deloight.  Hooch--hoop--horoo!"
+
+Tossing his wide-awake up among the rafters, and catching it as it came
+down again, the excited Galwegian several times repeated his ludicrous
+shibboleth.  Then becoming tranquil he sate for awhile in silence--his
+thoughts dwelling with pleasant anticipation on the joys that awaited
+him at Ballyballagh.
+
+They soon reverted to the objects around him--more especially to the
+demijohn in the corner.  On this once more his eyes became fixed in a
+gaze, in which increasing covetousness was manifestly visible.
+
+"Arrah, me jewel!" said he, again apostrophising the vessel, "ye're
+extramely bewtifull to look at--that same ye arr.  Shure now, yez wudn't
+till upon me, if I gave yez a thrifle av a kiss?  Ye wudn't be the
+thraiter to bethray me?  Wan smack only.  Thare can be no harum in that.
+Trath, I don't think the masther 'ud mind it--when he thinks av the
+throuble I've had wid this packin', an the dhry dust gettin' down me
+throat.  Shure he didn't mane me to kape that promise for this time--
+which differs intirely from all the rest, by razon av our goin' away.  A
+dhry flittin', they say, makes a short sittin'.  I'll tell the masther
+that, whin he comes back; an shure it 'll pacify him.  Besoides, there's
+another ixcuse.  He's all av tin hours beyant his time; an I'll say I
+took a thriflin' dhrap to kape me from thinkin' long for him.  Shure he
+won't say a word about it.  Be Sant Pathrick!  I'll take a smell at the
+dimmyjan, an trust to good luck for the rist.  Loy down, Tara, I'm not
+agoin' out."
+
+The staghound had risen, seeing the speaker step towards the door.
+
+But the dumb creature had misinterpreted the purpose--which was simply
+to take a survey of the path by which the jacale was approached, and
+make sure, that, his master was not likely to interrupt him in his
+intended dealings with the demijohn.
+
+Becoming satisfied that the coast was clear, he glided back across the
+floor; uncorked the jar; and, raising it to his lips, swallowed
+something more than a "thriflin' dhrap av its contints."
+
+Then putting it back in its place, he returned to his seat on the stool.
+
+After remaining quiescent for a considerable time, he once more
+proceeded to soliloquise--now and then changing his speech to the
+apostrophic form--Tara and the demijohn being the individuals honoured
+by his discourse.
+
+"In the name av all the angels, an the divils to boot, I wondher what's
+kapin' the masther!  He sid he wud be heeur by eight av the clock in the
+marnin', and it's now good six in the afthernoon, if thare's any truth
+in a Tixas sun.  Shure thare's somethin' detainin' him?  Don't yez think
+so, Tara?"
+
+This time Tara did vouchsafe the affirmative "sniff"--having poked his
+nose too far into the ashes.
+
+"Be the powers! then, I hope it's no harum that's befallen him!  If
+there has, owld dog, fwhat 'ud become av you an me?  Thare might be no
+Ballyballagh for miny a month to come; unliss we cowld pay our passage
+wid these thraps av the masther's.  The drinkin' cup--raal silver it
+is--wud cover the whole expinse av the voyage.  Be japers! now that it
+stroikes me, I niver had a dhrink out av that purty little vessel.  I'm
+shure the liquor must taste swater that way.  Does it, I wondher--trath,
+now's just the time to thry."
+
+Saying this, he took the cup out of the portmanteau, in which he had
+packed it; and, once more uncorking the demijohn, poured out a portion
+of its contents--of about the measure of a wineglassful.
+
+Quaffing it off at a single gulp, he stood smacking his lips--as if to
+assure himself of the quality of the liquor.
+
+"Sowl!  I don't know that it _does_ taste betther," said he, still
+holding the cup in one hand, and the jar in the other.  "Afther all, I
+think, it's swater out av the dimmyjan itself, that is, as far as I cyan
+remimber.  But it isn't givin' the gawblet fair play.  It's so long
+since I had the jar to me mouth, that I a'most forget how it tasted that
+way.  I cowld till betther if I thryed thim thegither.  I'll do that,
+before I decoide."
+
+The demijohn was now raised to his lips; and, after several "glucks" was
+again taken away.
+
+Then succeeded a second series of smacking, in true connoisseur fashion,
+with the head held reflectingly steadfast.
+
+"Trath! an I'm wrong agane!" said he, accompanying the remark with
+another doubtful shake of the head.  "Althegither asthray.  It's swater
+from the silver.  Or, is it only me imaginayshin that's desavin' me?
+It's worth while to make shure, an I can only do that by tastin' another
+thrifle out av the cup.  That wud be givin' fair play to both av the
+vessels; for I've dhrunk twice from the jar, an only wanst from the
+silver.  Fair play's a jewil all the world over; and thare's no raison
+why this bewtiful little mug showldn't be trated as dacently as that big
+basket av a jar.  Be japers! but it shall tho'!"
+
+The cup was again called into requisition; and once more a portion of
+the contents of the demijohn were transferred to it--to be poured
+immediately after down the insatiable throat of the unsatisfied
+connoisseur.
+
+Whether he eventually decided in favour of the cup, or whether he
+retained his preference for the jar, is not known.  After the fourth
+potation, which was also the final one, he appeared to think he had
+tasted sufficiently for the time, and laid both vessels aside.
+
+Instead of returning to his stool, however, a new idea came across his
+mind; which was to go forth from the hut, and see whether there was any
+sign to indicate the advent of his master.
+
+"Come, Tara!" cried he, striding towards the door.  "Let us stip up to
+the bluff beyant, and take a look over the big plain.  If masther's
+comin' at all, he shud be in sight by this.  Come along, ye owld dog!
+Masther Maurice 'll think all the betther av us, for bein' a little
+unazy about his gettin' back."
+
+Taking the path through the wooded bottom--with the staghound close at
+his heels--the Galwegian ascended the bluff, by one of its sloping
+ravines, and stood upon the edge of the upper plateau.
+
+From this point he commanded a view of a somewhat sterile plain; that
+stretched away eastward, more than a mile, from the spot where he was
+standing.
+
+The sun was on his back, low down on the horizon, but shining from a
+cloudless sky.  There was nothing to interrupt his view.  Here and
+there, a stray cactus plant, or a solitary stem of the arborescent
+yucca, raised its hirsute form above the level of the plain.  Otherwise
+the surface was smooth; and a coyote could not have crossed it without
+being seen.
+
+Beyond, in the far distance, could be traced the darker outline of
+trees--where a tract of chapparal, or the wooded selvedge of a stream
+stretched transversely across the _llano_.
+
+The Galwegian bent his gaze over the ground, in the direction in which
+he expected his master should appear; and stood silently watching for
+him.
+
+Ere long his vigil was rewarded.  A horseman was seen coming out from
+among the trees upon the other side, and heading towards the Alamo.
+
+He was still more than a mile distant; but, even at that distance, the
+faithful servant could identify his master.  The striped serape of
+brilliant hues--a true Navajo blanket, which Maurice was accustomed to
+take with him when travelling--was not to be mistaken.  It gleamed
+gaudily under the glare of the setting sun--its bands of red, white, and
+blue, contrasting with the sombre tints of the sterile plain.
+
+Phelim only wondered, that his master should have it spread over his
+shoulders on such a sultry evening instead of folded up, and strapped to
+the cantle of his saddle!
+
+"Trath, Tara! it looks quare, doesn't it?  It's hot enough to roast a
+stake upon these stones; an yit the masther don't seem to think so.  I
+hope he hasn't caught a cowld from stayin' in that close crib at owld
+Duffer's tavern.  It wasn't fit for a pig to dwill in.  Our own shanty's
+a splindid parlour to it."
+
+The speaker was for a time silent, watching the movements of the
+approaching horseman--by this time about half a mile distant, and still
+drawing nearer.
+
+When his voice was put forth again it was in a tone altogether changed.
+It was still that of surprise, with an approach towards merriment.  But
+it was mirth that doubted of the ludicrous; and seemed to struggle under
+restraint.
+
+"Mother av Moses!" cried he.  "What can the masther mane?  Not contint
+with havin' the blankyet upon his showldhers, be japers, he's got it
+over his head!
+
+"He's playin' us a thrick, Tara.  He wants to give you an me a
+surproise.  He wants to have a joke agaynst us!
+
+"Sowl! but it's quare anyhow.  It looks as if he _had_ no head.  In faix
+does it!  Ach! what cyan it mane?  Be the Howly Virgin! it's enough to
+frighten wan, av they didn't know it was the masther!
+
+"_Is_ it the masther?  Be the powers, it's too short for him!  The head?
+Saint Patrick presarve us, whare is it?  It cyan't be smothered up in
+the blankyet?  Thare's no shape thare!  Be Jaysus, thare's somethin'
+wrong!  What does it mane, Tara?"
+
+The tone of the speaker had again undergone a change.  It was now close
+bordering upon terror--as was also the expression of his countenance.
+
+The look and attitude of the staghound were not very different.  He
+stood a little in advance--half cowering, half inclined to spring
+forward--with eyes glaring wildly, while fixed upon the approaching
+horseman--now scarce two hundred yards from the spot!
+
+As Phelim put the question that terminated his last soliloquy, the hound
+gave out a lugubrious howl, that seemed intended for an answer.
+
+Then, as if urged by some canine instinct, he bounded off towards the
+strange object, which puzzled his human companion, and was equally
+puzzling him.
+
+Rushing straight on, he gave utterance to a series of shrill yelps; far
+different from the soft sonorous baying, with which he was accustomed to
+welcome the coming home of the mustanger.
+
+If Phelim was surprised at what he had already seen, he was still
+further astonished by what now appeared to him.
+
+As the dog drew near, still yelping as he ran, the blood-bay--which the
+ex-groom had long before identified as his master's horse--turned
+sharply round, and commenced galloping back across the plain!
+
+While performing the wheel, Phelim saw--or fancied he saw--that, which
+not only astounded him, but caused the blood to run chill through his
+veins, and his frame to tremble to the very tips of his toes.
+
+It was a head--that of the man on horseback; but, instead of being in
+its proper place, upon his shoulders, it was held in the rider's hand,
+just behind the pommel of the saddle!
+
+As the horse turned side towards him, Phelim saw, or fancied he saw, the
+face--ghastly and covered with gore--half hidden behind the shaggy hair
+of the holster!
+
+He saw no more.  In another instant his back was turned towards the
+plain; and, in another, he was rushing down the ravine, as fast as his
+enfeebled limbs would carry him!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY FOUR.
+
+A QUARTETTE OF COMANCHES.
+
+With his flame-coloured curls bristling upward--almost raising the hat
+from his head--the Galwegian continued his retreat--pausing not--scarce
+looking back, till he had re-entered the jacale, closed the skin door
+behind him, and barricaded it with several large packages that lay near.
+
+Even then he did not feel secure.  What protection could there be in a
+shut door, barred and bolted besides, against that which was not
+earthly?
+
+And surely what he had seen was not of the earth--not of this world!
+Who on earth had ever witnessed such a spectacle--a man mounted upon
+horseback, and carrying his head in his hand?  Who had ever heard of a
+phenomenon so unnatural?  Certainly not "Phaylim Onale."
+
+His horror still continuing, he rushed to and fro across the floor of
+the hut; now dropping down upon the stool, anon rising up, and gliding
+to the door; but without daring either to open it, or look out through
+the chinks.
+
+At intervals he tore the hair out of his head, striking his clenched
+hand against his temples, and roughly rubbing his eyes--as if to make
+sure that he was not asleep, but had really seen the shape that was
+horrifying him.
+
+One thing alone gave him a moiety of comfort; though it was of the
+slightest.  While retreating down the ravine, before his head had sunk
+below the level of the plain, he had given a glance backward.  He had
+derived some gratification from that glance; as it showed the headless
+rider afar off on the prairie, and with back turned toward the Alamo,
+going on at a gallop.
+
+But for the remembrance of this, the Galwegian might have been still
+more terrified--if that were possible--while striding back and forth
+upon the floor of the jacale.
+
+For a long time he was speechless--not knowing what to say--and only
+giving utterance to such exclamations as came mechanically to his lips.
+
+As the time passed, and he began to feel, not so much a return of
+confidence, as of the power of ratiocination, his tongue became restored
+to him; and a continuous fire of questions and exclamations succeeded.
+They were all addressed to himself.  Tara was no longer there, to take
+part in the conversation.
+
+They were put, moreover, in a low whispered tone, as if in fear that his
+voice might be heard outside the jacale.
+
+"Ochone!  Ochone! it cyan't av been him!  Sant Pathrick protict me, but
+fwhat was it thin?
+
+"Thare was iverything av his--the horse--the sthriped blankyet--them
+spotted wather guards upon his legs--an the head itself--all except the
+faytures.  Thim I saw too, but wasn't shure about eyedintifycashin; for
+who kud till a face all covered over wid rid blood?
+
+"Ach! it cudn't be Masther Maurice at all, at all!
+
+"It's all a dhrame.  I must have been aslape, an dhramin?  Or, was it
+the whisky that did it?
+
+"Shure, I wasn't dhrunk enough for that.  Two goes out av the little
+cup, an two more from the dimmyjan--not over a kupple av naggins in all!
+That wudn't make me dhrunk.  I've taken twice that, widout as much as
+thrippin in my spache.  Trath have I.  Besoides, if I had been the worse
+for the liquor, why am I not so still?
+
+"Thare's not half an hour passed since I saw it; an I'm as sober as a
+judge upon the binch av magistrates.
+
+"Sowl! a dhrap 'ud do me a power av good just now.  If I don't take wan,
+I'll not get a wink av slape.  I'll be shure to kape awake all the night
+long thinkin' about it.  Ochone! ochone! what cyan it be anyhow?  An'
+where cyan the masther be, if it wasn't him?  Howly Sant Pathrick! look
+down an watch over a miserable sinner, that's lift all alone be himself,
+wid nothin' but ghosts an goblins around him!"
+
+After this appeal to the Catholic saint, the Connemara man addressed
+himself with still more zealous devotion to the worship of a very
+different divinity, known among the ancients as Bacchus.
+
+His suit in this quarter proved perfectly successful; for in less than
+an hour after he had entered upon his genuflexions at the shrine of the
+pagan god--represented by the demijohn of Monongahela whisky--he was
+shrived of all his sufferings--if not of his sins--and lay stretched
+along the floor of the jacale, not only oblivious of the spectacle that
+had so late terrified him to the very centre of his soul, but utterly
+unconscious of his soul's existence.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+There is no sound within the hut of Maurice the mustanger--not even a
+clock, to tell, by its continuous ticking, that the hours are passing
+into eternity, and that another midnight is mantling over the earth.
+
+There are sounds outside; but only as usual.  The rippling of the stream
+close by, the whispering of the leaves stirred by the night wind, the
+chirrup of cicadas, the occasional cry of some wild creature, are but
+the natural voices of the nocturnal forest.
+
+Midnight has arrived, with a moon that assimilates it to morning.  Her
+light illumines the earth; here and there penetrating through the
+shadowy trees, and flinging broad silvery lists between them.
+
+Passing through these alternations of light and shadow--apparently
+avoiding the former, as much as possible--goes a group of mounted men.
+
+Though few in number--as there are only four of them--they are
+formidable to look upon.  The vermilion glaring redly over their naked
+skins, the striped and spotted tatooing upon their cheeks, the scarlet
+feathers standing stiffly upright above their heads, and the gleaming of
+weapons held in their hands, all bespeak strength of a savage and
+dangerous kind.
+
+Whence come they?
+
+They are in the war costume of the Comanche.  Their paint proclaims it.
+There is the skin fillet around the temples, with the eagle plumes stuck
+behind it.  The bare breasts and arms; the buckskin breech-clouts--
+everything in the shape of sign by which these Ishmaelites of Texas may
+be recognised, when out upon the _maraud_.
+
+They must be Comanches: and, therefore, have come from the west.
+
+Whither go they?
+
+This is a question more easily answered.  They are closing in upon the
+hut, where lies the unconscious inebriate.  The jacale of Maurice Gerald
+is evidently the _butt_ of their expedition.
+
+That their intentions are hostile, is to be inferred from the fact of
+their wearing the war costume.  It is also apparent from their manner of
+making approach.  Still further, by their dismounting at some distance
+from the hut, securing their horses in the underwood, and continuing
+their advance on foot.
+
+Their stealthy tread--taking care to plant the foot lightly upon the
+fallen leaves--the precaution to keep inside the shadow--the frequent
+pauses, spent in looking ahead and listening--the silent gestures with
+which these movements are directed by him who appears to be the leader--
+all proclaim design, to reach the jacale unperceived by whoever may
+chance to be inside it.
+
+In this they are successful--so far as may be judged by appearances.
+They stand by the stockade walls, without any sign being given to show
+that they have been seen.
+
+The silence inside is complete, as that they are themselves observing.
+There is nothing heard--not so much as the screech of a hearth-cricket.
+
+And yet the hut is inhabited.  But a man may get drunk beyond the power
+of speech, snoring, or even audibly breathing; and in this condition is
+the tenant of the jacale.
+
+The four Comanches steal up to the door; and in skulking attitudes
+scrutinise it.
+
+It is shut; but there are chinks at the sides.  To these the savages set
+their ears--all at the same time--and stand silently listening.
+
+No snoring, no breathing, no noise of any kind!
+
+"It is possible," says their chief to the follower nearest him--speaking
+in a whisper, but in good grammatical Castilian, "just possible he has
+not yet got home; though by the time of his starting he should have
+reached here long before this.  He may have ridden out again?  Now I
+remember: there's a horse-shed at the back.  If the man be inside the
+house, the beast should be found in the shed.  Stay here, _camarados_,
+till I go round and see."
+
+Six seconds suffice to examine the substitute for a stable.  No horse in
+it.
+
+As many more are spent in scrutinising the path that leads to it.  No
+horse has been there--at least not lately.
+
+These points determined, the chief returns to his followers--still
+standing by the doorway in front.
+
+"_Maldito_!" he exclaims, giving freer scope to his voice, "he's _not_
+here, nor has he been this day."
+
+"We had better go inside, and make sure?" suggests one of the common
+warriors, in Spanish fairly pronounced.  "There can be no harm in our
+seeing how the _Irlandes_ has housed himself out here?"
+
+"Certainly not!" answers a third, equally well versed in the language of
+Cervantes.  "Let's have a look at his larder too.  I'm hungry enough to
+eat raw tasajo."
+
+"_Por Dios_!" adds the fourth and last of the quartette, in the same
+sonorous tongue.  "I've heard that he keeps a cellar.  If so--"
+
+The chief does not wait for his follower to finish the hypothetical
+speech.  The thought of a cellar appears to produce a powerful effect
+upon him--stimulating to immediate action.
+
+He sets his heel upon the skin door, with the intention of pushing it
+open.
+
+It resists the effort.
+
+"_Carrambo_! it's barred inside!  Done to keep out intruders in his
+absence!  Lions, tigers, bears, buffaloes--perhaps Indians.  Ha! ha!
+ha!"
+
+Another kick is given with greater force.  The door still keeps its
+place.
+
+"Barricaded with something--something heavy too.  It won't yield to
+kicking.  No matter.  I'll soon see what's inside."
+
+The machete is drawn from its sheath; and a large hole cut through the
+stretched skin, that covers the light framework of wood.
+
+Into this the Indian thrusts his arm; and groping about, discovers the
+nature of the obstruction.
+
+The packages are soon displaced, and the door thrown open.
+
+The savages enter, preceded by a broad moonbeam, that lights them on
+their way, and enables them to observe the condition of the interior.
+
+A man lying in the middle of the floor!
+
+"_Carajo_!"
+
+"Is he asleep?"
+
+"He must be dead not to have heard us?"
+
+"Neither," says the chief, after stooping to examine him, "only dead
+drunk--_boracho--embriaguado_!  He's the servitor of the Irlandes.  I've
+seen this fellow before.  From his manner one may safely conclude, that
+his master is not at home, nor has been lately.  I hope the brute hasn't
+used up the cellar in getting himself into this comfortable condition.
+Ah! a jar.  And smelling like a rose!  There's a rattle among these
+rods.  There's stuff inside.  Thank the Lady Guadaloupe for this!"
+
+A few seconds suffice for distributing what remains of the contents of
+the demijohn.  There is enough to give each of the four a drink, with
+two to their chief; who, notwithstanding his high rank, has not the
+superior politeness to protest against this unequal distribution.  In a
+trice the jar is empty.  What next?
+
+The master of the house must come home, some time or other.  An
+interview with him is desired by the men, who have made a call upon
+him--particularly desired, as may be told by the unseasonable hour of
+their visit.  The chief is especially anxious to see him.
+
+What can four Comanche Indians want with Maurice the mustanger?
+
+Their talk discloses their intentions: for among themselves they make no
+secret of their object in being there.
+
+_They have come to murder him_!
+
+Their chief is the instigator; the others are only his instruments and
+assistants.
+
+The business is too important to permit of his trifling.  He will gain a
+thousand dollars by the deed--besides a certain gratification
+independent of the money motive.  His three braves will earn a hundred
+each--a sum sufficient to tempt the cupidity of a Comanche, and purchase
+him for any purpose.
+
+The travesty need not be carried any further.  By this time the mask
+must have fallen off.  Our Comanches are mere Mexicans; their chief,
+Miguel Diaz, the mustanger.
+
+"We must lie in wait for him."
+
+This is the counsel of El Coyote.
+
+"He cannot be much longer now, whatever may have detained him.  You,
+Barajo, go up to the bluff, and keep a look-out over the plain.  The
+rest remain here with me.  He must come that way from the Leona.  We can
+meet him at the bottom of the gorge under the big cypress tree.  'Tis
+the best place for our purpose."
+
+"Had we not better silence _him_?" hints the bloodthirsty Barajo,
+pointing to the Galwegian--fortunately unconscious of what is
+transpiring around him.
+
+"Dead men tell no tales!" adds another of the conspirators, repeating
+the proverb in its original language.
+
+"It would tell a worse tale were we to kill him," rejoins Diaz.
+"Besides, it's of no use.  He's silent enough as it is, the droll devil.
+Let the dog have his day.  I've only bargained for the life of his
+master.  Come, Barajo!  _Vayate! vayate_!  Up to the cliff.  We can't
+tell the moment Don Mauricio may drop in upon us.  A miscarriage must
+not be made.  We may never have such a chance again.  Take your stand at
+the top of the gorge.  From that point you have a view of the whole
+plain.  He cannot come near without your seeing him, in such a moonlight
+as this.  As soon as you've set eyes on him, hasten down and let us
+know.  Be sure you give us time to get under the cypress."
+
+Barajo is proceeding to yield obedience to this chapter of instructions,
+but with evident reluctance.  He has, the night before, been in ill
+luck, having lost to El Coyote a large sum at the game of _monte_.  He
+is desirous of having his _revanche_: for he well knows how his
+_confreres_ will spend the time in his absence.
+
+"Quick.  Senor Vicente!" commands Diaz, observing his dislike to the
+duty imposed upon him; "if we fail in this business, you will lose more
+than you can gain at an _albur_ of monte.  Go, man!" continues El
+Coyote, in an encouraging way.  "If he come not within the hour, some
+one will relieve you.  Go!"
+
+Barajo obeys, and, stepping out of the jacale, proceeds to his post upon
+the top of the cliff.
+
+The others seat themselves inside the hut--having already established a
+light.
+
+Men of their class and calling generally go provided with the means of
+killing time, or, at all events, hindering it from hanging on their
+hands.
+
+The slab table is between them, upon which is soon displayed, not their
+supper, but a pack of Spanish cards, which every Mexican _vagabondo_
+carries under his serape.
+
+_Cavallo_ and _soto_ (queen and knave) are laid face upward; a monte
+table is established; the cards are shuffled; and the play proceeds.
+
+Absorbed in calculating the chances of the game, an hour passes without
+note being taken of the time.
+
+El Coyote is banker, and also croupier.
+
+The cries "_Cavallo en la puerta_!" "_Soto mozo_!"  "The queen in the
+gate!"  "The knave winner!"--at intervals announced in set phrase--echo
+from the skin-covered walls.
+
+The silver dollars are raked along the rough table, their sharp chink
+contrasting with the soft shuffle of the cards.
+
+All at once a more stentorous sound interrupts the play, causing a
+cessation of the game.
+
+It is the screech of the inebriate, who, awaking from his trance of
+intoxication, perceives for the first time the queer company that share
+with him the shelter of the jacale.
+
+The players spring to their feet, and draw their machetes.  Phelim
+stands a fair chance of being skewered on three long Toledos.
+
+He is only saved by a contingency--another interruption that has the
+effect of staying the intent.
+
+Barajo appears in the doorway panting for breath.
+
+It is scarce necessary for him to announce his errand, though he
+contrives to gasp out--
+
+"He is _coming_--on the bluff already--at the head of the _canada_--
+quick, comrades, quick!"
+
+The Galwegian is saved.  There is scarce time to kill him--even were it
+worth while.
+
+But it is not--at least so think the masqueraders; who leave him to
+resume his disturbed slumber, and rush forth to accomplish the more
+profitable assassination.
+
+In a score of seconds they are under the cliff, at the bottom of the
+sloping gorge by which it must be descended.
+
+They take stand under the branches of a spreading cypress; and await the
+approach of their victim.
+
+They listen for the hoofstrokes that should announce it.
+
+These are soon heard.  There is the clinking of a shod hoof--not in
+regular strokes, but as if a horse was passing over an uneven surface.
+One is descending the slope!
+
+He is not yet visible to the eyes of the ambuscaders.  Even the gorge is
+in gloom--like the valley below, shadowed by tall trees.
+
+There is but one spot where the moon throws light upon the turf--a
+narrow space outside the sombre shadow that conceals the assassins.
+Unfortunately this does not lie in the path of their intended victim.
+He must pass under the canopy of the cypress!
+
+"Don't kill him!" mutters Miguel Diaz to his men, speaking in an earnest
+tone.  "There's no need for that just yet.  I want to have him alive--
+for the matter of an hour or so.  I have my reasons.  Lay hold of him
+and his horse.  There can be no danger, as he will be taken by surprise,
+and unprepared.  If there be resistance, we must shoot him down; but let
+me fire first."
+
+The confederates promise compliance.
+
+They have soon an opportunity of proving the sincerity of their promise.
+He for whom they are waiting has accomplished the descent of the slope,
+and is passing under the shadow of the cypress.
+
+"_Abajo las armas!  A tierra_!"  ("Down with your weapons.  To the
+ground!") cries El Coyote, rushing forward and seizing the bridle, while
+the other three fling themselves upon the man who is seated in the
+saddle.
+
+There is no resistance, either by struggle or blow; no blade drawn; no
+shot discharged: not even a word spoken in protest!
+
+They see a man standing upright in the stirrups; they lay their hands
+upon limbs that feel solid flesh and bone, and yet seem insensible to
+the touch!
+
+The horse alone shows resistance.  He rears upon his hind legs, makes
+ground backward, and draws his captors after him.
+
+He carries them into the light, where the moon is shining outside the
+shadow.
+
+Merciful heaven! what does it mean?
+
+His captors let go their hold, and fall back with a simultaneous shout.
+It is a scream of wild terror!
+
+Not another instant do they stay under the cypress; but commence
+retreating at top speed towards the thicket where their own steeds have
+been left tied.
+
+Mounting in mad haste, they ride rapidly away.
+
+They have seen that which has already stricken terror into hearts more
+courageous than theirs--_a horseman without a head_!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY FIVE.
+
+A TRAIL GONE BLIND.
+
+Was it a phantom?  Surely it could not be human?
+
+So questioned El Coyote and his terrified companions.  So, too, had the
+scared Galwegian interrogated himself, until his mind, clouded by
+repeated appeals to the demijohn, became temporarily relieved of the
+terror.
+
+In a similar strain had run the thoughts of more than a hundred others,
+to whom the headless horseman had shown himself--the party of searchers
+who accompanied the major.
+
+It was at an earlier hour, and a point in the prairie five miles farther
+east, that to these the weird figure had made itself manifest.
+
+Looking westward, with the sun-glare in their eyes, they had seen only
+its shape, and nothing more--at least nothing to connect it with Maurice
+the mustanger.
+
+Viewing it from the west, with the sun at his back, the Galwegian had
+seen enough to make out a resemblance to his master--if not an absolute
+identification.
+
+Under the light of the moon the four Mexicans, who knew Maurice Gerald
+by sight, had arrived at a similar conclusion.
+
+If the impression made upon the servant was one of the wildest awe,
+equally had it stricken the conspirators.
+
+The searchers, though less frightened by the strange phenomenon, were
+none the less puzzled to explain it.
+
+Up to the instant of its disappearance no explanation had been
+attempted--save that jocularly conveyed in the bizarre speech of the
+borderer.
+
+"What _do_ you make of it, gentlemen?" said the major, addressing those
+that had clustered around him: "I confess it mystifies me."
+
+"An Indian trick?" suggested one.  "Some decoy to draw us into an
+ambuscade?"
+
+"A most unlikely lure, then;" remarked another; "certainly the last that
+would attract me."
+
+"I don't think it's Indian," said the major; "I don't know what to
+think.  What's your opinion of it, Spangler?"
+
+The tracker shook his head, as if equally uncertain.
+
+"Do you think it's an Indian in disguise?" urged the officer, pressing
+him for an answer.
+
+"I know no more than yourself, major," replied he.  "It _should_ be
+somethin' of that kind: for what else _can_ it be?  It must eyther be a
+man, or a dummy!"
+
+"That's it--a dummy!" cried several, evidently relieved by his
+hypothesis.
+
+"Whatsomever it is--man, dummy, or devil," said the frontiersman, who
+had already pronounced upon it, "thar's no reason why we should be
+frightened from followin' its trail.  Has it left any, I wonder?"
+
+"If it has," replied Spangler, "we'll soon see.  Ours goes the same
+way--so fur as can be judged from here.  Shall we move forr'ad, major?"
+
+"By all means.  We must not be turned from our purpose by a trifle like
+that.  Forward!"
+
+The horsemen again advanced--some of them not without a show of
+reluctance.  There were among them men, who, if left to themselves,
+would have taken the back track.  Of this number was Calhoun, who, from
+the first moment of sighting the strange apparition, had shown signs of
+affright even beyond the rest of his companions.  His eyes had suddenly
+assumed an unnatural glassiness; his lips were white as ashes; while his
+drooping jaw laid bare two rows of teeth, which he appeared with
+difficulty to restrain from chattering!
+
+But for the universal confusion, his wild manner might have been
+observed.  So long as the singular form was in sight, there were eyes
+only for it; and when it had at length disappeared, and the party
+advanced along the trail, the ex-captain hung back, riding unobserved
+among the rearmost.
+
+The tracker had guessed aright.  The spot upon which the ghostly shape
+had for the moment stood still, lay direct upon the trail they were
+already taking up.
+
+But, as if to prove the apparition a spirit, on reaching the place there
+were no tracks to be seen!
+
+The explanation, however, was altogether natural.  Where the horse had
+wheeled round, and for miles beyond, the plain was thickly strewn with
+white shingle.  It was, in trapper parlance, a "chalk prairie."  The
+stones showed displacement; and here and there an abrasion that appeared
+to have been made by the hoof of a horse.  But these marks were scarce
+discernible, and only to the eyes of the skilled tracker.
+
+It was the case with the trail they had been taking up--that of the shod
+mustang; and as the surface had lately been disturbed by a wild herd,
+the particular hoof-marks could no longer be distinguished.
+
+They might have gone further in the direction taken by the headless
+rider.  The sun would have been their guide, and after that the evening
+star.  But it was the rider of the shod mustang they were desirous to
+overtake; and the half hour of daylight that followed was spent in
+fruitless search for his trail--gone blind among the shingle.
+
+Spangler proclaimed himself at fault, as the sun disappeared over the
+horizon.
+
+They had no alternative but to ride back to the chapparal, and bivouac
+among the bushes.
+
+The intention was to make a fresh trial for the recovery of the trail,
+at the earliest hour of the morning.
+
+It was not fulfilled, at least as regarded time.  The trial was
+postponed by an unexpected circumstance.
+
+Scarce had they formed camp, when a courier arrived, bringing a despatch
+for the major.  It was from the commanding officer of the district,
+whose head-quarters were at San Antonio do Bexar.  It had been sent to
+Fort Inge, and thence forwarded.
+
+The major made known its tenor by ordering "boots and saddles" to be
+sounded; and before the sweat had become dry upon the horses, the
+dragoons were once more upon their backs.
+
+The despatch had conveyed the intelligence, that the Comanches were
+committing outrage, not upon the Leona, but fifty miles farther to the
+eastward, close to the town of San Antonio itself.
+
+It was no longer a mere rumour.  The maraud had commenced by the murder
+of men, women, and children, with the firing of their houses.
+
+The major was commanded to lose no time, but bring what troops he could
+spare to the scene of operations.  Hence his hurried decampment.
+
+The civilians might have stayed; but friendship--even parental
+affection--must yield to the necessities of nature.  Most of them had
+set forth without further preparation than the saddling of their horses,
+and shouldering their guns; and hunger now called them home.
+
+There was no intention to abandon the search.  That was to be resumed as
+soon as they could change horses, and establish a better system of
+commissariat.  Then would it be continued--as one and all declared, to
+the "bitter end."
+
+A small party was left with Spangler to take up the trail of the
+American horse, which according to the tracker's forecast would lead
+back to the Leona.  The rest returned along with the dragoons.
+
+Before parting with Poindexter and his friends, the major made known to
+them--what he had hitherto kept back--the facts relating to the bloody
+sign, and the tracker's interpretation of it.  As he was no longer to
+take part in the search, he thought it better to communicate to those
+who should, a circumstance so important.
+
+It pained him to direct suspicion upon the young Irishman, with whom in
+the way of his calling he had held some pleasant intercourse.  But duty
+was paramount; and, notwithstanding his disbelief in the mustanger's
+guilt, or rather his belief in its improbability, he could not help
+acknowledging that appearances were against him.
+
+With the planter and his party it was no longer a suspicion.  Now that
+the question of Indians was disposed of, men boldly proclaimed Maurice
+Gerald a murderer.
+
+That the deed had been done no one thought of doubting.
+
+Oberdoffer's story had furnished the first chapter of the evidence.
+Henry's horse returning with the blood-stained saddle the last.  The
+intermediate links were readily supplied--partly by the interpretations
+of the tracker, and partly by conjecture.
+
+No one paused to investigate the motive--at least with any degree of
+closeness.  The hostility of Gerald was accounted for by his quarrel
+with Calhoun; on the supposition that it might have extended to the
+whole family of the Poindexters!
+
+It was very absurd reasoning; but men upon the track of a supposed
+murderer rarely reason at all.  They think only of destroying him.
+
+With this thought did they separate; intending to start afresh on the
+following morning, throw themselves once more upon the trail of the two
+men who were missing, and follow it up, till one or both should be
+found--one or both, living or dead.
+
+The party left with Spangler remained upon the spot which the major had
+chosen as a camping ground.
+
+They were in all less than a dozen.  A larger number was deemed
+unnecessary.  Comanches, in that quarter, were no longer to be looked
+for; nor was there any other danger that called for a strength of men.
+Two or three would have been sufficient for the duty required of them.
+
+Nine or ten stayed--some out of curiosity, others for the sake of
+companionship.  They were chiefly young men--sons of planters and the
+like.  Calhoun was among them--the acknowledged chief of the party;
+though Spangler, acting as guide, was tacitly understood to be the man
+to whom obedience should be given.
+
+Instead of going to sleep, after the others had ridden away, they
+gathered around a roaring fire, already kindled within the thicket
+glade.
+
+Among them was no stint for supper--either of eatables or drinkables.
+The many who had gone back--knowing they would not need them--had
+surrendered their haversacks, and the "heel-taps" of their canteens, to
+the few who remained.  There was liquor enough to last through the
+night--even if spent in continuous carousing.
+
+Despite their knowledge of this--despite the cheerful crackling of the
+logs, as they took their seats around the fire--they were not in high
+spirits.
+
+One and all appeared to be under some influence, that, like a spell,
+prevented them from enjoying a pleasure perhaps not surpassed upon
+earth.
+
+You may talk of the tranquil joys of the domestic hearth.  At times,
+upon the prairie, I have myself thought of, and longed to return to
+them.  But now, looking back upon both, and calmly comparing them, one
+with the other, I cannot help exclaiming:
+
+"Give me the circle of the camp-fire, with half-a-dozen of my hunter
+comrades around it--once again give me that, and be welcome to the
+wealth I have accumulated, and the trivial honours I have gained--thrice
+welcome to the care and the toil that must still be exerted in retaining
+them."
+
+The sombre abstraction of their spirits was easily explained.  The weird
+shape was fresh in their thoughts.  They were yet under the influence of
+an indefinable awe.
+
+Account for the apparition as they best could, and laugh at it--as they
+at intervals affected to do--they could not clear their minds of this
+unaccountable incubus, nor feel satisfied with any explanation that had
+been offered.
+
+The guide Spangler partook of the general sentiment, as did their leader
+Calhoun.
+
+The latter appeared more affected by it than any of the party!  Seated,
+with moody brow, under the shadow of the trees, at some distance from
+the fire, he had not spoken a word since the departure of the dragoons.
+Nor did he seem disposed to join the circle of those who were basking in
+the blaze; but kept himself apart, as if not caring to come under the
+scrutiny of his companions.
+
+There was still the same wild look in his eyes--the same scared
+expression upon his features--that had shown itself before sunset.
+
+"I say, Cash Calhoun!" cried one of the young fellows by the fire, who
+was beginning to talk "tall," under the influence of the oft-repeated
+potations--"come up, old fellow, and join us in a drink!  We all respect
+your sorrow; and will do what we can to get satisfaction, for you and
+yours.  But a man mustn't always mope, as you're doing.  Come along
+here, and take a `smile' of the Monongaheela!  It'll do you a power of
+good, I promise you."
+
+Whether it was that he was pleased at the interpretation put upon his
+silent attitude--which the speech told him had been observed--or whether
+he had become suddenly inclined towards a feeling of good fellowship,
+Calhoun accepted the invitation; and stepping up to the fire, fell into
+line with the rest of the roysterers.  Before seating himself, he took a
+pull at the proffered flask.
+
+From that moment his air changed, as if by enchantment.  Instead of
+showing sombre, he became eminently hilarious--so much so as to cause
+surprise to more than one of the party.  The behaviour seemed odd for a
+man, whose cousin was supposed to have been murdered that very morning.
+
+Though commencing in the character of an invited guest, he soon
+exhibited himself as the host of the occasion.  After the others had
+emptied their respective flasks, he proved himself possessed of a supply
+that seemed inexhaustible.  Canteen after canteen came forth, from his
+capacious saddle-bags--the legacy left by many departed friends, who had
+gone back with the major.
+
+Partaking of these at the invitation of their leader--encouraged by his
+example--the young planter "bloods" who encircled the camp fire, talked,
+sang, danced, roared, and even rolled around it, until the alcohol could
+no longer keep them awake.  Then, yielding to exhausted nature, they
+sank back upon the sward, some perhaps to experience the dread slumber
+of a first intoxication.
+
+The ex-officer of volunteers was the last of the number who laid himself
+along the grass.
+
+If the last to lie down, he was the first to get up.  Scarce had the
+carousal ceased--scarce had the sonorous breathing of his companions
+proclaimed them asleep--when he rose into an erect attitude, and with
+cautious steps stole out from among them.  With like stealthy tread he
+kept on to the confines of the camp--to the spot where his horse stood
+"hitched" to a tree.
+
+Releasing the rein from its knot, and throwing it over the neck of the
+animal, he clambered into the saddle, and rode noiselessly away.
+
+In all these actions there was no evidence that he was intoxicated.  On
+the contrary, they proclaimed a clear brain, bent upon some purpose
+previously determined.  What could it be?
+
+Urged by affection, was he going forth to trace the mystery of the
+murder, by finding the body of the murdered man?  Did he wish to show
+his zeal by going alone?
+
+Some such design might have been interpreted from a series of speeches
+that fell carelessly from his lips, as he rode through the chapparal.
+
+"Thank God, there's a clear moon, and six good hours before those
+youngsters will think of getting to their feet!  I'll have time to
+search every corner of the thicket, for a couple of miles around the
+place; and if the body be there I cannot fail to find it.  But what
+could that thing have meant?  If I'd been the only one to see it, I
+might have believed myself mad.  But they all saw it--every one of them.
+Almighty heavens! what could it have been?"
+
+The closing speech ended in an exclamation of terrified surprise--
+elicited by a spectacle that at the moment presented itself to the eyes
+of the ex-officer--causing him to rein up his horse, as if some dread
+danger was before him.
+
+Coming in by a side path, he had arrived on the edge of the opening
+already described.  He was just turning into it, when he saw, that he
+was not the only horseman, who at that late hour was traversing the
+chapparal.
+
+Another, to all appearance as well mounted as himself, was approaching
+along the avenue--not slowly as he, but in a quick trot.
+
+Long before the strange rider had come near, the moonlight, shining fall
+upon him, enabled Calhoun to see that he was _headless_!
+
+There could be no mistake about the observation.  Though quickly made,
+it was complete.  The white moon beams, silvering his shoulders, were
+reflected from no face, above or between them!  It could be no illusion
+of the moon's light.  Calhoun had seen that same shape under the glare
+of the sun.
+
+He now saw more--the missing head, ghastly and gory, half shrouded
+behind the hairy holsters!  More still--he recognised the horse--the
+striped serape upon the shoulders of the rider--the water-guards upon
+his legs--the complete caparison--all the belongings of Maurice the
+mustanger!
+
+He had ample time to take in these details.  At a stand in the
+embouchure of the side path, terror held him transfixed to the spot.
+His horse appeared to share the feeling.  Trembling in its tracks, the
+animal made no effort to escape; even when the headless rider pulled up
+in front, and, with a snorting, rearing steed, remained for a moment
+confronting the frightened party.
+
+It was only after the blood bay had given utterance to a wild
+"whigher"--responded to by the howl of a hound close following at his
+heels--and turned into the avenue to continue his interrupted trot--only
+then that Calhoun became sufficiently released from the spell of horror
+to find speech.
+
+"God of heaven!" he cried, in a quivering voice, "what can it mean?  Is
+it man, or demon, that mocks me?  Has the whole day been a dream?  Or am
+I mad--mad--mad?"
+
+The scarce coherent speech was succeeded by action, instantaneous but
+determined.  Whatever the purpose of his exploration, it was evidently
+abandoned: for, turning his horse with a wrench upon the rein, he rode
+back by the way he had come--only at a far faster pace,--pausing not
+till he had re-entered the encampment.
+
+Then stealing up to the edge of the fire, he lay down among the
+slumbering inebriates--not to sleep, but to stay trembling in their
+midst, till daylight disclosed a haggard pallor upon his cheeks, and
+ghastly glances sent forth from his sunken eyes.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY SIX.
+
+A SECRET CONFIDED.
+
+The first dawn of day witnessed an unusual stir in and around the
+hacienda of Casa del Corvo.  The courtyard was crowded with men--armed,
+though not in the regular fashion.  They carried long hunting rifles,
+having a calibre of sixty to the pound; double-barrelled shot guns;
+single-barrelled pistols; revolvers; knives with long blades; and even
+tomahawks!
+
+In their varied attire of red flannel shirts, coats of coloured blanket,
+and "Kentucky jeans," trowsers of brown "homespun," and blue
+"cottonade," hats of felt and caps of skin, tall boots of tanned
+leather, and leggings of buck--these stalwart men furnished a faithful
+picture of an assemblage, such as may be often seen in the frontier
+settlements of Texas.
+
+Despite the _bizarrerie_ of their appearance, and the fact of their
+carrying weapons, there was nothing in either to proclaim their object
+in thus coming together.  Had it been for the most pacific purpose, they
+would have been armed and apparelled just the same.
+
+But their object is known.
+
+A number of the men so met, had been out on the day before, along with
+the dragoons.  Others had now joined the assemblage--settlers who lived
+farther away, and hunters who had been from home.
+
+The muster on this morning was greater than on the preceding day--even
+exceeding the strength of the searching party when supplemented by the
+soldiers.
+
+Though all were civilians, there was one portion of the assembled crowd
+that could boast of an organisation.  Irregular it may be deemed,
+notwithstanding the name by which its members were distinguished.  These
+were the "_Regulators_."
+
+There was nothing distinctive about them, either in their dress, arms,
+or equipments.  A stranger would not have known a Regulator from any
+other individual.  They knew one another.
+
+Their talk was of murder--of the murder of Henry Poindexter--coupled
+with the name of Maurice the mustanger.
+
+Another subject was discussed of a somewhat cognate character.  Those
+who had seen it, were telling those who had not--of the strange
+spectacle that had appeared to them the evening before on the prairie.
+
+Some were at first incredulous, and treated the thing as a joke.  But
+the wholesale testimony--and the serious manner in which it was given--
+could not long be resisted; and the existence of the _headless horseman_
+became a universal belief.  Of course there was an attempt to account
+for the odd phenomenon, and many forms of explanation were suggested.
+The only one, that seemed to give even the semblance of satisfaction,
+was that already set forward by the frontiersman--that the horse was
+real enough, but the rider was a counterfeit.
+
+For what purpose such a trick should be contrived, or who should be its
+contriver, no one pretended to explain.
+
+For the business that had brought them togther, there was but little
+time wasted in preparation.  All were prepared already.
+
+Their horses were outside--some of them held in hand by the servants of
+the establishment, but most "hitched" to whatever would hold them.
+
+They had come warned of their work, and only waited for Woodley
+Poindexter--on this occasion their chief--to give the signal for setting
+forth.
+
+He only waited in the hope of procuring a guide; one who could conduct
+them to the Alamo--who could take them to the domicile of Maurice the
+mustanger.
+
+There was no such person present.  Planters, merchants, shopkeepers,
+lawyers, hunters, horse and slave-dealers, were all alike ignorant of
+the Alamo.
+
+There was but one man belonging to the settlement supposed to be capable
+of performing the required service--old Zeb Stump.  But Zeb could not be
+found.  He was absent on one of his stalking expeditions; and the
+messengers sent to summon him were returning, one after another, to
+announce a bootless errand.
+
+There was a _woman_, in the hacienda itself, who could have guided the
+searchers upon their track--to the very hearthstone of the supposed
+assassin.
+
+Woodley Poindexter knew it not; and perhaps well for him it was so.  Had
+the proud planter suspected that in the person of his own child, there
+was a guide who could have conducted kim to the lone hut on the Alamo,
+his sorrow for a lost son would have been stifled by anguish for an
+erring daughter.
+
+The last messenger sent in search of Stump came back to the hacienda
+without him.  The thirst for vengeance could be no longer stayed, and
+the avengers went forth.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+They were scarce out of sight of Casa del Corvo, when the two
+individuals, who could have done them such signal service, became
+engaged in conversation within the walls of the hacienda itself.
+
+There was nothing clandestine in the meeting, nothing designed.  It was
+a simple contingency, Zeb Stump having just come in from his stalking
+excursion, bringing to the hacienda a portion of the "plunder"--as he
+was wont to term it--procured by his unerring rifle.
+
+Of course to Zeb Stump, Louise Poindexter was at home.  She was even
+eager for the interview--so eager, as to have kep almost a continual
+watch along the river road, all the day before, from the rising to the
+setting of the sun.
+
+Her vigil, resumed on the departure of the noisy crowd, was soon after
+rewarded by the sight of the hunter, mounted on his old mare--the latter
+laden with the spoils of the chase--slowly moving along the road on the
+opposite side of the river, and manifestly making for the hacienda.
+
+A glad sight to her--that rude, but grand shape of colossal manhood.
+She recognised in it the form of a true friend--to whose keeping she
+could safely entrust her most secret confidence.  And she had now such a
+secret to confide to him; that for a night and a day had been painfully
+pent up within her bosom.
+
+Long before Zeb had set foot upon the flagged pavement of the patio, she
+had gone out into the verandah to receive him.
+
+The air of smiling nonchalance with which he approached, proclaimed him
+still ignorant of the event which had cast its melancholy shadow over
+the house.  There was just perceptible the slightest expression of
+surprise, at finding the outer gate shut, chained, and barred.
+
+It had not been the custom of the hacienda--at least during its present
+proprietary.
+
+The sombre countenance of the black, encountered within the shadow of
+the saguan, strengthened Zeb's surprise--sufficiently to call forth an
+inquiry.
+
+"Why, Pluto, ole fellur! whatsomdiver air the matter wi' ye?  Yur
+lookin' like a 'coon wi' his tail chopped off--clost to the stump at
+thet!  An' why air the big gate shet an barred--in the middle o'
+breakfist time?  I hope thur hain't nuthin' gone astray?"
+
+"Ho! ho!  Mass 'Tump, dat's jess what dar hab goed stray--dat's preecise
+de ting, dis chile sorry t' say--berry much goed stray.  Ho! berry,
+berry much!"
+
+"Heigh!" exclaimed the hunter, startled at the lugubrious tone.  "Thur
+air sommeat amiss?  What is't, nigger?  Tell me sharp quick.  It can't
+be no wuss than yur face shows it.  Nothin' happened to yur young
+mistress, I hope?  Miss Lewaze--"
+
+"Ho--ho! nuffin' happen to de young Missa Looey.  Ho--ho!  Bad enuf
+'thout dat.  Ho! de young missa inside de house yar, 'Tep in, Mass'
+'Tump.  She tell you de drefful news herseff."
+
+"Ain't yur master inside, too?  He's at home, ain't he?"
+
+"Golly, no.  Dis time no.  Massa ain't 'bout de house at all nowhar.  He
+wa' hya a'most a quarrer ob an hour ago.  He no hya now.  He off to de
+hoss prairas--wha de hab de big hunt 'bout a momf ago.  You know, Mass'
+Zeb?"
+
+"The hoss purayras!  What's tuk him thur?  Who's along wi' him?"
+
+"Ho! ho! dar's Mass Cahoon, and gobs o' odder white genlum.  Ho! ho!
+Dar's a mighty big crowd ob dem, dis nigga tell you."
+
+"An' yur young Master Henry--air he gone too?"
+
+"O Mass' 'Tump!  Dat's wha am be trubble.  Dat's de whole ob it.  Mass'
+Hen' he gone too.  He nebber mo' come back.  De hoss he been brought
+home all kibbered over wif blood.  Ho! ho! de folks say Massa Henry he
+gone dead."
+
+"Dead!  Yur jokin'?  Air ye in airnest, nigger?"
+
+"Oh!  I is, Mass' 'Tump.  Sorry dis chile am to hab say dat am too troo.
+Dey all gone to sarch atter de body."
+
+"Hyur!  Take these things to the kitchen.  Thur's a gobbler, an some
+purayra chickens.  Whar kin I find Miss Lewaze?"
+
+"Here, Mr Stump.  Come this way!" replied a sweet voice well known to
+him, but now speaking in accents so sad he would scarce have recognised
+it.
+
+"Alas! it is too true what Pluto has been telling you.  My brother is
+missing.  He has not been seen since the night before last.  His horse
+came home, with spots of blood upon the saddle.  O Zeb! it's fearful to
+think of it!"
+
+"Sure enuf that _air_ ugly news.  He rud out somewhar, and the hoss kim
+back 'ithout him?  I don't weesh to gie ye unneedcessary pain, Miss
+Lewaze; but, as they air still sarchin' I mout be some help at that ere
+bizness; and maybe ye won't mind tellin' me the particklers?"
+
+These were imparted, as far as known to her.  The gardes scene and its
+antecedents were alone kept back.  Oberdoffer was given as authority for
+the belief, that Henry had gone off after the mustanger.
+
+The narrative was interrupted by bursts of grief, changing to
+indignation, when she came to tell Zeb of the suspicion entertained by
+the people--that Maurice was the murderer.
+
+"It air a lie!" cried the hunter, partaking of the same sentiment: "a
+false, parjured lie! an he air a stinkin' skunk that invented it.  The
+thing's impossible.  The mowstanger ain't the man to a dud sech a deed
+as that.  An' why shed he have dud it?  If thur hed been an ill-feelin'
+atween them.  But thur wa'n't.  I kin answer for the mowstanger--for
+more'n oncest I've heern him talk o' your brother in the tallest kind o'
+tarms.  In coorse he hated yur cousin Cash--an who doesn't, I shed like
+to know?  Excuse me for sayin' it.  As for the other, it air different.
+Ef thar hed been a quarrel an hot blood atween them--"
+
+"No--no!" cried the young Creole, forgetting herself in the agony of her
+grief.  "It was all over.  Henry was reconciled.  He said so; and
+Maurice--"
+
+The astounded look of the listener brought a period to her speech.
+Covering her face with her hands, she buried her confusion in a flood of
+tears.
+
+"Hoh--oh!" muttered Zeb; "thur _hev_ been somethin'?  D'ye say, Miss
+Lewaze, thur war a--a--quarrel atween yur brother--"
+
+"Dear, dear Zeb!" cried she, removing her hands, and confronting the
+stalwart hunter with an air of earnest entreaty, "promise me, you will
+keep my secret?  Promise it, as a friend--as a brave true-hearted man!
+You will--you will?"
+
+The pledge was given by the hunter raising his broad palm, and extending
+it with a sonorous slap over the region of his heart.
+
+In five minutes more he was in possession of a secret which woman rarely
+confides to man--except to him who can profoundly appreciate the
+confidence.
+
+The hunter showed less surprise than might have been expected; merely
+muttering to himself:--
+
+"I thort it wild come to somethin' o' the sort--specially arter thet ere
+chase acrost the purayra."
+
+"Wal, Miss Lewaze," he continued, speaking in a tone of kindly approval,
+"Zeb Stump don't see anythin' to be ashamed o' in all thet.  Weemen will
+be weemen all the world over--on the purayras or off o' them; an ef ye
+have lost yur young heart to the mowstanger, it wud be the tallest kind
+o' a mistake to serpose ye hev displaced yur affeckshuns, as they calls
+it.  Though he air Irish, he aint none o' the common sort; thet he aint.
+As for the rest ye've been tellin' me, it only sarves to substantify
+what I've been sayin'--that it air parfickly unpossible for the
+mowstanger to hev dud the dark deed; that is, ef thur's been one dud at
+all.  Let's hope thur's nothin' o' the kind.  What proof hez been found?
+Only the hoss comin' home wi' some rid spots on the seddle?"
+
+"Alas! there is more.  The people were all out yesterday.  They followed
+a trail, and saw something, they would not tell me what.  Father did not
+appear as if he wished me to know what they had seen; and I--I feared,
+for reasons, to ask the others.  They've gone off again--only a short
+while--just as you came in sight on the other side."
+
+"But the mowstanger?  What do it say for hisself?"
+
+"Oh, I thought you knew.  He has not been found either.  _Mon Dieu! mon
+Dieu_!  He, too, may have fallen by the same hand that has struck down
+my brother!"
+
+"Ye say they war on a trail?  His'n I serpose?  If he be livin' he
+oughter be foun' at his shanty on the crik.  Why didn't they go thar?
+Ah! now I think o't, thur's nobody knows the adzack sittavashun o' that
+ere domycile 'ceptin' myself I reckon: an if it war that greenhorn
+Spangler as war guidin' o' them he'd niver be able to lift a trail
+acrost the chalk purayra.  Hev they gone that way agin?"
+
+"They have.  I heard some of them say so."
+
+"Wal, if they're gone in sarch o' the mowstanger I reck'n I mout as well
+go too.  I'll gie tall odds I find him afore they do."
+
+"It is for that I've been so anxious to see you.  There am many rough
+men along with papa.  As they went away I heard them use wild words.
+There were some of those called `Regulators.'  They talked of lynching
+and the like.  Some of them swore terrible oaths of vengeance.  O my
+God! if they should find _him_, and he cannot make clear his innocence,
+in the height of their angry passions--cousin Cassius among the number--
+you understand what I mean--who knows what may be done to him?  Dear
+Zeb, for my sake--for his, whom you call friend--go--go!  Reach the
+Alamo before them, and warn him of the danger!  Your horse is slow.
+Take mine--any one you can find in the stable--"
+
+"Thur's some truth in what ye say," interrupted the hunter, preparing to
+move off.  "Thur mout be a smell o' danger for the young fellur; an I'll
+do what I kin to avart it.  Don't be uneezay, Miss Lewaze.  Thur's not
+sech a partickler hurry.  Thet ere shanty ain't agoin' ter be foun'
+'ithout a spell o' sarchin'.  As to ridin' yur spotty I'll manage better
+on my ole maar.  Beside, the critter air reddy now if Plute hain't tuk
+off the saddle.  Don't be greetin' yur eyes out--thet's a good chile!
+Maybe it'll be all right yit 'bout yur brother; and as to the
+mowstanger, I hain't no more surspishun o' his innersense than a unborn
+babby."
+
+The interview ended by Zeb making obeisance in backwoodsman style, and
+striding out of the verandah; while the young Creole glided off to her
+chamber, to soothe her troubled spirit in supplications for his success.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN.
+
+AN INTERCEPTED EPISTLE.
+
+Urged by the most abject fear, had El Coyote and his three comrades
+rushed back to their horses, and scrambled confusedly into the saddle.
+
+They had no idea of returning to the jacale of Maurice Gerald.  On the
+contrary, their only thought was to put space between themselves and
+that solitary dwelling--whose owner they had encountered riding towards
+it in such strange guise.
+
+That it was "Don Mauricio" not one of them doubted.  All four knew him
+by sight--Diaz better than any--but all well enough to be sure it was
+the _Irlandes_.  There was his horse, known to them; his _armas de agua_
+of jaguar-skin; his _Navajo_ blanket, in shape differing from the
+ordinary serape of Saltillo;--and his _head_!
+
+They had not stayed to scrutinise the features; but the hat was still in
+its place--the sombrero of black glaze which Maurice was accustomed to
+wear.  It had glanced in their eyes, as it came under the light of the
+moon.
+
+Besides, they had seen the great dog, which Diaz remembered to be his.
+The staghound had sprung forward in the midst of the struggle, and with
+a fierce growl attacked the assailant--though it had not needed this to
+accelerate their retreat.
+
+Fast as their horses could carry them, they rode through the bottom
+timber; and, ascending the bluff by one of its ravines--not that where
+they had meant to commit murder--they reached the level of the upper
+plateau.
+
+Nor did they halt there for a single second; but, galloping across the
+plain, re-entered the chapparal, and spurred on to the place where they
+had so skilfully transformed themselves into Comanches.
+
+The reverse metamorphosis, if not so carefully, was more quickly
+accomplished.  In haste they washed the war-paint from their skins--
+availing themselves of some water carried in their canteens;--in haste
+they dragged their civilised habiliments from the hollow tree, in which
+they had hidden them; and, putting them on in like haste, they once more
+mounted their horses, and rode towards the Leona.
+
+On their homeward way they conversed only of the headless horseman: but,
+with their thoughts under the influence of a supernatural terror, they
+could not satisfactorily account for an appearance so unprecedented; and
+they were still undecided as they parted company on the outskirts of the
+village--each going to his own jacale.
+
+"_Carrai_!" exclaimed the Coyote, as he stepped across the threshold of
+his, and dropped down upon his cane couch.  "Not much chance of sleeping
+after that.  _Santos Dios_! such a sight!  It has chilled the blood to
+the very bottom of my veins.  And nothing here to warm me.  The canteen
+empty; the posada shut up; everybody in bed!
+
+"_Madre de Dios_! what can it have been?  Ghost it could not be; flesh
+and bones I grasped myself; so did Vicente on the other side?  I felt
+that, or something very like it, under the tiger-skin.  _Santissima_! it
+could not be a cheat!
+
+"If a contrivance, why and to what end?  Who cares to play carnival on
+the prairies--except myself, and my camarados?  _Mil demonios_! what a
+grim masquerader!
+
+"_Carajo_! am I forestalled?  Has some other had the offer, and earned
+the thousand dollars?  Was it the Irlandes himself, dead, decapitated,
+carrying his head in his hand?
+
+"Bah! it could not be--ridiculous, unlikely, altogether improbable!
+
+"But what then?
+
+"Ha!  I have it!  A hundred to one I have it!  He may have got warning
+of our visit, or, at least, had suspicions of it.  'Twas a trick got up
+to try us!--perhaps himself in sight, a witness of our disgraceful
+flight?  _Maldito_!
+
+"But who could have betrayed us?  No one.  Of course no one could tell
+of _that_ intent.  How then should he have prepared such an infernal
+surprise?
+
+"Ah!  I forget.  It was broad daylight as we made the crossing of the
+long prairie.  We may have been seen, and our purpose suspected?  Just
+so--just so.  And then, while we were making our toilet in the
+chapparal, the other could have been contrived and effected.  That, and
+that only, can be the explanation!
+
+"Fools! to have been frightened at a scarecrow!
+
+"_Carrambo_!  It shan't long delay the event.  To-morrow I go back to
+the Alamo.  I'll touch that thousand yet, if I should have to spend
+twelve months in earning it; and, whether or not, the _deed_ shall be
+done all the same.  Enough to have lost Isidora.  It may not be true;
+but the very suspicion of it puts me beside myself.  If I but find out
+that she loves him--that they have met since--since--Mother of God!  I
+shall go mad; and in my madness destroy not only the man I hate, but the
+woman I love!  O Dona Isidora Covarubio de los Llanos!  Angel of beauty,
+and demon of mischief!  I could kill you with my caresses--I can kill
+you with my steel!  One or other shall be your fate.  It is for you to
+choose between them!"
+
+His spirit becoming a little tranquillised, partly through being
+relieved by this conditional threat--and partly from the explanation he
+had been able to arrive at concerning the other thought that had been
+troubling it--he soon after fell asleep.
+
+Nor did he awake until daylight looked in at his door, and along with it
+a visitor.
+
+"Jose!" he cried out in a tone of surprise in which pleasure was
+perceptible--"you here?"
+
+"_Si, Senor; yo estoy_."
+
+"Glad to see you, good Jose.  The Dona Isidora here?--on the Leona, I
+mean?"
+
+"_Si, Senor_."
+
+"So soon again!  She was here scarce two weeks ago, was she not?  I was
+away from the settlement, but had word of it.  I was expecting to hear
+from you, good Jose.  Why did you not write?"
+
+"Only, Senor Don Miguel, for want of a messenger that could be relied
+upon.  I had something to communicate, that could not with safety be
+entrusted to a stranger.  Something, I am sorry to say, you won't thank
+me for telling you; but my life is yours, and I promised you should know
+all."
+
+The "prairie wolf" sprang to his feet, as if pricked with a
+sharp-pointed thorn.
+
+"Of her, and him?  I know it by your looks.  Your mistress has met him?"
+
+"No, Senor, she hasn't--not that I know of--not since the first time."
+
+"What, then?" inquired Diaz, evidently a little relieved, "She was here
+while he was at the posada.  Something passed between them?"
+
+"True, Don Miguel--something did pass, as I well know, being myself the
+bearer of it.  Three times I carried him a basket of _dulces_, sent by
+the Dona Isidora--the last time also a letter."
+
+"A letter!  You know the contents?  You read it?"
+
+"Thanks to your kindness to the poor _peon_ boy, I was able to do that;
+more still--to make a copy of it."
+
+"You have one?"
+
+"I have.  You see, Don Miguel, you did not have me sent to school for
+nothing.  This is what the Dona Isidora wrote to him."
+
+Diaz reached out eagerly, and, taking hold of the piece of paper,
+proceeded to devour its contents.
+
+It was a copy of the note that had been sent among the sweetmeats.
+
+Instead of further exciting, it seemed rather to tranquillise him.
+
+"_Carrambo_!" he carelessly exclaimed, as he folded up the epistle.
+"There's not much in this, good Jose.  It only proves that your mistress
+is grateful to one who has done her a service.  If that's all--"
+
+"But it is not all, Senor Don Miguel; and that's why I've come to see
+you now.  I'm on an errand to the _pueblita_.  This will explain it."
+
+"Ha!  Another letter?"
+
+"_Si, Senor_!  This time the original itself, and not a poor copy
+scribbled by me."
+
+With a shaking hand Diaz took hold of the paper, spread it out, and
+read:--
+
+Al Senor Don Mauricio Gerald.
+
+_Querido amigo_!
+
+_Otra vez aqui estoy--con tio Silvio quedando!  Sin novedades de V. no
+puedo mas tiempo existir.  La incertitud me malaba.  Digame que es V.
+convalescente!  Ojala, que estuviera asi!  Suspiro en vuestros ojos
+mirar, estos ojos tan lindos y tan espresivos--a ver, si es restablecido
+vuestra salud.  Sea graciosa darme este favor.  Hay--opportunidad.  En
+una cortita media de hora, estuviera quedando en la cima de loma, sobre
+la cosa del tio.  Ven, cavallero, ven_!
+
+Isidora Covarubio de los Llanos.
+
+With a curse El Coyote concluded the reading of the letter.  Its sense
+could scarce be mistaken.  Literally translated it read thus:--
+
+"Dear Friend,--I am once more here, staying with uncle Silvio.  Without
+hearing of you I could not longer exist.  The uncertainty was killing
+me.  Tell me if you are convalescent.  Oh! that it may be so.  I long to
+look into your eyes--those eyes so beautiful, so expressive--to make
+sure that your health is perfectly restored.  Be good enough to grant me
+this favour.  There is an opportunity.  In a short half hour from this
+time, I shall be on the top of the hill, above my uncle's house.  Come,
+sir, come!
+
+"Isidora Covarubio De Los Llanos."
+
+"_Carajo_! an assignation!" half shrieked the indignant Diaz.  "That and
+nothing else!  She, too, the proposer.  Ha!  Her invitation shall be
+answered; though not by him for whom it is so cunningly intended.  Kept
+to the hour--to the very minute; and by the Divinity of Vengeance--
+
+"Here, Jose! this note's of no use.  The man to whom it is addressed
+isn't any longer in the pueblita, nor anywhere about here.  God knows
+where he is!  There's some mystery about it.  No matter.  You go on to
+the posada, and make your inquiries all the same.  You must do that to
+fulfil your errand.  Never mind the _papelcito_; leave it with me.  You
+can have it to take to your mistress, as you come back this way.  Here's
+a dollar to get you a drink at the inn.  Senor Doffer keeps the best
+kind of aguardiente.  _Hasta luejo_!"
+
+Without staying to question the motive for these directions given to
+him, Jose, after accepting the _douceur_, yielded tacit obedience to
+them, and took his departure from the jacale.
+
+He was scarce out of sight before Diaz also stepped over its threshold.
+Hastily setting the saddle upon his horse, he sprang into it, and rode
+off in the opposite direction.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT.
+
+ISIDORA.
+
+The sun has just risen clear above the prairie horizon, his round disc
+still resting upon the sward, like a buckler of burnished gold.  His
+rays are struggling into the chapparal, that here and there diversifies
+the savanna.  The dew-beads yet cling upon the acacias, weighting their
+feathery fronds, and causing them to droop earthward, as if grieving at
+the departure of the night, whose cool breeze and moist atmosphere are
+more congenial to them than the fiery sirocco of day.  Though the birds
+are stirring--for what bird could sleep under the shine of such glorious
+sunrise?--it is almost too early to expect human being abroad--elsewhere
+than upon the prairies of Texas.  There, however, the hour of the sun's
+rising is the most enjoyable of the day; and few there are who spend it
+upon the unconscious couch, or in the solitude of the chamber.
+
+By the banks of the Leona, some three miles below Fort Inge, there is
+one who has forsaken both, to stray through the chapparal.  This early
+wanderer is not afoot, but astride a strong, spirited horse, that seems
+impatient at being checked in his paces.  By this description, you may
+suppose the rider to be a man; but, remembering that the scene is in
+Southern Texas still sparsely inhabited by a Spano-Mexican population--
+you are equally at liberty to conjecture that the equestrian is a woman.
+And this, too, despite the round hat upon the head--despite the serape
+upon the shoulders, worn as a protection against the chill morning air--
+despite the style of equitation, so _outre_ to European ideas, since the
+days of La Duchesse de Berri; and still further, despite the crayon-like
+colouring on the upper lip, displayed in the shape of a pair of silken
+moustaches.  More especially may this last mislead; and you may fancy
+yourself looking upon some Spanish youth, whose dark but delicate
+features bespeak the _hijo de algo_, with a descent traceable to the
+times of the Cid.
+
+If acquainted with the character of the Spano-Mexican physiognomy, this
+last sign of virility does not decide you as to the sex.  It may be that
+the rider in the Texan chapparal, so distinguished, is, after all, a
+woman!
+
+On closer scrutiny, this proves to be the case.  It is proved by the
+small hand clasping the bridle-rein; by the little foot, whose tiny toes
+just touch the "estribo"--looking less in contrast with the huge wooden
+block that serves as a stirrup; by a certain softness of shape, and
+pleasing rotundity of outline, perceptible even through the thick serape
+of Saltillo; and lastly, by the grand luxuriance of hair coiled up at
+the back of the head, and standing out in shining clump beyond the rim
+of the sombrero.  After noting these points, you become convinced that
+you are looking upon a woman, though it may be one distinguished by
+certain idiosyncrasies.  You are looking upon the Dona Isidora Covarubio
+de los Llanos.
+
+You are struck by the strangeness of her costume--still more by the way
+she sits her horse.  In your eyes, unaccustomed to Mexican modes, both
+may appear odd--unfeminine--perhaps indecorous.
+
+The Dona Isidora has no thought--not even a suspicion--of there being
+anything odd in either.  Why should she?  She is but following the
+fashion of her country and her kindred.  In neither respect is she
+peculiar.
+
+She is young, but yet a woman.  She has seen twenty summers, and perhaps
+one more.  Passed under the sun of a Southern sky, it is needless to say
+that her girlhood is long since gone by.  In her beauty there is no sign
+of decadence.  She is fair to look upon, as in her "buen quince"
+(beautiful fifteen), Perhaps fairer.  Do not suppose that the dark
+lining on her lip damages the feminine expression of her face.  Rather
+does it add to its attractiveness.  Accustomed to the glowing complexion
+of the Saxon blonde, you may at first sight deem it a deformity.  Do not
+so pronounce, till you have looked again.  A second glance, and--my word
+for it--you will modify your opinion.  A third will do away with your
+indifference; a fourth change it to admiration!
+
+Continue the scrutiny, and it will end in your becoming convinced: that
+a woman wearing a moustache--young, beautiful, and brunette--is one of
+the grandest sights which a beneficent Nature offers to the eye of man.
+
+It is presented in the person of Isidora Covarubio de los Llanos.  If
+there is anything unfeminine in her face, it is not this; though it may
+strengthen a wild, almost fierce, expression, at times discernible, when
+her white teeth gleam conspicuously under the sable shadow of the
+"bigotite."
+
+Even then is she beautiful; but, like that of the female jaguar, 'tis a
+beauty that inspires fear rather than affection.
+
+At all times it is a countenance that bespeaks for its owner the
+possession of mental attributes not ordinarily bestowed upon her sex.
+Firmness, determination, courage--carried to the extreme of reckless
+daring--are all legible in its lines.  In those cunningly-carved
+features, slight, sweet, and delicate, there is no sign of fainting or
+fear.  The crimson that has struggled through the brown skin of her
+cheeks would scarce forsake them in the teeth of the deadliest danger.
+
+She is riding alone, through the timbered bottom of the Leona.  There is
+a house not far off; but she is leaving it behind her.  It is the
+hacienda of her uncle, Don Silvio Martinez, from the portals of which
+she has late issued forth.
+
+She sits in her saddle as firmly as the skin that covers it.  It is a
+spirited horse, and has the habit of showing it by his prancing paces.
+But you have no fear for the rider: you are satisfied of her power to
+control him.
+
+A light lazo, suited to her strength, is suspended from the saddle-bow.
+Its careful coiling shows that it is never neglected.  This almost
+assures you, that she understands how to use it.  She does--can throw
+it, with the skill of a mustanger.
+
+The accomplishment is one of her conceits; a part of the idiosyncrasy
+already acknowledged.
+
+She is riding along a road--not the public one that follows the
+direction of the river.  It is a private way leading from the hacienda
+of her uncle, running into the former near the summit of a hill--the
+hill itself being only the bluff that abuts upon the bottom lands of the
+Leona.
+
+She ascends the sloping path--steep enough to try the breathing of her
+steed.  She reaches the crest of the ridge, along which trends the road
+belonging to everybody.
+
+She reins up; though not to give her horse an opportunity of resting.
+She has halted, because of having reached the point where her excursion
+is to terminate.
+
+There is an opening on one side of the road, of circular shape, and
+having a superficies of some two or three acres.  It is grass-covered
+and treeless--a prairie in _petto_.  It is surrounded by the chapparal
+forest--very different from the bottom timber out of which she has just
+emerged.  On all sides is the enclosing thicket of spinous plants,
+broken only by the embouchures of three paths, their triple openings
+scarce perceptible from the middle of the glade.
+
+Near its centre she has pulled up, patting her horse upon the neck to
+keep him quiet.  It is not much needed.  The scaling of the "cuesta" has
+done that for him.  He has no inclination either to go on, or tramp
+impatiently in his place.
+
+"I am before the hour of appointment," mutters she, drawing a gold watch
+from under her serape, "if, indeed, I should expect him at all.  He may
+not come?  God grant that he be able!
+
+"I am trembling!  Or is it the breathing of the horse?  _Valga me Dios_,
+no!  'Tis my own poor nerves!
+
+"I never felt so before!  Is it fear?  I suppose it is.
+
+"'Tis strange though--to fear the man I love--the only one I over have
+loved: for it could not have been love I had for Don Miguel.  A girl's
+fancy.  Fortunate for me to have got cured of it!  Fortunate my
+discovering him to be a coward.  That disenchanted me--quite dispelled
+the romantic dream in which he was the foremost figure.  Thank my good
+stars, for the disenchantment; for now I hate him, now that I hear he
+has grown--_Santissima_! can it be true that he has become--a--a
+_salteador_?
+
+"And yet I should have no fear of meeting him--not even in this lone
+spot!
+
+"_Ay de mi_!  Fearing the man I love, whom I believe to be of kind,
+noble nature--and having no dread of him I hate, and know to be cruel
+and remorseless!  'Tis strange--incomprehensible!
+
+"No--there is nothing strange in it.  I tremble not from any thought of
+danger--only the danger of not being beloved.  That is why I now shiver
+in my saddle--why I have not had one night of tranquil sleep since my
+deliverance from those drunken savages.
+
+"I have never told _him_ of this; nor do I know how he may receive the
+confession.  It must, and shall be made.  I can endure the uncertainty
+no longer.  In preference I choose despair--death, if my hopes deceive
+me!
+
+"Ha!  There is a hoof stroke!  A horse comes down the road!  It is his?
+Yes.  I see glancing through the trees the bright hues of our national
+costume.  He delights to wear it.  No wonder; it so becomes him!
+
+"_Santa Virgin_!  I'm under a serape, with a sombrero on my head.  He'll
+mistake me for a man!  Off, ye ugly disguises, and let me seem what I
+am--a woman."
+
+Scarce quicker could be the transformation in a pantomime.  The casting
+off the serape reveals a form that Hebe might have envied; the removal
+of the hat, a head that would have inspired the chisel of Canova!
+
+A splendid picture is exhibited in that solitary glade; worthy of being
+framed, by its bordering of spinous trees, whose hirsute arms seem
+stretched out to protect it.
+
+A horse of symmetrical shape, half backed upon his haunches, with
+nostrils spread to the sky, and tail sweeping the ground; on his back
+one whose aspect and attitude suggest a commingling of grand, though
+somewhat incongruous ideas, uniting to form a picture, statuesque as
+beautiful.
+
+The _pose_ of the rider is perfect.  Half sitting in the saddle, half
+standing upon the stirrup, every undulation of her form is displayed--
+the limbs just enough relaxed to show that she is a woman.
+
+Notwithstanding what she has said, on her face there is no fear--at
+least no sign to betray it.  There is no quivering lip--no blanching of
+the cheeks.
+
+The expression is altogether different.  It is a look of love--couched
+under a proud confidence, such as that with which the she-eagle awaits
+the wooing of her mate.
+
+You may deem the picture overdrawn--perhaps pronounce it unfeminine.
+
+And yet it is a copy from real life--true as I can remember it; and more
+than once had I the opportunity to fix it in my memory.
+
+The attitude is altered, and with the suddenness of a _coup d'eclair_;
+the change being caused by recognition of the horseman who comes
+galloping into the glade.  The shine of the gold-laced vestments had
+misled her.  They are worn not by Maurice Gerald, but by Miguel Diaz!
+
+Bright looks become black.  From her firm seat in the saddle she
+subsides into an attitude of listlessness--despairing rather than
+indifferent; and the sound that escapes her lips, as for an instant they
+part over her pearl-like teeth, is less a sigh than an exclamation of
+chagrin.
+
+There is no sign of fear in the altered attitude--only disappointment,
+dashed with defiance.
+
+El Coyote speaks first.
+
+"_H'la!  S'norita_, who'd have expected to find your ladyship in this
+lonely place--wasting your sweetness on the thorny chapparal?"
+
+"In what way can it concern you, Don Miguel Diaz?"
+
+"Absurd question, S'norita!  You know it can, and does; and the reason
+why.  You well know how madly I love you.  Fool was I to confess it, and
+acknowledge myself your slave.  'Twas that that cooled you so quickly."
+
+"You are mistaken, Senor.  I never told you I loved you.  If I did
+admire your feats of horsemanship, and said so, you had no right to
+construe it as you've done.  I meant no more than that I admired
+_them_--not you.  'Tis three years ago.  I was a girl then, of an age
+when such things have a fascination for our sex--when we are foolish
+enough to be caught by personal accomplishments rather than moral
+attributes.  I am now a woman.  All that is changed, as--it ought to
+be."
+
+"_Carrai_!  Why did you fill me with false hopes?  On the day of the
+_herradero_, when I conquered the fiercest bull and tamed the wildest
+horse in your father's herds--a horse not one of his _vaqueros_ dared so
+much as lay hands upon--on that day you smiled--ay, looked love upon me.
+You need not deny it, Dona Isidora!  I had experience, and could read
+the expression--could tell your thoughts, as they were then.  They are
+changed, and why?  Because I was conquered by your charms, or rather
+because I was the silly fool to acknowledge it; and you, like all women,
+once you had won and knew it, no longer cared for your conquest.  It is
+true, S'norita; it is true."
+
+"It is not, Don Miguel Diaz.  I never gave you word or sign to say that
+I loved, or thought of you otherwise than as an accomplished cavalier.
+You appeared so then--perhaps were so.  What are you now?  You know
+what's said of you, both here and on the Rio Grande!"
+
+"I scorn to reply to calumny--whether it proceeds from false friends or
+lying enemies.  I have come here to seek explanations, not to give
+them."
+
+"Prom whom?"
+
+"Prom your sweet self, Dona Isidora."
+
+"You are presumptive, Don Miguel Diaz!  Think, Senor, to whom you are
+addressing yourself.  Remember, I am the daughter of--"
+
+"One of the proudest _Haciendados_ in Tamaulipas, and niece to one of
+the proudest in Texas.  I have thought of all that; and thought too that
+I was once a haciendado myself and am now only a hunter of horses.
+_Carrambo_! what of that?  You're not the woman to despise a man for the
+inferiority of his rank.  A poor mustanger stands as good a chance in
+your eyes as the owner of a hundred herds.  In that respect, _I have
+proof of your generous spirit_!"
+
+"What proof?" asked she, in a quick, entreating tone, and for the first
+time showing signs of uneasiness.  "What evidence of the generosity you
+are so good as to ascribe to me?"
+
+"This pretty epistle I hold in my hand, indited by the Dona Isidora
+Covarubio de los Llanos, to one who, like myself, is but a dealer in
+horseflesh.  I need not submit it to very close inspection.  No doubt
+you can identify it at some distance?"
+
+She could, and did; as was evinced by her starting in the saddle--by her
+look of angry surprise directed upon Diaz.
+
+"Senor! how came you in possession of this?" she asked, without any
+attempt to disguise her indignation.
+
+"It matters not.  I am in possession of it, and of what for many a day I
+have been seeking; a proof, not that you had ceased to care for me--for
+this I had good reason to know--but that you had begun to care for him.
+This tells that you love him--words could not speak plainer.  You long
+to look into his beautiful eyes.  _Mil demonios_! you shall never see
+them again!"
+
+"What means this, Don Miguel Diaz?"
+
+The question was put not without a slight quivering of the voice that
+seemed to betray fear.  No wonder it should.  There was something in the
+aspect of El Coyote at that moment well calculated to inspire the
+sentiment.
+
+Observing it, he responded, "You may well show fear: you have reason.
+If I have lost you, my lady, no other shall enjoy you.  I have made up
+my mind about that."
+
+"About what?"
+
+"What I have said--that no other shall call you his, and least of all
+Maurice the mustanger."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Ay, indeed!  Give me a promise that you and he shall never meet again,
+or you depart not from this place!"
+
+"You are jesting, Don Miguel?"
+
+"I am in earnest, Dona Isidora."
+
+The manner of the man too truly betrayed the sincerity of his speech.
+Coward as he was, there was a cold cruel determination in his looks,
+whilst his hand was seen straying towards the hilt of his machete.
+
+Despite her Amazonian courage, the woman could not help a feeling of
+uneasiness.  She saw there was a danger, with but slight chance of
+averting it.  Something of this she had felt from the first moment of
+the encounter; but she had been sustained by the hope, that the
+unpleasant interview might be interrupted by one who would soon change
+its character.
+
+During the early part of the dialogue she had been eagerly listening for
+the sound of a horse's hoof--casting occasional and furtive glances
+through the chapparal, in the direction where she hoped to hear it.
+
+This hope was no more.  The sight of her own letter told its tale: it
+had not reached its destination.
+
+Deprived of this hope--hitherto sustaining her--she next thought of
+retreating from the spot.
+
+But this too presented both difficulties and dangers.  It was possible
+for her to wheel round and gallop off; but it was equally possible for
+her retreat to be intercepted by a bullet.  The butt of El Coyote's
+pistol was as near to his hand as the hilt of his machete.
+
+She was fully aware of the danger.  Almost any other woman would have
+given way to it.  Not so Isidora Covarubio de los Llanos.  She did not
+even show signs of being affected by it.
+
+"Nonsense!" she exclaimed, answering his protestation with an air of
+well dissembled incredulity.  "You are making sport of me, Senor.  You
+wish to frighten me.  Ha! ha! ha!  Why should I fear _you_?  I can ride
+as well--fling my lazo as sure and far as you, Look at this I see how
+skilfully I can handle it!"
+
+While so speaking--smiling as she spoke--she had lifted the lazo from
+her saddle-bow and was winding it round her head, as if to illustrate
+her observations.
+
+The act had a very different intent, though it was not perceived by
+Diaz; who, puzzled by her behaviour, sate speechless in his saddle.
+
+Not till he felt the noose closing around his elbows did he suspect her
+design; and then too late to hinder its execution.  In another instant
+his arms were pinioned to his sides--both the butt of his pistol and the
+hilt of his machete beyond the grasp of his fingers!
+
+He had not even time to attempt releasing himself from the loop.  Before
+he could lay hand upon the rope, it tightened around his body, and with
+a violent pluck jerked him out of his saddle--throwing him stunned and
+senseless to the ground.
+
+"Now, Don Miguel Diaz!" cried she who had caused this change of
+situation, and who was now seen upon her horse, with head turned
+homeward, the lazo strained taut from the saddle-tree.  "Menace me no
+more!  Make no attempt to release yourself.  Stir but a finger, and I
+spur on!  Cruel villain! coward as you are, you would have killed me--I
+saw it in your eye.  Ha! the tables are turned, and now--"
+
+Perceiving that there was no rejoinder, she interrupted her speech,
+still keeping the lazo at a stretch, with her eyes fixed upon the fallen
+man.
+
+El Coyote lay upon the ground, his arms enlaced in the loop, without
+stirring, and silent as a stick of wood.  The fall from his horse had
+deprived him of speech, and consciousness at the same time.  To all
+appearance he was dead--his steed alone showing life by its loud
+neighing, as it reared back among the bushes.
+
+"Holy Virgin! have I killed him?" she exclaimed, reining her horse
+slightly backward, though still keeping him headed away, and ready to
+spring to the spur.  "Mother of God!  I did not intend it--though I
+should be justified in doing even that: for too surely did he intend to
+kill _me_!  Is he dead, or is it a _ruse_ to get me near?  By our good
+Guadaloupe!  I shall leave others to decide.  There's not much fear of
+his overtaking me, before I can reach home; and if he's in any danger
+the people of the hacienda will get back soon enough to release him.
+Good day, Don Miguel Diaz!  _Hasta luego_!"
+
+With these words upon her lips--the levity of which proclaimed her
+conscience clear of having committed a crime she drew a small
+sharp-bladed knife from beneath the bodice of her dress; severed the
+rope short off from her saddle-bow; and, driving the spur deep into the
+flanks of her horse, galloped off out of the glade--leaving Diaz upon
+the ground, still encircled by the loop of the lazo!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY NINE.
+
+THE LAZO UNLOOSED.
+
+An eagle, scared from its perch on a scathed Cottonwood, with a scream,
+soars upward into the air.
+
+Startled by the outbreak of angry passions, it has risen to reconnoitre.
+
+A single sweep of its majestic wing brings it above the glade.  There,
+poised on tremulous pinions, with eye turned to earth, it scans both the
+open space and the chapparal that surrounds it.  In the former it
+beholds that which may, perhaps, be gratifying to its glance--a man
+thrown from his horse, that runs neighing around him--prostrate--
+apparently dead.  In the latter two singular equestrians: one a woman,
+with bare head and chevelure spread to the breeze, astride a strong
+steed, going away from the glade in quick earnest gallop; the other,
+also a woman, mounted on a spotted horse, in more feminine fashion,
+riding towards it: attired in hat and habit, advancing at a slower pace,
+but with equal earnestness in her looks.
+
+Such is the _coup d'oeil_ presented to the eye of the eagle.
+
+Of these fair equestrians both are already known.  She galloping away is
+Isidora Covarubio de los Llanos; she who approaches, Louise Poindexter.
+
+It is known why the first has gone out of the glade.  It remains to be
+told for what purpose the second is coming into it.
+
+After her interview with Zeb Stump, the young creole re-entered her
+chamber, and kneeling before an image of the Madonna, surrendered her
+spirit to prayer.
+
+It is needless to say that, as a Creole, she was a Catholic, and
+therefore a firm believer in the efficacy of saintly intercession.
+Strange and sad was the theme of her supplication--the man who had been
+marked as the murderer of her brother!
+
+She had not the slightest idea that he was guilty of the horrid crime.
+It could not be.  The very suspicion of it would have lacerated her
+heart.
+
+Her prayer was not for pardon, but protection.  She supplicated the
+Virgin to save him from his enemies--her own friends!
+
+Tears and choking sobs were mingled with her words, low murmured in the
+ear of Heaven.  She had loved her brother with the fondest sisterly
+affection.  She sorrowed sorely; but her sorrow could not stifle that
+other affection, stronger than the ties of blood.  While mourning her
+brother's loss she prayed for her lover's safety.
+
+As she rose from her knees, her eye fell upon the bow--that implement so
+cunningly employed to despatch sweet messages to the man she loved.
+
+"Oh! that I could send one of its arrows to warn him of his danger!  I
+may never use it again!"
+
+The reflection was followed by a thought of cognate character.  Might
+there not remain some trace of that clandestine correspondence in the
+place where it had been carried on?
+
+She remembered that Maurice swam the stream, instead of recrossing in
+the skiff, to be drawn back again by her own lazo.  He must have been
+left in the boat!
+
+On the day before, in the confusion of her grief, she had not thought of
+this.  It might become evidence of their midnight meeting; of which, as
+she supposed, no tongue but theirs--and that for ever silent--could tell
+the tale.
+
+The sun was now fairly up, and gleaming garishly through the glass.  She
+threw open the casement and stepped out, with the design of proceeding
+towards the skiff.  In the _balcon_ her steps were arrested, on hearing
+voices above.
+
+Two persons were conversing.  They were her maid Florinde, and the sable
+groom, who, in the absence of his master, was taking the air of the
+_azotea_.
+
+Their words could be heard below, though their young mistress did not
+intentionally listen to them.  It was only on their pronouncing a name,
+that she permitted their patois to make an impression upon her ear.
+
+"Dey calls de young fella Jerrad.  Mors Jerrad am de name.  Dey do say
+he Irish, but if folks 'peak de troof, he an't bit like dem Irish dat
+works on de Lebee at New Orlean.  Ho, ho!  He more like bos gen'lum
+planter.  Dat's what he like."
+
+"You don't tink, Pluto, he been gone kill Massa Henry?"
+
+"I doan't tink nuffin ob de kind.  Ho, ho!  He kill Massa Henry! no more
+dan dis chile hab done dat same.  Goramity--Goramity!  'Peak ob de
+debbil and he dar--de berry individible we talkin' 'bout.  Ho, ho! look
+Florinde; look yonner!"
+
+"Whar?"
+
+"Dar--out dar, on todder side ob de ribber.  You see man on horseback.
+Dat's Mors Jerrad, de berry man we meet on de brack praira.  De same dat
+gub Missa Loode 'potted hoss; de same dey've all gone to sarch for.  Ho,
+ho!  Dey gone dey wrong way.  Dey no find him out on dem prairas dis
+day."
+
+"O, Pluto! an't you glad?  I'm sure he innocent--dat brave bewful young
+gen'lum.  He nebba could been de man--"
+
+The listener below stayed to hear no more.  Gliding back into her
+chamber she made her way towards the _azotea_.  The beating of her heart
+was almost as loud as the fall of her footsteps while ascending the
+_escalera_.  It was with difficulty she could conceal her emotion from
+the two individuals whose conversation had caused it.  "What have you
+seen, that you talk so loudly?" said she, trying to hide her agitation
+under a pretended air of severity, "Ho, ho!  Missa Looey--look ober dar.
+De young fella!"
+
+"What young fellow?"
+
+"Him as dey be gone sarch for--him dat--"
+
+"I see no one."
+
+"Ho, ho!  He jess gone in 'mong de tree.  See yonner--yonner!  You see
+de black glaze hat, de shinin' jacket ob velvet, an de glancin' silver
+buttons--dat's him.  I sartin sure dat's de same young fella."
+
+"You may be mistaken for all that, Master Pluto.  There are many here
+who dress in that fashion.  The distance is too great for you to
+distinguish; and now that he's almost out of sight--Never mind,
+Florinde.  Hasten below--get out my hat and habit.  I'm going out for a
+ride.  You, Pluto! have the saddle on Luna in the shortest time.  I must
+not let the sun get too high.  Haste! haste!"
+
+As the servants disappeared down the stairway, she turned once more
+towards the parapet, her bosom heaving under the revulsion of thoughts.
+Unobserved she could now freely scan the prairie and chapparal.
+
+She was too late.  The horseman had ridden entirely out of sight.
+
+"It was very like him, and yet it was not.  It can scarce be possible.
+If it be he, why should he be going that way?"
+
+A new pang passed through her bosom.  She remembered once before having
+asked herself the same question.
+
+She no longer stayed upon the _azotea_ to watch the road.  In ten
+minutes' time she was across the river, entering the chapparal where the
+horseman had disappeared.
+
+She rode rapidly on, scanning the causeway far in the advance.
+
+Suddenly she reined up, on nearing the crest of the hill that overlooked
+the Leona.  The act was consequent on the hearing of voices.
+
+She listened.  Though still distant, and but faintly heard, the voices
+could be distinguished as those of a man and woman.
+
+What man?  What woman?  Another pang passed through her heart at these
+put questions.
+
+She rode nearer; again halted; again listened.
+
+The conversation was carried on in Spanish.  There was no relief to her
+in this.  Maurice Gerald would have talked in that tongue to Isidora
+Covarubio de los Llanos.  The Creole was acquainted with it sufficiently
+to have understood what was said, had she been near enough to
+distinguish the words.  The tone was animated on both sides, as if both
+speakers were in a passion.  The listener was scarce displeased at this.
+
+She rode nearer; once more pulled up; and once more sate listening.
+
+The man's voice was heard no longer.  The woman's sounded dear and firm,
+as if in menace!
+
+There was an interval of silence, succeeded by a quick trampling of
+horses--another pause--another speech on the part of the woman, at first
+loud like a threat, and then subdued as in a soliloquy--then another
+interval of silence, again broken by the sound of hoofs, as if a single
+horse was galloping away from the ground.
+
+Only this, and the scream of an eagle, that, startled by the angry
+tones, had swooped aloft, and was now soaring above the glade.
+
+The listener knew of the opening--to her a hallowed spot.  The voices
+had come out of it.  She had made her last halt a little way from its
+edge.  She had been restrained from advancing by a fear--the fear of
+finding out a bitter truth.
+
+Her indecision ending, she spurred on into the glade.
+
+A horse saddled and bridled rushing to and fro--a man prostrate upon the
+ground, with a lazo looped around his arms, to all appearance dead--a
+_sombrero_ and _serape_ lying near, evidently not the man's!  What could
+be the interpretation of such a tableau?
+
+The man was dressed in the rich costume of the Mexican _ranchero_--the
+horse also caparisoned in this elaborate and costly fashion.
+
+At sight of both, the heart of the Louisianian leaped with joy.  Whether
+dead or living, the man was the same she had seen from the _azotea_; and
+he was _not_ Maurice Gerald.
+
+She had doubted before--had hoped that it was not he; and her hopes were
+now sweetly confirmed.
+
+She drew near and examined the prostrate form.  She scanned the face,
+which was turned up--the man lying upon his back.  She fancied she had
+seen it before, but was not certain.
+
+It was plain that he was a Mexican.  Not only his dress but his
+countenance--every line of it betrayed the Spanish-American physiognomy.
+
+He was far from being ill-featured.  On the contrary, he might have been
+pronounced handsome.
+
+It was not this that induced Louise Poindexter to leap down from her
+saddle, and stoop over him with a kind pitying look.
+
+The joy caused by his presence--by the discovery that he was not
+somebody else--found gratification in performing an act of humanity.
+
+"He does not seem dead.  Surely he is breathing?"
+
+The cord appeared to hinder his respiration.
+
+It was loosened on the instant--the noose giving way to a Woman's
+strength.
+
+"Now, he can breathe more freely.  Pardieu! what can have caused it?
+Lazoed in his saddle and dragged to the earth?  That is most probable.
+But who could have done it?  It was a woman's voice.  Surely it was?  I
+could not be mistaken about that.
+
+"And yet there is a man's hat, and a _serape_, not this man's!  Was
+there another, who has gone away with the woman?  Only one horse went
+off.
+
+"Ah! he is coming to himself! thank Heaven for that!  He will be able to
+explain all.  You are recovering, sir?"
+
+"S'norita! who are you?" asked Don Miguel Diaz, raising his head, and
+looking apprehensively around.
+
+"Where is she?" he continued.
+
+"Of whom do you speak?  I have seen no one but yourself."
+
+"_Carrambo_! that's queer.  Haven't you met a woman astride a grey
+horse?"
+
+"I heard a woman's voice, as I rode up."
+
+"Say rather a she-devil's voice: for that, sure, is Isidora Covarubio de
+los Llanos."
+
+"Was it she who has done this?"
+
+"Maldito, yes!  Where is she now?  Tell me that, s'norita."
+
+"I cannot.  By the sound of the hoofs I fancy she has gone down the
+hill.  She must have done so, as I came the other way myself."
+
+"Ah--gone down the hill--home, then, to --.  You've been very kind,
+s'norita, in loosening this lazo--as I make no doubt you've done.
+Perhaps you will still further assist me by helping me into the saddle?
+Once in it, I think I can stay there.  At all events, I must not stay
+here.  I have enemies, not far off.  Come, Carlito!" he cried to his
+horse, at the same time summoning the animal by a peculiar whistle.
+"Come near!  Don't be frightened at the presence of this fair lady.
+She's not the same that parted you and me so rudely--_en verdad_, almost
+for ever!  Come on, _cavallo_! come on!"
+
+The horse, on hearing the whistle, came trotting up, and permitted his
+master--now upon his feet--to lay hold of the bridle-rein.
+
+"A little help from you, kind s'norita, and I think I can climb into my
+saddle.  Once there, I shall be safe from their pursuit."
+
+"You expect to be pursued?"
+
+"_Quien sale_?  I have enemies, as I told you.  Never mind that.  I feel
+very feeble.  You will not refuse to help me?"
+
+"Why should I?  You are welcome, sir, to any assistance I can give you."
+
+"_Mil gracias, s'norita!  Mil, mil gracias_!"
+
+The Creole, exerting all her strength, succeeded in helping the disabled
+horseman into his saddle; where, after some balancing, he appeared to
+obtain a tolerably firm seat.
+
+Gathering up his reins, he prepared to depart.
+
+"Adios, s'norita!" said he, "I know not who you are.  I see you are not
+one of our people.  Americano, I take it.  Never mind that.  You are
+good as you are fair; and if ever it should chance to be in his power,
+Miguel Diaz will not be unmindful of the service you have this day done
+him."
+
+Saying this El Coyote rode off, not rapidly, but in a slow walk, as if
+he felt some difficulty in preserving his equilibrium.
+
+Notwithstanding the slowness of the pace--he was soon out of sight,--the
+trees screening him as he passed the glade.  He went not by any of the
+three roads, but by a narrow track, scarce discernible where it entered
+the underwood.
+
+To the young Creole the whole thing appeared like a dream--strange,
+rather than disagreeable.
+
+It was changed to a frightful reality, when, after picking up a sheet of
+paper left by Diaz where he had been lying, she read what was written
+upon it.  The address was "Don Mauricio Gerald;" the signature, "Isidora
+Covarubio de los Llanos."
+
+To regain her saddle, Louise Poindexter was almost as much in need of a
+helping hand as the man who had ridden away.
+
+As she forded the Leona, in returning to Casa del Corvo, she halted her
+horse in the middle of the stream; and for some time sate gazing into
+the flood that foamed up to her stirrup.  There was a wild expression
+upon her features that betokened deep despair.  One degree deeper, and
+the waters would have covered as fair a form as was ever sacrificed to
+their Spirit!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTY.
+
+A CONFLICT WITH COYOTES.
+
+The purple shadows of a Texan twilight were descending upon the earth,
+when the wounded man, whose toilsome journey through the chapparal has
+been recorded, arrived upon the banks of the streamlet.
+
+After quenching his thirst to a surfeit, he stretched himself along the
+grass, his thoughts relieved from the terrible strain so long and
+continuously acting upon them.
+
+His limb for the time pained him but little; and his spirit was too much
+worn to be keenly apprehensive as to the future.
+
+He only desired repose; and the cool evening breeze, sighing through the
+feathery fronds of the acacias, favoured his chances of obtaining it.
+
+The vultures had dispersed to their roosts in the thicket; and, no
+longer disturbed by their boding presence, he soon after fell asleep.
+
+His slumber was of short continuance.  The pain of his wounds, once more
+returning, awoke him.
+
+It was this--and not the cry of the coyote--that kept him from sleeping
+throughout the remainder of the night.
+
+Little did he regard the sneaking wolf of the prairies--a true jackal--
+that attacks but the dead; the living, only when dying.
+
+He did not believe that he was dying.
+
+It was a long dismal night to the sufferer; it seemed as if day would
+never dawn.
+
+The light came at length, but revealed nothing to cheer him.  Along with
+it came the birds, and the beasts went not away.
+
+Over him, in the shine of another sun the vultures once more extended
+their shadowy wings.  Around him he heard the howl-bark of the coyote,
+in a hundred hideous repetitions.
+
+Crawling down to the stream, he once more quenched his thirst.
+
+He now hungered; and looked round for something to eat.
+
+A pecan tree stood, near.  There were nuts upon its branches, within six
+feet of the ground.
+
+He was able to reach the pecan upon his hands and knees; though the
+effort caused agony.
+
+With his crutch he succeeded in detaching some of the nuts; and on these
+broke his fast.
+
+What was the next step to be taken?
+
+To stir away from the spot was simply impossible.  The slightest
+movement gave him pain; at the same time assuring him of his utter
+inability to go anywhere.
+
+He was still uncertain as to the nature of the injuries he had
+sustained--more especially that in his leg, which was so swollen that he
+could not well examine it.  He supposed it to be either a fracture of
+the knee-cap, or a dislocation of the joint.  In either case, it might
+be days before he could use the limb; and what, meanwhile, was he to do?
+
+He had but little expectation of any one coming that way.  He had
+shouted himself hoarse; and though, at intervals, he still continued to
+send forth a feeble cry, it was but the intermittent effort of hope
+struggling against despair.
+
+There was no alternative but stay where he was; and, satisfied of this,
+he stretched himself along the sward, with the resolve to be as patient
+as possible.
+
+It required all the stoicism of his nature to bear up against the acute
+agony he was enduring.  Nor did he endure it altogether in silence.  At
+intervals it elicited a groan.
+
+Engrossed by his sufferings, he was for a while unconscious of what was
+going on around him.  Still above him wheeled the black birds; but he
+had become accustomed to their presence, and no longer regarded it--not
+even when, at intervals, some of them swooped so near, that he could
+hear the "wheep" of their wings close to his ears.
+
+Ha! what was that--that sound of different import?
+
+It resembled the pattering of little feet upon the sandy channel of the
+stream, accompanied by quick breathings, as of animal in a state of
+excitement.
+
+He looked around for an explanation.
+
+"Only the coyotes!" was his reflection, on seeing a score of these
+animals flitting to and fro, skulking along both banks of the stream,
+and "squatting" upon the grass.
+
+Hitherto he had felt no fear--only contempt--for these cowardly
+creatures.
+
+But his sentiments underwent a change, on his noticing their looks and
+attitudes.  The former were fierce; the latter earnest and threatening.
+Clearly did the coyotes mean mischief.
+
+He now remembered having heard, that these animals--ordinarily
+innocuous, from sheer cowardice--will attack man when disabled beyond
+the capability of defending himself.  Especially will they do so when
+stimulated by the smell of blood.
+
+His had flowed freely, and from many veins--punctured by the spines of
+the cactus.  His garments were saturated with it, still but half dry.
+
+On the sultry atmosphere it was sending forth its peculiar odour.  The
+coyotes could not help scenting it.
+
+Was it this that was stirring them to such excited action--apparently
+making them mad?
+
+Whether or not, he no longer doubted that it was their intention to
+attack him.
+
+He had no weapon but a bowie knife, which fortunately had kept its place
+in his belt.  His rifle and pistols, attached to the saddle, had been
+carried off by his horse.
+
+He drew the knife; and, resting upon his right knee, prepared to defend
+himself.
+
+He did not perform the action a second too soon.  Emboldened by having
+been so long left to make their menaces unmolested--excited to courage
+by the smell of blood, stronger as they drew nearer--stimulated by their
+fierce natural appetites--the wolves had by this time reached the
+turning point of their determination: which was, to spring forward upon
+the wounded man.
+
+They did so--half a dozen of them simultaneously--fastening their teeth
+upon his arms, limbs, and body, as they made their impetuous onset.
+
+With a vigorous effort he shook them off, striking out with his knife.
+One or two were gashed by the shining blade, and went howling away.  But
+a fresh band had by this time entered into the fray, others coming up,
+till the assailants counted a score.  The conflict became desperate,
+deadly.  Several of the animals were slain.  But the fate of their
+fallen comrades did not deter the survivors from continuing the strife.
+On the contrary, it but maddened them the more.
+
+The struggle became more and more confused--the coyotes crowding over
+one another to lay hold of their victim.  The knife was wielded at
+random; the arm wielding it every moment becoming weaker, and striking
+with less fatal effect.  The disabled man was soon further disabled.  He
+felt fear for his life.  No wonder--death was staring him in the face.
+
+At this crisis a cry escaped his lips.  Strange it was not one of
+terror, but joy!  And stranger still that, on hearing it, the coyotes
+for an instant desisted from their attack!
+
+There was a suspension of the strife--a short interval of silence.  It
+was not the cry of their victim that had caused it, but that which had
+elicited the exclamation.
+
+There was the sound of a horse's hoofs going at a gallop, followed by
+the loud baying of a hound.
+
+The wounded man continued to exclaim,--in shouts calling for help.  The
+horse appeared to be close by.  A man upon his back could not fail to
+hear them.
+
+But there was no response.  The horse, or horseman, had passed on.
+
+The hoof-strokes became less distinct.  Despair once more returned to
+the antagonist of the coyotes.
+
+At the same time his skulking assailants felt a renewal of their
+courage, and hastened to renew the conflict.
+
+Once more it commenced, and was soon raging fiercely as before--the
+wretched man believing himself doomed, and only continuing the strife
+through sheer desperation.
+
+Once more was it interrupted, this time by an intruder whose presence
+inspired him with fresh courage and hope.
+
+If the horseman had proved indifferent to his calls for help, not so the
+hound.  A grand creature of the staghound species--of its rarest and
+finest breed--was seen approaching the spot, uttering a deep sonorous
+bay, as with impetuous bound it broke through the bushes.
+
+"_A friend! thank Heaven, a friend_!"
+
+The baying ceased, as the hound cleared the selvage of the chapparal,
+and rushed open-mouthed among the cowed coyotes--already retreating at
+his approach!
+
+One was instantly seized between the huge jaws; jerked upward from the
+earth; shaken as if it had been only a rat; and let go again, to writhe
+over the ground with a shattered spine!
+
+Another was served in a similar manner; but ere a third could be
+attacked, the terrified survivors dropped their tails to the sward, and
+went yelping away; one and all retreating whence they had come--into the
+silent solitudes of the chapparal.
+
+The rescued man saw no more.  His strength was completely spent.  He had
+just enough left to stretch forth his arms, and with a smile close them
+around the neck of his deliverer.  Then, murmuring some soft words, he
+fainted gradually away.
+
+His syncope was soon over, and consciousness once more assumed away.
+
+Supporting himself on his elbow, he looked inquiringly around.
+
+It was a strange, sanguinary spectacle that met his eyes.  But for his
+swoon, he would have seen a still stranger one.  During its continuance
+a horseman had ridden into the glade, and gone out again.  He was the
+same whose hoofstroke had been heard, and who had lent a deaf ear to the
+cries for help.  He had arrived too late, and then without any idea of
+offering assistance.  His design appeared to be the watering of his
+horse.
+
+The animal plunged straight into the streamlet, drank to its
+satisfaction, climbed out on the opposite bank, trotted across the open
+ground, and disappeared in the thicket beyond.
+
+The rider had taken no notice of the prostrate form; the horse only by
+snorting, as he saw it, and springing from side to side, as he trod
+amidst the carcases of the coyotes.
+
+The horse was a magnificent animal, not large, but perfect in all his
+parts.  The man was the very reverse--having no head!
+
+There was a head, but not in its proper place.  It rested against the
+holster, seemingly held in the rider's hand!
+
+A fearful apparition.
+
+The dog barked, as it passed through the glade, and followed it to the
+edge of the underwood.  He had been with it for a long time, straying
+where it strayed, and going where it went.
+
+He now desisted from this fruitless fellowship; and, returning to the
+sleeper, lay down by his side.
+
+It was then that the latter was restored to consciousness, and
+remembered what had made him for the moment oblivious.
+
+After caressing the dog he again sank into a prostrate position; and,
+drawing the skirt of the cloak over his face to shade it from the glare
+of the sun, he fell asleep.
+
+The staghound lay down at his feet, and also slumbered; but only in
+short spells.  At intervals it raised its head, and uttered an angry
+growl, as the wings of the vultures came switching too close to its
+ears.
+
+The young man muttered in his sleep.  They were wild words that came
+from his unconscious lips, and betokened a strange commingling of
+thoughts: now passionate appeals of love--now disjointed speeches, that
+pointed to the committal of murder!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTY ONE.
+
+TWICE INTOXICATED.
+
+Our story takes us back to the lone hut on the Alamo, so suddenly
+forsaken by the gambling guests, who had made themselves welcome in the
+absence of its owner.
+
+It is near noon of the following day, and he has not yet come home.  The
+_ci-devant_ stable-boy of Bally-ballagh is once more sole occupant of
+the _jacale_--once more stretched along the floor, in a state of
+inebriety; though not the same from which we have seen him already
+aroused.  He has been sober since, and the spell now upon him has been
+produced by a subsequent appeal to the Divinity of drink.
+
+To explain, we must go back to that hour between midnight and morning,
+when the monte players made their abrupt departure.
+
+The sight of three red savages, seated around the slab table, and
+industriously engaged in a game of cards, had done more to restore
+Phelim to a state of sobriety than all the sleep he had obtained.
+
+Despite a certain grotesqueness in the spectacle, he had not seen such a
+ludicrous sight, as was proved by the terrific screech with which he
+saluted them.  There was nothing laughable in what followed.  He had no
+very clear comprehension of what _did_ follow.  He only remembered that
+the trio of painted warriors suddenly gave up their game, flung their
+cards upon the floor, stood over him for a time with naked blades,
+threatening his life; and then, along with a fourth who had joined them,
+turned their backs abruptly, and rushed pellmell out of the place!
+
+All this occupied scarce twenty seconds of time; and when he had
+recovered from his terrified surprise, he found himself once more alone
+in the _jacale_!
+
+Was the sleeping, or awake?  Drunk, or dreaming?  Was the scene real?
+Or was it another chapter of incongruous impossibilities, like that
+still fresh before his mind?
+
+But no.  The thing was no fancy.  It could not be.  He had seen the
+savages too near to be mistaken as to their reality.  He had heard them
+talking in a tongue unknown to him.  What could it be but Indian jargon?
+Besides, there were the pieces of pasteboard strewn over the floor!
+
+He did not think of picking one up to satisfy himself of _their_
+reality.  He was sober enough, but not sufficiently courageous for that.
+He could not be sure of their not burning his fingers--those queer
+cards?  They might belong to the devil?
+
+Despite the confusion of his senses, it occurred to him that the hut was
+no longer a safe place to stay in.  The painted players might return to
+finish their game.  They had left behind not only their cards, but
+everything else the _jacale_ contained; and though some powerful motive
+seemed to have caused their abrupt departure, they might re-appear with
+equal abruptness.
+
+The thought prompted the Galwegian to immediate action; and, blowing out
+the candle, so as to conceal his movements, he stole softly out of the
+hut.
+
+He did not go by the door.  The moon was shining on the grass-plat in
+front.  The savages might still be there.
+
+He found means of exit at the back, by pulling one of the horse hides
+from its place, and squeezing himself through the stockade wall.
+
+Once outside, he skulked off under the shadow of the trees.
+
+He had not gone far when a clump of dark objects appeared before him.
+There was a sound, as of horses champing their bitts, and the occasional
+striking of a hoof.  He paused in his steps, screening his body behind
+the trunk of a cypress.
+
+A short observation convinced him, that what he saw was a group of
+horses.  There appeared to be four of them; no doubt belonging to the
+four warriors, who had turned the mustanger's hut into a gaming-house.
+The animals appeared to be tied to a tree, but for all that, their
+owners might be beside them.
+
+Having made this reflection, he was about to turn back and go the other
+way; but just at that moment he heard voices in the opposite direction--
+the voices of several men speaking in tones of menace and command.
+
+Then came short, quick cries of affright, followed by the baying of a
+hound, and succeeded by silence, at intervals interrupted by a swishing
+noise, or the snapping of a branch--as if several men were retreating
+through the underwood in scared confusion!
+
+As he continued to listen, the noises sounded nearer.  The men who made
+them were advancing towards the cypress tree.
+
+The tree was furnished with buttresses all around its base, with shadowy
+intervals between.  Into one of these he stepped hastily; and, crouching
+close, was completely screened by the shadow.
+
+He had scarce effected his concealment, when four men came rushing up;
+and, without stopping, hastened on towards the horses.
+
+As they passed by him, they were exchanging speeches which the Irishman
+could not understand; but their tone betrayed terror.  The excited
+action of the men confirmed it.  They were evidently retreating from
+some enemy that had filled them with fear.
+
+There was a glade where the moon-beams fell upon the grass.  It was just
+outside the shadow of the cypress.  To reach the horses they had to
+cross it; and, as they did so, the vermilion upon their naked skins
+flashed red under the moonlight.
+
+Phelim identified the four gentlemen who had made so free with the
+hospitality of the hut.
+
+He kept his place till they had mounted, and rode off--till he could
+tell by the tramp of their horses that they had ascended the upper
+plain, and gone off in a gallop--as men who were not likely to come back
+again.
+
+"Doesn't that bate Banagher?" muttered he, stepping out from his
+hiding-place, and throwing up his arms in astonishment.  "Be japers! it
+diz.  Mother av Moses! fwhat cyan it mane anyhow?  What are them divvils
+afther?  An fwhat's afther them?  Shure somethin' has given them a
+scare--that's plain as a pikestaff.  I wondher now if it's been that
+same.  Be me sowl it's jist it they've encounthered.  I heerd the hound
+gowlin, an didn't he go afther it.  O Lard! what cyan _it_ be?  May be
+it'll be comin' this way in purshoot av them?"
+
+The dread of again beholding the unexplained apparition, or being beheld
+by it, caused him to shrink once more under the shadow of the tree;
+where he remained for some time longer in a state of trembling suspense.
+
+"Afther all, _it_ must be some thrick av Masther Maurice.  Maybe to give
+me a scare; an comin' back he's jist been in time to frighten off these
+ridskins that intinded to rub an beloike to murther us too.  Sowl!  I
+hope it is that.  How long since I saw it first?  Trath! it must be some
+considerable time.  I remimber having four full naggins, an that's all
+gone off.  I wondher now if them Indyins has come acrass av the
+dimmyjan?  I've heerd that they're as fond of the crayther as if their
+skins was white.  Sowl! if they've smelt the jar there won't be a dhrap
+in it by this time.  I'll jist slip back to the hut an see.  If thare's
+any danger now it won't be from them.  By that tarin' gallop, I cyan
+tell they've gone for good."
+
+Once more emerging from the shadowy stall, he made his way back towards
+the _jacale_.
+
+He approached it with caption, stopping at intervals to assure himself
+that no one was near.
+
+Notwithstanding the plausible hypothesis he had shaped out for himself,
+he was still in dread of another encounter with the headless horseman--
+who twice on his way to the hut might now be inside of it.
+
+But for the hope of finding a "dhrap" in the demijohn, he would not have
+ventured back that night.  As it was, the desire to obtain a drink was a
+trifle stronger than his fears; and yielding to it, he stepped
+doubtfully into the darkness.
+
+He made no attempt to rekindle the light.  Every inch of the floor was
+familiar to him; and especially that corner where he expected to find
+the demijohn.
+
+He tried for it.  An exclamation uttered in a tone of disappointment
+told that it was not there.
+
+"Be dad!" muttered he, as he grumblingly groped about; "it looks as if
+they'd been at it.  Av coorse they hav, else fwhy is it not in its
+place?  I lift it thare--shure I lift it thare."
+
+"Ach, me jewel! an it's thare yez are yet," he continued, as his hand
+came in contact with the wickerwork; "an' bad luck to their imperence--
+impty as an eggshill!  Ach! ye greedy gutted bastes!  If I'd a known yez
+were goin' to do that, I'd av slipped a thrifle av shumach juice into
+the jar, an made raal firewater av it for ye--jist fwhat yez wants.
+Divil burn ye for a set av rid-skinned thieves, stalin' a man's liquor
+when he's aslape!  Och-an-anee! fwhat am I to do now?  Go to slape
+agane?  I don't belave I cyan, thinkin' av tham an the tother, widout a
+thrifle av the crayther to comfort me.  An' thare isn't a dhrap widin
+twenty--Fwhat--fwhat!  Howly Mary!  Mother av Moses!  Sant Pathrick and
+all the others to boot, fwhat am I talkin' about?  The pewther flask--
+the pewther flask!  Be japers! it's in the thrunk--full to the very
+neck!  Didn't I fill it for Masther Maurice to take wid him the last
+time he went to the sittlements?  And didn't he forget to take it?  Lard
+have mercy on me!  If the Indyins have laid their dhirty claws upon
+_that_ I shall be afther takin' lave at me sinses."
+
+"Hoo--hoop--hoorro!" he cried, after an interval of silence, during
+which he could be heard fumbling among the contents of the portmanteau.
+"Hoo--hoop--hoorro! thanks to the Lord for all his mercies.  The
+rid-skins haven't been cunnin' enough to look thare.  The flask as full
+as a tick--not wan av them has had a finger on it.  Hoo--hoop--hoorro!"
+
+For some seconds the discoverer of the spirituous treasure, giving way
+to a joyous excitement, could be heard in the darkness, dancing over the
+floor of the _jacale_.
+
+Then there was an interval of silence, succeeded by the screwing of a
+stopper, and after that a succession of "glucks," that proclaimed the
+rapid emptying of a narrow-necked vessel.
+
+After a time this sound was suspended, to be replaced by a repeated,
+smacking of lips, interlarded with grotesque ejaculations.
+
+Again came the gluck-gluck, again the smackings, and so on alternately,
+till an empty flask was heard falling upon the floor.
+
+After that there were wild shouts--scraps of song intermingled with
+cheers and laughter--incoherent ravings about red Indians and headless
+horsemen, repeated over and over again, each time in more subdued tones,
+till the maudlin gibberish at length ended in loud continuous snoring!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTY TWO.
+
+AN AWAKENER.
+
+Phelim's second slumber was destined to endure for a more protracted
+term than his first.  It was nearly noon when he awoke from it; and then
+only on receiving a bucket of cold water full in his face, that sobered
+him almost as quickly as the sight of the savages.
+
+It was Zeb Stump who administered the _douche_.
+
+After parting from the precincts of Casa del Corvo, the old hunter had
+taken the road, or rather _trail_, which he knew to be the most direct
+one leading to the head waters of the Nueces.
+
+Without staying to notice tracks or other "sign," he rode straight
+across the prairie, and into the avenue already mentioned.
+
+Prom what Louise Poindexter had told him--from a knowledge of the people
+who composed the party of searchers--he knew that Maurice Gerald was in
+danger.
+
+Hence his haste to reach the Alamo before them--coupled with caution to
+keep out of their way.
+
+He knew that if he came up with the Regulators, equivocation would be a
+dangerous game; and, _nolens volens_, he should be compelled to guide
+them to the dwelling of the suspected murderer.
+
+On turning the angle of the avenue, he had the chagrin to see the
+searchers directly before him, clumped up in a crowd, and apparently
+engaged in the examination of "sign."
+
+At the same time he had the satisfaction to know that his caution was
+rewarded, by himself remaining unseen.
+
+"Durn them!" he muttered, with bitter emphasis.  "I mout a know'd they'd
+a bin hyur.  I must go back an roun' the tother way.  It'll deelay me
+better'n a hour.  Come, ole maar!  This air an obstruckshun _you_, won't
+like.  It'll gi'e ye the edition o' six more mile to yur journey.
+Ee-up, ole gal!  Roun' an back we go!"
+
+With a strong pull upon the rein, he brought the mare short round, and
+rode back towards the embouchure of the avenue.
+
+Once outside, he turned along the edge of the chapparal, again entering
+it by the path which on the day before had been taken by Diaz and his
+trio of confederates.  From this point he proceeded without pause or
+adventure until he had descended to the Alamo bottom-land, and arrived
+within a short distance, though still out of sight of the mustanger's
+dwelling.
+
+Instead of riding boldly up to it, he dismounted from his mare; and
+leaving her behind him, approached the _jacale_ with his customary
+caution.
+
+The horse-hide door was closed; but there was a large aperture in the
+middle of it, where a portion of the skin had been cut out.  What was
+the meaning of that?
+
+Zeb could not answer the question, even by conjecture.
+
+It increased his caution; and he continued his approach with as much
+stealth, as if he had been stalking an antelope.
+
+He kept round by the rear--so as to avail himself of the cover afforded
+by the trees; and at length, having crouched into the horse-shed at the
+back, he knelt down and listened.
+
+There was an opening before his eyes; where one of the split posts had
+been pushed out of place, and the skin tapestry torn off.  He saw this
+with some surprise; but, before he could shape any conjecture as to its
+cause, his ears were saluted with a sonorous breathing, that came out
+through the aperture.  There was also a snore, which he fancied he could
+recognise, as proceeding from Irish nostrils.
+
+A glance through the opening settled the point.  The sleeper was Phelim.
+
+There was an end to the necessity for stealthy manoeuvring.  The hunter
+rose to his feet, and stepping round to the front, entered by the door--
+which he found unbolted.
+
+He made no attempt to rouse the sleeper, until after he had taken stock
+of the paraphernalia upon the floor.
+
+"Thur's been packin' up for some purpiss," he observed, after a cursory
+glance.  "Ah!  Now I reccollex.  The young fellur sayed he war goin' to
+make a move from hyur some o' these days.  Thet ere anymal air not only
+soun' asleep, but dead drunk.  Sartin he air--drunk as Backis.  I kin
+tell that by the smell o' him.  I wonder if he hev left any o' the
+licker?  It air dewbious.  Not a drop, dog-gone him!  Thur's the jar,
+wi' the stop plug out o' it, lyin' on its side; an thur's the flask,
+too, in the same preedikamint--both on 'em fall o' empiness.  Durn him
+for a drunken cuss!  He kin suck up as much moister as a chalk purayra.
+
+"Spanish curds!  A hul pack on 'em scattered abeout the place.  What kin
+he ha' been doin' wi' them?  S'pose he's been havin' a game o' sollatury
+along wi' his licker."
+
+"But what's cut the hole in the door, an why's the tother broken out at
+the back?  I reckon he kin tell.  I'll roust him, an see.  Pheelum!
+Pheelum!"
+
+Phelim made no reply.
+
+"Pheelum, I say!  Pheelum!"
+
+Still no reply.  Although the last summons was delivered in a shout loud
+enough to have been heard half a mile off, there was no sign made by the
+slumberer to show that he even heard it.
+
+A rude shaking administered by Zeb had no better effect.  It only
+produced a grunt, immediately succeeded by a return to the same
+stentorous respiration.
+
+"If 'twa'n't for his snorin' I mout b'lieve him to be dead.  He _air_
+dead drunk, an no mistake; intoxerkated to the very eends o' his
+toe-nails.  Kickin' him 'ud be no use.  Dog-goned, ef I don't try
+_this_."
+
+The old hunter's eye, as he spoke, was resting upon a pail that stood in
+a corner of the cabin.  It was full of water, which Phelim, for some
+purpose, had fetched from the creek.  Unfortunately for himself, he had
+not wasted it.
+
+With a comical expression in his eye, Zeb took up the pail; and swilled
+the whole of its contents right down upon the countenance of the
+sleeper.
+
+It had the effect intended.  If not quite sobered, the inebriate was
+thoroughly awakened; and the string of terrified ejaculations that came
+from his lips formed a contrasting accompaniment to the loud
+cachinnations of the hunter.
+
+It was some time before sufficient tranquillity was restored, to admit
+of the two men entering upon a serious conversation.
+
+Phelim, however, despite his chronic inebriety, was still under the
+influence of his late fears, and was only too glad to see Zeb Stump,
+notwithstanding the unceremonious manner in which he had announced
+himself.
+
+As soon as an understanding was established between them, and without
+waiting to be questioned, he proceeded to relate in detail, as concisely
+as an unsteady tongue and disordered brain would permit, the series of
+strange sights and incidents that had almost deprived him of his senses.
+
+It was the first that Zeb Stump had heard of the _Headless Horseman_.
+
+Although the report concerning this imperfect personage was that morning
+broadly scattered around Fort Inge, and along the Leona, Zeb, having
+passed through the settlement at an early hour, and stopped only at Casa
+del Corvo, had not chanced upon any one who could have communicated such
+a startling item of intelligence.  In fact, he had exchanged speech only
+with Pluto and Louise Poindexter; neither of whom had at that time heard
+anything of the strange creature encountered, on the evening before, by
+the party of searchers.  The planter, for some reason or another, had
+been but little communicative, and his daughter had not held converse
+with any of the others.
+
+At first Zeb was disposed to ridicule the idea of a man without a head.
+He called it "a fantassy of Pheelum's brain, owin' to his havin' tuk too
+much of the corn-juice."
+
+He was puzzled, however, by Phelim's persistence in declaring it to be a
+fact--more especially when he reflected on the other circumstances known
+to him.
+
+"Arrah, now, how could I be mistaken?" argued the Irishman.  "Didn't I
+see Masther Maurice, as plain as I see yourself at this minnit?  All
+except the hid, and that I had a peep at as he turned to gallop away.
+Besides, thare was the Mexican blanket, an the saddle wid the rid cloth,
+and the wather guards av spotted skin; and who could mistake that purty
+horse?  An' havn't I towld yez that Tara went away afther him, an thin I
+heerd the dog gowlin', jist afore the Indyins--"
+
+"Injuns!" exclaimed the hunter, with a contemptuous toss of the head.
+"Injuns playin' wi' Spanish curds!  White Injuns, I reck'n."
+
+"Div yez think they waren't Indyins, afther all?"
+
+"Ne'er a matter what I think.  Thur's no time to talk o' that now.  Go
+on, an tell me o' all ye seed an heern."
+
+When Phelim had at length unburdened his mind, Zeb ceased to question
+him; and, striding out of the hut, squatted down, Indian fashion, upon
+the grass.
+
+His object was, as he said himself, to have "a good think;" which, he
+had often declared, he could not obtain while "hampered wi' a house
+abeout him."
+
+It is scarcely necessary to say, that the story told by the Galwegian
+groom only added to the perplexity he already experienced.
+
+Hitherto there was but the disappearance of Henry Poindexter to be
+accounted for; now there was the additional circumstance of the
+non-return of the mustanger to his hut--when it was known that he had
+started for it, and should, according to a notice given to his servant,
+have been there at an early hour on the day before.
+
+Far more mystifying was the remarkable story of his being seen riding
+about the prairie without a head, or with one carried in his hands!
+This last might be a trick.  What else could it be?
+
+Still was it a strange time for tricks--when a man had been murdered,
+and half the population of the settlement wore out upon the track of the
+murderer--more especially improbable, that the supposed assassin should
+be playing them!
+
+Zeb Stump had to deal with, a difficult concatenation--or rather
+conglomeration of circumstances--events without causes--causes without
+sequence--crimes committed without any probable motive--mysteries that
+could only be explained by an appeal to the supernatural.
+
+A midnight meeting between Maurice Gerald and Louise Poindexter--a
+quarrel with her brother, occasioned by the discovery--Maurice having
+departed for the prairies--Henry having followed to sue for
+forgiveness--in all this the sequence was natural and complete.
+
+Beyond began the chapter of confusions and contradictions.
+
+Zeb Stump knew the disposition of Maurice Gerald in regard to Henry
+Poindexter.  More than once he had heard the mustanger speak of the
+young planter.  Instead of having a hostility towards him, he had
+frequently expressed admiration of his ingenuous and generous character.
+
+That he could have changed from being his friend to become his assassin,
+was too improbable for belief.  Only by the evidence of his eyes could
+Zeb Stump have been brought to believe it.
+
+After spending a full half hour at his "think," he had made but little
+progress towards unravelling the network of cognate, yet unconnected,
+circumstances.  Despite an intellect unusually clear, and the possession
+of strong powers of analysis, he was unable to reach any rational
+solution of this mysterious drama of many acts.
+
+The only thing clear to him was, that four mounted men--he did not
+believe them to be Indians--had been making free with the mustanger's
+hut; and that it was most probable that these had something to do with
+the murder that had been committed.  But the presence of these men at
+the _jacale_, coupled with the protracted absence of its owner,
+conducted his conjectures to a still more melancholy conclusion: that
+more than one man had fallen a sacrifice to the assassin, and that the
+thicket might be searched for two bodies, instead of one!
+
+A groan escaped from the bosom of the backwoodsman as this conviction
+forced itself upon his mind.  He entertained for the young Irishman a
+peculiar affection--strong almost as that felt by a father for his son;
+and the thought that he had been foully assassinated in some obscure
+corner of the chapparal, his flesh to be torn by the beak of the buzzard
+and the teeth of the coyote, stirred the old hunter to the very core of
+his heart.
+
+He groaned again, as he reflected upon it; until, without action, he
+could no longer bear the agonising thought, and, springing to his feet,
+he strode to and fro over the ground, proclaiming, in loud tones, his
+purpose of vengeance.
+
+So absorbed was he with his sorrowful indignation, that he saw not the
+staghound as it came skulking up to the hut.
+
+It was not until he heard Phelim caressing the hound in his grotesque
+Irish fashion, that he became aware of the creature's presence.  And
+then he remained indifferent to it, until a shout of surprise, coupled
+with his own name, attracted his attention.
+
+"What is it, Pheelum?  What's wrong?  Hes a snake bit ye?"
+
+"Oh, Misther Stump, luk at Tara!  See! thare's somethin' tied about his
+neck.  It wasn't there when he lift.  What do yez think it is?"
+
+The hunter's eyes turned immediately upon the hound.  Sure enough there
+was something around the animal's neck: a piece of buckskin thong.  But
+there was something besides--a tiny packet attached to the thong, and
+hanging underneath the throat!
+
+Zeb drawing his knife, glided towards the dog.  The creature recoiled in
+fear.
+
+A little coaxing convinced him that there was no hostile intent; and he
+came up again.
+
+The thong was severed, the packet laid open; it contained a _card_!
+
+There was a name upon the card, and writing--writing in what appeared to
+be red ink; but it was _blood_!
+
+The rudest backwoodsman knows how to read.  Even Zeb Stump was no
+exception; and he soon deciphered the characters traced upon the bit of
+pasteboard.
+
+As he finished, a cry rose from his lips, in strange contrast with the
+groans he had been just uttering.  It was a shout of gladness, of joy!
+
+"Thank the Almighty for this!" he added; "and thank my ole Katinuck
+schoolmaster for puttin' me clar through my Webster's spellin'-book.  He
+lives, Pheelum! he lives!  Look at this.  Oh, _you_ can't read.  No
+matter.  He lives! he lives!"
+
+"Who?  Masther Maurice?  Thin the Lord be thanked--"
+
+"Wagh! thur's no time to thank him now.  Get a blanket an some pieces o'
+horse-hide thong.  Ye kin do it while I catch up the ole maar.  Quick!
+Helf an hour lost, an we may be too late!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTY THREE.
+
+JUST IN TIME.
+
+"Half-an-hour lost, and we may be too late!"
+
+They were the last words of the hunter, as he hurried away from the hut.
+
+They were true, except as to the time.  Had he said half-a-minute, he
+would have been nearer the mark.  Even at the moment of their utterance,
+the man, whose red writing had summoned assistance, was once more in
+dread danger--once more surrounded by the coyotes.
+
+But it was not these he had need to fear.  A far more formidable foe was
+threatening his destruction.
+
+Maurice Gerald--by this time recognised as the man in the cloak and
+Panama hat--after doing battle with the wolves, as already described,
+and being rescued by his faithful Tara, had fought repose in sleep.
+
+With full confidence in the ability of his canine companion to protect
+him against the black birds, or the more dangerous quadrupeds, with
+which he had been in conflict, he soon found, and for several hours
+enjoyed it.
+
+He awoke of his own accord.  Finding his strength much restored, he once
+more turned his attention to the perils that surrounded him.
+
+The dog had rescued him from the jackals, and would still protect him
+against their attacks, should they see fit to renew it.  But to what
+end?  The faithful creature could not transport him from the spot; and
+to stay there would be to die of hunger--perhaps of the wounds he had
+received?
+
+He rose to his feet, but found that he could not stand upright.
+Feebleness was now added to his other infirmity; and after struggling a
+pace or two, he was glad to return to a recumbent position.
+
+At this crisis a happy thought occurred to him.  Tara might take a
+message to the hut!
+
+"If I could but get him to go," said he, as he turned inquiringly
+towards the dog.  "Come hither, old fellow!" he continued, addressing
+himself to the dumb animal; "I want you to play postman for me--to carry
+a letter.  You understand?  Wait till I've got it written.  I shall then
+explain myself more fully."
+
+"By good luck I've got a card," he added, feeling for his case.  "No
+pencil!  That don't matter.  There's plenty of ink around; and for a pen
+I can use the thorn of yonder maguey."
+
+He crept up to the plant thus designated; broke off one of the long
+spines terminating its great leaves; dipped it in the blood of a coyote
+that lay near; and drawing forth a card, traced some characters upon it.
+
+With a strip of thong, the card was then attached to the neck of the
+staghound, after being wrapped up in a piece of oilcloth torn from the
+lining of the Panama hat.
+
+It only remained to despatch the canine post upon his errand.  This
+proved a somewhat difficult task.  The dumb creature, despite a wondrous
+intelligence, could not comprehend why he should forsake the side of one
+he had so faithfully befriended; and for a long time resisted the
+coaxings and chidings, meant to warn him away.
+
+It was only after being scolded in a tone of assumed anger, and beaten
+by the black-jack crutch--stricken by the man whose life he had so
+lately saved, that he had consented to leave the spot.  Even canine
+affection could not endure this; and with repeated looks of reproach,
+cast backwards as he was chased off, he trotted reluctantly into the
+chapparal.
+
+"Poor fellow!" soliloquised Maurice, as the dog disappeared from his
+view.  "'Tis like boating one's self, or one's dearest friend!  Well, I
+shall make up for it in extra kindness if I have the good fortune to see
+him again.
+
+"And now, that he is gone, I must provide against the coming back of
+these villainous coyotes.  They will be sure to come, once they discover
+that I'm alone."
+
+A scheme had been already considered.
+
+A tree stood near--the pecan already alluded to--having two stout
+branches that extended horizontally and together, at six or seven feet
+from the ground.
+
+Taking off his cloak, and spreading it out upon the grass, with his
+knife he cut a row of holes along each edge.
+
+Then unwinding from his waist the sash of china crape, he tore it up the
+middle, so as to make two strips, each several yards long.
+
+The cloak was now extended between the branches, and fast tied by the
+strips of crape--thus forming a sort of hammock capable of containing
+the body of a man laid out at full length.
+
+The maker of it knew that the coyotes are not tree climbers; and,
+reclining on his suspended couch, he could observe with indifference
+their efforts to assail him.
+
+He took all this trouble, feeling certain they would return.  If he had
+any doubt, it was soon set at rest, by seeing them, one after the other,
+come skulking out of the chapparal, lopping a pace or two, at intervals,
+pausing to reconnoitre, and then advancing towards the scene of their
+late conflict.
+
+Emboldened by the absence of the enemy most dreaded by them, the pack
+was soon reassembled, once more exhibiting the truculent ferocity for
+which these cowardly creatures are celebrated.
+
+It was first displayed in a very unnatural manner--by the devouring of
+their own dead--which was done in less time than it would have taken the
+spectator in the tree to have counted a score.
+
+To him their attention was next directed.  In swinging his hammock, he
+had taken no pains to conceal it.  He had suspended it high enough to be
+out of their reach; and that he deemed sufficient for his purpose.
+
+The cloak of dark cloth was conspicuous, as well as the figure outlined
+within it.  The coyotes clustered underneath--their appetites whetted by
+the taste of blood.  It was a sight to see them lick their red lips
+after their unnatural repast--a fearful sight!
+
+He who saw it scarce regarded them--not even when they were springing up
+to lay hold of his limbs, or at times attempting to ascend by the trunk
+of the tree!  He supposed there was no danger.
+
+There _was_ danger, however, on which he had not reckoned; and not till
+the coyotes have desisted from their idle attempts, and stretched
+themselves, panting, under the tree, did he begin to perceive it.
+
+Of all the wild denizens, either of prairie or chapparal, the coyote is
+that possessed of the greatest cunning.  The trapper will tell you it is
+the "cunningest varmint in creation."  It is a fox in astuteness--a wolf
+in ferocity.  It may be tamed, but it will turn at any time to tear the
+hand that caresses it.  A child can scare it with a stick, but a
+disabled man may dread its attack.  Alone it has the habit of a hare;
+but in packs--and it hunts only in packs--its poltroonery is less
+observable; sometimes under the influence of extreme hunger giving place
+to a savageness of disposition that assumes the semblance of courage.
+
+It is the coyotes' cunning that is most to be feared; and it was this
+that had begun to excite fresh apprehension in the mind of the
+mustanger.
+
+On discovering that they could not reach him--a discovery they were not
+long in making--instead of scattering off from the spot, the wolves, one
+and all, squatted down upon the grass; while others, stragglers from the
+original troop, were still coming into the glade.  He saw that they
+intended a siege.
+
+This should not have troubled him, seeing that he was secure in his
+suspended couch.
+
+Nor would it, but for another source of trouble, every moment making
+itself more manifest--that from which he had so lately had such a narrow
+escape.  He was once more on the eve of being tortured by thirst.
+
+He blamed himself for having been so simple, as not to think of this
+before climbing up to the tree.  He might easily have carried up a
+supply of water.  The stream was there; and for want of a better vessel,
+the concave blades of the maguey would have served as a cistern.
+
+His self-reproaches came too late.  The water was under his eyes, only
+to tantalise him; and by so doing increase his eagerness to obtain it.
+He could not return to the stream, without running the gauntlet of the
+coyotes, and that would be certain death.  He had but faint hopes that
+the hound would return and rescue him a second time--fainter still that
+his message would reach the man for whom it was intended.  A hundred to
+one against that.
+
+Thirst is quick in coming to a man whose veins are half-emptied of their
+blood.  The torture proclaimed itself apace.  How long was it to
+continue?
+
+This time it was accompanied by a straying of the senses.  The wolves,
+from being a hundred, seemed suddenly to have increased their number
+tenfold.  A thousand appeared to encompass the tree, filling the whole
+ground of the glade!  They came nearer and nearer.  Their eyes gave out
+a lurid light.  Their red tongues lapped the hanging cloth; they tore it
+with their teeth.  He could feel their fetid breath, as they sprang up
+among the branches!
+
+A lucid interval told him that it was all fancy.  The wolves were still
+there; but only a hundred of them--as before, reclining upon the grass,
+pitiably awaiting a crisis!  It came before the period of lucidity had
+departed; to the spectator unexpected as inexplicable.  He saw the
+coyotes suddenly spring to their feet, and rush off into the thicket,
+until not one remained within the glade.
+
+Was this, too, a fancy?  He doubted the correctness of his vision.  He
+had begun to believe that his brain was distempered.
+
+But it was clear enough now.  There were no coyotes.  What could have
+frightened them off?
+
+A cry of joy was sent forth from his lips, as he conjectured a cause.
+Tara had returned?  Perhaps Phelim along with him?  There had been time
+enough for the delivery of the message.  For two hours he had been
+besieged by the coyotes.
+
+He turned upon his knee, and bending over the branch, scanned the circle
+around him.  Neither hound nor henchman was in sight.  Nothing but
+branches and bushes!
+
+He listened.  No sound, save an occasional howl, sent back by the
+coyotes that still seemed to continue their retreat!  More than ever was
+it like an illusion.  What could have caused their scampering?
+
+No matter.  The coast was clear.  The streamlet could now be approached
+without danger.  Its water sparkled under his eyes--its rippling sounded
+sweet to his ears.
+
+Descending from the tree, he staggered towards its bank, and reached it.
+
+Before stooping to drink, he once more looked around him.  Even the
+agony of thirst could not stifle the surprise, still fresh in his
+thoughts.  To what was he indebted for his strange deliverance?
+
+Despite his hope that it might be the hound, he had an apprehension of
+danger.
+
+One glance, and he was certain of it.  The spotted yellow skin shining
+among the leaves--the long, lithe form crawling like a snake out of the
+underwood was not to be mistaken.  It was the tiger of the New World--
+scarce less dreaded than his congener of the Old--the dangerous jaguar.
+
+Its presence accounted for the retreat of the coyotes.
+
+Neither could its intent be mistaken.  It, too, had scented blood, and
+was hastening to the spot where blood had been sprinkled, with that
+determined air that told it would not be satisfied till after partaking
+of the banquet.
+
+Its eyes were upon him, who had descended from the tree--its steps were
+towards him--now in slow, crouching gait; but quicker and quicker, as if
+preparing for a spring.
+
+To retreat to the tree would have been sheer folly.  The jaguar can
+climb like a cat.  The mustanger knew this.
+
+But even had he been ignorant of it, it would have been all the same, as
+the thing was no longer possible.  The animal had already passed that
+tree, upon which he had found refuge, and there was t'other near that
+could be reached in time.
+
+He had no thought of climbing to a tree--no thought of any thing, so
+confused were his senses--partly from present surprise, partly from the
+bewilderment already within his brain.
+
+It was a simple act of unreasoning impulse that led him to rush on into
+the stream, until he stood up to his waist in the water.
+
+Had he reasoned, he would have known that this would do nothing to
+secure his safety.  If the jaguar climbs like a cat, it also swims with
+the ease of an otter; and is as much to be dreaded in the water as upon
+the land.
+
+Maurice made no such reflection.  He suspected that the little pool,
+towards the centre of which he had waded, would prove but poor
+protection.  He was sure of it when the jaguar, arriving upon the bank
+above him, set itself in that cowering attitude that told of its
+intention to spring.
+
+In despair he steadied himself to receive the onset of the fierce
+animal.
+
+He had nought wherewith to repel it--no knife--no pistol--no weapon of
+any kind--not even his crutch!  A struggle with his bare arms could but
+end in his destruction.
+
+A wild cry went forth from his lips, as the tawny form was about
+launching itself for the leap.
+
+There was a simultaneous scream from the jaguar.  Something appeared
+suddenly to impede it; and instead of alighting on the body of its
+victim, it fell short, with a dead plash upon the water!
+
+Like an echo of his own, a cry came from the chapparal, close following
+a sound that had preceded it--the sharp "spang" of a rifle.
+
+A huge dog broke through the bushes, and sprang with a plunge into the
+pool where the jaguar had sunk below the surface.  A man of colossal
+size advanced rapidly towards the bank; another of lesser stature
+treading close upon his heels, and uttering joyful shouts of triumph.
+
+To the wounded man these sights and sounds were more like a vision than
+the perception of real phenomena.  They were the last thoughts of that
+day that remained in his memory.  His reason, kept too long upon the
+rack, had given way.  He tried to strangle the faithful hound that swam
+fawningly around him and struggled against the strong arms that, raising
+him out of the water, bore him in friendly embrace to the bank!
+
+His mind had passed from a horrid reality, to a still more horrid
+dream--the dream of delirium.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTY FOUR.
+
+A PRAIRIE PALANQUIN.
+
+The friendly arms, flung around Maurice Gerald, were those of Zeb Stump.
+
+Guided by the instructions written upon the card, the hunter had made
+all haste towards the rendezvous there given.
+
+He had arrived within sight, and fortunately within rifle-range of the
+spot, at that critical moment when the jaguar was preparing to spring.
+
+His bullet did not prevent the fierce brute from making the bound--the
+last of its life--though it had passed right through the animal's heart.
+
+This was a thing thought of afterwards--there was no opportunity then.
+
+On rushing into the water, to make sure that his shot had proved fatal,
+the hunter was himself attacked; not by the claws of the jaguar, but the
+hands of the man just rescued from them.
+
+Fortunate for Zeb, that the mustanger's knife had been left upon land.
+As it was, he came near being throttled; and only after throwing aside
+his rifle, and employing all his strength, was he able to protect
+himself against the unlooked-for assault.
+
+A struggle ensued, which ended in Zeb flinging his colossal arms around
+the young Irishman, and bearing him bodily to the bank.
+
+It was not all over.  As soon as the latter was relieved from the
+embrace, he broke away and made for the pecan tree;--as rapidly as if
+the injured limb no longer impeded him.
+
+The hunter suspected his intent.  Standing over six feet, he saw the
+bloody knife-blade lying along the cloak.  It was for that the mustanger
+was making!
+
+Zeb bounded after; and once more enfolding the madman in his bear-like
+embrace, drew him back from the tree.
+
+"Speel up thur, Pheelum!" shouted he.  "Git that thing out o' sight.
+The young fellur hev tuck leeve o' his seven senses.  Thur's fever in
+the feel o' him.  He air gone dullerious!"
+
+Phelim instantly obeyed; and, scrambling up the tree-trunk took
+possession of the knife.
+
+Still the struggle was not over.  The delirious man wrestled with his
+rescuer--not in silence, but with shouts and threatening speeches--his
+eyes all the time rolling and glaring with a fierce, demoniac light.
+
+For full ten minutes did he continue the mad wrestling match.
+
+At length from sheer exhaustion he sank back upon the grass; and after a
+few tremulous shiverings, accompanied by sighs heaved from the very
+bottom of his breast, he lay still, as if the last spark of life had
+departed from his body!
+
+The Galwegian, believing it so, began uttering a series of lugubrious
+cries--the "keen" of Connemara.
+
+"Stop yur gowlin, ye durned cuss!" cried Zeb.  "It air enuf to scare the
+breath out o' his karkidge.  He's no more dead than you air--only
+fented.  By the way he hev fit me, I reck'n there ain't much the matter
+wi' him.  No," he continued, after stooping down and giving a short
+examination, "I kin see no wound worth makin' a muss about.  Thur's a
+consid'able swellin' o' the knee; but the leg ain't fructered, else he
+kudn't a stud up on it.  As for them scratches, they ain't much.  What
+kin they be?  'Twarnt the jegwur that gin them.  They air more like the
+claws o' a tom cat.  Ho, ho!  I sees now.  Thur's been a bit o' a
+skrimmage afore the spotted beest kim up.  The young fellur's been
+attakted by coyoats!  Who'd a surposed that the cowardly varmints would
+a had the owdacity to attakt a human critter?  But they _will_, when
+they gits the chance o' one krippled as he air--durn 'em!"
+
+The hunter had all the talking to himself.  Phelim, now overjoyed to
+know that his master still lived--and furthermore was in no danger of
+dying--suddenly changed his melancholy whine to a jubilant hullaballoo,
+and commenced dancing over the ground, all the while snapping his
+fingers in the most approved Connemara fashion.
+
+His frenzied action provoked the hound to a like pitch of excitement;
+and the two became engaged in a sort of wild Irish jig.
+
+Zeb took no notice of these grotesque demonstrations; but, once more
+bending over the prostrate form, proceeded to complete the examination
+already begun.
+
+Becoming satisfied that there was no serious wound, he rose to his feet,
+and commenced taking stock of the odd articles around him.  He had
+already noticed the Panama hat, that still adhered to the head of the
+mustanger; and a strange thought at seeing it there, had passed through
+his mind.
+
+Hats of Guayaquil grass--erroneously called Panama--were not uncommon.
+Scores of Southerners wore them, in Texas as elsewhere.  But he knew
+that the young Irishman was accustomed to carry a Mexican _sombrero_--a
+very different kind of head-gear.  It was possible he might have seen
+fit to change the fashion.
+
+Still, as Zeb continued to gaze upon it, he fancied he had seen _that_
+hat before, and on some other head.
+
+It was not from any suspicion of its being honestly in possession of him
+now wearing it that the hunter stooped down, and took it off with the
+design to examine it.  His object was simply to obtain some explanation
+of the mystery, or series of mysteries, hitherto baffling his brain.
+
+On looking inside the hat he read two names; first, that of a New
+Orleans hatter, whose card was pasted in the crown; and then, in
+writing, another well known to him:--
+
+"HENRY POINDEXTER."
+
+The cloak now came under his notice.  It, too, carried marks, by which
+he was able to identify it as belonging to the same owner.
+
+"Dog-goned kewrious, all this!" muttered the backwoodsman, as he stood
+with his eyes turned upon the ground, and apparently buried in a
+profound reflection.
+
+"Hats, heads, an everythin'.  Hats on the wrong head; heads i' the wrong
+place!  By the 'tarnal thur's somethin' goed astray!  Ef 'twa'nt that I
+feel a putty consid'able smartin' whar the young fellur gin me a lick
+over the left eye, I mout be arter believin' my own skull-case wa'nt any
+longer atween my shoulders!"
+
+"It air no use lookin' to him," he added, glancing towards Maurice, "for
+an explanation; leastwise till he's slep' off this dullerium thet's on
+him.  When that'll be, ole Nick only knows.
+
+"Wal," he continued after another interval spent in silent reflection,
+"It won't do no good our stayin' hyur.  We must git him to the shanty,
+an that kin only be did by toatin' him.  He sayed on the curd, he cudn't
+make neer a track.  It war only the anger kep' him up a bit.  That leg
+looks wusser and wusser.  He's boun to be toated."
+
+The hunter seemed to cogitate on how he was to effect this purpose.
+
+"'Taint no good expektin' _him_ to help think it out," he continued
+looking at the Galwegian, who was busy talking to Tara.  "The dumb brute
+hev more sense than he.  Neer a mind.  I'd make him take his full share
+o' the carryin' when it kum to thet.  How air it to be done?  We must
+git him on a streetcher.  That I reck'n we kin make out o' a kupple o'
+poles an the cloak; or wi' the blanket Pheelum fetch'd from the shanty.
+Ye-es! a streetcher.  That's the eydentikul eyedee."
+
+The Connemara man was now summoned to lend assistance.  Two saplings of
+at least ten feet in length were cut from the chapparal, and trimmed
+clear of twigs.  Two shorter ones were also selected, and lashed
+crosswise over the first; and upon these there spread, first the serape,
+and afterwards the cloak, to give greater strength.
+
+In this way a rude stretcher was constructed, capable of carrying either
+an invalid or an inebriate.
+
+In the mode of using it, it more resembled the latter than the former:
+since he who was to be borne upon it, again deliriously raging, had to
+be strapped to the trestles!
+
+Unlike the ordinary stretcher, it was not carried between two men; but a
+man and a mare--the mare at the head, the man bearing behind.
+
+It was he of Connemara who completed the ill-matched team.  The old
+hunter had kept his promise, that Phelim should "take his full share o'
+the carryin', when it kum to thet."
+
+He was taking it, or rather getting it--Zeb having appointed himself to
+the easier post of conductor.
+
+The idea was not altogether original.  It was a rude copy from the
+Mexican _litera_, which in Southern Texas Zeb may have seen--differing
+from the latter only in being without screen, and instead of two mules,
+having for its _atelage_ a mare and a man!
+
+In this improvised palanquin was Maurice Gerald transported to his
+dwelling.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+It was night when the grotesque-looking group arrived at the _locale_.
+
+In strong but tender arms the wounded man was transferred from the
+stretcher to the skin couch, on which he had been accustomed to repose.
+
+He was unconscious of where he was, and knew not the friendly faces
+bending over him.  His thoughts were still astray, though no longer
+exciting him to violent action.  He was experiencing an interval of
+calm.
+
+He was not silent; though he made no reply to the kind questions
+addressed to him, or only answered them with an inconsequence that might
+have provoked mirth.  But there were wild words upon his lips that
+forbade it--suggesting only serious thoughts.
+
+His wounds received such rude dressing as his companions were capable of
+administering to them; and nothing more could be done but await the
+return of day.
+
+Phelim went to sleep upon his shake-down; while the other sate up to
+keep watch by the bedside of the sufferer.
+
+It was not from any unfaithfulness on the part of the foster-brother,
+that he seemed thus to disregard his duty; but simply because Zeb had
+requested him to lie down--telling him there was no occasion for both to
+remain awake.
+
+The old hunter had his reasons.  He did not desire that those wild words
+should be heard even by Phelim.  Better he should listen to them alone.
+
+And alone he sate listening to them--throughout the live-long night.
+
+He heard speeches that surprised him, and names that did not.  He was
+not surprised to hear the name "Louise" often repeated, and coupled with
+fervent protestations of love.
+
+But there was another name also often pronounced--with speeches less
+pleasant to his ear.
+
+It was the name of Louise's brother.
+
+The speeches were disjointed--incongruous, and almost unintelligible.
+
+Comparing one with the other, however, and assisted by the circumstances
+already known to him, before the morning light had entered the _jacale_,
+Zeb Stump had come to the conclusion: that Henry Poindexter was no
+longer a living man!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTY FIVE.
+
+UN DIA DE NOVEDADES.
+
+Don Silvio Martinez was one of the few Mexican _ricos_, who had chosen
+to remain in Texas, after the conquest of that country by the stalwart
+colonisers from the North.
+
+A man of more than mature age, of peaceful habits, and taking no part in
+politics, he accepted the new situation without any great regret.  He
+was the more easily reconciled to it, from a knowledge, that his loss of
+nationality was better than counterbalanced by his gain of security
+against Comanche incursions; which, previous to the coming of the new
+colonists, had threatened the complete depopulation of the country.
+
+The savage was not yet entirely subdued; but his maraud was now
+intermittent, and occurred only at long intervals.  Even this was an
+improvement on the old _regime_.
+
+Don Silvio was a _ganadero_,--a grazier, on a grand scale.  So grand
+that his _ganaderia_ was leagues in length and breadth, and contained
+within its limits many thousands of horses and horned cattle.
+
+He lived in a large rectangular one-storied house--more resembling a
+jail than a dwelling--surrounded by extensive enclosures--_corrales_.
+
+It was usually a quiet place; except during the time of the _herradero_,
+or cattle-branding; when for days it became the scene of a festivity
+almost Homeric.
+
+These occasions were only of annual occurrence.
+
+At all other times the old haciendado--who was a bachelor to boot--led a
+tranquil and somewhat solitary life; a sister older than himself being
+his only companion.  There were occasional exceptions to this rule: when
+his charming _sobrina_ rode across from the Rio Grande to pay him and
+his sister a visit.  Then the domicile of Don Silvio became a little
+more lively.
+
+Isidora was welcome whenever she came; welcome to come and go when she
+pleased; and do as she pleased, while under her uncle's roof.  The
+sprightliness of her character was anything but displeasing to the old
+haciendado; who was himself far from being of a sombre disposition.
+Those traits, that might have appeared masculine in many other lands,
+were not so remarkable in one, where life is held by such precarious
+tenure; where the country house is oft transformed into a fortress, and
+the domestic hearth occasionally bedewed with the blood of its inmates!
+
+Is it surprising that in such a land women should be found, endowed with
+those qualities that have been ascribed to Isidora?  If so, it is not
+the less true that they exist.
+
+As a general thing the Mexican woman is a creature of the most amiable
+disposition; _douce_--if we may be allowed to borrow from a language
+that deals more frequently with feminine traits--to such an extent, as
+to have become a national characteristic.  It is to the denizens of the
+great cities, secure from Indian incursion, that this character more
+especially applies.  On the frontiers, harried for the last half century
+by the aboriginal freebooter, the case is somewhat different.  The
+amiability still exists; but often combined with a _bravourie_ and
+hardihood masculine in seeming, but in reality heroic.
+
+Since Malinche, more than one fair heroine has figured in the history of
+Anahuac.
+
+Don Silvio Martinez had himself assisted at many a wild scene and
+ceremony.  His youth had been passed amid perils; and the courage of
+Isidora--at times degenerating into absolute recklessness--so far from
+offending, rather gave him gratification.
+
+The old gentleman loved his darling _sobrina_, as if she had been his
+own child; and had she been so, she would not have been more certain of
+succeeding to his possessions.
+
+Every one knew, that, when Don Silvio Martinez should take leave of
+life, Isidora Covarubio de los Llanos would be the owner of--not his
+broad acres, but--his _leagues_ of land, as also his thousands of horses
+and horned cattle.
+
+With this understanding, it is needless to say, that the senorita
+carried respect with her wherever she went, or that the vassals of the
+Hacienda Martinez honoured her as their future mistress.
+
+Independently of this was she regarded.  Hers were just the qualities to
+win the esteem of the dashing _rancheros_; and there was not one upon
+the estate, but would have drawn his _machete_ at her nod, and used it
+to the shedding of blood.
+
+Miguel Diaz spoke the truth, when he said he was in danger.  Well might
+he believe it.  Had it pleased Isidora to call together her uncle's
+_vaqueros_, and send them to chastise him, it would have been speedily
+done--even to hanging him upon the nearest tree!
+
+No wonder he had made such haste to get away from the glade.
+
+As already stated, the real home of Isidora was upon the other side of
+the Rio Grande--separated by some three-score miles from the Hacienda
+Martinez.  But this did not hinder her from paying frequent visits to
+her relations upon the Leona.
+
+There was no selfishness in the motive.  The prospect of the rich
+inheritance had nothing to do with it.  She was an expectant heiress
+without that: for her own father was a _rico_.  But she liked the
+company of her uncle and aunt.  She also enjoyed the ride from river to
+river--oft made by her between morning and night, and not unfrequently
+alone!
+
+Of late these visits had become of much more frequent occurrence.
+
+Had she grown fonder of the society of her Texan relatives--fonder as
+they grew older?  If not, what was her motive?
+
+Imitating her own frankness of character, it may at once be declared.
+
+She came oftener to the Leona, in the hope of meeting with Maurice
+Gerald.
+
+With like frankness may it be told, that she _loved_ him.
+
+Beyond doubt, the young Irishman was in possession of her heart.  As
+already known, he had won it by an act of friendship; though it may have
+been less the service he had done, than the gallantry displayed in doing
+it, that had put the love-spell on the daring Isidora.
+
+Perhaps, too, she saw in him other captivating qualities, less easily
+defined.  Whether these had been undesignedly exhibited, or with the
+intention to effect a conquest, he alone can tell.  He has himself said,
+No; and respect is due to his declaration.  But it is difficult to
+believe, that mortal man could have gazed into the eyes of Isidora de
+los Llanos without wishing them to look longingly upon him.
+
+Maurice may have spoken the truth; but we could better believe him, had
+he seen Louise Poindexter before becoming acquainted with Isidora.
+
+The episode of the burnt prairie was several weeks subsequent to the
+adventure with the intoxicated Indians.
+
+Certainly something appears to have occurred between him and the Mexican
+maiden, that leads her to believe she has a hope--if not a claim--upon
+his affections.
+
+It has come to that crisis, that she can no longer rest satisfied.  Her
+impulsive spirit cannot brook ambiguity.  She knows that she loves
+_him_.  She has determined to make frank confession of it; and to ask
+with like frankness whether her passion be reciprocated.  Hence her
+having made an appointment that could not be kept.
+
+For that day Don Miguel Diaz had interfered between her and her purpose.
+
+So thought she, as she galloped out of the glade, and hastened back to
+the hacienda of her uncle.
+
+Astride her grey steed she goes at a gallop.
+
+Her head is bare; her coiffure disarranged; her rich black tresses
+streaming back beyond her shoulders, no longer covered by scarf or
+serape.  The last she has left behind her, and along with it her
+_vicuna_ hat.
+
+Her eyes are flashing with excitement; her cheeks flushed to the colour
+of carmine.
+
+The cause is known.
+
+And also why she is riding in such hot haste.  She has herself declared
+it.
+
+On nearing the house, she is seen to tighten her rein.  The horse is
+pulled in to a slower pace--a trot; slower still--a walk; and, soon
+after, he is halted in the middle of the road.
+
+His rider has changed her intention; or stops to reflect whether she
+should.
+
+She sits reflecting.
+
+"On second thoughts--perhaps--better not have him taken?  It would
+create a terrible scandal, everywhere.  So far, no one knows of --.
+Besides, what can I say myself--the only witness?  Ah! were I to tell
+these gallant Texans the story, my own testimony would be enough to have
+him punished with a harsh hand.  No! let him live.  _Ladron_ as he is, I
+do not fear him.  After what's happened he will not care to come near
+me.  _Santa Virgen_! to think that I could have felt a fancy for this
+man--short-lived as it was!
+
+"I must send some one back to release him.  One who can keep my secret--
+who?  Benito, the mayor-domo--faithful and brave.  _Gracias a Dios_!
+Yonder's my man--as usual busied in counting his cattle.  Benito!
+Benito!"
+
+"At your orders, s'norita?"
+
+"Good Benito, I want you to do me a kindness.  You consent?"
+
+"At your orders, s'norita?" repeats the mayor-domo, bowing low.
+
+"Not _orders_, good Benito.  I wish you to do me a _favour_."
+
+"Command me, s'norita!"
+
+"You know the spot of open ground at the top of the hill--where the
+three roads meet?"
+
+"As well as the corral of your uncle's hacienda."
+
+"Good!  Go there.  You will find a man lying upon the ground, his arms
+entangled in a lazo.  Release, and let him go free.  If he be hurt--by a
+harsh fall he has had--do what you can to restore him; but don't tell
+him who sent you.  You may know the man--I think you do.  No matter for
+that.  Ask him no questions, nor answer his, if he should put any.  Once
+you have seen him on his legs, let him make use of them after his own
+fashion.  You understand?"
+
+"_Perfectamente, s'norita_.  Your orders shall be obeyed to the letter."
+
+"Thanks, good Benito.  Uncle Silvio will like you all the better for it;
+though _you_ mustn't tell him of it.  Leave that to me.  If he
+shouldn't--if he shouldn't--well! one of these days there may be an
+estate on the Rio Grande that will stand in need of a brave, faithful
+steward--such an one as I know you to be."
+
+"Every one knows that the Dona Isidora is gracious as she is fair."
+
+"Thanks--thanks!  One more request.  The service I ask you to do for me
+must be known to only three individuals.  The third is he whom you are
+sent to succour.  You know the other two?"
+
+"S'norita, I comprehend.  It shall be as you wish it."
+
+The mayor-domo is moving off on horseback, it need scarce be said.  Men
+of his calling rarely set foot to the earth--never upon a journey of
+half a league in length.
+
+"Stay!  I had forgotten!" calls out the lady, arresting him.  "You will
+find a hat and serape.  They are mine.  Bring them, and I shall wait for
+you here, or meet you somewhere along the way."
+
+Bowing, he again rides away.  Again is he summoned to stop.
+
+"On second thoughts, Senor Benito, I've made up my mind to go along with
+you.  _Vamos_!"
+
+The steward of Don Silvio is not surprised at caprice, when exhibited by
+the niece of his employer.  Without questioning, he obeys her command,
+and once more heads his horse for the hill.
+
+The lady follows.  She has told him to ride in the advance.  She has her
+reason for departing from the aristocratic custom.
+
+Benito is astray in his conjecture.  It is not to caprice that he is
+indebted for the companionship of the senorita.  A serious motive takes
+her back along the road.
+
+She has forgotten something more than her wrapper and hat--that little
+letter that has caused her so much annoyance.
+
+The "good Benito" has not had _all_ her confidence; nor can he be
+entrusted with this.  _It_ might prove a scandal, graver than the
+quarrel with Don Miguel Diaz.
+
+She rides back in hopes of repossessing herself of the epistle.  How
+stupid not to have thought of it before!
+
+How had El Coyote got hold of it?  He must have had it from Jose!
+
+Was her servant a traitor?  Or had Diaz met him on the way, and forced
+the letter from him?
+
+To either of these questions an affirmative answer might be surmised.
+
+On the part of Diaz such an act would have been natural enough; and as
+for Jose, it is not the first time she has had reason for suspecting his
+fidelity.
+
+So run her thoughts as she re-ascends the slope, leading up from the
+river bottom.
+
+The summit is gained, and the opening entered; Isidora now riding side
+by side with the mayor-domo.
+
+No Miguel Diaz there--no man of any kind; and what gives her far greater
+chagrin, not a scrap of paper!
+
+There is her hat of vicuna wool--her seraph of Saltillo, and the loop
+end of her lazo--nothing more.
+
+"You may go home again, Senor Benito!  The man thrown from his horse
+must have recovered his senses--and, I suppose, his saddle too.  Blessed
+be the virgin!  But remember, good Benito _Secrecy all the same.
+Entiende, V_?"
+
+"_Yo entiendo, Dona Isidora_."
+
+The mayor-domo moves away, and is soon lost to sight behind the crest of
+the hill.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+The lady of the lazo is once more alone in the glade.  She springs out
+of her saddle; dons serape and sombrero; and is again the _beau-ideal_
+of a youthful hidalgo.
+
+She remounts slowly, mechanically--as if her thoughts do not company the
+action.  Languidly she lifts her limb over the horse.  The pretty foot
+is for a second or two poised in the air.
+
+Her ankle, escaping from the skirt of her _enagua_, displays a tournure
+to have crazed Praxiteles.  As it descends on the opposite side of the
+horse, a cloud seems to overshadow the sun.  Simon Stylites could scarce
+have closed his eyes on the spectacle.
+
+But there is no spectator of this interesting episode; not even the
+wretched Jose; who, the moment after, comes skulking into the glade.
+
+He is questioned, without circumlocution, upon the subject of the
+strayed letter.
+
+"What have you done with it, sirrah?"
+
+"Delivered it, my lady."
+
+"To whom?"
+
+"I left it at--at--the _posada_," he replies, stammering and turning
+pale.  "Don Mauricio had gone out."
+
+"A lie, _lepero_!  You gave it to Don Miguel Diaz.  No denial, sir!
+I've seen it since."
+
+"O Senora, pardon! pardon!  I am not guilty--indeed I am not."
+
+"Stupid, you should have told your story better.  You have committed
+yourself.  How much did Don Miguel pay you for your treason?"
+
+"As I live, lady, it was not treason.  He--he--forced it from me--by
+threats--blows.  I--I--was not paid."
+
+"You shall be, then!  I discharge you from my service; and for wages
+take that, and that, and that--"
+
+For at least ten times are the words repeated--the riding whip at each
+repetition descending upon the shoulders of the dishonest messenger.
+
+He essays to escape by running off.  In vain.  He is brought up again by
+the dread of being ridden over, and trampled under the hoofs of the
+excited horse.
+
+Not till the blue wheals appear upon his brown skin, does the
+chastisement cease.
+
+"Now, sirrah; from my sight! and let me see you no more.  _Al monte! al
+monte_!"
+
+With ludicrous alacrity the command is obeyed.  Like a scared cat the
+discharged servitor rushes out of the glade; only too happy to hide
+himself, and his shame, under the shadows of the thorny thicket.
+
+But a little while longer does Isidora remain upon the spot--her anger
+giving place to a profound chagrin.  Not only has she been baffled from
+carrying out her design; but her heart's secret is now in the keeping of
+traitors!
+
+Once more she heads her horse homeward.  She arrives in time to be
+present at a singular spectacle.  The people--peons, vaqueros, and
+employes of every kind--are hurrying to and fro, from field to corral,
+from corral to courtyard one and all giving tongue to terrified
+ejaculations.  The men are on their feet arming in confused haste; the
+woman on their knees, praying pitifully to heaven--through the
+intercession of a score of those saints, profusely furnished by the
+Mexican hierarchy to suit all times and occasions.
+
+"What is causing the commotion?"
+
+This is the question asked by Isidora.
+
+The mayor-domo--who chances to be the first to present himself--is the
+individual thus interrogated.
+
+A man has been murdered somewhere out upon the prairie.
+
+The victim is one of the new people who have lately taken possession of
+Caso del Corvo--the son of the American haciendado himself.
+
+Indians are reported to have done the deed.
+
+Indians!  In this word is the key to the excitement among Don Silvio's
+servitors.
+
+It explains both the praying and the hurried rushing to arms.
+
+The fact that a man has been murdered--a slight circumstance in that
+land of unbridled emotions--would have produced no such response--more
+especially when the man was a stranger, an "Americano."
+
+But the report that Indians are abroad, is altogether a different
+affair.  In it there is an idea of danger.
+
+The effect produced on Isidora is different.  It is not fear of the
+savages.  The name of the "asesinado" recalls thoughts that have already
+given her pain.  She knows that there is a sister, spoken of as being
+wonderfully beautiful.  She has herself looked upon this beauty, and
+cannot help believing in it.
+
+A keener pang proceeds from something else she has heard: that this
+peerless maiden has been seen in the company of Maurice Gerald.  There
+is no fresh jealousy inspired by the news of the brother's death--only
+the old unpleasantness for the moment revived.
+
+The feeling soon gives place to the ordinary indifference felt for the
+fate of those with whom we have no acquaintance.
+
+Some hours later, and this indifference becomes changed to a painful
+interest; in short, an apprehension.  There are fresh reports about the
+murder.  It has been committed, not by Comanches; but by a white man--by
+_Maurice the mustanger_!
+
+There are no Indians near.
+
+This later edition of "novedades," while tranquilising Don Silvio's
+servants, has the contrary effect upon his niece.  She cannot rest under
+the rumour; and half-an-hour afterwards, she is seen reining up her
+horse in front of the village hotel.
+
+For some weeks, with motive unknown, she has been devoting herself to
+the study of _La lengua Americana_.  Her vocabulary of English words,
+still scanty, is sufficient for her present purpose; which is to acquire
+information, not about the murder, but the man accused of committing it.
+
+The landlord, knowing who she is, answers her inquiries with obsequious
+politeness.
+
+She learns that Maurice Gerald is no longer his guest, with "full
+particulars of the murder," so far as known.
+
+With a sad heart she rides back to the Hacienda Martinez.  On reaching
+the house, she finds its tranquillity again disturbed.  The new cause of
+excitement might have been deemed ludicrous; though it is not so
+regarded by the superstitious _peons_.  A rare rumour has reached the
+place.  A man without a head--_un hombre descabezado_--has been seen
+riding about the plains, somewhere near the Rio Nueces!
+
+Despite its apparent absurdity, there can be no doubting the correctness
+of the report.  It is rife throughout the settlement.  But there is
+still surer confirmation of it.  A party of Don Silvio's own people--
+herdsmen out in search of strayed cattle--have seen the _cavallero
+descabezado_; and, desisting from their search, had ridden away from
+him, as they would have done from the devil!
+
+The _vaqueros_--there are three of them--are all ready to swear to the
+account given.  But their scared looks furnish a more trustworthy
+evidence of its truthfulness.
+
+The sun goes down upon a _congeries_ of frightful rumours.  Neither
+these nor the protestations of Don Silvio and his sister can prevent
+their capricious niece from carrying out a resolution she seems suddenly
+to have formed--which is, to ride back to the Rio Grande.  It makes no
+difference to her, that a murder has been committed on the road she will
+have to take; much less that near it has been seen the ghastly
+apparition of a headless horseman!  What to any other traveller should
+cause dismay, seems only to attract Isidora.
+
+She even proposes making the journey _alone_!  Don Silvio offers an
+escort--half a score of his _vaqueros_, armed to the teeth.  The offer
+is rejected.  Will she take Benito?  No.  She prefers journeying alone.
+In short, she is determined upon it.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Next morning she carries out this determination.  By day-break she is in
+the saddle; and, in less than two hours after, riding, not upon the
+direct road to the Rio Grande, but along the banks of the Alamo!
+
+Why has she thus deviated from her route?  Is she straying?
+
+She looks not like one who has lost her way.  There is a sad expression
+upon her countenance, but not one of inquiry.  Besides, her horse steps
+confidently forward, as if under his rider's direction, and guided by
+the rein.
+
+Isidora is not straying.  She has not lost her way.
+
+Happier for her, if she had.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTY SIX.
+
+A SHOT AT THE DEVIL.
+
+All night long the invalid lay awake; at times tranquil, at times giving
+way to a paroxysm of unconscious passion.
+
+All night long the hunter sate by his bedside, and listened to his
+incoherent utterances.
+
+They but confirmed two points of belief already impressed upon Zeb's
+mind: that Louise Poindexter was beloved; that her brother had been
+murdered!
+
+The last was a belief that, under any circumstances, would have been
+painful to the backwoodsman.  Coupled with the facts already known, it
+was agonising.
+
+He thought of the quarrel--the hat--the cloak.  He writhed as he
+contemplated the labyrinth of dark ambiguities that presented itself to
+his mind.  Never in his life had his analytical powers been so
+completely baffled.  He groaned as he felt their impotence.
+
+He kept no watch upon the door.  He knew that if _they_ came, it would
+not be in the night.
+
+Once only he went out; but that was near morning, when the light of the
+moon was beginning to mingle with that of the day.
+
+He had been summoned by a sound.  Tara, straying among the trees, had
+given utterance to a long dismal "gowl," and come running scared-like
+into the hut.
+
+Extinguishing the light, Zeb stole forth, and stood listening.
+
+There was an interruption to the nocturnal chorus; but that might have
+been caused by the howling of the hound?  What had caused _it_?
+
+The hunter directed his glance first upon the open lawn; then around its
+edge, and under the shadow of the trees.
+
+There was nothing to be seen there, except what should be.
+
+He raised his eyes to the cliff, that in a dark line trended along the
+horizon of the sky--broken at both ends by the tops of some tall trees
+that rose above its crest.  There were about fifty paces of clear space,
+which he knew to be the edge of the upper plain terminating at the brow
+of the precipice.
+
+The line separating the _chiaro_ from the _oscuro_ could be traced
+distinctly as in the day.  A brilliant moon was beyond it.  A snake
+could have been seen crawling along the top of the cliff.
+
+There was nothing to be seen there.
+
+But there was something to be heard.  As Zeb stood listening there came
+a sound from the upper plain, that seemed to have been produced not far
+back from the summit of the cliff.  It resembled the clinking of a
+horse's shoe struck against a loose stone.
+
+So conjectured Zeb, as with open ears he listened to catch its
+repetition.
+
+It was not repeated; but he soon saw what told him his conjecture was
+correct--a horse, stepping out from behind the treetops, and advancing
+along the line of the bluff.  There was a man upon his back--both horse
+and man distinctly seen in dark _silhouette_ against the clear sapphire
+sky.
+
+The figure of the horse was perfect, as in the outlines of a skilfully
+cast medallion.
+
+That of the man could be traced--only from the saddle to the shoulders.
+Below, the limbs were lost in the shadow of the animal though the
+sparkle of spur and stirrup told that they were there.  Above, there was
+nothing--not even the semblance of a head!
+
+Zeb Stump rubbed his eyes and looked; and rubbed them and looked again.
+It did not change the character of the apparition.  If he had rubbed
+them fourscore times, he would have seen the same--a horseman without a
+head.
+
+This very sight he saw, beyond the possibility of disbelieving--saw the
+horse advancing along the level line in a slow but steady pace--without
+footfall--without sound of any kind--as if gliding rather than walking--
+like the shifting scene of a cosmorama!
+
+Not for a mere instant had he the opportunity of observing the spectral
+apparition; but a period long enough to enable him to note every
+detail--long enough to satisfy him that it could be no illusion of the
+eye, or in any way a deception of his senses.
+
+Nor did it vanish abruptly from his view; but slowly and gradually:
+first the head of the horse; then the neck and shoulders; then the
+shape, half ghastly, half grotesque, of the rider; then the
+hind-quarters of the animal; the hips; and last of all the long tapering
+tail!
+
+"Geehosophat!"
+
+It was not surprise at the disappearance of the headless horseman that
+extorted this exclamation from the lips of Zeb Stump.  There was nothing
+strange about this.  The spectacle had simply passed behind the
+proscenium--represented by the tope of tree tops rising above the bluff.
+
+"Geehosophat!"
+
+Twice did the backwoodsman give utterance to this, his favourite
+expression of surprise; both times with an emphasis that told of an
+unlimited astonishment.
+
+His looks betrayed it.  Despite his undoubted courage, a shiver passed
+through his colossal frame; while the pallor upon his lips was
+perceptible through their brown priming of tobacco juice.
+
+For some time he stood speechless, as if unable to follow up his double
+ejaculation.
+
+His tongue at length returned to him.
+
+"Dog-gone my cats!" he muttered, but in a very low tone, and with eyes
+still fixed upon the point where the horse's tail had been last seen.
+"If that ere don't whip the hul united creashun, my name ain't Zeb'lon
+Stump!  The Irish hev been right arter all.  I tho't he hed dreemt o' it
+in his drink.  But no.  He hev seed somethin'; and so hev I meself.  No
+wonner the cuss war skeeart.  I feel jest a spell shaky in my own narves
+beout this time.  Geehosophat! what kin the durned thing be?"
+
+"What _kin_ it be?" he continued, after a period spent in silent
+reflection.  "Dog-goned, ef I kin detarmine one way or the tother.  Ef
+'t hed been only i' the daylight, an I ked a got a good sight on't; or
+eft hed been a leetle bit cloaster!  Ha!  Why moutn't I git cloaster to
+_it_?  Dog-goned, ef I don't hev a try!  I reck'n it won't eet me--not
+ef it air ole Nick; an ef it _air_ him, I'll jest satersfy meself
+whether a bullet kin go custrut thro' his infernal karkidge 'ithout
+throwin' him out o' the seddle.  Hyur go for a cloaster akwaintance wi'
+the varmint, whatsomiver it be."
+
+So saying, the hunter stalked off through the trees--upon the path that
+led up to the bluff.
+
+He had not needed to go inside for his rifle--having brought that weapon
+out with him, on hearing the howl of the hound.
+
+If the headless rider was real flesh and blood--earthly and not of the
+other world--Zeb Stump might confidently count upon seeing him again.
+
+When viewed from the door of the _jacale_, he was going direct towards
+the ravine, that permitted passage from the higher level to the bottom
+lands of the Alamo.  As Zeb had started to avail himself of the same
+path, unless the other should meantime change direction, or his tranquil
+pace to a trot or gallop, the backwoodsman would be at the head of the
+pass as soon as he.
+
+Before starting, Zeb had made a calculation of the distance to be done,
+and the time to do it in.
+
+His estimate proved correct--to a second, and an inch.  As his head was
+brought nearly on a level with the upland plain, he saw the _shoulders_
+of the horseman rising above it.
+
+Another step upward, and the body was in view.  Another, and the horse
+was outlined against the sky, from hoof to forelock.
+
+He stood at a halt.  He was standing, as Zeb first came in sight of him.
+He was fronting towards the cliff, evidently intending to go down into
+the gorge.  His rider appeared to have pulled him up as a measure of
+precaution; or he may have heard the hunter scrambling up the ravine;
+or, what was more likely, scented him.
+
+For whatever reason, he was standing, front face to the spectator.
+
+On seeing him thus, Zeb Stump also came to a stand.  Had it been many
+another man, the same might have been said of his hair; and it is not to
+be denied, that the old hunter was at that moment, as he acknowledged
+himself, "a spell shaky 'beout the narves."
+
+He was firm enough, however, to carry out the purpose that had prompted
+him to seek that singular interview; which was, to discover whether he
+had to deal with a human being, or the devil!
+
+In an instant his rifle was at his shoulder, his eye glancing along the
+barrel; the sights, by the help of a brilliant moonlight, bearing upon
+the heart of the Headless Horseman.
+
+In another, a bullet would have been through it; but for a thought that
+just then flashed across the brain of the backwoodsman.
+
+Maybe he was about to commit _murder_?
+
+At the thought he lowered the muzzle of his piece, and remained for a
+time undecided.
+
+"It mout be a man?" muttered he, "though it don't look like it air.
+Thur ain't room enuf for a head under that ere Mexikin blanket, no how.
+Ef it be a human critter he hev got a tongue I reck'n, though he ain't
+much o' a head to hold it in.  Hilloo stronger!  Ye're out for a putty
+lateish ride, ain't ye?  Hain't yo forgot to fetch yur head wi ye?"
+
+There was no reply.  The horse snorted, on hearing the voice.  That was
+all.
+
+"Lookee hyur, strenger!  Ole Zeb Stump from the State o' Kintucky, air
+the individooal who's now speakin' to ye.  He ain't one o' thet sort ter
+be trifled wi'.  Don't try to kum none o' yer damfoolery over this hyur
+coon.  I warn ye to declur yur game.  If ye're playin possum, ye'd
+better throw up yur hand; or by the jumpin' Geehosophat, ye may lose
+both yur stake an yur curds!  Speak out now, afore ye gits plugged wi' a
+piece o' lead!"
+
+Less response than before.  This time the horse, becoming accustomed to
+the voice, only tossed up his head.
+
+"Then dog-gone ye!" shouted the hunter, exasperated by what he deemed an
+insulting silence.  "Six seconds more--I'll gie ye six more; an ef ye
+don't show speech by that time, I'll let drive at yur guts.  Ef ye're
+but a dummy it won't do ye any harm.  No more will it, I reckun, ef ye
+_air_ the devil.  But ef ye're a man playin' possum, durn me ef ye don't
+desarve to be shot for bein' sech a damned fool.  Sing out!" he
+continued with increasing anger, "sing out, I tell ye!  Ye won't?  Then
+hyur goes!  One--two--three--four--five--six!"
+
+Where "seven" should have come in, had the count been continued, was
+heard the sharp crack of a rifle, followed by the sibillation of a
+spinning bullet; then the dull "thud" as the deadly missile buried
+itself in some solid body.
+
+The only effect produced by the shot, appeared to be the frightening of
+the horse.  The rider still kept his seat in the saddle!
+
+It was not even certain the horse was scared.  The clear neigh that
+responded to the detonation of the rifle, had something in it that
+sounded derisive!
+
+For all that, the animal went off at a tearing gallop; leaving Zeb Stump
+a prey to the profoundest surprise he had ever experienced.
+
+After discharging his rifle, he remained upon his knees, for a period of
+several seconds.
+
+If his nerves were unsteady before the shot, they had become doubly so
+now.  He was not only surprised at the result, but terrified.  He was
+certain that his bullet had passed through the man's heart--or where it
+should be--as sure as if his muzzle had been held close to the ribs.
+
+It could not be a man?  He did not believe it to be one; and this
+thought might have reassured him, but for the behaviour of the horse.
+It was that wild unearthly neigh, that was now chilling his blood, and
+causing his limbs to shake, as if under an ague.
+
+He would have retreated; but, for a time, he felt absolutely unable to
+rise to his feet; and he remained kneeling, in a sort of stupefied
+terror--watching the weird form till it receded out of sight far off
+over the moonlit plain.  Not till then did he recover sufficient
+courage, to enable him to glide back down the gorge, and on towards the
+_jacale_.
+
+And not till he was under its roof, did he feel sufficiently himself, to
+reflect with any calmness on the odd encounter that had occurred to him.
+
+It was some time before his mind became disabused of the idea that he
+had been dealing with the devil.  Reflection, however, convinced him of
+the improbability of this; though it gave him no clue as to what the
+thing really was.
+
+"Shurly," muttered he, his conjectural form of speech showing that he
+was still undecided, "Shurly arter all it can't be a thing o' the tother
+world--else I kedn't a heern the _cothug_ o' my bullet?  Sartin the lead
+struck agin somethin' solid; an I reck'n thur's nothin' solid in the
+karkidge o' a ghost?"
+
+"Wagh!" he concluded, apparently resigning the attempt to obtain a
+solution of the strange physical phenomenon.  "Let the durned thing
+slide!  One o' two things it air boun' to be: eyther a bunnel o' rags,
+or ole Harry from hell?"
+
+As he re-entered the hut, the blue light of morning stole in along with
+him.
+
+It was time to awaken Phelim, that he might take his turn by the bedside
+of the invalid.
+
+The Connemara man, now thoroughly restored to sobriety, and under the
+impression of having been a little derelict in his duty, was ready to
+undertake the task.
+
+The old hunter, before consigning his charge to the care of his
+unskilled successor, made a fresh dressing of the scratches--availing
+himself of the knowledge that a long experience had given him in the
+pharmacopoeia of the forest.
+
+The _nopal_ was near; and its juice inspissated into the fresh wounds
+would not fail to effect their speedy cure.
+
+Zeb knew that in twenty-four hours after its application, they would be
+in process of healing; and in three days, entirely cicatrised.
+
+With this confidence--common to every denizen of the cactus-covered land
+of Mexico--he felt defiant as to doctors; and if a score of them could
+have been procured upon the instant, he would not have summoned one.  He
+was convinced that Maurice Gerald was in no danger--at least not from
+his wounds.
+
+There was a danger; but that was of a different kind.
+
+"An' now, Mister Pheelum," said he, on making a finish of his surgical
+operations; "we hev dud all thet kin be dud for the outard man, an it
+air full time to look arter the innard.  Ye say thur ain't nuthin to
+eet?"
+
+"Not so much as a purtaty, Misther Stump.  An' what's worse thare's
+nothin' to dhrink--not a dhrap lift in the whole cyabin."
+
+"Durn ye, that's _yur_ fault," cried Stump, turning upon the Irishman
+with a savage scowl that showed equal regret at the announcement.  "Eft
+hadn't a been for you, thur war licker enough to a lasted till the young
+fellur got roun' agin.  What's to be dud now?"
+
+"Sowl, Misther Stump! yez be wrongin' _me_ althegither intirely.  That
+same yez are.  I hadn't a taste exciptin what came out av the little
+flask.  It wus thim Indyins that imptied the dimmyjan.  Trath was it."
+
+"Wagh! ye cudn't a got drunk on what wur contained i' the flask.  I know
+yur durned guts too well for thet.  Ye must a had a good pull at the
+tother, too."
+
+"Be all the saints--"
+
+"Durn yur stinkin' saints!  D'you s'pose any man o' sense believes in
+sech varmint as them?
+
+"Wal; 'tain't no use talkin' any more beout it.  Ye've sucked up the
+corn juice, an thur's an end o't.  Thur ain't no more to be hed 'ithin
+twenty mile, an we must go 'ithout."
+
+"Be Jaysus, but it's bad!"
+
+"Shet up yur head, durn ye, an hear what I've got to say.  We'll hev to
+go 'ithout drinkin'; but thet air no reezun for sturvin' ourselves for
+want o' somethin' to eet.  The young fellur, I don't misdoubt, air by
+this time half starved hisself.  Thur's not much on his stummuk, I
+reck'n, though thur may be on his mind.  As for meself, I'm jest hungry
+enough to eat coyoat; an I ain't very sure I'd turn away from turkey
+buzzart; which, as I reck'n, wud be a wusser victual than coyoat.  But
+we ain't obleeged to eet turkey buzzart, whar thur's a chance o' gettin'
+turkey; an thet ain't so dewbious along the Alamo.  You stay hyur, an
+take care o' the young fellur, whiles I try up the crik, an see if I kin
+kum acrosst a gobbler."
+
+"I'll do that, Misther Stump, an no mistake.  Be me trath--"
+
+"Keep yur palaver to yurself, till I've finished talkin' to ye."
+
+"Sowl!  I won't say a word."
+
+"Then don't, but lissen!  Thur's somethin 'bout which I don't wait ye to
+make any mistake.  It air this.  Ef there shed anybody stray this way
+dyurin my absince, ye'll let me know.  You musn't lose a minnit o' time,
+but let me know."
+
+"Shure I will--sowl, yis."
+
+"Wal, I'll depend on ye."
+
+"Trath, yez may;--but how Misther Stump?  How am I to lit yez know, if
+you're beyant hearin' av me voice?  How thin?"
+
+"Wal, I reck'n, I shan't need to go so fur as thet.  Thur ought to be
+gobblers cloast by--at this time o' the mornin'.
+
+"An yit there moutent," continued Zeb, after reflecting a while.  "Ye
+ain't got sech a thing as a gun in the shanty?  A pistol 'ud do."
+
+"Nayther wan nor the tother.  The masther tuk both away wid him, when he
+went last time to the sittlements.  He must have lift them thare."
+
+"It air awk'ard.  I mout _not_ heer yur shout."
+
+Zeb, who had by this time passed through the doorway, again stopped to
+reflect.
+
+"Heigh!" he exclaimed, after a pause of six seconds.  "I've got it.
+I've treed the eydee.  Ye see my ole maar, tethered out thur on the
+grass?"
+
+"Shure I do, Misther Stump.  Av coorse I do."
+
+"Wal, ye see thet ere prickly cacktis plant growin' cloast to the edge
+o' the openin'?"
+
+"Faith, yis."
+
+"Wal, that's sensible o' ye.  Now lissen to what I say.  Ye must keep a
+look out at the door; an ef anybody kums up whiles I'm gone, run
+straight custrut for the cacktis, cut off one o' its branches--the
+thorniest ye kin see--an stick it unner the maar's tail."
+
+"Mother av Moses!  For what div yez want me to do that?"
+
+"Wal, I reck'n I'd better explain," said Zeb, reflectingly; "otherwise
+ye'll be makin' a mess o' it."
+
+"Ye see, Pheelum, ef anybody interlopes durin' my absince I hed better
+be hyur.  I ain't a goin' fur off.  But howsomediver near, I moutn't
+hear yur screech; thurfore the maar's 'll do better.  You clap the
+cacktis under her tail, cloast up to the fundament; and ef she don't
+squeal loud enuf to be heern by me, then ye may konklude that this coon
+air eyther rubbed out, or hev both his lugs plugged wi picket pins.  So,
+Pheelum; do you adzactly as I've tolt ye."
+
+"I'll do it, be Japers!"
+
+"Be sure now.  Yur master's life may depend upon it."
+
+After delivering this last caution, the hunter shouldered his long
+rifle, and walked away from the hut.
+
+"He's a cute owld chap that same," said Phelim as soon as Zeb was out of
+hearing.  "I wonder what he manes by the master bein' in danger from any
+wan comin' to the cyabin.  He sed, that his life moight depend upon it?
+Yis--he sed that."
+
+"He towlt me to kape a luk out.  I suppose he maned me to begin at
+wance.  I must go to the inthrance thin."
+
+So saying, he stepped outside the door; and proceeded to make an ocular
+inspection of the paths by which the _jacale_ might be approached.
+
+After completing this, he returned to the threshold; and there took
+stand, in the attitude of one upon the watch.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTY SEVEN.
+
+SOUNDING THE SIGNAL.
+
+Phelim's vigil was of short duration.  Scarce ten minutes had he been
+keeping it, when he became warned by the sound of a horse's hoof, that
+some one was coming up the creek in the direction of the hut.
+
+His heart commenced hammering against his ribs.
+
+The trees, standing thickly, hindered him from having a view of the
+approaching horseman; and he could not tell what sort of guest was about
+to present himself at the _jacale_.  But the hoofstroke told him there
+was only _one_; and this it was that excited his apprehension.  He would
+have been less alarmed to hear the trampling of a troop.  Though well
+assured it could no longer be his master, he had no stomach for a second
+interview with the cavalier who so closely resembled him--in everything
+except the head.
+
+His first impulse was to rush across the lawn, and carry out the scheme
+entrusted to him by Zeb.  But the indecision springing from his fears
+kept him to his place--long enough to show him that they were
+groundless.  The strange horseman had a head.
+
+"Shure an that same he hez," said Phelim, as the latter rode out from
+among the trees, and halted on the edge of the opening; "a raal hid, an
+a purty face in front av it.  An' yit it don't show so plazed nayther.
+He luks as if he'd jist buried his grandmother.  Sowl! what a quare
+young chap he is, wid them toiny mowstacks loike the down upon a two
+days' goslin'!  O Lard!  Luk at his little fut!  _Be Jaysus, he's a
+woman_!"
+
+While the Irishman was making these observations--partly in thought,
+partly in muttered speech--the equestrian advanced a pace or two, and
+again paused.
+
+On a nearer view of his visitor, Phelim saw that he had correctly
+guessed the sex; though the moustache, the manner of the mount, the hat,
+and serape, might for the moment have misled a keener intellect than his
+of Connemara.
+
+It _was_ a woman.  It was Isidora.
+
+It was the first time that Phelim had set eyes on the Mexican maiden--
+the first that hers had ever rested upon him.  They were equally unknown
+to one another.
+
+He had spoken the truth, when he said that her countenance did not
+display pleasure.  On the contrary, the expression upon it was sad--
+almost disconsolate.
+
+It had shown distrust, as she was riding under the shadow of the trees.
+Instead of brightening as she came out into the open ground, the look
+only changed to one of mingled surprise and disappointment.
+
+Neither could have been caused by her coming within sight of the
+_jacale_.  She knew of its existence.  It was the goal of her journey.
+It must have been the singular personage standing in the doorway.  He
+was not the man she expected to see there.
+
+In doubt she advanced to address him:
+
+"I may have made a mistake?" said she, speaking in the best "Americana"
+she could command.  "Pardon me, but--I--I thought--that Don Mauricio
+lived here."
+
+"Dan Marryshow, yez say?  Trath, no.  Thare's nobody av that name lives
+heeur.  Dan Marryshow?  Thare was a man they called Marrish had a
+dwillin' not far out av Ballyballagh.  I remimber the chap will, bekase
+he chated me wanst in a horse thrade.  But his name wasn't Dan.  No; it
+was Pat.  Pat Marrish was the name--divil burn him for a desaver!"
+
+"Don Mauricio--Mor-rees--Mor-ees."
+
+"Oh!  Maurice!  Maybe ye'd be after spakin' av the masther--Misther
+Gerrald!"
+
+"Si--Si!  Senor Zyerral."
+
+"Shure, thin, an if that's fwhat ye're afther, Misther Gerrald diz dwill
+in this very cyabin--that is, whin he comes to divart hisself, by
+chasin' the wild horses.  He only kapes it for a huntin' box, ye know.
+Arrah, now; if yez cud only see the great big cyastle he lives in whin
+he's at home, in owld Ireland; an thy bewtiful crayther that's now
+cryin' her swate blue eyes out, bekase he won't go back thare.  Sowl, if
+yez saw _her_!"
+
+Despite its _patois_, Phelim's talk was too well understood by her to
+whom it was addressed.  Jealousy is an apt translator.  Something like a
+sigh escaped from Isidora, as he pronounced that little word "her."
+
+"I don't wish to see _her_," was the quick rejoinder; "but him you
+mention.  Is he at home?  Is he inside?"
+
+"Is he at home?  Thare now, that's comin' to the point--straight as a
+poike staff.  An' supposin' I wuz to say yis, fwhat ud yez be afther
+wantin' wid him?"
+
+"I wish to see him."
+
+"Div yez?  Maybe now ye'll wait till yez be asked.  Ye're a purty
+crayther, notwithstandin' that black strake upon yer lip.  But the
+masther isn't in a condishun jist at this time to see any wan--unless it
+was the praste or a docthur.  Yez cyant see him."
+
+"But I wish very much to see him, senor."
+
+"Trath div yez.  Ye've sayed that alriddy.  But yez cyant, I till ye.
+It isn't Phaylim Onale ud deny wan av the fair six--espacially a purty
+black-eyed colleen loike yerself.  But for all that yez cyant see the
+masther now."
+
+"Why can I not?"
+
+"Why cyant yez not?  Will--thare's more than wan rayzon why yez cyant.
+In the first place, as I've towlt you, he's not in a condishun to resave
+company--the liss so av its bein' a lady."
+
+"But why, senor?  Why?"
+
+"Bekase he's not dacently drissed.  He's got nothin' on him but his
+shirt--exceptin' the rags that Misther Stump's jist tied all roun' him.
+Be japers! thare's enough av them to make him a whole shoot--coat,
+waiscoat, and throwsers--trath is thare."
+
+"Senor, I don't understand you."
+
+"Yez don't?  Shure an I've spoke plain enough!  Don't I till ye that the
+masther's in bid?"
+
+"In bed!  At this hour?  I hope there's nothing--"
+
+"The matther wid him, yez wur goin' to say?  Alannah, that same is
+there--a powerful dale the matther wid him--enough to kape him betwane
+the blankets for weeks to come."
+
+"Oh, senor!  Do not tell me that he is ill?"
+
+"Don't I till ye!  Arrah now me honey; fwhat ud be the use av consalin'
+it?  It ud do it no good; nayther cyan it do him any harm to spake about
+it?  Yez moight say it afore his face, an he won't conthradict ye."
+
+"He _is_ ill, then.  O, sir, tell me, what is the nature of his
+illness--what has caused it?"
+
+"Shure an I cyant answer only wan av thim interrogataries--the first yez
+hiv phut.  His disaze pursades from some ugly tratement he's been
+resavin--the Lord only knows what, or who administhered it.  He's got a
+bad lig; an his skin luks as if he'd been tied up in a sack along wid a
+score av angry cats.  Sowl! thare's not the brenth av yer purty little
+hand widout a scratch upon it.  Worse than all, he's besoide hisself."
+
+"Beside himself?"
+
+"Yis, that same.  He's ravin' loike wan that had a dhrap too much
+overnight, an thinks thare's the man wid the poker afther him.  Be me
+trath, I belave the very bist thing for him now ud be a thrifle av
+potheen--if wan cud only lay hands upon that same.  But thare's not the
+smell av it in the cyabin.  Both the dimmy-jan an flask.  Arrah, now;
+_you_ wouldn't be afther havin' a little flask upon yer sweet silf?
+Some av that agwardinty, as yer people call it.  Trath, I've tasted
+worse stuff than it.  I'm shure a dhrink av it ud do the masther good.
+Spake the truth, misthress!  Hiv yez any about ye?"
+
+"No, senor.  I have nothing of the kind.  I am sorry I have not."
+
+"Faugh!  The more's the pity for poor Masther Maurice.  It ud a done him
+a dale av good.  Well; he must put up widout it."
+
+"But, senor; surely I can see him?"
+
+"Divil a bit.  Besides fwhat ud be the use?  He wudn't know ye from his
+great grandmother.  I till yez agane, he's been badly thrated, an 's now
+besoide hisself!"
+
+"All the more reason why I should see him.  I may be of service.  I owe
+him a debt--of--of--"
+
+"Oh! yez be owin' him somethin?  Yez want to pay it?  Faith, that makes
+it intirely different.  But yez needn't see _him_ for that.  I'm his
+head man, an thransact all that sort av bizness for him.  I cyant write
+myself, but I'll give ye a resate on the crass wid me mark--which is
+jist as good, among the lawyers.  Yis, misthress; yez may pay the money
+over to me, an I promise ye the masther 'll niver axe ye for it agane.
+Trath! it'll come handy jist now, as we're upon the ave av a flittin, an
+may want it.  So if yez have the pewther along wid ye, thare's pins,
+ink, an paper insoide the cyabin.  Say the word, an I'll giv ye the
+resate!"
+
+"No--no--no!  I did not mean money.  A debt of--of--gratitude."
+
+"Faugh! only that.  Sowl, it's eezy paid, an don't want a resate.  But
+yez needn't return that sort av money now: for the masther woudn't be
+sinsible av fwhat ye wur sayin.  Whin he comes to his sinses, I'll till
+him yez hiv been heeur, and wiped out the score."
+
+"Surely I can see him?"
+
+"Shurely now yez cyant."
+
+"But I must, senor!"
+
+"Divil a must about it.  I've been lift on guard, wid sthrict ordhers to
+lit no wan go inside."
+
+"They couldn't have been meant for me.  I am his friend--the friend of
+Don Mauricio."
+
+"How is Phaylum Onale to know that?  For all yer purty face, yez moight
+be his didliest innemy.  Be Japers! its loike enough, now that I take a
+second luk at ye."
+
+"I must see him--I must--I will--I shall!"
+
+As Isidora pronounced these words, she flung herself out of the saddle,
+and advanced in the direction of the door.
+
+Her air of earnest determination combined with the fierce--scarce
+feminine--expression upon her countenance, convinced the Galwegian, that
+the contingency had arrived for carrying out the instructions left by
+Zeb Stump, and that he had been too long neglecting his cue.
+
+Turning hurriedly into the hut, he came out again, armed with a
+tomahawk; and was about to rush past, when he was brought to a sudden
+stand, by seeing a pistol in the hands of his lady visitor, pointed
+straight at his head!
+
+"_Abajo la hacha_!"  (Down with the hatchet), cried she.  "_Lepero_!
+lift your arm to strike me, and it will be for the last time!"
+
+"Stroike ye, misthress!  Stroike _you_!" blubbered the _ci-devant_
+stable-boy, as soon as his terror permitted him to speak.  "Mother av
+the Lard!  I didn't mane the waypon for you at all, at all!  I'll sware
+it on the crass--or a whole stack av Bibles if yez say so.  In trath
+misthress; I didn't mane the tammyhauk for you!"
+
+"Why have you brought it forth?" inquired the lady, half suspecting that
+she had made a mistake, and lowering her pistol as she became convinced
+of it.  "Why have you thus armed yourself?"
+
+"As I live, only to ixecute the ordhers, I've resaved--only to cut a
+branch off av the cyacktus yez see over yander, an phut it undher the
+tail av the owld mare.  Shure yez won't object to my doin' that?"
+
+In her turn, the lady became silent--surprised at the singular
+proposition.
+
+The odd individual she saw before her, could not mean mischief.  His
+looks, attitude, and gestures were grotesque, rather than threatening;
+provocative of mirth--not fear, or indignation.
+
+"Silince gives consint.  Thank ye," said Phelim, as, no longer in fear
+of being shot down in his tracks, he ran straight across the lawn, and
+carried out to the letter, the parting injunctions of Zeb Stump.
+
+The Mexican maiden hitherto held silent by surprise, remained so, on
+perceiving the absolute idleness of speech.
+
+Further conversation was out of the question.  What with the screaming
+of the mare--continuous from the moment the spinous crupper was inserted
+under her tail--the loud trampling of her hoofs as she "cavorted" over
+the turf--the dismal howling of the hound--and the responsive cries of
+the wild forest denizens--birds, beasts, insects, and reptiles--only the
+voice of a Stentor could have been heard!
+
+What could be the purpose of the strange proceeding?  How was it to
+terminate?
+
+Isidora looked on in silent astonishment.  She could do nothing else.
+So long as the infernal fracas continued, there was no chance to elicit
+an explanation from the queer creature who had caused it.
+
+He had returned to the door of the jacale; and once more taken his stand
+upon the threshold; where he stood, with the tranquil satisfied air of
+an actor who has completed the performance of his part in the play, and
+feels free to range himself among the spectator.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTY EIGHT.
+
+RECOILING FROM A KISS.
+
+For full ten minutes was the wild chorus kept up, the mare all the time
+squealing like a stuck pig; while the dog responded in a series of
+lugubrious howls, that reverberated along the cliffs on both sides of
+the creek.
+
+To the distance of a mile might the sounds have been heard; and as Zeb
+Stump was not likely to be so far from the hut, he would be certain to
+hear them.
+
+Convinced of this, and that the hunter would soon respond to the signal
+he had himself arranged, Phelim stood square upon the threshold, in
+hopes that the lady visitor would stay outside--at least, until he
+should be relieved of the responsibility of admitting her.
+
+Notwithstanding her earnest protestations of amity, he was still
+suspicious of some treasonable intention towards his master; else why
+should Zeb have been so particular about being summoned back?
+
+Of himself, he had abandoned the idea of offering resistance.  That
+shining pistol, still before his eyes, had cured him of all inclination
+for a quarrel with the strange equestrian; and so far as the Connemara
+man was concerned, she might have gone unresisted inside.
+
+But there was another from Connemara, who appeared more determined to
+dispute her passage to the hut--one whom a whole battery of great guns
+would not have deterred from protecting its owner.  This was Tara.
+
+The staghound was not acting as if under the excitement of a mere
+senseless alarm.  Mingling with his prolonged sonorous "gowl" could be
+heard in repeated interruptions a quick sharp bark, that denoted anger.
+He had witnessed the attitude of the intruder--its apparent hostility--
+and drawing his deductions, had taken stand directly in front of Phelim
+and the door, with the evident determination that neither should be
+reached except over his own body, and after running the gauntlet of his
+formidable incisors.
+
+Isidora showed no intention of undertaking the risk.  She had none.
+Astonishment was, for the time, the sole feeling that possessed her.
+
+She remained transfixed to the spot, without attempting to say a word.
+
+She stood expectingly.  To such an eccentric prelude there should be a
+corresponding _finale_.  Perplexed, but patiently, she awaited it.
+
+Of her late alarm there was nothing left.  What she saw was too
+ludicrous to allow of apprehension; though it was also too
+incomprehensible to elicit laughter.
+
+In the mien of the man, who had so oddly comported himself, there was no
+sign of mirth.  If anything, a show of seriousness, oddly contrasting
+with the comical act he had committed; and which plainly proclaimed that
+he had not been treating her to a joke.
+
+The expression of helpless perplexity that had become fixed upon her
+features, continued there; until a tall man, wearing a faded blanket
+coat, and carrying a six-foot rifle, was seen striding among the
+tree-trunks, at the rate of ten miles to the hour.  He was making direct
+for the _jacale_.
+
+At sight of the new-comer her countenance underwent a change.  There was
+now perceptible upon it a shade of apprehension; and the little pistol
+was clutched with renewed nerve by the delicate hand that still
+continued to hold it.
+
+The act was partly precautionary, partly mechanical.  Nor was it
+unnatural, in view of the formidable-looking personage who was
+approaching, and the earnest excited manner with which he was hurrying
+forward to the hut.
+
+All this became altered, as he advanced into the open ground, and
+suddenly stopped on its edge; a look of surprise quite as great as that
+upon the countenance of the lady, supplanting his earnest glances.
+
+Some exclamatory phrases were sent through his teeth, unintelligible in
+the tumult still continuing, though the gesture that accompanied them
+seemed to proclaim them of a character anything but gentle.
+
+On giving utterance to them, he turned to one side; strode rapidly
+towards the screaming mare; and, laying hold of her tail--which no
+living man save himself would have dared to do--he released her from the
+torments she had been so long enduring.
+
+Silence was instantly restored; since the mare, abandoned by her fellow
+choristers, as they became accustomed to her wild neighs, had been, for
+some time, keeping up the solo by herself.
+
+The lady was not yet enlightened.  Her astonishment continued; though a
+side glance given to the droll individual in the doorway told her, that
+he had successfully accomplished some scheme with which he had been
+entrusted.
+
+Phelim's look of satisfaction was of short continuance.  It vanished, as
+Zeb Stump, having effected the deliverance of the tortured quadruped,
+faced round to the hut--as he did so, showing a cloud upon the
+corrugations of his countenance, darkly ominous of an angry storm.
+
+Even the presence of beauty did not hinder it from bursting.  "Durn, an
+dog-gone ye, for a Irish eedyit!  Air this what ye've brought me back
+for!  An' jest as I wur takin' sight on a turkey, not less 'n thirty
+poun' weight, I reck'n; skeeart afore he ked touch trigger, wi' the
+skreek o' thet cussed critter o' a maar.  Damned little chance for
+breakfust now."
+
+"But, Misther Stump, didn't yez till me to do it?  Ye sid if any wan
+showld come to the cyabin--"
+
+"Bah! ye fool!  Ye don't serpose I meened weemen, did ye?"
+
+"Trath!  I didn't think it wus wan, whin she furst presented hersilf.
+Yez showld a seen the way she rid up--sittin' astraddle on her horse."
+
+"What matter it, how she wur sittin'!  Hain't ye seed thet afore, ye
+greenhorn?  It's thur usooal way 'mong these hyur Mexikin sheemales.
+Ye're more o' a woman than she air, I guess; an twenty times more o' a
+fool.  Thet I'm sartint o'.  I know _her_ a leetle by sight, an
+somethin' more by reeport.  What hev fetched the critter hyur ain't so
+difeequilt to comprehend; tho' it may be to git it out o' her, seein' as
+she kin only talk thet thur Mexikin lingo; the which this chile can't,
+nor wudn't ef he kud."
+
+"Sowl, Misther Stump! yez be mistaken.  She spakes English too.  Don't
+yez, misthress?"
+
+"Little Inglees," returned the Mexican, who up to this time had remained
+listening.  "Inglees _poco pocito_."
+
+"O--ah!" exclaimed Zeb, slightly abashed at what he had been saying.  "I
+beg your pardin, saynoritta.  Ye kin _habla_ a bit o' Amerikin, kin ye?
+_Moocho bono_--so much the betterer.  Ye'll be able to tell me what ye
+mout be a wantin' out hyur.  Ye hain't lost yur way, hev ye?"
+
+"No, senor," was the reply, after a pause.  "In that case, ye know whar
+ye air?"
+
+"_Si, senor--si_--yes, of Don Mauricio Zyerral, this the--house?"
+
+"Thet air the name, near as a Mexikin mouth kin make it, I reck'n.
+'Tain't much o' a house; but it air his'n.  Preehaps ye want to see the
+master o't?"
+
+"O, senor--yees--that is for why I here am--_por esta yo soy aqui_."
+
+"Wal; I reck'n, thur kin be no objecshun to yur seein' him.  Yur
+intenshuns ain't noways hostile to the young fellur, I kalklate.  But
+thur ain't much good in yur talkin' to him now.  He won't know yo from a
+side o' sole-leather."
+
+"He is ill?  Has met with some misfortune?  _El guero_ has said so."
+
+"Yis.  I towlt her that," interposed Phelim, whose carroty hair had
+earned for him the appellation "El guero."
+
+"Sartin," answered Zeb.  "He air wounded a bit; an jest now a leetle
+dulleerious.  I reck'n it ain't o' much consekwence.  He'll be hisself
+agin soon's the ravin' fit's gone off o' him."
+
+"O, sir! can I be his nurse till then?  _Por amor dios_!  Let me enter,
+and watch over him?  I am his friend--_un amigo muy afficionado_."
+
+"Wal; I don't see as thur's any harm in it.  Weemen makes the best o'
+nusses I've heern say; tho', for meself, I hain't hed much chance o'
+tryin' 'em, sincst I kivered up my ole gurl unner the sods o'
+Massissipi.  Ef ye want to take a spell by the side o' the young fellur,
+ye're wilkim--seein' ye're his friend.  Ye kin look arter him, till we
+git back, an see thet he don't tummel out o' the bed, or claw off them
+thur bandidges, I've tied roun him."
+
+"Trust me, good sir, I shall take every care of him.  But tell me what
+has caused it?  The Indians?  No, they are not near?  Has there been a
+quarrel with any one?"
+
+"In thet, saynoritta; ye're beout as wise as I air meself.  Thur's been
+a quarrel wi' coyeats; but that ain't what's gin him the ugly knee.  I
+foun' him yesterday, clost upon sun-down, in the chapparal beyont.  When
+we kim upon him, he war up to his waist in the water o' a crik as runs
+through thur, jest beout to be attakted by one o' them spotty critters
+yur people call tigers.  Wal, I relieved him o' that bit o' danger; but
+what happened afore air a mystery to me.  The young fellur had tuk leeve
+o' his senses, an ked gie no account o' hisself.  He hain't rekivered
+them yet; an', thurfore, we must wait till he do."
+
+"But you are sure, sir, he is not badly injured?  His wounds--they are
+not dangerous?"
+
+"No danger whatsomediver.  Nuthin' beyont a bit o' a fever, or maybe a
+touch o' the agey, when that goes off o' him.  As for the wounds,
+they're only a wheen o' scratches.  When the wanderin' hev gone out o'
+his senses, he'll soon kum roun, I reck'n.  In a week's time, ye'll see
+him as strong as a buck."
+
+"Oh!  I shall nurse him tenderly!"
+
+"Wal, that's very kind o' you; but--but--"
+
+Zeb hesitated, as a queer thought came before his mind.  It led to a
+train of reflections kept to himself.  They were these:
+
+"This air the same she, as sent them kickshaws to the tavern o' Rough an
+Ready.  Thet she air in love wi' the young fellur is clur as Massissipi
+mud--in love wi' him to the eends o' her toe nails.  So's the tother.
+But it air equally clur that he's thinkin' o' the tother, an not o' her.
+Now ef she hears him talk about tother, as he hev been a doin' all o'
+the night, thur'll be a putty consid'able rumpus riz inside o' her
+busom.  Poor thing!  I pity her.  She ain't a bad sort.  But the Irish--
+Irish tho' he be--can't belong to both; an I _know_ he freezes to the
+critter from the States.  It air durned awkurd--Better ef I ked pursuade
+her not to go near him--leastwise till he gets over ravin' about Lewaze.
+
+"But, miss," he continued, addressing himself to the Mexican, who during
+his long string of reflections had stood impatiently silent, "don't ye
+think ye'd better ride home agin; an kum back to see him arter he gits
+well.  He won't know ye, as I've sayed; an it would be no use yur
+stayin', since he ain't in any danger o' makin' a die of it."
+
+"No matter, that he may not know me.  I should tend him all the same.
+He may need some things--which I can send, and procure for him."
+
+"Ef ye're boun' to stay then," rejoined Zeb, relentingly, as if some new
+thought was causing him to consent, "I won't interfere to say, no.  But
+don't you mind what he'll be palaverin' about.  Ye may hear some queer
+talk out o' him, beout a man bein' murdered, an the like.  That's natral
+for any one as is dulleerious.  Don't be skeeart at it.  Beside, ye may
+hear him talkin' a deal about a woman, as he's got upon his mind."
+
+"A woman!"
+
+"Jest so.  Ye'll hear him make mention o' her name."
+
+"Her name!  Senor, what name?"
+
+"Wal, it air the name o' his sister, I reck'n.  Fact, I'm sure o' it
+bein' his sister."
+
+"Oh!  Misther Stump.  If yez be spakin' av Masther Maurice--"
+
+"Shut up, ye durned fool!  What is't to you what I'm speakin' beout?
+You can't unnerstan sech things.  Kum along!" he continued, moving off,
+and motioning the Connemara man to follow him.  "I want ye a leetle way
+wi' me.  I killed a rattle as I wur goin' up the crik, an left it thur.
+Kum you, an toat it back to the shanty hyur, lest some varmint may make
+away wi' it; an lest, arter all, I moutn't strike turkey agin."
+
+"A rattle.  Div yez mane a rattle-snake?"
+
+"An' what shed I mean?"
+
+"Shure, Misther Stump, yez wudn't ate a snake.  Lard! wudn't it poison
+yez?"
+
+"Pisen be durned!  Didn't I cut the pisen out, soon 's I killed the
+critter, by cuttin' off o' its head?"
+
+"Trath! an for all that, I wudn't ate a morsel av it, if I was
+starvin'."
+
+"Sturve, an be durned to ye!  Who axes ye to eet it.  I only want ye to
+toat it home.  Kum then, an do as I tell ye; or dog-goned, ef I don't
+make ye eet the head o' the reptile,--pisen, fangs an all!"
+
+"Be japers, Misther Stump, I didn't mane to disobey you at all--at all.
+Shure it's Phaylim O'Nale that's reddy to do your biddin' anyhow.  I'm
+wid ye for fwhativer yez want; aven to swallowin the snake whole.  Saint
+Pathrick forgive me!"
+
+"Saint Patrick be durned!  Kum along!"
+
+Phelim made no farther remonstrance; but, striking into the tracks of
+the backwoodsman, followed him through the wood.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Isidora entered the hut; advanced towards the invalid reclining upon his
+couch; with fierce fondness kissed his fevered brow, fonder and fiercer
+kissed his unconscious lips; and then recoiled from them, as if she had
+been stung by a scorpion!
+
+Worse than scorpion's sting was that which had caused her to spring
+back.
+
+And yet 'twas but a word--a little word--of only two syllables!
+
+There was nothing strange in this.  Oft, on one word--that soft short
+syllabic "Yes"--rests the happiness of a life; while oft, too oft, the
+harsher negative is the prelude to a world of war!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTY NINE.
+
+ANOTHER WHO CANNOT REST.
+
+A dark day for Louise Poindexter--perhaps the darkest in the calendar of
+her life--was that in which she released Don Miguel Diaz from the lazo.
+
+Sorrow for a brother's loss, with fears for a lover's safety, were
+yesterday commingled in the cup.  To-day it was further embittered by
+the blackest passion of all--jealousy.  Grief--fear--jealousy--what must
+be the state of the soul in which these emotions are co-existent?  A
+tumult of terrible imaginings.
+
+So was it in the bosom of Louise Poindexter after deciphering the
+epistle which contained written evidence of her lover's disloyalty.
+
+True, the writing came not from him; nor was the proof conclusive.
+
+But in the first burst of her frenzied rage, the young Creole did not
+reason thus.  In the wording of the letter there was strong presumption,
+that the relationship between Maurice Gerald and the Mexican was of a
+more affectionate character than he had represented it to be--that he
+had, in fact, been practising a deception.
+
+Why should _that_ woman write to him in such free strain--giving bold,
+almost unfeminine, licence to her admiration of his eyes: "_Essos ojos
+tan lindos y tan espresivos_?"
+
+These were no phrases of friendship; but the expressions of a prurient
+passion.  As such only could the Creole understand them: since they were
+but a paraphrase of her own feelings.
+
+And then there was the appointment itself--solicited, it is true, in the
+shape of a request.  But this was mere courtesy--the coquetry of an
+accomplished _maitresse_.  Moreover, the tone of solicitation was
+abandoned towards the close of the epistle; which terminated in a
+positive command: "Come, sir! come!"
+
+Something more than jealousy was aroused by the reading of this.  A
+spirit of revenge seemed to dictate the gesture that followed,--and the
+stray sheet was crushed between the aristocratic fingers into which it
+had fallen.
+
+"Ah, me!" reflected she, in the acerbity of her soul, "I see it all now.
+'Tis not the first time he has answered a similar summons; not the
+first they have met on that same ground, `the hill above my uncle's
+house'--slightly described, but well understood--oft visited before."
+
+Soon the spirit of vengeance gave place to a profound despair.  Her
+heart had its emblem in the piece of paper that lay at her feet upon the
+floor--like it, crushed and ruined.
+
+For a time she surrendered herself to sad meditation.  Wild emotions
+passed through her mind, suggesting wild resolves.  Among others she
+thought of her beloved Louisiana--of going back there to bury her secret
+sorrow in the cloisters of the _Sacre Coeur_.  Had the Creole convent
+been near, in that hour of deep despondency, she would, in all
+probability, have forsaken the paternal home, and sought an asylum
+within its sacred walls.  In very truth was it the darkest day of her
+existence.  After long hours of wretchedness her spirit became calmer,
+while her thoughts returned to a more rational tone.  The letter was
+re-read; its contents submitted to careful consideration.
+
+There was still a hope--the hope that, after all, Maurice Gerald might
+_not_ be in the Settlement.
+
+It was at best but a faint ray.  Surely _she_ should know--she who had
+penned the appointment, and spoken so confidently of his keeping it?
+Still, as promised, he might have gone away; and upon this supposition
+hinged that hope, now scintillating like a star through the obscurity of
+the hour.
+
+It was a delicate matter to make direct inquiries about--to one in the
+position of Louise Poindexter.  But no other course appeared open to
+her; and as the shadows of twilight shrouded the grass-covered square of
+the village, she was seen upon her spotted palfrey, riding silently
+through the streets, and reining up in front of the hotel--on the same
+spot occupied but a few hours before by the grey steed of Isidora!
+
+As the men of the place were all absent--some on the track of the
+assassin, others upon the trail of the Comanche, Oberdoffer was the only
+witness of her indiscretion.  But he knew it not as such.  It was but
+natural that the sister of the murdered man should be anxious to obtain
+news; and so did he construe the motive for the interrogatories
+addressed to him.
+
+Little did the stolid German suspect the satisfaction which his answers
+at first gave to his fair questioner; much less the chagrin afterwards
+caused by that bit of information volunteered by himself, and which
+abruptly terminated the dialogue between him and his visitor.
+
+On hearing she was not the first of her sex who had that day made
+inquiries respecting Maurice the mustanger, Louise Poindexter rode back
+to Casa del Corvo, with a heart writhing under fresh laceration.
+
+A night was spent in the agony of unrest--sleep only obtained in short
+snatches, and amidst the phantasmagoria of dreamland.
+
+Though the morning restored not her tranquillity, it brought with it a
+resolve, stern, daring, almost reckless.
+
+It was, at least, daring, for Louise Poindexter to ride to the Alamo
+alone; and this was her determination.
+
+There was no one to stay her--none to say nay.  The searchers out all
+night had not yet returned.  No report had come back to Casa del Corvo.
+She was sole mistress of the mansion, as of her actions--sole possessor
+of the motive that was impelling her to this bold step.
+
+But it may be easily guessed.  Hers was not a spirit to put up with mere
+suspicion.  Even love, that tames the strongest, had not yet reduced it
+to that state of helpless submission.  Unsatisfied it could no longer
+exist; and hence her resolve to seek satisfaction.
+
+She might find peace--she might chance upon ruin.  Even the last
+appeared preferable to the agony of uncertainty.
+
+How like to the reasoning of her rival!
+
+It would have been idle to dissuade her, had there been any one to do
+it.  It is doubtful even if parental authority could at that moment have
+prevented her from carrying out her purpose.  Talk to the tigress when
+frenzied by a similar feeling.  With a love unhallowed, the will of the
+Egyptian queen was not more imperious than is that of the American
+Creole, when stirred by its holiest passion.  It acknowledges no right
+of contradiction--regards no obstruction save death.
+
+It is a spirit rare upon earth.  In its tranquil state, soft as the rays
+of the Aurora--pure as the prayer of a child; but when stirred by
+love,--or rather by its too constant concomitant--it becomes proud and
+perilous as the light of Lucifer!
+
+Of this spirit Louise Poindexter was the truest type.  Where love was
+the lure, to wish was to have, or perish in the attempt to obtain.
+Jealousy resting upon doubt was neither possible to her nature, or
+compatible with her existence.  She must find proofs to destroy, or
+confirm it--proofs stronger than those already supplied by the contents
+of the strayed epistle, which, after all, were only presumptive.
+
+Armed with this, she was in a position to seek them; and they were to be
+sought upon the Alamo.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+The first hour of sunrise saw her in the saddle, riding out from the
+enclosures of Casa del Corvo, and taking a trail across the prairie
+already known to her.
+
+On passing many a spot, endeared to her--sacred by some of the sweetest
+souvenirs of her life--her thoughts experienced more than one revulsion.
+
+These were moments when she forgot the motive that originally impelled
+her to the journey--when she thought only of reaching the man she loved,
+to rescue him from enemies that might be around him!
+
+Ah! these moments--despite the apprehension for her lover's safety--were
+happy, when compared with those devoted to the far more painful
+contemplation of his treachery.
+
+From the point of starting to that of her destination, it was twenty
+miles.  It might seem a journey, to one used to European travelling--
+that is in the saddle.  To the prairie equestrian it is a ride of scarce
+two hours--quick as a scurry across country, after a stag or fox.
+
+Even with an unwilling steed it is not tedious; but with that
+lithe-limbed, ocellated creature, Luna, who went willingly towards her
+prairie home, it was soon over--too soon, perhaps, for the happiness of
+her rider.
+
+Wretched as Louise Poindexter may have felt before, her misery had
+scarce reached the point of despair.  Through her sadness there still
+shone a scintillation of hope.
+
+It was extinguished as she set foot upon the threshold of the _jacale_;
+and the quick suppressed scream that came from her lips, was like the
+last utterance of a heart parting in twain.
+
+_There was a woman within the hut_!
+
+From the lips of this woman an exclamation had already escaped, to which
+her own might have appeared an echo--so closely did the one follow the
+other--so alike were they in anguish.
+
+Like a second echo, still more intensified, was the cry from Isidora; as
+turning, she saw in the doorway that woman, whose name had just been
+pronounced--the "Louise" so fervently praised, so fondly remembered,
+amidst the vagaries of a distempered brain.
+
+To the young Creole the case was clear--painfully clear.  She saw before
+her the writer of that letter of appointment--which, after all, _had
+been kept_.  In the strife, whose sounds had indistinctly reached her,
+there may have been a third party--Maurice Gerald?  That would account
+for the condition in which she now saw him; for she was far enough
+inside the hut to have a view of the invalid upon his couch.
+
+Yes; it was the writer of that bold epistle, who had called Maurice
+Gerald "querido;"--who had praised his eyes--who had commanded him to
+come to her side; and who was now by his side, tending him with a
+solicitude that proclaimed her his!  Ah! the thought was too painful to
+be symbolised in speech.
+
+Equally clear were the conclusions of Isidora--equally agonising.  She
+already knew that she was supplanted.  She had been listening too long
+to the involuntary speeches that told her so, to have any doubt as to
+their sincerity.  On the door-step stood the woman who had succeeded
+her!
+
+Face to face, with flashing eyes, their bosoms rising and falling as if
+under one impulse--both distraught with the same dire thought--the two
+stood eyeing each other.
+
+Alike in love with the same man--alike jealous--they were alongside the
+object of their burning passion unconscious of the presence of either!
+
+Each believed the other successful: for Louise had not heard the words,
+that would have given her comfort--those words yet ringing in the ears,
+and torturing the soul, of Isidora!
+
+It was an attitude of silent hostility--all the more terrible for its
+silence.  Not a word was exchanged between them.  Neither deigned to ask
+explanation of the other; neither needed it.  There are occasions when
+speech is superfluous, and both intuitively felt that this was one.  It
+was a mutual encounter of fell passions; that found expression only in
+the flashing of eyes, and the scornful curling of lips.
+
+Only for an instant was the attitude kept up.  In fact, the whole scene,
+inside, scarce occupied a score of seconds.
+
+It ended by Louise Poindexter turning round upon the doorstep, and
+gliding off to regain her saddle.  The hut of Maurice Gerald was no
+place for her!
+
+Isidora too came out, almost treading upon the skirt of the other's
+dress.  The same thought was in her heart--perhaps more emphatically
+felt.  The hut of Maurice Gerald was no place for her!
+
+Both seemed equally intent on departure--alike resolved on forsaking the
+spot, that had witnessed the desolation of their hearts.
+
+The grey horse stood nearest--the mustang farther out.  Isidora was the
+first to mount--the first to move off; but as she passed, her rival had
+also got into the saddle, and was holding the ready rein.
+
+Glances were again interchanged--neither triumphant, but neither
+expressing forgiveness.  That of the Creole was a strange mixture of
+sadness, anger, and surprise; while the last look of Isidora, that
+accompanied a spiteful "_carajo_!"--a fearful phrase from female lips--
+was such as the Ephesian goddess may have given to Athenaia, after the
+award of the apple.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTY.
+
+A FAIR INFORMER.
+
+If things physical may be compared with things moral, no greater
+contrast could have been found, than the bright heavens beaming over the
+Alamo, and the black thoughts in the bosom of Isidora, as she hastened
+away from the _jacale_.  Her heart was a focus of fiery passions,
+revenge predominating over all.
+
+In this there was a sort of demoniac pleasure, that hindered her from
+giving way to despair; otherwise she might have sunk under the weight of
+her woe.
+
+With gloomy thoughts she rides under the shadow of the trees.  They are
+not less gloomy, as she gazes up the gorge, and sees the blue sky
+smiling cheerfully above her.  Its cheerfulness seems meant but to mock
+her!
+
+She pauses before making the ascent.  She has reined up under the
+umbrageous cypress--fit canopy for a sorrowing heart.  Its sombre shade
+appears more desirable than the sunlight above.
+
+It is not this that has caused her to pull up.  There is a thought in
+her soul darker than the shadow of the cypress.  It is evinced by her
+clouded brow; by her black eyebrows contracted over her black flashing
+eyes; above all, by an expression of fierceness in the contrast of her
+white teeth gleaming under the moustached lip.
+
+All that is good of woman, except beauty, seems to have forsaken--all
+that is bad, except ugliness, to have taken possession of her!
+
+She has paused at the prompting of a demon--with an infernal purpose
+half formed in her mind.  Her muttered speeches proclaim it.  "I should
+have killed her upon the spot!  Shall I go back, and dare her to deadly
+strife?"
+
+"If I killed her, what would it avail?  It could not win me back _his_
+heart--lost, lost, without hope!  Yes; those words were from the secret
+depths of his soul; where her image alone has found an abiding place!
+Oh! there is no hope for me!
+
+"'Tis he who should die; he who has caused my ruin.  If I kill him?  Ah,
+then; what would life be to me?  Prom that hour an endless anguish!
+
+"Oh! it is anguish now!  I cannot endure it.  I can think of no solace--
+if not in revenge.  Not only she, he also--both must die!
+
+"But not yet--not till he know, by whose hand it is done.  Oh! he shall
+feel his punishment, and know whence it comes.  Mother of God,
+strengthen me to take vengeance!"
+
+She lances the flank of her horse, and spurs him, up the slope of the
+ravine.
+
+On reaching the upper plain, she does not stop--even for the animal to
+breathe itself--but goes on at a reckless gait, and in a direction that
+appears undetermined.  Neither hand nor voice are exerted in the
+guidance of her steed--only the spur to urge him on.
+
+Left to himself, he returns in the track by which he came.  It leads to
+the Leona.  Is it the way he is wanted to go?
+
+His rider seems neither to know nor care.  She sits in the saddle, as
+though she were part of it; with head bent down, in the attitude of one
+absorbed in a profound reverie, unconscious of outward things--even of
+the rude pace at which she is riding!  She does not observe that black
+cohort close by; until warned of its proximity by the snorting of her
+steed, that suddenly comes to a stand.
+
+She sees a _caballada_ out upon the open prairie!
+
+Indians?  No.  White men--less by their colour, than the caparison of
+their horses, and their style of equitation.  Their beards, too, show
+it; but not their skins, discoloured by the "stoor" of the parched
+plain.
+
+"_Los Tejanos_!" is the muttered exclamation, as she becomes confirmed
+in regard to their nationality.
+
+"A troop of their _rangers_ scouring the country for Comanches, I
+suppose?  The Indians are not here?  If I've heard aright at the
+Settlement, they should be far on the other side."
+
+Without any strong reason for shunning them, the Mexican maiden has no
+desire to encounter "Los Tejanos."  They are nothing to her, or her
+purposes; and, at any other time, she would not go out of their way.
+But in this hour of her wretchedness, she does not wish to run the
+gauntlet of their questionings, nor become the butt of their curiosity.
+
+It is possible to avoid them.  She is yet among the bushes.  They do not
+appear to have observed her.  By turning short round, and diving back
+into the chapparal, she may yet shun being seen.
+
+She is about to do so, when the design is frustrated by the neighing of
+her horse.  A score of theirs respond to him; and he is seen, along with
+his rider.
+
+It might be still possible for her to escape the encounter, if so
+inclined.  She would be certain of being pursued, but not so sure of
+being overtaken--especially among the winding ways of the chapparal,
+well known to her.
+
+At first she _is_ so inclined; and completes the turning of her steed.
+Almost in the same instant, she reins round again; and faces the phalanx
+of horsemen, already in full gallop towards her.
+
+Her muttered words proclaim a purpose in this sudden change of tactics.
+
+"Rangers--no!  Too well dressed for those ragged _vagabundos_?  Must be
+the party of `searchers,' of which I've heard--led by the father of--
+Yes--yes it is they.  _Ay Dios_! here is a chance of revenge, and
+without my seeking it; God wills it to be so!"
+
+Instead of turning back among the bushes, she rides out into the open
+ground; and with an air of bold determination advances towards the
+horsemen, now near.
+
+She pulls up, and awaits their approach; a black thought in her bosom.
+
+In another minute she is in their midst--the mounted circle close drawn
+around her.
+
+There are a hundred horsemen, oddly armed, grotesquely attired--uniform
+only in the coating of clay-coloured dust which adheres to their
+habiliments, and the stern seriousness observable in the bearing of all;
+scarce relieved by a slight show of curiosity.
+
+Though it is an _entourage_ to cause trembling--especially in a woman--
+Isidora does not betray it.  She is not in the least alarmed.  She
+anticipates no danger from those who have so unceremoniously surrounded
+her.  Some of them she knows by sight; though not the man of more than
+middle age, who appears to be their leader, and who confronts, to
+question her.
+
+But she knows him otherwise.  Instinct tells her he is the father of the
+murdered man--of the woman, she may wish to gee slain, but assuredly,
+shamed.  Oh! what an opportunity!
+
+"Can you speak French, mademoiselle?" asks Woodley Poindexter,
+addressing her in this tongue--in the belief that it may give him a
+better chance of being understood.  "Speak better Inglees--very little,
+sir."
+
+"Oh!  English.  So much the better for us.  Tell me, miss; have you seen
+anybody out here--that is--have you met any one, riding about, or
+camped, or halted anywhere?"
+
+Isidora appears to reflect, or hesitate, before making reply.
+
+The planter pursues the interrogative, with such politeness as the
+circumstances admit.
+
+"May I ask where you live?"
+
+"On the Rio Grande, senor?"
+
+"Have you come direct from there?"
+
+"No; from the Leona."
+
+"From the Leona!"
+
+"It's the niece of old Martinez," interposes one of the party.  "His
+plantation joins yours, Mister Poindexter."
+
+"Si--yes--true that.  _Sobrina_--niece of Don Silvio Martinez.  _Yo
+soy_."
+
+"Then you've come from his place, direct?  Pardon me for appearing rude.
+I assure you, miss, we are not questioning you out of any idle
+curiosity, or impertinence.  We have serious reasons--more than serious:
+they are solemn."
+
+"From the Hacienda Martinez direct," answers Isidora, without appearing
+to notice the last remark.  "Two hours ago--_un pocito mas_--my uncle's
+house I leave."
+
+"Then, no doubt, you have heard that there has been a--murder--
+committed?"
+
+"Si, senor.  Yesterday at uncle Silvio's it was told."
+
+"But to-day--when you left--was there any fresh news in the Settlement?
+We've had word from there; but not so late as you may bring.  Have you
+heard anything, miss?"
+
+"That people were gone after the _asesinado_.  Your party, senor?"
+
+"Yes--yes--it meant us, no doubt.  You heard nothing more?"
+
+"Oh, yes; something very strange, senores; so strange, you may think I
+am jesting."
+
+"What is it?" inquire a score of voices in quick simultaneity; while the
+eyes of all turn with eager interest towards the fair equestrian.
+
+"There is a story of one being seen without a head--on horseback--out
+here too.  _Valga me Dios_! we must now be near the place?  It was by
+the Nueces--not far from the ford--where the road crosses for the Rio
+Grande.  So the vaqueros said."
+
+"Oh; some vaqueros have seen it?"
+
+"Si, senores; three of them will swear to having witnessed the
+spectacle."
+
+Isidora is a little surprised at the moderate excitement which such a
+strange story causes among the "Tejanos."  There is an exhibition of
+interest, but no astonishment.  A voice explains:
+
+"We've seen it too--that headless horseman--at a distance.  Did your
+vaqueros get close enough to know what it was?"
+
+"_Santissima_! no."
+
+"Can _you_ tell us, miss?"
+
+"I?  Not I.  I only heard of it, as I've said.  What it may be, _quien
+sabe_?"
+
+There is an interval of silence, during which all appear to reflect on
+what they have heard.
+
+The planter interrupts it, by a recurrence to his original
+interrogatory.
+
+"Have you met, or seen, any one, miss--out here, I mean?"
+
+"Si--yes--I have."
+
+"You have!  What sort of person?  Be good enough to describe--"
+
+"A lady."
+
+"Lady!" echo several voices.
+
+"Si, senores."
+
+"What sort of a lady?"
+
+"Una Americana."
+
+"An American lady!--out here?  Alone?"
+
+"Si, senores."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"_Quien sabe_?"
+
+"You don't know her?  What was she like?"
+
+"Like?--like?"
+
+"Yes; how was she dressed?"
+
+"_Vestido de caballo_."
+
+"On horseback, then?"
+
+"On horseback."
+
+"Where did you meet the lady you speak of?"
+
+"Not far from this; only on the other side of the chapparal."
+
+"Which way was she going?  Is there any house on the other side?"
+
+"A _jacale_.  I only know of that."
+
+Poindexter to one of the party, who understands Spanish: "_A jacale_?"
+
+"They give that name to their shanties."
+
+"To whom does it belong--this _jacale_?"
+
+"_Don Mauricio, el mustenero_."
+
+"Maurice the mustanger!" translates the ready interpreter.
+
+A murmur of mutual congratulation runs through the crowd.  After two
+days of searching--fruitless, as earnest--they have struck a trail,--the
+trail of the murderer!
+
+Those who have alighted spring back into their saddles.  All take up
+their reins, ready to ride on.
+
+"We don't wish to be rude, Miss Martinez--if that be your name; but you
+must guide us to this place you speak of."
+
+"It takes me a little out of my way--though not far.  Come on,
+cavalleros!  I shall show you, if you are determined on going there."
+
+Isidora re-crosses the belt of chapparal--followed by the hundred
+horsemen, who ride stragglingly after her.
+
+She halts on its western edge; between which and the Alamo there is a
+stretch of open prairie.
+
+"Yonder!" says she, pointing over the plain; "you see that black spot on
+the horizon?  It is the top of an _alhuehuete_.  Its roots are in the
+bottom lands of the Alamo.  Go there!  There is a canon leading down the
+cliff.  Descend.  You will find, a little beyond, the _jacale_ of which
+I've told you."
+
+The searchers are too much in earnest to stay for further directions.
+Almost forgetting her who has given them, they spur off across the
+plain, riding straight for the cypress.
+
+One of the party alone lingers--not the leader, but a man equally
+interested in all that has transpired.  Perhaps more so, in what has
+been said in relation to the lady seen by Isidora.  He is one who knows
+Isidora's language, as well as his own native tongue.
+
+"Tell me, _nina_," says he, bringing his horse alongside hers, and
+speaking in a tone of solicitude--almost of entreaty--"Did you take
+notice of the horse ridden by this lady?"
+
+"_Carrambo_! yes.  What a question, cavallero!  Who could help noticing
+it?"
+
+"The colour?" gasps the inquirer.
+
+"_Un musteno pintojo_."
+
+"A spotted mustang!  Holy Heaven!" exclaims Cassius Calhoun, in a half
+shriek, half groan, as he gallops after the searchers--leaving Isidora
+in the belief, that, besides her own, there is one other heart burning
+with that fierce fire which only death can extinguish!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTY ONE.
+
+ANGELS ON EARTH.
+
+The retreat of her rival--quick and unexpected--held Louise Poindexter,
+as if spell-bound.  She had climbed into the saddle, and was seated,
+with spur ready to pierce the flanks of the fair Luna.  But the stroke
+was suspended, and she remained in a state of indecision--bewildered by
+what she saw.
+
+But the moment before she had looked into the _jacale_--had seen her
+rival there, apparently at home; mistress both of the mansion and its
+owner.
+
+What was she to think of that sudden desertion?  Why that took of
+spiteful hatred?  Why not the imperious confidence, that should spring
+from a knowledge of possession?
+
+In place of giving displeasure, Isidora's looks and actions had caused
+her a secret gratification.  Instead of galloping after, or going in any
+direction, Louise Poindexter once more slipped down from her saddle, and
+re-entered the hut.
+
+At sight of the pallid cheeks and wild rolling eyes, the young Creole
+for the moment forgot her wrongs.
+
+"_Mon dieu!  Mon dieu_!" she cried, gliding up to the _catre_.
+"Maurice--wounded--dying!  Who has done this?"
+
+There was no reply: only the mutterings of a madman.
+
+"Maurice!  Maurice! speak to me!  Do you not know me?  Louise!  Your
+Louise!  You have called me so?  Say it--O say it again!"
+
+"Ah! you are very beautiful, you angels here in heaven!  Very beautiful.
+Yes, yes; you look so--to the eyes--to the eyes.  But don't say there
+are none like you upon the Earth; for there are--there are.  I know
+one--ah! more--but one that excels you all, you angels in heaven!  I
+mean in beauty--in goodness, that's another thing.  I'm not thinking of
+goodness--no; no."
+
+"Maurice, dear Maurice!  Why do you talk thus?  You are not in heaven;
+you are here with me--with Louise."
+
+"I _am_ in heaven; yes, in heaven!  I don't wish it, for all they say;
+that is, unless I can have _her_ with me.  It may be a pleasant place.
+Not without her.  If she were here, I could be content.  Hear it, ye
+angels, that come hovering around me!  Very beautiful, you are, I admit;
+but none of you like her--her--my angel.  Oh! there's a devil, too; a
+beautiful devil--I don't mean that.  I'm thinking only of the angel of
+the prairies."
+
+"Do you remember her name?"
+
+Perhaps never was question put to a delirious man, where the questioner
+showed so much interest in the answer.
+
+She bent over him with ears upon the strain--with eyes that marked every
+movement of his lips.
+
+"Name? name?  Did some one say, name?  Have you any names here?  Oh!  I
+remember--Michael, Gabriel, Azrael--men, all men.  Angels, not like my
+angel--who is a woman.  Her name is--"
+
+"Is?"
+
+"Louise--Louise--Louise.  Why should I conceal it from you--you up here,
+who know everything that's down there?  Surely you know her--Louise?
+You should: you could not help loving her--ah! with all your hearts, as
+I with all mine--all--all!"
+
+Not when these last words were once before spoken--first spoken under
+the shade of the acacia trees--the speaker in full consciousness of
+intellect--in the full fervour of his soul--not then were they listened
+to with such delight.  O, happy hour for her who heard them!
+
+Again were soft kisses lavished upon that fevered brow--upon those wan
+lips; but this time by one who had no need to recoil after the contact.
+
+She only stood up erect--triumphant;--her hand pressing upon her heart,
+to stay its wild pulsations.  It was pleasure too complete, too
+ecstatic: for there was pain in the thought that it cannot be felt for
+ever--in the fear of its being too soon interrupted.
+
+The last was but the shadow thrown before, and in such shape it
+appeared--a shadow that camp darkling through the doorway.
+
+The substance that followed was a man; who, the moment after, was seen
+standing upon the stoup.
+
+There was nothing terrible in the aspect of the new-comer.  On the
+contrary, his countenance and costume were types of the comical,
+heightened by contrast with the wild associations of the time and place.
+Still further, from juxtaposition with the odd objects carried in his
+hands; in one a tomahawk; in the other a huge snake; with its tail
+terminating in a string of bead-like rattles, that betrayed its species.
+
+If anything could have added to his air of grotesque drollery, it was
+the expression of puzzled surprise that came over his countenance; as,
+stepping upon the threshold, he discovered the change that had taken
+place in the occupancy of the hut.
+
+"Mother av Moses!" he exclaimed, dropping both snake and tomahawk, and
+opening his eyes as wide as the lids would allow them; "Shure I must be
+dhramin?  Trath must I!  It cyant be yersilf, Miss Pointdixther?  Shure
+now it cyant?"
+
+"But it is, Mr O'Neal.  How very ungallant in you to have forgotten me,
+and so soon!"
+
+"Forgotten yez!  Trath, miss, yez needn't accuse me of doin' chat which
+is intirely impossible.  The Oirishman that hiz wance looked in yer
+swate face will be undher the necissity iver afther to remimber it.
+Sowl! thare's wan that cyant forgit it, even in his dhrames!"
+
+The speaker glanced significantly towards the couch.  A delicious thrill
+passed through the bosom of the listener.
+
+"But fwhat diz it all mane?" continued Phelim, returning to the
+unexplained puzzle of the transformation.  "Fwhare's the tother--the
+young chap, or lady, or wuman--whichsomiver she art?  Didn't yez see
+nothin' av a wuman, Miss Pointdixther?"
+
+"Yes--yes."
+
+"Oh! yez did.  An fwhere is she now?"
+
+"Gone away, I believe."
+
+"Gone away!  Be japers, thin, she hasn't remained long in the wan mind.
+I lift her heeur in the cyabin not tin minnits ago, takin' aff her
+bonnit--that was only a man's hat--an sittlin' hersilf down for a stay.
+Gone, yez say?  Sowl!  I'm not sorry to hear it.  That's a young lady
+whose room's betther than her company, any day in the twilmonth.  She's
+a dale too handy wid her shootin'-iron.  Wud yez belave it, Miss
+Pointdixther; she prisinted a pistol widin six inches av me nose?"
+
+"_Pardieu_!  For what reason?"
+
+"Fwhat rayzun?  Only that I thried to hindher her from inthrudin' into
+the cyabin.  She got in for all that; for whin owld Zeb come back, he
+made no objecshun to it.  She sayed she was a frind av the masther, an
+wanted to nurse him."
+
+"Indeed!  Oh! it is strange--very strange!" muttered the Creole,
+reflectingly.
+
+"Trath, is it.  And so is iverything in these times, exciptin' yez own
+swate silf; that I hope will niver be sthrange in a cyabin frequinted by
+Phaylim Onale.  Shure, now, I'm glad to see yez, miss; an shure so wud
+the masther, if--"
+
+"Dear Phelim! tell me all that has happened."
+
+"Trath! thin miss, if I'm to till all, ye'll hiv to take off your
+bonnet, and make up your moind for a long stay--seein' as it 'ut take
+the big ind av a whole day to relate all the quare things that's
+happened since the day afore yesthirday."
+
+"Who has been here since then?"
+
+"Who has been heeur?"
+
+"Except the--the--"
+
+"Exceptin' the man-wuman, ye mane?"
+
+"Yes.  Has any one else been to this place?"
+
+"Trath has thare--plinty besoides.  An av all sorts, an colours too.
+First an foremost there was wan comin' this way, though he didn't git
+all the way to the cyabin.  But I daren't tell you about him, for it
+moight frighten ye, miss."
+
+"Tell me.  I have no fear."
+
+"Be dad! and I can't make it out meself quite intirely.  It was a man
+upon horseback widout a hid."
+
+"Without a head!"
+
+"Divil a bit av that same on his body."
+
+The statement caused Phelim to be suspected of having lost his.
+
+"An' what's more, miss, he was for all the world like Masther Maurice
+himself.  Wid his horse undher him, an his Mexikin blanket about his
+showlders, an everything just as the young masther looks, when he's
+mounted, Sowl! wasn't I scared, whin I sit my eyes on him."
+
+"But where did you see this, Mr O'Neal?"
+
+"Up thare on the top av the bluff.  I was out lookin' for the masther to
+come back from the Sittlement, as he'd promised he wud that mornin', an
+who showld I see but hisself, as I supposed it to be.  An' thin he comes
+ridin' up, widout his hid, an' stops a bit, an thin goes off at a tarin'
+gallop, wid Tara gowlin' at his horse's heels, away acrass the big
+plain, till I saw no more av him.  Thin I made back for the cyabin
+heeur, an shut meself up, and wint to slape; and just in the middle av
+me dhrames, whin I was dhramin' of--but trath, miss, yez'll be toired
+standin' on yer feet all this time.  Won't yez take aff yer purty little
+ridin' hat, an sit down on the thrunk thare?--it's asier than the stool.
+Do plaze take a sate; for if I'm to tell yez all--"
+
+"Never mind me--go on.  Please tell me who else has been here besides
+this strange cavalier; who must have been some one playing a trick upon
+you, I suppose."
+
+"A thrick, miss!  Trath that's just what owld Zeb sayed."
+
+"He has been here, then?"
+
+"Yis--yis--but not till long afther the others."
+
+"The others?"
+
+"Yis, miss.  Zeb only arroived yestherday marnin'.  The others paid
+their visit the night afore, an at a very unsayzonable hour too, wakin'
+me out av the middle av my slape."
+
+"But who?--what others?"
+
+"Why the Indyens, to be shure."
+
+"There have been Indians, then?"
+
+"Trath was there--a whole tribe av thim.  Well, as I've been tillin'
+yez, miss, jest as I wus in a soun' slape, I heerd talkin' in the cyabin
+heern, right over my hid, an the shufflin' av paper, as if somebody was
+dalin' a pack av cards, an--Mother av Moses! fwhat's that?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Didn't yez heear somethin'?  Wheesht!  Thare it is agane!  Trath, it's
+the trampin' av horses!  They're jist outside."
+
+Phelim rushed towards the door.
+
+"Be Sant Pathrick! the place is surrounded wid men on horseback.
+Thare's a thousand av them! an more comin' behind!  Be japers! them's
+the chaps owld Zeb--Now for a frish spell av squeelin!  O Lard!  I'll be
+too late!"
+
+Seizing the cactus-branch--that for convenience he had brought inside
+the hut--he dashed out through the doorway.
+
+"_Mon Dieu_!" cried the Creole, "'tis they!  My father, and I here!  How
+shall I explain it?  Holy Virgin, save me from shame!"
+
+Instinctively she sprang towards the door, closing it, as she did so.
+But a moment's reflection showed her how idle was the act.  They who
+were outside would make light of such obstruction.  Already she
+recognised the voices of the Regulators!
+
+The opening in the skin wall came under her eye.  Should she make a
+retreat through that, undignified as it might be?
+
+It was no longer possible.  The sound of hoofs also in the rear!  There
+were horsemen behind the hut!
+
+Besides, her own steed was in front--that ocellated creature not to be
+mistaken.  By this time they must have identified it!
+
+But there was another thought that restrained her from attempting to
+retreat--one more generous.
+
+_He_ was in danger--from which even the unconsciousness of it might not
+shield him!  Who but she could protect him?
+
+"Let my good name go!" thought she.  "Father--friends--all--all but him,
+if God so wills it!  Shame, or no shame, to him will I be true!"
+
+As these noble thoughts passed through her mind, she took her stand by
+the bedside of the invalid, like a second Dido, resolved to risk all--
+even death itself--for the hero of her heart.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTY TWO.
+
+WAITING FOR THE CUE.
+
+Never, since its erection, was there such a trampling of hoofs around
+the hut of the horse-catcher--not even when its corral was filled with
+fresh-taken mustangs.
+
+Phelim, rushing out from the door, is saluted by a score of voices that
+summon him to stop.
+
+One is heard louder than the rest, and in tones of command that proclaim
+the speaker to be chief of the party.
+
+"Pull up, damn you!  It's no use--your trying to escape.  Another step,
+and ye'll go tumbling in your tracks.  Pull up, I say!"
+
+The command takes effect upon the Connemara man, who has been making
+direct for Zeb Stump's mare, tethered on the other side of the opening.
+He stops upon the instant.
+
+"Shure, gintlemen, I don't want to escyape," asseverates he, shivering
+at the sight of a score of angry faces, and the same number of
+gun-barrels bearing upon his person; "I had no such intinshuns.  I was
+only goin' to--"
+
+"Run off, if ye'd got the chance.  Ye'd made a good beginning.  Here,
+Dick Tracey! half-a-dozen turns of your trail-rope round him.  Lend a
+hand, Shelton!  Damned queer-looking curse he is!  Surely, gentlemen,
+this can't be the man we're in search of?"
+
+"No, no! it isn't.  Only his man John."
+
+"Ho! hilloa, you round there at the back!  Keep your eyes skinned.  We
+havn't got him yet.  Don't let as much as a cat creep past you.  Now,
+sirree! who's inside?"
+
+"Who's insoide?  The cyabin div yez mane?"
+
+"Damn ye! answer the question that's put to ye!" says Tracey, giving his
+prisoner a touch of the trail-rope.  "Who's inside the shanty?"
+
+"O Lard!  Needs must whin the divvel dhrives.  Wil, then, thare's the
+masther for wan--"
+
+"Ho! what's this?" inquires Woodley Poindexter, at this moment, riding
+up, and seeing the spotted mare.  "Why--it--it's Looey's mustang!"
+
+"It is, uncle," answers Cassius Calhoun, who has ridden up along with
+him.
+
+"I wonder who's brought the beast here?"
+
+"Loo herself, I reckon."
+
+"Nonsense!  You're jesting, Cash?"
+
+"No, uncle; I'm in earnest."
+
+"You mean to say my daughter has been here?"
+
+"Has been--still is, I take it."
+
+"Impossible?"
+
+"Look yonder, then!"
+
+The door has just been opened.  A female form is seen inside.
+
+"Good God, it is my daughter!"
+
+Poindexter drops from his saddle, and hastens up to the hut--close
+followed by Calhoun.  Both go inside.
+
+"Louises what means this?  A wounded man!  Is it he--Henry?"
+
+Before an answer can be given, his eye falls upon a cloak and hat--
+Henry's!
+
+"It is; he's alive!  Thank heaven!"  He strides towards the couch.
+
+The joy of an instant is in an instant gone.  The pale face upon the
+pillow is not that of his son.  The father staggers back with a groan.
+
+Calhoun seems equally affected.  But the cry from him is an exclamation
+of horror; after which he slinks cowed-like out of the cabin.
+
+"Great God!" gasps the planter; "what is it?  Can you explain, Louise?"
+
+"I cannot, father.  I've been here but a few minutes.  I found him as
+you see.  He is delirious."
+
+"And--and--Henry?"
+
+"They have told me nothing.  Mr Gerald was alone when I entered.  The
+man outside was absent, and has just returned.  I have not had time to
+question him."
+
+"But--but, how came _you_ to be here?"
+
+"I could not stay at home.  I could not endure the uncertainty any
+longer.  It was terrible--alone, with no one at the house; and the
+thought that my poor brother--_Mon dieu_!  _Mon dieu_!"
+
+Poindexter regards his daughter with a perplexed, but still inquiring,
+look.
+
+"I thought I might find Henry here."
+
+"Here!  But how did you know of this place?  Who guided you?  You are by
+yourself!"
+
+"Oh, father!  I knew the way.  You remember the day of the hunt--when
+the mustang ran away with me.  It was beyond this place I was carried.
+On returning with Mr Gerald, he told me he lived here.  I fancied I
+could find the way back."
+
+Poindexter's look of perplexity does not leave him, though another
+expression becomes blended with it.  His brow contracts; the shadow
+deepens upon it; though whatever the dark thought, he does not declare
+it.
+
+"A strange thing for you to have done, my daughter.  Imprudent--indeed
+dangerous.  You have acted like a silly girl.  Come--come away!  This is
+no place for a lady--for you.  Get to your horse, and ride home again.
+Some one will go with you.  There may be a scene here, you should not be
+present at.  Come, come!"  The father strides forth from the hut, the
+daughter following with reluctance scarce concealed; and, with like
+unwillingness, is conducted to her saddle.
+
+The searchers, now dismounted, are upon the open ground in front.
+
+They are all there.  Calhoun has made known the condition of things
+inside; and there is no need for them to keep up their vigilance.
+
+They stand in groups--some silent, some conversing.  A larger crowd is
+around the Connemara man; who lies upon the grass, last tied in the
+trail-rope.  His tongue is allowed liberty; and they question him, but
+without giving much credit to his answers.
+
+On the re-appearance of the father and daughter, they face towards them,
+but stand silent.  For all this, they are burning with eagerness to have
+an explanation of what is passing.  Their looks proclaim it.
+
+Most of them know the young lady by sight--all by fame, or name.  They
+feel surprise--almost wonder--at seeing her there.  The sister of the
+murdered man under the roof of his murderer!
+
+More than ever are they convinced that this is the state of the case.
+Calhoun, coming forth from the hut, has spread fresh intelligence among
+them--facts that seem to confirm it.  He has told them of the hat, the
+cloak--of the murderer himself, injured in the death-struggle!
+
+But why is Louise Poindexter there--alone--unaccompanied by white or
+black, by relative or slave?  A guest, too: for in this character does
+she appear!  Her cousin does not explain it--perhaps he cannot.  Her
+father--can he?  Judging by his embarrassed air, it is doubtful.
+
+Whispers pass from lip to ear--from group to group.  There are
+surmises--many, but none spoken aloud.  Even the rude frontiersmen
+respect the feelings--filial as parental--and patiently await the
+_eclaircissement_.
+
+"Mount, Louise!  Mr Yancey will ride home with you."  The young planter
+thus pledged was never more ready to redeem himself.  He is the one who
+most envies the supposed happiness of Cassius Calhoun.  In his soul he
+thanks Poindexter for the opportunity.
+
+"But, father!" protests the young lady, "why should I no wait for you?
+You are not going to stay here?"  Yancey experiences a shock of
+apprehension.  "It is my wish, daughter, that you do as I tell you.  Let
+that be sufficient."
+
+Yancey's confidence returns.  Not quite.  He knows enough of that proud
+spirit to be in doubt whether it may yield obedience--even to the
+parental command.
+
+It gives way; but with an unwillingness ill disguised, even in the
+presence of that crowd of attentive spectators.
+
+The two ride off; the young planter taking the lead, his charge slowly
+following--the former scarce able to conceal his exultation, the latter
+her chagrin.
+
+Yancey is more distressed than displeased, at the melancholy mood of his
+companion.  How could it be otherwise, with such a sorrow at her heart?
+Of course he ascribes it to that.
+
+He but half interprets the cause.  Were he to look steadfastly into the
+eye of Louise Poindexter, he might there detect an expression, in which
+sorrow for the past is less marked, than fear for the future.
+
+They ride on through the trees--but not beyond ear-shot of the people
+they have left behind them.
+
+Suddenly a change comes over the countenance of the Creole--her features
+lighting up, as if some thought of joy, or at least of hope, had entered
+her soul.
+
+She stops reflectingly--her escort constrained to do the same.
+
+"Mr Yancey," says she, after a short pause, "my saddle has got loose.
+I cannot sit comfortably in it.  Have the goodness to look to the
+girths!"
+
+Yancey leaps to the ground, delighted with the duty thus imposed upon
+him.
+
+He examines the girths.  In his opinion they do not want tightening.  He
+does not say so; but, undoing the buckle, pulls upon the strap with all
+his strength.
+
+"Stay!" says the fair equestrian, "let me alight.  You will get better
+at it then."
+
+Without waiting for his assistance, she springs from her stirrup, and
+stands by the side of the mustang.
+
+The young man continues to tug at the straps, pulling with all the power
+of his arms.
+
+After a prolonged struggle, that turns him red in the face, he succeeds
+in shortening them by a single hole.
+
+"Now, Miss Poindexter; I think it will do."
+
+"Perhaps it will," rejoins the lady, placing her hand upon the horn of
+her saddle, and giving it a slight shake.  "No doubt it will do now.
+After all 'tis a pity to start back so soon.  I've just arrived here
+after a fast gallop; and my poor Luna has scarce had time to breathe
+herself.  What if we stop here a while, and let her have a little rest?
+'Tis cruel to take her back without it."
+
+"But your father?  He seemed desirous you should--"
+
+"That I should go home at once.  That's nothing.  'Twas only to get me
+out of the way of these rough men--that was all.  He won't care; so long
+as I'm out of sight.  'Tis a sweet place, this; so cool, under the shade
+of these fine trees--just now that the sun is blazing down upon the
+prairie.  Let us stay a while, and give Luna a rest!  We can amuse
+ourselves by watching the gambols of these beautiful silver fish in the
+stream.  Look there, Mr Yancey!  What pretty creatures they are!"
+
+The young planter begins to feel flattered.  Why should his fair
+companion wish to linger there with him?  Why wish to watch the
+_iodons_, engaged in their aquatic cotillon--amorous at that time of the
+year?
+
+He conjectures a reply conformable to his own inclinations.
+
+His compliance is easily obtained.
+
+"Miss Poindexter," says he, "it is for you to command me.  I am but too
+happy to stay here, as long as you wish it."
+
+"Only till Luna be rested.  To say the truth, sir, I had scarce got out
+of the saddle, as the people came up.  See! the poor thing is still
+panting after our long gallop."
+
+Yancey does not take notice whether the spotted mustang is panting or
+no.  He is but too pleased to comply with the wishes of its rider.
+
+They stay by the side of the stream.
+
+He is a little surprised to perceive that his companion gives but slight
+heed, either to the silver fish, or the spotted mustang.  He would have
+liked this all the better, had her attentions been transferred to
+himself.
+
+But they are not.  He can arrest neither her eye nor her ear.  The
+former seems straying upon vacancy; the latter eagerly bent to catch
+every sound that comes from the clearing.
+
+Despite his inclinations towards her, he cannot help listening himself.
+He suspects that a serious scene is there being enacted--a trial before
+Judge Lynch, with a jury of "Regulators."
+
+Excited talk comes echoing through the tree-trunks.  There is an
+earnestness in its accents that tells of some terrible determination.
+
+Both listen; the lady like some tragic actress, by the side-scene of a
+theatre, waiting for her cue.
+
+There are speeches in more than one voice; as if made by different men;
+then one longer than the rest--a harangue.
+
+Louise recognises the voice.  It is that of her cousin Cassius.  It is
+urgent--at times angry, at times argumentative: as if persuading his
+audience to something they are not willing to do.
+
+His speech comes to an end; and immediately after it, there are quick
+sharp exclamations--cries of assent--one louder than the rest, of
+fearful import.
+
+While listening, Yancey has forgotten the fair creature by his side.
+
+He is reminded of her presence, by seeing her spring away from the spot,
+and, with a wild but resolute air, glide towards the _jacale_!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTY THREE.
+
+A JURY OF REGULATORS.
+
+The cry, that had called the young Creole so suddenly from the side of
+her companion, was the verdict of a jury--in whose rude phrase was also
+included the pronouncing of the sentence.
+
+The word "hang" was ringing in her ears, as she started away from the
+spot.
+
+While pretending to take an interest in the play of the silver fish, her
+thoughts were upon that scene, of less gentle character, transpiring in
+front of the jacale.
+
+Though the trees hindered her from having a view of the stage, she knew
+the actors that were on it; and could tell by their speeches how the
+play was progressing.
+
+About the time of her dismounting, a tableau had been formed that merits
+a minute description.
+
+The men, she had left behind, were no longer in scattered groups; but
+drawn together into a crowd, in shape roughly resembling the
+circumference of a circle.
+
+Inside it, some half-score figures were conspicuous--among them the tall
+form of the Regulator Chief, with three or four of his "marshals."
+Woodley Poindexter was there, and by his side Cassius Calhoun.  These no
+longer appeared to act with authority, but rather as spectators, or
+witnesses, in the judicial drama about being enacted.
+
+Such in reality was the nature of the scene.  It was a trial for
+Murder--a trial before _Justice Lynch_--this grim dignitary being
+typified in the person of the Regulator Chief--with a jury composed of
+all the people upon the ground--all except the prisoners.
+
+Of these there are two--Maurice Gerald and his man Phelim.
+
+They are inside the ring, both prostrate upon the grass; both fast bound
+in raw-hide ropes, that hinder them from moving hand or foot.
+
+Even their tongues are not free.  Phelim has been cursed and scared into
+silence; while to his master speech is rendered impossible by a piece of
+stick fastened bitt-like between his teeth.  It has been done to prevent
+interruption by the insane ravings, that would otherwise issue from his
+lips.
+
+Even the tight-drawn thongs cannot keep him in place.  Two men, one at
+each shoulder, with a third seated upon his knees, hold him to the
+ground.  His eyes alone are free to move; and these rolling in their
+sockets glare upon his guards with wild unnatural glances, fearful to
+encounter.
+
+Only one of the prisoners is arraigned on the capital charge; the other
+is but doubtfully regarded as an accomplice.
+
+The servant alone has been examined--asked to confess all he knows, and
+what he has to say for himself.  It is no use putting questions to his
+master.
+
+Phelim has told his tale--too strange to be credited; though the
+strangest part of it--that relating to his having seen a horseman
+without ahead--is looked upon as the least improbable!
+
+He cannot explain it; and his story but strengthens the suspicion
+already aroused--that the spectral apparition is a part of the scheme of
+murder!
+
+"All stuff his tales about tiger-fights and Indians!" say those to whom
+he has been imparting them.  "A pack of lies, contrived to mislead us--
+nothing else."
+
+The trial has lasted scarce ten minutes; and yet the jury have come to
+their conclusion.
+
+In the minds of most--already predisposed to it--there is a full
+conviction that Henry Poindexter is a dead man, and that Maurice Gerald
+is answerable for his death.
+
+Every circumstance already known has been reconsidered; while to these
+have been added the new facts discovered at the jacale--the ugliest of
+which is the finding of the cloak and hat.
+
+The explanations given by the Galwegian, confused and incongruous, carry
+no credit.  Why should they?  They are the inventions of an accomplice.
+
+There are some who will scarce stay to hear them--some who impatiently
+cry out, "Let the murderer be hanged!"
+
+As if this verdict had been anticipated, a rope lies ready upon the
+ground, with a noose at its end.  It is only a lazo; but for the purpose
+Calcraft could not produce a more perfect piece of cord.
+
+A sycamore standing near offers a horizontal limb--good enough for a
+gallows.
+
+The vote is taken _viva voce_.
+
+Eighty out of the hundred jurors express their opinion: that Maurice
+Gerald must die.  His hour appears to have come.
+
+And yet the sentence is not carried into execution.  The rope is
+suffered to lie guileless on the grass.  No one seems willing to lay
+hold of it!
+
+Why that hanging back, as if the thong of horse-hide was a venomous
+snake, that none dares to touch?
+
+The majority--the _plurality_, to use a true Western word--has
+pronounced the sentence of death; some strengthening it with rude, even
+blasphemous, speech.  Why is it not carried out?
+
+Why?  For want of that unanimity, that stimulates to immediate action--
+for want of the proofs to produce it.
+
+There is a minority not satisfied--that with less noise, but equally
+earnest emphasis, have answered "No."
+
+It is this that has caused a suspension of the violent proceedings.
+
+Among this minority is Judge Lynch himself--Sam Manly, the Chief of the
+Regulators.  He has not yet passed sentence; or even signified his
+acceptance of the acclamatory verdict.
+
+"Fellow citizens!" cries he, as soon as he has an opportunity of making
+himself heard, "I'm of the opinion, that there's a doubt in this case;
+and I reckon we ought to give the accused the benefit of it--that is,
+till he be able to say his own say about it.  It's no use questioning
+him now, as ye all see.  We have him tight and fast; and there's not
+much chance of his getting clear--_if_ guilty.  Therefore, I move we
+postpone the trial, till--"
+
+"What's the use of postponing it?" interrupts a voice already loud for
+the prosecution, and which can be distinguished as that of Cassius
+Calhoun.  "What's the use, Sam Manly?  It's all very well for you to
+talk that way; but if _you_ had a friend foully murdered--I won't say
+cousin, but a son, a brother--you might not be so soft about it.  What
+more do you want to show that the skunk's guilty?  Further proofs?"
+
+"That's just what we want, Captain Calhoun."
+
+"Cyan _you_ give them, Misther Cashius Calhoun?" inquires a voice from
+the outside circle, with a strong Irish accent.
+
+"Perhaps I can."
+
+"Let's have them, then!"
+
+"God knows you've had evidence enough.  A jury of his own stupid
+countrymen--"
+
+"Bar that appellashun!" shouts the man, who has demanded the additional
+evidence.  "Just remember, Misther Calhoun, ye're in Texas, and not
+Mississippi.  Bear that in mind; or ye may run your tongue into trouble,
+sharp as it is."
+
+"I don't mean to offend any one," says Calhoun, backing out of the
+dilemma into which his Irish antipathies had led him; "even an
+Englishman, if there's one here."
+
+"Thare ye're welcome--go on!" cries the mollified Milesian.
+
+"Well, then, as I was saying, there's been evidence enough--and more
+than enough, in my opinion.  But if you want more, I can give it."
+
+"Give it--give it!" cry a score of responding voices; that keep up the
+demand, while Calhoun seems to hesitate.
+
+"Gentlemen!" says he, squaring himself to the crowd, as if for a speech,
+"what I've got to say now I could have told you long ago.  But I didn't
+think it was needed.  You all know what's happened between this man and
+myself; and I had no wish to be thought revengeful.  I'm not; and if it
+wasn't that I'm sure he has done the deed--sure as the head's on my
+body--"
+
+Calhoun speaks stammeringly, seeing that the phrase, involuntarily
+escaping from his lips, has produced a strange effect upon his
+auditory--as it has upon himself.
+
+"If not sure--I--I should still say nothing of what I've seen, or rather
+heard: for it was in the night, and I saw nothing."
+
+"What did you hear, Mr Calhoun?" demands the Regulator Chief, resuming
+his judicial demeanour, for a time forgotten in the confusion of voting
+the verdict.  "Your quarrel with the prisoner, of which I believe
+everybody has heard, can have nothing to do with your testimony here.
+Nobody's going to accuse you of false swearing on that account.  Please
+proceed, sir.  What did you hear?  And where, and when, did you hear
+it?"
+
+"To begin, then, with the time.  It was the night my cousin was missing;
+though, of course, we didn't miss him till the morning.  Last Tuesday
+night."
+
+"Tuesday night.  Well?"
+
+"I'd turned in myself; and thought Henry had done the same.  But what
+with the heat, and the infernal musquitoes, I couldn't get any sleep.
+
+"I started up again; lit a cigar; and, after smoking it awhile in the
+room, I thought of taking a turn upon the top of the house.
+
+"You know the old hacienda has a flat roof, I suppose?  Well, I went up
+there to get cool; and continued to pull away at the weed.
+
+"It must have been then about midnight, or maybe a little earlier.  I
+can't tell: for I'd been tossing about on my bed, and took no note of
+the time.
+
+"Just as I had smoked to the end of my cigar, and was about to take a
+second out of my case, I heard voices.  There were two of them.
+
+"They were up the river, as I thought on the other side.  They were a
+good way off, in the direction of the town.
+
+"I mightn't have been able to distinguish them, or tell one from
+'tother, if they'd been talking in the ordinary way.  But they weren't.
+There was loud angry talk; and I could tell that two men were
+quarrelling.
+
+"I supposed it was some drunken rowdies, going home from Oberdoffer's
+tavern, and I should have thought no more about it.  But as I listened,
+I recognised one of the voices; and then the other.  The first was my
+cousin Henry's--the second that of the man who is there--the man who has
+murdered him."
+
+"Please proceed, Mr Calhoun!  Let us hear the whole of the evidence you
+have promised to produce.  It will be time enough then to state your
+opinions."
+
+"Well, gentlemen; as you may imagine, I was no little surprised at
+hearing my cousin's voice--supposing him asleep in his bed.  So sure was
+I of its being him, that I didn't think of going to his room, to see if
+he was there.  I knew it was his voice; and I was quite as sure that the
+other was that of the horse-catcher.
+
+"I thought it uncommonly queer, in Henry being out at such a late hour:
+as he was never much given to that sort of thing.  But out he was.  I
+couldn't be mistaken about that.
+
+"I listened to catch what the quarrel was about; but though I could
+distinguish the voices, I couldn't make out anything that was said on
+either side.  What I did hear was Henry calling _him_ by some strong
+names, as if my cousin had been first insulted; and then I heard the
+Irishman threatening to make him rue it.  Each loudly pronounced the
+other's name; and that convinced me about its being them.
+
+"I should have gone out to see what the trouble was; but I was in my
+slippers; and before I could draw on a pair of boots, it appeared to be
+all over.
+
+"I waited for half an hour, for Henry to come home.  He didn't come;
+but, as I supposed he had gone back to Oberdoffer's and fallen in with
+some of the fellows from the Fort, I concluded he might stay there a
+spell, and I went back to my bed.
+
+"Now, gentlemen, I've told you all I know.  My poor cousin never came
+back to Casa del Corvo--never more laid his side on a bed,--for that we
+found by going to his room next morning.  His bed that night must have
+been somewhere upon the prairie, or in the chapparal; and there's the
+only man who knows where."
+
+With a wave of his hand the speaker triumphantly indicated the accused--
+whose wild straining eyes told how unconscious he was of the terrible
+accusation, or of the vengeful looks with which, from all sides, he was
+now regarded.
+
+Calhoun's story was told with a circumstantiality, that went far to
+produce conviction of the prisoner's guilt.  The concluding speech
+appeared eloquent of truth, and was followed by a clamourous demand for
+the execution to proceed.
+
+"Hang! hang!" is the cry from fourscore voices.
+
+The judge himself seems to waver.  The minority has been diminished--no
+longer eighty, out of the hundred, but ninety repeat the cry.  The more
+moderate are overborne by the inundation of vengeful voices.
+
+The crowd sways to and fro--resembling a storm fast increasing to a
+tempest.
+
+It soon comes to its height.  A ruffian rushes towards the rope.  Though
+none seem to have noticed it, he has parted from the side of Calhoun--
+with whom he has been holding a whispered conversation.  One of those
+"border ruffians" of Southern descent, ever ready by the stake of the
+philanthropist, or the martyr--such as have been late typified in the
+_military murderers_ of Jamaica, who have disgraced the English name to
+the limits of all time.
+
+He lays hold of the lazo, and quickly arranges its loop around the neck
+of the condemned man--alike unconscious of trial and condemnation.
+
+No one steps forward to oppose the act.  The ruffian, bristling with
+bowie-knife and pistols, has it all to himself or, rather, is he
+assisted by a scoundrel of the same kidney--one of the _ci-devant_
+guards of the prisoner.
+
+The spectators stand aside, or look tranquilly upon the proceedings.
+Most express a mute approval--some encouraging the executioners with
+earnest vociferations of "Up with him!  Hang him!"
+
+A few seem stupefied by surprise; a less number show sympathy; but not
+one dares to give proof of it, by taking part with the prisoner.
+
+The rope is around his neck--the end with the noose upon it.  The other
+is being swung over the sycamore.
+
+"Soon must the soul of Maurice Gerald go back to its God!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTY FOUR.
+
+A SERIES OF INTERLUDES.
+
+"Soon the soul of Maurice Gerald must go back to its God!"
+
+It was the thought of every actor in that tragedy among the trees.  No
+one doubted that, in another moment, they would see his body hoisted
+into the air, and swinging from the branch of the sycamore.
+
+There was an interlude, not provided for in the programme.  A farce was
+being performed simultaneously; and, it might be said, on the same
+stage.  For once the tragedy was more attractive, and the comedy was
+progressing without spectators.
+
+Not the less earnest were the actors in it.  There were only two--a man
+and a mare.  Phelim was once more re-enacting the scenes that had caused
+surprise to Isidora.
+
+Engrossed by the arguments of Calhoun--by the purposes of vengeance
+which his story was producing--the Regulators only turned their
+attention to the chief criminal.  No one thought of his companion--
+whether he was, or was not, an accomplice.  His presence was scarce
+perceived--all eyes being directed with angry intent upon the other.
+
+Still less was it noticed, when the ruffians sprang forward, and
+commenced adjusting the rope.  The Galwegian was then altogether
+neglected.
+
+There appeared an opportunity of escape, and Phelim was not slow to take
+advantage of it.
+
+Wriggling himself clear of his fastenings, he crawled off among the legs
+of the surging crowd.
+
+No one seemed to see, or care about, his movements.  Mad with
+excitement, they were pressing upon each other--the eyes of all turned
+upward to the gallows tree.
+
+To have seen Phelim skulking off, it might have been supposed, that he
+was profiting by the chance offered for escape--saving his own life,
+without thinking of his master.
+
+It is true he could have done nothing, and he knew it.  He had exhausted
+his advocacy; and any further interference on his part would have been
+an idle effort, or only to aggravate the accusers.  It was but slight
+disloyalty that he should think of saving himself--a mere instinct of
+self-preservation--to which he seemed yielding, as he stole off among
+the trees.  So one would have conjectured.
+
+But the conjecture would not have done justice to him of Connemara.  In
+his flight the faithful servant had no design to forsake his master--
+much less leave him to his fate, without making one more effort to
+effect his delivery from the human bloodhounds who had hold of him.  He
+knew he could do nothing of himself.  His hope lay in summoning Zeb
+Stump, and it was to sound that signal--which had proved so effective
+before--that he was now stealing off from the scene, alike of trial and
+execution.
+
+On getting beyond the selvedge of the throng, he had glided in among the
+trees; and keeping these between him and the angry crowd, he ran on
+toward the spot where the old mare still grazed upon her tether.
+
+The other horses standing "hitched" to the twigs, formed a tolerably
+compact tier all round the edge of the timber.  This aided in screening
+his movements from observation, so that he had arrived by the side of
+the mare, without being seen by any one.
+
+Just then he discovered that he had come without the apparatus necessary
+to carry out his design.  The cactus branch had been dropped where he
+was first captured, and was still kicking about among the feet of his
+captors.  He could not get hold of it, without exposing himself to a
+fresh seizure, and this would hinder him from effecting the desired end.
+
+He had no knife--no weapon of any kind--wherewith he might procure
+another _nopal_.
+
+He paused, in painful uncertainty as to what he should do.  Only for an
+instant.  There was no time to be lost.  His master's life was in
+imminent peril, menaced at every moment.  No sacrifice would be too
+great to save him; and with this thought the faithful Phelim rushed
+towards the cactus-plant; and, seizing one of its spinous branches in
+his naked hands, wrenched it from the stem.
+
+His fingers were fearfully lacerated in the act; but what mattered that,
+when weighed against the life of his beloved master?  With equal
+recklessness he ran up to the mare; and, at the risk of being kicked
+back again, took hold of her tail, and once more applied the instrument
+of torture!
+
+By this time the noose had been adjusted around the mustanger's neck,
+carefully adjusted to avoid fluke or failure.  The other end, leading
+over the limb of the tree, was held in hand by the brace of bearded
+bullies--whose fingers appeared itching to pull upon it.  In their eyes
+and attitudes was an air of deadly determination.  They only waited for
+the word.
+
+Not that any one had the right to pronounce it.  And just for this
+reason was it delayed.  No one seemed willing to take the responsibility
+of giving that signal, which was to send a fellow-creature to his long
+account.  Criminal as they might regard him--murderer as they believed
+him to be--all shied from doing the sheriff's duty.  Even Calhoun
+instinctively held back.
+
+It was not for the want of will.  There was no lack of that on the part
+of the ex-officer, or among the Regulators.  They showed no sign of
+retreating from the step they had taken.  The pause was simply owing to
+the informality of the proceedings.  It was but the lull in the storm
+that precedes the grand crash.
+
+It was a moment of deep solemnity--every one silent as the tomb.  They
+were in the presence of death, and knew it,--death in its most hideous
+shape, and darkest guise.  Most of them felt that they were abetting it.
+All believed it to be nigh.
+
+With hushed voice, and hindered gesture, they stood rigid as the
+tree-trunks around them.  Surely the crisis had come?
+
+It had; but not that crisis by everybody expected, by themselves
+decreed.  Instead of seeing Maurice Gerald jerked into the air, far
+different was the spectacle they were called upon to witness,--one so
+ludicrous as for a time to interrupt the solemnity of the scene, and
+cause a suspension of the harsh proceedings.
+
+The old mare--that they knew to be Zeb Stump's--appeared to have gone
+suddenly mad.  She had commenced dancing over the sward, flinging her
+heels high into the air, and screaming with all her might.  She had
+given the cue to the hundred horses that stood tied to the trees; and
+all of them had commenced imitating: her wild capers, while loudly
+responding to her screams!
+
+Enchantment could scarce have produced a quicker transformation than
+occurred in the tableau formed in front of the jacale hut.  Not only was
+the execution suspended, but all other proceedings that regarded the
+condemned captive.
+
+Nor was the change of a comical character.  On the contrary, it was
+accompanied by looks of alarm, and cries of consternation!
+
+The Regulators rushed to their arms--some towards their horses.
+
+"Indians!" was the exclamation upon every lip, though unheard through
+the din.  Nought but the coming of Comanches could have caused such a
+commotion--threatening to result in a _stampede_ of the troop!
+
+For a time men ran shouting over the little lawn, or stood silent with
+scared countenances.
+
+Most having secured their horses, cowered behind them--using them by way
+of shield against the chances of an Indian arrow.
+
+There were but few upon the ground accustomed to such prairie escapades;
+and the fears of the many were exaggerated by their inexperience to the
+extreme of terror.
+
+It continued, till their steeds, all caught up, had ceased their wild
+whighering; and only one was heard--the wretched creature that had given
+them the cue.
+
+Then was discovered the true cause of the alarm; as also that the
+Connemara man had stolen off.
+
+Fortunate for Phelim he had shown the good sense to betake himself to
+the bushes.  Only by concealment had he saved his skin: for his life was
+now worth scarce so much as that of his master.
+
+A score of rifles were clutched with angry energy,--their muzzles
+brought to bear upon the old mare.
+
+But before any of them could be discharged, a man standing near threw
+his lazo around her neck, and choked her into silence.
+
+Tranquillity is restored, and along with it a resumption of the deadly
+design.  The Regulators are still in the same temper.
+
+The ludicrous incident, whilst perplexing, has not provoked their mirth;
+but the contrary.
+
+Some feel shame at the sorry figure they have cut, in the face of a
+false alarm; while others are chafed at the interruption of the solemn
+ceremonial.
+
+They return to it with increased vindictiveness--as proved by their
+oaths, and angry exclamations.
+
+Once more the vengeful circle closes around the condemned--the terrible
+tableau is reconstructed.
+
+Once more the ruffians lay hold of the rope; and for the second time
+every one is impressed with the solemn thought:
+
+"Soon must the soul of Maurice Gerald go back to its God!"
+
+Thank heaven, there is another interruption to that stern ceremonial of
+death.
+
+How unlike to death is that bright form flitting under the shadows,--
+flashing out into the open sunlight.
+
+"A woman! a beautiful woman!"
+
+'Tis only a silent thought; for no one essays to speak.  They stand
+rigid as ever, but with strangely altered looks.  Even the rudest of
+them respect the presence of that fair intruder.  There is submission in
+their attitude, as if from a consciousness of guilt.
+
+Like a meteor she pauses through their midst--glides on without giving a
+glance on either side--without speech, without halt--till she stoops
+over the condemned man, still lying gagged the grass.
+
+With a quick clutch she lays hold of the lazo; which the two hangmen,
+taken by surprise, have let loose.
+
+Grasping it with both her hands, she jerks it from theirs.  "Texans!
+cowards!" she cries, casting a scornful look upon the crowd.  "Shame!
+shame!"
+
+They cower under the stinging reproach.  She continues:--
+
+"A trial indeed!  A fair trial!  The accused without counsel--condemned
+without being heard!  And this you call justice?  Texan justice?  My
+scorn upon you--not men, but murderers!"
+
+"What means this?" shouts Poindexter, rushing up, and seizing his
+daughter by the arm.  "You are mad--Loo--mad!  How come you to be here?
+Did I not tell you to go home?  Away--this instant away; and do not
+interfere with what does not concern you!"
+
+"Father, it does concern me!"
+
+"How?--how?--oh true--as a sister!  This man is the murderer of your
+brother."
+
+"I will not--_cannot_ believe it.  Never--never!  There was no motive.
+O men! if you be men, do not act like savages.  Give him a fair trial,
+and then--then--"
+
+"He's had a fair trial," calls one from the crowd, who seems to speak
+from instigation; "Ne'er a doubt about his being guilty.  It's him
+that's killed your brother, and nobody else.  And it don't look well,
+Miss Poindexter--excuse me for saying it;--but it don't look just the
+thing, that _you_ should be trying to screen him from his deserving."
+
+"No, that it don't," chime in several voices.  "Justice must take its
+course!" shouts one, in the hackneyed phrase of the law courts.
+
+"It must!--it must!" echoes the chorus.  "We are sorry to disoblige you,
+miss; but we must request you to leave.  Mr Poindexter, you'd do well
+to take your daughter away."
+
+"Come, Loo!  'Tis not the place You must come away.  You refuse!  Good
+God! my daughter; do you mean to disobey me?  Here, Cash; take hold of
+her arm, and conduct her from the spot.  If you refuse to go willingly,
+we must use force, Loo.  A good girl now.  Do as I tell you.  Go!  Go!"
+
+"No, father, I will not--I shall not--till you have promised--till these
+men promise--"
+
+"We can't promise you anything, miss--however much we might like it.  It
+ain't a question for women, no how.  There's been a crime committed--a
+murder, as ye yourself know.  There must be no cheating of justice.
+There's no mercy for a murderer!"
+
+"No mercy!" echo a score of angry voices.  "Let him be hanged--hanged--
+hanged!"
+
+The Regulators are no longer restrained by the fair presence.  Perhaps
+it has but hastened the fatal moment.  The soul of Cassius Calhoun is
+not the only one in that crowd stirred by the spirit of envy.  The horse
+hunter is now hated for his supposed good fortune.
+
+In the tumult of revengeful passion, all gallantry is forgotten,--that
+very virtue for which the Texan is distinguished.
+
+The lady is led aside--dragged rather than led--by her cousin, and at
+the command of her father.  She struggles in the hated arms that hold
+her--wildly weeping, loudly protesting against the act of inhumanity.
+
+"Monsters! murderers!" are the phrases that fall from her lips.
+
+Her struggles are resisted; her speeches unheeded.  She is borne back
+beyond the confines of the crowd--beyond the hope of giving help to him,
+for whom she is willing to lay down her life!
+
+Bitter are the speeches Calhoun is constrained to hear--heartbreaking
+the words now showered upon him.  Better for him he had not taken hold
+of her.
+
+It scarce consoles him--that certainty of revenge.  His rival will soon
+be no more; but what matters it?  The fair form writhing in his grasp
+can never be consentingly embraced.  He may kill the hero of her heart,
+but not conquer for himself its most feeble affection!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTY FIVE.
+
+STILL ANOTHER INTERLUDE.
+
+For a third time is the tableau reconstructed--spectators and actors in
+the dread drama taking their places as before.
+
+The lazo is once more passed over the limb; the same two scoundrels
+taking hold of its loose end--this time drawing it towards them till it
+becomes taut.
+
+For the third time arises the reflection:
+
+"Soon must the soul of Maurice Gerald go back to its God!"
+
+Now nearer than ever does the unfortunate man seem to his end.  Even
+love has proved powerless to save him!  Wha power on earth can be
+appealed to after this?  None likely to avail.
+
+But there appears no chance of succour--no time for it.  There is no
+mercy in the stern looks of the Regulators--only impatience.  The
+hangmen, too, appear in a hurry--as if they were in dread of another
+interruption.  They manipulate the rope with the ability of experienced
+executioners.  The physiognomy of either would give colour to the
+assumption, that they had been accustomed to the calling.
+
+In less than sixty seconds they shall have finished the "job."
+
+"Now then, Bill!  Are ye ready?" shouts one to the other--by the
+question proclaiming, that they no longer intend to wait for the word.
+
+"All right!" responds Bill.  "Up with the son of a skunk!  Up with him!"
+
+There is a pull upon the rope, but not sufficient to raise the body into
+an erect position.  It tightens around the neck; lifts the head a little
+from the ground, but nothing more!
+
+Only one of the hangmen has given his strength to the pull.  "Haul, damn
+you!" cries Bill, astonished at the inaction of his assistant.  "Why the
+hell don't you haul?"
+
+Bill's back is turned towards an intruder, that, seen by the other, has
+hindered him from lending a hand.  He stands as if suddenly transformed
+into stone!
+
+"Come!" continues the chief executioner.  "Let's go at it again--both
+together.  Yee--up!  Up with him!"
+
+"_No ye don't_!" calls out a voice in the tones of a stentor; while a
+man of colossal frame, carrying a six-foot rifle, is seen rushing out
+from among the trees, in strides that bring him almost instantly into
+the thick of the crowd.
+
+"No ye don't!" he repeats, stopping over the prostrate body, and
+bringing his long rifle to bear upon the ruffians of the rope.  "Not yet
+a bit, as this coon kalkerlates.  You, Bill Griffin; pull that piece o'
+pleeted hoss-hair but the eighth o' an inch tighter, and ye'll git a
+blue pill in yer stummuk as won't agree wi' ye.  Drop the rope, durn ye!
+Drop it!"
+
+The screaming of Zeb Stump's mare scarce created a more sudden diversion
+than the appearance of Zeb himself--for it was he who had hurried upon
+the ground.
+
+He was known to nearly all present; respected by most; and feared by
+many.
+
+Among the last were Bill Griffin, and his fellow rope-holder.  No longer
+holding it: for at the command to drop it, yielding to a quick
+perception of danger, both had let go; and the lazo lay loose along the
+sward.
+
+"What durned tom-foolery's this, boys?" continues the colossus,
+addressing himself to the crowd, still speechless from surprise.  "Ye
+don't mean hangin', do ye?"
+
+"We do," answers a stern voice.  "And why not?" asks another.
+
+"Why not!  Ye'd hang a fellur-citizen 'ithout trial, wud ye?"
+
+"Not much of a fellow-citizen--so far as that goes.  Besides, he's had a
+trial--a fair trial."
+
+"I'deed.  A human critter to be condemned wi' his brain in a state o'
+dulleerium!  Sent out o' the world 'ithout knowin' that he's in it!  Ye
+call that a fair trial, do ye?"
+
+"What matters it, if we know he's guilty?  We're all satisfied about
+that."
+
+"The hell ye air!  Wagh!  I aint goin' to waste words wi' sech as you,
+Jim Stoddars.  But for _you_, Sam Manly, an yerself, Mister
+Peintdexter--shurly ye aint agreed to this hyur proceeding which, in my
+opeenyun, 'ud be neyther more nor less 'n murder?"
+
+"You haven't heard all, Zeb Stump," interposes the Regulator Chief, with
+the design to justify his acquiescence in the act.  "There are facts--!"
+
+"Facts be durned!  An' fancies, too!  I don't want to hear 'em.  It'll
+be time enuf for thet, when the thing kum to a reg'lar trial; the which
+shurly nob'dy hyur'll objeck to--seein' as thur aint the ghost o' a
+chance for _him_ to git off.  Who air the individooal that objecks?"
+
+"You take too much upon you, Zeb Stump.  What is it your business, we'd
+like to know?  The man that's been murdered wasn't _your_ son; nor your
+brother, nor your cousin neither!  If he had been, you'd be of a
+different way of thinking, I take it."
+
+It is Calhoun who has made this interpolation--spoken before with so
+much success to his scheme.
+
+"I don't see that it concerns you," he continues, "what course we take
+in this matter."
+
+"But _I do_.  It consarns me--fust, because this young fellur's a friend
+o' mine, though he air Irish, an a strenger; an secondly, because Zeb
+Stump aint a goin' to stan' by, an see foul play--even tho' it be on the
+purayras o' Texas."
+
+"Foul play be damned!  There's nothing of the sort.  And as for standing
+by, we'll see about that.  Boys! you're not going to be scared from your
+duty by such swagger as this?  Let's make a finish of what we've begun.
+The blood of a murdered man cries out to us.  Lay hold of the rope!"
+
+"Do; an by the eturnal! the fust that do 'll drop it a leetle quicker
+than he grups it.  Lay a claw on it--one o' ye--if ye darr.  Ye may hang
+this poor critter as high's ye like; but _not_ till ye've laid Zeb'lon
+Stump streetched dead upon the grass, wi' some o' ye alongside o' him.
+Now then!  Let me see the skunk thet's goin' to tech thet rope!"
+
+Zeb's speech is followed by a profound silence.  The people keep their
+places--partly from the danger of accepting his challenge, and partly
+from the respect due to his courage and generosity.  Also, because there
+is still some doubt in the minds of the Regulators, both as to the
+expediency, and fairness, of the course which Calhoun is inciting them
+to take.
+
+With a quick instinct the old hunter perceives the advantage he has
+gained, and presses it.
+
+"Gie the young fellur a fair trial," urges he.  "Let's take him to the
+settlement, an hev' him tried thur.  Ye've got no clur proof, that he's
+had any hand in the black bizness; and durn me! if I'd believe it unless
+I seed it wi' my own eyes.  I know how he feeled torst young
+Peintdexter.  Instead o' bein' his enemy, thur aint a man on this ground
+hed more o' a likin' for him--tho' he did hev a bit o' shindy wi' his
+precious cousin thur."
+
+"You are perhaps not aware, Mr Stump," rejoins the Regulator Chief, in
+a calm voice, "of what we've just been hearing?"
+
+"What hev ye been hearin'?"
+
+"Evidence to the contrary of what you assert.  We have proof, not only
+that there was bad blood between Gerald and young Poindexter, but that a
+quarrel took place on the very night--"
+
+"Who sez thet, Sam Manly?"
+
+"I say it," answers Calhoun, stepping a little forward, so as to be seen
+by Stump.
+
+"O, you it air, Mister Cash Calhoun!  You know thur war bad blood atween
+'em?  You seed the quarrel ye speak o'?"
+
+"I haven't said that I saw it, Zeb Stump.  And what's more I'm not going
+to stand any cross-questioning by you.  I have given my evidence, to
+those who have the right to hear it; and that's enough.  I think,
+gentlemen, you're satisfied as to the verdict.  I don't see why this old
+fool should interrupt--"
+
+"Ole fool!" echoes the hunter, with a screech; "Ole fool!  Hell an
+herrikins!  Ye call me an ole fool?  By the eturnal God! ye'll live to
+take back that speech, or my name aint Zeblun Stump, o' Kaintucky.
+Ne'er a mind now; thur's a time for everythin', an yur time may come,
+Mister Cash Calhoun, sooner than ye surspecks it."
+
+"As for a quarrel atween Henry Peintdexter an the young fellur hyur,"
+continues Zeb, addressing himself to the Regulator Chief, "I don't
+believe a word on't; nor won't, so long's thur's no better proof than
+_his_ palaverin'.  From what this chile knows, it don't stan' to reezun.
+Ye say ye've got new facks?  So've I too.  Facks I reck'n thet'll go a
+good way torst explicatin o' this mysteerus bizness, twisted up as it
+air."
+
+"What facts?" demands the Regulator Chief.  "Let's hear them, Stump."
+
+"Thur's more than one.  Fust place what do ye make o' the young fellur
+bein' wownded hisself?  I don't talk o' them scratches ye see; I believe
+them's done by coyoats that attackted him, arter they see'd he wur
+wownded.  But look at his knee Somethin' else than coyoats did _that_.
+What do _you_ make o' it, Sam Manly?"
+
+"Well, that--some of the boys here think there's been a struggle between
+him and--"
+
+"Atween him an who?" sharply interrogates Zeb.
+
+"Why, the man that's missing."
+
+"Yes, that's he who we mean," speaks one of the "boys" referred to.  "We
+all know that Harry Poindexter wouldn't a stood to be shot down like a
+calf.  They've had a tussle, and a fall among the rocks.  That's what's
+given him the swellin' in the knee.  Besides, there's the mark of a blow
+upon his head--looks like it had been the butt of a pistol.  As for the
+scratches, we can't tell what's made them.  Thorns may be; or wolves if
+you like.  That foolish fellow of his has a story about a tiger; but it
+won't do for us."
+
+"What fellur air ye talkin' o'?  Ye mean Irish Pheelum?  Where air
+_he_?"
+
+"Stole away to save his carcass.  We'll find him, as soon as we've
+settled this business; and I guess a little hanging will draw the truth
+out of him."
+
+"If ye mean abeout the tiger, ye'll draw no other truth out o' him than
+hat ye've got a'ready.  I see'd thet varmint myself, an war jest in time
+to save the young fellur from its claws.  But thet aint the peint.
+Ye've had holt o' the Irish, I 'spose.  Did he tell ye o' nothin' else
+he seed hyur?"
+
+"He had a yarn about Indians.  Who believes it?"
+
+"Wal; he tolt me the same story, and that looks like some truth in't.
+Besides, he declurs they wur playin' curds, an hyur's the things
+themselves.  I found 'em lying scattered about the floor o' the shanty.
+Spanish curds they air."
+
+Zeb draws the pack out of his pocket, and hands it over to the Regulator
+Chief.
+
+The cards, on examination, prove to be of Mexican manufacture--such as
+are used in the universal game of _monte_--the queen upon horseback
+"cavallo"--the spade represented by a sword "espada"--and the club
+"baston" symbolised by the huge paviour-like implement, seen in
+picture-books in the grasp of hairy Orson.
+
+"Who ever heard of Comanches playing cards?" demands he, who has scouted
+the evidence about the Indians.  "Damned ridiculous!"
+
+"Ridiklus ye say!" interposes an old trapper who had been twelve months
+a prisoner among the Comanches.  "Ridiklus it may be; but it's true f'r
+all that.  Many's the game this coon's seed them play, on a dressed
+burner hide for their table.  That same Mexikin _montay_ too.  I reckon
+they've larned it from thar Mexikin captives; of the which they've got
+as good as three thousand in thar different tribes.  Yes, sirree!"
+concludes the trapper.  "The Keymanchees _do_ play cards--sure as
+shootin'."
+
+Zeb Stump is rejoiced at this bit of evidence, which is more than he
+could have given himself.  It strengthens the case for the accused.  The
+fact, of there having been Indians in the neighbourhood, tends to alter
+the aspect of the affair in the minds of the Regulators--hitherto under
+the belief that the Comanches were marauding only on the other side of
+the settlement.
+
+"Sartin sure," continues Zeb, pressing the point in favour of an
+adjournment of the trial, "thur's been Injuns hyur, or some thin' durned
+like--Geesus Geehosofat!  Whar's _she_ comin' from?"
+
+The clattering of hoofs, borne down from the bluff, salutes the ear of
+everybody at the same instant of time.
+
+No one needs to inquire, what has caused Stump to give utterance to that
+abrupt interrogatory.  Along the top of the cliff, and close to its
+edge, a horse is seen, going at a gallop.  There is a woman--a lady--
+upon his back, with hat and hair streaming loosely behind her--the
+string hindering the hat from being carried altogether away!
+
+So wild is the gallop--so perilous from its proximity to the precipice--
+you might suppose the horse to have run away with his rider.
+
+But no.  You may tell that he has not, by the actions of the equestrian
+herself.  She seems not satisfied with the pace; but with whip, spur,
+and voice keeps urging him to increase it!
+
+This is plain to the spectators below; though they are puzzled and
+confused by her riding so close to the cliff.
+
+They stand in silent astonishment.  Not that they are ignorant of who it
+is.  It would be strange if they were.  That woman equestrian--
+man-seated in the saddle--once seen was never more to be forgotten.
+
+She is recognised at the first glance.  One and all know the reckless
+galloper to be the guide--from whom, scarce half-an-hour ago, they had
+parted upon the prairie.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTY SIX.
+
+CHASED BY COMANCHES.
+
+It was Isidora who had thus strangely and suddenly shown herself.  What
+was bringing her back?  And why was she riding at such a perilous pace?
+
+To explain it, we must return to that dark reverie, from which she was
+startled by her encounter with the "Tejanos."
+
+While galloping away from the Alamo, she had not thought of looking
+back, to ascertain whether she was followed.  Absorbed in schemes of
+vengeance, she had gone on--without even giving a glance behind.
+
+It was but slight comfort to her to reflect: that Louise Poindexter had
+appeared equally determined upon parting from the jacale.  With a
+woman's intuitive quickness, she suspected the cause; though she knew,
+too well, it was groundless.
+
+Still, there was some pleasure in the thought: that her rival, ignorant
+of her happy fortune, was suffering like herself.
+
+There was a hope, too, that the incident might produce estrangement in
+the heart of this proud Creole lady towards the man so condescendingly
+beloved; though it was faint, vague, scarce believed in by her who
+conceived it.
+
+Taking her own heart as a standard, she was not one to lay much stress
+on the condescension of love: her own history was proof of its levelling
+power.  Still was there the thought that her presence at the jacale had
+given pain, and might result in disaster to the happiness of her hated
+rival.
+
+Isidora had begun to dwell upon this with a sort of subdued pleasure;
+that continued unchecked, till the time of her rencontre with the
+Texans.
+
+On turning back with these, her spirits underwent a change.  The road to
+be taken by Louise, should have been the same as that, by which she had
+herself come.  But no lady was upon it.
+
+The Creole must have changed her mind, and stayed by the jacale--was,
+perhaps, at that very moment performing the _metier_ Isidora had so
+fondly traced out for herself?
+
+The belief that she was about to bring shame upon the woman who had
+brought ruin upon her, was the thought that now consoled her.
+
+The questions put by Poindexter, and his companions, sufficiently
+disclosed the situation.  Still clearer was it made by the final
+interrogations of Calhoun; and, after her interrogators had passed away,
+she remained by the side of the thicket--half in doubt whether to ride
+on to the Leona, or go back and be the spectator of a scene, that, by
+her own contrivance, could scarce fail to be exciting.
+
+She is upon the edge of the chapparal, just inside the shadow of the
+timber.  She is astride her grey steed, that stands with spread nostril
+and dilated eye, gazing after the _cavallada_ that has late parted from
+the spot--a single horseman in the rear of the rest.  Her horse might
+wonder why he is being thus ridden about; but he is used to sudden
+changes in the will of his capricious rider.
+
+She is looking in the same direction--towards the _alhuehuete_;--whose
+dark summit towers above the bluffs of the Alamo.
+
+She sees the searchers descend; and, after them, the man who has so
+minutely questioned her.  As his head sinks below the level of the
+plain, she fancies herself alone upon it.
+
+In this fancy she is mistaken.
+
+She remains irresolute for a time--ten--fifteen--twenty minutes.
+
+Her thoughts are not to be envied.  There is not much sweetness in the
+revenge, she believes herself instrumental in having accomplished.  If
+she has caused humiliation to the woman she hates, along with it she may
+have brought ruin upon the man whom she loves?  Despite all that has
+passed, she cannot help loving him!
+
+"_Santissima Virgen_!" she mutters with a fervent earnestness.  "What
+have I done?  If these _men_--_Los Reguladores_--the dreaded judges I've
+heard of--if they should find him guilty, where may it end?  In his
+death!  Mother of God!  I do not desire that.  Not by their hands--no!
+no!  How wild their looks and gestures--stern--determined!  And when I
+pointed out the way, how quickly they rode off, without further thought
+of me!  Oh, they have made up their minds.  Don Mauricio is to die!  And
+he a stranger among them--so have I heard.  Not of their country, or
+kindred; only of the same race.  Alone, friendless, with many enemies.
+_Santissima_! what am I thinking of?  Is not he, who has just left me,
+that cousin of whom I've heard speak!  _Ay de mi_!  Now do I understand
+the cause of his questioning.  His heart, like mine own--like mine own!"
+
+She sits with her gaze bent over the open plain.  The grey steed still
+frets under restraint, though the _cavallada_ has long since passed out
+of sight.  He but responds to the spirit of his rider; which he knows to
+be vacillating--chafing under some irresolution.
+
+'Tis the horse that first discovers a danger, or something that scents
+of it.  He proclaims it by a low tremulous neigh, as if to attract her
+attention; while his head, tossed back towards the chapparal, shows that
+the enemy is to be looked for in that direction.
+
+Who, or what is it?
+
+Warned by the behaviour of her steed, Isidora faces to the thicket, and
+scans the path by which she has lately passed through it.  It is the
+road, or trail, leading to the Leona.  'Tis only open to the eye for a
+straight stretch of about two hundred yards.  Beyond, it becomes
+screened by the bushes, through which it goes circuitously.
+
+No one is seen upon it--nothing save two or three lean coyotes, that
+skulk under the shadow of the trees--scenting the shod tracks, in the
+hope of finding some scrap, that may have fallen from the hurrying
+horsemen.
+
+It is not these that have caused the grey to show such excitement.  He
+sees them; but what of that?  The prairie-wolf is a sight to him neither
+startling, nor rare.  There is something else--something he has either
+scented, or heard.
+
+Isidora listens: for a time without hearing aught to alarm her.  The
+howl-bark of the jackal does not beget fear at any time; much less in
+the joy of the daylight.  She hears only this.  Her thoughts again
+return to the "Tejanos"--especially to him who has last parted from her
+side.  She is speculating on the purpose of his earnest interrogation;
+when once more she is interrupted by the action of her horse.
+
+The animal shows impatience at being kept upon the spot; snuffs the air;
+snorts; and, at length, gives utterance to a neigh, far louder than
+before!
+
+This time it is answered by several others, from horses that appear to
+be going along the road--though still hidden behind the trees.  Their
+hoof-strokes are heard at the same time.
+
+But not after.  The strange horses have either stopped short, or gone
+off at a gentle pace, making no noise!
+
+Isidora conjectures the former.  She believes the horses to be ridden;
+and that their riders have checked them up, on hearing the neigh of her
+own.
+
+She quiets him, and listens.
+
+A humming is heard through the trees.  Though indistinct, it can be told
+to be the sound of men's voices--holding a conversation in a low
+muttered tone.
+
+Presently it becomes hushed, and the chapparal is again silent.  The
+horsemen, whoever they are, continue halted--perhaps hesitating to
+advance.
+
+Isidora is scarce astonished at this, and not much alarmed.  Some
+travellers, perhaps, _en route_ for the Rio Grande--or, it may be, some
+stragglers from the Texan troop--who, on hearing a horse neigh, have
+stopped from an instinct of precaution.  It is only natural--at a time,
+when Indians are known to be on the war-path.
+
+Equally natural, that she should be cautious about encountering the
+strangers--whoever they may be; and, with this thought, she rides softly
+to one side--placing herself and her horse under cover of a mezquit
+tree; where she again sits listening.
+
+Not long, before discovering that the horsemen have commenced advancing
+towards her--not along the travelled trail, but through the thicket!
+And not all together, but as if they had separated, and were
+endeavouring to accomplish a surround!
+
+She can tell this, by hearing the hoof-strokes in different directions:
+all going gently, but evidently diverging from each other; while the
+riders are preserving a profound silence, ominous either of cunning or
+caution--perhaps of evil intent?
+
+They may have discovered her position?  The neighing of her steed has
+betrayed it?  They may be riding to get round her--in order to advance
+from different sides, and make sure of her capture?
+
+How is she to know that their intent is not hostile?  She has enemies--
+one well remembered--Don Miguel Diaz.  Besides, there are the
+Comanches--to be distrusted at all times, and now no longer _en paz_.
+
+She begins to feel alarm.  It has been long in arising; but the
+behaviour of the unseen horsemen is at least suspicious.  Ordinary
+travellers would have continued along the trail.  These are sneaking
+through the chapparal!
+
+She looks around her, scanning her place of concealment.  She examines,
+only to distrust it.  The thin, feathery frondage of the mezquit will
+not screen her from an eye passing near.  The hoof-strokes tell, that
+more than one cavalier is coming that way.  She must soon be discovered.
+
+At the thought, she strikes the spur into her horse's side, and rides
+out from the thicket.  Then, turning along the trail, she trots on into
+the open plain, that extends towards the Alamo.
+
+Her intention is to go two or three hundred yards--beyond range of
+arrow, or bullet--then halt, until she can discover the character of
+those who are advancing--whether friends, or to be feared.
+
+If the latter, she will trust to the speed of her gallant grey to carry
+her on to the protection of the "Tejanos."
+
+She does not make the intended halt.  She is hindered by the horsemen,
+at that moment seen bursting forth from among the bushes, simultaneously
+with each other, and almost as soon as herself!
+
+They spring out at different points; and, in converging lines, ride
+rapidly towards her!
+
+A glance shows them to be men of bronze-coloured skins, and half naked
+bodies--with red paint on their faces, and scarlet feathers sticking up
+out of their hair.
+
+"_Los Indios_!" mechanically mutters the Mexican, as, driving the rowels
+against the ribs of her steed, she goes off at full gallop for the
+_alhuehuete_.
+
+A quick glance behind shows her she is pursued; though she knows it
+without that.  The glance tells her more,--that the pursuit is close and
+earnest--so earnest that the Indians, contrary to their usual custom,
+_do not yell_!
+
+Their silence speaks of a determination to capture her; and as if by a
+plan already preconcerted!
+
+Hitherto she has had but little fear of an encounter with the red rovers
+of the prairie.  For years have they been _en paz_--both with Texans and
+Mexicans; and the only danger to be dreaded from them was a little
+rudeness when under the influence of drink--just as a lady, in civilised
+life, may dislike upon a lonely road, to meet a crowd of "navigators,"
+who have been spending their day at the beer-house.
+
+Isidora has passed through a peril of this kind, and remembers it--with
+less pain from the thought of the peril itself, than the ruin it has led
+to.
+
+But her danger is different now.  The peace is past.  There is war upon
+the wind.  Her pursuers are no longer intoxicated with the fire-water of
+their foes.  They are thirsting for blood; and she flies to escape not
+only dishonour, but it may be death!
+
+On over that open plain, with all the speed she can take out of her
+horse,--all that whip, and spur, and voice can accomplish!
+
+She alone speaks.  Her pursuers are voiceless--silent as spectres!
+
+Only once does she glance behind.  There are still but four of them; but
+four is too many against one--and that one a woman!
+
+There is no hope, unless she can get within hail of the Texans.
+
+She presses on for the _alhuehuete_.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTY SEVEN.
+
+LOS INDIOS!
+
+The chased equestrian is within three hundred yards of the bluff, over
+which the tree towers.  She once more glances behind her.
+
+"_Dios me ampare_!"  (God preserve me.)
+
+God preserve her!  She will be too late!
+
+The foremost of her pursuers has lifted the lazo from his saddle horn:
+he is winding it over his head!
+
+Before she can reach the head of the pass, the noose will be around her
+neck, and then--
+
+And then, a sudden thought flashes into her mind--thought that promises
+escape from the threatened strangulation.
+
+The cliff that overlooks the Alamo is nearer than the gorge, by which
+the creek bottom must be reached.  She remembers that its crest is
+visible from the jacale.
+
+With a quick jerk upon the rein, she diverges from her course; and,
+instead of going on for the _alhuehuete_, she rides directly towards the
+bluff.
+
+The change puzzles her pursuers--at the same time giving them
+gratification.  They well know the "lay" of the land.  They understand
+the trending of the cliff; and are now confident of a capture.
+
+The leader takes a fresh hold of his lazo, to make more sure of the
+throw.  He is only restrained from launching it, by the certainty she
+cannot escape.
+
+"_Chingaro_!" mutters he to himself, "if she go much farther, she'll be
+over the precipice!"
+
+His reflection is false.  She goes farther, but not over the precipice.
+With another quick pull upon the rein she has changed her course, and
+rides along the edge of it--so close as to attract the attention of the
+"Tejanos" below, and elicit from Zeb Stump that quaint exclamation--only
+heard upon extraordinary occasions--
+
+"Geesus Geehosofat!"
+
+As if in answer to the exclamation of the old hunter--or rather to the
+interrogatory with which he has followed it up--comes the cry of the
+strange equestrian who has shown herself on the cliff.
+
+"_Los Indios!  Los Indios_!"
+
+No one who has spent three days in Southern Texas could mistake the
+meaning of that phrase--whatever his native tongue.  It is the alarm cry
+which, for three hundred years, has been heard along three thousand
+miles of frontier, in three different languages--"Les Indiens!  Los
+Indios! the Indians!"
+
+Dull would be the ear, slow the intellect, that did not at once
+comprehend it, along with the sense of its associated danger.
+
+To those who hear it at the jacale it needs no translation.  They know
+that she, who has given utterance to it, is pursued by Indians--as
+certain as if the fact had been announced in their own Saxon vernacular.
+
+They have scarce time to translate it into this--even in thought--when
+the same voice a second time salutes their ears:--"Tejanos!  Cavalleros!
+save me! save me!  Los Indios!  I am chased by a troop.  They are behind
+me--close--close--"
+
+Her speech, though continued, is no longer heard distinctly.  It is no
+longer required to explain what is passing upon the plain above.
+
+She has cleared the first clump of tree tops by scarce twenty yards,
+when the leading savage shoots out from the same cover, and is seen,
+going in full gallop, against the clear sky.
+
+Like a sling he spins the lazo loop around his head.  So eager is he to
+throw it with sure aim, that he does not appear to take heed of what the
+fugitive has said--spoken as she went at full speed: for she made no
+stop, while calling out to the "Tejanos."  He may fancy it has been
+addressed to himself--a final appeal for mercy, uttered in a language he
+does not understand: for Isidora had spoken in English.
+
+He is only undeceived, as the sharp crack of a rifle comes echoing out
+of the glen,--or perhaps a little sooner, as a stinging sensation in his
+wrist causes him to let go his lazo, and look wonderingly for the why!
+
+He perceives a puff of sulphureous smoke rising from below.
+
+A single glance is sufficient to cause a change in his tactics.  In that
+glance he beholds a hundred men, with the gleam of a hundred gun
+barrels!
+
+His three followers see them at the same time; and as if moved by the
+same impulse, all four turn in their tracks, and gallop away from the
+cliff--quite as quickly as they have been approaching it.
+
+"'Tur a pity too," says Zeb Stump, proceeding to reload his rifle.  "If
+'t hedn't a been for the savin' o' her, I'd a let 'em come on down the
+gully.  Ef we ked a captered them, we mout a got somethin' out o' 'em
+consarnin' this queer case o' ourn.  Thur aint the smell o' a chance
+now.  It's clur they've goed off; an by the time we git up yander,
+they'll be hellurd."
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+The sight of the savages has produced another quick change in the
+tableau formed in front of the mustanger's hut--a change squally sudden
+in the thoughts of those who compose it.
+
+The majority who deemed Maurice Gerald a murderer has become transformed
+into a minority; while those who believed him innocent are now the men
+whose opinions are respected.
+
+Calhoun and his bullies are no longer masters of the situation; and on
+the motion of their chief the Regulator Jury is adjourned.  The new
+programme is cast in double quick time.  A score of words suffice to
+describe it.  The accused is to be carried to the settlement--there to
+be tried according to the law of the land.
+
+And now for the Indians--whose opportune appearance has caused this
+sudden change, both of sentiment and design.  Are they to be pursued?
+That of course.  But when?  Upon the instant?  Prudence says, no.
+
+Only four have been seen.  But these are not likely to be alone.  They
+may be the rear-guard of four hundred?
+
+"Let us wait till the woman comes down," counsels one of the timid.
+"They have not followed her any farther.  I think I can hear her riding
+this way through the gulley.  Of course she knows it--as it was she who
+directed us."
+
+The suggestion appears sensible to most upon the ground.  They are not
+cowards.  Still there are but few of them, who have encountered the wild
+Indian in actual strife; and many only know his more debased brethren in
+the way of trade.
+
+The advice is adopted.  They stand waiting for the approach of Isidora.
+
+All are now by their horses; and some have sought shelter among the
+trees.  There are those who have an apprehension: that along with the
+Mexican, or close after her, may still come a troop of Comanches.
+
+A few are otherwise occupied--Zeb Stump among the number.  He takes the
+gag from between the teeth of the respited prisoner, and unties the
+thongs hitherto holding him too fast.
+
+There is one who watches him with a strange interest, but takes no part
+in the proceeding.  Her part has been already played--perhaps too
+prominently.  She shuns the risk of appearing farther conspicuous.
+
+Where is the niece of Don Silvio Mortimez?  She has not yet come upon
+the ground!  The stroke of her horse's hoof is no longer heard!  There
+has been time--more than time--for her to have reached the jacale!
+
+Her non-appearance creates surprise--apprehension--alarm.  There are men
+there who admire the Mexican maiden--it is not strange they should--some
+who have seen her before, and some who never saw her until that day.
+
+Can it be, that she has been overtaken and captured?  The interrogatory
+passes round.  No one can answer it; though all are interested in the
+answer.
+
+The Texans begin to feel something like shame.  Their gallantry was
+appealed to, in that speech sent them from the cliff, "Tejanos!
+Cavalleros!"
+
+Has she who addressed it succumbed to the pursuer?  Is that beauteous
+form in the embrace of a paint-bedaubed savage?
+
+They listen with ears intent,--many with pulses that beat high, and
+hearts throbbing with a keen anxiety.
+
+They listen in vain.
+
+There is no sound of hoof--no voice of woman--nothing, except the
+champing of bitts heard close by their side!
+
+Can it be that she is taken?
+
+Now that the darker design is stifled within their breasts, the
+hostility against one of their own race is suddenly changed into a more
+congenial channel.
+
+Their vengeance, rekindled, burns fiercer than ever--since it is
+directed against the hereditary foe.
+
+The younger and more ardent--among whom are the admirers of the Mexican
+maiden--can bear the uncertainty no longer.  They spring into their
+saddles, loudly declaring their determination to seek her--to save her,
+or perish in the attempt.
+
+Who is to gainsay them?  Her pursuers--her captors perhaps--may be the
+very men they have been in search of--the murderers of Henry Poindexter!
+
+No one opposes their intent.  They go off in search of Isidora--in
+pursuit of the prairie pirates.
+
+Those who remain are but few in number; though Zeb Stump is among them.
+
+The old hunter is silent, as to the expediency of pursuing the Indians.
+He keeps his thoughts to himself: his only seeming care is to look after
+the invalid prisoner--still unconscious--still guarded by the
+Regulators.
+
+Zeb is not the only friend who remains true to the mustanger in his hour
+of distress.  There are two others equally faithful.  One a fair
+creature, who watches at a distance, carefully concealing the eager
+interest that consumes her.  The other, a rude, almost ludicrous
+individual, who, close by his side, addresses the respited man as his
+"masther."  The last is Phelim, who has just descended from his perch
+among the parasites of an umbrageous oak--where he has for some time
+stayed--a silent spectator of all that has been transpiring.  The change
+of situation has tempted him back to earth, and the performance of that
+duty for which he came across the Atlantic.
+
+No longer lies our scene upon the Alamo.  In another hour the jacale is
+deserted--perhaps never more to extend its protecting roof over Maurice
+the mustanger.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTY EIGHT.
+
+THE DISAPPOINTED CAMPAIGNERS.
+
+The campaign against the Comanches proved one of the shortest--lasting
+only three or four days.  It was discovered that these Ishmaelites of
+the West did not mean war--at least, on a grand scale.  Their descent
+upon the settlements was only the freak of some young fellows, about to
+take out their degree as _braves_, desirous of signalising the event by
+"raising" a few scalps, and capturing some horses and horned cattle.
+
+Forays of this kind are not unfrequent among the Texan Indians.  They
+are made on private account--often without the knowledge of the chief,
+or elders of the tribe--just as an ambitious young mid, or ensign, may
+steal off with a score of companions from squadron or camp, to cut out
+an enemy's craft, or capture his picket guard.  These _marauds_ are
+usually made by young Indians out on a hunting party, who wish to return
+home with something to show besides the spoils of the chase; and the
+majority of the tribe is often ignorant of them till long after the
+event.  Otherwise, they might be interdicted by the elders; who, as a
+general thing, are averse to such _filibustering_ expeditions--deeming
+them not only imprudent, but often injurious to the interests of the
+community.  Only when successful are they applauded.
+
+On the present occasion several young Comanches had taken out their
+war-diploma, by carrying back with them the scalps of a number of white
+women and boys.  The horses and horned cattle were also collected; but
+these, being less convenient of transport than the light scalp-locks,
+had been recaptured.
+
+The red-skinned filibusters, overtaken by a detachment of Mounted
+Rifles, among the hills of the San Saba, were compelled to abandon their
+four-footed booty, and only saved their own skins by a forced retreat
+into the fastnesses of the "Llano Estacado."
+
+To follow them beyond the borders of this sterile tract would have
+required a _commissariat_ less hastily established than that with which
+the troops had sallied forth; and, although the relatives of the scalped
+settlers clamoured loudly for retaliation, it could only be promised
+them after due time and preparation.
+
+On discovering that the Comanches had retreated beyond their neutral
+ground, the soldiers of Uncle Sam had no choice but to return to their
+ordinary duties--each detachment to its own fort--to await further
+commands from the head-quarters of the "department."
+
+The troops belonging to Port Inge--entrusted with the guardianship of
+the country as far as the Rio Nueces--were surprised on getting back to
+their cantonment to discover that they had been riding in the wrong
+direction for an encounter with the Indians!  Some of them were half mad
+with disappointment: for there were several--young Hancock among the
+number--who had not yet run their swords through a red-skin, though
+keenly desirous of doing so!
+
+No doubt there is inhumanity in the idea.  But it must be remembered,
+that these ruthless savages have given to the white man peculiar
+provocation, by a thousand repetitions of three diabolical crimes--rape,
+rapine, and murder.
+
+To talk of their being the aborigines of the country--the real, but
+dispossessed, owners of the soil--is simple nonsense.  This sophism, of
+the most spurious kind, has too long held dominion over the minds of
+men.  The whole human race has an inherent right to the whole surface of
+the earth: and if any infinitesimal fraction of the former by chance
+finds itself idly roaming over an extended portion of the latter, their
+exclusive claim to it is almost too absurd for argument--even with the
+narrowest-minded disciple of an aborigines society.
+
+Admit it--give the _hunter_ his half-dozen square miles--for he will
+require that much to maintain him--leave him in undisputed possession to
+all eternity--and millions of fertile acres must remain untilled, to
+accommodate this whimsical theory of _national_ right.  Nay, I will go
+further, and risk reproach, by asserting:--that not only the savage, so
+called, but civilised people should be unreservedly dispossessed--
+whenever they show themselves incapable of turning to a good account the
+resources which Nature has placed within their limits.
+
+The _exploitation_ of Earth's treasures is a question not confined to
+nations.  It concerns the whole family of mankind.
+
+In all this there is not one iota of agrarian doctrine--not a thought of
+it.  He who makes these remarks is the last man to lend countenance to
+_communism_.
+
+It is true that, at the time spoken of, there were ruffians in Texas who
+held the life of a red-skin at no higher value than an English
+gamekeeper does that of a stoat, or any other vermin, that trespasses on
+his preserves.  No doubt these ruffians are there still: for ten years
+cannot have effected much change in the morality of the Texan frontier.
+
+But, alas! we must now be a little cautious about calling names.  Our
+own story of Jamaica--by heaven! the blackest that has blotted the pages
+of history--has whitewashed these border _filibusteros_ to the seeming
+purity of snow!
+
+If things are to be judged by comparison, not so fiendish, then, need
+appear the fact, that the young officers of Fort Inge were some little
+chagrined at not having an opportunity to slay a score or so of
+red-skins.  On learning that, during their absence, Indians had been
+seen on the other side, they were inspired by a new hope.  They might
+yet find the opportunity of fleshing their swords, transported without
+stain--without sharpening, too--from the military school of West Point.
+
+It was a fresh disappointment to them, when a party came in on the same
+day--civilians who had gone in pursuit of the savages seen on the
+Alamo--and reported: that no Indians had been there!
+
+They came provided with proofs of their statement, which otherwise would
+have been received with incredulity--considering what had occurred.
+
+The proofs consisted in a collection of miscellaneous articles--an odd
+lot, as an auctioneer would describe it--wigs of horse-hair, cocks'
+feathers stained blue, green, or scarlet, breech-clouts of buckskin,
+mocassins of the same material, and several packages of paint, all which
+they had found concealed in the cavity of a cottonwood tree!
+
+There could be no new campaign against Indians; and the aspiring spirits
+of Fort Inge were, for the time, forced to content themselves with such
+incidents as the situation afforded.
+
+Notwithstanding its remoteness from any centre of civilised life, these
+were at the time neither tame nor uninteresting.  There were several
+subjects worth thinking and talking about.  There was the arrival, still
+of recent date, of the most beautiful woman ever seen upon the Alamo;
+the mysterious disappearance and supposed assassination of her brother;
+the yet more mysterious appearance of a horseman without a head; the
+trite story of a party of white men "playing Indian"; and last, though
+not of least interest, the news that the suspected murderer had been
+caught, and was now inside the walls of their own guardhouse--mad as a
+maniac!
+
+There were other tales told to the disappointed campaigners--of
+sufficient interest to hinder them from thinking: that at Fort Inge they
+had returned to dull quarters.  The name of Isidora Covarubio do los
+Llanos--with her masculine, but magnificent, beauty--had become a theme
+of conversation, and something was also said, or surmised, about her
+connection with the mystery that occupied all minds.
+
+The details of the strange scenes upon the Alamo--the discovery of the
+mustanger upon his couch--the determination to hang him--the act delayed
+by the intervention of Louise Poindexter--the respite due to the courage
+of Zeb Stump--were all points of the most piquant interest--suggestive
+of the wildest conjectures.
+
+Each became in turn the subject of converse and commentary, but none was
+discussed with more earnestness than that which related to the
+innocence, or guilt, of the man accused of murder.
+
+"Murder," said the philosophic Captain Sloman, "is a crime which, in my
+opinion, Maurice the mustanger is incapable of committing.  I think, I
+know the fellow well enough to be sure about that."
+
+"You'll admit," rejoined Crossman, of the Rifles, "that the
+circumstances are strong against him?  Almost conclusive, I should say."
+
+Crossman had never felt friendly towards the young Irishman.  He had an
+idea, that on one occasion the commissary's niece--the belle of the
+Fort--had looked too smilingly on the unknown adventurer.
+
+"I consider it anything but conclusive," replied Sloman.
+
+"There's no doubt about young Poindexter being dead, and having been
+murdered.  Every one believes that.  Well; who else was likely to have
+done it?  The cousin swears to having overheard a quarrel between him
+and Gerald."
+
+"That precious cousin would swear to anything that suited his purpose,"
+interposed Hancock, of the Dragoons.  "Besides, his own shindy with the
+same man is suggestive of suspicion--is it not?"
+
+"And if there _was_ a quarrel," argued the officer of infantry, "what
+then?  It don't follow there was a murder."
+
+"Then you think the fellow may have killed Poindexter in a fair fight?"
+
+"Something of the sort is possible, and even probable.  I will admit
+that much."
+
+"But what did they have a difficulty about?" asked Hancock.  "I heard
+that young Poindexter was on friendly terms with the horse-hunter--
+notwithstanding what had happened between him and Calhoun.  What could
+they have quarrelled about?"
+
+"A singular interrogation on _your_ part, Lieutenant Hancock!" answered
+the infantry officer, with a significant emphasis on the pronoun.  "As
+if men ever quarrelled about anything except--"
+
+"Except women," interrupted the dragoon with a laugh.
+
+"But which woman, I wonder?  It could not be anything relating to young
+Poindexter's sister?"
+
+"_Quien sabe_?" answered Sloman, repeating the Spanish phrase with an
+ambiguous shrug of the shoulders.
+
+"Preposterous!" exclaimed Crossman.  "A horse-catcher daring to set his
+thoughts on Miss Poindexter!  Preposterous!"
+
+"What a frightful aristocrat you are, Crossman!  Don't you know that
+love is a natural democrat; and mocks your artificial ideas of
+distinction.  I don't say that in this case there's been anything of the
+kind.  Miss Poindexter's not the only woman that might have caused a
+quarrel between the two individuals in question.  There are other
+damsels in the settlement worth getting angry about--to say nothing of
+our own fair following in the Fort; and why not--"
+
+"Captain Sloman," petulantly interrupted the lieutenant of Rifles.  "I
+must say that, for a man of your sense, you talk very inconsiderately.
+The ladies of the garrison ought to be grateful to you for the
+insinuation."
+
+"What insinuation, sir?"
+
+"Do you suppose it likely that there's one of them would condescend to
+speak to the person you've named?"
+
+"Which?  I've named two."
+
+"You understand me well enough, Sloman; and I you.  Our ladies will, no
+doubt, feel highly complimented at having their names connected with
+that of a low adventurer, a horse-thief, and suspected assassin!"
+
+"Maurice the mustanger may be the last--suspected, and that is all.  He
+is neither of the two first; and as for our ladies being above speech
+with him, in that as in many other things, you may be mistaken, Mr
+Crossman.  I've seen more of this young Irishman than you--enough to
+satisfy me that, so far as _breeding_ goes, he may compare notes with
+the best of us.  Our grand dames needn't be scared at the thought of his
+acquaintance; and, since you have raised the question, I don't think
+they would shy from it--some of them at least--if it were offered them.
+It never has.  So far as I have observed, the young fellow has behaved
+with a modesty that betokens the true gentleman.  I have seen him in
+their presence more than once, and he has conducted himself towards them
+as if fully sensible of his position.  For that matter, I don't think he
+cares a straw about one or other of them."
+
+"Indeed!  How fortunate for those, who might otherwise have been his
+rivals!"
+
+"Perhaps it is," quietly remarked the captain of infantry.
+
+"Who knows?" asked Hancock, intentionally giving a turn to the ticklish
+conversation.  "Who knows but the cause of quarrel--if there's been
+one--might not be this splendid senorita so much talked about?  I
+haven't seen her myself; but, by all accounts, she's just the sort to
+make two fellows as jealous as a pair of tiger-cats."
+
+"It might be--who knows?" drawled Crossman, who found contentment in the
+thought that the handsome Irishman might have his amorous thoughts
+turned in any other direction than towards the commissary's quarters.
+
+"They've got him in the guard-house," remarked Hancock, stating a fact
+that had just been made known to him: for the conversation above
+detailed occurred shortly after their return from the Comanche campaign.
+"His droll devil of a serving man is along with him.  What's more; the
+major has just issued an order to double the guard!  What does it mean,
+Captain Sloman--you who know so much of this fellow and his affairs?
+Surely there's no danger of his making an attempt to steal out of his
+prison?"
+
+"Not likely," replied the infantry officer, "seeing that he hasn't the
+slightest idea that he's inside of one.  I've just been to the
+guard-house to have a look at him.  He's mad as a March hare; and
+wouldn't know his own face in a looking-glass."
+
+"Mad!  In what way?" asked Hancock and the others, who were yet but half
+enlightened about the circumstances of the mustanger's capture.
+
+"A brain fever upon him--delirious?"
+
+"Is that why the guards have been doubled?  Devilish queer if it is.
+The major himself must have gone mad!"
+
+"Maybe it's the suggestion--command I should rather say--of the
+majoress.  Ha! ha! ha!"
+
+"But what _does_ it mean?  Is the old maje really afraid of his getting
+out of the guard-house?"
+
+"No--not that, I fancy.  More likely an apprehension of somebody else
+getting into it."
+
+"Ah! you mean, that--"
+
+"I mean that for Maurice the Mustanger there's more safety inside than
+out.  Some queer characters are about; and there's been talk of another
+Lynch trial.  The Regulators either repent of having allowed him a
+respite; or there's somebody hard at work in bringing about this state
+of public opinion.  It's lucky for him that the old hunter has stood his
+friend; and it's but a continuation of his good luck that we've returned
+so opportunely.  Another day, and we might have found the guardhouse
+empty--so far as its present occupants are concerned.  Now, thank God!
+the poor fellow shall have a fair trial."
+
+"When is it to take place?"
+
+"Whenever he has recovered his senses, sufficiently to know that he's
+being tried!"
+
+"It may be weeks before that."
+
+"And it may be only days--hours.  He don't appear to be very bad--that
+is, bodily.  It's his mind that's out of order--more, perhaps, from some
+strange trouble that has come over him, than any serious hurt he has
+received.  A day may make all the difference; and, from what I've just
+heard, the Regulators will insist on his being tried as soon as he shows
+a return to consciousness.  They say, they won't wait for him to recover
+from his wounds!"
+
+"Maybe he'll be able to tell a story that'll clear him.  I hope so."
+
+This was said by Hancock.
+
+"I doubt it," rejoined Crossman, with an incredulous shake of the head.
+"_Nous verrons_!"
+
+"I'm sure of it," said Sloman.  "_Nos veremos_!" he added, speaking in a
+tone that seemed founded less upon confidence than a wish that was
+father to the thought.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTY NINE.
+
+MYSTERY AND MOURNING.
+
+There is mourning in the mansion of Casa del Corvo, and mystery among
+the members of Woodley Poindexter's family.
+
+Though now only three in number, their intercourse is less frequent than
+before, and marked by a degree of reserve that must spring from some
+deep-seated cause.
+
+They meet only at the hour of meals--then conversing only on such topics
+as cannot well be shunned.
+
+There is ample explanation of the sorrow, and much of the solemnity.
+
+The death--no longer doubted--of an only son--an only brother--
+unexpected and still unexplained--should account for the melancholy mien
+both of father and daughter.
+
+It might also explain the shadow seated constantly on the brow of the
+cousin.
+
+But there is something beyond this.  Each appears to act with an irksome
+restraint in the presence of the others--even during the rare occasions,
+on which it becomes necessary to converse on the family misfortune!
+
+Beside the sorrow common to all three, they appear to have separate
+griefs that do not, and cannot, commingle.
+
+The once proud planter stays within doors--pacing from room to room, or
+around, the enclosed corridor--bending beneath a weight of woe, that has
+broken down his pride, and threatens to break his heart.  Even strong
+paternal affection, cruelly bereaved, can scarce account for the groans,
+oft accompanied by muttered curses, that are heard to issue from his
+lips!
+
+Calhoun rides abroad as of yore; making his appearance only at the hours
+of eating and sleeping, and not regularly then.
+
+For a whole day, and part of a night, he has been absent from the place.
+No one knows where; no one has the right to inquire.
+
+Louise confines herself to her own room, though not continuously.  There
+are times when she may be seen ascending to the azotea--alone and in
+silent meditation.
+
+There, nearer to Heaven, she seeks solace for the sorrows that have
+assailed her upon Earth--the loss of a beloved brother--the fear of
+losing one far more beloved, though in a different sense--perhaps, a
+little also, the thought of a scandal already attaching to her name.
+
+Of these three sorrows the second is the strongest.  The last but little
+troubles her; and the first, for a while keenly felt, is gradually
+growing calmer.
+
+But the second--the supreme pain of all--is but strengthened and
+intensified by time!
+
+She knows that Maurice Gerald is shut up within the walls of a prison--
+the strong walls of a military guard-house.
+
+It is not their strength that dismays her.  On the contrary, she has
+fears for their weakness!
+
+She has reasons for her apprehension.  She has heard of the rumours that
+are abroad; rumours of sinister significance.  She has heard talk of a
+second trial, under the presidency of Judge Lynch and his rude
+coadjutors--not the same Judge Lynch who officiated in the Alamo, nor
+all of the same jury; but a court still less scrupulous than that of the
+Regulators; composed of the ruffianism, that at any hour can be
+collected within the bounds of a border settlement--especially when
+proximate to a military post.
+
+The reports that have thus gone abroad are to some a subject of
+surprise.  Moderate people see no reason why the prisoner should be
+again brought to trial in that irregular way.
+
+The facts, that have late come to light, do not alter the case--at
+least, in any way to strengthen the testimony against him.
+
+If the four horsemen seen were not Indians--and this has been clearly
+shown by the discovery of the disguises--it is not the less likely that
+they have had to do with the death of young Poindexter.  Besides, there
+is nothing to connect _them_ with the mustanger, any more than if they
+had been real Comanches.
+
+Why, then, this antipathy against the respited prisoner, for the second
+time surging up?
+
+There is a strangeness about the thing that perplexes a good many
+people.
+
+There are a few that understand, or suspect, the cause.  A very few:
+perhaps only three individuals.
+
+Two of them are Zeb Stump and Louise Poindexter; the third Captain
+Cassius Calhoun.
+
+The old hunter, with instinct keenly on the alert, has discovered some
+underhanded action--the actors being Miguel Diaz and his men, associated
+with a half-score of like characters of a different race--the "rowdies"
+of the settlement.  Zeb has traced the action to its instigator--the
+ex-captain of volunteer cavalry.
+
+He has communicated his discovery to the young Creole, who is equal to
+the understanding of it.  It is the too clear comprehension of its truth
+that now inspires her with a keen solicitude.
+
+Anxiously she awaits every word of news--watches the road leading from
+the Fort to Casa del Corvo, as if the sentence of her own death, or the
+security of her life, hung upon the lips of some courier to come that
+way!
+
+She dares not show herself at the prison.  There are soldiers on guard,
+and spectators around it--a crowd of the idle curious, who, in all
+countries, seem to feel some sort of sombre enjoyment in the proximity
+of those who have committed great crimes.
+
+There is an additional piquancy in the circumstances of this one.  The
+criminal is insane; or, at all events, for the time out of his senses.
+
+The guard-house doors are at all hours besieged--to the great discomfort
+of the sentries--by people eager to listen to the mutterings of the
+delirious man.  A lady could not pass in without having scores of eyes
+turned inquiringly upon her.  Louise Poindexter cannot run the gauntlet
+of those looks without risk to her reputation.
+
+Left to herself, perhaps she would have attempted it.  Watched by a
+father whose suspicions are already awakened; by a near relation,
+equally interested in preserving her spotless, before the eyes of the
+world--she has no opportunity for the act of imprudence.
+
+She can only stay at home; now shut up in her solitary chamber, solaced
+by the remembrance of those ravings to which she had listened upon the
+Alamo; now upon the azotea, cheered by the recollection of that sweet
+time spent among the _mezquite_ trees, the spot itself almost
+discernible, where she had surrendered the proudest passion of her
+heart; but saddened by the thought that he to whom she surrendered it is
+now humiliated--disgraced--shut up within the walls of a gaol--perchance
+to be delivered from it only unto death!
+
+To her it was happy tidings, when, upon the morning of the fourth day,
+Zeb Stump made his appearance at Casa del Corro, bringing the
+intelligence; that the "hoss-sogers hed kum back to the Fort."
+
+There was significance in the news thus ungrammatically imparted.  There
+was no longer a danger of the perpetration of that foul act hitherto
+apprehended: a prisoner taken from his guards, not for rescue, but ruin!
+
+"Ee needn't be uneezy 'beout thet ere ewent," said Zeb, speaking with a
+confidence he had not shown for some time.  "Thur's no longer a danger
+o' it comin' to pass, Miss Lewaze.  I've tuk preecaushins agin it."
+
+"Precautions!  How, Zeb?"
+
+"Wal; fust place, I've seed the major clost arter his comin' back, an
+gied him a bit o' my mind.  I tolt him the hul story, as fur's I know it
+myself.  By good luck he ain't agin the young fellur, but the tother way
+I reck'n.  Wal, I tolt him o' the goin's on o' the hul crew--Amerikins,
+Mexikins, an all o' them--not forgettin' thet ugly Spanyard o' the name
+o' Dee-ez, thet's been one o' the sarciest o' the lot.  The ree-sult's
+been thet the major hez doubled the sentries roun' the prison, an's
+goin' to keep 'em doubled."
+
+"I am so glad!  You think there is no longer any fear from that
+quarter?"
+
+"If you mean the quarter o' Mister Migooel Dee-ez, I kin swar to it.
+Afore he thinks o' gittin' any b'dy else out o' a prison, he's got to
+git hisself out."
+
+"What; Diaz in prison!  How?  When?  Where?"
+
+"You've asked three seprit questyuns, Miss Lewaze, all o' a heep.  Wal;
+I reck'n the conveenientest way to answer 'em 'll be to take 'em
+backurds.  An' fust as to the _whar_.  As to thet, thur's but one prison
+in these parts, as 'ud be likely to hold him.  Thet is the guard-house
+at the Fort.  He's thur."
+
+"Along with--"
+
+"I know who ye're goin' to name--the young fellur.  Jest so.  They're in
+the same buildin', tho' not 'zackly in the same room.  Thur's a
+purtition atween 'em; tho' for thet matter they kin convarse, ef they're
+so inclined.  Thur's three others shet up along wi' the Mexikin--his own
+cussed cummarades.  The three 'll have somethin' to talk 'beout 'mong
+themselves, I reck'n."
+
+"This is good news, Zeb.  You told me yesterday that Diaz was active
+in--"
+
+"Gittin' hisself into a scrape, which he hev been successful in
+effectuatin'.  He's got hisself into the jug, or someb'y else hev did
+thet bizness for him."
+
+"But how--when--you've not told me?"
+
+"Geehosophat!  Miss Lewaze.  Gi' me a leetle time.  I hain't drew breath
+yit, since I kim in.  Yur second questyun war _when_.  It air eezy
+answered.  'Beout a hour agone thet ere varmint wur trapped an locked
+up.  I war at the shettin' o' the door ahint him, an kum straight
+custrut hyur arter it war done."
+
+"But you have not yet said why he is arrested."
+
+"I hain't hed a chance.  It air a longish story, an 'll take a leetle
+time in the tellin'.  Will ye listen to it now, or arter--?"
+
+"After what, Mr Stump?"
+
+"Wal, Miss Lewaze, I only meened arter--arter--I git the ole mare put
+up.  She air stannin' thur, as if she'd like to chaw a yeer o' corn, an
+somethin' to wet it down.  Both she 'nd me's been on a longish tramp
+afore we got back to the Fort; which we did scace a hour ago."
+
+"Pardon me, dear Mr Stump, for not thinking of it.  Pluto; take Mr
+Stump's horse to the stable, and see that it is fed.  Florinde!
+Florinde!  What will you eat, Mr Stump?"
+
+"Wal, as for thet, Miss Lewaze, thank ye all the same, but I ain't so
+partikler sharp set.  I war only thinkin' o' the maar.  For myself, I
+ked go a kupple o' hours longer 'ithout eetin', but ef thur's sech a
+thing as a smell o' Monongaheely 'beout the place, it 'ud do this ole
+karkidge o' mine a power o' good."
+
+"Monongahela? plenty of it.  Surely you will allow me to give you
+something better?"
+
+"Better 'n Monongaheely!"
+
+"Yes.  Some sherry--champagne--brandy if you prefer it."
+
+"Let them drink brandy as like it, and kin' git it drinkable.  Thur may
+be some o' it good enuf; an ef thur air, I'm shor it'll be foun' in the
+house o' a Peintdexter.  I only knows o' the sort the sutler keeps up at
+the Fort.  Ef thur ever wur a medicine, thet's one.  It 'ud rot the guts
+out o' a alleygatur.  No; darn thur French lickers; an specially thur
+brandy.  Gi' me the pure corn juice; an the best o' all, thet as comes
+from Pittsburgh on the Monongaheely."
+
+"Florinde!  Florinde!"
+
+It was not necessary to tell the waiting-maid for what she was wanted.
+The presence of Zeb Stump indicated the service for which she had been
+summoned.  Without waiting to receive the order she went off, and the
+moment after returned, carrying a decanter half-filled with what Zeb
+called the "pure corn juice," but which was in reality the essence of
+rye--for from this grain is distilled the celebrated "Monongahela."
+
+Zeb was not slow to refresh himself.  A full third of the contents of
+the decanter were soon put out of sight--the other two-thirds remaining
+for future potations that might be required in the course of the
+narration upon which he was about to enter.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTY.
+
+GO, ZEB, AND GOD SPEED YOU!
+
+The old hunter never did things in a hurry.  Even his style of drinking
+was not an exception; and although there was no time wasted, he quaffed
+the Monongahela in a formal leisurely manner.
+
+The Creole, impatient to hear what he had to relate, did not wait for
+him to resume speech.
+
+"Tell me, dear Zeb," said she, after directing her maid to withdraw,
+"why have they arrested this Mexican--Miguel Diaz I mean?  I think I
+know something of the man.  I have reasons."
+
+"An' you ain't the only purson may hev reezuns for knowin' him, Miss
+Lewaze.  Yur brother--but never mind 'beout that--leastwise not now.
+What Zeb Stump _do_ know, or strongly surspect, air, thet this
+same-mentioned Migooel Dee-ez hev had somethin' to do wi'--You know what
+I'm refarrin' to?"
+
+"Go on, Mr Stump!"
+
+"Wal, the story air this.  Arter we kim from the Alamo Crik, the fellurs
+that went in sarch o' them Injuns, foun' out they wan't Injuns at all.
+Ye hev heern that yurself.  From the fixins that war diskevered in the
+holler tree, it air clur that what we seed on the Bluff war a party o'
+whites.  I hed a surspishun o't myself--soon as I seed them curds they'd
+left ahint 'em in the shanty."
+
+"It was the same, then, who visited the jacale at night--the same Phalim
+saw?"
+
+"Ne'er a doubt o' it.  Them same Mexikins."
+
+"What reason have you to think they were Mexicans?"
+
+"The best o' all reezuns.  I foun' 'em out to be; traced the hul kit o'
+'em to thur _cache_."
+
+The young Creole made no rejoinder.  Zeb's story promised a revelation
+that might be favourable to her hopes.  She stood resignedly waiting for
+him to continue.
+
+"Ye see, the curds, an also some words, the which the Irish war able to
+sort o' pernounce, arter a fashun o' his own, tolt me they must a been
+o' the yeller-belly breed; an sartint 'bout that much, I war able to gie
+a tol'able guess as to whar they hed kim from.  I know'd enuf o' the
+Mexikins o' these parts to think o' four as answered thar descripshun to
+a T.  As to the Injun duds, thar warn't nuthin' in them to bamboozle me.
+Arter this, I ked a gone straight to the hul four fellurs, an pinted
+'em out for sartin.  One o' 'em, for sure sartin.  On him I'd made my
+mark.  I war confident o' havin' did thet."
+
+"Your mark!  How, Zeb?"
+
+"Ye remimber the shot I fired from the door o' the shanty?"
+
+"Oh, certainly!  I did not see the Indians.  I was under the trees at
+the time.  I saw you discharge your rifle at something."
+
+"Wal, Miss Lewaze; this hyur coon don't often dischurge thet thur weepun
+'ithout drawin' blood.  I know'd I hut the skunk; but it war rayther fur
+for the carry o' the piece, an I reckon'd the ball war a bit spent.  F'r
+all that, I know'd it must a stung him.  I seed him squirm to the shot,
+an I says to myself: Ef ther ain't a hole through his hide somewhar,
+this coon won't mind changin' skins wi' him.  Wal, arter they kim home
+wi' the story o' whites instead o' red-skins, I hed a tol'able clur idee
+o' who the sham Injuns wur, an ked a laid my claws on 'em at any minnit.
+But I didn't."
+
+"And why not, Mr Stump?  Surely you haven't allowed them to get away?
+They might be the very men who are guilty of my poor brother's--"
+
+"That's jest what this coon thort, an it war for that reezun I let 'em
+slide.  There war another reezun besides.  I didn't much like goin' fur
+from the Port, leest somethin' ugly mout turn up in my absince.  You
+unnerstan'?  There war another reezun still for not prospectin' arter
+them jest then.  I wanted to make shur o' my game."
+
+"And you have?"
+
+"Shur as shootin'.  I guessed thur wan't goin' to be any rain, an
+thurfor thur war no immeedyit hurry as to what I intended doin'.  So I
+waited till the sogers shed get back, an I ked safely leave him in the
+guard-house.  Soon as they kim in, I tuk the ole maar and rud out to the
+place whar our fellurs had struck upon the fixing.  I eezy foun' it by
+thur descripshun.  Wal; as they'd only got that greenhorn, Spangler, to
+guide 'em, I war putty sure the sign hedn't been more'n helf read; an
+that _I'd_ get somethin' out o' it, beside what they'd brought away."
+
+"I wan't disappinted.  The durndest fool as ever set fut upon a purayra,
+mout a follered the back track o' them make-believe Kimanchees.  A
+storekeeper ked a traced it acrost the purayra, though it appears
+neyther Mister Spangler nor any o' the others did.  I foun' it eezy as
+fallin' off o' a log, not 'ithstandin' thet the sarchers had rud all
+over it.  I tracked every hoss o' the four counterfits to his own
+stable."
+
+"After that?"
+
+"Arter doin' thet I hed a word wi' the major; an in helf an hour at the
+most the four beauties wur safe shot up in the guardhouse--the chief o'
+'em bein' jugged fust, leest he mout get wind o' what wur goin' forrard,
+an sneak out o' the way.  I wan't fur astray 'beout Mister Migooel
+Dee-ez bearin' my mark.  We foun' the tar o' a bullet through the fleshy
+part o' his dexter wing; an thet explained why he wur so quick at
+lettin' go his laryette."
+
+"It was he, then!" mechanically remarked Louise, as she stood
+reflecting.
+
+"Very strange!" she continued, still muttering the words to herself.
+"He it was I saw in the chapparal glade!  Yes, it must have been!  And
+the woman--this Mexican--Isidora?  Ah!  There is some deep mystery in
+all this--some dark design!  Who can unravel it?"
+
+"Tell me, dear Zeb," she asked, stepping closer to the old hunter, and
+speaking with a cartain degree of hesitancy.  "That woman--the Mexican
+lady I mean--who--who was out there.  Do you know if she has often
+visited him?"
+
+"Him!  Which him, Miss Lewaze?"
+
+"Mr Gerald, I mean."
+
+"She mout, an she moutn't--'ithout my knowin' eyther one or the tother.
+I ain't often thur myself.  The place air out o' my usooal huntin'
+ground, an I only go now an then for the sake o' a change.  The crik's
+fust rate for both deer an gobbler.  If ye ask my opeenyun, I'd say that
+thet ere gurl heven't never been thur afore.  Leestwise, I hain't heern
+o' it; an eft hed been so, I reckun Irish Pheelum ud a hed somethin' to
+say abeout it.  Besides, I hev other reezuns for thinkin' so.  I've only
+heern o' one o' the shemale sex bein' on a visit to thet shanty."
+
+"Who?" quickly interrogated the Creole, the instant after regretting
+that she had asked the question--the colour coming to her cheeks, as she
+noticed the significant glance with which Zeb had accompanied his
+concluding remark.
+
+"No matter," she continued, without waiting for the answer.
+
+"So, Zeb," she went on, giving a quick turn to the conversation, "you
+think that these men have had to do with that which is causing sorrow to
+all of us,--these Mexicans?"
+
+"To tell ye the truth, Miss Lewaze, I don't know zackly what to think.
+It air the most musteeriousest consarn as iver kim to pass on these hyur
+purayras.  Sometimes I hev the idea that the Mexikins must a did it;
+while at others, I'm in the opposite way o' thinkin', an thet some'dy
+else hev hed a han' in the black bizness.  I won't say who."
+
+"Not _him_, Zeb; not _him_!"
+
+"Not the mowstanger.  No, neer a bit o' thet.  Spite o' all that's sayed
+agin him, I hain't the leest surspishun o' his innersense."
+
+"Oh! how is he to prove it?  It is said, that the testimony is all
+against him!  No one to speak a word in his behalf!"
+
+"Wal, it ain't so sartint as to thet.  Keepin' my eye upon the others,
+an his prison; I hain't hed much chance o' gettin' abeout.  Thur's a
+opportunity now; an I mean to make use o' it.  The purayra's a big book,
+Miss Peintdexter--a wonderful big book--for them as knows how to read
+the print o't.  If not much o' a scholar otherways, Zeb'lon Stump hev
+larnt to do thet.  Thur may be some testymoney that mout help him,
+scattered over the musquit grass--jest as I've heern a Methody preecher
+say, thur `war sarmints in stones, an books in runnin' brutes.'  Eft air
+so, thur oughter be somethin' o' the kind scared up on the Alamo crik."
+
+"You think you might discover some traces?"
+
+"Wal; I'm goin' out to hev a look 'roun' me--speecially at the place
+whur I foun' the young fellur in the claws o' the spotted painter.  I
+oughter gone afore now, but for the reezun I've tolt ye.  Thank the
+Awlmighty! thur's been no wet--neer y drop; an whatsomiver sign's been
+made for a week past, kin be understood as well, as if it war did
+yisterday--that is by them as knows how to read it.  I must start
+straight away, Miss Lewaze.  I jest runned down to tell ye what hed been
+done at the Fort.  Thur's no time to be throwed away.  They let me in
+this mornin' to see the young fellur; an I'm sartin his head air gettin'
+clurrer.  Soon as it air all right, the Reg'lators say, they'll insist
+on the trial takin' place.  It may be in less'n three days; an I must
+git back afore it begins."
+
+"Go, Zeb, and God speed you on your generous errand!  Come back with
+proofs of _his_ innocence, and ever after I shall feel indebted to you
+for--for--more than life!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTY ONE.
+
+THE SORELL HORSE.
+
+Inspired by this passionate appeal, the hunter hastened towards the
+stable, where he had stalled his unique specimen of horseflesh.
+
+He found the "critter" sonorously shelling some corn-cobs, which Pluto
+had placed liberally before her.
+
+Pluto himself was standing by her side.
+
+Contrary to his usual habit, the sable groom was silent: though with an
+air anything but tranquil.  He looked rather _triste_ than excited.
+
+It might be easily explained.  The loss of his young master--by Pluto
+much beloved--the sorrow of his young mistress, equally estimated--
+perhaps some scornful speeches which he had lately been treated to from
+the lips of Morinda--and still more likely a kick he had received from
+the boot-toe of Captain Cassius--for several days assuming sole mastery
+over the mansion--amply accounted for the unquiet expression observable
+on his countenance.
+
+Zeb was too much occupied with his own thoughts to notice the sorrowful
+mien of the domestic.  He was even in too great a hurry to let the old
+mare finish her meal of maize, which she stood greatly in need of.
+
+Grasping her by the snout, he stuck the rusty snaffle between her teeth;
+pulled her long ears through the cracked leathern headstraps; and,
+turning her in the stall, was about to lead her out.
+
+It was a reluctant movement on the part of the mare--to be dragged away
+from such provender as she rarely chanced to get between her jaws.
+
+She did not turn without a struggle; and Zeb was obliged to pull
+vigorously on the bridle-rein before he could detach her muzzle from the
+manger.
+
+"Ho! ho!  Mass' Tump!" interposed Pluto.  "Why you be go 'way in dat big
+hurry?  De poor ole ma' she no half got u'm feed.  Why you no let her
+fill her belly wif de corn?  Ha! ha!  It do her power o' good."
+
+"Han't got time, nigger.  Goin' off on a bit o' a jurney.  Got abeout a
+hunderd mile to make in less 'an a kupple o' hours."
+
+"Ho! ho!  Dat ere de fassest kind o' trabbelin'.  You 'm jokin', Mass'
+Tump?"
+
+"No, I ain't."
+
+"Gorramity!  Wa--dey do make won'full journey on dese hyur prairas.  I
+reck'n dat ere hoss must a trabbled _two_ hunner mile de odder night."
+
+"What hoss?"
+
+"De ole sorrel dere--in dat furrest 'tand from de doos--Massa Cahoon
+hoss."
+
+"What makes ye think he travelled two hunder mile?"
+
+"Kase he turn home all kibbered ober wif de froff.  Beside, he wa _so_
+done up he scace able walk, when dis chile lead um down to de ribba fo'
+gib um drink.  Hee 'tagger like new-drop calf.  Ho! ho! he wa broke
+down--he wa!"
+
+"O' what night air ye palaverin', Plute?"
+
+"Wha night?  Le'ss see!  Why, ob coas de night Massa Henry wa missed
+from de plantashun.  Dat same night in de mornin', 'bout an hour atter
+de sun git up into de hebbings.  I no see de ole sorrel afore den, kase
+I no out ob my skeeta-bar till after daylight.  Den I kum 'cross to de
+'table hya, an den I see dat quadrumpid all kibbered ober wif sweet an
+froff--lookin' like he'd swimmed through de big ribba, an pantin' 's if
+he jes finish a fo' mile race on de Metairie course at New Orlean."
+
+"Who had him out thet night?"
+
+"Doan know, Mass' Tump.  Only dat nobody 'lowed to ride de sorrel 'cept
+Massa Cahoon hisself.  Ho! ho!  Ne'er a body 'lowed lay leg ober dat
+critter."
+
+"Why, wan't it himself that tuk the anymal out?"
+
+"Doan know, Massa Tump; doan know de why nor de whafor.  Dis chile
+neider see de Cap'n take um out nor fotch um in."
+
+"If yur statement air true 'beout his bein' in sech a sweat, someb'dy
+must a hed him out, an been ridin' o' him."
+
+"Ha! ha!  Someb'dy muss, dat am certing."
+
+"Looke hyur, Plute!  Ye ain't a bad sort o' a darkie, though your skin
+air o' a sut colour.  I reck'n you're tellin' the truth; an ye don't
+know who rud out the sorrel that night.  But who do ye _think_ it war?
+I'm only axin' because, as ye know, Mr Peintdexter air a friend o'
+mine, an I don't want his property to be abused--no more what belongs to
+Capen Calhoun.  Some o' the field niggers, I reck'n, hev stole the
+anymal out o' the stable, an hev been ridin' it all roun' the country.
+That's it, ain't it?"
+
+"Well, no, Mass' Tump.  Dis chile doan believe dat am it.  De fiel'
+hands not 'lowed inside hyur.  _Dey_ darn't kum in to de 'table no how.
+'Twan't any nigger upon dis plantashun as tooked out de sorrel dat
+night."
+
+"Durn it, then, who ked a tuk him out?  Maybe the overseer?  War it him
+d'ye think?"
+
+"'Twan't him needer."
+
+"Who then ked it be; unless it war the owner o' the hoss hisself?  If
+so, thur's an end o' it.  He hed the right to ride his critter wharever
+he pleased, an gallop it to hell ef thet war agreeable to him.  It ain't
+no bizness o' myen."
+
+"Ho! ho!  Nor myen, needer, Mass' Tump.  Wish I'd thought dat way dis
+mornin'."
+
+"Why do ye weesh that?  What happened this mornin' to change yur tune?"
+
+"Ho! what happen dis mornin'?  Dar happen to dis nigga a great
+misfortin'.  Ho!--ho! berry great misfortin'."
+
+"What war it?"
+
+"Golly, Massa Tump, I'se got kicked--dis berry mornin', jes 'bout an
+hour arter twelve o'clock in de day."
+
+"Kicked?"
+
+"Dat I did shoo--all round de 'table."
+
+"Oh! by the hosses!  Which o' the brutes kicked ye?"
+
+"Ho!--ho! you mistaken!  Not any ob de hosses, but de massa ob dem
+all--'cept little Spotty da, de which he doan't own.  I wa kicked by
+Mass' Cahoon."
+
+"The hell ye wur!  For what reezun?  Ye must hev _been_ misbehavin'
+yurself, nigger?"
+
+"Dis nigga wan't mis-b'avin' 't all; not as he knows on.  I only ask de
+cap'n what put de ole sorrel in such a dreful condishin dat ere night,
+an what make 'im be tired down.  He say it not my bizness; an den he
+kick me; an den he larrup me wif de cow-hide; an den he threaten; an den
+he tell me, if I ebber 'peak bout dat same ting odder time, he gib me
+hunder lashes ob de wagon whip.  He swa; oh! how he swa!  Dis chile
+nebba see Mass Cahoon so mad--nebba, in all 'im life!"
+
+"But whar's he now?  I don't see him nowhar' beout the premises; an I
+reck'n he ain't rud out, seein' as the sorrel's hyur?"
+
+"Golly, yes, Mass Tump; he jess am rode out at dis time.  He ob late go
+berry much away from de house an tay long time."
+
+"A hossback?"
+
+"Jess so.  He go on de steel grey.  Ha!--ha! he doan' ride de sorrel
+much now.  He hain't mount 'im once since de night de ole hoss wa out--
+dat night we been 'peakin' 'bout.  Maybe he tink he hab enuf hard ridin'
+den, an need long 'pell ob ress."
+
+"Look'ee hyur, Plute," said Zeb, after standing silent for a second or
+two, apparently engaged in some abstruse calculation.  "Arter all, I
+reck'n I'd better let the ole maar hev another yeer or two o' the corn.
+She's got a long spell o' travellin' afore her; an she mout break down
+on the jurney.  The more haste air sometimes the wusser speed; an
+thurfor, I kalkerlate, I'd better gie the critter her time.  While she's
+munchin' a mouthful, I ked do the same myself.  'Spose, then, you skoot
+acrosst to the kitchen, an see ef thur ain't some chawin' stuff thur--a
+bit o' cold meat an a pone o' corn bread 'll do.  Yur young mistress
+wanted me to hev somethin' to eet; but I war skeert abeout delayin', an
+refused.  Now, while I'm waitin' on the maar, I reck'n I ked pick a
+bone,--jest to pass the time."
+
+"Sartin' ye cud, Mass Tump.  I go fotch 'im in de hundreth part ob an
+instant."
+
+So saying the black-skinned Jehu started off across the _patio_, leaving
+Zeb Stump sole "master of the stole."
+
+The air of indifference with which he had concluded his dialogue with
+Pluto disappeared, the moment the latter was outside the door.
+
+It had been altogether assumed: as was proved by the earnest attitude
+that instantly replaced it.
+
+Striding across the paved causeway, that separated the two rows of
+stalls, he entered that occupied by the sorrel.
+
+The animal shied off, and stood trembling against the wall--perhaps awed
+by the look of resolution with which the hunter had approached it.
+
+"Stan' still, ye brute!" chided Zeb.  "I don't mean no harm to _you_,
+tho' by yur looks I reck'n ye're as vicious as yur master.  Stan' still,
+I say, an let's hev a look at yur fut-gear!"
+
+So saying, he stooped forward, and made an attempt to lay hold of one of
+the fore-legs.
+
+It was unsuccessful.  The horse suddenly drew up his hoof; and commenced
+hammering the flags with it, snorting--as if in fear that some trick was
+about to be played upon him.
+
+"Durn your ugly karkidge!" cried Zeb, angrily venting the words.  "Why
+don't ye stan' still?  Who's goin' to hurt ye?  Come, ole critter!" he
+continued coaxingly, "I only want to see how youv'e been shod."
+
+Again he attempted to lift the hoof, but was prevented by the restive
+behaviour of the horse.
+
+"Wal, this air a difeequilty I didn't expeck," muttered he, glancing
+round to see how it might be overcome.  "What's to be did?  It'll never
+do to hev the nigger help me--nor yet see what I'm abeout--the which he
+will ef I don't get quick through wi' it.  Dog-gone the hoss!  How am I
+to git his feet up?"
+
+For a short while he stood considering, his countenance showing a
+peevish impatience.
+
+"Cuss the critter!" he again exclaimed.  "I feel like knockin' him over
+whar he stan's.  Ha! now I hev it, if the nigger will only gie time.  I
+hope the wench will keep him waitin'.  Durn ye!  I'll make ye stan'
+still, or choke ye dead ef ye don't.  Wi' this roun' yur jugewlar, I
+reck'n ye won't be so skittish."
+
+While speaking he had lifted the trail-rope from his own saddle; and,
+throwing its noose over the head of the sorrel, he shook it down till it
+encircled the animal's neck.
+
+Then hauling upon the other end, he drew it taut as a bowstring.
+
+The horse for a time kept starting about the stall, and snorting with
+rage.
+
+But his snorts were soon changed into a hissing sound, that with
+difficulty escaped through his nostrils; and his wrath resolved itself
+into terror.  The rope tightly compressing his throat was the cause of
+the change.
+
+Zeb now approached him without fear; and, after making the slip fast,
+commenced lifting his feet one after the other--scrutinising each, in
+great haste, but at the same time with sufficient care.  He appeared to
+take note of the shape, the shoeing, the number and relative position of
+the nails--in short, everything that might suggest an idiosyncrasy, or
+assist in a future identification.
+
+On coming to the off hind foot--which he did last of the four--an
+exclamation escaped him that proclaimed some satisfactory surprise.  It
+was caused by the sight of a broken shoe--nearly a quarter of which was
+missing from the hoof, the fracture having occurred at the second nail
+from the canker.
+
+"Ef I'd know'd o' _you_," he muttered in apostrophe to the imperfect
+shoe, "I mout a' saved myself the trouble o' examinin' the tothers.
+Thur ain't much chance o' mistakin' the print you'd be likely to leave
+ahint ye.  To make shur, I'll jest take ye along wi me."
+
+In conformity with this resolve, he drew out his huge hunting knife--the
+blade of which, near the hilt, was a quarter of an inch thick--and,
+inserting it under the piece of iron, he wrenched it from the hoof.
+
+Taking care to have the nails along, he transferred it to the capacious
+pocket of his coat.
+
+Then nimbly gliding back to the trail-rope, he undid the knot; and
+restored the interrupted respiration of the sorrel.
+
+Pluto came in the moment after, bringing a plentiful supply of
+refreshments--including a tumbler of the Monongahela; and to these Zeb
+instantly applied himself, without saying a word about the interlude
+that had occurred during the darkey's absence.
+
+The latter, however, did not fail to perceive that the sorrel was out of
+sorts: for the animal, on finding itself released, stood shivering in
+the stall, gazing around in a sort of woe-begone wonder after the rough
+treatment, to which he had been submitted.
+
+"Gorramity!" exclaimed the black, "what am de matter wif de ole hoss?
+Ho! ho! he look like he wa afeerd ob you, Mass Tump!"
+
+"Oh, ye-es!" drawled Zeb, with seeming carelessness.  "I reck'n he air a
+bit afeerd.  He war makin' to get at my ole maar, so I gied him a larrup
+or two wi' the eend o' my trail rope.  Thet's what has rousted him."
+
+Pluto was perfectly satisfied with the explanation, and the subject was
+permitted to drop.
+
+"Look hyur, Plute!" said Zeb, starting another.  "Who does the shoein'
+o' yur cattle?  Thars some o' the hands air a smith, I reck'n?"
+
+"Ho! ho!  Dat dere am.  Yella Jake he do shoein'.  Fo what you ask, Mass
+Tump?"
+
+"Wal; I war thinkin' o' havin' a kupple o' shoes put on the hind feet o'
+the maar.  I reck'n Jake ud do it for me."
+
+"Ho! ho! he do it wif a thousan' welkim--dat he will, I'se shoo."
+
+"Questyun is, kin I spare the time to wait.  How long do it take him to
+put on a kupple?"
+
+"Lor, Mass Tamp, berry short while.  Jake fust-rate han' lit de bizness.
+Ebberybody say so."
+
+"He moutn't have the mateerils riddy?  It depends on whether he's been
+shoein' lately.  How long's it since he shod any o' yourn?"
+
+"More'n a week I blieb, Mass' Zeb.  Ho--ho!  Do last war Missa Looey
+hoss--de beautiful 'potty dar.  But dat won't make no differens.  I know
+he hab de fixins all ready.  I knows it, kase he go for shoe de sorrel.
+De ole hoss hab one ob de hind shoe broke.  He hab it so de lass ten
+day; an Mass Cahoon, he gib orders for it be remove.  Ho--ho! dis berry
+mornin' I hear um tell Jake."
+
+"Arter all," rejoined Zeb, as if suddenly changing his mind, "I moutn't
+hev the time to spare.  I reck'n I'll let the ole critter do 'ithout
+till I kum back.  The tramp I'm goin' on--most part o' it--lies over
+grass purayra; an won't hurt her."
+
+"No, I hevn't time," he added, after stepping outside and glancing up
+towards the sky.  "I must be off from hyur in the shakin' o' a goat's
+tail.  Now, ole gal! you've got to stop yur munchin' an take this bit o'
+iron atwixt yur teeth.  Open yur corn trap for it.  That's the putty
+pet!"
+
+And so continuing to talk--now to Pluto, now to the mare--he once more
+adjusted the headstall; led the animal out; and, clambering into the
+saddle, rode thoughtfully away.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTY TWO.
+
+ZEB STUMP ON THE TRAIL.
+
+After getting clear of the enclosures of Casa del Corvo, the hunter
+headed his animal up stream--in the direction of the Port and town.
+
+It was the former he intended to reach--which he did in a ride of less
+than a quarter of an hour.
+
+Commonly it took him three to accomplish this distance; but on this
+occasion he was in an unusual state of excitement, and he made speed to
+correspond.  The old mare could go fast enough when required--that is
+when Zeb required her and he had a mode of quickening her speed--known
+only to himself, and only employed upon extraordinary occasions.  It
+simply consisted in drawing the bowie knife from his belt, and inserting
+about in inch of its blade into the mare's hip, close to the termination
+of the spine.
+
+The effect was like magic; or, if you prefer the figure--electricity.
+So spurred, Zeb's "critter" could accomplish a mile in three minutes;
+and more than once had she been called upon to show this capability,
+when her owner was chased by Comanches.
+
+On the present occasion there was no necessity for such excessive speed;
+and the Fort was reached after fifteen minutes' sharp trotting.
+
+On reaching it, Zeb slipped out of the saddle, and made his way to the
+quarters of the commandant; while the mare was left panting upon the
+parade ground.
+
+The old hunter had no difficulty in obtaining an interview with the
+military chief of Fort Inge.  Looked upon by the officers as a sort of
+privileged character, he had the entree at all times, and could go in
+without countersign, or any of the other formalities usually demanded
+from a stranger.  The sentry passed him, as a matter of course--the
+officer of the guard only exchanged with him a word of welcome; and the
+adjutant at once announced his name to the major commanding the
+cantonment.
+
+From his first words, the latter appeared to have been expecting him.
+
+"Ah!  Mr Stump!  Glad to see you so soon.  Have you made any discovery
+in this queer affair?  From your quick return, I can almost say you
+have.  Something, I hope, in favour of this unfortunate young fellow.
+Notwithstanding that appearances are strongly against him, I still
+adhere to my old opinion--that he's innocent.  What have you learnt?"
+
+"Wal, Maje," answered Zeb, without making other obeisance than the
+simple politeness of removing his hat; "what I've larnt aint much, tho'
+enough to fetch me back to the Fort; where I didn't intend to come, till
+I'd gone a bit o' a jurney acrosst the purayras.  I kim back hyur to hev
+a word wi' yurself."
+
+"In welcome.  What is it you have to say?"
+
+"That ye'll keep back this trial as long's ye kin raisonably do so.  I
+know thur's a pressyur from the outside; but I know, too, that ye've got
+the power to resist it, an what's more, Maje--yo've got the will."
+
+"I have.  You speak quite truly about that, Mr Stump.  And as to the
+power, I have that, too, in a certain sense.  But, as you are aware, in
+our great republic, the military power must always be subservient to the
+civil--unless under martial-law, which God forbid should ever be
+required among us--even here in Texas.  I can go so far as to hinder any
+open violation of the law; but I cannot go against the law itself."
+
+"T'ant the law I want ye to go agin.  Nothin' o' the sort, Maje.  Only
+them as air like to take it into thur own hands, an twist it abeout to
+squar it wi' thur own purpisses.  Thur's them in this Settlement as 'ud
+do thet, ef they ain't rustrained.  One in espeecial 'ud like to do it;
+an I knows who thet one air--leestwise I hev a tolable clur guess o'
+him."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Yur good to keep a seecret, Maje?  I know ye air."
+
+"Mr Stump, what passes here is in confidence.  You may speak your mind
+freely."
+
+"Then my mind air: thet the man who hez dud this murder ain't Maurice
+the Mowstanger."
+
+"That's my own belief.  You know it already.  Have you nothing more to
+communicate?"
+
+"Wal, Maje, preehaps I ked communerkate a leetle more ef you insist upon
+it.  But the time ain't ripe for tellin' ye what I've larnt--the which,
+arter all, only mounts to surspishuns.  I may be wrong; an I'd rayther
+you'd let me keep 'em to myself till I hev made a short exkurshun acrost
+to the Nooeces.  Arter thet, ye'll be welkum to what I know now, besides
+what I may be able to gather off o' the parayras."
+
+"So far as I am concerned, I'm quite contented to wait for your return;
+the more willingly that I know you are acting on the side of justice.
+But what would you have me do?"
+
+"Keep back the trial, Maje--only that.  The rest will be all right."
+
+"How long?  You know that it must come on according to the usual process
+in the Criminal Court.  The judge of this circuit will not be ruled by
+me, though he may yield a little to my advice.  But there is a party,
+who are crying out for vengeance; and he may be ruled by them."
+
+"I know the party ye speak o'.  I know their leader; an maybe, afore the
+trial air over, _he_ may be the kriminal afore the bar."
+
+"Ah! you do not believe, then, that these Mexicans are the _men_!"
+
+"Can't tell, Maje, whether they air or ain't.  I do b'lieve thet they've
+hed a hand in the bizness; but I don't b'lieve thet they've been the
+prime movers in't.  It's _him_ I want to diskiver.  Kin ye promise me
+three days?"
+
+"Three days!  For what?"
+
+"Afore the trial kims on."
+
+"Oh!  I think there will be no difficulty about that.  He is now a
+prisoner under military law.  Even if the judge of the Supreme Court
+should require him to be delivered up inside that time, I can make
+objections that will delay his being taken from the guard-house.  I
+shall undertake to do that."
+
+"Maje! ye'd make a man a'most contented to live under marshul law.  No
+doubt thur air times when it air the best, tho' we independent citizens
+don't much like it.  All I've got to say air, thet ef ye stop this trial
+for three days, or tharahout, preehaps the prisoner to kim afore the bar
+may be someb'y else than him who's now in the guard-house--someb'y who
+jest at this mom't hain't the smallest serspishun o' bein' hisself
+surspected.  Don't ask me who.  Only say ye'll streetch a pint, an gi'
+me three days?"
+
+"I promise it, Mr Stump.  Though I may risk my commission as an officer
+in the American army, I give you an officer's promise, that for three
+days Maurice the Mustanger shall not go out of my guard-house.  Innocent
+or guilty, for that time he shall be protected."
+
+"Yur the true grit, Maje; an dog-gone me, ef I don't do my beest to show
+ye some day, thet I'm sensible o't.  I've nuthin' more to say now,
+'ceptin' to axe thet ye'll not tell out o' doors what I've been tellin'
+you.  Thur's them outside who, ef they only knew what this coon air
+arter, 'ud move both heving an airth to circumwent his intenshuns."
+
+"They'll have no help from me--whoever it is you are speaking of.  Mr
+Stump, you may rely upon my pledged word."
+
+"I know't, Maje, I know't.  God bless ye for a good 'un.  _Yer_ the
+right sort for Texas!"
+
+With this complimentary leave-taking the hunter strode out of
+head-quarters, and made his way back to the place where he had left his
+old mare.
+
+Once more mounting her, he rode rapidly away.  Having cleared the parade
+ground, and afterwards the outskirts of the village, he returned on the
+same path that had conducted him from Casa Del Corvo.
+
+On reaching the outskirts of Poindexter's plantation, he left the low
+lands of the Leona bottom, and spurred his old mare 'gainst the steep
+slope ascending to the upper plain.
+
+He reached it, at a point where the chapparal impinged upon the prairie,
+and there reined up under the shade of a mezquit tree.  He did not
+alight, nor show any sign of an intention to do so; but sate in the
+saddle, stooped forward, his eyes turned upon the ground, in that vacant
+gaze which denotes reflection.
+
+"Dog-gone my cats!" he drawled out in slow soliloquy.  "Thet ere
+sarkimstance are full o' signiferkince.  Calhoun's hoss out the same
+night, an fetched home a' sweetin' all over.  What ked that mean?  Durn
+me, ef I don't surspect the foul play hev kum from that quarter.  I've
+thort so all along; only it air so ridiklous to serpose thet he shed a
+killed his own cousin.  He'd do that, or any other villinous thing, ef
+there war a reezun for it.  There ain't--none as I kin think o'.  Ef the
+property hed been a goin' to the young un, then the thing mout a been
+intellygible enuf.  But it want.  Ole Peintdexter don't own a acre o'
+this hyur groun'; nor a nigger thet's upon it.  Thet I'm sartin' 'beout.
+They all belong to that cuss arready; an why shed he want to get shot
+o' the cousin?  Thet's whar this coon gets flummixed in his
+kalkerlations.  Thar want no ill will atween 'em, as ever I heerd o'.
+Thur's a state o' feelin' twixt him an the gurl, thet _he_ don't like, I
+know.  But why shed it temp him to the killin' o' her brother?
+
+"An' then thur's the mowstanger mixed in wi' it, an that shindy 'beout
+which she tolt me herself; an the sham Injuns, an the Mexikin shemale
+wi' the har upon her lip; an the hossman 'ithout a head, an hell knows
+what beside!  Geesus Geehosofat! it 'ud puzzle the brain pan o' a
+Looeyville lawyer!
+
+"Wal--there's no time to stan' speklatin' hyur.  Wi' this bit o' iron to
+assiss me, I may chance upon somethin' thet'll gie a clue to a part o'
+the bloody bizness, ef not to the hul o' it; an fust, as to the
+direcshun in which I shed steer?"
+
+He looked round, as if in search of some one to answer the
+interrogatory.
+
+"It air no use beginnin' neer the Fort or the town.  The groun' abeout
+both on 'em air paddled wi' hoss tracks like a cattle pen.  I'd best
+strike out into the purayra at onst, an take a track crossways o' the
+Rio Grande route.  By doin' thet I may fluke on the futmark I'm in
+search o'.  Yes--ye-es! thet's the most sensiblest idee."
+
+As if fully satisfied on this score, he took up his bridle-rein,
+muttered some words to his mare, and commenced moving off along the edge
+of the chapparal.
+
+Having advanced about a mile in the direction of the Nueces river, he
+abruptly changed his course; but with a coolness that told of a
+predetermined purpose.
+
+It was now nearly due west, and at right angles to the different trails
+going towards the Rio Grande.
+
+There was a simultaneous change in his bearing--in the expression of his
+features--and his attitude in the saddle.  No longer looking listlessly
+around, he sate stooping forward, his eye carefully scanning the sward,
+over a wide space on both sides of the path he was pursuing.
+
+He had ridden about a mile in the new direction, when something seen
+upon the ground caused him to start, and simultaneously pull upon the
+bridle-rein.
+
+Nothing loth, the "critter" came to a stand; Zeb, at the same time,
+flinging himself out of the saddle.
+
+Leaving the old mare to ruminate upon this eccentric proceeding, he
+advanced a pace or two, and dropped down upon his knees.
+
+Then drawing the piece of curved iron out of his capacious pocket, he
+applied it to a hoof-print conspicuously outlined in the turf.  It
+fitted.
+
+"Fits!" he exclaimed, with a triumphant gesticulation, "Dog-goned if it
+don't!"
+
+"Tight as the skin o' a tick!" he continued, after adjusting the broken
+shoe to the imperfect hoof-print, and taking it up again.  "By the
+eturnal! that ere's _the track o' a creetur--mayhap a murderer_!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTY THREE.
+
+THE PRAIRIE ISLAND.
+
+A herd of a hundred horses--or three times the number--pasturing upon a
+prairie, although a spectacle of the grandest kind furnished by the
+animal kingdom, is not one that would strike a Texan frontiersman as
+either strange, or curious.  He would think it stranger to see a
+_single_ horse in the same situation.
+
+The former would simply be followed by the reflection: "A drove of
+mustangs."  The latter conducts to a different train of thought, in
+which there is an ambiguity.  The solitary steed might be one of two
+things: either an exiled stallion, kicked out of his own _cavallada_, or
+a roadster strayed from some encampment of travellers.
+
+The practised eye of the prairie-man would soon decide which.
+
+If the horse browsed with a bit in his mouth, and a saddle on his
+shoulders, there would be no ambiguity--only the conjecture, as to how
+he had escaped from his rider.
+
+If the rider were upon his back, and the horse still browsing, there
+would be no room for conjecture--only the reflection, that the former
+must be a lazy thick-headed fellow, not to alight and let his animal
+graze in a more commodious fashion.
+
+If, however, the rider, instead of being suspected of having a thick
+head, was seen to have _no head at all_, then would there be cue for a
+thousand conjectures, not one of which might come within a thousand
+miles of the truth.
+
+Such a horse; and just such a rider, were seen upon the prairies of
+South-Western Texas in the year of our Lord 1850 something.  I am not
+certain as to the exact year--the unit of it--though I can with
+unquestionable certainty record the decade.
+
+I can speak more precisely as to the place; though in this I must be
+allowed latitude.  A circumference of twenty miles will include the
+different points where the spectral apparition made itself manifest to
+the eyes of men--both on prairie and in chapparal--in a district of
+country traversed by several northern tributaries of the Rio de Nueces,
+and some southern branches of the Rio Leona.
+
+It was seen not only by many people; but at many different times.
+First, by the searchers for Henry Poindexter and his supposed murderer;
+second, by the servant of Maurice the mustanger; thirdly, by Cassius
+Calhoun, on his midnight exploration of the chapparal; fourthly, by the
+sham Indians on that same night: and, fifthly, by Zeb Stump on the night
+following.
+
+But there were others who saw it elsewhere and on different occasions--
+hunters, herdsmen, and travellers--all alike awed, alike perplexed, by
+the apparition.
+
+It had become the talk not only of the Leona settlement, but of others
+more distant.  Its fame already reached on one side to the Rio Grande,
+and on the other was rapidly extending to the Sabine.  No one doubted
+that such a thing had been seen.  To have done so would have been to
+ignore the evidence of two hundred pairs of eyes, all belonging to men
+willing to make affidavit of the fact--for it could not be pronounced a
+fancy.  No one denied that it had been seen.  The only question was, how
+to account for a spectacle so peculiar, as to give the lie to all the
+known laws of creation.
+
+At least half a score of theories were started--more or less feasible--
+more or less absurd.  Some called it an "Indian dodge;" others believed
+it a "lay figure;" others that it was not that, but a real rider, only
+so disguised as to have his head under the serape that shrouded his
+shoulders, with perhaps a pair of eye-holes through which he could see
+to guide his horse; while not a few pertinaciously adhered to the
+conjecture, started at a very early period, that the Headless Horseman
+was Lucifer himself!
+
+In addition to the direct attempts at interpreting the abnormal
+phenomenon, there was a crowd of indirect conjectures relating to it.
+Some fancied that they could see the head, or the shape of it, down upon
+the breast, and under the blanket; others affirmed to having actually
+seen it carried in the rider's hand; while others went still further,
+and alleged: that upon the head thus seen there was a hat--a black-glaze
+sombrero of the Mexican sort, with a band of gold bullion above the
+brim!
+
+There were still further speculations, that related less to the
+apparition itself than to its connection with the other grand topic of
+the time--the murder of young Poindexter.
+
+Most people believed there was some connection between the two
+mysteries; though no one could explain it.  He, whom everybody believed,
+could have thrown some light upon the subject, was still ridden by the
+night-mare of delirium.
+
+And for a whole week the guessing continued; during which the spectral
+rider was repeatedly seen; now going at a quick gallop, now moving in
+slow, tranquil pace, across the treeless prairie: his horse at one time
+halted and vaguely gazing around him; at another with teeth to the
+ground, industriously cropping the sweet _gramma_ grass, that makes the
+pasturage of South-Western Texas (in my opinion) the finest in the
+world.
+
+Rejecting many tales told of the Headless Horseman--most of them too
+grotesque to be recorded--one truthful episode must needs be given--
+since it forms an essential chapter of this strange history.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+In the midst of the open, prairie there is a "motte"--a coppice, or
+clump of trees--of perhaps three or four acres in superficial extent.  A
+prairie-man would call it an "island," and with your eyes upon the vast
+verdant sea that surrounds it, you could not help being struck with the
+resemblance.
+
+The aboriginal of America might not perceive it.  It is a thought of the
+colonist transmitted to his descendants; who, although they may never
+have looked upon the great ocean, are nevertheless _au fait_ to its
+phraseology.
+
+By the timber island in question--about two hundred yards from its
+edge--a horse is quietly pasturing.  He is the same that carries the
+headless rider; and this weird equestrian is still bestriding him, with
+but little appearance of change, either in apparel or attitude, since
+first seen by the searchers.  The striped blanket still hangs over his
+shoulders, cloaking the upper half of his person; while the
+_armas-de-agua_, strapped over his limbs, cover them from thigh to spur,
+concealing all but their outlines.
+
+His body is bent a little forward, as if to ease the horse in getting
+his snout to the sward; which the long bridle-rein, surrendered to its
+full length, enables him to do, though still retained in hand, or
+resting over the "horn" of the saddle.
+
+Those who asserted that they saw a head, only told the truth.  There is
+a head; and, as also stated, with a hat upon it--a black sombrero, with
+bullion band as described.
+
+The head rests against the left thigh, the chin being nearly down on a
+level with the rider's knee.  Being on the near side it _can_ only be
+seen, when the spectator is on the same; and not always then, as it is
+at times concealed by a corner of the serape.
+
+At times too can a glimpse be obtained of the face.  Its features are
+well formed, but wearing a sad expression; the lips of livid colour,
+slightly parted, showing a double row of white teeth, set in a grim
+ghastly smile.
+
+Though there is no perceptible change in the _personnel_ of the Headless
+Horseman there is something new to be noted.  Hitherto he has been seen
+going alone.  Now he is in company.
+
+It cannot be called agreeable;--consisting as it does of wolves--half a
+score of them squatting closely upon the plain, and at intervals loping
+around him.
+
+By the horse they are certainly not liked; as is proved by the snorting
+and stamping of his hoof, when one of them ventures upon a too close
+proximity to his heels.
+
+The rider seems more indifferent to a score of birds--large dark birds--
+that swoop in shadowy circles around his shoulders.  Even when one
+bolder than the rest has the audacity to alight upon him, he has made no
+attempt to disturb it, raising neither hand nor arm to drive it away!
+
+Three times one of the birds has alighted thus--first upon the right
+shoulder, then upon the left, and then midway between--upon the spot
+where the head should be!
+
+The bird does not stay upon its singular perch, or only for an instant.
+If the rider does not feel the indignity the steed does; and resists it
+by rearing upward, with a fierce neighing, that frights the vultures
+off--to return again only after a short interval of shyness.
+
+His steed thus browsing, now in quiet, now disturbed by the too near
+approach of the wolves--anon by the bold behaviour of the birds--goes
+the Headless Horseman, step by step, and with long pauses of pasturing,
+around the prairie island.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTY FOUR.
+
+A SOLITARY STALKER.
+
+The singular spectacle described--extraordinary it might be termed--was
+too grave to appear grotesque.  There was some thing about it that
+savoured of the _outre-monde_.  Human eyes could not have beholden it,
+without the shivering of a human frame, and the chilling of human blood.
+
+Was it seen by human eyes in this fresh phase--with the wolves below,
+and the vultures above?
+
+It was.
+
+By one pair; and they belonging to the only man in all Texas who had
+arrived at something like a comprehension of the all-perplexing mystery.
+
+It was not yet altogether clear to him.  There were points that still
+puzzled him.  He but know it was neither a dummy, nor the Devil.
+
+His knowledge did not except him from the universal feeling of dread.
+Despite the understanding of what the thing was, he shuddered as he
+gazed upon it.
+
+He gazed upon it from the "shore" of the prairie-island; himself unseen
+under its shadows, and apparently endeavouring to remain so.
+
+And yet, with all his trembling and the desire to keep concealed, he was
+following it round and round, on the circumference of an inner circle,
+as if some magnetic power was constraining him to keep on the same
+radius, of which the point occupied by the Headless Horseman was a
+prolongation!
+
+More than this.  He had seen the latter before entering the island.  He
+had seen him far off, and might easily have shunned him.  But instead of
+doing so, he had immediately commenced making approach towards him!
+
+He had continued it--using the timber as a screen, and acting as one who
+stalks the timid stag, with the difference of a heart-dread which no
+deer-stalker could ever know.
+
+He had continued it; until the shelter of the _motte_ gave him a
+momentary respite, not from fear, but the apprehension of a failure.
+
+He had not ridden ten miles across the prairie without a design; and it
+was this that caused him to go so cautiously--guiding his horse over the
+softest turf, and through the selvedge of the chapparal--in such a way
+as neither to expose his person to view, nor cause a rustle among the
+branches, that might be heard to the distance of ten yards.
+
+No one observing his manoeuvres as he moved amid the timber island,
+could have mistaken their meaning--at least so far as related to the
+object for which they were being made.
+
+His eye was upon the Headless Horseman, his whole soul absorbed in
+watching the movements of the latter--by which he appeared to regulate
+his own.
+
+At first, fear seemed to be his prevailing thought.  After a time, it
+was succeeded by an impatience that partially emboldened him.  The
+latter plainly sprang from his perceiving, that the Headless Horseman,
+instead of approaching the timber, still kept at a regular distance of
+two hundred yards from its edge.
+
+That this chafed him was evident from a string of soliloquies, muttered
+half aloud.  They were not free from blasphemy; but that was
+characteristic of the man who pronounced them.
+
+"Damn the infernal brute!  If he'd only come twenty yards nearer, I
+could fetch him.  My gun won't carry that distance.  I'd miss him for
+sure, and then it'll be all up.  I may never get the chance again.
+Confound him!  He's all of twenty yards too far off."  As if the last
+was an ambiguity rather than a conviction, the speaker appeared to
+measure with his eye the space that separated him from the headless
+rider--all the while holding in hand a short Yager rifle, capped and
+cocked--ready for instant discharge.
+
+"No use," he continued, after a process of silent computation.  "I might
+hit the beast with a spent ball, but only to scare without crippling
+him.  I must have patience, and wait till he gets a little nearer.  Damn
+them wolves!  He might come in, if it wasn't for them.  So long as
+they're about him, he'll give the timber a wide berth.  It's the nature
+of these Texas howes--devil skin them!
+
+"I wonder if coaxing would do any good?" he proceeded, after a pause.
+"Maybe the sound of a man's voice would bring the animal to a stand?
+Doubtful.  He's not likely to 've heard much of that lately.  I suppose
+it would only frighten him!  The sight of my horse would be sure to do
+it, as it did before; though that was in the moonlight.  Besides, he was
+chased by the howling staghound.  No wonder his being wild, then, ridden
+as he is by hell knows what; for it can't be--Bah!  After all, there
+must be some trick in it; some damned infernal trick!"
+
+For a while the speaker checked his horse with a tight rein.  And,
+leaning forward, so as to get a good view through the trees, continued
+to scan the strange shape that was slowly skirting the timber.
+
+"It's _his_ horse--sure as shootin'!  His saddle, serape, and all.  How
+the hell could they have come into the possession of the other?"
+
+Another pause of reflection.
+
+"Trick, or no trick, it's an ugly business.  Whoever's planned it, must
+know all that happened that night; and by God, if that thing lodged
+there, I've got to get it back.  What a fool; to have bragged about it
+as I did!  Curse the crooked luck!
+
+"He _won't_ come nearer.  He's provokingly shy of the timber.  Like all
+his breed, he knows he's safest in the open ground.
+
+"What's to be done?  See if I can call him up.  May be he may like to
+hear a human voice.  If it'll only fetch him twenty yards nearer, I'll
+be satisfied.  Hanged if I don't try."
+
+Drawing a little closer to the edge of the thicket, the speaker
+pronounced that call usually employed by Texans to summon a straying
+horse.
+
+"Proh--proh--proshow!  Come kindly! come, old horse!"
+
+The invitation was extended to no purpose.  The Texan steed did not seem
+to understand it; at all events, as an invitation to friendly
+companionship.  On the contrary, it had the effect of frightening him;
+for no sooner fell the "proh" upon his ear, than letting go the mouthful
+of grass already gathered, he tossed his head aloft with a snort that
+proclaimed far greater fear than that felt for either wolf or vulture!
+
+A mustang, he knew that his greatest enemy was man--a man mounted upon a
+horse; and by this time his scent had disclosed to him the proximity of
+such a foe.
+
+He stayed not to see what sort of man, or what kind of horse.  His first
+instinct had told him that both were enemies.
+
+As his rider by this time appeared to have arrived at the same
+conclusion, there was no tightening of the rein; and he was left free to
+follow his own course--which carried him straight off over the prairie.
+
+A bitter curse escaped from the lips of the unsuccessful stalker as he
+spurred out into the open ground.
+
+Still more bitter was his oath, as he beheld the Headless Horseman
+passing rapidly beyond reach--unscathed by the bullet he had sent to
+earnestly after him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTY FIVE.
+
+ON THE TRAIL.
+
+Zeb Stump stayed but a short while on the spot, where he had discovered
+the hoof-print with the broken shoe.
+
+Six seconds sufficed for its identification; after which he rose to his
+feet, and continued along the trail of the horse that had made it.
+
+He did not re-mount, but strode forward on foot; the old mare, obedient
+to a signal he had given her, keeping at a respectful distance behind
+him.
+
+For more than a mile he moved on in this original fashion--now slowly,
+as the trail became indistinct--quickening his pace where the print of
+the imperfect shoe could be seen without difficulty.
+
+Like an archaeologist engaged upon a tablet of hieroglyphic history,
+long entombed beneath the ruins of a lost metropolis--whose characters
+appear grotesque to all except himself--so was it with Zeb Stump, as he
+strode on, translating the "sign" of the prairie.
+
+Absorbed in the act, and the conjectures that accompanied it, he had no
+eyes for aught else.  He glanced neither to the green savannah that
+stretched inimitably around, nor to the blue sky that spread specklessly
+above him.  Alone to the turf beneath his feet was his eye and attention
+directed.
+
+A sound--not a sight--startled him from his all-engrossing occupation.
+It was the report of a rifle; but so distant, as to appear but the
+detonation of a percussion-cap that had missed fire.
+
+Instinctively he stopped; at the same time raising his eyes, but without
+unbending his body.
+
+With a quick glance the horizon was swept, along the half dozen points
+whence the sound should have proceeded.
+
+A spot of bluish smoke--still preserving its balloon shape--was slowly
+rolling up against the sky.  A dark blotch beneath indicated the
+outlines of an "island" of timber.
+
+So distant was the "motte," the smoke, and the sound, that only the eye
+of an experienced prairie-man would have seen the first, or his ear
+heard the last, from the spot where Zeb Stump was standing.
+
+But Zeb saw the one, and heard the other.
+
+"Durned queery!" he muttered, still stooped in the attitude of a
+gardener dibbing in his young cabbage-plants.
+
+"Dog-goned queery, to say the leest on't.  Who in ole Nick's name kin be
+huntin' out thur--whar theer ain't game enuf to pay for the powder an
+shet?  I've been to thet ere purayra island; an I know there ain't
+nothin' thur 'ceptin' coyoats.  What _they_ get to live on, only the
+Eturnal kin tell!"
+
+"Wagh!" he went on, after a short silence.  "Some storekeeper from the
+town, out on a exkurshun, as he'd call it, who's proud o' poppin' away
+at them stinkin' varmints, an 'll go hum wi' a story he's been a huntin'
+_wolves_!  Wal.  'Tain't no bizness o' myen.  Let yurd-stick hev his
+belly-ful o' sport.  Heigh! thur's somethin' comin' this way.  A hoss an
+somebody on his back--streakin' it as if hell war arter him, wi' a
+pitchfork o' red-het lightnin'!  What!  As I live, it air the Headless!
+It is, by the jumpin' Geehosophat!"
+
+The observation of the old hunter was quite correct.  There could be no
+mistake about the character of the cavalier, who, just clearing himself
+from the cloud of sulphureous smoke--now falling, dispersed over the
+prairie--came galloping on towards the spot where Zeb stood.  It was the
+horseman without a head.
+
+Nor could there be any doubt as to the direction he was taking--as
+straight towards Zeb as if he already saw, and was determined on coming
+up with him!
+
+A braver man than the backwoodsman could not have been found within the
+confines of Texas.  Cougar, or jaguar--bear, buffalo, or Red Indian--he
+could have encountered without quailing.  Even a troop of Comanches
+might have come charging on, without causing him half the apprehension
+felt at sight of that solitary equestrian.
+
+With all his experience of Nature in her most secret haunts--despite the
+stoicism derived from that experience--Zeb Stump was not altogether free
+from superstitious fancies.  Who is?
+
+With the courage to scorn a human foe--any enemy that might show itself
+in a natural shape, either of biped or quadruped--still was he not stern
+enough to defy the _abnormal_; and Bayard himself would have quailed at
+sight of the cavalier who was advancing to the encounter--apparently
+determined upon its being deadly!
+
+Zeb Stump not only quailed; but, trembling in his tall boots of
+alligator leather, sought concealment.
+
+He did so, long before the Headless Horseman had got within hailing
+distance; or, as he supposed, within _sight_ of him.
+
+Some bushes growing close by gave him the chance of a hiding place; of
+which, with instinctive quickness, he availed himself.
+
+The mare, standing saddled by his side, might still have betrayed him?
+
+But, no.  He had not gone to his knees, without thinking of that.
+
+"Hunker down!" he cried, addressing himself to his dumb companion, who,
+if wanting speech, proved herself perfect in understanding.  "Squat, ye
+ole critter; or by the Eturnal ye'll be switched off into hell!"
+
+As if dreading some such terrible catastrophe, the scraggy quadruped
+dropped down upon her fore knees; and then, lowering her hind quarters,
+laid herself along the grass, as though thinking her day's work done--
+she was free to indulge in a fiesta.
+
+Scarce had Zeb and his roadster composed themselves their new position,
+when the Headless Horseman came charging up.
+
+He was going at full speed; and Zeb was but too well pleased to perceive
+that he was likely to continue it.
+
+It was sheer chance that had conducted him that way; and not from having
+seen either the hunter or his sorry steed.
+
+The former--if not the latter--was satisfied at being treated in that
+cavalier style; but, long before the Headless Horseman had passed out of
+sight, Zeb had taken his dimensions, and made himself acquainted with
+his character.
+
+Though he might be a mystery to all the world beside, he was no longer
+so to Zebulon Stump.
+
+As the horse shot past in fleet career, the skirt of the serape, flouted
+up by the wind, displayed to Stump's optics a form well known to him--in
+a dress he had seen before.  It was a blouse of blue cottonade,
+box-plaited over the breast; and though its vivid colour was dashed with
+spots of garish red, the hunter was able to recognise it.
+
+He was not so sure about the face seen low down upon the saddle, and
+resting against the rider's leg.
+
+There was nothing strange in his inability to recognise it.
+
+The mother, who had oft looked fondly on that once fair countenance,
+would not have recognised it now.
+
+Zeb Stump only did so by deduction.  The horse, the saddle, the
+holsters, the striped blanket, the sky-blue coat and trousers--even the
+hat upon the head--were all known to him.  So, too, was the figure that
+stood almost upright in the stirrups.  The head and face must belong to
+the same--notwithstanding their unaccountable displacement.
+
+Zeb saw it by no uncertain glance.  He was permitted a full, fair view
+of the ghastly spectacle.
+
+The steed, though going at a gallop, passed within ten paces of him.
+
+He made no attempt to interrupt the retreating rider--either by word or
+gesture.  Only, as the form became unmasked before his eyes, and its
+real meaning flashed across his mind, he muttered, in a slow, sad tone:
+
+"Gee-hos-o-phat!  It air true, then!  _Poor young fellur--dead--dead_!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTY SIX.
+
+LOST IN THE CHALK.
+
+Still continuing his fleet career, the Headless Horseman galloped on
+over the prairie--Zeb Stump following only with his eyes; and not until
+he had passed out of sight, behind some straggling groves of mezquite,
+did the backwoodsman abandon his kneeling position.
+
+Then only for a second or two did he stand erect--taking council with
+himself as to what course he should pursue.
+
+The episode--strange as unexpected--had caused some disarrangement in
+his ideas, and seemed to call for a change in his plans.  Should he
+continue along the trail he was already deciphering; or forsake it for
+that of the steed that had just swept by?
+
+By keeping to the former, he might find out much; but by changing to the
+latter he might learn more?
+
+He might capture the Headless Horseman, and ascertain from _him_ the why
+and wherefore of his wild wanderings?
+
+While thus absorbed, in considering what course he had best take, he had
+forgotten the puff of smoke, and the report heard far off over the
+prairie.
+
+Only for a moment, however.  They were things to be remembered; and he
+soon remembered them.
+
+Turning his eyes to the quarter where the smoke had appeared, he saw
+that which caused him to squat down again; and place himself, with more
+_impressement_ than ever, under cover of the mezquites.  The old mare,
+relishing the recumbent attitude, had still kept to it; and there was no
+necessity for re-disposing of her.
+
+What Zeb now saw was a man on horseback--a real horseman, with a head
+upon his shoulders.
+
+He was still a long way off; and it was not likely he had seen the tall
+form of the hunter, standing shored up among the bushes--much less the
+mare, lying beneath them.  He showed no signs of having done so.
+
+On the contrary, he was sitting stooped in the saddle, his breast bent
+down to the pommel, and his eyes actively engaged in reading the ground,
+over which he was guiding his horse.
+
+There could be no difficulty in ascertaining his occupation.  Zeb Stump
+guessed it at a glance.  He was tracking the headless rider.
+
+"Ho, ho!" muttered Zeb, on making this discovery; "I ain't the only one
+who's got a reezun for solvin' this hyur myst'ry!  Who the hell kin _he_
+be?  I shed jest like to know that."
+
+Zeb had not long to wait for the gratification of his wish.  As the
+trail was fresh, the strange horseman could take it up at a trot--in
+which pace he was approaching.
+
+He was soon within identifying distance.
+
+"Gee--hosophat!" muttered the backwoodsman; "I mout a know'd it wud be
+him; an ef I'm not mistook about it, hyurs goin' to be a other chapter
+out o' the same book--a other link as 'll help me to kumplete the chain
+o' evydince I'm in sarch for.  Lay clost, ye critter!  Ef ye make ere a
+stir--even to the shakin' o' them long lugs o' yourn--I'll cut yur
+darned throat."
+
+The last speech was an apostrophe to the "maar"--after which Zeb waxed
+silent, with his head among the spray of the acacias, and his eyes
+peering through the branches in acute scrutiny of him who was coming
+along.
+
+This was a man, who, once seen, was not likely to be soon forgotten.
+Scarce thirty years old, he showed a countenance, scathed, less with
+care than the play of evil passions.
+
+But there was care upon it now--a care that seemed to speak of
+apprehension--keen, prolonged, yet looking forward with a hope of being
+relieved from it.
+
+Withal it was a handsome face: such as a gentleman need not have been
+ashamed of, but for that sinister expression that told of its belonging
+to a blackguard.
+
+The dress--but why need we describe it?  The blue cloth frock of
+semi-military cut--the forage cap--the belt sustaining a bowie-knife,
+with a brace of revolving pistols--all have been mentioned before as
+enveloping and equipping the person of Captain Cassius Calhoun.
+
+It was he.
+
+It was not the _batterie_ of small arms that kept Zeb Stump from showing
+himself.  He had no dread of an encounter with the ex-officer of
+Volunteers.  Though he instinctively felt hostility, he had as yet given
+no reason to the latter for regarding him as an enemy.  He remained in
+shadow, to have a better view of what was passing under the sunlight.
+
+Still closely scrutinising the trail of the Headless Horseman, Calhoun
+trotted past.
+
+Still closely keeping among the acacias, Zeb Stump looked after, till
+the same grove, that had concealed the former, interposed its verdant
+veil between him and the ex-captain of cavalry.
+
+The backwoodsman's brain having become the recipient of new thoughts,
+required a fresh exercise of its ingenuity.
+
+If there was reason before for taking the trail of the Headless
+Horseman, it was redoubled now.
+
+With but short time spent in consideration, so Zeb concluded; and
+commenced making preparations for a stalk after Cassius Calhoun.
+
+These consisted in taking hold of the bridle, and giving the old mare a
+kick; that caused her to start instantaneously to her feet.
+
+Zeb stood by her side, intending to climb into the saddle and ride out
+into the open plain--as soon as Calhoun should be out of sight.
+
+He had no thoughts of keeping the latter in view.  He needed no such
+guidance.  The two fresh trails would be sufficient for him; and he felt
+as sure of finding the direction in which both would lead, as if he had
+ridden alongside the horseman without a head, or him without a heart.
+
+With this confidence he cleared out from among the acacias, and took the
+path just trodden by Calhoun.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+For once in his life, Zeb Stump had made a mistake.  On rounding the
+mezquite grove, behind which both had made disappearance, he discovered
+he had done so.
+
+Beyond, extended a tract of chalk prairie; over which one of the
+horsemen appeared to have passed--him without the head.
+
+Zeb guessed so, by seeing the other, at some distance before him, riding
+to and fro, in transverse stretches, like a pointer quartering the
+stubble in search of a partridge.
+
+He too had lost the trail, and was endeavouring to recover it.
+
+Crouching under cover of the mezquites, the hunter remained a silent
+spectator of his movements.
+
+The attempt terminated in a failure.  The chalk surface defied
+interpretation--at least by skill such as that of Cassius Calhoun.
+
+After repeated quarterings he appeared to surrender his design; and,
+angrily plying the spur, galloped off in the direction of the Leona.
+
+As soon as he was out of sight, Zeb also made an effort to take up the
+lost trail.  But despite his superior attainments in the tracking craft,
+he was compelled to relinquish it.
+
+A fervid sun was glaring down upon the chalk; and only the eye of a
+salamander could have withstood the reflection of its rays.
+
+Dazed almost to blindness, the backwoodsman determined upon turning late
+back; and once more devoting his attention to the trail from which he
+had been for a time seduced.
+
+He had learnt enough to know that this last promised a rich reward for
+its exploration.
+
+It took him but a short time to regain it.
+
+Nor did he lose any in following it up.  He was too keenly impressed
+with its value; and with this idea urging him, he strode rapidly on, the
+mare following as before.
+
+Once only did he make pause; at a point where the tracks of two horses
+converged with that he was following.
+
+From this point the three coincided--at times parting and running
+parallel, for a score of yards or so, but again coming together and
+overlapping one another.
+
+The horses were all shod--like that which carried the broken shoe--and
+the hunter only stopped to see what he could make out of the hoof marks.
+One was a "States horse;" the other a mustang--though a stallion of
+great size, and with a hoof almost as large as that of the American.
+
+Zeb had his conjectures about both.
+
+He did not stay to inquire which had gone first over the ground.  That
+was as clear to him, as if he had been a spectator at their passing.
+The stallion had been in the lead,--how far Zeb could not exactly tell;
+but certainly some distance beyond that of companionship.  The States
+horse had followed; and behind him, the roadster with the broken shoe--
+also an American.
+
+All three had gone over the same ground, at separate times, and each by
+himself.  This Zeb Stump could tell with as much ease and certainty, as
+one might read the index of a dial, or thermometer.
+
+Whatever may have been in his thoughts, he said nothing, beyond giving
+utterance to the simple exclamation "Good!" and, with satisfaction
+stamped upon his features, he moved on, the old mare appearing to mock
+him by an imitative stride!
+
+"Hyur they've seppurated," he said, once again coming to a stop, and
+regarding the ground at his feet.  "The stellyun an States hoss hev goed
+thegither--thet air they've tuk the same way.  Broken-shoe hev strayed
+in a diffrent direkshun."
+
+"Wonder now what thet's for?" he continued, after standing awhile to
+consider.  "Durn me ef I iver seed sech perplexin' sign!  It ud puzzle
+ole Dan'l Boone hisself."
+
+"Which on 'em shed I foller fust?  Ef I go arter the two I know whar
+they'll lead.  They're boun' to kim up in thet puddle o' blood.  Let's
+track up tother, and see whether he hev rud into the same procksimmuty!
+To the right abeout, ole gal, and keep clost ahint me--else ye may get
+lost in the chapparal, an the coyoats may make thur supper on yur
+tallow.  Ho! ho! ho!"
+
+With this apostrophe to his "critter," ending in a laugh at the conceit
+of her "tallow," the hunter turned off on the track of the third horse.
+
+It led him along the edge of an extended tract of chapparal; which,
+following all three, he had approached at a point well known to him, as
+to the reader,--where it was parted by the open space already described.
+
+The new trail skirted the timber only for a short distance.  Two hundred
+yards from the embouchure of the avenue, it ran into it; and fifty paces
+further on Zeb came to a spot where the horse had stood tied to a tree.
+
+Zeb saw that the animal had proceeded no further: for there was another
+set of tracks showing where it had returned to the prairie--though not
+by the same path.
+
+The rider had gone beyond.  The foot-marks of a man could be seen
+beyond--in the mud of a half-dry _arroyo_--beside which the horse had
+been "hitched."
+
+Leaving his critter to occupy the "stall" where broken-shoe had for some
+time fretted himself, the old hunter glided off upon the footmarks of
+the dismounted rider.
+
+He soon discovered two sets of them--one going--another coming back.
+
+He followed the former.
+
+He was not surprised at their bringing him out into the avenue--close to
+the pool of blood--by the coyotes long since licked dry.
+
+He might have traced them right up to it, but for the hundreds of horse
+tracks that had trodden the ground like a sheep-pen.
+
+But before going so far, he was stayed by the discovery of some fresh
+"sign"--too interesting to be carelessly examined.  In a place where the
+underwood grew thick, he came upon a spot where a man had remained for
+some time.  There was no turf, and the loose mould was baked hard and
+smooth, evidently by the sole of a boot or shoe.
+
+There were prints of the same sole leading out towards the place of
+blood, and similar ones coming back again.  But upon the branches of a
+tree between, Zeb Stump saw something that had escaped the eyes not only
+of the searchers, but of their guide Spangler--a scrap of paper,
+blackened and half-burnt--evidently the wadding of a discharged gun!
+
+It was clinging to the twig of a locust-tree, impaled upon one of its
+spines!
+
+The old hunter took it from the thorn to which, through rain and wind,
+it had adhered; spread it carefully across the palm of his horny hand;
+and read upon its smouched surface a name well known to him; which, with
+its concomitant title, bore the initials, "C.C.C."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTY SEVEN.
+
+ANOTHER LINK.
+
+It was less surprise, than gratification, that showed itself on the
+countenance of Zeb Stump, as he deciphered the writing on the paper.
+
+"That ere's the backin' o' a letter," muttered he.  "Tells a goodish
+grist o' story; more'n war wrote inside, I reck'n.  Been used for the
+wad' o' a gun!  Wal; sarves the cuss right, for rammin' down a rifle
+ball wi' a patchin' o' scurvy paper, i'stead o' the proper an bessest
+thing, which air a bit o' greased buckskin."
+
+"The writin' air in a sheemale hand," he continued, looking anew at the
+piece of paper.  "Don't signerfy for thet.  It's been sent to _him_ all
+the same; an he's hed it in purzeshun.  It air somethin' to be tuk care
+o'."
+
+So saying, he drew out a small skin wallet, which contained his tinder
+of "punk," along with his flint and steel; and, after carefully stowing
+away the scrap of paper, he returned the sack to his pocket.
+
+"Wal!" he went on in soliloquy, as he stood silently considering, "I
+kalkerlate as how this ole coon 'll be able to unwind a good grist o'
+this clue o' mystery, tho' thur be a bit o' the thread broken hyur an
+thur, an a bit o' a puzzle I can't clurly understan'.  The man who hev
+been murdered, whosomdiver _he_ may be, war out thur by thet puddle o'
+blood, an the man as did the deed, whosomdiver _he_ be, war a stannin'
+behint this locust-tree.  But for them greenhorns, I mout a got more out
+o' the sign.  Now thur ain't the ghost o' a chance.  They've tramped the
+hul place into a durnationed mess, cuvortin' and caperin' abeout.
+
+"Wal, 'tair no use goin' furrer thet way.  The bessest thing now air to
+take the back track, if it air possable, an diskiver whar the hoss wi'
+the broke shoe toted his rider arter he went back from this leetle bit
+o' still-huntin'.  Thurfor, ole Zeb'lon Stump, back ye go on the boot
+tracks!"
+
+With this grotesque apostrophe to himself, he commenced retracing the
+footmarks that had guided him to the edge of the opening.  Only in one
+or two places were the footprints at all distinct.  But Zeb scarce cared
+for their guidance.
+
+Having already noted that the man who made them had returned to the
+place where the horse had been left, he knew the back track would lead
+him there.
+
+There was one place, however, where the two trails did not go over the
+same ground.  There was a forking in the open list, through which the
+supposed murderer had made his way.  It was caused by an obstruction,--a
+patch of impenetrable thicket.  They met again, but not till that on
+which the hunter was returning straggled off into an open glade of
+considerable size.
+
+Having become satisfied of this, Zeb looked around into the glade--for a
+time forsaking the footsteps of the pedestrian.
+
+After a short examination, he observed a trail altogether distinct, and
+of a different character.  It was a well-marked path entering the
+opening on one side, and going out on the other: in short, a
+cattle-track.
+
+Zeb saw that several shod horses had passed along it, some days before:
+and it was this that caused him to come back and examine it.
+
+He could tell to a day--to an hour--_when_ the horses had passed; and
+from the sign itself.  But the exercise of his ingenuity was not needed
+on this occasion.  He knew that the hoof-prints were those of the horses
+ridden by Spangler and his party--after being detached from the main
+body of searchers who had gone home with the major.
+
+He had heard the whole story of that collateral investigation--how
+Spangler and his comrades had traced Henry Poindexter's horse to the
+place where the negro had caught it--on the outskirts of the plantation.
+
+To an ordinary intellect this might have appeared satisfactory.  Nothing
+more could be learnt by any one going over the ground again.
+
+Zeb Stump did not seem to think so.  As he stood looking along it, his
+attitude showed indecision.
+
+"If I ked make shur o' havin' time," he muttered, "I'd foller it fust.
+Jest as like as not I'll find a _fluke_ thur too.  But thur's no
+sartinty 'beout the time, an I'd better purceed to settle wi' the anymal
+as cast the quarter shoe."
+
+He had turned to go out of the glade, when a thought once more stayed
+him.
+
+"Arter all, it kin be eezy foun' at any time.  I kin guess whar it'll
+lead, as sartint, as if I'd rud 'longside the skunk thet made it--
+straight custrut to the stable o' Caser Corver.
+
+"It's a durned pity to drop this un,--now whiles I'm hyur upon the spot.
+It'll gie me the makin' o' another ten-mile jurney, an thur moutn't be
+time.  Dog-goned ef I don't try a leetle way along it.  The ole maar kin
+wait till I kum back."
+
+Bracing himself for a new investigation, he started off upon the
+cattle-track, trodden by the horses of Spangler and his party.
+
+To the hoof-marks of these he paid but slight attention; at times, none
+whatever.  His eye only sought those of Henry Poindexter's horse.
+Though the others were of an after time, and often destroyed the traces
+he was most anxious to examine, he had no difficulty in identifying the
+latter.  As he would have himself said, any greenhorn could do that.
+The young planter's horse had gone over the ground at a gallop.  The
+trackers had ridden slowly.
+
+As far as Zeb Stump could perceive, the latter had made neither halt nor
+deviation.  The former had.
+
+It was about three-quarters of a mile from the edge of the venue.
+
+It was not a halt the galloping horse had made, but only a slight
+departure from his direct course; as if something he had seen--wolf,
+jaguar, cougar, or other beast of prey--had caused him to shy.
+
+Beyond he had continued his career; rapid and reckless as ever.
+
+Beyond the party along with Spangler had proceeded--without staying to
+inquire why the horse had shied from his track.
+
+Zeb Stump was more inquisitive, and paused upon this spot.
+
+It was a sterile tract, without herbage, and covered with shingle and
+sand.  A huge tree overshadowed it, with limbs extending horizontally.
+One of these ran transversely to the path over which the horses had
+passed--so low that a horseman, to shun contact with it, would have to
+lower his head.  At this branch Zeb Stump stood gazing.  He observed an
+abrasion upon the bark; that, though very slight, must have been caused
+by contact with some substance, as hard, if not sounder, than itself.
+
+"Thet's been done by the skull o' a human critter," reasoned he--"a
+human critter, that must a been on the back o' a hoss--this side the
+branch, an off on the t'other.  No livin' man ked a stud sech a
+cullizyun as thet, an kep his seat i' the seddle.
+
+"Hooraw!" he triumphantly exclaimed, after a cursory examination of the
+ground underneath the tree.  "I thort so.  Thur's the impreshun o' the
+throwed rider.  An' thur's whar he hez creeped away.  Now I've got a
+explication o' thet big bump as hez been puzzlin' me.  I know'd it wan't
+did by the claws o' any varmint; an it didn't look like the blow eyther
+o' a stone or a stick.  Thet ere's the stick that hez gi'n it."
+
+With an elastic step--his countenance radiant of triumph--the old hunter
+strode away from the tree, no longer upon the cattle path, but that
+taken by the man who had been so violently dismounted.
+
+To one unaccustomed to the chapparal, he might have appeared going
+without a guide, and upon a path never before pressed by human foot.
+
+A portion of it perhaps had not.  But Zeb was conducted by signs which,
+although obscure to the ordinary eye, were to him intelligible as the
+painted lettering upon a finger-post.  The branch contorted to afford
+passage for a human form--the displaced tendrils of a creeping plant--
+the scratched surface of the earth--all told that a man had passed that
+way.  The sign signified more--that the man was disabled--had been
+crawling--a cripple!
+
+Zeb Stump continued on, till he had traced this cripple to the banks of
+a running stream.
+
+It was not necessary for him to go further.  He had made one more splice
+of the broken thread.  Another, and his clue would be complete!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTY EIGHT.
+
+A HORSE-SWOP.
+
+With an oath, a sullen look, and a brow black as disappointment could
+make it, Calhoun turned away from the edge of the chalk prairie, where
+he had lost the traces of the Headless Horseman.
+
+"No use following further!  No knowing where he's gone now!  No hope of
+finding him except by a _fluke_!  If I go back to the creek I might see
+him again; but unless I get within range, it'll end as it's done before.
+The mustang stallion won't let me come near him--as if the brute knows
+what I'm wanting!
+
+"He's even cunninger than the wild sort--trained to it, I suppose, by
+the mustanger himself.  One fair shot--if I could only get that, I'd
+settle his courses.
+
+"There appears no chance of stealing upon him; and as to riding him
+down, it can't be done with a slow mule like this.
+
+"The sorrel's not much better as to speed, though he beats this brute in
+bottom.  I'll try him to-morrow, with the new shoe.
+
+"If I could only get hold of something that's fast enough to overtake
+the mustang!  I'd put down handsomely for a horse that could do it.
+
+"There must be one of the sort in the settlement.  I'll see when I get
+back.  If there be, a couple of hundred, ay or three, won't hinder me
+from having him."
+
+After he had made these mutterings Calhoun rode away from the chalk
+prairie, his dark countenance strangely contrasting with its snowy
+sheen.  He went at a rapid rate; not sparing his horse, already jaded
+with a protracted journey--as could be told by his sweating coat, and
+the clots of half-coagulated blood, where the spur had been freely plied
+upon his flanks.  Fresh drops soon appeared as he cantered somewhat
+heavily on--his head set for the hacienda of Casa del Corvo.
+
+In less than an hour after, his rider was guiding him among the
+mezquites that skirted the plantation.
+
+It was a path known to Calhoun.  He had ridden over it before, though
+not upon the same horse.  On crossing the bed of an arroyo--dry from a
+long continuance of drought--he was startled at beholding in the mud the
+tracks of another horse.  One of them showed a broken shoe, an old
+hoof-print, nearly eight days old.  He made no examination to ascertain
+the time.  He knew it to an hour.
+
+He bent over it, with a different thought--a feeling of surprise
+commingled with a touch of superstition.  The track looked recent, as if
+made on the day before.  There had been wind, rain, thunder, and
+lightning.  Not one of these had wasted it.  Even the angry elements
+appeared to have passed over without destroying it--as if to spare it
+for a testimony against the outraged laws of Nature--their God.
+
+Calhoun dismounted, with the design to obliterate the track of the
+three-quarter shoe.  Better for him to have spared himself the pains.
+The crease of his boot-heel crushing in the stiff mud was only an
+additional evidence as to who had ridden the broken-shoed horse.  There
+was one coming close behind capable of collecting it.
+
+Once more in his saddle, the ex-officer rode on--reflecting on his own
+astuteness.
+
+His reflections had scarce reached the point of reverie, when the
+hoof-stroke of a horse--not his own--came suddenly within hearing.  Not
+within sight: for the animal making them was still screened by the
+chapparal.
+
+Plainly was it approaching; and, although at a slow pace, the measured
+tread told of its being guided, and not straying.  It was a horse with a
+rider upon his back.
+
+In another instant both were in view; and Calhoun saw before him Isidora
+Covarubio de los Llanos; she at the same instant catching sight of him!
+
+It was a strange circumstance that these two should thus encounter one
+another--apparently by chance, though perhaps controlled by destiny.
+Stranger still the thought summoned up in the bosoms of both.
+
+In Calhoun, Isidora saw the man who loved the woman she herself hated.
+In Isidora, Calhoun saw the woman who loved him he both hated and had
+determined to destroy.
+
+This mutual knowledge they had derived partly from report, partly from
+observation, and partly from the suspicious circumstances under which
+more than once they had met.  They were equally convinced of its truth.
+Each felt certain of the sinister entanglement of the other; while both
+believed their own to be unsuspected.
+
+The situation was not calculated to create a friendly feeling between
+them.  It is not natural that man, or woman, should like the admirer of
+a rival.  They can only be friends at that point where jealousy prompts
+to the deadliest vengeance; and then it is but a sinister sympathy.
+
+As yet no such had arisen between Cassius Calhoun and Isidora Covarubio
+de los Llanos.
+
+If it had been possible, both might have been willing to avoid the
+encounter.  Isidora certainly was.
+
+She had no predilection for the ex-officer of dragoons; and besides the
+knowledge that he was the lover of her rival, there was another thought
+that now rendered his presence, if not disagreeable, at least not
+desirable.
+
+She remembered the chase of the sham Indians, and its ending.  She knew
+that among the Texans there had been much conjecture as to her abrupt
+disappearance, after appealing to them for protection.
+
+She had her own motive for that, which she did not intend to declare;
+and the man about meeting her might be inclined to ask questions on the
+subject.
+
+She would have passed with a simple salutation--she could not give less
+than that.  And perhaps he might have done the same; but for a thought
+which at that moment came into his mind, entirely unconnected with the
+reflections already there engendered.
+
+It was not the lady herself who suggested the thought.  Despite her
+splendid beauty, he had no admiration for her.  In his breast, ruthless
+as it might have been, there was no space left for a second passion--not
+even a sensual one--for her thus encountered in the solitude of the
+chapparal, with Nature whispering wild, wicked suggestions.
+
+It was no idea of this that caused him to rein up in the middle of the
+path; remove the cap from his crown; and, by a courtly salutation,
+invite a dialogue with Isidora.
+
+So challenged, she could not avoid the conversation; that commenced upon
+the instant--Calhoun taking the initiative.
+
+"Excuse me, senorita," said he, his glance directed more upon her steed
+than herself; "I know it's very rude thus to interrupt your ride;
+especially on the part of a stranger, as with sorrow I am compelled to
+call myself."
+
+"It needs no apology, senor.  If I'm not mistaken, we have met before--
+upon the prairie, out near the Nueces."
+
+"True--true!" stammered Calhoun, not caring to dwell upon the
+remembrance.  "It was not of that encounter I wished to speak; but what
+I saw afterwards, as you came galloping along the cliff.  We all
+wondered what became of you."
+
+"There was not much cause for wonder, cavallero.  The shot which some of
+your people fired from below, disembarrassed me of my pursuers.  I saw
+that they had turned back, and simply continued my journey."
+
+Calhoun exhibited no chagrin at being thus baffled.  The theme upon
+which he designed to direct his discourse had not yet turned up; and in
+it he might be more successful.
+
+What it was might have been divined from his glance--half _connoisseur_,
+half horse-jockey--still directed toward the steed of Isidora.
+
+"I do not say, senorita, that I was one of those who wondered at your
+sudden disappearance.  I presumed you had your own reasons for not
+coming on to us; and, seeing you ride as you did, I felt no fear for
+your safety.  It was your riding that astonished me, as it did all of my
+companions.  Such a horse you had!  He appeared to glide, rather than
+gallop!  If I mistake not, it's the same you are now _astride of_.  Am I
+right, senora?  Pardon me for asking such an insignificant question."
+
+"The same?  Let me see?  I make use of so many.  I think I was riding
+this horse upon that day.  Yes, yes; I am sure of it.  I remember how
+the brute betrayed me."
+
+"Betrayed you!  How?"
+
+"Twice he did it.  Once as you and your people were approaching.  The
+second time, when the Indians--_ay Dios_! not Indians, as I've since
+heard--were coming through the chapparal."
+
+"But how?"
+
+"By neighing.  He should not have done it.  He's had training enough to
+know better than that.  No matter.  Once I get him back to the Rio
+Grande he shall stay there.  I shan't ride _him_ again.  He shall return
+to his Pastures."
+
+"Pardon me, senorita, for speaking to you on such a subject; but I can't
+help thinking that it's a pity."
+
+"What's a pity?"
+
+"That a steed so splendid as that should be so lightly discarded.  I
+would give much to possess him."
+
+"You are jesting, cavallero.  He is nothing beyond the common; perhaps a
+little pretty, and quick in his paces.  My father has five thousand of
+his sort--many of them prettier, and, no doubt, some faster than he.
+He's a good roadster; and that's why I'm riding him now.  If it weren't
+that I'm on my way home to the Rio Grande, and the journey is still
+before me, you'd be welcome to have him, or anybody else who cared for
+him, as you seem to do.  Be still, _musteno mio_!  You see there's
+somebody likes you better than I do."
+
+The last speech was addressed to the mustang, who, like its rider,
+appeared impatient for the conversation to come to a close.
+
+Calhoun, however, seemed equally desirous of prolonging, or, at all
+events, bringing it to a different termination.
+
+"Excuse me, senorita," said he, assuming an air of businesslike
+earnestness, at the same time speaking apologetically; "if that be all
+the value you set upon the grey mustang, I should be only too glad to
+make an exchange with you.  My horse, if not handsome, is estimated by
+our Texan dealers as a valuable animal.  Though somewhat slow in his
+paces, I can promise that he will carry you safely to your home, and
+will serve you well afterwards."
+
+"What, senor!" exclaimed the lady, in evident astonishment, "exchange
+your grand American _frison_ for a Mexican mustang!  The offer is too
+generous to appear other than a jest.  You know that on the Rio Grande
+one of your horses equals in value at least three, sometimes six, of
+ours?"
+
+Calhoun knew this well enough; but he knew also that the mustang ridden
+by Isidora would be to him worth a whole stableful of such brutes as
+that he was bestriding.  He had been an eye-witness to its speed,
+besides having heard of it from others.  It was the thing he stood in
+need of--the very thing.  He would have given, not only his "grand
+_frison_" in exchange, but the full price of the mustang by way of
+"boot."
+
+Fortunately for him, there was no attempt at extortion.  In the
+composition of the Mexican maiden, however much she might be given to
+equestrian tastes, there was not much of the "coper."  With five
+thousand horses in the paternal stables, or rather straying over the
+patrimonial plains, there was but slight motive for sharp practice; and
+why should she deny such trifling gratification, even though the man
+seeking it was a stranger--perhaps an enemy?
+
+She did not.
+
+"If you are in earnest, senor," was her response, "you are welcome to
+what you want."
+
+"I am in earnest, senorita."
+
+"Take him, then!" said she, leaping out of her saddle, and commencing to
+undo the girths, "We cannot exchange saddles: yours would be a mile too
+big for me!"
+
+Calhoun was too happy to find words for a rejoinder.  He hastened to
+assist her in removing the saddle; after which he took off his own.
+
+In less than five minutes the horses were exchanged--the saddles and
+bridles being retained by their respective owners.
+
+To Isidora there was something ludicrous in the transference.  She
+almost laughed while it was being carried on.
+
+Calhoun looked upon it in a different light.  There was a purpose
+present before his mind--one of the utmost importance.
+
+They parted without much further speech--only the usual greetings of
+adieu--Isidora going off on the _frison_; while the ex-officer, mounted
+on the grey mustang, continued his course in the direction of Casa del
+Corvo.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTY NINE.
+
+AN UNTIRING TRACKER.
+
+Zeb was not long in arriving at the spot where he had "hitched" his
+mare.  The topography of the chapparal was familiar to him; and he
+crossed it by a less circuitous route than that taken by the cripple.
+
+He once more threw himself upon the trail of the broken shoe, in full
+belief that it would fetch out not a hundred miles from Casa del Corvo.
+
+It led him along a road running almost direct from one of the crossings
+of the Rio Grande to Fort Inge.  The road was a half-mile in width--a
+thing not uncommon in Texas, where every traveller selects his own path,
+alone looking to the general direction.
+
+Along one edge of it had gone the horse with the damaged shoe.
+
+Not all the way to Fort Inge.  When within four or five miles of the
+post, the trail struck off from the road, at an angle of just such
+degree as followed in a straight line would bring out by Poindexter's
+plantation.  So confident was Zeb of this, that he scarce deigned to
+keep his eye upon the ground; but rode forwards, as if a finger-post was
+constantly by his side.
+
+He had long before given up following the trail afoot.  Despite his
+professed contempt for "horse-fixings"--as he called riding--he had no
+objection to finish his journey in the saddle--fashed as he now was with
+the fatigue of protracted trailing over prairie and through chapparal.
+Now and then only did he cast a glance upon the ground--less to assure
+himself he was on the track of the broken shoe, than to notice whether
+something else might not be learnt from the sign, besides its mere
+direction.
+
+There were stretches of the prairie where the turf, hard and dry, had
+taken no impression.  An ordinary traveller might have supposed himself
+the first to pass over the ground.  But Zeb Stump was not of this class;
+and although he could not always distinguish the hoof marks, he knew
+within an inch where they would again become visible--on the more moist
+and softer patches of the prairie.
+
+If at any place conjecture misled him, it was only for a short distance,
+and he soon corrected himself by a traverse.
+
+In this half-careless, half-cautious way, he had approached within a
+mile of Poindexter's plantation.  Over the tops of the mezquite trees
+the crenelled parapet was in sight; when something he saw upon the
+ground caused a sudden change in his demeanour.  A change, too, in his
+attitude; for instead of remaining on the back of his mare, he flung
+himself out of the saddle; threw the bridle upon her neck; and, rapidly
+passing in front of her, commenced taking up the trail afoot.
+
+The mare made no stop, but continued on after him--with an air of
+resignation, as though she was used to such eccentricities.
+
+To an inexperienced eye there was nothing to account for this sudden
+dismounting.  It occurred at a place where the turf appeared untrodden
+by man, or beast.  Alone might it be inferred from Zeb's speech, as he
+flung himself out of the saddle:
+
+"His track! goin' to hum!" were the words muttered in a slow, measured
+tone; after which, at a slower pace, the dismounted hunter kept on along
+the trail.
+
+In a little time after it conducted him into the chapparal; and in less
+to a stop--sudden, as if the thorny thicket had been transformed into a
+_chevaux-de-frise_, impenetrable both to him and his "critter."
+
+It was not this.  The path was still open before him--more open than
+ever.  It was its openness that had furnished him with a cause for
+discontinuing his advance.
+
+The path sloped down into a valley below--a depression in the prairie,
+along the concavity of which, at times, ran a tiny stream--ran arroyo.
+It was now dry, or only occupied by stagnant pools, at long distances
+apart.  In the mud-covered channel was a man, with a horse close behind
+him--the latter led by the bridle.
+
+There was nothing remarkable in the behaviour of the horse; he was
+simply following the lead of his dismounted rider.
+
+But the man--what was he doing?  In his movements there was something
+peculiar--something that would have puzzled an uninitiated spectator.
+
+It did not puzzle Zeb Stump; or but for a second of time.
+
+Almost the instant his eye fell upon it, he read the meaning of the
+manoeuvre, and mutteringly pronounced it to himself.
+
+"Oblitturatin' the print o' the broken shoe, or tryin' to do thet same!
+'Taint no use, Mister Cash Calhoun--no manner o' use.  Ye've made yur
+fut marks too deep to deceive _me_; an by the Eturnal I'll foller them,
+though they shed conduck me into the fires o' hell?"
+
+As the backwoodsman terminated his blasphemous apostrophe, the man to
+whom it pointed, having finished his task of obscuration, once more
+leaped into his saddle, and hurried on.
+
+On foot the tracker followed; though without showing any anxiety about
+keeping him in sight.
+
+There was no need for that.  The sleuth hound on a fresh slot could not
+be more sure of again viewing his victim, than was Zeb Stump of coming
+up with his.  No chicanery of the chapparal--no twistings or doublings--
+could save Calhoun now.
+
+The tracker advanced freely; not expecting to make halt again, till he
+should come within sight of Casa del Corvo.
+
+Little blame to him that his reckoning proved wrong.  Who could have
+foretold such an interruption as that occasioned by the encounter
+between Cassius Calhoun and Isidora Covarubio de los Llanos?
+
+Though at sight of it, taken by surprise--perhaps something more--Zeb
+did not allow his feelings to betray his presence near the spot.
+
+On the contrary, it seemed to stimulate him to increased caution.
+
+Turning noiselessly round, he whispered some cabalistic words into the
+care of his "critter;" and then stole silently forward under cover of
+the acacias.
+
+Without remonstrance, or remark, the mare followed.  He soon came to a
+fall stop--his animal doing the same, in imitation so exact as to appear
+its counterpart.
+
+A thick growth of mezquite trees separated him from the two individuals,
+by this time engaged in a lively interchange of speech.
+
+He could not see them, without exposing himself to the danger of being
+detected in his eaves-dropping; but he heard what they said all the
+same.
+
+He kept his place--listening till the _horse trade_ was concluded, and
+for some time after.
+
+Only when they had separated, and both taken departure did he venture to
+come forth from his cover.
+
+Standing upon the spot lately occupied by the "swoppers," and looking
+"both ways at once," he exclaimed--
+
+"Geehosophat! thur's a compack atween a _he_ an' _she_-devil; an' durn'd
+ef I kin tell, which hez got the bessest o' the bargin!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTY.
+
+A DOORWAY WELL WATCHED.
+
+It was some time before Zeb Stump sallied forth from the covert where he
+had been witness to the "horse swop."  Not till both the bargainers had
+ridden entirely out of sight.  Then he went not after either; but stayed
+upon the spot, as if undecided which he should follow.
+
+It was not exactly this that kept him to the place; but the necessity of
+taking what he was in the habit of calling a "good think."
+
+His thoughts were about the exchange of the horses: for he had heard the
+whole dialogue relating thereto, and the proposal coming from Calhoun.
+It was this that puzzled, or rather gave him reason for reflection.
+What could be the motive?
+
+Zeb knew to be true what the Mexican had said: that the States horse
+was, in market value, worth far more than the mustang.  He knew,
+moreover, that Cassius Calhoun was the last man to be "coped" in a horse
+trade.  Why, then, had he done the "deal?"
+
+The old hunter pulled off his felt hat; gave his hand a twist or two
+through his unkempt hair; transferred the caress to the grizzled beard
+upon his chin--all the while gazing upon the ground, as if the answer to
+his mental interrogatory was to spring out of the grass.
+
+"Thur air but one explication o't," he at length muttered: "the grey's
+the faster critter o' the two--ne'er a doubt 'beout thet; an Mister Cash
+wants him for his fastness: else why the durnation shed he a gin a hoss
+thet 'ud sell for four o' his sort in any part o' Texas, an twicet thet
+number in Mexiko?  I reck'n he's bargained for the heels.  Why?  Durn
+me, ef I don't suspect why.  He wants--he--heigh--I hev it--somethin' as
+kin kum up wi' the Headless!
+
+"Thet's the very thing he's arter--sure as my name's Zeb'lon Stump.
+He's tried the States hoss an foun' him slow.  Thet much I knowd myself.
+Now he thinks, wi' the mowstang, he may hev a chance to overhaul the
+tother, ef he kin only find him agin; an for sartin he'll go in sarch o'
+him.
+
+"He's rad on now to Casser Corver--maybe to git a pick o' somethin' to
+eat.  He won't stay thur long.  'Fore many hours hev passed, somebody
+'ll see him out hyur on the purayra; an thet somebody air boun' to be
+Zeb'lon Stump.
+
+"Come, ye critter!" he continued, turning to the mare, "ye thort ye wur
+a goin' hum, did ye?  Yur mistaken 'beout that.  Ye've got to squat hyur
+for another hour or two--if not the hul o' the night.  Never mind, ole
+gurl!  The grass don't look so had; an ye shell hev a chance to git yur
+snout to it.  Thur now--eet your durned gut-full!"
+
+While pronouncing this apostrophe, he drew the head-stall over the ears
+of his mare; and, chucking the bridle across the projecting tree of the
+saddle, permitted her to graze at will.
+
+Having secured her in the chapparal where he had halted, he walked on--
+along the track taken by Calhoun.
+
+Two hundred yards farther on, and the jungle terminated.  Beyond
+stretched an open plain; and on its opposite side could be seen the
+hacienda of Casa del Corvo.
+
+The figure of a horseman could be distinguished against its whitewashed
+facade--in another moment lost within the dark outline of the entrance.
+
+Zeb knew who went in.
+
+"From this place," he muttered, "I kin see him kum out; an durn me, ef I
+don't watch till he do kum out--ef it shed be till this time o' the
+morrow.  So hyur goes for a spell o' patience."
+
+He first lowered himself to his knees.  Then, "squirming" round till his
+back came in contact with the trunk of a honey-locust, he arranged
+himself into a sitting posture.  This done, he drew from his capacious
+pocket a wallet, containing a "pone" of corn-bread, a large "hunk" of
+fried "hog-meat," and a flask of liquor, whose perfume proclaimed it
+"Monongahela."
+
+Having eaten about half the bread, and a like quantity of the meat, he
+returned the remaining moieties to the wallet; which he suspended over
+head upon a branch.  Then taking a satisfactory swig from the
+whiskey-flask, and igniting his pipe, he leant back against the locust--
+with arms folded over his breast, and eyes bent upon the gateway of Casa
+del Corvo.
+
+In this way he kept watch for a period of full two hours; never changing
+the direction of his glance; or not long enough for any one to pass out
+unseen by him.
+
+Forms came out, and went in--several of them--men and women.  But even
+in the distance their scant light-coloured garments, and dusky
+complexions, told them to be only the domestics of the mansion.
+Besides, they were all on foot; and he, for whom Zeb was watching,
+should come on horseback--if at all.
+
+His vigil was only interrupted by the going down of the sun; and then
+only to cause a change in his post of observation.  When twilight began
+to fling its purple shadows over the plain, he rose to his feet; and,
+leisurely unfolding his tall figure, stood upright by the stem of the
+tree--as if this attitude was more favourable for "considering."
+
+"Thur's jest a posserbillity the skunk mout sneak out i' the night?" was
+his reflection.  "Leastways afore the light o' the mornin'; an I must
+make sure which way he takes purayra.
+
+"'Taint no use my toatin' the maar after me," he continued, glancing in
+the direction where the animal had been left.  "She'd only bother me.
+Beside, thur's goin' to be a clurrish sort o' moonlight; an she mout be
+seen from the nigger quarter.  She'll be better hyur--both for grass and
+kiver."
+
+He went back to the mare; took off the saddle; fastened the trail-rope
+round her neck, tying the other end to a tree; and then, unstrapping his
+old blanket from the cantle, he threw it across his left arm, and walked
+off in the direction of Casa del Corvo.
+
+He did not proceed _pari passu_; but now quicker, and now more
+hesitatingly--timing himself, by the twilight--so that his approach
+might not be observed from the hacienda.
+
+He had need of this caution: for the ground which he had to pass was
+like a level lawn, without copse or cover of any kind.  Here and there
+stood a solitary tree--dwarf-oak or _algarobia_, but not close enough to
+shelter him from being seen through the windows--much less from the
+azotea.
+
+Now and then he stopped altogether--to wait for the deepening of the
+twilight.
+
+Working his way in this stealthy manner, he arrived within less than two
+hundred yards of the walls--just as the last trace of sunlight
+disappeared from the sky.
+
+He had reached the goal of his journey--for that day--and the spot on
+which he was likely to pass the night.
+
+A low stemless bush grew near; and, laying himself down behind it, he
+resumed the espionage, that could scarce be said to have been
+interrupted.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Throughout the live-long night Zeb Stump never closed both eyes at the
+same time.  One was always on the watch; and the unflagging earnestness,
+with which he maintained it, proclaimed him to be acting under the
+influence of some motive beyond the common.
+
+During the earlier hours he was not without sounds to cheer, or at least
+relieve, the monotony of his lonely vigil.  There was the hum of voices
+from the slave cabins; with now and then a peal of laughter.  But this
+was more suppressed than customary; nor was it accompanied by the clear
+strain of the violin, or the lively tink-a-tink of the banjo--sounds
+almost characteristic of the "negro-quarter," at night.
+
+The sombre silence that hung over the "big house" extended to the
+hearths of its sable retainers.
+
+Before midnight the voices became hushed, and stillness reigned
+everywhere; broken only at intervals by the howl of a straying hound--
+uttered in response to the howl-bark of a coyote taking care to keep far
+out upon the plain.
+
+The watcher had spent a wearisome day, and could have slept--but for his
+thoughts.  Once when these threatened to forsake him, and he was in
+danger of dozing, he started suddenly to his feet; took a turn or two
+over the sward; and, then lying down again, re-lit his pipe; stuck his
+head into the heart of the bush; and smoked away till the bowl was burnt
+empty.
+
+During all this time, he kept his eyes upon the great gateway of the
+mansion; whose massive door--he could tell by the moonlight shining upon
+it--remained shut.
+
+Again did he change his post of observation; the sun's rising--as its
+setting had done--seeming to give him the cue.
+
+As the first tint of dawn displayed itself on the horizon, he rose
+gently to his feet; clutched the blanket so as to bring its edges in
+contact across his breast; and, turning his back upon Casa del Corvo,
+walked slowly away--taking the same track by which he had approached it
+on the preceding night.
+
+And again with unequal steps: at short intervals stopping and looking
+back--under his arm, or over his shoulder.
+
+Nowhere did he make a prolonged pause; until reaching the locust-tree,
+under whose shade he had made his evening meal; and there, in the same
+identical attitude, he proceeded to break his fast.
+
+The second half of the "pone" and the remaining moiety of the pork, soon
+disappeared between his teeth; after which followed the liquor that had
+been left in his flask.
+
+He had refilled his pipe, and was about relighting it, when an object
+came before his eyes, that caused him hastily to return his flint and
+steel to the pouch from which he had taken them.
+
+Through the blue mist of the morning the entrance of Casa del Corvo
+showed a darker disc.  The door had been drawn open.
+
+Almost at the same instant a horseman was seen to sally forth, mounted
+upon a small grey horse; and the door was at once closed behind him.
+
+Zeb Stump made no note of this.  He only looked to see what direction
+the early traveller would take.
+
+Less than a score of seconds sufficed to satisfy him.  The horse's head
+and the face of the rider were turned towards himself.
+
+He lost no time in trying to identify either.  He did not doubt of its
+being the same man and horse, that had passed that spot on the evening
+before; and he was equally confident they were going to pass it again.
+
+What he did was to shamble up to his mare; in some haste get her saddled
+and bridled; and then, having taken up his trail rope, lead her off into
+a cover--from which he could command a view of the chapparal path,
+without danger of being himself seen.
+
+This done, he awaited the arrival of the traveller on the grey steed--
+whom he knew to be Captain Cassius Calhoun.
+
+He waited still longer--until the latter had trotted past; until he had
+gone quite through the belt of chapparal, and in the hazy light of the
+morning gradually disappeared on the prairie beyond.
+
+Not till then did Zeb Stump clamber into his saddle; and, "prodding" his
+solitary spur against the ribs of his roadster, cause the latter to move
+on.
+
+He went after Cassius Calhoun; but without showing the slightest concern
+about keeping the latter in sight!
+
+He needed not this to guide him.  The dew upon the grass was to him a
+spotless page--the tracks of the grey mustang a type, as legible as the
+lines of a printed book.
+
+He could read them at a trot; ay, going at a gallop!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTY ONE.
+
+HEADS DOWN--HEELS UP!
+
+Without suspicion that he had been seen leaving the house--except by
+Pluto, who had saddled the grey mustang--Calhoun rode on across the
+prairie.
+
+Equally unsuspicious was he, in passing the point where Zeb Stump stood
+crouching in concealment.
+
+In the dim light of the morning he supposed himself unseen by human eye;
+and he recked not of any other.
+
+After parting from the timbered border, he struck off towards the
+Nueces; riding at a brisk trot--now and then increasing to a canter.
+
+Por the first six or eight miles he took but little note of aught that
+was around.  An occasional glance along the horizon seemed to satisfy
+him; and this extended only to that portion of the vast circle before
+his face.  He looked neither to the right nor the left; and only once
+behind--after getting some distance from the skirt of the chapparal.
+
+Before him was the object--still unseen--upon which his thoughts were
+straying.
+
+What that object was he and only one other knew--that other Zeb Stump--
+though little did Calhoun imagine that mortal man could have a suspicion
+of the nature of his early errand.
+
+The old hunter had only conjectured it; but it was a conjecture of the
+truth of which he was as certain, as if the ex-captain had made him his
+confidant.  He knew that the latter had gone off in search of the
+Headless Horseman--in hopes of renewing the chase of yesterday, with a
+better chance of effecting a capture.
+
+Though bestriding a steed fleet as a Texan stag, Calhoun was by no means
+sanguine of success.  There were many chances against his getting sight
+of the game he intended to take: at least two to one; and this it was
+that formed the theme of his reflections as he rode onward.
+
+The uncertainty troubled him; but he was solaced by a hope founded upon
+some late experiences.
+
+There was a particular place where he had twice encountered the thing he
+was in search of.  It might be there again?
+
+This was an embayment of green sward, where the savannah was bordered by
+the chapparal, and close to the embouchure of that opening--where it was
+supposed the murder had been committed!
+
+"Odd he should always make back there?" reflected Calhoun, as he
+pondered upon the circumstance.  "Damned ugly odd it is!  Looks as if he
+knew--.  Bah!  It's only because the grass is better, and that pond by
+the side of it.  Well!  I hope he's been thinking that way this morning.
+If so, there'll be a chance of finding him.  If not, I must go on
+through the chapparal; and hang me if I like it--though it be in the
+daylight.  Ugh!
+
+"Pish! what's there to fear--now that he's safe in limbo?  Nothing but
+the _bit of lead_; and _it_ I must have, if I should ride this thing
+till it drops dead in its tracks.  Holy Heaven! what's that out yonder?"
+
+These last six words were spoken aloud.  All the rest had been a
+soliloquy in thought.
+
+The speaker, on pronouncing them, pulled up, almost dragging the mustang
+on its haunches; and with eyes that seemed ready to start from their
+sockets, sate gazing across the plain.
+
+There was something more than surprise in that stedfast glance--there
+was horror.
+
+And no wonder: for the spectacle upon which it rested was one to terrify
+the stoutest heart.
+
+The sun had stolen up above the horizon of the prairie, and was behind
+the rider's back, in the direct line of the course he had been pursuing.
+Before him, along the heaven's edge, extended a belt of bluish mist--
+the exhalation arising out of the chapparal--now not far distant.  The
+trees themselves were unseen--concealed under the film floating over
+them, that like a veil of purple gauze, rose to a considerable height
+above their tops--gradually merging into the deeper azure of the sky.
+
+On this veil, or moving behind it--as in the transparencies of a stage
+scene--appeared a form strange enough to have left the spectator
+incredulous, had he not beheld it before.  It was that of the Headless
+Horseman.
+
+But not as seen before--either by Calhoun himself, or any of the others.
+No.  It was now altogether different.  In shape the same; but in size
+it was increased to tenfold its original dimensions!
+
+No longer a man, but a Colossus--a giant.  No longer a horse, but an
+animal of equine shape, with the towering height and huge massive bulk
+of a mastodon!
+
+Nor was this all of the new to be noted about the Headless Horseman.  A
+still greater change was presented in his appearance; one yet more
+inexplicable, if that could possibly be.  He was no longer walking upon
+the ground, but against the sky; both horse and rider moving in an
+inverted position!  The hoofs of the former were distinctly perceptible
+upon the upper edge of the film; while the shoulders--I had almost said
+_head_--of the latter were close down to the line of the horizon!  The
+serape shrouding them hung in the right direction--not as regarded the
+laws of gravity, but the attitude of the wearer.  So, too, the bridle
+reins, the mane, and sweeping tail of the horse.  All draped _upwards_!
+
+When first seen, the spectral form--now more spectre-like than ever--was
+going at a slow, leisurely walk.  In this pace it for some time
+continued--Calhoun gazing upon it with a heart brimful of horror.
+
+All of a sudden it assumed a change.  Its regular outlines became
+confused by a quick transformation; the horse having turned, and gone
+off at a trot in the opposite direction, though still with his heels
+against the sky!
+
+The spectre had become alarmed, and was retreating!
+
+Calhoun, half palsied with fear, would have kept his ground, and
+permitted it to depart, but for his own horse; that, just then shying
+suddenly round, placed him face to face with the explanation.
+
+As he turned, the tap of a shod hoof upon the prairie turf admonished
+him that a real horseman was near--if that could be called real, which
+had thrown such a frightful shadow.
+
+"It's the _mirage_!" he exclaimed, with the addition of an oath to give
+vent to his chagrin.  "What a fool I've been to let it humbug me!
+There's the damned thing that did it: the very thing I'm in search of.
+And so close too!  If I'd known, I might have got hold of him before he
+saw me.  Now for a chase; and, by God, I'll _grup_ him, if I have to
+gallop to the other end of Texas!"
+
+Voice, spur, and whip were simultaneously exerted to prove the speaker's
+earnestness; and in five minutes after, two horsemen were going at full
+stretch across the prairie--their horses both to the prairie born--one
+closely pursuing the other--the pursued without a head; the pursuer with
+a heart that throbbed under a desperate determination.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+The chase was not a long one--at least, so far as it led over the open
+prairie; and Calhoun had begun to congratulate himself on the prospect
+of a capture.
+
+His horse appeared the swifter; but this may have arisen from his being
+more earnestly urged; or that the other was not sufficiently scared to
+care for escaping.  Certainly the grey steed gained ground--at length
+getting so close, that Calhoun made ready his rifle.
+
+His intention was to shoot the horse down, and so put an end to the
+pursuit.
+
+He would have fired on the instant, but for the fear of a miss.  But
+having made more than one already, he restrained himself from pulling
+trigger, till he could ride close enough to secure killing shot.
+
+While thus hesitating, the chase veered suddenly from off the treeless
+plain, and dashed into the opening of the timber.
+
+This movement, unexpected by the pursuer, caused him to lose ground; and
+in the endeavour to regain it, more than a half mile of distance was
+left behind him.
+
+He was approaching a spot well, too well, known to him--the place where
+blood had been spilt.
+
+On any other occasion he would have shunned it; but there was in his
+heart a thought that hindered him from dwelling upon memories of the
+past--steeling it against all reflection, except a cold fear for the
+future.  The capture of the strange equestrian could alone allay this
+fear--by removing the danger he dreaded.
+
+Once more he had gained ground in the chase.  The spread nostrils of his
+steed were almost on a line with the sweeping tail of that pursued.  His
+rifle lay ready in his left hand, its trigger guard covered by the
+fingers of his right.  He was searching for a spot to take aim at.
+
+In another second the shot would have been fired, and a bullet sent
+between the ribs of the retreating horse, when the latter, as if
+becoming aware of the danger, made a quick curvet to the off side; and
+then, aiming a kick at the snout of his pursuer, bounded on in a
+different direction!
+
+The suddenness of the demonstration, with the sharp, spiteful "squeal"
+that accompanied it--appearing almost to speak of an unearthly
+intelligence--for the moment disconcerted Calhoun; as it did the horse
+he was riding.
+
+The latter came to a stop; and refused to go farther; till the spur,
+plunged deep between his ribs, once more forced him to the gallop.
+
+And now more earnestly than ever did his rider urge him on; for the
+pursued, no longer keeping to the path, was heading direct for the
+thicket.  The chase might there terminate, without the chased animal
+being either killed or captured.
+
+Hitherto Calhoun had only been thinking of a trial of speed.  He had not
+anticipated such an ending, as was now both possible and probable; and
+with a more reckless resolve, he once more raised his rifle for the
+shot.
+
+By this time both were close in to the bushes--the Headless Horseman
+already half-screened by the leafy branches that swept swishing along
+his sides.  Only the hips of his horse could be aimed at; and upon these
+was the gun levelled.
+
+The sulphureous smoke spurted forth from its muzzle; the crack was heard
+simultaneously; and, as if caused by the discharge, a dark object came
+whirling through the cloud, and fell with a dull "thud" upon the turf.
+
+With a bound and a roll--that brought it among the feet of Calhoun's
+horse--it became stationary.
+
+Stationary, but not still.  It continued to oscillate from side to side,
+like a top before ceasing to spin.
+
+The grey steed snorted, and reared back.  His rider uttered a cry of
+intensified alarm.
+
+And no wonder.  If read in Shakespearean lore, he might have
+appropriately repeated the words "Shake not those gory locks": for, on
+the ground beneath, was the head of a man--still sticking in its hat--
+whose stiff orbicular brim hindered it from staying still.
+
+The face was toward Calhoun--upturned at just such an angle as to bring
+it full before him.  The features were bloodstained, wan, and
+shrivelled; the eyes open, but cold and dim, like balls of blown glass;
+the teeth gleaming white between livid lips, yet seemingly set in an
+expression of careless contentment.
+
+All this saw Cassius Calhoun.
+
+He saw it with fear and trembling.  Not for the supernatural or unknown,
+but for the real and truly comprehended.
+
+Short was his interview with that silent, but speaking head.  Ere it had
+ceased to oscillate on the smooth sward, he wrenched his horse around;
+struck the rowels deep; and galloped away from the ground!
+
+No farther went he in pursuit of the Headless Horseman--still heard
+breaking through the bushes--but back--back to the prairie; and on, on,
+to Casa del Corvo!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTY TWO.
+
+A QUEER PARCEL.
+
+The backwoodsman, after emerging from the thicket, proceeded as
+leisurely along the trail, as if he had the whole day before him, and no
+particular motive for making haste.
+
+And yet, one closely scrutinising his features, might there have
+observed an expression of intense eagerness; that accorded with his
+nervous twitching in the saddle, and the sharp glances from time to time
+cast before him.
+
+He scarce deigned to look upon the "sign" left by Calhoun.  It he could
+read out of the corner of his eye.  As to following it, the old mare
+could have done that without him!
+
+It was not this knowledge that caused him to hang back; for he would
+have preferred keeping Calhoun in sight.  But by doing this, the latter
+might see _him_; and so frustrate the end he desired to attain.
+
+This end was of more importance than any acts that might occur between;
+and, to make himself acquainted with the latter, Zeb Stump trusted to
+the craft of his intellect, rather than the skill of his senses.
+
+Advancing slowly and with caution--but with that constancy that ensures
+good speed--he arrived at length on the spot where the _mirage_ had made
+itself manifest to Calhoun.
+
+Zeb saw nothing of this.  It was gone; and the sky stretched down to the
+prairie--the blue meeting the green in a straight unbroken line.
+
+He saw, however, what excited him almost as much as the spectre would
+have done: two sets of horse-tracks going together--those that went
+after being the hoof-marks of Calhoun's new horse--of which Zeb had
+already taken the measure.
+
+About the tracks _underneath_ he had no conjecture--at least as regarded
+their identification.  These he knew, as well as if his own mare had
+made them.
+
+"The skunk's hed a find!" were the words that escaped him, as he sate
+gazing upon the double trail.  "It don't foller from thet," he
+continued, in the same careless drawl, "thet he hez made a catch.  An'
+yit, who knows?  Durn me, ef he moutn't!  Thur's lots o' chances for his
+doin' it.  The mowstang may a let him come clost up--seein' as he's
+ridin' one o' its own sort; an ef it dud--ay, ef it dud--
+
+"What the durnation am I stannin' hyur for?  Thur ain't no time to be
+wasted in shiller-shallerin'.  Ef he shed grup thet critter, an git what
+he wants from it, then I mout whissel for what I want, 'ithout the ghost
+o' a chance for gettin' it.
+
+"I must make a better rate o' speed.  Gee-up, ole gurl; an see ef ye
+can't overtake that ere grey hoss, as scuttled past half-a-hour agone.
+Now for a spell o' yur swiftness, the which you kin show along wi' any
+o' them, I reckon--thet air when ye're pressed.  Gee-up!"
+
+Instead of using the cruel means employed by him when wanting his mare
+to make her best speed, he only drove the old spur against her ribs, and
+started her into a trot.  He had no desire to travel more rapidly than
+was consistent with caution; and while trotting he kept his eyes sharply
+ranging along the skyline in front of him.
+
+"From the way his track runs," was his reflection, "I kin tell pretty
+nigh whar it's goin' to fetch out.  Everything seems to go that way; an
+so did he, poor young fellur--never more to come back.  Ah, wal! ef
+t'aint possible to ree-vive him agin, may be it air to squar the yards
+wi' the skunk as destroyed him.  The Scripter sez, `a eye for a eye, an
+a tooth for a tooth,' an I reckin I'll shet up somebody's daylights, an
+spoil the use o' thur ivories afore I hev done wi' him.  Somebody as
+don't suspeeshun it neyther, an that same--.  Heigh!  Yonner he goes!
+An' yonner too the Headless, by Geehosophat!  Full gallup both; an durn
+me, if the grey aint a overtakin' him!
+
+"They aint comin' this way, so 'tain't no use in our squattin', ole
+gurl.  Stan' steady for all that.  He _mout_ see us movin'.
+
+"No fear.  He's too full o' his frolic to look anywhar else, than
+straight custrut afore him.  Ha! jest as I expected--into the openin'!
+Right down it, fast as heels kin carry 'em!
+
+"Now, my maar, on we go agin!"
+
+Another stage of trotting--with his eyes kept steadfastly fixed upon the
+chapparal gap--brought Zeb to the timber.
+
+Although the chase had long since turned the angle of the avenue, and
+was now out of sight, he did not go along the open ground; but among the
+bushes that bordered it.
+
+He went so as to command a view of the clear track for some distance
+ahead; at the same time taking care that neither himself, nor his mare,
+might be seen by any one advancing from the opposite direction.
+
+He did not anticipate meeting any one--much less the man who soon after
+came in sight.
+
+He was not greatly surprised at hearing a shot: for he had been
+listening for it, ever since he had set eyes on the chase.  He was
+rather in surprise at not hearing it sooner; and when the crack did
+come, he recognised the report of a yager rifle, and knew whose gun had
+been discharged.
+
+He was more astonished to see its owner returning along the lane--in
+less than five minutes after the shot had been fired--returning, too,
+with a rapidity that told of retreat!
+
+"Comin' back agin--an so soon!" he muttered, on perceiving Calhoun.
+"Dog-goned queery thet air!  Thur's somethin' amiss, more'n a miss, I
+reck'n.  Ho, ho, ho!  Goin', too, as if hell war arter him!  Maybe it's
+the Headless hisself, and thur's been a changin' about in the chase--tit
+for tat!  Darn me, ef it don't look like it!  I'd gie a silver dollar to
+see thet sort o' a thing.  He, he, he, ho, ho, hoo!"
+
+Long before this, the hunter had slipped out of his saddle, and taken
+the precaution to screen both himself and his animal from the chance of
+being seen by the retreating rider--who promise soon to pass the spot.
+
+And soon did he pass it, going at such a gait, and with such a wild
+abstracted air, that Zeb would scarce have been perceived had he been
+standing uncovered in the avenue!
+
+"Geehosophat!" mentally ejaculated the backwoodsman, as the
+passion-scathed countenance came near enough to be scrutinised.  "If
+hell ain't _arter_, it's _inside_ o' him!  Durn me, ef thet face ain't
+the ugliest picter this coon ever clapped eyes on.  I shed pity the wife
+as gets him.  Poor Miss Peintdexter!  I hope she'll be able to steer
+clur o' havin' sech a cut-throat as him to be her lord an master.
+
+"What's up anyhow?  Thar don't 'pear to be anythin' arter him?  An' he
+still keeps on!  Whar's he boun' for now?  I must foller an see.
+
+"To hum agin!" exclaimed the hunter, after going on to the edge of the
+chapparal, and observed Calhoun still going at a gallop, with head
+turned homeward.  "Hum agin, for sartin!
+
+"Now, ole gurl!" he continued, having remained silent till the grey
+horse was nearly out of sight, "You an me goes t'other way.  We must
+find out what thet shot wur fired for."
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+In ten minutes after, Zeb had alighted from his mare, and lifted up from
+the ground an object, the stoutest heart might have felt horror in
+taking hold of--disgust, even, in touching!
+
+Not so the old hunter.  In that object he beheld the lineaments of a
+face well known to him--despite the shrivelling of the skin, and the
+blood streaks that so fearfully falsified its expression--still dear to
+him, despite death and a merciless mutilation.
+
+He had loved that face, when it belonged to a boy; he now cherished it,
+belonging not to anybody!
+
+Clasping the rim of the hat that fitted tightly to the temples--Zeb
+endeavoured to take it off.  He did not succeed.  The head was swollen
+so as almost to burst the bullion band twisted around it!
+
+Holding it in its natural position, Zeb stood for a time gazing tenderly
+on the face.
+
+"Lord, O Lordy!" he drawlingly exclaimed, "what a present to take back
+to _his_ father, to say nothin' o' the sister!  I don't think I'll take
+it.  It air better to bury the thing out hyur, an say no more abeout it.
+
+"No; durn me ef I do!  What am I thinkin' o'?  Tho' I don't exackly see
+how it may help to sarcumstantiate the chain o' evvydince, it may do
+somethin' torst it.  Durned queery witness _it_ 'll be to purduce in a
+coort o' justis!"
+
+Saying this, he unstrapped his old blanket; and, using it as a wrapper,
+carefully packed within it head, hat, and all.
+
+Then, hanging the strange bundle over the horn of his saddle, he
+remounted his mare, and rode reflectingly away.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTY THREE.
+
+LIMBS OF THE LAW.
+
+On the third day after Maurice Gerald became an inmate of the military
+prison the fever had forsaken him, and he no longer talked incoherently.
+On the fourth he was almost restored to his health and strength.  The
+fifth was appointed for his trial!
+
+This haste--that elsewhere would have been considered indecent--was
+thought nothing of in Texas; where a man may commit a capital offence,
+be tried, and hanged within the short space of four-and-twenty hours!
+
+His enemies, who were numerous, for some reason of their own, insisted
+upon despatch: while his friends, who were few, could urge no good
+reason against it.
+
+Among the populace there was the usual clamouring for prompt and speedy
+justice; fortified by that exciting phrase, old as the creation itself:
+"that the blood of the murdered man was calling from the ground for
+vengeance."
+
+The advocates of an early trial were favoured by a fortuitous
+circumstance.  The judge of the Supreme Court chanced just then to be
+going his circuit; and the days devoted to clearing the calendar at Fort
+Inge, had been appointed for that very week.
+
+There was, therefore, a sort of necessity, that the case of Maurice
+Gerald, as of the other suspected murderers, should be tried within a
+limited time.
+
+As no one objected, there was no one to ask for a postponement; and it
+stood upon the docket for the day in question--the fifteenth of the
+month.
+
+The accused might require the services of a legal adviser.  There was no
+regular practitioner in the place: as in these frontier districts the
+gentlemen of the long robe usually travel in company with the Court; and
+the Court had not yet arrived.  For all that, a lawyer had appeared: a
+"counsellor" of distinction; who had come all the way from San Antonio,
+to conduct the case.  As a volunteer he had presented himself!
+
+It may have been generosity on the part of this gentleman, or an eye to
+Congress, though it was said that gold, presented by fair fingers, had
+induced him to make the journey.
+
+When it rains, it rains.  The adage is true in Texas as regards the
+elements; and on this occasion it was true of the lawyers.
+
+The day before that appointed for the trial of the mustanger, a second
+presented himself at Fort Inge, who put forward his claim to be upon the
+side of the prisoner.
+
+This gentleman had made a still longer journey than he of San Antonio; a
+voyage, in fact: since he had crossed the great Atlantic, starting from
+the metropolis of the Emerald Isle.  He had come for no other purpose
+than to hold communication with the man accused of having committed a
+murder!
+
+It is true, the errand that had brought him did not anticipate this; and
+the Dublin solicitor was no little astonished when, after depositing his
+travelling traps under the roof of Mr Oberdoffer's hostelry, and making
+inquiry about Maurice Gerald, he was told that the young Irishman was
+shut up in the guard-house.
+
+Still greater the attorney's astonishment on learning the cause of his
+incarceration.
+
+"Fwhat! the son of a Munsther Gerald accused of murdher!  The heir of
+Castle Ballagh, wid its bewtiful park and demesne.  Fwy, I've got the
+papers in my portmantyee here.  Faugh-a-ballagh!  Show me the way to
+him!"
+
+Though the "Texan" Boniface was inclined to consider his recently
+arrived guest entitled to a suspicion of lunacy, he assented to his
+request; and furnished him with a guide to the guard-house.
+
+If the Irish attorney was mad, there appeared to be method in his
+madness.  Instead of being denied admittance to the accused criminal, he
+was made welcome to go in and out of the military prison--as often as it
+seemed good to him.
+
+Some document he had laid before the eyes of the major-commandant, had
+procured him this privilege; at the same time placing him _en rapport_,
+in a friendly way, with the Texan "counsellor."
+
+The advent of the Irish attorney at such a crisis gave rise to much
+speculation at the Port, the village, and throughout the settlement.
+The bar-room of the "Rough and Ready" was rife with
+conjecturers--_quidnuncs_ they could scarcely be called: since in Texas
+the genus does not exist.
+
+A certain grotesqueness about the man added to the national instinct for
+guessing--which had been rendered excruciatingly keen through some
+revelations, contributed by "Old Duffer."
+
+For all that, the transatlantic limb of the law proved himself tolerably
+true to the traditions of his craft.  With the exception of the trifling
+imprudences already detailed--drawn from him in the first moments of
+surprise--he never afterwards committed himself; but kept his lips close
+as an oyster at ebb tide.
+
+There was not much time for him to use his tongue.  On the day after his
+arrival the trial was to take place; and during most of the interval he
+was either in the guard-house along with the prisoner, or closeted with
+the San Antonio counsel.
+
+The rumour became rife that Maurice Gerald had told them a tale--a
+strange weird story--but of its details the world outside remained in
+itching ignorance.
+
+There was one who knew it--one able to confirm it--Zeb Stump the hunter.
+
+There may have been another; but this other was not in the confidence
+either of the accused or his counsel.
+
+Zeb himself did not appear in their company.  Only once had he been seen
+conferring with them.  After that he was gone--both from the guard-house
+and the settlement, as everybody supposed, about his ordinary business--
+in search of deer, "baar," or "gobbler."
+
+Everybody was in error.  Zeb for the time had forsaken his usual
+pursuits, or, at all events, the game he was accustomed to chase,
+capture, and kill.
+
+It is true he was out upon a stalking expedition; but instead of birds
+or beasts, he was after an animal of neither sort; one that could not be
+classed with creatures either of the earth or the air--a horseman
+without a head!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTY FOUR.
+
+AN AFFECTIONATE NEPHEW.
+
+"Tried to-morrow--to-morrow, thank God!  Not likely that anybody 'll
+catch that cursed thing before then--to be hoped, never.
+
+"_It_ is all I've got to fear.  I defy them to tell what's happened
+without that.  Hang me if I know myself!  Enough only to--.
+
+"Queer, the coming of this Irish pettifogger!
+
+"Queer, too, the fellow from San Antonio!  Wonder who and what's brought
+him?  Somebody's promised him his costs?
+
+"Damn 'em!  I don't care, not the value of a red cent.  They can make
+nothing out of it, but that Gerald did the deed.  Everything points that
+way; and everybody thinks so.  They're bound to convict him.
+
+"Zeb Stump don't think it, the suspicious old snake!  He's nowhere to be
+found.  Wonder where he has gone?  On a hunt, they say.  'Tain't likely,
+such time as this.  What if he be hunting it?  What if he should catch
+it?
+
+"I'd try again myself, if there was time.  There ain't.  Before
+to-morrow night it'll be all over; and afterwards if there should turn
+up--.  Damn afterwards!  The thing is to make sure now.  Let the future
+look to itself.  With one man hung for the murder, 'tain't likely they'd
+care to accuse another.  Even if something suspicious _did_ turn up!
+they'd be shy to take hold of it.  It would be like condemning
+themselves!
+
+"I reckon, I've got all right with the Regulators.  Sam Manley himself
+appears pretty well convinced.  I knocked his doubts upon the head, when
+I told him what I'd heard that night.  A little more than I did hear;
+though that was enough to make a man stark, staring mad.  Damn!
+
+"It's no use crying over spilt milk.  She's met the man, and there's an
+end of it.  She'll never meet him again, and that's another end of it--
+except she meet him in heaven.  Well; that will depend upon herself.
+
+"I don't think _anything has happened between them_.  She's not the sort
+for that, with all her wildness; and it may be what that yellow wench
+tells me--only _gratitude_.  No, no, no!  It can't be.  Gratitude don't
+get out of its bed in the middle of the night--to keep appointments at
+the bottom of a garden?  She loves him--she loves him!  Let her love and
+be damned!  She shall never have him.  She shall never see him again,
+unless she prove obstinate; and then it will be but to condemn him.  A
+word from her, and he's a hanged man.
+
+"She shall speak it, if she don't say that other word, I've twice asked
+her for.  The third time will be the last.  One more refusal, and I show
+my hand.  Not only shall this Irish adventurer meet his doom; but she
+shall be his condemner; and the plantation, house, niggers,
+everything--.  Ah! uncle Woodley; I wanted to see you."
+
+The soliloquy above reported took place in a chamber, tenanted only by
+Cassius Calhoun.
+
+It was Woodley Poindexter who interrupted it.  Sad, silent, straying
+through the corridors of Casa del Corvo, he had entered the apartment
+usually occupied by his nephew--more by chance than from any
+premeditated purpose.
+
+"Want me!  For what, nephew?"
+
+There was a tone of humility, almost obeisance, in the speech of the
+broken man.  The once proud Poindexter--before whom two hundred slaves
+had trembled every day, every hour of their lives, now stood in the
+presence of his master!
+
+True, it was his own nephew, who had the power to humiliate him--his
+sister's son.
+
+But there was not much in that, considering the character of the man.
+
+"I want to talk to you about Loo," was the rejoinder of Calhoun.
+
+It was the very subject Woodley Poindexter would have shunned.  It was
+something he dreaded to think about, much less make the topic of
+discourse; and less still with him who now challenged it.
+
+Nevertheless, he did not betray surprise.  He scarce felt it.  Something
+said or done on the day before had led him to anticipate this request
+for a conversation--as also the nature of the subject.
+
+The manner in which Calhoun introduced it, did not diminish his
+uneasiness.  It sounded more like a demand than a request.
+
+"About Loo?  What of her?" he inquired, with assumed calmness.
+
+"Well," said Calhoun, apparently in reluctant utterance, as if shy about
+entering upon the subject, or pretending to be so, "I--I--wanted--"
+
+"I'd rather," put in the planter, taking advantage of the other's
+hesitancy, "I'd rather not speak of _her_ now."
+
+This was said almost supplicatingly.
+
+"And why not now, uncle?" asked Calhoun, emboldened by the show of
+opposition.
+
+"You know my reasons, nephew?"
+
+"Well, I know the time is not pleasant.  Poor Henry missing--supposed to
+be--After all, he may turn up yet, and everything be right again."
+
+"Never! we shall never see him again--living or dead.  I have no longer
+a son?"
+
+"You have a daughter; and she--"
+
+"Has disgraced me!"
+
+"I don't believe it, uncle--no."
+
+"What means those things I've heard--myself seen?  What could have taken
+her there--twenty miles across the country--alone--in the hut of a
+common horse-trader--standing by his bedside?  O God!  And why should
+she have interposed to save him--him, the murderer of my son--her own
+brother?  O God!"
+
+"Her own story explains the first--satisfactorily, as I think."
+
+Calhoun did _not_ think so.
+
+"The second is simple enough.  Any woman would have done the same--a
+woman like Loo."
+
+"There is _none_ like her.  I, her father, say so.  Oh! that I could
+think it is, as you say!  My poor daughter! who should now be dearer to
+me than ever--now that I have no son!"
+
+"It is for her to find you a son--one already related to you; and who
+can promise to play the part--with perhaps not so much affection as him
+you have lost, but with all he has the power to give.  I won't talk to
+you in riddles, Uncle Woodley.  You know what I mean; and how my mind's
+made up about this matter.  _I want Loo_!"
+
+The planter showed no surprise at the laconic declaration.  He expected
+it.  For all that, the shadow became darker on his brow.  It was evident
+he did not relish the proposed alliance.
+
+This may seem strange.  Up to a late period, he had been its advocate--
+in his own mind--and more than once, delicately, in the ear of his
+daughter.
+
+Previous to the migration into Texas, he had known comparatively little
+of his nephew.
+
+Since coming to manhood, Calhoun had been a citizen of the state of
+Mississippi--more frequently a dweller in the dissipated city of New
+Orleans.  An occasional visit to the Louisiana plantation was all his
+uncle had seen of him; until the developing beauty of his cousin Louise
+gave him the inducement to make these visits at shorter intervals--each
+time protracting them to a longer stay.
+
+There was then twelve months of campaigning in Mexico; where he rose to
+the rank of captain; and, after his conquests in war, he had returned
+home with the full determination to make a conquest in love--the heart
+of his Creole cousin.
+
+From that time his residence under his uncle's roof had been more
+permanent.  If not altogether liked by the young lady, he had made
+himself welcome to her father, by means seldom known to fail.
+
+The planter, once rich, was now poor.  Extravagance had reduced his
+estate to a hopeless indebtedness.  With his nephew, the order was
+reversed: once poor, he was now rich.  Chance had made him so.  Under
+the circumstances, it was not surprising, that money had passed between
+them.
+
+In his native place, and among his old neighbours, Woodley Poindexter
+still commanded sufficient homage to shield him from the suspicion of
+being _under_ his nephew; as also to restrain the latter from exhibiting
+the customary arrogance of the creditor.
+
+It was only after the move into Texas, that their relations began to
+assume that peculiar character observable between mortgagor and
+mortgagee.
+
+It grew more patent, after several attempts at love-making on the part
+of Calhoun, with corresponding repulses on the part of Louise.
+
+The planter had now a better opportunity of becoming acquainted with the
+true character of his nephew; and almost every day; since their arrival
+at Casa del Corvo, had this been developing itself to his discredit.
+
+Calhoun's quarrel with the mustanger, and its ending, had not
+strengthened his uncle's respect for him; though, as a kinsman, he was
+under the necessity of taking sides with him.
+
+There had occurred other circumstances to cause a change in his
+feelings--to make him, notwithstanding its many advantages, _dislike_
+the connection.
+
+Alas! there was much also to render it, if not agreeable, at least not
+to be slightingly set aside.
+
+Indecision--perhaps more than the sorrow for his son's loss dictated the
+character of his reply.
+
+"If I understand you aright, nephew, you mean _marriage_!  Surely it is
+not the time to talk of it now--while death is in our house!  To think
+of such a thing would cause a scandal throughout the settlement."
+
+"You mistake me, uncle.  I do not mean marriage--that is, not _now_.
+Only something that will secure it--when the proper time arrives."
+
+"I do not understand you, Cash."
+
+"You'll do that, if you only listen to me a minute."
+
+"Go on."
+
+"Well; what I want to say is this.  I've made up my mind to get married.
+I'm now close upon thirty--as you know; and at that time a man begins
+to get tired of running about the world.  I'm damnably tired of it; and
+don't intend to keep single any longer.  _I'm willing to have Loo for my
+wife_.  There need be no hurry about it.  All I want now is her promise;
+signed and sealed, that there may be no _fluke_, or uncertainty.  I want
+the thing settled.  When these _bothers_ blow past, it will be time
+enough to talk of the wedding business, and that sort of thing."
+
+The word "bothers," with the speech of which it formed part, grated
+harshly on the ear of a father, mourning for his murdered son!
+
+The spirit of Woodley Poindexter was aroused--almost to the resumption
+of its old pride, and the indignation that had oft accompanied it.
+
+It soon cowered again.  On one side he saw land, slaves, wealth,
+position; on the other, penury that seemed perdition.
+
+He did not yield altogether; as may be guessed by the character of his
+reply.
+
+"Well, nephew; you have certainly spoken plain enough.  But I know not
+my daughter's disposition towards you.  You say you are willing to have
+her for your wife.  Is she willing to have you?  I suppose there is a
+question about that?"
+
+"I think, uncle, it will depend a good deal upon yourself.  You are her
+father.  Surely you can _convince_ her?"
+
+"I'm not so sure of that.  She's not of the kind to be convinced--
+against her will.  You, Cash, know that as well as I."
+
+"Well, I only know that I intend getting `spliced,' as the sailors say;
+and I'd like Loo for the _mistress of Casa del Corvo_, better than any
+other woman in the Settlement--in all Texas, for that matter."
+
+Woodley Poindexter recoiled at the ungracious speech.  It was the first
+time he had been told, that he was not the _master_ of Casa del Corvo!
+Indirectly as the information had been conveyed, he understood it.
+
+Once more rose before his mind the reality of lands, slaves, wealth, and
+social status--alongside, the apparition of poverty and social
+abasement.
+
+The last looked hideous; though not more so than the man who stood
+before him--his own nephew--soliciting to become his son!
+
+For purposes impossible to comprehend, God often suffers himself to be
+defeated by the Devil.  In this instance was it so.  The good in
+Poindexter's heart succumbed to the evil.  He promised to assist his
+nephew, in destroying the happiness of his daughter.
+
+"Loo!"
+
+"Father!"
+
+"I come to ask a favour from you."
+
+"What is it, father?"
+
+"You know that your cousin Cash loves you.  He is ready to die for--more
+and better still, to marry you."
+
+"But I am not ready to marry _him_.  No, father; _I_ shall die first.
+The presumptuous wretch!  I know what it means.  And he has sent _you_
+to make this proposal!  Tell him in return, that, sooner than consent to
+become his wife, I'd go upon the prairies--and seek my living by
+lassoing wild horses!  Tell him that!"
+
+"Reflect, daughter!  You are, perhaps, not aware that--"
+
+"That my cousin is your creditor.  I know all that, dear father.  But I
+know also that you are Woodley Poindexter, and I your daughter."
+
+Delicately as the hint was given, it produced the desired effect.  The
+spirit of the planter surged up to its ancient pride, His reply was:--
+
+"Dearest Louise! image of your mother!  I had doubted you.  Forgive me,
+my noble girl!  Let the past be forgotten.  I shall leave it to
+yourself.  You are free to refuse him!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTY FIVE.
+
+A KIND COUSIN.
+
+Louise Poindexter made fall use of the liberty allowed by her father.
+In less than an hour after, Calhoun was flatly refused.
+
+It was his third time of asking.  Twice before had the same suit been
+preferred; informally, and rather by a figure of speech than in the
+shape of a direct declaration.
+
+It was the third time; and the answer told it would be the last.  It was
+a simple "No," emphatically followed by the equally simple "Never!"
+
+There was no prevarication about the speech--no apology for having made
+it.
+
+Calhoun listened to his rejection, without much show of surprise.
+Possibly--in all probability--he expected it.
+
+But instead of the blank look of despair usually observable under the
+circumstances, his features remained firm, and his cheeks free from
+blanching.
+
+As he stood confronting his fair cousin, a spectator might have been
+reminded of the jaguar, as it pauses before springing on its prey.
+
+There was that in his eye which seemed to say:--
+
+"In less than sixty seconds, you'll change your tune."
+
+What he did say was:--
+
+"You're not in earnest, Loo?"
+
+"I am, sir.  Have I spoken like one who jests?"
+
+"You've spoken like one, who hasn't taken pains to reflect."
+
+"Upon what?"
+
+"Many things."
+
+"Name them!"
+
+"Well, for one--the way I love you."
+
+She made no rejoinder.
+
+"A love," he continued, in a tone half explanatory, half pleading; "a
+love, Loo, that no man can feel for a woman, and survive it.  It can end
+only with my life.  It could not end with _yours_."
+
+There was a pause, but still no reply.
+
+"'Tis no use my telling you its history.  It began on the same day--ay,
+the same hour--I first saw you.
+
+"I won't say it grew stronger as time passed.  It could not.  On my
+first visit to your father's house--now six years ago--you may remember
+that, after alighting from my horse, you asked me to take a walk with
+you round the garden--while dinner was being got ready.
+
+"You were but a stripling of a girl; but oh, Loo, you were a woman in
+beauty--as beautiful as you are at this moment.
+
+"No doubt you little thought, as you took me by the hand, and led me
+along the gravelled walk, under the shade of the China trees, that the
+touch of your fingers was sending a thrill into my soul; your pretty
+prattle making an impression upon my heart, that neither time, nor
+distance, nor yet _dissipation_, has been able to efface."
+
+The Creole continued to listen, though not without showing sign.  Words
+so eloquent, so earnest, so full of sweet flattery, could scarce fail to
+have effect upon a woman.  By such speech had Lucifer succeeded in the
+accomplishment of his purpose.  There was pity, if not approval, in her
+look!
+
+Still did she keep silence.
+
+Calhoun continued:--
+
+"Yes, Loo; it's true as I tell you.  I've tried all three.  Six years
+may fairly be called time.  From Mississippi to Mexico was the distance:
+for I went there with no other purpose than to forget you.  It proved of
+no avail; and, returning, I entered upon a course of dissipation.  New
+Orleans knows that.
+
+"I won't say, that my passion grew stronger by these attempts to stifle
+it.  I've already told you, it could not.  From the hour you first
+caught hold of my hand, and called me cousin--ah! you called me
+_handsome_ cousin, Loo--from that hour I can remember no change, no
+degrees, in the fervour of my affection; except when jealousy has made
+me hate--ay, so much, that I could have _killed_ you!"
+
+"Good gracious, Captain Calhoun!  This is wild talk of yours.  It is
+even silly!"
+
+"'Tis serious, nevertheless.  I've been so jealous with you at times,
+that it was a task to control myself.  My temper I could not--as you
+have reason to know."
+
+"Alas, cousin, I cannot help what has happened.  I never gave you cause,
+to think--"
+
+"I know what you are going to say; and you may leave it unspoken.  I'll
+say it for you: `to think that you ever loved me.'  Those were the words
+upon your lips.
+
+"I don't say you did," he continued, with deepening despair: "I don't
+accuse you of tempting me.  Something did.  God, who gave you such
+beauty; or the Devil, who led me to look upon it."
+
+"What you say only causes me pain.  I do not suppose you are trying to
+flatter me.  You talk too earnestly for that.  But oh, cousin Cassius,
+'tis a fancy from which you will easily recover.  There are others, far
+fairer than I; and many, who would feel complimented by such speeches.
+Why not address yourself to them?"
+
+"Why not?" he echoed, with bitter emphasis.  "What an idle question!"
+
+"I repeat it.  It is not idle.  Far more so is your affection for me:
+for I must be candid with you, Cassius.  I do not--I _cannot_, love
+you."
+
+"You will not marry me then?"
+
+"That, at least, is an idle question.  I've said I do not love you.
+Surely that is sufficient."
+
+"And I've said I love _you_.  I gave it as one reason why I wish you for
+my wife: but there are _others_.  Are you desirous of hearing them?"
+
+As Calhoun asked this question the suppliant air forsook him.  The
+spirit of the jaguar was once more in his eye.
+
+"You said there were other reasons.  State them!  Do not be backward.
+I'm not afraid to listen."
+
+"Indeed!" he rejoined, sneeringly.  "You're not afraid, ain't you?"
+
+"Not that I know of.  What have I to fear?"
+
+"I won't say what _you_ have; but what your father has."
+
+"Let me hear it?  What concerns him, equally affects me.  I am his
+daughter; and now, alas, his only--.  Go on, cousin Calhoun!  What is
+this shadow hanging over him?"
+
+"No shadow, Loo; but something serious, and substantial.  A trouble he's
+no longer able to contend with.  You force me to speak of things you
+shouldn't know anything about."
+
+"Oh! don't I?  You're mistaken, cousin Cash.  I know them already.  I'm
+aware that my father's in debt; and that you are his creditor.  How
+could I have remained in ignorance of it?  Your arrogance about the
+house--your presumption, shown every hour, and in presence of the
+domestics--has been evidence sufficient to satisfy even them, that there
+is something amiss.  You are master of Casa del Corvo.  I know it.  You
+are not master of _me_!"
+
+Calhoun quailed before the defiant speech.  The card, upon which he had
+been counting, was not likely to gain the trick.  He declined playing
+it.
+
+He held a still stronger _in_ his hand; which was exhibited without
+farther delay.
+
+"Indeed!" he retorted, sneeringly.  "Well; if I'm not master of your
+heart, I am of your happiness--or shall be.  I know the worthless wretch
+that's driven you to this denial--"
+
+"Who?"
+
+"How innocent you are!"
+
+"Of that at least I am; unless by worthless wretch you mean yourself.
+In that sense I can understand you, sir.  The description is too true to
+be mistaken."
+
+"Be it so!" he replied, turning livid with rage, though still keeping
+himself under a certain restraint.  "Well; since you think me so
+worthless, it won't, I suppose, better your opinion of me, when I tell
+you what I'm going to do with you?"
+
+"Do with me!  You are presumptuous, cousin Cash!  You talk as if I were
+your _protegee_, or slave!  I'm neither one, nor the other!"
+
+Calhoun, cowering under the outburst of her indignation, remained
+silent.
+
+"_Pardieu_!" she continued, "what is this threat?  Tell me what you are
+_going to do with me_!  I should like to know that."
+
+"You shall."
+
+"Let me hear it!  Am I to be turned adrift upon the prairie, or shut up
+in a convent?  Perhaps it may be a prison?"
+
+"You would like the last, no doubt--provided your incarceration was to
+be in the company of--"
+
+"Go on, sir!  What is to be my destiny?  I'm impatient to have it
+declared."
+
+"Don't be in a hurry.  The first act shall be rehearsed tomorrow."
+
+"So soon?  And where, may I ask?"
+
+"In a court of justice."
+
+"How, sir?"
+
+"By your standing before a judge, and in presence of a jury."
+
+"You are pleased to be facetious, Captain Calhoun.  Let me tell you that
+I don't like such pleasantries--"
+
+"Pleasantries indeed!  I'm stating plain facts.  To-morrow is the day of
+trial.  Mr Maurice Gerald, or McSweeney, or O'Hogerty, or whatever's
+his name, will stand before the bar--accused of murdering your brother."
+
+"'Tis false!  Maurice Gerald never--"
+
+"Did the deed, you are going to say?  Well, that remains to be proved.
+It _will_ be; and from your own lips will come the words that'll prove
+it--to the satisfaction of every man upon the jury."
+
+The great gazelle-eyes of the Creole were opened to their fullest
+extent.  They gazed upon the speaker with a look such as is oft given by
+the gazelle itself--a commingling of fear, wonder, and inquiry.
+
+It was some seconds before she essayed to speak.  Thoughts, conjectures,
+fears, fancies, and suspicions, all had to do in keeping her silent.
+
+"I know not what you mean," she at length rejoined.  "You talk of my
+being called into court.  For what purpose?  Though I am the sister of
+him, who--I know nothing--can tell no more than is in the mouth of
+everybody."
+
+"Yes can you; a great deal more.  It's not in the mouth of everybody:
+that on the night of the murder, you gave Gerald a meeting at the bottom
+of the garden.  No more does all the world know what occurred at that
+stolen interview.  How Henry intruded upon it; how, maddened, as he
+might well be, by the thought of such a disgrace--not only to his
+sister, but his family--he threatened to kill the man who had caused it;
+and was only hindered from carrying out that threat, by the intercession
+of the woman so damnably deluded!
+
+"All the world don't know what followed: how Henry, like a fool, went
+after the low hound, and with what intent.  Besides themselves, there
+were but two others who chanced to be spectators of that parting."
+
+"Two--who were they?"
+
+The question was asked mechanically--almost with a tranquil coolness.
+
+It was answered with equal _sang froid_.
+
+"One was Cassius Calhoun--the other Louise Poindexter."  She did not
+start.  She did not even show sign of being surprised.  What was spoken
+already had prepared her for the revelation.  Her rejoinder was a single
+word, pronounced in a tone of defiance.  "Well!"
+
+"Well!" echoed Calhoun, chagrined at the slight effect his speeches had
+produced; "I suppose you understand me?"
+
+"Not any more than ever."
+
+"You wish me to speak further?"
+
+"As you please, sir."
+
+"I shall then.  I say to you, Loo, there's but one way to save your
+father from ruin--yourself from shame.  You know what I mean?"
+
+"Yes; I know that much."
+
+"You will not refuse me now?"
+
+"_Now_ more than _ever_!"
+
+"Be it so!  Before this time to-morrow--and, by Heaven!  I mean it--
+before this time _to-morrow_, you shall stand in the witness-box?"
+
+"Vile spy!  Anywhere but in your presence!  Out of my sight!  This
+instant, or I call my father!"
+
+"You needn't put yourself to the trouble.  I'm not going to embarrass
+you any longer with my company--so disagreeable to you.  I leave you to
+reflect.  Perhaps before the trial comes on, you'll see fit to change
+your mind.  If so, I hope you'll give notice of it--in time to stay the
+summons.  Good night, Loo!  I'll sleep thinking of you."
+
+With these words of mockery upon his lips--almost as bitter to himself
+as to her who heard them--Calhoun strode out of the apartment, with an
+air less of triumph than of guilt.
+
+Louise listened, until his footsteps died away in the distant corridor.
+
+Then, as if the proud angry thoughts hitherto sustaining her had become
+suddenly relaxed, she sank into a chair; and, with both hands pressing
+upon her bosom, tried to still the dread throbbings that now, more than
+ever, distracted it.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTY SIX.
+
+A TEXAN COURT.
+
+It is the dawn of another day.  The Aurora, rising rose-coloured from
+the waves of a West Indian sea, flings its sweetest smile athwart the
+savannas of Texas.
+
+Almost on the same instant that the rosy light kisses the white
+sand-dunes of the Mexican Gulf, does it salute the flag on Fort Inge,
+nearly a hundred leagues distant: since there is just this much of an
+upward inclination between the coast at Matagorda and the spurs of the
+Guadalupe mountains, near which stand this frontier post.
+
+The Aurora has just lighted up the flag, that at the same time flouting
+out from its staff spreads its broad field of red, white, and blue to
+the gentle zephyrs of the morning.
+
+Perhaps never since that staff went up, has the star-spangled banner
+waved over a scene of more intense interest than is expected to occur on
+this very day.
+
+Even at the early hour of dawn, the spectacle may be said to have
+commenced.  Along with the first rays of the Aurora, horsemen may be
+seen approaching the military post from all quarters of the compass.
+They ride up in squads of two, three, or half a dozen; dismount as they
+arrive; fasten their horses to the stockade fences, or picket them upon
+the open prairie.
+
+This done, they gather into groups on the parade-ground; stand
+conversing or stray down to the village; all, at one time or another,
+taking a turn into the tavern, and paying their respects to Boniface
+behind the bar.
+
+The men thus assembling are of many distinct types and nationalities.
+Almost every country in Europe has furnished its quota; though the
+majority are of that stalwart race whose ancestors expelled the Indians
+from the "Bloody Ground;" built log cabins on the sites of their
+wigwams; and spent the remainder of their lives in felling the forests
+of the Mississippi.  Some of them have been brought up to the
+cultivation of corn; others understand better the culture of cotton;
+while a large number, from homes further south, have migrated into Texas
+to speculate in the growth and manufacture of sugar and tobacco.
+
+Most are planters by calling and inclination; though there are graziers
+and cattle-dealers, hunters and horse-dealers, storekeepers, and traders
+of other kinds--not a few of them traffickers in human flesh!
+
+There are lawyers, land-surveyors, and land-speculators, and other
+speculators of no proclaimed calling--adventurers ready to take a hand
+in whatever may turn up--whether it be the branding of cattle, a scout
+against Comanches, or a spell of filibustering across the Rio Grande.
+
+Their costumes are as varied as their callings.  They have been already
+described: for the men now gathering around Fort Inge are the same we
+have seen before assembled in the courtyard of Casa del Corvo--the same
+with an augmentation of numbers.
+
+The present assemblage differs in another respect from that composing
+the expedition of searchers.  It is graced by the presence of women--the
+wives, sisters, and daughters of the men.  Some are on horseback; and
+remain in the saddle--their curtained cotton-bonnets shading their fair
+faces from the glare of the sun; others are still more commodiously
+placed for the spectacle--seated under white waggon-tilts, or beneath
+the more elegant coverings of "carrioles" and "Jerseys."
+
+There is a spectacle--at least there is one looked for.  It is a trial
+long talked of in the Settlement.
+
+Superfluous to say that it is the trial of Maurice Gerald--known as
+_Maurice the mustanger_.
+
+Equally idle to add, that it is for the murder of Henry Poindexter.
+
+It is not the high nature of the offence that has attracted such a
+crowd, nor yet the characters of either the accused or his victim--
+neither much known in the neighbourhood.
+
+The same Court--it is the Supreme Court of the district, Uvalde--has
+been in session there before--has tried all sorts of cases, and all
+kinds of men--thieves, swindlers, homicides, and even murderers--with
+scarce fourscore people caring to be spectators of the trial, or staying
+to hear the sentence!
+
+It is not this which has brought so many settlers together; but a series
+of strange circumstances, mysterious and melodramatic; which seem in
+some way to be connected with the crime, and have been for days the sole
+talk of the Settlement.
+
+It is not necessary to name these circumstances: they are already known.
+
+All present at Fort Inge have come there anticipating: that the trial
+about to take place will throw light on the strange problem that has
+hitherto defied solution.
+
+Of course there are some who, independent of this, have a feeling of
+interest in the fate of the prisoner.  There are others inspired with a
+still sadder interest--friends and relatives of the man _supposed to
+have been_ murdered: for it must be remembered, that there is yet no
+evidence of the actuality of the crime.
+
+But there is little doubt entertained of it.  Several circumstances--
+independent of each other--have united to confirm it; and all believe
+that the foul deed has been done--as firmly as if they had been
+eye-witnesses of the act.
+
+They only wait to be told the details; to learn the how, and the when,
+and the wherefore.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Ten o'clock, and the Court is in session.
+
+There is not much change in the composition of the crowd; only that a
+sprinkling of military uniforms has become mixed with the more sober
+dresses of the citizens.  The soldiers of the garrison have been
+dismissed from morning parade; and, free to take their recreation for
+the day, have sought it among the ranks of the civilian spectators.
+There stand they side by side--soldiers and citizens--dragoons,
+riflemen, infantry, and artillery, interspersed among planters, hunters,
+horse-dealers, and desperate adventurers, having just heard the "Oyez!"
+of the Court crier--grotesquely pronounced "O yes!"--determined to stand
+there till they hear the last solemn formulary from the lips of the
+judge: "May God have mercy on your soul!"
+
+There is scarce one present who does not expect ere night to listen to
+this terrible final phrase, spoken from under the shadow of that sable
+cap, that denotes the death doom of a fellow creature.
+
+There may be only a few who wish it.  But there are many who feel
+certain, that the trial will end in a conviction; and that ere the sun
+has set, the soul of Maurice Gerald will go back to its God!
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+The Court is in session.
+
+You have before your mind's eye a large hall, with a raised dais at one
+side; a space enclosed between panelled partitions; a table inside it;
+and on its edge a box-like structure, resembling the rostrum of a
+lecture-room, or the reading-desk in a church.
+
+You see judges in ermine robes; barristers in wigs of grey, and gowns of
+black, with solicitors attending on them; clerks, ushers, and reporters;
+blue policemen with bright buttons standing here and there; and at the
+back a sea of heads and faces, not always kempt or clean.
+
+You observe, moreover, a certain subdued look on the countenances of the
+spectators--not so much an air of decorum, as a fear of infringing the
+regulations of the Court.
+
+You must get all this out of your mind, if you wish to form an idea of a
+Court of justice on the frontiers of Texas--as unlike its homonym in
+England as a bond of guerillas to a brigade of Guardsmen.
+
+There is no court-house, although there is a sort of public room used
+for this and other purposes.  But the day promises to be hot, and the
+Court has decided to _sit under a tree_!
+
+And under a tree has it established itself--a gigantic live-oak,
+festooned with Spanish moss--standing by the edge of the parade-ground,
+and extending its shadow afar over the verdant prairie.
+
+A large deal table is placed underneath, with half a score of
+skin-bottomed chairs set around it, and on its top a few scattered
+sheets of foolscap paper, an inkstand with goose-quill pens, a
+well-thumbed law-book or two, a blown-glass decanter containing
+peach-brandy, a couple of common tumblers, a box of Havannah cigars, and
+another of lucifer-matches.
+
+Behind these _paraphernalia_ sits the judge, not only un-robed in
+ermine, but actually un-coated--the temperature of the day having
+decided him to try the case in his _shirt-sleeves_!
+
+Instead of a wig, he wears his Panama hat, set slouchingly over one
+cheek, to balance the half-smoked, half-chewed Havannah projecting from
+the other.
+
+The remaining chairs are occupied by men whose costume gives no
+indication of their calling.
+
+There are lawyers among them--attorneys, and _counsellors_, there
+called--with no difference either in social or legal status; the sheriff
+and his "deputy"; the military commandant of the fort; the chaplain; the
+doctor; several officers; with one or two men of undeclared occupations.
+
+A little apart are twelve individuals grouped together; about half of
+them seated on a rough slab bench, the other half "squatted" or
+reclining along the grass.
+
+It is the _jury_--an "institution" as germane to Texas as to England;
+and in Texas ten times more true to its trust; scorning to submit to the
+dictation of the judge--in England but too freely admitted.
+
+Around the Texan judge and jury--close pressing upon the precincts of
+the Court--is a crowd that may well be called nondescript.  Buckskin
+hunting-shirts; blanket-coats--even under the oppressive heat; frocks of
+"copperas stripe" and Kentucky jeans; blouses of white linen, or
+sky-blue _cottonade_; shirts of red flannel or unbleached "domestic";
+dragoon, rifle, infantry, and artillery uniforms, blend and mingle in
+that motley assemblage.
+
+Here and there is seen a more regular costume--one more native to the
+country--the _jaqueta_ and _calzoneros_ of the Mexican, with the broad
+_sombrero_ shading his swarthy face of _picaresque_ expression.
+
+Time was--and that not very long ago--when men assembled in this same
+spot would all have been so attired.
+
+But then there was no jury of twelve, and the judge--_Juez de Letras_--
+was a far more important personage, with death in his nod, and pardon
+easily obtained by those who could put _onzas_ in his pocket.
+
+With all its rude irregularity--despite the absence of effete forms--of
+white ermine, and black silk--of uniformed _alguazils_, or
+bright-buttoned policemen--despite the presence of men that, to the
+civilised eye, may appear uncouth--even savage I hesitate not to say,
+that among these red flannel-shirts and coats of Kentucky jean, the
+innocent man is as safe--ay far safer--to obtain justice, and the guilty
+to get punished, than amidst the formalities and hair-splitting
+chicaneries of our so-called civilisation.
+
+Do not mistake those men assembled under the Texan tree--however rough
+their exterior may seem to your hypercritical eye--do not mistake them
+for a mob of your own "masses," brutalised from their very birth by the
+curse of over-taxation.  Do not mistake them, either, for things like
+yourselves--filled to the throat with a spirit of flunkeyism--would that
+it choked you!--scorning all that is grand and progressive--revering
+only the effete, the superficial, and the selfish.
+
+I am talking to you, my middle-class friend, who fancy yourself a
+_citizen_ of this our English country.  A citizen, forsooth; without
+even the first and scantiest right of citizenship--that of choosing your
+parliamentary representative.
+
+You fancy you _have_ this right.  I have scarce patience to tell you,
+you are mistaken.
+
+Ay, grandly mistaken, when you imagine yourself standing on the same
+political platform with those quasi-rude frontiersmen of Texas.
+
+Nothing of the kind.  _They_ are "sovereign citizens"--the peers of your
+superiors, or of those who assume so to call themselves, and whose
+assumption you are base enough to permit without struggle--almost
+without protest!
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+In most assemblies the inner circle is the more select.  The gem is to
+be found in the centre at Port Inge.
+
+In that now mustered the order is reversed.  Outside is the elegance.
+The fair feminine forms, bedecked in their best dresses, stand up in
+spring waggons, or sit in more elegant equipages, sufficiently elevated
+to see over the heads of the male spectators.
+
+It is not upon the judge that their eyes are bent, or only at intervals.
+The glances are given to a group of three men, placed near the jury,
+and not very far from the stem of the tree.  One is seated, and two
+standing.  The former is the prisoner at the bar; the latter the
+sheriff's officers in charge of him.
+
+It was originally intended to try several other men for the murder;
+Miguel Diaz and his associates, as also Phelim O'Neal.
+
+But in the course of a preliminary investigation the Mexican mustanger
+succeeded in proving an _alibi_, as did also his trio of companions.
+All four have been consequently discharged.
+
+They acknowledged having disguised themselves as Indians: for the fact
+being proved home to them, they could not do less.
+
+But they pretended it to have been a joke--a _travestie_; and as there
+was proof of the others being at home--and Diaz dead drunk--on the night
+of Henry Poindexter's disappearance, their statement satisfied those who
+had been entrusted with the inquiry.
+
+As to the Connemara man, it was not thought necessary to put him upon
+trial.  If an accomplice, he could only have acted at the instigation of
+his master; and he might prove more serviceable in the witness-box than
+in the dock.
+
+Before the bar, then--if we may be permitted the figure of speech--there
+stands but one prisoner, Maurice Gerald--known to those gazing upon him
+as _Maurice the mustanger_.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTY SEVEN.
+
+A FALSE WITNESS.
+
+There are but few present who have any personal acquaintance with the
+accused; though there are also but a few who have never before heard his
+name.  Perhaps not any.
+
+It is only of late that this has become generally known: for previous to
+the six-shot duel with Calhoun, he had no other reputation than that of
+an accomplished horse-catcher.
+
+All admitted him to be a fine young fellow--handsome, dashing, devoted
+to a fine horse, and deeming it no sin to look fondly on a fair woman--
+free of heart, as most Irishmen are, and also of speech, as will be more
+readily believed.
+
+But neither his good, nor evil, qualities were carried to excess.  His
+daring rarely exhibited itself in reckless rashness; while as rarely did
+his speech degenerate into "small talk."
+
+In his actions there was observable a certain _juste milieu_.  His words
+were alike well-balanced; displaying, even over his cups, a reticence
+somewhat rare among his countrymen.
+
+No one seemed to know whence he came; for what reason he had settled in
+Texas; or why he had taken to such a queer "trade," as that of catching
+wild horses--a calling not deemed the most reputable.
+
+It seemed all the more strange to those who knew: that he was not only
+educated, but evidently a "born gentleman"--a phrase, however, of but
+slight significance upon the frontiers of Texas.
+
+There, too, was the thing itself regarded with no great wonder; where
+"born noblemen," both of France and the "Faderland," may oft be
+encountered seeking an honest livelihood by the sweat of their brow.
+
+A fig for all patents of nobility--save those stamped by the true die of
+Nature!
+
+Such is the sentiment of this far free land.
+
+And this sort of impress the young Irishman carries about him--blazoned
+like the broad arrow.  There is no one likely to mistake him for either
+fool or villain.
+
+And yet he stands in the presence of an assembly, called upon to regard
+him as an assassin--one who in the dead hour of night has spilled
+innocent blood, and taken away the life of a fellow-creature!
+
+Can the charge be true?  If so, may God have mercy on his soul!
+
+Some such reflection passes through the minds of the spectators, as they
+stand with eyes fixed upon him, waiting for his trial to begin.
+
+Some regard him with glances of simple curiosity; others with
+interrogation; but most with a look that speaks of anger and revenge.
+
+There is one pair of eyes dwelling upon him with an expression
+altogether unlike the rest--a gaze soft, but steadfast--in which fear
+and fondness seem strangely commingled.
+
+There are many who notice that look of the lady spectator, whose pale
+face, half hid behind the curtains of a _caleche_, is too fair to escape
+observation.
+
+There are few who can interpret it.
+
+But among these, is the prisoner himself; who, observing both the lady
+and the look, feels a proud thrill passing through his soul, that almost
+compensates for the humiliation he is called upon to undergo.  It is
+enough to make him, for the time, forget the fearful position in which
+he is placed.
+
+For the moment, it is one of pleasure.  He has been told of much that
+transpired during those dark oblivious hours.  He now knows that what he
+had fancied to be only a sweet, heavenly vision, was a far sweeter
+reality of earth.
+
+That woman's face, shining dream-like over his couch, was the same now
+seen through the curtains of the _caleche_; and the expression upon it
+tells him: that among the frowning spectators he has one friend who will
+be true to the end--even though it be death!
+
+The trial begins.
+
+There is not much ceremony in its inception.  The judge takes off his
+hat strikes a lucifer-match; and freshly ignites his cigar.
+
+After half a dozen draws, he takes the "weed" from between his teeth,
+lays it still smoking along the table, and says--
+
+"Gentlemen of the jury!  We are here assembled to try a case, the
+particulars of which are, I believe, known to all of you.  A man has
+been murdered,--the son of one of our most respected citizens; and the
+prisoner at the bar is accused of having committed the crime.  It is my
+duty to direct you as to the legal formalities of the trial.  It is
+yours to decide--after hearing the evidence to be laid before you--
+whether or not the accusation be sustained."
+
+The prisoner is asked, according to the usual formality,--"_Guilty, or
+not guilty_?"
+
+"Not guilty," is the reply; delivered in a firm, but modest tone.
+
+Cassius Calhoun, and some "rowdies" around him, affect an incredulous
+sneer.
+
+The judge resumes his cigar, and remains silent.
+
+The counsel for the State, after some introductory remarks, proceeds to
+introduce the witnesses for the prosecution.
+
+First called is Franz Oberdoffer.
+
+After a few unimportant interrogatories about his calling, and the like,
+he is requested to state what he knows of the affair.  This is the
+common routine of a Texan trial.
+
+Oberdoffer's evidence coincides with the tale already told by him: how
+on the night that young Poindexter was missed, Maurice Gerald had left
+his house at a late hour--after midnight.  He had settled his account
+before leaving; and appeared to have plenty of money.  It was not often
+Oberdoffer had known him so well supplied with cash.  He had started for
+his home on the Nueces; or wherever it was.  He had not said where he
+was going.  He was not on the most friendly terms with witness.  Witness
+only supposed he was going there, because his man had gone the day
+before, taking all his traps upon a pack-mule--everything, except what
+the mustanger himself carried off on his horse.
+
+What had he carried off?
+
+Witness could not remember much in particular.  He was not certain of
+his having a gun.  He rather believed that he had one--strapped, Mexican
+fashion, along the side of his saddle.
+
+He could speak with certainty of having seen pistols in the holsters,
+with a bowie-knife in the mustanger's belt.  Gerald was dressed as he
+always went--in Mexican costume, and with a striped Mexican blanket.  He
+had the last over his shoulders as he rode off.  The witness thought it
+strange, his leaving at that late hour of the night.  Still stranger,
+that he had told witness of his intention to start the next morning.
+
+He had been out all the early part of the night, but without his horse--
+which he kept in the tavern stable.  He had started off immediately
+after returning.  He stayed only long enough to settle his account.  He
+appeared excited, and in a hurry.  It was not with drink.  He filled his
+flask with _Kirschenwasser_; but did not drink of it before leaving the
+hotel.  Witness could swear to his being sober.  He knew that he was
+excited by his manner.  While he was saddling his horse--which he did
+for himself--he was all the time talking, as if angry.  Witness didn't
+think it was at the animal.  He believed he had been crossed by
+somebody, and was angry at something that had happened to him, before
+coming back to the hotel.  Had no idea where Gerald had been to; but
+heard afterwards that he had been seen going out of the village, and
+down the river, in the direction of Mr Poindexter's plantation.  He had
+been seen going that way often for the last three or four days of his
+sojourn at the hotel--both by day and night--on foot as well as
+horseback--several times both ways.
+
+Such are the main points of Oberdoffer's evidence relating to the
+movements of the prisoner.
+
+He is questioned about Henry Poindexter.
+
+Knew the young gentleman but slightly, as he came very seldom to the
+hotel.  He was there on the night when last seen.  Witness was surprised
+to see him there--partly because he was not in the habit of coming, and
+partly on account of the lateness of the hour.
+
+Young Poindexter did not enter the house.  Only looked inside the
+saloon; and called witness to the door.
+
+He asked after Mr Gerald.  He too appeared sober, but excited; and,
+upon being told that the mustanger was gone away, became very much more
+excited.  Said he wished very much to see Gerald that very night; and
+asked which way he had gone.  Witness directed him along the Rio Grande
+trace--thinking the mustanger had taken it.  Said he knew the road, and
+went off, as if intending to overtake the mustanger.
+
+A few desultory questions, and Oberdoffer's evidence is exhausted.
+
+On the whole it is unfavourable to the accused; especially the
+circumstance of Gerald's having changed his intention as to his time of
+starting.  His manner, described as excited and angry,--perhaps somewhat
+exaggerated by the man who naively confesses to a grudge against him.
+That is especially unfavourable.  A murmur through the court tells that
+it has made this impression.
+
+But why should Henry Poindexter have been excited too?  Why should he
+have been following after Gerald in such hot haste, and at such an
+unusual hour--unusual for the young planter, both as regarded his haunts
+and habits?
+
+Had the order been reversed, and Gerald inquiring about and going after
+him, the case would have been clearer.  But even then there would have
+been an absence of motive.  Who can show this, to satisfy the jury?
+
+Several witnesses are called; but their testimony rather favours the
+reverse view.  Some of them testify to the friendly feeling that existed
+between the prisoner and the man he stands charged with having murdered.
+
+One is at length called up who gives evidence of the opposite.  It is
+Captain Cassius Calhoun.
+
+His story produces a complete change in the character of the trial.  It
+not only discloses a motive for the murder, but darkens the deed
+tenfold.
+
+After a craftily worded preface, in which he declares his reluctance to
+make the exposure, he ends by telling all: the scene in the garden; the
+quarrel; the departure of Gerald, which he describes as having been
+accompanied by a threat; his being followed by Henry; everything but the
+true motive for this following, and his own course of action throughout.
+These two facts he keeps carefully to himself.
+
+The scandalous revelation causes a universal surprise--alike shared by
+judge, jury, and spectators.  It exhibits itself in an unmistakable
+manner--here in ominous whisperings, there in ejaculations of anger.
+
+These are not directed towards the man who has testified; but against
+him who stands before them, now presumptively charged with a double
+crime: the assassination of a son--the defilement of a daughter!
+
+A groan had been heard as the terrible testimony proceeded.  It came
+from a man of more than middle age--of sad subdued aspect--whom all knew
+to be the father of both these unfortunates.
+
+But the eyes of the spectators dwell not on him.  They look beyond, to a
+curtained _caleche_, in which is seen seated a lady: so fair, as long
+before to have fixed their attention.
+
+Strange are the glances turned upon her; strange, though not
+inexplicable: for it is Louise Poindexter who occupies the carriage.
+
+Is she there of her own accord--by her own free will?
+
+So runs the inquiry around, and the whispered reflections that follow
+it.
+
+There is not much time allowed them for speculation.  They have their
+answer in the crier's voice, heard pronouncing the name--
+
+"Louise Poindexter!"
+
+Calhoun has kept his word.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTY EIGHT.
+
+AN UNWILLING WITNESS.
+
+Before the monotonous summons has been three times repeated, the lady is
+seen descending the steps of her carriage.
+
+Conducted by an officer of the Court, she takes her stand on the spot
+set apart for the witnesses.
+
+Without flinching--apparently without fear--she faces towards the Court.
+
+All eyes are upon her: some interrogatively; a few, perhaps, in scorn:
+but many in admiration--that secret approval which female loveliness
+exacts, even when allied with guilt!
+
+One regards her with an expression different from the rest: a look of
+tenderest passion, dashed with an almost imperceptible distrust.
+
+It is the prisoner himself.  From him her eyes are averted as from
+everybody else.
+
+Only one man she appears to think worthy of her attention--he who has
+just forsaken the stand she occupies.  She looks at Calhoun, her own
+cousin--as though with her eyes she would kill him.
+
+Cowering under the glance, he slinks back, until the crowd conceals him
+from her sight.
+
+"Where were you, Miss Poindexter, on the night when your brother was
+last seen?"
+
+The question is put by the State counsellor.
+
+"At home,--in my father's house."
+
+"May I ask, if on that night you went into the garden?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"Perhaps you will be good enough to inform the Court at what hour?"
+
+"At the hour of midnight--if I rightly remember."
+
+"Were you alone?"
+
+"Not all the time."
+
+"Part of it there was some one with you?"
+
+"There was."
+
+"Judging by your frankness, Miss Poindexter, you will not refuse to
+inform the Court who that person was?"
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"May I ask the name of the individual?"
+
+"There was more than one.  My brother was there."
+
+"But before your brother came upon the ground, was there not some one
+else in your company?"
+
+"There was."
+
+"It is _his_ name we wish you to give.  I hope you will not withhold
+it."
+
+"Why should I?  You are welcome to know that the gentleman, who was with
+me, was Mr Maurice Gerald."
+
+The answer causes surprise, and something more.  There is a show of
+scorn, not unmixed with indignation.
+
+There is one on whom it produces a very different effect--the prisoner
+at the bar--who looks more triumphant than any of his accusers!
+
+"May I ask if this meeting was accidental, or by appointment?"
+
+"By appointment."
+
+"It is a delicate question, Miss Poindexter; you will pardon me for
+putting it--in the execution of my duty:--What was the nature--the
+object I should rather term it--of this appointment?"
+
+The witness hesitates to make answer.
+
+Only for an instant.  Braising herself from the stooping attitude she
+has hitherto held, and casting a careless glance upon the faces around
+her, she replies--
+
+"Motive, or object, it is all the same.  I have no intention to conceal
+it.  I went into the garden to meet the man I loved--whom I still love,
+though he stands before you an accused criminal!  Now, sir, I hope you
+are satisfied?"
+
+"Not quite," continues the prosecuting counsel, unmoved by the murmurs
+heard around him; "I must ask you another question, Miss Poindexter.
+The course I am about to take, though a little irregular, will save the
+time of the Court; and I think no one will object to it.  You have heard
+what has been said by the witness who preceded you.  Is it true that
+your brother parted in anger with the prisoner at the bar?"
+
+"Quite true."
+
+The answer sends a thrill through the crowd--a thrill of indignation.
+It confirms the story of Calhoun.  It establishes the _motive_ of the
+murder!
+
+The bystanders do not wait for the explanation the witness designs to
+give.  There is a cry of "Hang--hang him!" and, along with it, a
+demonstration for this to be done without staying for the verdict of the
+jury, "Order in the Court!" cries the judge, taking the cigar from
+between his teeth, and looking authoritatively around him.
+
+"My brother did not _follow him in anger_," pursues the witness, without
+being further questioned.  "He had forgiven Mr Gerald; and went after
+to apologise."
+
+"_I_ have something to say about that," interposes Calhoun, disregarding
+the irregularity of the act; "they quarrelled _afterwards_.  I heard
+them, from where I was standing on the top of the house."
+
+"Mr Calhoun!" cries the judge rebukingly; "if the counsel for the
+prosecution desire it, you can be put in the box again.  Meanwhile, sir,
+you will please not interrupt the proceedings."
+
+After a few more questions, eliciting answers explanatory of what she
+has last alleged, the lady is relieved from her embarrassing situation.
+
+She goes back to her carriage with a cold heaviness at her heart: for
+she has become conscious that, by telling the truth, she has damaged the
+cause of him she intended to serve.  Her own too: for in passing through
+the crowd she does not fail to perceive eyes turned upon her, that
+regard her with an expression too closely resembling contempt!
+
+The "chivalry" is offended by her condescension; the morality shocked by
+her free confession of that midnight meeting; to say nought of the envy
+felt for the _bonne fortune_ of him who has been so daringly endorsed.
+
+Calhoun is once more called to the stand; and by some additional
+perjury, strengthens the antipathy already felt for the accused.  Every
+word is a lie; but his statements appear too plausible to be
+fabrications.
+
+Again breaks forth the clamour of the crowd.  Again is heard the cry,
+"Hang!"--this time more vociferous, more earnest, than ever.
+
+This time, too, the action is more violent.  Men strip off their coats,
+and fling their hats into the air.  The women in the waggons--and even
+those of gentle strain in the carriages--seem, to share the frenzied
+spite against the prisoner--all save that one, who sits screened behind
+the curtain.
+
+She too shows indignation; but from a different cause.  If she trembles
+at the commotion, it is not through fear; but from the bitter
+consciousness that she has herself assisted in stirring it up.  In this
+dark hour she remembers the significant speech of Calhoun: that from her
+own lips were to come the words that would prove Maurice Gerald a
+murderer!
+
+The clamour continues, increasing in earnestness.  There are things said
+aloud--insinuations against the accused--designed to inflame the
+passions of the assembly; and each moment the outcry grows fiercer and
+more virulent.
+
+Judge Roberts--the name of him who presides--is in peril of being
+deposed; to be succeeded by the lawless Lynch!
+
+And then what must follow?  For Maurice Gerald no more trial; no
+condemnation: for that has been done already.  No shrift neither; but a
+quick execution, occupying only the time it will take half a score of
+expert rope-men to throw a noose around his neck, and jerk him up to the
+limb of the live-oak stretching horizontally over his head!
+
+This is the thought of almost everybody on the ground, as they stand
+waiting for some one to say the word--some bad, bold borderer daring
+enough to take the initiative.
+
+Thanks be to God, the spectators are not _all_ of this mind.  A few have
+determined on bringing the affair to a different finale.
+
+There is a group of men in uniform, seen in excited consultation.  They
+are the officers of the Fort, with the commandant in their midst.
+
+Only for a score of seconds does their council continue.  It ends with
+the braying of a bugle.  It is a signal sounded by command of the major.
+
+Almost at the same instant a troop of two-score dragoons, with a like
+number of mounted riflemen, is seen filing out from the stockade
+enclosure that extends rearward from the Fort.
+
+Having cleared the gateway, they advance over the open ground in the
+direction of the live-oak.
+
+Silently, and as though acting under an instinct, they deploy into an
+alignment--forming three sides of a square, that partially encloses the
+Court!
+
+The crowd has ceased its clamouring; and stands gazing at a spectacle,
+which might be taken for a _coup de theatre_.
+
+It produces not only silence, but submission: for plainly do they
+perceive its design, and that the movement is a precautionary measure
+due to the skill of the commanding officer of the post.
+
+Equally plain is it, that the presidency of Justice Lynch is no longer
+possible; and that the law of the land is once more in the ascendant.
+
+Without further opposition Judge Roberts is permitted to resume his
+functions, so rudely interrupted.
+
+"Fellow citizens!" he cries, with a glance towards his auditory, now
+more reproachful than appealing, "the law is bound to take its course--
+just the same in Texas as in the States.  I need not tell you that,
+since most of you, I reckon, have seen corn growing on the other side of
+the Mississippi.  Well, taking this for granted, you wouldn't hang a man
+without first hearing what he's got to say for himself?  That would
+neither be law, nor justice, but downright murder!"
+
+"And hasn't he done murder?" asks one of the rowdies standing near
+Calhoun.  "It's only sarvin' him, as he sarved young Poindexter."
+
+"There is no certainty about that.  You've not yet heard all the
+testimony.  Wait till we've examined the witnesses on the other side.
+Crier!" continues he, turning to the official; "call the witnesses for
+the defence."
+
+The crier obeys; and Phelim O'Neal is conducted to the stand.
+
+The story of the _ci-devant_ stable-boy, confusedly told, full of
+incongruities--and in many parts altogether improbable--rather injures
+the chances of his master being thought innocent.
+
+The San Antonio counsel is but too anxious for his testimony to be cut
+short--having a firmer reliance on the tale to be told by another.
+
+That other is next announced.
+
+"Zebulon Stump!"
+
+Before the voice of the summoning officer has ceased to reverberate
+among the branches of the live-oak, a tall stalwart specimen of humanity
+is seen making his way through the throng--whom all recognise as Zeb
+Stump, the most noted hunter of the Settlement.
+
+Taking three or four strides forward, the backwoodsman comes to a stand
+upon the spot set apart for the witnesses.
+
+The sacred volume is presented to him in due form; which, after
+repeating the well-known words of the "affidavit," Zeb is directed to
+kiss.
+
+He performs this operation with a smack sufficiently sonorous to be
+heard to the extreme outside circle of the assemblage.
+
+Despite the solemnity of the scene, there is an audible tittering,
+instantly checked by the judge; a little, perhaps, by Zeb himself, whose
+glance, cast inquiringly around, seems to search for some one, that may
+be seen with a sneer upon his face.
+
+The character of the man is too well known, for any one to suppose he
+might make merry at his expense; and before his searching glance the
+crowd resumes, or affects to resume, its composure.
+
+After a few preliminary questions, Zeb is invited to give his version of
+the strange circumstances, which, have been keeping the Settlement in a
+state of unwonted agitation.
+
+The spectators prick up their ears, and stand in expectant silence.
+There is a general impression that Zeb holds the key to the whole
+mystery.
+
+"Wal, Mister Judge!" says he, looking straight in the face of that
+cigar-smoking functionary; "I've no objection to tell what I know 'beout
+the bizness; but ef it be all the same to yurself, an the Jewry hyur,
+I'd preefar that the young fellur shed gie his varsion fust.  I kud then
+foller wi' mine, the which mout sartify and confirm him."
+
+"Of what young fellow do you speak?" inquires the judge.
+
+"The mowstanger thur, in coorse.  Him as stan's 'cused o' killin' young
+Peintdexter."
+
+"It would be somewhat irregular," rejoins the judge--"After all, our
+object is to get at the truth.  For my part, I haven't much faith in
+old-fashioned forms; and if the jury don't object, let it be as you
+say."
+
+The "twelve," speaking through their foreman, profess themselves of the
+same way of thinking.  Frontiersmen are not noted for strict adherence
+to ceremonious forms; and Zeb's request is conceded _nemine
+dissentiente_.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTY NINE.
+
+THE CONFESSION OF THE ACCUSED.
+
+Acting under the advice of his counsel, the accused prepares to avail
+himself of the advantage thus conceded.
+
+Directed by the judge, he stands forward; the sheriff's officers in
+charge falling a step or two into the rear.
+
+It is superfluous to say that there is universal silence.  Even the tree
+crickets, hitherto "chirping" among the leaves of the live-oak, desist
+from their shrill stridulation--as if awed by the stillness underneath.
+Every eye is fixed upon the prisoner; every ear bent to catch the first
+words of, what may be termed, his _confession_.
+
+"Judge, and gentlemen of the jury!" says he, commencing his speech in
+true Texan style; "you are good enough to let me speak for myself; and
+in availing myself of the privilege, I shall not long detain you.
+
+"First, have I to say: that, notwithstanding the many circumstances
+mentioned during the course of this trial--which to you appear not only
+odd, but inexplicable--my story is simple enough; and will explain some
+of them.
+
+"Not all of the statements you have heard are true.  Some of them are
+false as the lips from which they have fallen."
+
+The speaker's glance, directed upon Cassius Calhoun, causes the latter
+to quail, as if standing before the muzzle of a six-shooter.
+
+"It is true that I met Miss Poindexter, as stated.  That noble lady, by
+her own generous confession, has saved me from the sin of perjuring
+myself--which otherwise I might have done.  In all else I entreat you to
+believe me.
+
+"It is also true that our interview was a stolen one; and that it was
+interrupted by him who is not here to speak to what occurred after.
+
+"It is true that angry words passed between us, or rather from him to
+me: for they were all on his side.
+
+"But it is _not_ true that the quarrel was afterwards renewed; and the
+man who has so sworn dared not say it, were I free to contradict him as
+he deserves."
+
+Again are the eyes of the accused turned towards Calhoun, still cowering
+behind the crowd.
+
+"On the contrary," continues he, "the next meeting between Henry
+Poindexter and myself, was one of apology on his part, and friendship--I
+might say affection--on mine.
+
+"Who could have helped liking him?  As to forgiving him for the few
+words he had rashly spoken, I need hardly tell you how grateful I felt
+for that reconciliation."
+
+"There was a reconciliation, then?" asks the judge, taking advantage of
+a pause in the narration.  "Where did it take place?"
+
+"About four hundred yards from the spot _where the murder was
+committed_."
+
+The judge starts to his feet.  The jury do the same.  The spectators,
+already standing, show signs of a like exciting surprise.
+
+It is the first time any one has spoken positively of the spot where the
+murder was committed; or even that a murder has been committed at all!
+
+"You mean the place where some blood was found?" doubtingly interrogates
+the judge.
+
+"I mean the place where _Henry Poindexter was assassinated_."
+
+There is a fresh exhibition of astonishment in the Court--expressed in
+muttered speeches and low exclamations.  One louder than the rest is a
+groan.  It is given by Woodley Poindexter; now for the first time made
+certain he has no longer a son!  In the heart of the father has still
+lingered a hope that his son may be alive: that he might be only
+missing--kept out of the way by accident, illness, Indians, or some
+other circumstance.  As yet there has been no positive proof of his
+death--only a thread of circumstantial evidence, and it of the
+slightest.
+
+This hope, by the testimony of the accused himself, is no longer
+tenable.
+
+"You are sure he is dead, then?" is the question put to the prisoner by
+the prosecuting counsel.
+
+"Quite sure," responds the accused.  "Had you seen him as I did, you
+would think the interrogatory a very idle one."
+
+"You saw the body?"
+
+"I must take exception to this course of examination," interposes the
+counsel for the accused.  "It is quite irregular."
+
+"Faith! in an Owld Country court it wouldn't be allowed," adds the
+Cis-Atlantic attorney.  "The counsel for the prosecution wouldn't be
+permitted to spake, till it came to the cross-examination."
+
+"That's the law here, too," says the judge, with a severe gesture
+towards him who has erred.  "Prisoner at the bar! you can continue your
+story.  Your own counsel may ask you what question he pleases; but
+nobody else, till you have done.  Go on!  Let us hear all you have to
+say."
+
+"I have spoken of a reconciliation," resumes the accused, "and have told
+you where it took place.  I must explain how it came to be there.
+
+"It has been made known to you how we parted--Miss Poindexter, her
+brother, and myself.
+
+"On leaving them I swam across the river; partly because I was too
+excited to care how I went off, and partly that I did not wish _him_ to
+know how I had got into the garden.  I had my reasons for that.  I
+walked on up stream, towards the village.  It was a very warm night--as
+may be remembered by many of you--and my clothes had got nearly dry by
+the time I reached the hotel.
+
+"The house was still open, and the landlord behind his bar; but as up to
+that day I had no reason to thank him for any extra hospitality, and as
+there was nothing to detain me any longer under his roof, I took it into
+my head to set out at once for the Alamo, and make the journey during
+the cool hours of the night.
+
+"I had sent my servant before, and intended to follow in the morning;
+but what happened at Casa del Corvo made me desirous of getting away as
+soon as possible; and I started off, after settling my account with Mr
+Oberdoffer."
+
+"And the money with which you paid him?" asks the State prosecutor,
+"where did you get--?"
+
+"I protest against this!" interrupts the counsel for the accused.
+
+"Bedarrah!" exclaims the Milesian lawyer, looking daggers, or rather
+_duelling pistols_, at the State counsellor; "if yez were to go on at
+that rate in a Galway assize, ye'd stand a nate chance of gettin'
+conthradicted in a different style altogether!"
+
+"Silence, gentlemen!" commands the judge, in an authoritative tone.
+"Let the accused continue his statement."
+
+"I travelled slowly.  There was no reason for being in a hurry.  I was
+in no mood for going to sleep that night; and it mattered little to me
+where I should spend it--on the prairie, or under the roof of my
+_jacale_.  I knew I could reach the Alamo before daybreak; and that
+would be as soon as I desired.
+
+"I never thought of looking behind me.  I had no suspicion that any one
+was coming after; until I had got about half a mile into the chapparal--
+where the Rio Grande trace runs through it.
+
+"Then I heard the stroke of a horse's hoof, that appeared hurrying up
+behind.
+
+"I had got round the corner--where the trace makes a sharp turn--and was
+hindered from seeing the horseman.  But I could tell that he was coming
+on at a trot.
+
+"It might be somebody I wouldn't care to encounter?
+
+"That was the reflection I made; though I wasn't much caring who.  It
+was more from habit--by living in the neighbourhood of the Indians--that
+I drew in among the trees, and waited until the stranger should show
+himself.
+
+"He did so shortly after.
+
+"You may judge of my surprise when, instead of a stranger, I saw the man
+from whom I had so lately parted in anger.  When I say anger, I don't
+speak of myself--only him.
+
+"Was he still in the same temper?  Had he been only restrained by the
+presence of his sister from attacking me?  Relieved of this, had he come
+after me to demand satisfaction for the injury he supposed her to have
+sustained?
+
+"Gentlemen of the jury!  I shall not deny, that this was the impression
+on my mind when I saw who it was.
+
+"I was determined there should be no concealment--no cowardly shrinking
+on my part.  I was not conscious of having committed crime.  True I had
+met his sister clandestinely; but that was the fault of others--not
+mine--not hers.  I loved her with a pure honest passion, and with my
+whole heart.  I am not afraid to confess it.  In the same way I love her
+still!"
+
+Louise Poindexter, seated in her carriage behind the outer circle of
+spectators, is not so distant from the speaker, nor are the curtains so
+closely drawn, but that she can hear every word passing from his lips.
+
+Despite the sadness of her heart, a gleam of joy irradiates her
+countenance, as she listens to the daring declaration.
+
+It is but the echo of her own; and the glow that comes quickly to her
+cheeks is not shame, but the expression of a proud triumph.
+
+She makes no attempt to conceal it.  Rather does she appear ready to
+spring up from her seat, rush towards the man who is being tried for the
+murder of her brother, and with the _abandon_ that love alone can
+impart, bid defiance to the boldest of his accusers!
+
+If the signs of sorrow soon reappear, they are no longer to be traced to
+jealousy.  Those sweet ravings are well remembered, and can now be
+trusted as truth.  They are confirmed by the confession of restored
+reason--by the avowal of a man who may be standing on the stoup of
+death, and can have no earthly motive for a deception such as that!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETY.
+
+A COURT QUICKLY CLEARED.
+
+If the last speech has given satisfaction to Louise Poindexter, there
+are few who share it with her.  Upon most of the spectators it has
+produced an impression of a totally different character.
+
+It is one of the saddest traits of our ignoble nature; to feel pain in
+contemplating a love we cannot share--more especially when exhibited in
+the shape of a grand absorbing passion.
+
+The thing is not so difficult of explanation.  _We_ know that he, or
+she, thus sweetly possessed, can feel no interest in ourselves.
+
+It is but the old story of self-esteem, stung by the thought of
+indifference.
+
+Even some of the spectators unaffected by the charms of the beautiful
+Creole, cannot restrain themselves from a certain feeling of envy; while
+others more deeply interested feel chagrined to the heart's core, by
+what they are pleased to designate an impudent avowal!
+
+If the story of the accused contains no better proofs of his innocence
+it were better untold.  So far, it has but helped his accusers by
+exciting the antipathy of those who would have been otherwise neutral.
+
+Once more there is a murmuring among the men, and a movement among the
+rowdies who stand near Calhoun.
+
+Again seems Maurice Gerald in danger of being seized by a lawless mob,
+and hanged without farther hearing!
+
+The danger exists only in seeming.  Once more the major glances
+significantly towards his well-trained troop; the judge in an
+authoritative voice commands "Silence in the Court!" the clamouring is
+subdued; and the prisoner is permitted to proceed.
+
+He continues his recital:--
+
+"On seeing who it was, I rode out from among the trees, and reined up
+before him.
+
+"There was light enough for him to see who I was; and he at once
+recognised me.
+
+"Instead of the angry scene I expected--perhaps had reason to expect--I
+was joyfully surprised by his reception of me.  His first words were to
+ask if I would forgive him for what he had said to me--at the same time
+holding out his hand in the most frank and friendly manner.
+
+"Need I tell you that I took that hand?  Or how heartily I pressed it?
+I knew it to be a true one; more than that, I had a hope it might one
+day be the hand of a brother.
+
+"It was the last time, but one, I ever grasped it alive.  The last was
+shortly after--when we bade each other good night, and parted upon the
+path.  I had no thought it was to be for ever.
+
+"Gentlemen of the jury! you do not wish me to take up your time with the
+conversation that occurred between us?  It was upon matters that have
+nothing to do with this trial.
+
+"We rode together for a short distance; and then drew up under the
+shadow of a tree.
+
+"Cigars were exchanged, and smoked; and there was another exchange--the
+more closely to cement the good understanding established between us.
+It consisted of our hats and cloaks.
+
+"It was a whim of the moment suggested by myself--from a fashion I had
+been accustomed to among the Comanches.  I gave Henry Poindexter my
+Mexican sombrero and striped blanket--taking his cloth cloak and Panama
+hat.
+
+"We then parted--he riding away, myself remaining.
+
+"I can give no reason why I stayed upon the spot; unless that I liked
+it, from being the scene of our reconciliation--by me so little looked
+for and so much desired.
+
+"I no longer cared for going on to the Alamo that night.  I was happy
+enough to stay under the tree; and, dismounting, I staked out my horse;
+wrapped myself up in the cloak; and with the hat upon my head, lay down
+upon the grass.
+
+"In three seconds I was asleep.
+
+"It was rare for sleep to come on me so readily.  Half an hour before,
+and the thing would have been impossible.  I can only account for the
+change by the feeling of contentment that was upon me--after the
+unpleasant excitement through which I had passed.
+
+"My slumbers could not have been very sound; nor were they long
+undisturbed.
+
+"I could not have been unconscious for more than two minutes, when a
+sound awoke me.  It was the report of a gun.
+
+"I was not quite sure of its being this.  I only fancied that it was.
+
+"My horse seemed to know better than I.  As I looked up, he was standing
+with ears erect, snorting, as if he had been fired at!
+
+"I sprang to my feet, and stood listening.
+
+"But as I could hear nothing more, and the mustang soon quieted down, I
+came to the conclusion that we had both been mistaken.  The horse had
+heard the footsteps of some straying animal; and that which struck upon
+my ear might have been the snapping of a branch broken by its passage
+through the thicket; or perhaps one of the many mysterious sounds--
+mysterious, because unexplained--often heard in the recesses of the
+chapparal.
+
+"Dismissing the thing from my mind, I again lay down along the grass;
+and once more fell asleep.
+
+"This time I was not awakened until the raw air of the morning began to
+chill me through the cloak.
+
+"It was not pleasant to stay longer under the tree; and, recovering my
+horse, I was about to continue my journey.
+
+"But the shot seemed still ringing in my ears--even louder than I had
+heard it while half asleep!
+
+"It appeared, too, to be in the direction in which Henry Poindexter had
+gone.
+
+"Fancy or no fancy, I could not help connecting it with him; nor yet
+resist the temptation to go back that way and seek for an explanation of
+it.
+
+"I did not go far till I found it.  Oh, Heavens!  What a sight!
+
+"I saw--"
+
+"_The Headless Horseman_!" exclaims a voice from the outer circle of the
+spectators, causing one and all to turn suddenly in that direction.
+
+"_The Headless Horseman_!" respond fifty others, in a simultaneous
+shout.
+
+Is it mockery, this seeming contempt of court?
+
+There is no one who takes it in this sense; for by this time every
+individual in the assemblage has become acquainted with the cause of the
+interruption.  It is the Headless Horseman himself seen out upon the
+open plain, in all his fearful shape!
+
+"Yonder he goes--yonder! yonder!"
+
+"No, he's coming this way!  See!  He's making straight for the Fort!"
+
+The latest assertion seems the truer; but only for an instant.  As if to
+contradict it, the strange equestrian makes a sudden pause upon the
+prairie, and stands eyeing the crowd gathered around the tree.
+
+Then, apparently not liking the looks of what is before him, the horse
+gives utterance to his dislike with a loud snort, followed by a still
+louder neighing.
+
+The intense interest excited by the confession of the accused is for the
+time eclipsed.
+
+There is a universal impression that, in the spectral form thus
+opportunely presenting itself, will be found the explanation of all that
+has occurred.
+
+Three-fourths of the spectators forsake the spot, and rush towards their
+horses.  Even the jurymen are not exempt from taking part in the general
+_debandade_, and at least six out of the twelve go scattering off to
+join in the chase of the Headless Horseman.
+
+The latter has paused only for an instant--just long enough to scan the
+crowd of men and horses now moving towards him.  Then repeating his wild
+"whigher," he wheels round, and goes off at full speed--followed by a
+thick clump of shouting pursuers!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETY ONE.
+
+A CHASE THROUGH A THICKET.
+
+The chase leads straight across the prairie--towards the tract of
+chapparal, ten miles distant.
+
+Before reaching it, the ruck of riders becomes thinned to a straggling
+line--one after another falling off,--as their horses become blown by
+the long sweltering gallop.
+
+But few get within sight of the thicket; and only two enter it, in
+anything like close proximity to the escaping horseman; who, without
+making halt, plunges into the timber.
+
+The pursuer nearest him is mounted upon a grey mustang; which is being
+urged to its utmost speed by whip, spur, and voice.
+
+The one coming after--but with a long interval between--is a tall man in
+a slouched hat and blanket coat, bestriding a rawboned roadster, that no
+one would suspect to be capable of such speed.
+
+It is procured not by whip, spur, and voice; but by the more cruel
+prompting of a knife-blade held in the rider's hand, and at intervals
+silently applied to the animal's spine, just behind the croup.
+
+The two men, thus leading the chase, are Cassius Calhoun and Zeb Stump.
+
+The swiftness of the grey mustang has given Calhoun the advantage; aided
+by a determination to be in at the death--as if some desperate necessity
+required it.
+
+The old hunter appears equally determined.  Instead of being contented
+to proceed at his usual gait, and trusting to his skill as a tracker, he
+seems aiming to keep the other in sight--as if a like stern necessity
+was prompting him to do so.
+
+In a short time both have entered the chapparal, and are lost to the
+eyes of those riding less resolutely behind.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+On through the thicket rush the three horsemen; not in a straight line,
+but along the lists and cattle tracks--now direct, now in sweeping
+curves, now sharply zigzagging to avoid the obstructions of the timber.
+
+On go they, regardless of bush or brake--fearlessly, buffeted by the
+sharp spines of the cactus, and the stinging thorns of the mezquites.
+
+The branches snap and crackle, as they cleave their way between; while
+the birds, scared by the rude intrusion, fly screaming to some safer
+roost.
+
+A brace of black vultures, who have risen with a croak from their perch
+upon a scathed branch, soar up into the air.  Instinct tells them, that
+a pursuit so impetuous can end only in death.  On broad shadowy wings
+they keep pace with it.
+
+It is now a chase in which the pursued has the advantage of the
+pursuers.  He can choose his path; while they have no choice but to
+follow him.
+
+Less from having increased the distance, than by the interposition of
+the trees, he is soon out of sight of both; as each is of the other.
+
+No one of the three can see either of the other two; though all are
+under the eyes of the vultures.
+
+Out of sight of his pursuers, the advantage of the pursued is greater
+than ever.  He is free to keep on at full speed; while they must submit
+to the delay of riding along a trail.  He can still be followed by the
+sound of his hoofstrokes ahead, and the swishing of the branches as he
+breaks through between them; but for all that the foremost of his two
+pursuers begins to despair.  At every turning of the track, he appears
+to have gained distance; until at length his footfall ceases to be
+heard.
+
+"Curse the damned thing!" cries Calhoun, with a gesture of chagrin.
+"It's going to escape me again!  Not so much matter, if there were
+nobody after it but myself.  But there _is_ this time.  That old
+hell-hound's coming on through the thicket.  I saw him as I entered it--
+not three hundred yards behind me.
+
+"Is there no chance of shaking him off?  No.  He's too good a tracker
+for that.
+
+"By God! _but there is a chance_!"
+
+At the profane utterance, the speaker reins up; wrenches his horse half
+round; and scans the path over which he has just passed.
+
+He examines it with the look of one who has conceived a scheme, and is
+reconnoitring the _terrain_, to see if it will suit.
+
+At the same time, his fingers close nervously around his rifle, which he
+manipulates with a feverish impatience.
+
+Still is there irresolution in his looks; and he hesitates about
+throwing himself into a fixed attitude.
+
+On reflection the scheme is abandoned.
+
+"It won't do!" he mutters.  "There's too many of them fellows coming
+after--some that can track, too?  They'd find his carcase, sure,--maybe
+hear the shot?
+
+"No--no.  It won't do!"
+
+He stays a while longer, listening.  There is no sound heard either
+before or behind--only that overhead made by the soft waving of the
+vulturine wings.  Strange, the birds should keep above _him_!
+
+"Yes--he must be coming on?  Damn the crooked luck, that the others
+should be so close after him!  But for that, it would have been just the
+time to put an end to his spying on me!  And so easy, too!"
+
+Not so easy as you think, Cassius Calhoun; and the birds above--were
+they gifted with the power of speech--could tell you so.
+
+They see Zeb Stump coming on; but in a fashion to frustrate any scheme
+for his assassination.  It is this that hinders him from being heard.
+
+"I'll be in luck, if he should lose the trail!" reflects Calhoun, once
+more turning away.  "In any case, I must keep on till it's lost to me:
+else some of those fools may be more fortunate.
+
+"What a fool _I've_ been in wasting so much time.  If I don't look
+sharp, the old hound will be up with me; and then it would be no use if
+I did get the chance of a shot.  Hell! that would be worse than all!"
+
+Freshly spurring the grey mustang, he rides forward--fast as the
+circuitous track will allow him.
+
+Two hundred paces further on, and he again comes to a halt--surprise and
+pleasure simultaneously lighting up his countenance.
+
+The Headless Horseman is in sight, at less than twenty paces' distance!
+
+He is not advancing either; but standing among some low bushes that rise
+only to the flaps of the saddle.
+
+His horse's head is down.  The animal appears to be browsing upon the
+bean-pods of the mezquites.
+
+At first sight, so thinks Calhoun.
+
+His rifle is carried quickly to his shoulder, and as quickly brought
+down again.  The horse he intends firing at is no longer at rest, nor is
+he browsing upon the beans.  He has become engaged in a sort of
+spasmodic struggle--with his head half buried among the bushes!
+
+Calhoun sees that it is _held_ there, and by the bridle-rein,--that,
+dragged over the pommel of the saddle, has become entangled around the
+stem of a mezquite!
+
+"Caught at last!  Thank God--thank God!"
+
+He can scarce restrain himself from shout of triumph, as he spurs
+forward to the spot.  He is only withheld by the fear of being heard
+from behind.
+
+In another instant, he is by the side of the Headless Horseman--that
+spectral shape he has so long vainly pursued!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETY TWO.
+
+A RELUCTANT RETURN.
+
+Calhoun clutches at the trailing bridle.
+
+The horse tries to avoid him, but cannot.  His head is secured by the
+tangled rein; and he can only bound about in a circle, of which his nose
+is the centre.
+
+The rider takes no heed, nor makes any attempt to elude the capture; but
+sits stiff and mute in the saddle, leaving the horse to continue his
+"cavortings."
+
+After a brief struggle the animal is secured.
+
+The captor utters an exclamation of joy.
+
+It is suddenly checked, and by a thought.  He has not yet fully
+accomplished his purpose.
+
+What is this purpose?
+
+It is a secret known only to himself; and the stealthy glance cast
+around tells, that he has no wish to share it with another.
+
+After scanning the selvedge of the thicket, and listening a second or
+two, he resumes action.
+
+A singular action it might appear, to one ignorant of its object.  He
+draws his knife from its sheath; clutches a corner of the serape; raises
+it above the breast of the Headless rider; and then bends towards him,
+as if intending to plunge the blade into his heart!
+
+The arm is uplifted.  The blow is not likely to be warded off.
+
+For all that it is not struck.  It is stayed by a shout sent forth from
+the chapparal--by the edge of which a man has just made his appearance.
+The man is Zeb Stump.
+
+"Stop that game!" cries the hunter, riding out from the underwood and
+advancing rapidly through the low bushes; "stop it, durn ye!"
+
+"What game?" rejoins the ex-officer with a dismayed look, at the same
+time stealthily returning his knife to its sheath.  "What the devil are
+you talking about?  This brute's got caught by the bridle.  I was afraid
+he might get away again.  I was going to cut his damned throat--so as to
+make sure of him."
+
+"Ah, thet's what ye're arter.  Wal, I reck'n thur's no need to cut the
+critter's throat.  We kin skewer it 'ithout thet sort o' bloody bizness.
+It air the hoss's throat ye mean, I s'pose?"
+
+"Of course I mean the horse."
+
+"In coorse.  As for the man, someb'y's dud thet for him arready--_if it
+be a man_.  What do _you_ make o' it, Mister Cash Calhoun?"
+
+"Damned if I know what to make of it.  I haven't had time to get a good
+look at it.  I've just this minute come up.  By heaven!" he continues,
+feigning a grand surprise, "I believe it's the body of a man; and dead!"
+
+"Thet last air probibble enuf.  'Tain't likely he'd be alive wi' no head
+on his shoulders.  Thar's none under the blanket, is thar?"
+
+"No; I think not.  There cannot be?"
+
+"Lift it a leetle, an see."
+
+"I don't like touching it.  It's such a cursed queer-looking thing."
+
+"Durn it, ye wan't so partickler a minnit ago.  What's kim over ye now?"
+
+"Ah!" stammers Calhoun, "I was excited with chasing it.  I'd got angry
+at the damned thing, and was determined to put an end to its capers."
+
+"Never mind then," interposes Zeb,--"I'll make a inspecshun o' it.
+Ye-es," he continues, riding nearer, and keeping his eyes fixed upon the
+strange shape.  "Ye-es, it's the body o' a man, an no mistake!  Dead as
+a buck, an stiff as a hunch o' ven'son in a hard frost!"
+
+"Hullo!" he exclaims, on raising the skirt of the serape, "it's the body
+o' the man whose murder's bein' tried--yur own cousin--young
+Peintdexter!  It is, by the Eturnal God!"
+
+"I believe you are right.  By heaven it is he!"
+
+"Geehosophat!" proceeds Zeb, after counterfeiting surprise at the
+discovery, "this air the mysteeriousest thing o' all.  Wal; I reck'n
+thur's no use in our stayin' hyur to spek'late upon it.  Bessest thing
+we kin do 's to take the body back, jest as it's sot in the seddle--
+which it appears putty firm.  I know the hoss too; an I reck'n, when he
+smell my ole maar a bit, he'll kum along 'ithout much coaxin'.  Gee up,
+ole gurl! an make yurself know'd to him.  Thur now!  Don't ye see it's a
+preevious acquaintance o' yourn; though sarting the poor critter appears
+to hev hed rough usage o' late; an ye mout well be excused for not
+reconisin' him.  'Tair some time since he's hed a curry to his skin."
+
+While the hunter is speaking, the horse bestridden by the dead body, and
+the old mare, place their snouts in contact--then withdraw them with a
+sniff of recognition.
+
+"I thort so," exclaims Zeb, taking hold of the strayed bridle, and
+detaching it from the mezquite; "the stellyun's boun to lead quietly
+enuf--so long as he's in kumpny with the maar.  'T all events, 'twon't
+be needcessary to cut his throat to keep him from runnin' away.  Now,
+Mister Calhoun," he continues, glancing stealthily at the other, to
+witness the effect produced by his speeches; "don't ye think we'd better
+start right away?  The trial may still be goin' on; an', ef so, we may
+be wanted to take a part in it.  I reck'n thet we've got a witness hyur,
+as 'll do somethin' torst illoocidatin' the case--either to the hangin'
+the mowstanger, or, what air more likely, clurrin' him althogither o'
+the churge.  Wal, air ye riddy to take the back track?"
+
+"Oh, certainly.  As you say, there's no reason for our remaining here."
+
+Zeb moves off first, leading the captive alongside of him.  The latter
+makes no resistance; but rather seems satisfied at being conducted in
+company.
+
+Calhoun rides slowly--a close observer might say reluctantly in the
+rear.
+
+At a point where the path angles abruptly round a clump of trees, he
+reins up, and appears to consider whether he should go on, or gallop
+back.
+
+His countenance betrays terrible agitation.  Zeb Stump, admonished by
+the interrupted footfall, becomes aware that his travelling companion
+has stopped.
+
+He pulls up his mare; and facing round, regards the loiterer with a look
+of interrogation.
+
+He observes the agitated air, and perfectly comprehends its cause.
+
+Without saying a word, he lowers his long rifle from its rest upon his
+left shoulder; lays it across the hollow of his arm, ready at an
+instant's notice to be carried to his cheek.  In this attitude he sits
+eyeing the ex-captain of cavalry.  There is no remark made.  None is
+needed.  Zeb's gesture is sufficient.  It plainly says:--"Go back if ye
+dare!"
+
+The latter, without appearing to notice it, takes the hint; and moves
+silently on.
+
+But no longer is he permitted to ride in the rear.  Without saying it,
+the old hunter has grown suspicious, and makes an excuse for keeping
+behind--with which his _compagnon du voyage_ is compelled to put up.
+
+The cavalcade advances slowly through the chapparal.
+
+It approaches the open prairie.
+
+At length the sky line comes in sight.
+
+Something seen upon the distant horizon appears to impress Calhoun with
+a fresh feeling of fear; and, once more reining up, he sits considering.
+
+Dread is the alternative that occupies his mind.  Shall he plunge back
+into the thicket, and hide himself from the eyes of men?  Or go on and
+brave the dark storm that is fast gathering around him?
+
+He would give all he owns in the world--all that he ever hopes to own--
+even Louise Poindexter herself--to be relieved of the hated presence of
+Zeb Stump--to be left for ten minutes alone with the Headless Horseman!
+
+It is not to be.  The sleuth-hound, that has followed him thus far,
+seems more than ever inexorable.  Though loth to believe it, instinct
+tells him: that the old hunter regards _him_ as the real captive, and
+any attempt on his part to steal away, will but end in his receiving a
+bullet in the back!
+
+After all, what can Zeb Stump say, or do?  There is no certainty that
+the backwoodsman knows anything of the circumstance that is troubling
+him?
+
+And after all, there may be nothing to be known?
+
+It is evident that Zeb is suspicious.  But what of that?  Only the
+friendless need fear suspicion; and the ex-officer is not one of these.
+Unless that little tell-tale be discovered, he has nothing to fear; and
+what chance of its being discovered?  One against ten.  In all
+likelihood it stayed not where it was sent, but was lost in the secret
+recesses of the chapparal?
+
+Influenced by this hope, Calhoun regains courage; and with an air of
+indifference, more assumed than real, he rides out into the open
+prairie--close followed by Zeb Stump on his critter--the dead body of
+Henry Poindexter bringing up the rear!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETY THREE.
+
+A BODY BEHEADED.
+
+Forsaken by two-thirds of its spectators--abandoned, by one-half of the
+jury--the trial taking place under the tree is of necessity interrupted.
+
+There is no adjournment of the Court--only an interregnum, unavoidable,
+and therefore tacitly agreed to.
+
+The interlude occupies about an hour; during which the judge smokes a
+couple of cigars; takes about twice that number of drinks from the
+bottle of peach brandy; chats familiarly with the counsel, the fragment
+of a jury, and such spectators as, not having horses, or not caring to
+give them a gallop, have stayed by the tree.
+
+There is no difficulty in finding a subject of conversation.  That is
+furnished by the incident that has just transpired--strange enough to be
+talked about not only for an hour, but an age.
+
+The spectators converse of it, while with excited feelings they await
+the return of those who have started on the chase.
+
+They are in hopes that the Headless Horseman will be captured.  They
+believe that his capture will not only supply a clue to the mystery of
+his being, but will also throw light on that of the murder.
+
+There is one among them who could explain the first--though ignorant of
+the last.  The accused could do this; and will, when called upon to
+continue his confession.
+
+Under the direction of the judge, and by the advice of his counsel, he
+is for the time preserving silence.
+
+After a while the pursuers return; not all together, but in straggling
+squads--as they have despairingly abandoned the pursuit.
+
+All bring back the same story.  None of them has been near enough to the
+Headless rider to add one iota to what is already known of him.  His
+entity remains mythical as ever!
+
+It is soon discovered that two who started in the chase have not
+reappeared.  They are the old hunter and the ex-captain of volunteers.
+The latter has been last seen heading the field, the former following
+not far behind him.
+
+No one saw either of them afterward.  Are they still continuing on?
+Perhaps they may have been successful?
+
+All eyes turn towards the prairie, and scan it with inquiring glances.
+There is an expectation that the missing men may be seen on their way
+back--with a hope that the Headless Horseman may be along with them.
+
+An hour elapses, and there is no sign of them--either with or without
+the wished-for captive.
+
+Is the trial to be further postponed?
+
+The counsel for the prosecution urges its continuance; while he for the
+accused is equally desirous of its being delayed.  The latter moves an
+adjournment till to-morrow; his plea the absence of an important witness
+in the person of Zeb Stump, who has not yet been examined.
+
+There are voices that clamour for the case to be completed.
+
+There are paid _claquers_ in the crowd composing a Texan Court, as in
+the pit of a Parisian theatre.  The real tragedy has its supporters, as
+well as the sham!
+
+The clamourers succeed in carrying their point.  It is decided to go on
+with the trial--as much of it as can be got through without the witness
+who is absent.  He may be back before the time comes for calling him.
+If not, the Court can then talk about adjournment.
+
+So rules the judge; and the jury signify their assent.  The spectators
+do the same.
+
+The prisoner is once more directed to stand up, and continue the
+confession so unexpectedly interrupted.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+"You were about to tell us what you saw," proceeds the counsel for the
+accused, addressing himself to his client.  "Go on, and complete your
+statement.  What was it you saw?"
+
+"A man lying at full length upon the grass."
+
+"Asleep?"
+
+"Yes; in the sleep of death."
+
+"Dead?"
+
+"More than dead; if that were possible.  On bending over him, I saw that
+he had been beheaded!"
+
+"What!  His head cut off?"
+
+"Just so.  I did not know it, till I knelt down beside him.  He was upon
+his face--with the head in its natural position.  Even the hat was still
+on it!
+
+"I was in hopes he might be asleep; though I had a presentiment there
+was something amiss.  The arms were extended too stiffly for a sleeping
+man.  So were the legs.  Besides, there was something red upon the
+grass, that in the dim light I had not at first seen.
+
+"As I stooped low to look at it, I perceived a strange odour--the salt
+smell that proceeds from human blood.
+
+"I no longer doubted that it was a dead body I was bending over; and I
+set about examining it.
+
+"I saw there was a gash at the back of the neck, filled with red,
+half-coagulated blood.  I saw that the head was severed from the
+shoulders!"
+
+A sensation of horror runs through the auditory--accompanied by the
+exclamatory cries heard on such occasions.
+
+"Did you know the man?"
+
+"Alas! yes."
+
+"Without seeing his face?"
+
+"It did not need that.  The dress told who it was--too truly."
+
+"What dress?"
+
+"The striped blanket covering his shoulders and the hat upon his head.
+They were my own.  But for the exchange we had made, I might have
+fancied it was myself.  It was Henry Poindexter."
+
+A groan is again heard--rising above the hum of the excited hearers.
+
+"Proceed, sir!" directs the examining counsel.  "State what other
+circumstances came under your observation."
+
+"On touching the body, I found it cold and stiff.  I could see that it
+had been dead for some length of time.  The blood was frozen nearly dry;
+and had turned black.  At least, so it appeared in the grey light: for
+the sun was not yet up.
+
+"I might have mistaken the cause of death, and supposed it to have been
+by the _beheading_.  But, remembering the shot I had heard in the night,
+it occurred to me that another wound would be found somewhere--in
+addition to that made by the knife.
+
+"It proved that I was right.  On turning the body breast upward, I
+perceived a hole in the serape; that all around the place was saturated
+with blood.
+
+"On lifting it up, and looking underneath, I saw a livid spot just over
+the breast-bone.  I could tell that a bullet had entered there; and as
+there was no corresponding wound at the back, I knew it must be still
+inside the body."
+
+"In your opinion, was the shot sufficient to have caused death, without
+the mutilation that, you think, must have been done afterwards?"
+
+"Most certainly it was.  If not instantaneous, in a few minutes--perhaps
+seconds."
+
+"The head was cut off, you say.  Was it quite severed from the body?"
+
+"Quite; though it was lying close up--as if neither head nor body had
+moved after the dismemberment."
+
+"Was it a clean out--as if done by a sharp-edged weapon?"
+
+"It was."
+
+"What sort of weapon would you say?"
+
+"It looked like the cut of a broad axe; but it might have been done with
+a bowie-knife; one heavily weighted at the back of the blade."
+
+"Did you notice whether repeated strokes had been given?  Or had the
+severance been effected by a single cut?"
+
+"There might have been more than one.  But there was no appearance of
+chopping.  The first cut was a clean slash; and must have gone nearly,
+if not quite, through.  It was made from the back of the neck; and at
+right angles to the spine.  From that I knew that the poor fellow must
+have been down on his face when the stroke was delivered."
+
+"Had you any suspicion why, or by whom, the foul deed had been done?"
+
+"Not then, not the slightest.  I was so horrified, I could not reflect.
+I could scarce think it real.
+
+"When I became calmer, and saw for certain that a murder had been
+committed, I could only account for it by supposing that there had been
+Comanches upon the ground, and that, meeting young Poindexter, they had
+killed him out of sheer wantonness.
+
+"But then there was his scalp untouched--even the hat still upon his
+head!"
+
+"You changed your mind about its being Indians?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"Who did you then think it might be?"
+
+"At the time I did not think of any one.  I had never heard of Henry
+Poindexter having an enemy--either here or elsewhere.  I have since had
+my suspicions.  I have them now."
+
+"State them."
+
+"I object to the line of examination," interposes the prosecuting
+counsel.  "We don't want to be made acquainted with, the prisoner's
+suspicions.  Surely it is sufficient if he be allowed to proceed with
+his _very plausible tale_?"
+
+"Let him proceed, then," directs the judge, igniting a fresh Havannah.
+
+"State how you yourself acted," pursues the examiner.  "What did you do,
+after making the observations you have described?"
+
+"For some time I scarce knew what to do--I was so perplexed by what I
+saw beside me.  I felt convinced that there had been a murder; and
+equally so that it had been done by the shot--the same I had heard.
+
+"But who could have fired it?  Not Indians.  Of that I felt sure.
+
+"I thought of some _prairie-pirate_, who might have intended plunder.
+But this was equally improbable.  My Mexican blanket was worth a hundred
+dollars.  That would have been taken.  It was not, nor anything else
+that Poindexter had carried about him.  Nothing appeared to have been
+touched.  Even the watch was still in his waistcoat pocket, with the
+chain around his neck glistening through the gore that had spurted over
+it!
+
+"I came to the conclusion: that the deed must have been done for the
+satisfaction of some spite or revenge; and I tried to remember whether I
+had ever heard of any one having a quarrel with young Poindexter, or a
+grudge against him.
+
+"I never had.
+
+"Besides, why had the head been cut off?
+
+"It was this that filled me with astonishment--with horror.
+
+"Without attempting to explain it, I bethought me of what was best to be
+done.
+
+"To stay by the dead body could serve no purpose.  To bury it would have
+been equally idle.
+
+"Then I thought of galloping back to the Fort, and getting assistance to
+carry it to Casa del Corvo.
+
+"But if I left it in the chapparal, the coyotes might discover it; and
+both they and the buzzards would be at it before we could get back.
+Already the vultures were above--taking their early flight.  They
+appeared to have espied it.
+
+"Mutilated as was the young man's form, I could not think of leaving it,
+to be made still more so.  I thought of the tender eyes that must soon
+behold it--in tears."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETY FOUR.
+
+THE MYSTERY MADE CLEAR.
+
+The accused pauses in his recital.  No one offers any observation--
+either to interrupt, or hurry him on.
+
+There is a reluctance to disturb the chain of a narrative, all know to
+be unfinished; and every link of which has been binding them to a closer
+and more earnest attention.
+
+Judge, jury, and spectators remain breathlessly silent; while their
+eyes--many with mouths agape--are attentively turned upon the prisoner.
+
+Amidst solemn stillness he is permitted to proceed.
+
+"My next idea was to cover the body with the cloak--as well as the
+serape still around the shoulders.  By so doing it would be protected
+from both wolves and buzzards--at least till we could get back to fetch
+it away.
+
+"I had taken off the cloak for this purpose; when a different plan
+suggested itself--one that appeared in every way better.
+
+"Instead of returning to the Port alone, I should take the body along
+with me.  I fancied I could do this, by laying it across the croup, and
+lashing it to the saddle with my lazo.
+
+"I led my horse up to the spot, and was preparing to put the body upon
+him, when I perceived that there was another horse upon the ground.  It
+was that lately ridden by him who was now no more.
+
+"The animal was near by, browsing upon the grass--as tranquilly as if
+nothing had happened to disturb it.
+
+"As the bridle trailed upon the ground, I had no difficulty in catching
+hold of it.  There was more in getting the horse to stand still--
+especially when brought alongside what lay upon the ground.
+
+"Holding the reins between my teeth, I lifted the body up, and
+endeavoured to place it crosswise in the saddle.
+
+"I succeeded in getting it there, but it would not remain.  It was too
+stiff to bend over, and there was no way to steady it.
+
+"Besides, the _horse_ became _greatly excited_, at sight of the strange
+load he was being called upon to carry.
+
+"After several attempts, I saw I could not succeed.
+
+"I was about to give up the idea, when another occurred to me--one that
+promised better.  It was suggested by a remembrance of something I had
+read, relating to the Gauchos of South America.  When one dies, or is
+killed by accident, in some remote station of the Pampas, his comrades
+carry his corpse to their distant home--strapped in the saddle, and
+seated in the same attitude, as though he were still alive.
+
+"Why should I not do the same with the body of Henry Poindexter?
+
+"I made the attempt--first trying to set him on his own horse.
+
+"But the saddle being a flat one, and the animal still remaining
+restive, I did not succeed.
+
+"There was but one other chance of our making the home journey together:
+by exchanging horses.
+
+"I knew that my own would not object.  Besides, my Mexican saddle, with
+its deep tree, would answer admirably for the purpose.
+
+"In a short while I had the body in it, seated erect,--in the natural
+position.  Its stiffness, that had obstructed me before, now served to
+keep it in its place.  The rigid limbs were easily drawn into the proper
+stride; and with the feet inserted into the stirrups, and the
+water-guards buckled tightly over the thighs, there was little chance of
+the body slipping off.
+
+"To make it thoroughly secure, I cut a length from my lazo; and, warping
+it round the waist, fastened one end to the pommel in front, the other
+to the cantle behind.
+
+"A separate piece tied to the stirrups, and passing under the belly of
+the horse, kept the feet from swinging about.
+
+"The head still remained to be dealt with.  It too must be taken along.
+
+"On lifting it from the ground, and endeavouring to detach it from the
+hat, I found that this could not be done.  It was swollen to enormous
+dimensions; and the sombrero adhered to it--close as the skin itself.
+
+"Having no fear that they would fall apart, I tied a piece of string to
+the buckle of the band; and hung both hat and head over the horn of the
+saddle.
+
+"This completed my preparations for the journey.
+
+"I mounted the horse of the murdered man; and, calling upon my own to
+follow me--he was accustomed to do so without leading--I started to ride
+back to the settlement.
+
+"In less than five minutes after, I was knocked out of my saddle--and my
+senses at the same time.
+
+"But for that circumstance I should not be standing here,--at all
+events, not in the unpleasant position I now hold."
+
+"Knocked out of your saddle!" exclaims the judge.  "How was that?"
+
+"A simple accident; or rather was it due to my own carelessness.  On
+mounting the strange horse I neglected to take hold of the bridle.
+Accustomed to guide my own--often with only my voice and knees--I had
+grown regardless of the reins.  I did not anticipate an occurrence of
+the kind that followed.
+
+"The horse I was on, had only stopped three lengths of itself, from the
+place where I had bestridden him, when something caused him to shy to
+one side, and break into a gallop.
+
+"I need not say _something_; for I knew what it was.  He had looked
+round, and seen the other coming on behind, with that strange shape upon
+his back, that now in the broad light of day was enough to frighten
+horse or man.
+
+"I clutched at the bridle; but, before I could lay my hand upon it, the
+horse was at his full speed.
+
+"At first I was but little alarmed; indeed not at all.  I supposed I
+should soon recover the reins, and bring the runaway to a stand.
+
+"But I soon found this could not be so easily done.  They had strayed
+forward, almost to the animal's ears; and I could not reach them,
+without laying myself flat along the neck.
+
+"While endeavouring to secure the bridle, I took no heed of the
+direction in which the horse was taking me.  It was only when I felt a
+sharp twitching against my cheeks, that I discovered he had forsaken the
+open tract, and was carrying me through the chapparal.
+
+"After that I had no time to make observations--no chance even to look
+after the lost reins.  I was enough occupied in dodging the branches of
+the mezquites, that stretched out their spinous arms as if desiring to
+drag me from the saddle.
+
+"I managed to steer clear of them, though not without getting scratches.
+
+"But there was one I could not avoid--the limb of a large tree that
+projected across the path.  It was low down--on a level with my breast--
+and the brute, shying from something that had given him a fresh start,
+shot right under it.
+
+"Where he went afterwards I do not attempt to say.  You all know that--I
+believe, better than I.  I can only tell you, that, after unhorsing, he
+left me under the limb, with a lump upon my forehead and a painful
+swelling in the knee; neither of which I knew anything about till two
+hours afterwards.
+
+"When my senses came back to me, I saw the sun high up in the heavens,
+and some scores of turkey buzzards wheeling in circles above me.  I
+could tell by the craning of their necks what was the prey they were
+expecting.
+
+"The sight of them, as well as my thirst--that was beginning to grow
+painful--prompted me to move away from the place.
+
+"On rising to my feet, I discovered that I could not walk.  Worse still,
+I was scarce able to stand.
+
+"To stay on that spot was to perish--at least I so thought at the time.
+
+"Urged by the thought, I exerted all the strength left me, in an effort
+to reach water.
+
+"I knew there was a stream near by; and partly by crawling,--partly by
+the help of a rude crutch procured in the thicket--I succeeded in
+reaching it.
+
+"Having satisfied my thirst, I felt refreshed; and soon after fell
+asleep.
+
+"I awoke to find myself surrounded by coyotes.
+
+"There were at least two score of them; and although at first I had no
+fear--knowing their cowardly nature--I was soon brought to a different
+way of thinking.
+
+"They saw that I was disabled; and for this reason had determined upon
+attacking me.
+
+"After a time they did so--clustering around and springing upon me in a
+simultaneous onslaught.
+
+"I had no weapon but my knife; and it was fortunate I had that.
+Altogether unarmed, I must have been torn to pieces, and devoured.
+
+"With the knife I was able to keep them off, stabbing as many as I could
+get a fair stroke at.  Half-a-dozen, I should think, were killed in this
+way.
+
+"For all that it would have ended ill for me.  I was becoming enfeebled
+by the blood fast pouring from my veins, and must soon have succumbed,
+but for an unexpected chance that turned up in my favour.
+
+"I can scarce call it chance.  I am more satisfied, to think it was the
+hand of God."
+
+On pronouncing this speech the young Irishman turns his eyes towards
+Heaven, and stands for a time as if reflecting reverentially.
+
+Solemn silence around tells that the attitude is respected.  The hearts
+of all, even the rudest of his listeners, seem touched with the
+confidence so expressed.
+
+"It showed itself," he continues, "in the shape of an old comrade--one
+ofttimes more faithful than man himself--my staghound, Tara.
+
+"The dog had been straying--perhaps in search of me--though I've since
+heard a different explanation of it, with which I need not trouble you.
+At all events, he found me; and just in time to be my rescuer.
+
+"The coyotes scattered at his approach; and I was saved from a fearful
+fate--I may say, out of the jaws of death.
+
+"I had another spell of sleep, or unconsciousness--whichever it may have
+been.
+
+"On awaking I was able to reflect.  I knew that the dog must have come
+from my jacale; which I also knew to be several miles distant.  He had
+been taken thither, the day before, by my servant, Phelim.
+
+"The man should still be there; and I bethought me of sending him a
+message--the staghound to be its bearer.
+
+"I wrote some words on a card, which I chanced to have about me.
+
+"I was aware that my servant could not read; but on seeing the card he
+would recognise it as mine, and seek some one who could decipher what I
+had written upon it.
+
+"There would be the more likelihood of his doing so, seeing that the
+characters were traced in blood.
+
+"Wrapping the card in a piece of buckskin, to secure it against being
+destroyed, I attached it to Tara's neck.
+
+"With some difficulty I succeeded in getting the animal to leave me.
+But he did so at length; and, as I had hoped, to go home to the hut.
+
+"It appears that my message was duly carried; though it was only
+yesterday I was made acquainted with the result.
+
+"Shortly after the dog took his departure, I once more fell asleep--
+again awaking to find myself in the presence of an enemy--one more
+terrible than I had yet encountered.
+
+"It was a jaguar.
+
+"A conflict came off between us; but how it ended, or after what time, I
+am unable to tell.  I leave that to my brave rescuer, Zeb Stump; who, I
+hope, will soon return to give an account of it--with much besides that
+is yet mysterious to me, as to yourselves.
+
+"All I can remember since then is a series of incongruous dreams--
+painful phantasmagoria--mingled with pleasant visions--ah! some that
+were celestial--until the day before yesterday, when I awoke to find
+myself the inmate of a prison--with a charge of murder hanging over my
+head!
+
+"Gentlemen of the jury!  I have done."
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+"_Si non vero e ben trovato_," is the reflection of judge, jury, and
+spectators, as the prisoner completes his recital.
+
+They may not express it in such well-turned phrase; but they feel it--
+one and all of them.
+
+And not a few believe in the truth, and reject the thought of
+contrivance.  The tale is too simple--too circumstantial--to have been
+contrived, and by a man whose brain is but just recovered from the
+confusion of fevered fancies.
+
+It is altogether improbable he should have concocted such a story.  So
+think the majority of those to whom it has been told.
+
+His confession--irregular as it may have been--has done more for his
+defence than the most eloquent speech his counsel could have delivered.
+
+Still it is but his own tale; and other testimony will be required to
+clear him.
+
+Where is the witness upon whom so much is supposed to depend.  Where is
+Zeb Stump?
+
+Five hundred pairs of eyes turn towards the prairie, and scan the
+horizon with inquiring gaze.  Five hundred hearts throb with a mad
+impatience for the return of the old hunter--with or without Cassius
+Calhoun--with or without the Headless Horse, man--now no longer either
+myth or mystery, but a natural phenomenon, explained and comprehended.
+
+It is not necessary to say to that assemblage, that the thing is an
+improbability--much less to pronounce it impossible.  They are Texans of
+the south-west--denizens of the high upland plateau, bordering upon the
+"Staked Plain," from which springs the lovely Leona, and where the river
+of Nuts heads in a hundred crystal streams.
+
+They are dwellers in a land, where death can scarce be said to have its
+successor in decay; where the stag struck down in its tracks--or the
+wild steed succumbing to some hapless chance--unless by wild beasts
+devoured, will, after a time, bid defiance both to the laws of
+corruption and the teeth of the coyote; where the corpse of mortal man
+himself, left uncoffined and uncovered, will, in the short period of
+eight-and-forty hours, exhibit the signs, and partake of the qualities,
+of a mummy freshly exhumed from the catacombs of Egypt!
+
+But few upon the ground who are not acquainted with this peculiarity of
+the Texan climate--that section of it close to the Sierra Madro--and
+more especially among the spurs of the Llano Estacado.
+
+Should the Headless Horseman be led back under the live oak, there is
+not one who will be surprised to see the dead body of Henry Poindexter
+scarce showing the incipient signs of decomposition.  If there be any
+incredulity about the story just told them, it is not on this account;
+and they stand in impatient expectation, not because they require it to
+be confirmed.
+
+Their impatience may be traced to a different cause--a suspicion,
+awakened at an early period of the trial, and which, during its
+progress, has been gradually growing stronger; until it has at length
+assumed almost the shape of a belief.
+
+It is to confirm, or dissipate this, that nearly every man upon the
+ground--every woman as well--chafes at the absence of that witness,
+whose testimony is expected to restore the accused to his liberty, or
+consign him to the gallows tree.
+
+Under such an impression, they stand interrogating the level line--where
+sky and savannah mingle the soft blue of the sapphire with the vivid
+green of the emerald.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETY FIVE.
+
+THE LAST WITNESS.
+
+The watchful air is kept up for a period of full ten minutes, and along
+with it the solemn silence.
+
+The latter is at intervals interrupted by a word or exclamation--when
+some one sees, or fancies, a spot upon the prairie.  Then there is a
+buzz of excitement; and men stand on tiptoe to obtain a better view.
+
+Thrice is the crowd stirred by warnings that have proved false.  Its
+patience is becoming exhausted, when a fourth salutes the ear, spoken in
+a louder voice and more confident tone.
+
+This time the tale is true.  There are shadows upon the skyline--shadows
+fast assuming shape, substance, and motion.
+
+A wild shout--the old Saxon "huzza," swells up among the branches of the
+live oak, as the figures of three horsemen emerging from the film of the
+sun-parched prairie are seen coming in the direction of the tree!
+
+Two of them are easily recognised, as Zeb Stump and Cassius Calhoun.
+The third still more easily: for far as eye can see, that fantastic form
+cannot be mistaken.
+
+The first cry of the crowd, which but signalled the return of the two
+men, is followed by another, yet more significant--when it is seen that
+they are accompanied by a creature, so long the theme of weird thoughts,
+and strange conjecturings.
+
+Though its nature is now known, and its cause understood still is it
+regarded with feelings akin to awe.
+
+The shout is succeeded by an interregnum of silence--unbroken, till the
+three horsemen have come close up; and then only by a hum of
+whisperings, as if the thoughts of the spectators are too solemn to be
+spoken aloud.
+
+Many go forward to meet the approaching cortege; and with wondering gaze
+accompany it back upon the ground.
+
+The trio of equestrians comes to a halt outside the circle of
+spectators; which soon changes centre, closing excitedly around them.
+
+Two of them dismount; the third remains seated in the saddle.
+
+Calhoun, leading his horse to one side, becomes commingled with the
+crowd.  In the presence of such a companion, he is no longer thought of.
+All eyes, as well as thoughts, dwell upon the Headless Horseman.
+
+Zeb Stump, abandoning the old mare, takes hold of his bridle-rein, and
+conducts him under the tree--into the presence of the Court.
+
+"Now, judge!" says he, speaking as one who has command of the situation,
+"an' you twelve o' the jury! hyur's a witness as air likely to let a
+glimp o' daylight into yur dulliberashuns.  What say ye to examinin'
+_him_?"
+
+An exclamation is heard, followed by the words, "O God, it is he!"  A
+tall man staggers forward, and stands by the side of the Headless
+Horseman.  _It is his father_!
+
+A cry proceeds from a more distant point--a scream suddenly suppressed,
+as if uttered by a woman before swooning.  _It is his sister_!
+
+After a time, Woodley Poindexter is led away--unresisting,--apparently
+unconscious of what is going on around him.
+
+He is conducted to a carriage drawn up at a distance, and placed upon a
+seat beside its only occupant--his daughter.
+
+But the carriage keeps its place.  She who commands the check-string
+intends to stay there, till the Court has declared its sentence--ay,
+till the hour of execution, if that is to be the end!
+
+Zeb Stump is officially directed to take his place in the "witness-box."
+
+By order of the judge, the examination proceeds--under direction of the
+counsel for the accused.
+
+Many formalities are dispensed with.  The old hunter, who has been
+already sworn, is simply called to tell what he knows of the affair; and
+left to take his own way in the telling it; which he does in curt
+phrases--as if under the belief that such is required by the
+technicalities of the law!
+
+After the following fashion does Zeb proceed:--
+
+"Fust heerd o' this ugly bizness on the second day arter young Peint war
+missin'.  Heerd on it as I war reeturnin' from a huntin' spell down the
+river.  Heerd thar wur a suspeeshun 'beout the mowstanger hevin'
+kermitted the murder.  Knowd he wan't the man to do sech; but, to be
+saterfied, rud out to his shanty to see him.  He wan't at home, though
+his man Pheelum war; so skeeart 'beout one thing an the tother he ked
+gie no clur account o' anythin'.
+
+"Wal, whiles we war palaverin', in kim the dog, wi' somethin' tied roun'
+his neck--the which, on bein' 'zamined, proved to be the mowstanger's
+curd.  Thur war words on it; wrote in red ink, which I seed to be blood.
+
+"Them words tolt to whosomedever shed read 'em, whar the young fellur
+war to be foun'.
+
+"I went thar, takin' the other two--thet air Pheelum an the houn'--along
+wi' me.
+
+"We got to the groun' jest in time to save the mowstanger from hevin'
+his guts clawed out by one o' them ere spotted painters--the Mexikins
+call tigers--tho' I've heern the young fellur hisself gie 'em the name
+o' Jug-wars.
+
+"I put a bullet through the brute; an thet wur the eend o' it.
+
+"Wal, we tuk the mowstanger to his shanty.  We hed to toat him thar on a
+sort o' streetcher; seein' as he wan't able to make trades o' hisself.
+Beside, he wur as much out o' his senses as a turkey gobber at treadin'
+time.
+
+"We got him hum; an thur he stayed, till the sarchers kim to the shanty
+an foun' him."
+
+The witness makes pause: as if pondering within himself, whether he
+should relate the series of extraordinary incidents that took place
+during his stay at the jacale.  Would it be for the benefit of the
+accused to leave them untold?  He resolves to be reticent.
+
+This does not suit the counsel for the prosecution, who proceeds to
+cross-examine him.
+
+It results in his having to give a full and particular account of
+everything that occurred--up to the time of the prisoner being taken out
+of his hands, and incarcerated in the guard-house.
+
+"Now," says he, as soon as the cross-questioning comes to a close,
+"since ye've made me tell all I know 'beout thet part o' the bizness,
+thur's somethin' ye haint thought o' askin', an the which this child's
+boun' to make a clean breast o'."
+
+"Proceed, Mr Stump!" says he of San Antonio, entrusted with the direct
+examination.
+
+"Wal, what I'm goin' to say now haint so much to do wi' the prisoner at
+the bar, as wi' a man thet in my opeenyun oughter be stannin' in his
+place.  I won't say who thet man air.  I'll tell ye what I know, an hev
+foun' out, an then you o' the jury may reckon it up for yurselves."
+
+The old hunter makes pause, drawing a long breath--as if to prepare
+himself for a full spell of confession.
+
+No one attempts either to interrupt or urge him on.  There is an
+impression that he can unravel the mystery of the murder.  That of the
+Headless Horseman no longer needs unravelling.
+
+"Wal, fellur citizens!" continues Zeb, assuming a changed style of
+apostrophe, "arter what I heerd, an more especially what I seed, I knowd
+that poor young Peint wur gone under--struck down in his tracks--wiped
+out o' the world.
+
+"I knowd equally well thet he who did the cowardly deed wan't, an kedn't
+be, the mowstanger--Maurice Gerald.
+
+"Who war it, then?  Thet war the questyun thet bamboozled me, as it's
+done the rest o' ye--them as haint made up thur minds 'ithout
+reflekshun.
+
+"Wal; thinkin' as I did that the Irish wur innocent, I bekim detarmined
+to diskiver the truth.  I ain't goin' to say thet appearances wan't agin
+him.  They wur dog-gonedly agin him.
+
+"For all thet, I wan't goin' to rely on them; an so I tuk purayra to hev
+a squint at the sign.
+
+"I knowd thur must be hoss-tracks leadin' to the place, an hoss tracks
+goin' from it; an damn 'em! thur wur too many o' 'em, goin' everywhur--
+else the thing mout a been eezy enough.
+
+"But thar wur one partickler set I'd got a _down_ upon; an them I
+detarmined to foller up to the eend o' creashun.
+
+"They war the footmarks o' an Amerikin hoss, hevin' three shoes to the
+good, an a fourth wi' a bit broken off the eend o' it.  This hyur's the
+eyedentikul piece o' iron!"
+
+The witness draws his hand from the pocket of his blanket coat, in which
+it has been some time buried.  In the fingers are seen the shoe of a
+horse, only three quarters complete.
+
+He holds it on high--enough for judge, jury, and spectators to see what
+it is.
+
+"Now, Mr Judge," he continues, "an' you o' the jury, the hoss that
+carried this shoe went acrosst the purayra the same night thet the
+murder war committed.  He went arter the man thet air murdered, as well
+as him thet stans thar accused o' it.  He went right upon the track o'
+both, an stopped short o' the place whur the crime wur committed.
+
+"But the man that rud him didn't stop short.  He kep on till he war
+clost up to the bloody spot; an it war through him it arterwards bekim
+bloody.  It war the third hoss--him wi' the broken shoe--thet carried
+the murderer!"
+
+"Go on, Mr Stump!" directs the judge.  "Explain what you mean by this
+extraordinary statement."
+
+"What I mean, judge, air jest this.  The man I'm speakin' o' tuk stan'
+in the thicket, from which stan' he fired the shet thet killed poor
+young Peintdexter."
+
+"What man?  Who was it?  His name!  Give his name!" simultaneously
+interrogate twenty voices.
+
+"I reckon yu'll find it thar."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Whar!  In thet thur body as sits 'ithout a head, lookin' dumbly down on
+ye!
+
+"Ye kin all see," continues the witness, pointing to the silent shape,
+"ye kin all see a red patch on the breast o' the striped blanket.
+Thur's a hole in the centre o' it.  Ahint that hole I reck'n thur'll be
+another, in the young fellur's karkidge.  Thar don't appear any to match
+it at the back.  Thurfor I konklude, thet the bullet as did his bizness
+air still inside o' him.  S'posin' we strip off his duds, an see!"
+
+There is a tacit consent to this proposition of the witness.  Two or
+three of the spectators--Sam Manly one of them--step forward; and with
+due solemnity proceed to remove the serape.
+
+As at the inauguration of a statue--whose once living original has won
+the right of such commemoration--the spectators stand in respectful
+silence at its uncovering, so stand they under the Texan tree, while the
+serape is being raised from the shoulders of the Headless Horseman.
+
+It is a silence solemn, profound, unbroken even by whispers.  These are
+heard only after the unrobing is complete, and the dead body becomes
+revealed to the gaze of the assemblage.
+
+It is dressed in a blouse of sky-blue _cottonade_--box plaited at the
+breast, and close buttoned to the throat.
+
+The limbs are encased in a cloth of the like colour, with a lighter
+stripe along the seams.  But only the thighs can be seen--the lower
+extremities being concealed by the "water-guards" of spotted skin
+tightly stretched over them.
+
+Around the waist--twice twined around it--is a piece of plaited rope,
+the strands of horse's hair.  Before and behind, it is fastened to the
+projections of the high-peaked saddle.  By it is the body retained in
+its upright attitude.  It is further stayed by a section of the same
+rope, attached to the stirrups, and traversing--surcingle fashion--under
+the belly of the horse.
+
+Everything as the accused has stated--all except the head.
+
+Where is this?
+
+The spectators do not stay to inquire.  Guided by the speech of Zeb
+Stump, their eyes are directed towards the body, carefully scrutinising
+it.
+
+Two bullet holes are seen; one over the region of the heart; the other
+piercing the breast-bone just above the abdomen.
+
+It is upon this last that the gaze becomes concentrated: since around
+its orifice appears a circle of blood with streams straying downward.
+These have saturated the soft _cottonade_--now seemingly desiccated.
+
+The other shot-hole shows no similar signs.  It is a clear round cut in
+the cloth--about big enough for a pea to have passed through, and scarce
+discernible at the distance.  There is no blood stain around it.
+
+"_It_," says Zeb Stump, pointing to the smaller, "it signifies nothin'.
+It's the bullet I fired myself out o' the gully; the same I've ben
+tellin' ye o'.  Ye obsarve thar's no blood abeout it: which prove thet
+it wur a dead body when it penetrated.  The other air different.  It wur
+the shot as settled him; an ef I ain't dog-gonedly mistaken, ye'll find
+the bit o' lead still inside o' the corp.  Suppose ye make a incizyun,
+an see!"
+
+The proposal meets with no opposition.  On the contrary, the judge
+directs it to be done as Zeb has suggested.
+
+The stays, both fore and back, are unloosed; the water-guards unbuckled;
+and the body is lifted out of the saddle.
+
+It feels stark and stiff to those who take part in the unpacking,--the
+arms and limbs as rigid as if they had become fossilised.  The lightness
+tells of desiccation: for its specific gravity scarce exceeds that of a
+mummy!
+
+With respectful carefulness it is laid at full length along the grass.
+The operators stoop silently over it--Sam Manly acting as the chief.
+
+Directed by the judge, he makes an incision around the wound--that with
+the circle of extravasated blood.
+
+The dissection is carried through the ribs, to the lungs underneath.
+
+In the left lobe is discovered the thing searched for.  Something firmer
+than flesh is touched by the probe--the point of a bowie-knife.  It has
+the feel of a leaden bullet.  It is one!
+
+It is extracted; rubbed clean of its crimson coating; and submitted to
+the examination of the jury.
+
+Despite the abrasion caused by the spirally-grooved bore of the barrel--
+despite an indentation where it came in contact with a creased rib--
+there is still discernible the outlines of a stamped crescent, and the
+letters C.C.
+
+Oh! those tell-tale initials!  There are some looking on who remember to
+have heard of them before.  Some who can testify to that boast about a
+marked bullet--when the killing of the jaguar was contested!
+
+He who made that boast has now reason to regret it!
+
+"But where is he?"
+
+The question is beginning to be asked.
+
+"What's your explanation, Mr Stump?" is another question put by the
+counsel for the accused.
+
+"Don't need much, I reck'n," is the reply.  "He'd be a durnationed
+greenhorn as can't see, clur as the light o' day, thet young Peint war
+plugged by thet ere bullet."
+
+"By whom fired, do you think?"
+
+"Wal; thet appear to be eeqully clur.  When a man signs his name to a
+message, thar's no chance o' mistakin' who it kums from.  Thar's only
+the ineeshuls thur; but they're plain enuf, I reck'n, an speak for
+theirselves."
+
+"I see nothing in all this," interposes the prosecuting counsel.
+"There's a marked bullet, it is true--with a symbol and certain letters,
+which may, or may not, belong to a gentleman well known in the
+Settlement.  For the sake of argument, let us suppose them to be his--as
+also the ball before us.  What of that?  It wouldn't be the first time
+that a murder has been committed--by one who has first stolen his
+weapon, and then used it to accomplish the deed.  It is but a piece of
+ordinary cunning--a common trick.  Who can say that this is not
+something of the same sort?"
+
+"Besides," continues the specious pleader, "where is the motive for a
+murder such as this would be--supposing it to have been committed by the
+man you are now called upon to suspect?  Without mentioning names, we
+all know to whom these initials belong.  I don't suppose the gentleman
+will deny that they are his.  But that signifies nothing: since there is
+no other circumstance to connect him in any way with the committal of
+the crime."
+
+"Ain't thar though?" asks Stump, who has been impatiently awaiting the
+wind up of the lawyer's speech.  "What do ye call this?"
+
+Zeb, on delivering himself, takes from his tinder-pouch a piece of
+paper--crumpled--scorched along the edges--and blackened as with
+gunpowder.
+
+"This I foun'," says he, surrendering it to the jury, "stuck fast on the
+thorn o' a muskeet tree, whar it hed been blowed out o' the barrel o' a
+gun.  It kim out o' the same gun as discharged thet bullet--to which it
+hed served for waddin'.  As this chile takes it, it's bin the backin' o'
+a letter.  Thur's a name on it, which hev a kewrious correspondings wi'
+the ineeshuls on the bit o' lead.  The jury kin read the name for
+tharselves."
+
+The foreman takes the scrap of paper; and, smoothing out the creases,
+reads aloud:--
+
+Captain Cassius Calhoun!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETY SIX.
+
+STOLE AWAY!
+
+The announcement of the name produces a vivid impression upon the Court.
+
+It is accompanied by a cry--sent up by the spectators, with a
+simultaneity that proclaims them animated by a common sentiment.
+
+It is not a cry of surprise; but one of far different augury.  It has a
+double meaning, too: at once proclaiming the innocence of the accused,
+and the guilt of him who has been the most zealous amongst the accusers.
+
+Against the latter, the testimony of Zeb Stump has done more than direct
+suspicion.  It confirms that already aroused; and which has been growing
+stronger, as fact after fact has been unfolded: until the belief becomes
+universal: that Maurice Gerald is not the man who should be on trial for
+the murder of Henry Poindexter.
+
+Equally is it believed that Calhoun is the man.  The scrap of smeared
+paper has furnished the last link in the chain of evidence; and, though
+this is but circumstantial, and the motive an inconceivable mystery,
+there is now scarce any one who has a doubt about the doer of the deed.
+
+After a short time spent in examining the envelope--passed from hand to
+hand among the jurymen--the witness who has hinted at having something
+more to tell, is directed to continue his narration.
+
+He proceeds to give an account of his suspicions--those that originally
+prompted him to seek for "sign" upon the prairie.  He tells of the shot
+fired by Calhoun from the copse; of the chase that succeeded; and the
+horse trade that came after.  Last of all, he describes the scene in the
+chapparal, where the Headless Horseman has been caught--giving this
+latest episode in all its details, with his own interpretation of it.
+
+This done, he makes a pause, and stands silent, as if awaiting the Court
+to question him.
+
+But the eyes of the auditory are no longer fixed upon him.  They know
+that his tale is completed; or, if not so, they need no further
+testimony to guide their conclusions.
+
+They do not even stay for the deliberations of the Court, now proceeding
+to sift the evidence.  Its action is too slow for men who have seen
+justice so near being duped--themselves along with it; and--swayed by a
+bitter reactionary spirit--revenge, proceeding from self-reproach--they
+call loudly for a change in the programme.
+
+The Court is assailed with the cries:--
+
+"Let the Irishman go--he is innocent!  We don't want any farther
+evidence.  We're convinced of it.  Let him go free!"
+
+Such is the talk that proceeds from the excited spectators.
+
+It is followed by other speeches equally earnest:--
+
+"Let Cassius Calhoun be arrested, and put upon his trial!  It's he
+that's done the deed!  That's why he's shown so bitter against the
+other!  If he's innocent, he'll be able to prove it.  He shall have a
+fair trial; but tried he shall be.  Come, judge; we're waiting upon you!
+Order Mr Calhoun to be brought before the Court.  An innocent man's
+been there long enough.  Let the guilty take his place!"
+
+The demand, at first made by some half dozen voices, soon becomes a
+clamour, universally endorsed by the assemblage.
+
+The judge dares not refuse compliance with a proposal so energetically
+urged: and, despite the informality, Cassius Calhoun is called upon to
+come before the Court.
+
+The summons of the crier, thrice loudly pronounced, receives no
+response; and all eyes go in search of Calhoun.
+
+There is only one pair that looks in the right direction--those of Zeb
+Stump.
+
+The _ci-devant_ witness is seen suddenly to forsake the spot on which he
+has been giving his testimony, and glide towards his old mare--still
+alongside the horse late relieved of his ghastly rider.
+
+With an agility that surprises every one, the old hunter springs upon
+the mare's back, and spurs her from under the tree.
+
+At the same instant the spectators catch sight of a man, moving among
+the horses that stand picketed over the plain.
+
+Though proceeding stealthily, as if to avoid being observed, he moves at
+a rapid rate--making for a particular quarter of the _cavallada_.
+
+"'Tis he!  'Tis Calhoun!" cries the voice of one who has recognised him.
+
+"Trying to steal off!" proclaims another.
+
+"Follow him!" shouts the judge, in a tone of stern command.  "Follow,
+and bring him back!"
+
+There is no need for the order to be repeated.  Ere the words are well
+out, it is in the act of being obeyed--by scores of men who rush
+simultaneously towards their horses.
+
+Before reaching them, Calhoun has reached his--a grey mustang, standing
+on the outskirts of the _cavallada_.
+
+It is the same he has lately ridden in chase of the Headless Horseman.
+The saddle is still upon its back, and the bitt between its teeth.
+
+From the commotion observable under the tree, and the shouting that
+accompanies it, he has become cognisant of that terrible signal--the
+"hue and cry."
+
+Concealment is no longer possible; and, changing from the stealthy pace
+to a quick earnest run, he bounds upon the animal's back.
+
+Giving a wild glance backward, he heads it towards the prairie--going
+off at a gallop.
+
+Fifty horses are soon laid along his track--their riders roused to the
+wildest excitement by some words pronounced at their parting.
+
+"Bring him back--dead or alive!" was the solemn phrase,--supposed to
+have been spoken by the major.
+
+No matter by whom.  It needs not the stamp of official warrant to
+stimulate the pursuers.  Their horror of the foul deed is sufficient for
+this--coupled with the high respect in which the victim of it had been
+held.
+
+Each man spurs onward, as if riding to avenge the death of a relative--a
+brother; as if each was himself eager to become an instrument in the
+execution of justice!
+
+Never before has the ex-captain of cavalry been in such danger of his
+life; not while charging over the red battle-field of Buena Vista; not
+while stretched upon the sanded floor of Oberdoffer's bar-room, with the
+muzzle of the mustanger's pistol pointed at his head!
+
+He knows as much; and, knowing it, spurs on at a fearful pace--at
+intervals casting behind a glance, quick, furtive, and fierce.
+
+It is not a look of despair.  It has not yet come to this; though at
+sight of such a following--within hearing of their harsh vengeful
+cries--one might wonder he could entertain the shadow of a hope.
+
+He has.
+
+He knows that he is mounted on a fleet horse, and that there is a tract
+of timber before him.
+
+True, it is nearly ten miles distant.  But what signify ten miles?  He
+is riding at the rate of twenty to the hour; and in half an hour he may
+find shelter in the chapparal?
+
+Is this the thought that sustains him?
+
+It can scarce be.  Concealment in the thicket--with half a score of
+skilled trackers in pursuit--Zeb Stump at their head!
+
+No: it cannot be this.  There is no hiding-place for him; and he knows
+it.
+
+What, then, hinders him from sinking under despair, and at once
+resigning himself to what must be his ultimate destiny?
+
+Is it the mere instinct of the animal, giving way to a blind unreasoning
+effort at impossible escape?
+
+Nothing of the kind.  The murderer of Henry Poindexter is not mad.  In
+his attempt to elude the justice he now dreads, he is not trusting to
+such slender chances as either a quick gallop across the prairie, or a
+possible concealment in the timber beyond.
+
+There is a still farther beyond--a _border_.  Upon this his thoughts are
+dwelling, and his hopes have become fixed.
+
+There are, indeed, two _borders_.  One that separates two nations termed
+civilised.  There is a law of extradition between them.  For all this
+the red-handed assassin may cheat justice--often does--by an adroit
+migration from one to the other--a mere change of residence and
+nationality.
+
+But it is not this course Calhoun intends to take.  However ill observed
+the statute between Texas and Mexico, he has no intention to take
+advantage of its loose observance.  He dreads to risk such a danger.
+With the consciousness of his great crime, he has reason.
+
+Though riding toward the Rio Grande, it is not with the design of
+crossing it.  He has bethought him of the _other border_--that beyond
+which roams the savage Comanche--the Ishmaelite of the prairies--whose
+hand is against every man with a white skin; but will be lifted lightly
+against him, who has spilled the white man's blood!
+
+In his tent, the murderer may not only find a home, but hope for
+hospitality--perhaps promotion, in the red career of his adoption!
+
+It is from an understanding of these circumstances, that Calhoun sees a
+chance of escape, that support him against despair; and, though he has
+started in a direct line for the Rio Grande, he intends, under cover of
+the chapparal, to flee towards the _Llano Estacado_.
+
+He does not dread the dangers of this frightful desert; nor any others
+that may lie before him.  They can be but light compared with those
+threatening behind.
+
+He might feel regret at the terrible expatriation forced upon him--the
+loss of wealth, friends, social status, and civilisation--more than all,
+the severance from one too wildly, wickedly loved--perhaps never to be
+seen again!
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+But he has no time to think even of _her_.  To his ignoble nature life
+is dearer than love.  He fancies that life is still before him; but it
+is no fancy that tells him, death is behind--fast travelling upon his
+tracks!
+
+The murderer makes haste--all the haste that can be taken out of a
+Mexican mustang--swift as the steeds of Arabia, from which it can claim
+descent.
+
+Ere this the creature should be tired.  Since the morning it has made
+more than a score miles--most of them going at a gallop.
+
+But it shows no signs of fatigue.  Like all its race--tough as
+terriers--it will go fifty--if need be a hundred--without staggering in
+its tracks.
+
+What a stroke of good fortune--that exchange of horses with the Mexican
+maiden!  So reflects its rider.  But for it he might now be standing
+under the sombre shadow of the live oak, in the stern presence of a
+judge and jury, abetted and urged on to convict him, by the less
+scrupulous Lynch and his cohort of Regulators.
+
+He is no longer in dread of such a destiny.  He begins to fancy himself
+clear of all danger.  He glances back over the plain, and sees his
+pursuers still far behind him.
+
+He looks forward, and, in the dark line looming above the bright green
+of the savannah, descries the chapparal.  He has no doubt of being able
+to reach it, and then his chance of escape will be almost certain.
+
+Even if he should not succeed in concealing himself within the thicket,
+who is there to overtake him?  He believes himself to be mounted on the
+fastest horse that is making the passage of the prairie.
+
+Who, then, can come up with him?
+
+He congratulates himself on the _chance_ that has given him such a
+steed.  He may ascribe it to the devil.  He cannot attribute it to God!
+
+And will God permit this red-handed ruffian to escape?  Will He not
+stretch forth His almighty arm, and stay the assassin in his flight?
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETY SEVEN.
+
+THE CHASE OF THE ASSASSIN.
+
+Will God permit the red-handed ruffian to escape?  Will He not stretch
+forth His almighty arm, and stay the assassin in his flight?
+
+These interrogatories are put by those who have remained under the tree.
+
+They are answered by an instinct of justice--the first negatively, the
+second in the affirmative.  He will not, and He will.
+
+The answers are but conjectural; doubtfully so, as Calhoun goes
+galloping off; a little less doubtful as Zeb Stump is descried starting
+after him; and still less, when a hundred horsemen--soldiers and
+civilians--spring forward in the pursuit.
+
+The doubt diminishes as the last of the pursuers is seen leaving the
+ground.  All seem to believe that the last at starting will be first in
+the chase: for they perceive that it is Maurice the mustanger mounted on
+a horse whose fleetness is now far famed.
+
+The exclamations late ringing through the court have proclaimed not only
+a fresh postponement of his trial, but its indefinite adjournment.  By
+the consent of the assemblage, vociferously expressed, or tacitly
+admitted, he feels that he is free.
+
+The first use he makes of his liberty is to rush towards the horse late
+ridden by the headless rider--as all know--his own.
+
+At his approach the animal recognises its master; proclaims it by
+trotting towards him, and giving utterance to a glad "whigher!"
+
+Despite the long severance, there is scarce time to exchange
+congratulations.  A single word passes the lips of the mustanger, in
+response to the neigh of recognition; and in the next instant he is on
+the back of the blood-bay, with the bridle in his grasp.
+
+He looks round for a lazo; asks for it appealingly, in speech directed
+to the bystanders.
+
+After a little delay one is thrown to him, and he is off.
+
+The spectators stand gazing after.  There is no longer a doubt as to the
+result.  The wish, almost universal, has become a universal belief.  God
+has decreed that the assassin shall not escape; but that he will be
+overtaken, captured, and brought back before that same tribunal, where
+he so late stood a too willing witness!
+
+And the man, so near suffering death through his perjured testimony, is
+the instrument chosen to carry out the Divine decree!
+
+Even the rude Regulators--with their practical habitudes of life, but
+little regarding the idea of Divine interference--cannot help having the
+impression of this poetical justice.
+
+One and all give way to it, as the red stallion springs off over the
+prairie, carrying Maurice Gerald upon his back.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+After his departure, an episode occurs under the shadow of the live oak.
+It is not this that hinders it from being observed; but because every
+one has turned face towards the plain, and watches the chase, fast
+receding from view.
+
+There is one scanning it with a look unlike the others.  A lady strains
+her eyes through the curtains of a _caleche_--her glance telling of a
+thought within dissimilar to that felt by the common spectators.
+
+It is no mere curiosity that causes her twin breasts to sink and swell
+in quick spasmodic breathing.  In her eye, still showing sadness, there
+is a gleam of triumph as it follows the pursuer--tempered with mercy, as
+it falls upon the pursued; while from her lips, slightly parted, escapes
+the prayer: "_God have mercy on the guilty man_!"
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Delayed a little at mounting--and more in procuring the lazo--Maurice
+Gerald is the very latest to leave the ground.  On clearing the skirt of
+the crowd, now dispersed over the parade, he sees the others far ahead--
+a distance of several hundred yards separating him from the rearmost.
+
+He thinks nothing of this.  Confident in the qualities of his steed, he
+knows he will not long ride in the rear.
+
+And the blood-bay answers his expectations.  As if joyed at being
+relieved from his inert load--to him an incubus inexplicable--and
+inspired by the pressure of his master's knees, the noble horse springs
+off over the prairie turf--in long sinewy strides, showing that his body
+still retains its strength, and his limbs their elasticity.
+
+He soon closes upon the hindmost; overtakes one; then another, and
+another, till he has surged far ahead of the "field."
+
+Still on, over the rolling ridges--across the stream-beds between--on,
+over soft turf, and sharp shingle, till at length his competitors lose
+sight of him--as they have already done of the grey mustang and its
+rider.
+
+There is but one of the pursuing party who continues to keep him in
+view--a tall man, mounted upon what might be taken for the sorriest of
+steeds--an old mustang mare.
+
+Her speed tells a different tale; produced though it be by the strangest
+of spurs--the keen blade of a bowie-knife.
+
+It is Zeb Stump who makes use of this quaint, but cruel, means of
+persuasion.
+
+Still the old mare cannot keep pace with the magnificent stallion of the
+mustanger.  Nor does Zeb expect it.  He but aims at holding the latter
+in sight; and in this he is so far successful.
+
+There is yet another who beholds the blood-bay making his vigorous
+bounds.  He beholds him with "beard upon the shoulder."  It is he who is
+pursued.
+
+Just as he has begun to feel hopeful of escape, Calhoun, looking back,
+catches sight of the red stallion; no longer with that strange shape
+upon his back, but one as well recognised, and to him even more
+terrible.  He perceives it to be Maurice, the mustanger--the man he
+would have devoted--was so near devoting--to the most disgraceful of
+deaths!
+
+He sees this man coming after--his own conscience tells him--as an
+avenger!
+
+Is it the hand of God that directs this enemy on his track?  He trembles
+as he asks himself the question.  From any other pursuer there might
+have been a chance of escaping.  There is none from Maurice Gerald!
+
+A cold shiver runs through the frame of the fugitive.  He feels as if he
+were fighting against Fate; and that it is idle to continue the contest!
+
+He sits despairingly in his saddle; scarce caring to ply the spur; no
+longer believing that speed can avail him!
+
+His flight is now merely mechanical--his mind taking no part in the
+performance.
+
+His soul is absorbed with the horror of a dread death--not less dread,
+from his knowing that he deserves it.
+
+The sight of the chapparal, close at hand, inspires him with a fresh
+hope; and, forcing the fatigued horse into a last feeble effort, he
+struggles on towards it.
+
+An opening presents itself.  He enters it; and continues his gallop for
+a half mile further.
+
+He arrives at a point, where the path turns sharply round some heavy
+timber.  Beyond that, he might enter the underwood, and get out of sight
+of his pursuer.
+
+He knows the place, but too well.  It has been fatal to him before.  Is
+it to prove so again?
+
+It is.  He feels that it is, and rides irresolutely.  He hears the
+hoofstroke of the red horse close upon the heels of his own; and along
+with it the voice of the avenging rider, summoning him to stop!
+
+He is too late for turning the corner,--too late to seek concealment in
+the thicket,--and with a cry he reins up.
+
+It is a cry partly of despair, partly of fierce defiance--like the
+scream of a chased jaguar under bay of the bloodhounds.
+
+It is accompanied by a gesture; quick followed by a flash, a puff of
+white smoke, and a sharp detonation, that tell of the discharge of a
+revolver.
+
+But the bullet whistles harmlessly through the air; while in the
+opposite direction is heard a hishing sound--as from the winding of a
+sling--and a long serpent seems to uncoil itself in the air!
+
+Calhoun sees it through the thinning smoke.  It is darting straight
+towards him!
+
+He has no time to draw trigger for a second shot--no time even to avoid
+the lazo's loop.  Before he can do either, he feels it settling over his
+shoulders; he hears the dread summons, "_Surrender, you assassin_!" he
+sees the red stallion turn tail towards him; and, in the next instant,
+experiences the sensation of one who has been kicked from a scaffold!
+
+Beyond this he feels, hears, and sees nothing more.
+
+He has been jerked out of his saddle; and the shock received in his
+collision with the hard turf has knocked the breath out of his body, as
+well as the sense out of his soul!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETY EIGHT.
+
+NOT DEAD YET.
+
+The assassin lies stretched along the earth--his arms embraced by the
+raw-hide rope--to all appearance dead.
+
+But his captor does not trust to this.  He believes it to be only a
+faint--it may be a feint--and to make sure it is not the latter, he
+remains in his saddle, keeping his lazo upon the strain.
+
+The blood-bay, obedient to his will, stands firm as the trunk of a
+tree--ready to rear back, or bound forward, on receiving the slightest
+sign.
+
+It is a terrible tableau; though far from being strange in that region
+of red-handed strife, that lies along the far-stretching frontier of
+Tamaulipas and Texas.
+
+Oft--too oft--has the soaring vulture looked down upon such a scene--
+with joy beholding it, as promising a banquet for its filthy beak!
+
+Even now half a score of these ravenous birds, attracted by the report
+of the pistol, are hovering in the air--their naked necks elongated in
+eager anticipation of a feast!
+
+One touch of the spur, on the part of him seated in the saddle, would
+give them what they want.
+
+"It would serve the scoundrel right," mutters the mustanger to himself.
+"Great God, to think of the crime he has committed!  Killed his own
+cousin, and then cut off his head!  There can be no doubt that he has
+done both; though from what motive, God only can tell,--or himself, if
+he be still alive.
+
+"I have my own thoughts about it.  I know that he loves _her_; and it
+may be that the brother stood in his way.
+
+"But how, and why?  That is the question that requires an answer.
+Perhaps it can only be answered by God and himself?"
+
+"Yur mistaken beout thet, young fellur," interposes a voice breaking in
+on the soliloquy.  "Thur's one who kin tell the how and the why, jest as
+well as eyther o' them ye've made mention o'; and thet individooal air
+ole Zeb Stump, at your sarvice.  But 'taint the time to talk o' sech
+things now; not hyur ain't the place neythur.  We must take _him_ back
+unner the live oak, whar he'll git treated accordin' to his desarvins.
+Durn his ugly picter!  It would sarve him right to make it uglier by
+draggin' him a spell at the eend o' yur trail-rope.
+
+"Never mind beout that.  We needn't volunteer to be Henry Peintdexter's
+'vengers.  From what they know now, I reck'n that kin be trusted to the
+Regulators."
+
+"How are we to get him back?  His horse has galloped away!"
+
+"No difeequilty beout that, Mister Gerald.  He's only fainted a bit; or
+maybe, playin' possum.  In eyther case, I'll soon roust him.  If he
+ain't able to make tracks on the hoof he kin go a hossback, and hyur's
+the critter as 'll carry him.  I'm sick o' the seddle myself, an I
+reck'n the ole gal's a leetle bit sick o' me--leestwise o' the spur I've
+been a prickin' into her.  I've made up my mind to go back on Shanks's
+maar, an as for Mister Cash Calhoun, he's welkim to hev my seat for the
+reeturn jerney.  Ef he don't stop shammin an sit upright, we kin pack
+him acrost the crupper, like a side o' dead buck-meat.  Yo-ho! he begins
+to show sign!  He'll soon rekiver his senses--all seven o' 'em, I
+reck'n--an then he kin mount the maar o' hisself.
+
+"Yee-up, ole hoss!" continues Zeb, grasping Calhoun by the collar of his
+coat, and giving him a vigorous shake.  "Yee-up, I say; an kum along wi'
+us!  Ye're wanted.  Thar's somebody desirin' to have a talk wi' you!"
+
+"Who? where?" inquires the captive, slowly recovering consciousness, and
+staring unsteadily around him.  "Who wants me?"
+
+"Wal; I do for one; an--"
+
+"Ah! you it is, Zeb Stump! and--and--?"
+
+"An' that air's Mister Maurice Gerald the mowstanger.  You've seed him
+afore, I reck'n?  He wants ye for two.  Beside, thar's a good grist o'
+others as ud like to see ye agin--back thar by the Port.  So ye'd best
+get upon yur legs, an' go along wi' us."
+
+The wretched man rises to his feet.  In so doing, he discovers that his
+arms are encircled by a lazo.
+
+"My horse?" he exclaims, looking inquiringly around.  "Where is my
+horse?"
+
+"Ole Nick only knows whar _he_ air by this time.  Like enuf gone back to
+the Grand, whar he kim from.  Arter the gallupin ye've gi'n him, I
+reck'n he air sick o' the swop; an's goed off to take a spell o' rest on
+his native pasters."
+
+Calhoun gazes on the old hunter with something more than astonishment.
+The swop!  Even this, too, is known to him!
+
+"Now, then," pursues Zeb, with a gesture of impatience.  "'Twon't do to
+keep the Court a-waitin'.  Are ye riddy?"
+
+"Ready for what?"
+
+"Fust an foremost, to go back along wi' me an Mister Gerald.  Second an
+second-most, to stan' yur trial."
+
+"Trial!  I stand trial!"
+
+"You, Mister Cash Calhoun."
+
+"On what charge?"
+
+"The churge o' killin' Henry Peintdexter--yur own cousin."
+
+"It's a lie!  A damned slanderous lie; and whoever says it--!"
+
+"Shet up yur head!" cries Zeb, with an authoritative gesture.  "Ye're
+only wastin' breath.  Ef this chile ain't mistook about it, ye'll need
+all ye've got afore long.  Kum, now! make riddy to reeturn wi' us!  The
+judge air awaitin'; the jury air awaitin'; an _justice_ air waitin',
+too--in the shape o' three score Reg'lators."
+
+"I'm not going back," doggedly responds Calhoun.  "By what authority do
+you command me?  You have no warrant?"
+
+"Hain't I, though?" interrupts Zeb.  "What d'ye call this?" he adds,
+pointing to his rifle.  "Thur's my warrant, by the grace o' God; an by
+thet same, this chile air a goin' to execute it.  So no more o' yur
+durned palaver: for I ain't the sort to stan' it.  Take yur choice,
+Mister Cash Calhoun.  Mount thet old maar o' mine, an kum along quickly;
+or try the toother dodge, an git toated like a packidge o' merchandice:
+for back yur boun' to go--I swar it by the Eturnal!"
+
+Calhoun makes no reply.  He glances at Stump--at Gerald--despairingly
+around him; then stealthily towards a six-shooter, protruding from the
+breast-pocket of his coat--the counterpart of that shaken out of his
+hand, as the rope settled around him.
+
+He makes an effort to reach the pistol--feeble, because only half
+resolved.
+
+He is restrained by the lazo; perhaps more by a movement on the part of
+Zeb; who, with a significant gesture, brings his long gun to the level.
+
+"Quick!" exclaims the hunter.  "Mount, Mister Calhoun!  Thur's the maar
+awaitin' for ye.  Inter the seddle, I say!"
+
+Like a puppet worked by the wires of the showman, the ex-captain of
+cavalry yields compliance with the commands of the backwoodsman.  He
+does so, from a consciousness that there is death--certain death--in
+disobeying them.
+
+Mechanically he mounts the mare; and, without resistance, suffers her to
+be led away from the spot.
+
+Zeb, afoot, strides on in advance.
+
+The mare, at bridle-length, follows upon his tracks.
+
+The mustanger rides reflectingly behind; thinking less of him held at
+the end of his lazo, than of her, who by a generous self-sacrifice, has
+that day riveted around his heart a golden chain--only by death to be
+undone!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETY NINE.
+
+ATTEMPTED MURDER AND SUICIDE.
+
+After its second involuntary recess--less prolonged than the first--the
+Court has once more resumed its functions under the great evergreen oak.
+
+It is now evening; and the sunbeams, falling aslant, intrude upon the
+space canopied by the tree.
+
+From the golden brightness, displayed by them at noon, they have changed
+to a lurid red--as if there was anger in the sky!
+
+It is but an accident of the atmosphere--the portent of an approaching
+storm.
+
+For all this, it is remarked as singular, that a storm should be coming
+at the time: since it symbolises the sentiment of the spectators, who
+look on with sullenness in their hearts, and gloom in their glances.
+
+It would seem as if Heaven's wrath was acting in concert with the
+passions of Earth!
+
+Maurice Gerald is no longer the cynosure of those scowling eyes.  He has
+been clamorously acquitted, and is henceforth only one of the witnesses.
+
+In the place late occupied by him another stands.  Cassius Calhoun is
+now the prisoner at the bar!
+
+This is the only change observable.
+
+The judge is the same, the jury the same, and the spectators as before;
+though with very different feelings in regard to the criminality of the
+accused.
+
+His guilt is no longer the question that is being considered.
+
+It has been established beyond the shadow of a doubt.  The evidence is
+already before them; and though entirely circumstantial--as in most
+cases of murder--the circumstances form a chain irresistibly conclusive
+and complete.
+
+There is but one missing link--if link it may be called--the _motive_.
+
+The motive both for the murder and the mutilation: for the testimony of
+Gerald has been confirmed by a subsequent examination of the dead body.
+The surgeon of the cantonment has pronounced the two distinct, and that
+Henry Poindexter's death must have ensued, almost instantaneously after
+his receiving the shot.
+
+Why should Cassius Calhoun have killed his own cousin?  _Why_ cut off
+his head?
+
+No one can answer these questions, save the murderer himself.  No one
+expects him to do so--save to his Maker.
+
+Before Him he must soon stand: for a knowledge of the motive is not
+deemed essential to his condemnation, and he has been condemned.
+
+The trial has come to a close; the verdict _Guilty_ has been given; and
+the judge, laying aside his Panama hat, is about to put on the black
+cap--that dread emblem of death--preparatory to pronouncing the
+sentence.
+
+In the usual solemn manner the condemned man is invited to make his
+final speech; to avail himself, as it were, of the last forlorn hope for
+sentence.
+
+He starts at the invitation--falling, as it does, like a death-knell
+upon his ear.
+
+He looks wildly around.  Despairingly: when on the faces that encircle
+him he sees not one wearing an expression of sympathy.
+
+There is not even pity.  All appear to frown upon him.
+
+His confederates--those payed ruffians who have hitherto supported him--
+are of no use now, and their sympathy of no consequence.  They have
+shrunk out of sight--before the majesty of the law, and the damning
+evidence of his guilt.
+
+Despite his social standing--and the wealth to sustain it--he sees
+himself alone; without friend or sympathiser: for so stands the assassin
+in Texas!
+
+His demeanour is completely changed.  In place of that high haughty
+air--oft exhibited in bold brutal bullyism--he looks cowed and craven.
+
+And not strange that he should.
+
+He feels that there is no chance of escape; that he is standing by the
+side of his coffin--on the edge of an Eternity too terrible to
+contemplate.
+
+To a conscience like his, it cannot be otherwise than appalling.
+
+All at once a light is seen to flask into his eyes--sunken as they are
+in the midst of two livid circles.  He has the air of one on the eve of
+making confession.
+
+Is it to be an acknowledgment of guilt?  Is he about to unburden his
+conscience of the weight that must be on it?
+
+The spectators, guessing his intention, stand breathlessly observing
+him.
+
+There is silence even among the cicadas.
+
+It is broken by the formalised interrogatory of the judge?
+
+"_Have you anything to say why sentence of death should not be
+pronounced upon you_?"
+
+"No!" he replies, "I have not.  The jury has given a just verdict.  I
+acknowledge that I have forfeited my life, and deserve to lose it."
+
+Not during all the day--despite its many strange incidents and startling
+surprises--have the spectators been so astonished.  They are confounded
+beyond the power of speech; and in silence permit the condemned man to
+proceed, with what they now perceive to be his confession.
+
+"It is quite true," continues he, "that I killed Henry Poindexter--shot
+him dead in the chapparal."
+
+The declaration is answered by a cry from the crowd.  It is altogether
+involuntary, and expresses horror rather than indignation.
+
+Alike involuntary is the groan that goes with it--proceeding from a
+single individual, whom all know to be the father of the murdered man--
+once more in their midst.
+
+Beyond these sounds, soon ceasing, there is nothing to hinder the
+confession from being continued.
+
+"I know that I've got to die," proceeds the prisoner, with an air of
+seeming recklessness.  "You have decreed it; and I can tell by your
+looks you have no intention to change your minds.
+
+"After what I've confessed, it would be folly in me to expect pardon;
+and I don't.  I've been a bad fellow; and no doubt have done enough to
+deserve my fate.  But, bad as I may have been, I'm not vile enough to be
+sent out of the world, and leave behind me the horrid imputation of
+having _murdered_ my own cousin.  I did take his life, as I've told you.
+You are all asking why, and conjecturing about the motive.  There was
+none."
+
+A new "sensation" makes itself manifest among the spectators.  It
+partakes of surprise, curiosity, and incredulity.
+
+No one speaks, or in any way attempts interruption.
+
+"You wonder at that.  It's easily explained.  _I killed him by
+mistake_!"
+
+The surprise culminates in a shout; suppressed as the speaker proceeds.
+
+"Yes, by mistake; and God knows I was sorry enough, on discovering that
+I had made it.  I didn't know myself till long after."
+
+The condemned man looks up, as if in hopes that he has touched a chord
+of mercy.  There is no sign of it, on the faces that surround him--still
+solemnly austere.
+
+"I don't deny," continues he; "I needn't--that I intended to kill some
+one.  I did.  Nor am I going to deny who it was.  It was the cur I _see_
+standing before me."
+
+In a glance of concentrated hatred, the speaker rests his eye upon
+Gerald; who only answers with a look, so calm as almost to betray
+indifference.
+
+"Yes.  I intended to kill _him_.  I had my reasons.  I'm not going to
+say what they were.  It's no use now.
+
+"I thought I _had_ killed him; but, as hell's luck would have it, the
+Irish hound had changed cloaks with my cousin.
+
+"You know the rest.  By mistake I fired the shot--meant for an enemy,
+and fatal to a friend.  It was sure enough; and poor Henry dropped from
+his horse.  But to make more sure, I drew out my knife; and the cursed
+serape still deceiving me, I hacked off his head."
+
+The "sensation" again expresses itself in shuddering and shouts--the
+latter prolonged into cries of retribution--mingled with that murmuring
+which proclaims a story told.
+
+There is no more mystery, either about the murder or its motive; and the
+prisoner is spared further description of that fiendish deed, that left
+the dead body of Henry Poindexter without a head.
+
+"Now!" cries he, as the shouting subsides, and the spectators stand
+glaring upon him, "you know all that's passed; but not what's to come.
+There's another scene yet.  You see me standing on my grave; but I don't
+go into it, till I've sent _him_ to _his_.  I don't, by God!"
+
+There is no need to guess at the meaning of this profane speech--the
+last of Calhoun's life.  Its meaning is made clear by the act that
+accompanies it.
+
+While speaking he has kept his right hand under the left breast of his
+coat.  Along with the oath it comes forth, holding a revolver.
+
+The spectators have just time to see the pistol--as it glints under the
+slanting sunbeams--when two shots are heard in quick succession.
+
+With a like interval between, two men fall forward upon their faces; and
+lie with their heads closely contiguous!
+
+One is Maurice Gerald, the mustanger,--the other Cassius Calhoun,
+ex-captain of volunteer cavalry.
+
+The crowd closes around, believing both to be dead; while through the
+stillness that succeeds is heard a female voice, in those wild plaintive
+tones that tell of a heart nigh parting in twain!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED.
+
+JOY.
+
+Joy!
+
+There was this under the evergreen oak, when it was discovered that only
+the suicide was a success, and the attempt at assassination a failure.
+There was this in the heart of Louise Poindexter, on learning that her
+lover still lived.
+
+Though saddened by the series of tragedies so quickly transpiring, she
+was but human; and, being woman, who can blame her for giving way to the
+subdued happiness that succeeded?  Not I.  Not you, if you speak truly.
+
+The passion that controlled her may not be popular under a strictly
+Puritan standard.  Still is it according to the dictates of Nature--
+universal and irresistible--telling us that father, mother, sister, and
+brother, are all to be forsaken for that love illimitable; on Earth only
+exceeded--sometimes scarce equalled--by the love of self.
+
+Do not reproach the young Creole, because this passion was paramount in
+her soul.  Do not blame her for feeling pleasure amidst moments that
+should otherwise have been devoted to sadness.  Nor, that her happiness
+was heightened, on learning from the astonished spectators, how her
+lover's life had been preserved--as it might seem miraculously.
+
+The aim of the assassin had been true enough.  He must have felt sure of
+it, before turning the muzzle towards his own temples, and firing the
+bullet that had lodged in his brain.  Right over the heart he had hit
+his intended victim, and through the heart would the leaden missile have
+made its way, but that a _gage d'amour_--the gift of her who alone could
+have secured it such a place--turned aside the shot, causing it to
+_ricochet_!
+
+Not harmlessly, however: since it struck one of the spectators standing
+too close to the spot.
+
+Not quite harmless, either, was it to him for whom it had been intended.
+
+The stunning shock--with the mental and corporeal excitement--long
+sustained--did not fail to produce its effect; and the mind of Maurice
+Gerald once more returned to its delirious dreaming.
+
+But no longer lay his body in danger--in the chapparal, surrounded by
+wolves, and shadowed by soaring vultures,--in a hut, where he was but
+ill attended--in a jail, where he was scarce cared for at all.
+
+When again restored to consciousness, it was to discover that the fair
+vision of his dreams was no vision at all, but a lovely woman--the
+loveliest on the Leona, or in all Texas if you like--by name Louise
+Poindexter.
+
+There was now no one to object to her nursing him; not even her own
+father.  The spirit of the aristocratic planter--steeped in sorrow, and
+humiliated by misfortune--had become purged of its false pride; though
+it needed not this to make him willingly acquiesce in an alliance,
+which, instead of a "nobody," gave him a nobleman for his son.  Such, in
+reality, was Sir Maurice Gerald--erst known as Maurice the mustanger!
+
+In Texas the title would have counted for little; nor did its owner care
+to carry it.  But, by a bit of good fortune--not always attendant on an
+Irish baronetcy--it carried along with it an endowment--ample enough to
+clear Casa del Corvo of the mortgage held by the late Cassius Calhoun,
+and claimed by his nearest of kin.
+
+This was not Woodley Poindexter: for after Calhoun's death, it was
+discovered that the ex-captain had once been a Benedict; and there was a
+young scion of his stock--living in New Orleans--who had the legal right
+to say he was his son!
+
+It mattered not to Maurice Gerald; who, now clear of every entanglement,
+became the husband of the fair Creole.
+
+After a visit to his native land--including the European tour--which was
+also that of his honeymoon--Sir Maurice, swayed by his inclinations,
+once more returned to Texas, and made Casa del Corvo his permanent home.
+
+The "blue-eyed colleen" of Castle Ballagh must have been a myth--having
+existence only in the erratic fancy of Phelim.  Or it may have been the
+bud of a young love, blighted ere it reached blooming--by absence, oft
+fatal to such tender plants of passion?
+
+Whether or no, Louise Poindexter--Lady Gerald she must now be called--
+during her sojourn in the Emerald Isle saw nothing to excite her to
+jealousy.
+
+Only once again did this fell passion take possession of her spirit; and
+then only in the shape of a shadow soon to pass away.
+
+It was one day when her husband came home to the hacienda--bearing in
+his arms the body of a beautiful woman!
+
+Not yet dead; though the blood streaming from a wound in her bared bosom
+showed she had not long to live.
+
+To the question, "Who has done this?" she was only able to answer,
+"Diaz--Diaz!"
+
+It was the last utterance of Isidora Covarubio de los Llanos!
+
+As the spirit of the unhappy _senorita_ passed into eternity, along with
+it went all rancour from that of her more fortunate rival.  There can be
+no jealousy of the dead.  That of Lady Gerald was at rest, and for ever.
+
+It was succeeded by a strong sympathy for the ill-fated Isidora; whose
+story she now better comprehended.  She even assisted her lord in the
+saddling of his red-bay steed, and encouraged him in the pursuit of the
+assassin.
+
+She joyed to see the latter led back at the end of a lazo--held in the
+hand of her husband; and refused to interfere, when a band of
+Regulators, called hastily together, dealt out summary chastisement--by
+hanging him to a tree!
+
+It was not cruelty--only a crude kind of justice:--"an eye for an eye,
+and a tooth for a tooth."
+
+And what a poor compensation it seemed, to those who had taken part in
+exacting it!
+
+As they stood gazing upon the remains of the villain, and his victim--
+the swarth ruffian dangling from the branch above, and the fair form
+lying underneath--the hearts of the Texans were touched--as perhaps they
+had never been before.
+
+There was a strange thought passing through their minds; a sadness
+independent of that caused by the spectacle of a murder.  It was regret
+at having so hastily despatched the assassin!
+
+Beautiful, even in death, was Isidora.  Such features as she possessed,
+owe not everything to the light of life.  That voluptuous shape--the
+true form divine--may be admired in the cold statue.
+
+Men stood gazing upon her dead body--long gazing--loth to go away--at
+length going with thoughts not altogether sacred!
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+In the physical world Time is accounted the destroyer; though in the
+moral, it is oft the restorer.  Nowhere has it effected greater changes
+than in Texas--during the last decade--and especially in the settlements
+of the Nueces and Leona.
+
+Plantations have sprung up, where late the _chapparal_ thickly covered
+the earth; and cities stand, where the wild steed once roamed over a
+pathless prairie.
+
+There are new names for men, places, and things.
+
+For all this, there are those who could conduct you to an ancient
+hacienda--still known as Casa del Corvo.
+
+Once there, you would become the recipient of a hospitality, unequalled
+in European lands.
+
+You would have for your host one of the handsomest men in Texas; for
+your hostess one of its most beautiful women--both still this side of
+middle life.
+
+Residing under their roof you would find an old gentleman, of
+aristocratic air and venerable aspect--withal chatty and cheerful--who
+would conduct you around the _corrales_, show you the stock, and never
+tire of talking about the hundreds--ay thousands--of horses and horned
+cattle, seen roaming over the pastures of the plantation.
+
+You would find this old gentleman very proud upon many points: but more
+especially of his beautiful daughter--the mistress of the mansion--and
+the half-dozen pretty prattlers who cling to his skirts, and call him
+their "dear grandpa."
+
+Leaving him for a time, you would come in contact with two other
+individuals attached to the establishment.
+
+One is the _groom_ of the "stole,"--by name Phelim O'Neal--who has full
+charge of the horses.  The other a coachman of sable skin, yclept Pluto
+Poindexter; who would scorn to look at a horse except when perched upon
+the "box," and after having the "ribbons" deftly delivered into his
+hands.
+
+Since we last saw him, the gay Pluto has become tamed down to a staid
+and sober Benedict--black though he be.
+
+Florinda--now the better half of his life--has effected the
+transformation.
+
+There is one other name known at Casa del Corvo, with which you cannot
+fail to become acquainted.  You will hear it mentioned, almost every
+time you sit down to dinner: for you will be told that the turkey at the
+head of the table, or the venison at its opposite end, is the produce of
+a rifle that rarely misses its aim.
+
+During the course of the meal--but much more over the wine--you will
+hear talk of "Zeb Stump the hunter."
+
+You may not often see him.  He will be gone from the hacienda, before
+you are out of your bed; and back only after you have retired.  But the
+huge gobbler seen in the "smoke-house," and the haunch of venison
+hanging by its side, are evidence he has been there.
+
+While sojourning at Casa del Corvo, you may get hints of a strange story
+connected with the place--now almost reduced to a legend.
+
+The domestics will tell it you, but only in whispers: since they know
+that it is a theme _tabooed_ by the master and mistress of the mansion,
+in whom it excites sad souvenirs.
+
+It is the story of the Headless Horseman.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Headless Horseman, by Mayne Reid
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