UC-NRLF bbb yv 00* II THE TRAIL HUNTER. 7 TALE OF THE FAB WEST. BY GUSTA.VE AIMARD. AUTHOR OF " THE PRAIRIE FLOWER," " THE INDIAN SCOUT," " PIRATES OF THE PRAIRIES," " THE TRAPPER'S DAUGHTER," " THE TIGER SLAYER," " THE GOLD SEEKERS," "THE INDIAN CHIEF," "THE BORDER RIFLES," "THE FREEBOOTERS," "THE WHITE SCALPER," " THE TRAPPERS OF THE ARKANSAS," "THE CHIEF OF THE AUCAS," "THE RED TRACK," "THE LAST OF THE INCAS," ETC., ETC. COMPLETE AND UNABRIDGED EDITION, T. B. PETERSON & BROTHERS; 306 CHESTNUT STEEET. PREFACE. THE present volume of Aimard's Indian Tales is devoted to the earlier adventures of those hunters, whose acquaintance the reader has formed, I trust with pleasure, in the preceding series. It does not become me to say any thing further in its favor, than that the sustained interest of the narrative, which has been regarded as the charm of stories referring to life in the desert and prairie, has not been departed from in this instance. The stories themselves supply an innate proof of the writer's correctness to Nature, and, in truth, many of the scenes are so startling that they must be the result of personal observation. In conclusion, I may be permitted to thank the Press gene- rally for the kindly aid they have afforded me in making the English translation of Aimard's volumes known to the British reading public, and the hearty way in which they have recognized the merits of the previous series. It would be an easy task to col- lect paragraphs, expressing a belief that Aimard is second to none of the writers who have hitherto described Indian life and scenery; but I prefer to rest my hopes of success on the inhe- rent qualities of his stories. LASCELLES WRAXALL. (15) 942090 CONTENTS, I. The Virgin Forest * 19 II. The Contest 22 III. Don Miguel Zarate 25 IY. The Peccaris 27 Y. The Wound 30 YL The Squatter's Shanty 34 YIL The Rangers 37 YIIL The Yalley of the 'Buffalo 40 IX. The Assassination 43 X. The Sachem of the Coras 47 XI. Conversation 50 XII. El Meson 53 XIII. Red Cedar 57 XIY. The Two Hunters 61 XY. Fray Ambrosio 64 XYL - Two Yarieties of Yillains 67 XYII. El Canon Del Buitre 70 XYIIL Father Seraphin 74 XIX. TJnicorn 77 XX. The Hunt of Wild Horses , 81 XXI. The Surprise 84 XXII. The Meeting i 88 XXIII. The Abduction ." 92 XXIY. The Revolt 95 XXY. El Rancho del Coyote 98 (17) 18 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXVL The Cuchillada 102 XXVII. The Hunters 105 XXVIII. Sunbeam 108 XXIX. The Adoption 112 XXX. The Missionary 115 XXXI. The Interview 118 XXXII. The Prison 121 XXXIIL The Embassy 124 XXXIV. The Presentation 127 XXXV. Psychological 129 XXXVI. Diamond Cut Diamond 131 XXXVII. A Stormy Discussion 135 XXXVIII. The Mystery 138 XXXIX. The Ambuscade 141 XL. A Friendly Discussion 143 XLL Nathan 146 XLII. The Wounded Man 149 XLIIL Indian Diplomacy 151 XLIV. The Stranger 154 XLV. General Ventura 157 XLVL The Comanches 160 XLVIL Negotiations - 162 XL VIII. Free 164 XLIX. The Meeting 167 L. Dona Clara 170 LI. El Vado delToro... 173 THE TRAIL-HUNTER. B Y GTJ ST A Y'E /; AIM'AKD. CHAPTER I. THE VIRGIN FOREST. IN Mexico the population is only di- vided into two classes, the upper and the lower. There is no intermediate rank to connect the two extremes, and tfyis is the cause of the two hundred and thirty-nine revolutions which have over- thrown this country since the declara- tion of its independence. Why this is so is simple enough. The intellectual power is in the hands of a small num- ber, and all the revolutions are effected by this turbulent and ambitious mi- nority ; whence it results that the coun- try is governed by the most complete military despotism, instead of being a free republic. Still the inhabitants of the States of Sonora, Chihuahua, and Texas have re- tained, even to the present day, that stern, savage, and energetic physiogno- my which may be sought in vain among the other States of the Confederation. Beneath a sky colder than that of Mexico, the winter, which frequently covers the rivers of the region with a thick layer of ice, hardens the muscles of the inhabitants, cleanses their blood, purifies their hearts, and renders them 19 picked men, who are distinguished for their courage, their intelligence, and their profound love of liberty. The Apaches, who originally inhabi- ted the greater portion of New Mexico, have gradually fallen back before the axe of the pioneers ; and after retiring into the immense deserts that cover the triangle formed by the Rio Oila, the Del Norte, and the Colorado, they ra- vage almost with impunity the Mexican frontiers, plundering, firing, and devas- tating all they meet with on their pas- sage. The inhabitants of the countries we alluded to above, held in respect by these ever-shifting savages, are in a state of continual warfare with them, always ready to fight, fortifying their haciendas, and only travelling with weapons in their hands. El Paso del Norte may be regarded as the outpost of the civilized portion of Mexico. Beyond that, to the north and north-west,, extend the vast until I - ed plains of Chihuahua, the bolson of Mapimi, and the arid deserts of the Rio Gila. These immense deserts, known by the name of Apacheria, are still as little investigated as they were at the close of the eighteenth century. El Paso del Norte owes its name to its 2U THE TRAIL-HUNTER. situation near a ford of the Rio De Norte. It is the oldest of all the New Mexican settlements, and its esta blishment dates back to the close of the sixteenth century. The present settle- ment is scattered for a distance of about ten miles along the banks of the Del Norte, and contains four thousand in- , habitants at the most. The plaza, or village of the Paso, is situated at the head of the valley : at the other extre- mity is the Presidio of San Elezario. All the interval is occupied by a con tinuous line of , white, flat-roofed houses, buried in gardens, and surrounded ,by vineyards. About a mile above^ the ford the stream is . damme*! up, and led by a canal "into the valley, whieU it, waters. Apacheria begins only a few miles from this settlement. It is easily seen that the foot of civi- lized man has only trodden timidly and at rare intervals this thoroughly primi- tive country, in which nature, free to develope herself under the omnipotent eye of the creator, assumes an aspect of incredible beauty and fancifulness. On a lovely morning in the month of May, which the Indians call " the moon of the flowers," a man of high stature, with harsh and marked features, mount- ed on a tall, half-tamed steed, started at a canter from the plaza, and after a few minutes of hesitation, employed in re- alising his position, resolutely buried his spurs in the horse's flanks, crossed the ford, and after leaving behind him the numerous cotton-wood trees which at this spot cover the river banks, pro- ceeded toward the dense forest that flashed on the horizon. This horseman was dressed in the costume generally adopted on the fron- tiers, and which was so picturesque that we will give a short description of it. The stranger wore a pelisse of green cloth, embroidered with silver, allow- ing a glimpse of an elegantly-worked shirt, the collar of which was fastened by a loosely- knotted black silk handker- chief, the ends passed through a dia- mond ring. He wore green cloth breech- es, trimmed with silver, and two rows of buttons of the same metal, and fastened round the hips by a red silken scarf with gold fringe. The breeches, open on the side half way up the thigh, displayed his fine linen drawers be- neath : his legs were defended by a strip of brown embossed and stamped leather, called botas vaqueras, attached below the knee by a silver garter. On his heels enormous spurs clanked. A manga, glistening with gold, and drawn up on the shoulder, protected the upper part of his body, while his head was sheltered from the burning sunbeams by a broad-leafed hat of brown stamped felt, the crown of which was contracted by a large silver toquilla passed twice or thrice round it. His steed was caparisoned with graceful luxuriousness, which heighten- ed all its beautiful points : a rich saddle of embossed leather, adorned with mas- sive silver, on the back of which the zarape was fastened ; wide Moorish sil- ver stirrups, and handsome water bottles at the saddle-bow ; while an elegant anquera, made of open-work leather, and decorated with small steel chains, entirely covered the horse's croup, and sparkled with its slightest movement. The stranger appeared, judging from the luxury he displayed, to belong to the high class of society. A machete hung down his right side, two pistols were passed through his girdle, the handle of a long knife protruded from his right boot, and he held a superbly damascened rifle across the saddle in front of him. Bending over the neck of his gallop- ing steed, he advanced rapidly without "ooking round him, although the land- scape that lay extended before him was one of the most attractive and majestic n those regions. The river formed the most capricious windings in the centre of a terrain di- versified in a thousand strange ways. Here and there on the sandy banks normous trees might be seen lying, which, dried up by the sun, evidenced, n their washed-out appearance, that ,hey had been dead for centuries. Near the shallow and marshy spots, caymans and alligators wandered about awk- wardly. At other places, where the river ran almost straight, its banks were uniform, and covered with tali trees, THE TRAIL-HUNTER. 21 round which creepers had twined, and then struck root in the ground again, thus forming the most inextricable con- fusion. Here and there small clearings or marshy spots might be detected in the midst of the dense wood, often piled up with trees that had died of old age. Further on, other trees, which seemed still young, judging from their color and the solidity of their bark, fell into dust with the slightest breath of wind. At times, the earth, entirely under- mined beneath, drawn down by its own weight, dragged with it the wood which it bore, and produced a crashing,.' con- fused sound, which was returned on all sides by the echo, and possessed a cer- tain degree of grandeur in this desert, whose depths no man has ever yet ven- tured to scrutinise. Still the stranger galloped on, with his eye ardently fixed before him, and not appearing to see anything. Several hpurs passed thus : the horseman buried himself deeper in the forest. He had left the banks of the river, and only progressed with extreme difficulty, through the entanglement of branches, grass, and shrubs, which at every step arrested his movements, and forced him to make innumerable turnings. He merely reined in his horse now and then, took a glance at the sky, and then started again, muttering to himself but one word : " Adelante ! (Forward !)" At length he stopped in a vast clear- ing, took a suspicious glance around him, and probably reassured by the leaden silence which weighed on the desert, he dismounted, hobbled his horse, and todk off its bridle that it might browse on the young tree-shoots. This duty accomplished, he carelessly lay down on the ground, rolled a maize cigarette in his fingers, produced a gold meckero from his waist-belt, and struck a light. The clearing was of considerable ex- tent. On one side the eye could survey with ease, through the trees, the widely- extending prairie, on which deer were browsing with security. On the other side, the forest, wilder than ever, seemed, on the contrary, an impassable wall of verdure. All was abrupt and primitive at this spot, which the foot of man had so rarely trodden. Certain trees, either entirely or partially dried up, offered the vigorous remains of a rich and fertile soil ; others, equally ancient, were sustained by the twisted creepers, which in the course of time almost equalled their original support in size : the diversity of the leaves pro- duced the strangest possible mixture. Others, containing in their hollow trunk a manure which, formed of the remains of their leaves and half-dead branches, had warmed the seeds they had let fall, and offered, in the young shoots they contained, some compensation for the loss of their father tree. In the prairies, nature, ever provi- dent, seems to have been desirous to shelter from the insults of time certain old trees, patriarchs of the forest which are crushed beneath the weight of ages, by forming them a cloak of greyish moss, which hangs in festoons from the highest branches to the ground, assum- ing the wildest and most fantastic shapes. The stranger, lying on his back, with his head resting on his two crossed hands, was smoking with that beatitude, full of ese and sloth, which is peculiar to the Hispano-Americans. He only interrupted this gentle occupation to roll a fresh cigarette and cast a glance around, while muttering: " Hum ! he keeps me waiting a long time.'' He emitted a puff of bluish smoke, and resumed his first position. Several hours passed thus. Suddenly, a rather loud rustling was heard in the thicket, some distance behind the stranger. " Ah, ah !" he said, " I fancy my man is coming at last." In the meanwhile, the sound became louder, and rapidly approached. " Come on, hang it !" the horseman shouted, as he rose. " By our Lady of Pilar ! you have surely been keeping me waiting long enough." Nothing appeared : the clearing was still deserted, although the sound had attained a certain degree of intensity. The stranger, surprised at the obstinate silence of the man he was addressing, and specially by his continuing not to 22 THE TRAIL-HUNTER. show himself, at length rose to see for himself the reason. At this moment, his horse pricked up its ears, snorted violently, and made a sudden effort to free itself from the lasso that held it ; but our new acquaintance rushed toward it and patted it. The horse trembled all over, and made prodigious bounds in order to escape. The stranger, more and more surprised, looked round for an explanation of these extraordinary movements, and was soon satisfied. Scarce twenty yards from him a magnificent jaguar, with a splendidly- spotted hide, was crouched on the main branch of an enormous cypress, and fixed on him two ferocious eyes, as it passed its blood-red, rugged tongue over its lips with a feline pleasure. " Ah, ah !" the stranger said to him- self in a low voice, but displaying no further excitement, " I did not expect you ; but no matter, you are welcome, comrade. Carai ! we shall have a fight for it." Without taking his eye off the jaguar, he convinced himself that his machete quitted its scabbard readily, picked up his rifle, and, after these precautions were taken, he advanced resolutely to- ward the ferocious brute, which saw him coming without changing its position. On arriving within ten yards of the jaguar, the stranger threw away the cigarette he had till now held between his lips, shouldered his rifle, and put his finger on the trigger. The jaguar drew itself together and prepared to leap for- ward. At the same moment a hoarse yell was heard from the opposite side of the clearing. " Wait a minute," the stranger said to himself with a smile; "it seems there are two of them, and I fancied I had to do with a bachelor jaguar. This is beginning to grow interesting." And he threw a glance on one side. He had not deceived himself: a second jaguar, rather larger than the first, had fixed its flashing eyes upon him. CHAPTER II. THE CONTEST. THE dwellers on the Mexican frontiers are accustomed to fight continually with wild animals, both men and brutes, that continually attack them. Hence the stranger was but slightly affected Hy he unexpected visit of the two jaguars. Although his position between his two ferocious enemies was somewhat pre- carious, and he did not at all conceal from himself the danger he ran alone against two,'he did not the less resolve to confront them bravely. Not taking bis eye off the jaguar he had first seen, be went back a few steps obliquely, so as to have his foes nearly opposite him, instead of standing between them. This manoeuvre, which demanded some little time, succeeded beyond his hopes. The jaguars watched him, licking their lips, and passing their paws behind their -ears with those graceful movements peculiar to the feline race. The two wild beasts, certain of their prey, seemed to be play- ing with it and not over eager to pounce on it. While keeping his eye on the watch, the Mexican did not yield to any treach- erous feeling of security : he knew that the struggle he was about to undertake was a supreme one, and he took his precautions. Jaguars never attack a man unless forced by necessity ; and the latter tried, before- all, to seize the horse. The noble animal, securely fastened by its master, exhausted itself in efforts to break the bonds that held it, and escape. It trembled with terror on scenting its ferocious enemies. The stranger, when his precautions were completely taken, shouldered his rifle for the second time. At this mo- ment the jaguars raised their heads, while laying back their ears and snuffing anxiously. An almost imperceptible sound was audible in the bushes. " Who goes there ?" the Mexican asked in a loud voice. " A friend, Don Miguel Zarate," was the reply. " Ah ! it is Don Valentine," the Mex- ican continued. " You have arrived just in time to see some fine sport," THE TRAIL-HUNTER.' 23 " Ah, ah !" the man who had already spoken went on. " Can I help you ? "It is useless; but make haste if you want to see." The branches were sharply drawn aside, and two men appear in the clear ing. At the sight of the jaguars they stopped, not through alarm, for they quietly placed the butts of their rifles on the ground, but in order to give the hunter every facility to emerge victori ously from his rash combat. The jaguars seemed to comprehend that the moment for action had arrived As if by one accord, they drew them- selves up and bounded on their enemy. The first, struck in its leap by a bullet which passed through its right eye, rolled on the ground, where, it remained motionless. The second was received on the point of the hunter's machete, who after discharging his rifle, had fallen on his knee, with his left arm folded in his blanket in front, and the machete in the other hand. The man and the tiger writhed together in a deadly embrace, and after a few seconds only one of the adversaries rose: it was the man. The tiger was dead : the hunter's machete, guided by a firm hand, had passed right through its heart. During this rapid fight the new comers had not made a sign, but re- mained stoical spectators of all that was taking place. The Mexican rose, thrust his machete in the grass to clean the blade, and turning coldly to the strangers, said : " What do you say to that T' "Splendidly played," the first an- swered ; " it is one of the best double strokes I ever saw in my life." The two men threw their rifles on their shoulders, and walked up to the Mexican, who reloaded his piece with as much coolness and tranquillity as if he had not just escaped from a terrible danger by a miracle of skill. The sun was sinking on the horizon, the shadow of the trees assumed a pro- digious length, and the luminary ap- peared like a ball of fire amid the limpid azure of the heavens. The night would soon arrive, and the desert was awak- ing. On all sides could be heard, in the gloomy and mysterious depths of the virgin forest, the hoarse howling of the coyotes and the other wild beasts, mingled with the song of the birds perched on all the branches. The desert, silent and gloomy during the oppressive heat of the day, emerged from its un- healthy torpor on the approach of dark, and was preparing to resume its noc- turnal sports. The three men in the clearing col- lected dried branches, made a pile of them and set fire to it. They doubt- lessly intended to camp for a portion of the night at this spot. So soon as the flames rose joyously skyward in long spirals, the two strangers produced from their game-bags maize tortillas, jerked meat, and a gourd of pulque. These various comestibles were com- placently spread out on the grass, and the three men began a hunter's meal. When the gourd had gone the round several times, and the tortillas had dis- appeared, the new comers lit their In- dian pipes, and the Mexican rolled a papelito. Although this meal had been short, it lasted, however, long enough for night to have completely set in ere it was ended. Perfect darkness brooded over the clearing, the ruddy reflections of the fire played on the energetic faces of the three men, and give them a fan- tastic appearance. " And now," the Mexican said, after ighting his cigarette, " I will, with your permission, explain to you why I was so anxious to see you." " One moment," one of the hunters answered. "You know that in the deserts the leaves have often eyes, and ;he trees ears. If I am not mistaken n your hints, you invited us here that >ur interview might be secret." " In truth, I have the greatest interest n nothing of what is said here being >verheard, or even suspected." "Very good. Curumilla, to work." The second hunter rose, seized his ifle and disappeared noiselessly in the jloom. His absence was rather long ; )ut as long as it lasted, the two men eft at the fire did not exchange a sylla- >le. In about half an hour the hunter eturned, however, and seated himself )Y his comrades' side. 24 THE TRAIL-HUNTER. " Well r the one who had sent him off asked him. " My brother can speak," he repliec laconically ; " the desert is quiet." On this assurance the three men banished all anxiety. Still prudence did not abandoned them : they took up their pipes, and turned their backs to ^the fire, so that they might watch the neighborhood while conversing. " We are ready to listen to you," the first hunter said. " Listen to me with the greatest at- tention," the Mexican began ; "what you are about to hear is of the utmost im- portance." The two men bowed silently, and the Mexican prepared to speak again. Before going further we must intro- duce to the reader the two men we have just brought on the stage, and go back a few paces in order to make it perfectly understood why Don Miguel Zarate, in lieu of receiving them at his own house, had given them the meeting in the heart of the virgin forest. The two hunters seemed at the first glance to be Indians ; but on examin- ing them more attentively, you could recognize that one of them belonged to those white trappers whose boldness has become proverbial in Mexico. Their appearance and equipment offered a singular medley of savage and civilized life. Their hair was of a remarkable length ; for in those countries, where a man is frequently only fought for the glory of lifting his scalp, it is consider- ed the thing to wear it long and easy to seize. The hunters had their hair neatly plaited, and intertwined with beaver skins and bright colored ribbons. The rest of their garb harmonized with this specimen of their taste. A hunting shirt of bright red calico fell down to their knees; gaiters decorated with woolen ribbons and bells surrounded their legs ; and their feet were shod with moccasins embroidered with beads which the squaws know so well how to make. A striped blanket, fastened round the hips by a belt of tanned deer- hide, completed their clothing, but was not so closely drawn that at their every rn.ovem.ent the butt of the pistols and the hilt of the machetes might be seen glistening. As for their rifles, useless at this moment, and carelessly thrown on the ground by their side, if they had been stripped of the plume- worked elk- skin that covered them, it would have been possible to see, with what caro their owners had decorated them with copper nails painted of various colors ; for all about these two men bore the imprint of Indian habits. The first of the two hunters was a man of thirty-eight at the most, tall and well-built ; his muscular limbs de- noted great bodily strength, allied to unequalled lightness. Although he af- fected all the manners of the redskins, it was an easy matter to perceive that he not only belonged to the unmixed white race, but also to the Norman or Gaulish type. He was fair ; his large, blue and pensive eyes, adorned with long lashes, had an expression of unde- finable sadness : his nose was slightly aquiline ; his mouth large, and filled with teeth of dazzling whiteness ; a thick chesnut beard covered the lower part of his face, which revealed gentle- ness, kindness, and courage without boasting, though the whole were com- bined with a will of iron. His companion evidently belonged to the Indian race, all the characteristic signs of which he displayed; but, strange to say, he was not coppery like the American aborigines of Texas and North America ; and his skin was orown and slightly of an olive hue. He had a lofty brow, a bent nose, small but piercing eyes, a large mouth and square chin ; in short, he presented the com- plete type of the American race, which nhabits a limited territory in the South of Chili. This hunter had round his brow a purple-colored fillet, in which was thrust over the right ear a plume f the Andes Eagle, a sign which serves -o distinguish the chiefs of the Aucas. These two men, whom the reader las doubtless already recognized, as hey played an important part in our >reviously published works*, were Val- entine Guillois, an ex-noncommissioned fficer in the Spahis, and Curumilla, * " The Chief of the Aucas," " The Tiger Slayer" The Gold Finders," " The Indian Chief." THE TRAIL-HUNTER. 25 his friend Ulmen f the Great Hare tribe. We will introduce a parenthesis to explain their present position, and which is indispensable for a right under- standing of what follows. The moment is capitally selected, by the way, for opening this parenthesis ; for the three hunters are gaily talking round their fire, the night is gloomy, the forest quiet, and it does not appear likely that anything will arise to disturb them. CHAPTER III. DON MIGUEL ZARATE. WERE Mexico better governed, it would be, without coritradiction, one of the richest countries on the face of the globe. Indeed the largest private for- tunes must still be sought in that coun- try. Since the United States Ameri- cans have revealed to the world, by seizing one-half of Mexico, whither their ambition tends, the inhabitants of that fine country have slightly emerged from the torpor they enjoyed, and have made great efforts to colonise their pro- vinces, and summon to their soil, which is so rich and fertile, intelligent and in- dustrious laborers, who might change the face of affairs, and cause abundance and wealth to abound at spots, where, prior to their arrival, there was naught save ruin, desolation, carelessness, and misery. Unfortunately, the noble efforts made up to the present day have, through an inexplicable fatality, remained without result, either owing to the natural apa- thy of the inhabitants, or the fault of the Mexican Government itself. Still the large land-owners, comprehending all the advantages of the proposed mea- sure, and how much it is to their inter- est to combat the deadly influence of the American invasions, have generous- ly devoted themselves to the realiza- tion cf this great question of social econ- omy, which, unluckily is growing more and more unrealisable. In fact, in Northern America two hostile races the Anglo-Saxon and the Spanish stand face to face. The An- glo-Saxons are devoured by an ardor for conquest, and a rage for invasion, which nothing can arrest, or even re- tard. It is impossible to see without amazement the expansive tendencies of this active and singular people, a hete- rogeneous composite of all the races which misery or evil instincts expelled from Europe originally, and which feels restricted in the immense territory which its numerical weakness yet pre- vents it entirely occupying. Imprisoned within its vast frontiers, making a right of strength, it is contin- ually displacing its neighbors' land- marks, and encroaching on territory of which it can make no use. Daily, bands of emigrants abandon their dwell- ings, and with their rifles on their shoul- ders, their axes in their hand, they pro- ceed south, as if impelled by a will stronger than themselves; and neither mountains, deserts, nor virgin forests are sufficient obstacles to make them halt even for an instant. The Yankees imagine themselves generally the in- struments of Providence, and appointed by the decrees of the Omnipotent to people and civilize the New World. They count with feverish impatience the hours which must elapse ere the day (close at hand in their ideas) ar- rive in which their race and govern- ' ment system will occupy the entire space contained between Cape North and the Isthmus of Panama, to the ex- clusion of the Spanish republics on one side, and the English colonies on the other. These projects, of which the Americans make no mystery, but, on the contrary, openly boast, are perfect- ly well known to the Mexicans, who cordially detest their neighbors, and employ all the means in their power to create difficulties for them, and impede their successive encroachments. Among the New Mexican land-own- ers who resolved to make sacrifices in order to stop, or at least check, the im- minent invasion from North America, the richest, and possibly, first of all, through his intelligence and the in- fluence he justly enjoyed in the coun- try, was Don Mi Zarate. Miguel Acamarichtzin 26 THE TRAIL-HUNTER. Whatever may be asserted, the In- dian population of Mexico is nearly double in number to the white men, and possesses an enormous influence. Don Miguel descended in a straight line from Acamarichtzin, first king of Mexico, whose name had been preserved in the family as a precious relic. Possessed of an incalculable fortune, Don Miguel lived on his enormous estates like a king in his empire, beloved and respect- ed by the Indians, whom he effectively protected whenever the occasion pres- ented itself, and who felt for him a veneration carried almost to idolatry ; for they saw in him the descendant from one of their most celebrated kings, and the born defender of their race. In New Mexico the Indian population has very largely increased during the past fifty years. Some authors, indeed, assert that it is now more numerous than prior to the conquest, which is very probable, through the apathy of the Spaniards, and the carelessness they have ever displayed in their struggles against it. But the Indians have re- mained stationary amid the incessant progress of civilization, and still retain intact the principal traits of their old manners. Scattered here and there in miserable ranches or villages, they live * in separate tribes, governed by their caciques, and they have mingled but very few Spanish words with their idioms, which they speak as in the time of the Aztecs. The sole apparent change in them is their conversion to Catholicism a conversion more than problematical, as they preserve with the utmost care all the recollections of their ancient religion, follow its rites in se- cret, and keep up all its superstitious practices. The Indians above all, in New Mex- ico although called Indios fideles, are always ready on the first opportunity to ally themselves with their desert congeners ; and in the incursions of the Apaches and Comanches it is rare for the faithful Indians not to serve them as scouts, guides, and spies. The family of Don Miguel Zarate had retired to New Mexico, which coun- try it did not leave again a few years after the conquests of the adventurer Cortez. Don Miguel had closely fol- lowed the policy of his family by main- taining the bonds of friendship and good neighborhood which, from time immemorial, attached it to the Indians, believers or not. This policy had borne its fruit. Annually, in Septem- ber, when the terrible red warriors, preceded by murder and arson, rushed like a torrent on the wretched inhabit- ants, whom they massacred in the farms they plundered, without pity of age or or sex, Don Miguel Zarate's es- tates were respected ; and not merely was no damage inflicted on them, but even if at times a field were unwitting- ly trampled by the horses' hoofs, or a few trees destroyed by plunderers, the evil was immediately repaired ere the owner had opportunity for complaint. This conduct of the Indians had not failed to arouse against Don Miguel ex- treme jealousy on the part of the in- habitants, who saw themselves period- ically ruined by the Indios JBravos. Earnest complaints had been laid against him before the Mexican Gov- ernment; but whatever might be the power of his enemies, and the means they employed to ruin him, the rich haciendero had never been seriously disturbed : in the first place, because New Mexico is too remote from the cap- ital for the inhabitants to have anything to fear from the governing classes ; and secondly, Don Miguel was too rich not to render it easy for him to impose si- lence on those who were most disposed to injure him. Don Miguel, whose portrait we drew in a previous chapter, was left a widow- er after eight years' marriage, with two children, a boy and a girl, the son being twenty-four, the daughter seven- teen, at the period when our story opens. Dona Clara such was the daughter's name was one of the most delicious maidens that can be imagined. She had one of those Murillo's virgin heads, whose black eyes, fringed with long silky lashes, pure mouth, and dreamy brow seem to promise divine joys. Her complexion, slightly bronz- ed by the warm sunbeams, wore that gilded reflection which so well becomes the women of these intertropical coun- THE TRAIL-HUNTER. 27 tries. She was short of stature, but exquisitely modelled. Gentle and sim- ple, ignorant as a Creole, this delicious child was adored by her father, who saw in her the wife he had so loved liv- ing once more. The Indians looked af- ter her when she at times passed pen- sively, plucking a flower before their wretched huts, and scarce bending the >lants on which she placed her delicate uot. In their hearts they compared this frail maiden, with her soft and va- porous outline, to the " virgin of the first loves," that sublime creation of the Indian religion which holds so great a place in the Aztec mythology. Don Pablo Zarate, the haciendero's son, was a powerfully-built man, with harshly-marked features, and a haughty glance, although at times it was imprint- ed with gentleness and kindness. En- dowed with more than ordinary strength, skilled in all bodily exercises, Don Pablo was renowned through the whole country for his talent in taming the most spirited horses, and -the cor- rectness of his aim when on the chase. A determined hunter and daring wood- ranger, this young man, when he had a good horse between his legs, and his rifle in his hand, knew none, man or animal, capable of barring his passage. The Indians, in their simple faith, yield- ed to the son the same respect and Veneration they entertained for the father, and fancied they saw in him the personification of Huitzilopochtli, that terrible war god of the Aztecs, to whom 6*2,000 human victims were sacrificed in one day, upon the inauguration of his teocali. The Zarates, then, at the period when our story opens, were real kings of New Mexico. The felicity they enjoyed was suddenly troubled by one of those vulgar incidents which, though unim- portant in themselves, do not fail to cause a general perturbation, and a dis- comfort possessing no apparent cause, from the fact that it is impossible to foresee or prevent them. The circum- stance was as follows : Don Miguel possessed, in the vicinity of the Paso, vast estates extending for a great distance, and consisting princi- pally of haciendas, prairies, and forests. One day Don Miguel was returning from a visit to his haciendas. It was late, and he pressed on his horse in order to reach ere night the ford, when, at about three or four leagues at the most from the spot to which he was proceeding, and just as he was entering a dense forest of cotton-wood trees, through which he must pass ere reach- ing the/ord, his attention was attracted by cries mingled with growls emerging from the wood he was about to enter. The haciendero stopped in order to ac- count for the unusual sounds he heard, and bent his head forward to detect what was happening. But it was im- possible for him to distinguish anything through the chaos of creepers and shrubs which intercepted vision. In the mean- while, the noise grew louder, and the shouts were redoubled, and mingled with oaths and passionate exclamations. The Mexican's horse laid back its ears, neighed, and refused to advance. Still Don Miguel must make up his mind. Thinking that a man was pro- bably attacked by wild beasts, he only consulted his heart; and, in spite of the J visible repugnance of his steed, he com- pelled it to go forward and enter the wood. He had scarce gone a few yards ere he stopped in amazement at the strange spectacle that presented itself to him. CHAPTER IV. THE PECCARIS. IN the middle of the clearing lay a ripped-up horse, which six or eight pec- caris were rending, while a dozen others were attacking with their tusks the stem of an enormous tree, in the topmost branches of which a man had sought shelter. Let us explain to our readers, who probably know little about them, what sort of animals the peccaris are. The peccaris hold the intermediate grade between the domestic pig and the wild boar. Although this animal does not exceed two feet in height, and is not more than three feet long from the end of the snout to the beginning of the 28 THE TRATL-HUNTEB. tail, it is indubitably one of the most dangerous animals in North America. The animal's jaw is provided with tusks rather like those of the boar, but straight and sharp, their length varying between four and six inches. In the shape of the body it resembles a pig, but the bristles scattered over its warty hide are in colored strips; the part nearest the skin is white, and the point of a chocolate tinge. So, soon as the animal is enraged, these bristles stand out like the quills of a porcupine. The movements of the peccaris are as quick and sharp as those of a squir- rel. They ordinarily live in herds of fifteen, thirty, and even fifty. The strength of the head, neck, and shoul- ders is so great when they charge, that nothing can resist the impetuosity of their attacks. A remarkable peculia- rity of this genus is the clumsy wart they have on their backs, whence a musty fluid evaporates when the animal is in a fury. The peccari lives in preference on acorns, roots, wheat, sugar cane, and reptiles of every description. It is a proved fact that the most venomous serpents are devoured by them without their feeling in the slightest degree in- commoded. The mode in which the peccari forms its lair is very singular. This lair is generally in the midst of tufted and impenetrable canes, found in marshy spots round the monarchs of the forest, which still stand like crushed giants, with their grappling lines of creepers and virgin vines. The trunks of these trees, which at times measure forty feet in circumference, are nearly all hollow, and thus afford a convenient shelter for the peccaris, which retire to them every night in herds of twenty to twenty-five, entering the cavity one after the other backwards ; so that the last has the end of its snout placed just at the entrance of the hole, thus watching, as it were, over the rest of its companions. The peccaris are unboundedly fero- cious : they know not danger, or at least despise it completely. They al- ways attack in herds, and fight with un- equalled rago until the last succumbs, no matter the nature of their foe. Hence men and animals all fly a meet- ing with these terrible beasts : the jaguar, so strong and redoubtable, will become their prey if it be so imprudent as to attack them. This is the way they set about conquering this wild beast : When a jaguar has wounded a pec- cari, the latter collect, chase it, and pur- sue until they can contrive to sumTund the common enemy. When every issue is closed, the jaguar, believing it can thus escape, seeks refuge up a tree. But the peccaris do not resign the ven- geance ; they establish themselves at the foot of the tree, being incessantly recruited by fresh allies, and patiently waiting till the jaguar, driven to extre- mities by hunger and thirst, decides on descending from its improvised fortress. This is almost always sure to happen at the end of two or three days at the most. The jaguar bounds into the midst of its enemies, which boldly await it, and attack it bravely ; a ter- rible fight commences ; and the tiger, after covering the ground with victims, at length succumbs beneath the efforts of its assailants, and is ripped up by their tusks. After what we have said, it is easy to understand how precarious was the position of the man perched on the top of the tree, and surrounded by peccaris. His enemies seemed determined not to leave their ground ; they craftily crept round the tree, attacked its base with their tusks, and then recognizing the inutility of their onsets, they quietly lay down by the carcass of the horse, which they had already sacrificed to their fury. Don Miguel fell moved to pity for the poor fellow, whose position grew momentarily more critical ; but in vain did he rack his brains how to help the unhappy man whose destruc- tion was assured. To attack the peccaris would have been extreme imprudence, and have produced no other result than that of turning on himself the fury of the ani- mals, while not saving the man he wish- ed to help. Still time pressed. What was to be done ? How, without sacri- ficing himself, save the man who ran so great a risk 1 THE TRAIL-HUNTER. The Mexican hesitated for a long period. Jt seemed to Don Migiu-1 im- possible to leave, without help, this mini whose death was certain. This idea, which presented itself to his mind sev- eral times, he had energetically repuls- ed, so monstrous did it appear to him. At length he resolved at all risks to at- tempt impossibilities in favor* of this stranger, of whose death he would have eventually accused himself had he left him to perish in the desert. The stranger's position was the more critical because, in his haste to defend himself from the attacks of his ene- mies, he had left his rifle fall at the foot of the tree, and was consequently un* able to reduce the number of the pec- caris. In spite of their fineness of scent, the latter had not noticed Don Miguel's approach, who, by a providential acci- dent, had entered the wood on the side opposite the M'ind. The Mexican dis- mounted with a sigh, patted his horse, and then took off its accoutrements. The noble animal, habituated toils mas- ter's caresses, shook his head joyously, and fixed its large intelligent eyes on him. Don Miguel could not repress another sigh : a tear fell down on his bronzed cheeks. On the point of ac- complishing the sacrifice, he hesitated. It was a faithful companion, almost a friend, he was about to separate from ; but the life of a man was at stuke. The Mexican drove back the feelings that agitated him, and his resolution was formed. He passed a lasso round his horse's neck, and, in spite of its ob- stinate resistance, compelled it to ad- vance to the entrance of the clearing in which the peccaris were assembled. A frail curtain of creepers and leaves alone hid it from their sight. On ar- riving here Don Miguel stopped: he had one more moment's hesitation, but 'only one; for then seizing a piece ol tinder, which he lighted, he thrust it into the poor animal's ear while caress ing it. The effect was sudden and terrible The horse uttered a snort of pain ; anc rendered mad by the burning, boundec forward into the clearing, striving in vain to get rid of the tinder which caused it intolerable suffering. Dor 2 [iguel had smartly leaped aside, ami io\v followed with an anxious gfance he result of the terrible tentative he lad just made to save the stranger. (Jn seeing the horse appear suddenly in heir midst, the peccaris rose, formed a jornpact group and rushed with their leads down in pursuit of the horse, hinking no longer of the man. The uiiinal, spurred on still more by the ight of its ferocious enemies, shot ihead with the speed of an arrow, >reaking down with its chest all the ob- tacles in its way, and followed closely y the peccaris. The man saved ; but at what a price ! )on Miguel repressed a last sigh of re- gret, and leaped into the clearing. The tranger had already descended from the ree ; but the emotion he had undergone rvas so extreme, that he remained seat- d on the ground, almost in a state of unconsciousness. " Quick, quick !" Don Miguel said o him sharply. " We have not a mo- nent to lose : the peccaris may alter ,heir minds and return." " That is true," the stranger muttered n a hollow voice, as he cast a terrified glance around. " Let us be off off at once." He made an effort over himself, seized his rifle, and rose. Through a presentiment for which he could not account to himself, Don Miguel experi- enced at the sight of this man, whom he had hitherto scarce looked at, a feel- ing of invincible doubt and disgust. Owing to the life he was obliged to lead on these frontiers, frequented by people of every description, the hacien- dero had been often brought into rela- tion with trappers and hunters whose faces were no recommendation to them ; but never ere now had chance brought him in contact with an individual of such sinister appearance as this one. Still he did not allow his feelings to be seen through, and invited this man to follow him. The latter did not let the invitation be repeated ; for he was anxious to escape from the spot where he had been so near death. Thanks to the Mexican's acquaintance with the country, the wood was speedily travers- ed, and the two men, after a walk of 30 THE TRAIL-HUNTER. scarce an hour's duration, reached the banks of the Del Norte, just opposite the village. Their speed had been so great, their anxiety so serious, that they had not exchanged a syllable, sc terrified were they of seeing thepeccaris appear at any moment. Fortunately this was not the case, and they reached the ford without being again disturbed. Don Miguel was burdened with hi horse's trappings, which he now threw on the ground, and looked around him in the hope of finding some one who would help him in crossing the river. His expectations were not deceived ; for just as they reached the ford an arriero was preparing to cross to the other side of the river with his recua of mules, and, with the generosity innate in all Mexicans, he offered to carry them both to the Paso. The two men eagerly accepted, each mounted a mule, and half an hour later they found themselves in safety at the village. After giving the arriero a few reals to requite him for his ser- vices, Don Miguel took up his horse's trappings again, and prepared to start. The stranger stopped. " We are about to part here, cabal- lero," he said in a rough voice, with a very marked English accent; " but be- fore leaving, let me express to you my deep gratitude for the noble and gene- rous manner in which you saved my life at the peril of your own." " Sir," the Mexican simply answered, "I only did my duty in saving you. In the desert all men are brothers, and owe each other protection. Hence do not thank me, I beg, for a very simple action : any other in my place would have a.ted as I have done." *' Perhaps so," the stranger continu- ed ; " but be kind enough, pray, to tell me your name, so that 1 may know to whom I owe rny life." " That is needless," Don Miguel said with a smile. " -Still, as I fancy you are a stranger in these parts, let me give you a piece of advice." " What is it, sir'?" " Never in future to attack the pec- caris. They are terrible enemies, only to be conquered by a strong body of men; and an individual in attacking them commits an unpardonable folly, to which he must fall a victim." " Be assured, sir, that I shall profit by the lesson I have received this day, and shall never put myself in such a wasps' nest again. I was too near pay- ing dearly for my imprudence. But I b p g y ou > sir? do not let us separate ere 1 know the name of my preserver." " As you insist, sir, you shall learn it. I am Don Miguel de Zarate." . The stranger took a peculiar glance at the speaker, while repressing a move- ment of surprise. " Ah !" he said in a singular tone, " Thanks, Don Miguel Zarate. With- out knowing you personally, I was al- ready acquainted with your name." " That is possible," the haciendero answered ; " for I am well known in this country, where my family has been established for many a long year." " 1, sir, am the man whom the In- dians call Witehasta Joute, the Man- eater, and the hunters, my companions, Red Cedar." And after lifting his hand to his cap in salute, this man threw his rifle on his shoulder, turned on his heel, find went off at full speed. Don Miguel looked after him for a while, and then walked pensively to- ward the house he inhabited at el Paso. The haciendero did not suspect that lie had sacrificed his favorite horse to save the life of his most implacable enemy. CHAPTER V. THE WOUND. AT sunrise, Don Miguel, mounted on an excellent horse, left the Paso, and proceeded toward the hacienda where he resided with his family. It was situated a few miles from the Presidio of San Elezario, in a delicious position, and was known as the Hacien- ia de la Noria (the Farm of the Well). The estate inhabited by Don Miguel stood in the centre of the vast delta brmed by the Del Norte and the Rio San Pedro, or Devil's River. It was one of those strong and massive build- THE TRAIL-HUNTER. 3J ings which the Spaniards alone knew how to erect when they were absolute masters of Mexico. The hacienda formed a vast parellel- ognun, supported at regular distances by enormous cross walls of carved stone. Like all the frontier habita- tions, which are rather fortresses than houses, it was only pierced on the side of the plain with a few narrow windows resembling loopholes, and protected by solid iron bars. This abode was be- girt by a thick wall of circumvallation, defended on the top by that fretwork called almenas, which indicated the no- bility of the owner. Within this wall, but separated from the chief apartments, were the stables, outhouses, barns and cabins for the peons. At the extremity of the courtyard, in an angle of the hacienda, was the tall square belfry of the chapel, rising above its terraced roof. This chapel was served by a monk called Fray Ambrosio. A magnificent plain closed in this splendid farm. At the end of a valley more than fifty miles in length were cactus trees of a conical shape, loaded with fruit and flowers, and whose sterns were as much as six feet in dia- meter. Don Miguel employed a considerable number of peons in the cultivation of the sugar cane, which he carried on upon a very large scale. As everybody knows, the cane is planted by laying it horizontally in furrows half a foot deep. From each knot springs a shoot which reaches a height of about three yards, and which is cut at the end of a year to extract the juice. Nothing can be more picturesque than the sight of a field of sugar canes. It was one of those superb American mornings during which nature seems to be holding a festival. The centzontle (American nightingale) frequently pour- ed forth its harmonious notes ; the red throstled cardinals, the blue birds, the parroquets, chattered gaily beneath the foliage ; far away on the plain galloped flocks of light antelopes and timid ashatas, while on the extreme verge of the horizon rushed startled manadas of wild horses, which raised clouds of im- palpable dust beneath the vibration of their rapid hoofs. A few alligators, carelessly stretched out on the river mud, were drying their scales in the sun, and in mid air the grand eagles of the Sierra Madre hovered majestically above the valley. Don Miguel advanced rapidly at the favorite pace of the Mexican ginetas, and which consists in making the horse raise its front legs, while the hind ones almost graze the ground a peculiar sort of amble which is very gentle and rapid. The haciendero only employed four hours in traversing the distance separat- ing him from the hacienda, where he arrived about nine in the morning. He was received on the threshold of the house by his daughter, who, warned of his arrival, had hastened to meet him. Don Miguel had been absent from home a fortnight; hence, he received his daughter's caresses with the greatest pleasure. When he had embraced her several times, while continuing to holii her tightly clasped in his arms, he re garded her attentively during several seconds. " What is the matter, mi querida Clara 1 ?" he asked with sympathy, " You seem very sad. Can you feel vex- ed at the sight of me 7" he added, with a smile. " Oh, you cannot believe that, father !" she answered quickly ; " for you know how happy your presence must render me." " Thanks, my child ! But whence, in that case, comes the sorrow I see spread over your features 7" The maiden let her eyes sink, but made no reply. Don Miguel threw a searching glance around. "Where is Don Pablo?" he said. " Why has he not come to greet me ? Can he be away from the hacienda 7" " No, father, he is here." " Well, then, what is the reason he is not by your side 7" "Because " the girl said, with hesitation. " Well 7" He is ill." 82 THE TRAIL-HUNTER. " My son ill !" Don Miguel exclaimed " I am wrong," Dona Clara correctec herself. " Explain yourself, in Heaven name !" " My father, the fact is that Pablo is wounded." " Wounded !" the haciendero sharply said ; and thrusting his daughter aside he rushed toward the house, boundec up the few steps leading to the porch, crossed several rooms without stopping and reached his son's chamber. The young man was lying, weak and faint, on his bed ; but on perceiving his parent he smiled, and held his hand to him. Don Miguel was fondly attached to his son, his sole heir, and walked up to him. " What is this wound of which I have heard ?" he asked him in great agitation. " Less than nothing, father," the young man replied, exchanging a mean- ing-glance with his sister, who entered at the moment. " Clara is a foolish girl, who, in her tenderness, wrongly alarmed you." " But, after all, you are wounded T' the father continued. " But I repeat that it is a mere noth- ing/' " Come, explain yourself. How and when did you receive this wound ?" The young man blushed, and main- tained silence. " I insist on knowing," Don Miguel continued pressingly. " Good heavens, father !" Don Pablo replied with an air of ill-humor, " I do not understand why you are alarmed for so futile a cause. I am not a child, whom a scratch should make frighten- ed ; and many times have I been wounded previously, and you have not disturbed yourself so much." " That is possible ; but the mode in which you answer me, the care you seem trying to take to keep me igno- rant of the cause of this wound in a word, everything tells me that this time you are trying to hide something grave from me. " " You are mistaken, father, and shall convince yourself." "I wish nothing more: speak. Clara, iny child, go and give orders to have breakfast prepared, for I am dyiny those around us, said, 'Don Pablo, I ancy you would give half an ounce to he man who brought you important lews ?' ' That depends/ I answered ; or, having known the man a long time, was aware much confidence could not >e placed in him. ' Bah ! your grace s so rich,' he continued insidiously, that a miserable sum like that is less han nothing in his pocket, while in nine it would do me a deal of good.' " Apart from his defects, this scamp ad at times done us a few small ser- ices ; and then, as he said, a half- unce is but a trifle, so I gave it to him. le stowed it away in his pockets, and ben bent down to my ear. * Thanks, Don Pablo,' he said to me. * I shall THE TRAIL-HUNTER. not cheat you of your money. Your horse is rested, and can stand a long journey. Proceed to Buffalo Valley, and there you will learn something to interest you.' It was in vain that I urged him to explain himself more clearly ; I could draw no more from him. He merely added before parting from me, * Don Pablo, you have good weapons; so take them with you, for no man knoweth what may happen.' Somehow the scamp's veiled confidence aroused my curiosity : hence I resolved to go to Buffalo Valley, and gain the clue of this riddle." "Andres Garote is a villain, who laid a snare for you, into which you fell," Don Miguel interrupted. " No, father, you are mistaken. Andres was honest towards me, and I have only thanks to give him. Still he should have explained himself, perhaps, more distinctly." The haciendero shook his head with a doubting air. " Go on," he said. " 1 entered my house, procured the weapons, and then, mounted on Negro, my black charger, I proceeded toward Buffalo Valley. As you are aware, father, the place we call so, and which belongs to us, is an immense forest of cedars and maples, nearly forty miles in circumference, and traversed almost through its entire length by a wide con- fluent of the Rio San Pedro." "Of course I know it, and I intend next year to fell some of the wood there." " You need not take the trouble," the young man said with a smile, " for some one has done it for you." " What do you mean ?" the hacien- dero asked wrathfully. " Who dared ?" " Oh ! one of those wretched heretic squatters, as they call themselves. The villain found the spot to suit him, and has quietly settled there with his three whelps three big fellows with hang-do faces, who laughed at me when 1 tol them the forest was mine, and answered, while aiming at me, that they were North Americans, who cared as little for me as they did for a coyote ; that the ground belonged to the first comei ; and that I shall afford them lively pleas- ure by being off at full speed. What more shall I tell you, father 1 ? I take after you. I have hot blood, and I cor- dially hate that race of Yankee pirate?, who, for some years back, have settled on our lovely country like a swarm of musquitos. 1 saw our forest plundered, our finest trees cut down. I could not remain unmoved in the presence of these scoundels' insolence, and the quar- rel became so sharp that they fired at me." "Virgen Santissima!" Don Miguel exclaimed in fury, " they shall pay dear- ly for the affront they have offered you I swear it ! I will take exemplary vengeance." " Why be so angry, father ?" the young man replied, visibly annoyed at the effect his story had produced. "The harm these people do us is really very trifling. I was in the wrong to let my passion carry me away." " On the contrary, you were right. I will not have these Northern thieves come and commit their plunder here. I will put a stop to it." " I assure you that, if you will leave me to act, I feel certain of arranging this affair to your entire satisfaction." " I forbid you taking the slightest steps, for this matter concerns me now. Whatever may occur, I do not wish you to interfere. Will you promise me this?" " As you insist, I do so, father." " Very good. Get cured as speedily as possible, and keep your mind at rest. The Yankees shall pay me dearly for the blood they have shed." With these words Don Miguel retir- ed, and his son fell back on his bed stifling a sigh, and uttering a hoarse ex- clamation of passion. THE TRAIL-HUNTER. CHAPTER VI. THE SQUATTER'S SHANTY. DON PABLO had not told his father the facts in all their truth or detail. He had fallen into a perfect ambuscade. He was suddenly attacked by the three brothers, who would have mercilessly killed him, resolved to lay the blame of his death on the wild beasts, had not, at the moment when one of them lifted his knife on the young man, who was thrown down and rendered motionless by the others, a providential succor reached him in the person of a charm- ing maid scarce sixteen years of age. The courageous girl rushed from a copse with the rapidity of a fawn, and threw herself resolutely into the midst of the assassins. " What are you about, brother?" she exclaimed in a melodious voice, whose harmonious notes echoed amorously in Don Pablo's ears. " Why do you wish to kill this stranger ?" The three squatters, surprised by this apparition, which they were far from expecting, fell back a few paces. Don Pablo profited by this truce to jump up and regain possession of his arms, which had fallen by his side. " Was it not enough," the girl con- tinued, " to rob this man, that you must now try to take his life 1 Fie, brothers ! Do you not know that blood leaves on the hands of him who spills it stains which nothing can efface? Let this man retire in peace." The young men hesitated. Although unconsciously yielding to their sister's influence, they were ashamed of thus executing her wishes. Still they did not dare express their thoughts, and merely bent on their enemy, who awaited them with a firm foot and pistols in hand, glances laden with hatred and anger. " Ellen is right," the youngest of her brothers suddenly said. " No, I will not allow any harm to be done the stranger." The others looked at him savagely. " You would defend him, if necessa- sary, I suppose, Shaw ?" Nathan said to him ironically. " Why should I not, were it requir- ed ?" the young man said boldly. " Eh !" Gutter remarked with a grin, ' he is thinking of the Wood Eglan- * : ne." This word had been scarce uttered ere Shaw, with purpled face, contracted Matures, and eyes injected with blood, rushed with uplifted knife on his broth- r, who awaited him firmly. The girl dashed between them. " Peace, peace !" she shrieked in a piercing voice, "do brothers dare threaten one another ?" The two young fellows remained mo- tionless, but watching and ready to strike in a moment. Don Pablo fixed an ardent glance on the girl, who was really admirable at this moment. With her features ani- mated by anger, her head erect, and her arms stretched out between the two men, she bore a startling- likeness to those Druidesses who in olden times summoned the warriors to combat be- neath the forests of Germany. Iii her whole person she offered the complete type of the gentle Northern woman. Her hair light and golden like ripe corn ; her eyes of extreme purity, which reflected the azure of the sky ; her earnest mouth, with rosy lips and pearly teeth; her flexible and small waist; the whiteness of her complex- ion, whose delicate and transparent skin still bore the flush of adolescence all was combined in this charming maiden to render her the most seduc- tive creature imaginable. Don Pablo, a stranger to this kind of beauty, felt himself involuntarily at- tracted toward the girl, and entirely subjugated by h^r. Forgetting the reason that had brought him to this spot, the danger he had incurred, and that which still menaced him, he was fascinated and trembling before this de- licious apparition, fearing at each in- stant to see it vanish like a vision, and not daring to turn his glance from her while he felt he had no strength left to admire her. This young creature, so frail and delicate, formed a strange contrast with the tall statures and marked features of her brothers, whose coarse and sav THE TRAIL-HUNTER. 35 age manners only served to heighten ttie elegance and charm exhaled by her whole person. Still this scene could not be prolonged, and must be ended at once. The maiden walked toward Don Pablo. ' " Sir,'' she said to him with a soft smile, " You have nothing more to fear from my brothers; you can mount /our horse again, and set out, and no >ne will'oppose your departure." The young man understood that he hud no pretext to prolong his stay at this spot; he therefore let his head sink, placed his pistols in his holsters, leaped on his horse, and set out with regret, and as slowly as possible. He had scarce gone a league when he heard the hasty clatter of a horse be- hind him. He turned back. The ap- proaching horseman was Shaw, who soon caught up with Don Pablo. The pair then proceeded some distance side by side without exchanging a syllable, and both seemed plunged in profound thought. On reaching the skirt of the forest, Shaw checked his horse, and softly laid his right hand on the Meii' can's bridle. Don Pablo also stopped on this hint, and waited, while fixing an inquiring glance on his strange com- rade. " Stranger," the young man said, " my sister sends me. She implores you, if it be possible, to keep secret what occurred between us to-day. She deeply regrets the attack to which you fell a victim, and the wound you have received ; and she will try to persuade Red Cedar, our father, to retire from your estates." "Thank your sister for me," Don Pablo answered. "Tell her that her slightest wish will ever be a command to me, and that I shall be happy to exe- cute it." " 1 will repeat your words to her." " Thanks. Render me a parting ser- vice." " Speak." " What is your sister's name?" " Ellen. She is the guardian angel of our hearth. My name is Shaw." " I am obliged to you for telling me your name, though 1 cannot guess the reason that induces you to do so." " I will tell you. I love my sister Ellen before all : she urged me to oll'.-r you my friendship. 1 obey hi-r. 1- membi-r, stranger, that Shaw is yours to the death." " I shall not forget it, though I hope never to be under the necessity of re- minding you of your words." " All the worse," the American said, with a shake of his head ; " but if at any time the opportunity offers, I will prove to you that 1 arn a man of mv word, so surely as I am a Kentuckian." And hurriedly turning his horse's head, the young man rapidly disap- peared in the windings of the forest. Buffalo Valley, illumined by the part- ing rays of the setting sun, seemed a lake of verdure to which the golden mist of night imparted magical tones. A light breeze rustled through t-he lofty crests of the cedars, catalpas, tulip and Peru trees, and agitated the grass on the banks of the Rio San Pedro. Dun. Pablo let the reins float idly on his horse's neck, and advanced dreamily through the forest, where the birds were leaping from spray to spray, eac"h saluting in its language the arrival of night. An hour later, the young man reached the hacienda ; but the wound he had re- ceived in his shoulder was more serious than was at first supposed. He was obliged, to his great regret, to keep his bed, which prevented him seeking to meet again the maiden whose image was deeply engraved on his heart. So soon as the Mexican had gone off, the squatters continued felling trees and sawing planks, and did not abandon this work till the night had grown quite black. Ellen had returned to the in- terior of the jacal, where she attended to the housekeeping duties with her mother. This jacal was a wretched hut, hastily made with branches of inter- twined trees, which trembled with every breeze, and let the sun and rain pene- trate to the interior. This cabin was divided into three compartments: the one to the right served as the bedroom of the two fe- males, while the men slept in the one to the left. The central compartment, furnished with worm-eaten benches and 36 THE TRAIL-HUNTER. a clumsily-planed table, was at once keeping-roorn and kitchen. It was late: the squatters, assembled round the fire, over which a huge pot was boiling, were silently awaiting the return of Red Cedar, who had been ab- sent since the morning. At length, a horse's hoofs sounded sharply on the detritus collected for years on the floor of the forest, the noise grew gradually nearer, the horse stopped in front of the jacal, and a man made his appearance. It was Red Cedar. The men slowly turned their heads toward him, but did not otherwise disturb themselves, or address a syllable to him. Ellen alone rose and embraced her father affectionately. The giant seized the girl in his nervous arms, raised her from the ground, and kissed her several times, saying in his rough voice, which his tenderness sensibly softened : " Good evening, my dear." Then he put her down on the ground again, and not troubling himself further about her, fell heavily on a bench near tl^e fire, and thrust his feet toward the fire. " Come, wife," he said, after the ex- piration of a moment, " the supper, in the fiend's name 1 I have a coyote's hunger." The wife did not let this be repeated. A few moments later an immense dish of frijoles, with pimento, smoked on the table, with large pots of pulque. The meal was short and silent, the four men eating with extreme rapacity. So soon as the beans had disappeared Red Cedar and his sons lit their pipes, and began smoking, while drinking large draughts of whiskey, though still not speaking. At length Red Cedar took his pipe from his lips, and hit the table sharply, while saying in a rough voice : " Come, women, decamp ! You have nothing more to do here. You are in our way, so go to the deuce !" Ellen and her mother immediately went out, and entered their separate apartment. For a few minutes they could be heard moving about, and then all became silent again. Red Cedar made -a sign, and Sutter rose and gently put his ear to the part- ing board. He listened for a few mo- ments while holding his breath, and then returned to his seat, saying laconi- cally : " They are asleep." " Quick, my whelps !" the old squat- ter said in a low voice. " We have not a minute to lose : the others are expect- ing us." A strange scene then occurred in this mean room, which was merely illu- mined by the expiring light of the hearth. The four men arose, opened a large chest, and produced from it various objects of strange shapes leg- gins, mittens, buffalo robes, collars of grizzly bear claws ; in a word, the com- plete costumes of Apache Indians. The squatters disguised -themselves as redskins ; and when they had put on their garments, which rendered it im possible to recognize them, they corn pleted the metamorphosis by painting their faces of different colors. Assuredly the traveller whom acci- dent had brought at this moment to the jacal would have fancied it inhabited by Apaches or Comanches. The garments which the squatters had taken off were locked up in the chest, of which Red Cedar took the key ; and the four men, .armed with their American rifles, left the cabin, mounted their horses, which were await- ing them ready saddled, and started at full gallop through the winding forest paths. At the moment they disappeared in the gloom Ellen stood in the doorway of the cabin, took a despairing glance in the direction where they had gone, and fell to the ground murmuring sadly : " Good Heaven ! what diabolical work are they going to perform this night?" THE TRAIL-HUNTER. 37 CHAPTER VII. THE RANGERS. ON the banks of the Rio San Pedro and on the side of a hill, stood a ranche riu composed of some ten cabins, in habited by a population of sixty per sons at the most, including men, worner and children. These people were Co- ras Indians, hunters and agriculturists belonging to the Tortoise tribe. These poor Indians lived there on terms of peace with their neighbors, under the protection of the Mexican laws. Quiet and inoffensive beings, during the near- ly twenty years they had been estab- lished at this place they had never once offered a subject of complaint to their neighbors, who, on the contrary, were glad to see them prosper, owing to their gentle and hospitable manners. Though Mexican subjects, they govern- ed themselves after their fashion, obey- ing their caciques, and regulating in the assembly of their elders all the dif- ficulties that arose in their village. On the night when we saw the squat- ters leave the cabin in disguise, some twenty individuals, armed to the teeth and clothed in strange costums, with their faces blackened so as to render them unrecognizable, were bivouacked at about two leagues from the ranche- rie, in a plain on the river's bank. Seated or lying round huge fires, they were singing, laughing, quarrelling or gambling, with multitudinous yells and oaths. Two men seated apart at the foot of an enormous cactus, were con- versing in a Low tone, while smoking their husk cigarettes. These two men, of whom we have already spoken to the reader, were Fray Ambrosio, chap- lain to the Hacienda de la Noria, and Andres Garote, the hunter. Andres was a tall, thin fellow, with a sickly and cunning face, who draped himself defiantly in his sordid rags, but whose weapons were in a perfectly good condition. Who were the men causing this dis- turbance 1 They were " rangers," but this requires explanation. Immediately after each of the differ- ent revolutions which have periodically overturned Mexico since that country so pompously declared its indepen- dence, the first care of the new president who reaches power is to dismiss the volunteers who had accideutly swollen the ranks of his army, and supplied him the means of overthrowing his pre- decessor. These volunteers, we must do them the justice of allowing, are the very scum of society, and the most de- graded class human nature produces. These sanguinary men, without reli- gion or law, who have no relations or friends, are an utter leprosy to the country. Roughly driven back into society, the new life they are forced to adopt in noVay suits their habits of murder and pillage. No longer able to wage war on their countrymen, they form free corps, and engage themselves for a certain salary, to hunt the Indios Bra- vos that is to say, the Apaches and Comanches who desolate the Mexican frontiers. In addition to this, the pa- ternal government of North America in Texas, and of Mexico in the States of the Confederation, allots them a certain sum for each Indian scalp they bring We do not fancy we are saying any- thing new in asserting that they are the scourge of the colonists and inhabitants, they plunder shamelessly in every way when they are not doing worse. The men assembled at this moment on the banks of the Rio San Pedro were preparing for a war party the name :hey give to the massacres they organize against the redskins. Toward midnight Red Cedar and his three sons reached the rangers' camp. They must have been impatiently ex- pected, for the bandits received them with marks of the greatest joy and the warmest enthusiasm. The dice, the cards, and botas of mezcal and whiskey were immediately deserted. The ran- i ers mounted their horses, and grouped round the squatters, near whom stood Fray Ambrosio and his friend Andres jarote. Red Cedar took a glance round the mob, and could not repress a smile of >ride at the sight of the rich collection of bandits of every description whom 38 THE TRAIL-HUNTER. he had around him, and who recognised him as chief. He extended his arm to command peace. When all were silent the giant took the word. " JSenores caballeros," he said, in a powerful and marked voice, which made all these scamps quiver with delight at being treated like honest people, " the audacity of the redskins is growing in- tolerable. If we let them alone they would soon inundate the country, when they would end by expelling us. This state of things must have an end. The government complains about the few scalps we supply ; it says we do not carry out the clauses of the agreement we have formed with it ; it talks about disbanding us, as our services arre use- less, and therefore burdensome to the republic. It is our bounden duty to give a striking denial to these malevolent assertions, and prove to those who have placed confidence in us that we are ever ready to devote ourselves to the cause of humanity and civilisation. I have assembled you here for a war-party, Vhich I have been meditating for some time, and shall carry out this night. We are abcut to attack the rancheria of the Coras, who for some years past have had the impudence to establish themselves near this spot. They are pagans and thieves, who have one hun- dred times merited the severe chastise- ment we are about to inflict on them. But I implore you, senores caballeros, display no mistaken pity. Crush this race of vipers let not one escape ! The scalp of a child is worth as much as that of a man ; so do not let yourselves be moved by cries or tears, but scalp, scalp to the end." This harangue was greeted as it de- served to be that is, by yells of joy. " Senores," Red Cedar continued, "the worthy monk who accompanies me will call down the blessing of Heaven on our enterprise ; so kneel down to re- ceive the absolution he is about to give you." The bandits instantaneously dis- mounted, took off their hats, and knelt on the sand. Tray Ambrosio then re- peated a long prayer, to which they listened with exemplary patience, re- peating "amen" after each occasion, and he ended by giving them absolu- tion. The rangers rose, delighted at being thus freed from the burden of their sins, and got into their saddles again. Red Cedar then whispered -a few words in Fray Arnbrosio's ears, who bowed his head in assent, and imme- diately set out in the direction of the Hacienda de la Noria, followed by An- dres Garote. The squatter then turned to the rangers, who were waiting his orders. " You know where we are going, gentlemen," he said. " Let us start, and, before all, be silent, if we wish to catch our game in its lair ; for you know that the Indians are as cunning as opossums." The- band started at a gallop, Red Cedar and his sons being at their head. It was one of those calm nights which predispose the soul to reverie, such as America alone has the privilege of pos- sessing. The dark blue sky v as span- gled with ah infinite number of stars, in the centre of which shone the majestic Southern Cross, sparkling like a king's mantle ; the atmosphere was extraordi- narily transparent, and allowed objects to be noticed at a great distance j the moon profusely spread around her sil- very rays, which gave the scenery a fantastic appearance ; a mysterious breeze sported through the tops of the great trees ; and at times vague rumors traversed the space, and were lost in the distance. The gloomy horsemen still went on, silent and frowning, like the phantoms of the ancient legends, which glide through the shadows to accomplish a deed without a name. At the end of scarce an hour the rancheria was reach- ed. All were resting in the village not a light flashed in the hut. The In- dians, wearied with the hard toil of the day, were reposing, full of confidence in the sworn faith, and apprehending no treason. Red Cedar halted twenty yards from the rancheria, and drew up his horsemen so as to surround the village on all sides. When each had taken his post, and the torches were lighted, Red Cedar uttered the terrible war-cry of the Apa- THE TRAIL-HUNTER. ches, and the rangers galloped at ful speed on the village, uttering ferociou howls, and brandishing the torches, which they threw on the cabins. A scene of carnage then took place which the human pen is powerless to describe. The unhappy Indians, sur- prised in their sleep, rushed terrified and half naked out of their poor abodes, and were pitilessly massacred and scalped by the rangers, who waved with a demoniac laugh their smoking, blood-dripping scalps. Men, women, and children, all were killed with re- finements of barbarity. The village, fired by the rangers' torches, soon be- came an immense funebral pile, in which victims and murderers were huddled pell-mell. Still a few Indians had succeeded in collecting. Formed in a compact troop of twenty men, they opposed a des- perate resistance to their assassins, ex- asperated by the odor of blood and the intoxication of carnage. At the head of this band was a half nude, tall Indian of intelligent features, who, armed with a ploughshare, which he wielded with extreme force and skill, felled all the assailants who came within reach of his terrible weapon. This man was the Cacique of the Coras. At his feet lay his mother, wife, and two children dead. The unhappy man struggled with the energy of despair. He knew his life would be sacrificed, but he wished to sell it as dearly as possible. In vain had the rangers fired on the cacique he seemed invulnerable: not one of the bullets aimed- at him had struck him. He still fought, and the weight of his weapon did not seem to fatigue his arm. The rangers excited each other to finish him ; but not one dared to approach him. But this combat of giants could not 'endure longer. Of the twenty com- panions he had round him on commenc- ing the struggle, the cacique now only saw two or three upright : the rest were dead. There must be an end. The circle that inclosed the hapless Indian drew closer and closer. Henceforth it was only a question of time with him. The rangers, recognising the impossi- bility of conquering this lion-hearted man, had changed their tactics : they no longer attacked him, but contented themselves with forming an impassable circle round him, waiting prudently for the moment when the strength of the prey, which could not escape them, was exhausted, in order to rush upon him. The Coras understood the intention of his enemies. A contemptuous smile contracted his haughty lips, and he rushed resolutely toward these men who recoiled before him. Suddenly, with a movement quicker than thought, he threw with extraordinary strength the ploughshare among the rangers, and bounding like a tiger, leaped on a horse, and clutched its rider with superhuman vigor. Ere the rangers had recovered from the surprise this unforeseen attack occa- sioned in them, by a desperate effort, and still holding the horseman, the chief- tain drew from his girdle a short sharp knife, which he buried up to the hilt in the flanks of the horse. The animal ut- tered a shriek of pain, rushed headlong into the crowd, and bore both away with maddening speed. The rangers, rendered furious at being played with by a single man, and seeing their most terrible enemy escape them, started in pursuit; but with his liberty the Coras had regained all his energy : tie felt himself saved. In spite of the desperate efforts the rangers made to catch him up, he disappeared in the darkness. The cacique continued to fly till he felt his horse tottering under him. He lad not loosed his hold of the horseman, who was half strangled by the rude em- brace, and both rolled on the ground. his man 'wore the costume of the Apache Indians. The Coras regarded him for an instant attentively, and then a smile of contempt played round his 'ips. " You are not a redskin," he said, in a hollow voice ; " you are only a pale- ^ace dog. Why put on the skin of the ion when you are a cowardly coyote ?" The ranger, still stunned by the fall e had suffered, and the hug he had en- dured, made no reply. " I could kill you/' the Indian con- tinued ; " but my vengeance would not 40 THE TRAIL-HUNTER. be complete. You and yours must pay me for all the innocent blood you have shed like cowards this night. I will mark you, so that I may know you again." Then, with fearful coolness, the Coras threw the ranger on his back, put his knee on his chest, and burying his finger in the socket of his eye, gave it a sharp rotatory movement, and plucked out his eyeball. On this frightful mutila- tion, the wretch uttered a cry of pain impossible to describe. The Indian got up. " Go !" he said to him. " Now I am certain of finding you again whenever 1 want you." At this moment the sound of hoofs could be heard a short distance off: the the rangers had evidently heard their comrade's cry, and were hurrying to his aid. The Coras, rushed into the bushes and disappeared. A few mo- ments later the rangers came up. " Nathan, rny son !" Red Cedar shouted as he leaped from his horse and threw himself on the body of the wounded man. " Nathan, my firstborn, is dead !" ;< No," one of the rangers answered ; " but he is very bad." It was really the squatter's eldest son whom the cacique had mutilated. Red Cedar seized him in his arms, placed him before him on the saddle, and the band started again at a gallop. The rangers had accomplished their task : they had sixty human scalps hanging from their girdles. The rancheria of the Coras was no longer aught save a pile of ashes. Of all the inhabitants of this hapless village only the cacique survived ; but he would suffice to avenge his brothers. CHAPTER VIII. THE VALLEY OF THE BUFFALO. DON MIGUEL ZARATE, on leaving his son, remounted his horse and rode straight to Paso, to the house of Don Luciano Perez, thejuez de letras (police magistrate). The haciendero was one of the richest landed proprietors in the coun-i try ; and as he was thoroughly ac- quainted with the spirit of" the deposi- taries of justice in those parts, he had consequently been careful to line his purse well. Here were two reasons, then, to interest the judge in his favor, and this really happened. The worthy Don Luciano shuddered on hearing the details of what had oc- curred between Don Pablo and the squatters. He swore that he would, without delay, take an exemplary ven- eance for this starting felony on the part of the heretic dogs, and that it was high time to bring them reason. Con- firming himself more and more in his resolution, he buckled on his sword, ave orders to twenty well-armed al- guazils to mount, and placing himself at the head of this numerous escort, he proceeded toward Buffalo Valley. Don Miguel had witnessed with secret annoyance all these formidable prepara- lons. He placed but slight confidence n the courage of the policemen, and he would have preferred the judge leaving lim master to act as he pleased. He lad even adroitly attempted to obtain rom Don Luciana a regular warrant, which he would have executed however might think proper ; but the judge, turning with an unusual warlike ardor, nd spurred on by the large sum he had received, would listen to nothing, but nsisted on himself taking the head of the expedition. Don Luciano Perez was a plump ittle man of about sixty years of age, round as a tub, with a jolly face, adorn- ed with a rubicund nose and two cun- ning little eyes. This man cordially detested the North Americans ; and, in, the courageous deed he was committing at this moment, hatred was as much the instigation as avarice. THE TRAIL-HUNTER. 41 The little band set out at a cantor, and proceeded rapidly toward the for- est. The judge hurled fire and flames at the audacious usurpers, as he called them; he spoke of nothing less than killing them without mercy, if they at- tempted even the slightest resistance to the orders he was about to give them. % Don Miguel, who was much calmer, and foreboded no good from this great wrath, sought in vain to pacify him by telling him that he would in all proba- bility have to do with men difficult to intimidate, against whom coolness \\ould be the best weapon. They gradually approached. The hack'iidero, in order to shorten the journey, had led the band by a cross road, which saved at least one-third the distance ; and the first trees of the forest already appeared about two miles off. The mischief produced by the squatters was much more consider- able than Don Pablo had represented to his father ; and, at the first glance, it seemed impossible that, in so short a time, four men, even though working vigorously, could have accomplished it. The finest trees lay on the ground; enormous piles of planks were ar- ranged at regular distances, and on the San Pedro an already completed raft only awaited a few more stems of trees to be thrust into the water. Don Miguel could not refrain from sighing at the sight of the devastation committed in one of his best forests; but the nearer they approached the spot where they expected to meet the squatters, the more lukewarm grew the ardor of the judge and his aco- lytes, and the haciendero soon found himself compelled to urge them on, instead of restraining them as he had hitherto done. Suddenly the sound of an axe re-echoed a few paces ahead of the band. The judge impelled by the fueling of his duty, and shame of ap- pearing frightened, advanced boldly in t.ie direction of the sound, followed by his escort. "Stop!" a rough voice shouted at the moment the policemen turned the corner of a lane. With that instinct of self-preserva- tion which never abandons them, the alguazils stopped as if their horses' feet had been suddenly welded to the ground. Ten paces from them stood a man in the centre of the ride, leaning on an American rifle. The. judge turn- ed to Don Miguel with such an expres- sion of hesitation and honest terror that the haciendero could not refrain from laughing. " Come, courage, Don Luciano," he said to him. " This man is alone ; he cannot venture to bar our passage." " Con mil diablos !" the judge ex- claimed, ashamed of this impression which he could not master, and frown- ing portentiously, " forward, you fel- lows, and fire on that scoundrel if he make but a sign to resist you." The alguazils set out again with pru- dential hesitation. " Stop ! I tell you again," the squat- ter repeated. " Did you not hear the order I gave you ]" The judge, reassured by the presence of the haciendero, then advanced, and said with a tone which he strove to render terrible, but which was only ridiculous through the terror he reveal- ed : " I, Don Luciano Perez, juez de letras of the town of Paso, have come, by virtue of the powers delegated to me by the Government, to summon you and your adherents to quit within twenty-four hours this forest you have illegally entered, and which " " Ta, ta !" the stranger shouted, rudely interrupting the judge, and stamping his foot savagely. " I care as much for all your words and laws as I do for an old moccasin. The ground belongs to the first comers. We are comfortable here, and mean to re- main." " Your language is very bold, young man," Don Miguel then said. " You do not consider that you are alone, and that, failing other rights, we have strength on our side." The squatter burst into a laugh. "You believe that," he said. " Learn, stranger, that I care as little for the ten humbugs I now have before me as I do for a woodcock, and that they will do well to leave me at peace, unless they want to learn the weight TEE TRAIL-HUNTER. of my arm at their expense. How- ever, here is my father ; settle it with him." And he began carelessly whistling " Yankee Doodle." At the same in- stant three men, at the head of whom was Red Cedar, appeared on the path. At the sight of these unexpected rein- forcements for their arrogant enemy the alguazils made a movement in re- treat. The affair was becoming singu- larly complicated, and threatened to assume proportions very grave for them. "Halloh! what's up?" the old man asked roughly. " Anything wrong, Sutter ?" " These people," the young man an- swered, shrugging his shoulders con- temptuously, "are talking about driving Us from the forest by virtue of some order." " Halloh !" Red Cedar said, his eyes flashing as he cast a savage glance at the Mexicans. "The only law I re- cognise in the desert," he continued with a gesture of terrible energy as he struck his rifle barrel, " is this. With- draw, strangers, if you do not wish blood to be shed between us. I am a peaceful man, wishing to do no one hurt ; but I warn you that 1 will not allow myself to be kicked out without striking a blow." " You will not be turned out," the judge remarked timidly ; "on the con- trary, you have seized on what belongs to other people." " I won't listen to your arguments, which I do not understand," the squat- 1 ter roughly exclaimed. " God gave the ground to man that he might labor on it. Every proprietor that does not fulfil this condition tacitly renounces his rights, and the earth then becomes the property of the man who tills it with the sweat of his brow j so go to the devil ! Be off at full speed, if you do not wish harm to happen to you !" " We will not suffer ourselves to be intimidated by your threats," the judge said, impelled by his anger, and forget- ting for a moment his alarm j " we will do our duty, whatever may happen." " Try it," Red Cedar said with a grin. And he made a sign to his sons. The latter arranged themselves in a single line, and occupied the entire width of the path. "In the name of the law," the judge said with energy, as he pointed out the old man, " alguazils, seize that per- son." But, as so frequently happens under similar circumstances, this order was more easy to give than to execute. Red* Cedar and his sons did not appear at all disposed to let themselves be collared. We must, however, do the alguazils the justice of stating that they did not hesi- tate for a moment. They plainly re- fused to carry out the order they had received. " For the last time, will you be off?" the squatter shouted. " Let them have it." His three sons raised their rifles. At this movement, which removed all doubts that might still remain on their minds, and which proved to them that the squatters would not hesitate to pro- ceed to extremities, the alguazils were seized with an invincible terror. They turned bridle and galloped off at full speed, followed by the yells of the Americans. One man alone remained motionless before the squatters Don Miguel Za- rate. Red Cedar had not recognised him, either owing to the distance that separated them, or because the haci- endero had purposely pulled over his eyes his broad-brimmed hat. Don Miguel dismounted, placed the pistols from his holsters through his belt, fas- tened his horse to a tree, and coolly throwing his rifle across his shoulders, boldly advanced toward the squatters. The latter, surprised by the courage of this man, who alone attempted what his comrades had given up all hopes of achieving, let him come up to them without offering the slightest opposition. When Don Miguel was a couple of paces from the old squatter, he stopped, put the butt of his rifle on the ground, and removing his hat, said : " Do you recognise me, Red Cedar ?" " Don Miguel Zarate !" the bandit shouted in surprise. "As the judge deserts me," the haci- THE TRAIL-HUNTER. endero continued, "and fled like a coward before your threats, I am ob Jiged to take justice for myself, and, by heavens ! I will do so! Red Cedar, I, as owner of this forest, in which you have settled without permission, order you to depart at once." The young men exchanged a few mut tered threats. " Silence !" Red Cedar commanded. " Let the caballero speak." " 1 have finished, and await your an- swer." The squatter appeared to reflect deeply for a few minutes. " The answer you demand is difficult to give," he at length said : " my posi- tion toward you is not a free one." "Why so P " Because I owe you my life." " I dispense you from all gratitude." " That is possible. You are at liberty to do so ; but I cannot forget the ser- vice you rendered me." " It is of little consequence." " Much more than you fancy, cabal- lero. 1 may be, through my character, habits, and the mode of life I lead, be- yond the law of civilised beings ; but I am not the less a man, and if of the worst sort, perhaps, I no more forget a kindness than I do an insult." " Prove it, then, by going away as quickly as you can, and then we shall be quits." The squatter shook his head. " Listen to me, Don Miguel," he said. "You have in this country the reputa- tion of being the providence of the un- fortunate. 1 know from myself the ex- tent of your kindness and courage. It is said that you possess an immense for- tune, of which you do not yourself know the extent." " Well, what then?" the haciendero impatiently interrupted him. " The damage 1 can commit here, even if I cut down all the trees in the forest, would be but a trifle to you ; then whence comes the fury you display to drive me out?" " Your question is just, and I will an- swer it. 1 demand your departure from my estates, because, only a few days back, my son was grievously wounded by your lads, who led him into a cowardly snare ; and if he es- caped death, it was only through a mi- racle. That is the reason why we can- not live side by side, for blood severs us." Red Cedar frowned. "Is this true 1 ?" he said, addressing his sons. The young men only hung their heads in reply. " I am waiting," Don Miguel went on. " Come, the question cannot be set- tled thus, so we will proceed to my jacal." " For what purpose ? I ask you for a yes or no." " I cannot answer yo'j yet. We must have a conversation together, after which you shall decide as to my future conduct. Follow me, then, without fear." " I fear nothing, as I believe I have proved to you. Go on, as you demand it : I will follow you." Red Cedar made his sons a sign to remain where they were, and proceeded with long strides toward his jacal, which was but a short distance off. Don Miguel walked carelessly after him. They entered the cabin. It was desert- ed. The two females were doubtless also occupied in the forest. Red Cedar closed the door after him, sat down on bench, made his guest a sign to do the same, and began speaking in a low and measured voice, as if afraid what he bad to say might be heard outside. CHAPTER IX. THE ASSASSINATION. " LISTEN to me, Don Miguel," Red Cedar said, " and pray do not mistake my meaning. I have not the slightest ntention of intimidating you, nor do I think of attempting to gain your confi- dence by revelations which you may fairly assume 1 have accidentally ac- quired." The haciendero regarded with amaze- ment the speaker, whose tone and man- ner had so suddenly changed. 44 THE TRAIL-HUNTER. " I do not understand you," he said to him. " Explain yourself more clearly, for the words you have just uttered are an enigma, the key to which I seek in vain." " You shall be satisfied, caballero ; and if you do not catch the meaning of my words this time it must be because you will not. Like all intelligent men, you are wearied of the incessant strug- gles in which the vital strength of your country is exhausted unprofitably. You have seen that a land so rich, so fertile, so gloriously endowed as Mexi- co, could not I should say ought not to remain longer the plaything of paltry ambitions, and the arena on which all these transitory tyrannies sport in turn. For nearly thirty years you have dreamed of emancipation, not of your entire country, for that would be too rude a task, and unrealisable j but you said to yourself: " ' Let us render New Mexico inde- pendent; form it into a new State, governed by wise laws rigorously ex- ecuted. By liberal institutions let us give an impetus to all the riches with which it is choked, give intellect all the liberty it requires, and perhaps within a few years the entire Mexican Confe- deration, amazed by the magnificent re- sults I shall obtain, will follow my ex- ample. Then I shall die happy at what I have effected my object will be car- ried out. I shall have saved my coun- try from the abyss over which it hangs, through the double pressure of the in- vasion of the American Union and the exhaustion of the Spanish race.' Are not those ideas yours, caballero 1 Do you consider that I have explained my- self clearly this time ?" " Perhaps so, though I do not yet see distinctly the point you wish to reach. The thoughts you attribute to me are such as naturally occur to all. men who sincerely love their country, and I will not pretend that 1 have not entertained them." " You would be wrong in doing so, for they are great and noble, and breathe the purest patriotism." " A truce to compliments, and let us come to the point, for time presses." " Patience : I have not yet ended. These ideas must occur to you sooner than to another, as you are the de- scendant of the first Aztec kings, and born defender of the Indians in this hapless country. You* see that I am well acquainted with you, Don Miguel Zarate." " Too well, perhaps," the Mexican gentleman muttered. The squatter smiled and went on : " It is not chance that led me to this country. I knew what I was doing, and why I came. Don Miguel, the hour is a solemn one. All your preparations are made : will you hesitate to give New Mexico the signal which must render it independent of the metropolis which has so long been fattening at its expense? Answer me." Don Miguel started. lie fixed on the squatter a burning glance, in which ad- miration at the man's language could be read. Red Cedar shrugged his shoulders. " What ! you still doubt T he said. He rose, went to a box from which he took some papers, and threw them on the table before the haciendero, saying : "Read." Don Miguel hurriedly seized the pa- pers, and ran his eye over them. "Well?" he asked, looking fixedly at the strange speaker. " You see," the squatter answered, " that I am your accomplice. Gen- eral Ibanez, your agent in Mexico, is in correspondence with me, as is Mr. Wood, your agent at New York." " It is true," the Mexican said coldly, " you have the secret of the conspiracy. The only point left is to what extent that goes." " I possess it entirely. I have or- ders to enlist the volunteers who will form the nucleus of the insurrectionary army." " Good !" " Now, you see, by these letters of General Ibanez and Mr. Wood, that I am commissioned by them to come to an understanding with you, and receive your final orders." 1 see it." " What do you purpose doing ?" " Nothing." " What, nothing !" the squatter ex- THE TRAIL-HUNTER. 45 claimed, bounding with surprise. " You are jesting, i suppose." " Listen to me in your turn, and pay attention to my words, for they ex- press my irrevocable resolution. I know not nor care to know, by what means, more or less honorable, you have succeeded in gaining the confi- dence of my partners, and becoming master of -our secrets. Still it is my firm conviction that a cause which em- ploys such men as yourself is compro- mised, if not lost ; hence I renounce every combination in which you are called to play a part. Your antece- dents, and the life you lead, have placed you without the pale of the law." " I am a bandit out with it ! What matter so long as you succeed ? Does not the end justify the means ?" " That may be your morality, but it will never be mine. I repudiate all community of ideas with men of your stamp. I will not have you either as accomplice or partner." The squatter darted a look at him laden with hatred and disappointment. " In serving us," Don Miguel contin- ued, " you can only have an interested object, which P will not take the trou- ble of guessing at. An Anglo-Ameri- can will never frankly aid a Mexican to conquer his liberty; he would lose too much by doing it." " Then ?" " I renounce for ever the projects 1 had formed. I had, 1 grant, dreamed of restoring to my country the inde- pendence of which it was unjustly stripped : but it shall remain a dream." " That is your last word ?" " The last." "You refuse?" " I do." " Good ; then I now know what is left me to do." " Well, what is it? Let me hear," the haciendero said, as he crossed his arms on his breast, and looked him boldly in the face. " I will tell you." " 1 am waiting for you to do so." " I hold your secret." "Entirely?" 3 " Hence vou are in my power." " 1',-rhups." " Who will prevent me going to the (Jmvrnor of the State and denouncing you?" " ITe will not believe you." "You think so?' "I am sure of it." " Perhaps, I will say in my turn." "Why so?" " Oh ! you shall easily see." " I am curious to learn it." " However rich you may be, Don Miguel Zarate, and perhaps because of those very riches, and in spite of the kindness you sow broadcast, the num- ber of your enemies is very consider- able." I know it." " Very good. Those enemies will joyfully seize the first opportunity that presents itself to destroy you." " It is probable." '* You see, then. When I go to the governor and tell him you are conspir- ing, and, in support of my denunciation, hand him not only these letters, but several others written and signed by you, lying in that chest, do you believe that the governor will treat me as an impostor, and refuse to arrest you?" " Then you have letters in my hand- writing?" '* I have three, which will be enough to have you shot." " Ah !" " Yes. ILing it all ! you understand that, in an affair so important as this, it is wise to take one's precautions, for no one knows what may happen ; and men of my stamp," he added, with an ironi- cal smile, ** have more reasons than others for being prudent." " Come, that is well played," the haciendero said, carelessly. "Is it not?" " Yes, and I compliment you on it : you are a better player than 1 gave you credit for." " Oh ! you do not know me yet." "The little I do know suffices me." " Then ?" " We will remain as we are, if you will permit me." "You still refuse?" " More than ever." THE TRAIL-HUNTER. The squatter frowned. "Take care, Don Miguel," he mut- tered, hoarsely. " I will do what I told you." " Yes, if I allow you time." " Eh ?" " Caspita ! if you are a clever scamp, I am not altogether a fool. Do you believe, in your turn, that I will let my- self be intimidated by your threats, and that I should not find means to keep you from acting, not for my own sake, as I care little personally for what you can do, but for my friends, who are men of honor, and whose lives I do not wish to be compromised by your treachery 1 ?" " 1 am curious to know the means you will employ to obtain this result/' " Yo.u shall see," Don Miguel replied with perfect coolness. " Well?" " I shall kill you." " Oh, oh !" the squatter said, as he looked complacently at his muscular limbs, " that is not easy." " More so than you suppose, my master." " Hum ! and when do you reckon on .killing me?" " At once !" The two men were seated in front of the hearth, each at the end of a bench : the table was between them, but a little back, so that while talking they only leaned an elbow on it. While uttering the last word, Don Miguel bounded like .a tiger on the squatter, who did not at all expect the attack, seized him by the throat, and hurled him to the ground. Tlie two enemies rolled on the uneven flooring of the jacal. The Mexican's attack had been so sudden and well directed that the half- strangled squatter, in spite of his Her- culean strength, could not free himself from his enemy's iron clutch, which pressed his throat like a vice. Red Cedar could neither utter a cry nor offer the slightest resistance : the Mexi- can's knee crushed his chest, while his fingers pressed into his throat. !So soon as he had reduced the wretch to utter impotence, Don Miguel drew from his vaquera boot a long sharp knife, and buried the entire blade in his body. The bandit writhed convulsive- ly for a few seconds; a livid pallor suffused his face ; his eyes closed, and he then remained motionless. Don Miguel left the weapon in the wound, and slowly rose. " Ah, ah !" he muttered as he gazed at him with a sardonic air, " 1 fancy that rogue will not denounce me now." Without loss of time he seized the letters lying on the table, took from the box the few documents he found in it, hid them all in his bosom, opened the door of the cabin, which he carefully closed after him, and went off with long strides. The squatter's sons had not quitted their post; but, so soon as they per- ceived the Mexican, they went up to him. " Well," Shaw asked him, " have you come to an understanding with the old man ?" " Perfectly so," the Mexican an- swered. "Tiien the affair is settled" " Yes, to our mutual satisfaction." " All the better," the young men ex- claimed joyously. The haciendero unfastened his horse and mounted. " Good- by, gentlemen !" he said to them. " Good-by !" they replied, returning his bow. The Mexican put his horse to a trot, but at the first turn in the road he dug his spurs into its flanks, and started ac full speed. " Now," Sutter observed, " I be- lieve that we can proceed to the cabin without inconvenience." And they gently walked toward the jacal, pleasantly conversing together. Don Miguel, however, had not suc- ceeded so lully as he imagined. Red Cedar was not dead, for the old bandit kept a firm hold on life. Attacked un- awares, the squatter had not attempted a resistance, which he saw at the first glance was useless, and would only have exasperated his adversary. With mar- vellous sagacity, on feeling the knife blade enter his body, he stiffened him- self against the pain, and resolved oil " playing 'possum ; ; ' that is to say, feigning death. The success of his THE TRAIL-HUNTER. 47 stratagem was complete. Don Miguel, persuaded that he had killed him, did not dream of repeating his thrust. So long as his enemy remained in the jacal the squatter was careful not to make the slightest movement that might have betrayed him ; but, so soon as he was alone, he opened his eyes, rose with an effort, drew the dagger from the wound, which emitted a jet of black blood, and looking at the door, through which his assassin had departed, *with a glance so full of hatred that it is impos- sible to describe, he muttered : " Now we are quits, Don Miguel Zarate, since you have tried to take back the life of him you saved. Pray God never to bring us face to face again !" He uttered a deep sigh, and rolled heavily on the ground in a fainting fit. At this moment his sons entered the cabin. CHAPTEPw X. THE SACHEM OF THE CORAS. A FEW days after the events we have described in the previous chapter there was one of those lovely mornings which are not accorded to our cold climates to know. The sun poured down in profusion its warm beams, which caused the pebbles and sand to glisten in the walks of the garden of the Hacienda de la Noria. In a clump of flowering orange and lemon trees, whose sweet exhalations perfumed the air, and beneath a copse of cactus, nopals, and aloes, a maiden was asleep, carelessly reclining in a hammock made of the thread of the Phormium tenax, which hung between two orange trees. With her head thrown back, her long black hair unfastened, and falling in disorder on her neck and bosom ; with her coral lips parted, and displaying the dazzling pearl of her teeth, Dona Clara (for it was she who slept thus with an infantile slumber) was really charming. Her features breathed hap- piness, for not a cloud had yet arisen to perturb the azure horizon of her calm and tranquil life. It was nearly mid-day : there was not a breath in the air. The sunbeams, pouring down vertically, rendered the heat so stifling and unsupportable, that every one in the hacienda had yielded to sleep, and was enjoying what is gen- erally called in hot countries the siesta. Still, at a short distance from the spot where Dona Clara reposed, calm and smiling, a sound of footsteps, at first al- most imperceptible, but -gradually heightening, was heard, and a man made his appearance. It was Shaw, the youngest of the squatter's sons. How was he at this spot ? The young man was panting, and the perspiration poured down his cheeks. On reaching the entrance of the clump he bent an anxious glance on the ham- mock. " She is there," he murmured with a passionate accent. " She sleeps." Then he fell on his knees upon the sand, and began admiring the maiden, dumb and trembling. He remained thus a long time, with his glance fixed on the slumberer with a strange ex- pression. At length he uttered a sigh and tearing himself with an effort from this delicious contemplation, he rose sadly, muttering in a whisper : " I must go if she were to wake oh, she will never know how much I love her !" He plucked an orange flower, and softly laid it on the maiden ; then he walked a few steps from her ; but. al- most immediately returning, he seized, with a nervous hand, Dona Clara's rebozo, which hung down from the hammock, and pressed it to his lips several times, saying, in a voice broken by the emo- tion he felt : " It has touched her hair.'* And rushing from the thicket, he crossed the garden and disappeared. He had heard footsteps approaching. In fact, a few seconds after his departure, Don Miguel, in his turn, entered the copse. " Come, come," he said gaily, as ko shook the hammock, " sleeper, will you not have finished your siesta soon ?" Dona Clara opened her eyes, with a smile. " I am no longer asleep, father," she said. 48 THE TRAIL-HUNTER. " Very good. That is the answer I like." And he stepped forward to kiss her ; but, with sudden movement, the maid- en drew herself back as if she had seen some frightful vision, and her face was covered with a livid pallor. " What is the matter with you ]" the haciendero exclaimed with terror. The girl showed him the orange flow- er. " Well," her father continued, " what is there so terrific in that flower? It must have fallen from the tree during your sleep." Dona Clara shook her head sadly. " No," she said : " for some days past I have always noticed, on waking a similar flower thrown on me." " You are absurd ; chance alone is to blame for it all. Come, think no more about it ; you are pale as death, child. Why frighten yourself thus about a trifle ? Besides the remedy may be easily found. If so afraid of flowers now, why not take your siesta in your bedroom, instead of burying yourself in this thicket ?" " That is true, father," the girl said, all joyous, and no longer thinking of the fear she had undergone. " I will follow your advice." " Come, that is settled, so say no more about it. Now give me a kiss." The maiden threw herself into her father's arms, whom she stifled with kisses. Both sat down on a grassy mound, and commenced one of those delicious chit-chats whose charm only those who are parents can properly appreciate. Presently a peon came up. " What has brought you ? :> Don Mi- guel asked. " Excellency," the peon answered, "a redskin warrior has just arrived at the hacienda, who desires speech with you." " Do you know him ?" Don Miguel asked. " Yes, Excellency ; it is Eagle-wing, the sachem of the Coras of the Rio San Pedro." " Mookapec !" the haciendero re- peated with surprise. " What can have brought him to me ? Lead him here." The peon retired, and in a few min- utes returned, preceding Eagle-wing. The chief had donned the great war- dress of the sachems of his nation. His hair, plaited with the skin of a rattle- snake, was drawn up on the top of his head ; in the centre an eagle plume was affixed. A blouse of striped calico, adorned with a profusion of bells, de- scended to his thighs, which were de- fended from the stings of mosquitos by drawers of the same stuff. He wore moccasins made of peccari skin, adorned with glass beads and porcupine quills. To his heels were fastened several wolves' tails, the distinguishing mark of renowned warriors. Round his loins was a belt of elk-hide, through which passed his knife, his pipe and his medi- cine-bag. His neck was adorned by a collar of grizzly bear claws and buffa- lo teeth. Finally, a magnificent robe of a white female buffalo hide, painted red inside, was fastened to his shoul- ders, and fell down behind him like a cloak. In his right hand he held a fan formed of a single eagle's wing, and in his left hand an American rifle. There was something imposing and singularly martial in the appearance and demean- or of this savage child of the forest. On entering the thicket, he bowed gracefully to Dona Clara, and then stood motionless and dumb before Don Miguel. The Mexican regarded him attentively, and saw an expression of gloomy melancholy spread over the In- dian chief's features. " My brother is welcome," the haci- endero said to him. " To wh it do I owe the pleasure of seeing him ?" The chief cast a side-glance at the maiden. Don Miguel understood what he desired, and made Dona Clara a sign to withdraw. They remained alone. " My brother can speak," the hacien- dero then said j " the ears of a friend are open." " Yes, my father is good," the chief replied in his guttural voice. " He loves the Indians : unhappily all the palefaces do not resemble him." " What does my brother mean ? Has he cause to complain of any one ?" The Indian smiled sadly. " Where is there justice for the red THE TRAIL-HUNTER. 49 skins?" he said. "The Indians are animals : the Great Spirit has not givei tin-in :i soul, as He has done for the pale.laces, and it is nut a crime to kill then.." " Come, chief, pray do not speak longer in riddles, but explain why you havv quitted your tribe. It is far from Rio Sun Pedro to this place." " Mookapec is alone: his tribe no longer exists." " HOW ?" "The palefaces came in the night, like jaguars without courage. They burned the village, and massacred all the inhabitants, even to the women and little children." "Oh, that is frightful!" the hacien- dero murmured, in horror. " Ah !" the chief continued with an accent full of terrible irony, " the scalps of the redskins are sold dearly/' " And do vou know the men who committed thamtrocious crime?" " Mookapeclpnows them, and will avenge himself." " Tell me their chief, if you know his name." " I know it. The palefaces call him Red Cedar, the Indians the Man-eater." " Oh ! as for him, chief, you are avenged, for he is dead." " My father is mistaken." " How so? Why, I killed him my- self." The Indian shook his head. " lied Cedar has a hard lite," he said : " the blade of the knife my father used was too short. Red Cedar is wounded, but in a few days he will be about again, ready to kill and scalp the Indi- ans." This news startled the haciendero : the enemy he fancied he had got Hd of still lived, and he would have to begin a fresh struggle. " My father must take care," the chief continued. " Red Cedar has sworn to be avenged." " Oli ! I will not leave him the time. This man is a demon, of whom the earth must be purged at all hazards, before Jfiis strength has returned, and he begins his assassinations again." "1 will aid my father in his ven- geance." " Thanks, chief. I do not refuse your nll'-r : perhaps I shall soon need the help of all my friends. And now, what do you purpose doing ?" "Since the palefaces reject him, R-igle-wing will . retire to the desert. He has friends among the Comanches. They are redskins, and will welcome him gladly." " 1 will not strive to combat your de termination, chief, for it is just ; and if, at a later date, you take terrible repri- sals on the white men, they will have no cause of complaint, for they have brought it on themselves. When does my brother start ?" " At sunset." " Rest here to-day : to-morrow will be soon enough to set out." " Mookapec must depart this day." " Act as you think proper. Have you a horse ?" " No ; but at the first manada I come to I will lasso one." " I do not wish you to set out thus, but will give you a horse." " Thanks ; my father is good. The Indian chief will remember " " Come, you shall choose for your- self." " I have still a few words to say to my father." "Speak, chief; I am listening to you." " Koutonepi, the pale hunter, begged me to give my father an important warning." ' ; What is it?" " A great danger threatens my father. Koutonepi wishes to see him as soon as possible, in order himself to tell him its nature." " Good ! My brother will tell the lunter that I shall be to-morrow at the clearing of the shattered oak,' and await him there till night." " 1 will faithfully repeat my father's words to the hunter." The two men then quitted the gar- den, and hurriedly proceeded toward the hacienda. Don Miguel let the chief choose his own horse, and while the sachem was harnessing his steed in the Indian fashion, he withdrew to his bedroom, and sent for his son to oin him. The young man had perfect- . 50 THE TRAIL-HUNTER. ly recovered from his wound. Hi father told him that he was obliged to absent himself for some days : he in- trusted to him the management of the hacienda, while recommending him on no consideration to leave the farm, and to watch attentively over his sister. The young man promised him all he wished, happy at enjoying perfect liberty for a few days. After embracing his son and daughter for the last time Don Miguel proceeded to the patio, where in the mean while, the chief had been amusing himself by making the magnificent horse he had chosen curvet. Don Miguel admired for several moments the Indian's skill and grace, for -he managed a horse as well as the first Mexican ginete ; thu mounted, and the two men proceeded together .toward the Paso del Norte, which they must cross in order to en- ter the desert, and reach the clearing of the shattered oak. The journey passed in silence, for the two men were deeply reflecting. At the moment they entered Paso the sun was setting on the horizon in a bed of red mist, which foreboded a storm for the night. At the entrance of the vil- lage they separated ; and on the mor- row, as we have seen in our first chap- ter, Don Miguel set out at daybreak, and galloped to the clearing. We will now end this lengthy paren- thesis, which was, however, indispens- able for the due comprehension of the facts that are about to follow, and take up our story again at the point where we left it. CHAPTER XI. CONVERSATION. VALENTINE GUILLGIS, whom we have already introduced to the reader in pre- vious works (See "Tiger-Slayer," etc.), had inhabited, or, to speak more cor- fectly, traversed the vast solitudes of Mexico and Texas during the past five or six years. We saw him just now accompanied by the Araucano chief. These two men were the boldest hunters on the frontier. At times, when they had collected an ample harvest of furs, they went to sell them in the villages, renewed their stock of powder and ball, purchased a few indispensable articles, and then returned to the desert. Now and then they engaged them- selves for a week, or even a fortnight, with the proprietors of the haciendas, to free them from the wild beasts that desolated their herds; but so soon as the ferocious animals were destroyed, and the reward obtained, no matter the brilliancy of the offers made them by the land-owners, the two men threw their rifles on their shoulders and went off. No one knew who they were, or whence they came. Valentine and his friend maintained the most complete si- lence as to the events of their life which had preceded their appearance in these parts. Only one thing had betrayed the nationality of Valence, whom his comrade called Kouto^Pi, a word be- longing to the language of the Aucas, and signifying " The Valiant." On his chest the hunter wore the cross of the Legion of Honor. The deeds of every description performed by these hunters were incalculable, and their stories were the delight of the frontier dwellers dur- ing the winter night. The number of tigers they had killed was no longer counted. Chance had one day made them ac quainted with Don Miguel Zarate under strange circumstances, and since then au uninterrupted friendship had been main tained between them. Don Miguel, during a tempestuous night, namely, had only owed his life to the accuracy of Valentine's aim, who sent a bullet through the head of the Mexican's horse at the moment when, mad with terror, and no longer obeying the bridle, it was on the point of leaping in.to an abyss with its master. Don Miguel had sworn eternal gratitude to his saviour. Valentine and Curumilla had made themselves the tutors of the hacieudero's children, who, for their part, felt a deep friendship for the hunters. Don Pablo had frequently made long hunting par- ties in the desert with them ; and it was to them he owed the certainty of THE TRAIL-HUNTER. 51 his aim, his skill in handling weapons, and his knack in taming horses. No secrets existed between Don Miguel and the hunters: they read in his mind as in an ever-open hook. They were the disinterested confidants of liis plans ; for these rude wood- rangers esteemed him, and only requir- ed for themselves one thing the liber- ty of the desert. Still, despite the sympathy and friendship which so closely connected these different per- sons, and the confidence which formed the basis of that friendship, Don Mi- guel and his children had never been able to obtain from the hunters infor- mation as to the events that had passed prior to their arrival in this country. Frequently Don Miguel, impelled, not by curiosity, but merely by the in- terest he felt in them, had tried, by words cleverly thrown into the conver- sation, to give them an opening for con- fidence ; by|^alentine had always re- polled tliolfc hints, though cleverly enough for Don Miguel not to feel of- fended by this want of confidence. With Curumilla they had been even more simple. Wrapped in his Indian stoicism, intrenched in his habitual sullenness, he was wont to answer all questions by a shake of the head, but nothing further. At length, weary of the attempt, the haciendero and his family had given up trying to read those secrets which their friends seemed obstinately determined to keep from them. Still the friendship subsisting between them had not grown Cold in consequence, and it was always with equal pleasure that Don Miguel met the hunters again after a lengthen- ed ramble in the prairies, which kept them away from his house for whole months at a time. The hunter and the Mexican were seated by the fire, while Curumilla, armed with his scalping knife, was busy flaying the two jaguars so skillful- ly killed by Don Miguel, and which were magnificent brutes. " Eh, compadre /" Don Miguel said with a laugh ; " 1 was beginning to lose patience, and fancy you had forgotten the meeting you had yourself given me." " I never forgot anything, a-? you know," Valentine answered seriously ; " a'id if I did not arrive sooner, is. wa> iHT.-mse the road is long from my j-ical to this dearinir." " Heaven forbid that I should re- proach you, my friend ! Still I con- fess to you that the prospect of pass- ing the night alone in this Jorest only slightly pleased me,, and 1 should have been off' had you not arrived before sunset." " You would- have done wrong, Don Miguel: what I have to tell you is ot the utmost importance to you. Who knows what the result might have been had 1 not been able to warn you?' " You alarm me, my friend." " I will explain. In the first place let rue tell you that you committed, a few days back, a grave imprudence, whose consequences threaten to be most serious for you." 'What is it?" " 1 said one, but ought to have said two." " I am waiting till you think proper to express yourself more clearly," Don Miguel said with a slight tinge of im- patience, " before I answer." "You have quarrelled with a North American bandit." " Red Cedar." "Yes; and when you had him in your power you let him escape, instead of killing him out and out." " That is true, and I was wrong. What would you 1 The villain has as tough a life as an alligator. But be at ease. If ever he fall into my hands again, I swear that I will not miss him." " In the mean while you did do so that is the evil." " Why so?" " You will understand me. This man is one of those villains, the scum of the JJnited States, too many of whom have lived on the frontier during the last few years. 1 do not know how he contrived to deceive your New York agent ; but he gained his confi- dence so cleverly that the latter told him all the secrets he knew about your enterprise." "He told me so himself/' 52 THE TRAIL-HUNTER. " Very good. It was then, I suppose, that you stabbed him ?" " Yes, and at the same time I plucked out his claws ; that is to say, I seized the letters he held, and which might compromise me." " A mistake. This man is too thorough-paced a scoundrel not to fore- see all the chances of his treason. He had a last letter, the most important of all ; and that you did not take from him." " I took three." " Yes, but there were four. As the last, however, in itself was worth as much as the other three, he always wore it about him in a leathern bag hung round his neck by a steel chain ; you did not dream of looking for that." " But what importance can this let- ter, 1 do not even remember writing, possess, that you should attach such weight to it?" " It is merely the agreement drawn up between yourself, General Ibanez, and Mr. Wood, and bearing your three signatures." "Con mil demonios !" the haciende- ro exclaimed in terror. " in that case 1 am lost; for if this man really pos- sesses such a document, he will not fail to employ it in order to be revenged on me." " Nothing is lost so long as a man's heart beats in his breast, Don Miguel. The position is critical, I allow, but 1 have saved myself in situations far more desperate than the one you are now in." "What is to be done?" " Red Cedar has been about again for two days. His first care, so soon as he could sit a horse, was to go to Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, and denounce YOU to the Governor. That has nothing to surprise you from such a man.'' " Then 1 can only fly as speedily as I can ? " Wait. Every man has in his heart at least one of the seven deadly sins as a bait for the demon." " What are you driving at 1 ?" " You will see. Fortunately for us, Red Cedar has them all seven, I be- lieve, in the finest stage of develop- ment. Avarice, before all, has reached its acme with him." " Well?" "This happened. Our man de- nounced you to the governor as a con- spirator, etc., but was careful not to give up the proof's he possessed in sup- port of the denunciation at the outset. When General Isturitz, the governor asked him for these proofs, he answered that he was ready to supply them in exchange for the sum of one hundred thousand piastres in gold." " Ah !" the haciendero said, with a breath of relief, " and what did Isluritz say ?" " The general is one of your most in- veterate enemies, I grant, and he would give a good deal for the pleasure of having you shot." " That is true." "Yes, but still the sum appeared to him, as it really is, exorbi^tf, the more so as he would have to jjj it all him- self, as the government does not recog- nise transactions of that nature." "Well, what did Red Cedar do then r " He did not allow himself beaten ; on the contrary, he told the general he wculd give him a week to reflect, and quietly left the Cabildo." " Hum ! and on what day was this visit paid?" "Yesterday morning; so that you have six days still left for action." " Six days that is very little." "Eh?" the Frenchman said, with a shrug of his shoulders impossible to describe. " In my country " " Yes, but you are Frenchmen." "That is true: hence I allow you twice the time we should require. Come, let us put joking aside. You are a man of more than common energy ; you really wish the welfare of your country, so do not let yourself be crushed by the first reverse. Who knows but that it may all be for the best?" " Ah, my friend, I am alone ! Gene- ral Ibanez, who aloue could help me in this critical affair, is fifty leagues off. What can I do ? Nothing." "All. I foresaw your objection. THE TRAIL-HUNTER. 53 Eagle-wing, the Chief of the Coras, has gone from mo to warn the general. You know with what speed Indians travel; so he will bring us the general in a few hours, I feel convinced." Don Miguel regarded the hunter with mingled admiration and respect. " You have done that, my friend ?" he said to him as he warmly pressed his hand. " By Jove !" Valentine said, gaily, " I have done something else too. WhiMi the time arrives I will tell you what it is. But let us not lose an hour. What do you intend to do for the pre- sent?" "Act." " Good : that is the way I like to hear you talk." " Yes, but [ must first come to an understanding with the general." " That is true ; but it is the least thing," Valentine answered, as he looked skyward, and ^tentively consulted the position of the^Lars. " It is now eight o'clock. Eagle-wing and the man he brings must be at midnight at the en- trance of the Canon del Buitre. We have four hours before us, and that is more than we require, as we have only ten leagues to go." " Let us go, let us go !" Don Miguel exclaimed eagerly. " Wait a moment ; there is no such hurry. Don't be alarmed ; we shall arrive in time." He then turned to Curumilla, and said to him in Araucano a few words which the haciendero did not under- stand. The Indian rose without reply- ing, and disappeared in the density of the forest. "You know," Valentine continued, " that I prefer, through habit, traveling on foot; still, as under present circum- stances minutes are precious, and we must not lose them, 1 have provided two horses." " You think of everything, my friend." " Yes, when I have to act for those I love," Valentine answered with a retrospective sigh. There was a moment's silence be- tween the two men, and at the end of scarce a quarter of an hour there was a noise in the shrubs, the branches parted, and Curumilla re-entered the clearing, holding two horses by the bridle. These noble animals, which were nearly untamed mmtanyx, bore a striking resemblance to the steeds of the Apaches, on whose territory our friends now were. They were literally covered with eagle plumes, beads, and ribbons, while long red and white spots completed their disguise, and rendered it almost impossible to re- cognise them. "Mount!" Don Miguel exclaimed so soon as he saw them. " Time is slipping away." " One word yet," Valentine remarked. "Speak." " You still have as chaplain a cer- tain monk by the name of Fray Arn- brosio ?" " Yes." "Take care of that man he betrays you." "You believe it?" " I am sure of it." " Good ! I will remember." " All right. Now we will be off," Valentine said, as he buried his spurs in his horse's flanks. And the three horsemen rushed into the darkness with headlong speed. CHAPTER XII. EL MESON. THE day on which our story com- mences the village of the Paso del Norte presented an extraordinary ap- pearance. The bells were ringing out full peals, for the three hundredth anniversary of its foundation was cele- brated. The population of Paso, great- ly diminished since the proclamation of Mexican independence, was hurry- ing to the churches, which flashed with silver and gold. The houses were decorated with rich tapestry, and the streets strewn with flowers. Toward nightfall the inhabitants, whom the intolerable heat of the tropical sun had kept prisoners in the interior of the houses, flocked out to 54 THE TRAIL-HUNTER. inhale the sharp perfumes of the desert breeze, and bring buck a little fresh air into their parched lungs. The town, which had for several hours ap- peared deserted, suddenly woke up : shouts and laughter were heard afresh. The walks were invaded by the mob, and in a few minutes the mesons were thronged -with idlers, who began drink- ing pulque and inezcal, while smoking their cigarettes, and strumming the ja- rabe and vihuela. In a house of poor appearance, built like all its neighbors, of earth bricks, and situated at the angle formed by the Plaza Mayor and the Calle de la Mer- ced, some twenty-five fellows, whom it was easy to recognize as adventurers by the feather in their hats, their upturned moustaches, and specially by the long bronzed-hilted sword they wore on the thigh, were drinking torrents of aguar- diente and pulque at the gambling tables, while yelling like deaf men, swearing like pagans, and threatening at every moment to unsheath their wea- pons. In a corner of the room occupied by these troublesome guests two men, seated opposite each other at a table, seemed plunged in deep thought, and looked round them absently, not think- ing about drinking the contents of their glasses, which had not been emptied for more than half an hour. These two men presented the most striking con- trast. They were still young. The first, aged twenty-five at the most, had one of those frank, honest, and energetic faces which call for sympathy, and at- tract respect. His pallid brow, his face of a delicate hue, surrounded by his long black curls, his straight and flexr ble nose, his mouth filled with a double row of teeth of dazzling whiteness, and surmounted by a slight brown mous- tache, gave him a stamp of distinction, which was the more striking owing to the strict, and perhaps common, style of his attire. He wore the costume of the wood- rangers ; that is to say, the Canadian mitasse, fastened round the hips, and descending to the ankle ; botas vaqueras of deer skin, fastened at the knee ; and a striped zarape of brilliant colors. A panama straw hat was thrown on the table, within reach of his hand, by the side of an American rifle, and two double-barrelled pistols. A machete hung on his left side, and the hilt of long knife peeped out of his left boot. His companion was short and thick- set; but his well-knit limbs and his out- standing muscles indicated no ordinary strength. His face, the features of which were common-place enough, had a cunning look, which suddenly disap- peared to make room for a certain no bility whenever under the influence of any sudden emotion ; his eyebrows contracted ; and his glance, ordinarily veiled, flashed forth. He wore nearly the same garb as his comrade ; but his hat stained with rain, and the colors of his zarape faded by the sun. evidenced lengthened wear. Like the first one we described, he was well armed. It was easy to see at the first glance that these two men did not belong to the Hispano- American ^race. Indeed, their conversation would have removed any doubts on that head, for they spoke in the French dialect employed in Canada. " Hum !" the first said, taking up his glass, which he carelessly raised to his lips. "After due consideration, Harry, I believe we shall do better by mount- ing our horses again, and starting, in- stead of remaining in this horrible den, amid these gachupinoSj who croak like frogs before a storm." " Deuce take your impatience !" the other replied ill-temperedly. " Can't you remain a moment at rest?" " You call it a moment, Harry. Why, we have been here an hour." " By Jove ! Dick, you're a wonderful fellow," the other continued with a laugh. " Do you think that business can be settled all in a moment ?" " After all, what is our game ? For may the old one twist my neck, or a grizzly give me a hug, if I know the least in the world ! for five years we have hunted and slept side by side. We have come from Canada together to this place. I have grown into a hab- it I cannot say why of referring to you everything that concerns our mu- tual interests. Still I should not be THE TRAIL-HUNTER. 55 iorry to know, if only for the rarity ol the fact, why on earth we left the prai ries, where we were so well off, to com here, where we are so badly off." " Have you ever repented, up ti to-day, the confidence you placed in me?" " I do not say so, Harry. Heaven "orbid ! Still I think " " You think wrong," the young man sharply interrupted. " Let me alone f and before three months you shall have three times your hat full of massive gold, or call me a fool." At this dazzling promise the eyes of Dick, the smaller of the hunters, glis- tened like two stars. He regarded his comrade with a species of admiration. " Oh, oh !" he said in a low voice, " it is a placer, is it ?" " Hang it !" the other said, with a shrug of his shoulders, " were it not, should I be here ? But silence, our man has arrived."^ In fact, a man entered at this mo- ment. On his appearance a sudden si- lence fell on the meson ; the adventur- ers gambling and cursing at all the tables, rose as if moved by a spring, respectfully took off their plumed hats, and ranged themselves with downcast eyes to let him pass. The man re- mained for an instant on the threshold of the venta, took a profound glance at the company, and then walked toward the two hunters. This man wore the gown of a monk; he had the ascetic face, with the harsh features and sharply-marked lines, that forms, as it were, the type of the Span- ish monks of which Titian has so admi- rably caught the expression on his can- vas. He passed through the adventur- ers, holding out right and left his wide sleeves, which they reverentially kissed. On approaching the two hunters he turned round. " Continue your sports, my sons," he said to the company ; " my presence need not disturb your frolics, for I only wish to speak for a few moments with those two gentlemen." The adventurers did not let the in- vitation be repeated, but took their places again tumultuously, and soon, cries and oaths recommenced with equal intensity. The monk smiled, took a butacca, and seated himself between the two hunters, while bending a searching glance on them. The latter had followed with a mock- ing eye all the interludes of this little scene, and without making a movement, they let the monk seat himself by their side. So soon as he had done so, Har- ry poured him out a large glass of pulque, and placed within his reach the squares of maize leaf and tobacco. " Drink and smoke, senor padre," he said to him. The monk, without any observation, rolled a cigarette, emptied the glass of pulque at a draught, and then leaning lis elbows on the table and bending :brward, said : " You are punctual." " We have been waiting an hour," Dick observed in a rough voice. " What is an hour in the presence of eternity T' the monk said with a smile. " Let us not lose any more time," larry continued. " What have you to >ropose to us ?" The monk looked around him suspi- iously, and lowered his voice. " I can, if you like, make you rich in few days." " What is the business?" Dick asked. " Of course," the monk continued, ; this fortune I offer you is a matter of ndifference to me. If I have an ar- eut desire to obtain it, it is, in the irst place, because it belongs to no- ody, and will permit me to relieve the vretchedness of the thousands of beings ;onfided to my charge." " Of course, senor padre," Harry an- wered seriously. " Let us not weigh onger on these details. According to vhat you told me a few days back, you ave discovered a rich placer." " Not I," the monk sharply objected. " No consequence, provided that it xists," Dick answered. " Pardon me, but it is of great con- equence to me. I do not wish to take n myself the responsibility of such a iscovery. If, as i believe, people will o in search of it, it may entail the 56 THE TRAIL-HUNTER. death of several persons, and the church abhors bloodshed." " Very good : you only desire to profit, by it." " Not for myself." "For your parishioners. Very good; but let urf try to come to an understand- ding, if possible, for our time is too precious for us to waste it in empty talk." " Volga me Dios /" the monk said, crossing himself, " how you have re- tained the impetuosity of your French origin ! Have a little patience, and 1 will explain myself." " That is all we desire." " But you will promise me " " Nothing," Dick interrupted. " We are honest hunters, and not accustomed to pledge yourselves so lightly before knowing positively what is asked of us." Harry supported his friend's words by a nod. Trie monk drank a glass of pulque, and took two or three heavy puffs at his cigarette. " Your will be done," he then said. " You are terrible men. This is the affair." " Go on." " A poor scamp of a gambusino, lost, I know not how, in the great desert, discovered at a considerable distance off, between the Rio Gila and the Col- orado, the richest placer the wildest imagination can conceive. According to his statement the gold is scattered over the surface, for an extent of two or three miles, in nuggets, each of which would make a man's fortune. This gambusino, dazzled by such treasures, but unable to appropriate them alone, displayed the greatest energy, and braved the utmost perils, in order to regain civilised regions. It was only through boldness and temerity that he succeeded in escaping the countless enemies who spied, and tracked him on all sides ; but Heaven at length allowed him to reach Paso safe and sound." " Very good," Dick observed. " All this may very possibly be true ; but why did you not bring this gambusino, instead of talking to us about the placer, of which you know as little as we do ? He would have supplied us with infor- mation which is indispensable for us, in the event of our consenting to help you in looking for this treasure." "Alas!" the monk replied, hypo critically casting his eyes down, " the unhappy man was not destined to profit by this discovery, made at the price of so many perils. Scarce two days after his arrival at Paso, he quarrelled with another gambusino, and received a stab which sent him a few hours later to the tomb." " In that case," Harry observed, " how did you learn all these details, senor padre ?" " In a very simple way, my son. It was I who reconciled the poor wretch in his last moments with Heaven ; and," he added, with an air of compunction splendidly assumed, " when he under- stood that his end was at hand, and that nothing could save him, he confided to me, in gratitude for the consolation I bestowed on him, what I have just told you, revealed to me the situation of the placer, and for greater certainty gave me a clumsy chart he had drawn out on the spot. You see that we can pro ceed almost with certainty." " Yes," Harry said, thoughtfully ; " but why, instead of first applying to the Mexicans, your countrymen, did you propose to us to help you in your enterprise ?" " Because the Mexicans are men who cannot be trusted, and before reaching the placer we should have to fight the Apaches and Comanches, on whose, ter- ritory it is situated." After these words, there was a lengthened silence between the three speakers : each was reflecting deeply on what he had just heard. The monk tried to read with cunning eye the im- pression produced on the hunters by ids confidence ; but his hopes were de- ceived. Their taces remained unmoved. At length Dick spoke in a rough voice, after exchanging a meaning look with his comrade. " AH that is very fine," he said ; " but it is absurd to suppose that two men, however brave they may be, can at- tempt such an enterprise in unknown regions peopled by ferocious tribes. It would require at least fifty resolute and THE TRAIL-HUNTER. 57 devoted men, otherwise nothing could be possible." ' You are right, and hence I did not calculate on you alone. You will have determined men under your orders, chosen cart-fully by myself, and I shall also accompany you." " Unluckily, if you have counted on us, you are mistaken, senor padre," Harry said, peremptorily. " We are honest hunters ; but the trade of a gam- busino does not at all suit us. Even if we had a chance of gaining an incal- culable fortune, we would not consent to take part in an expedition of gold seekers." " Not even if Red Cedar were at the head of the expedition, and consented to take the direction T' the monk said in a honeyed voice, and with a side- glance. The hunter started, a feverish blush suffused his face, and it was in a voice choked by emotion that he exclaimed : " Have you spoken with him about it?" " Here he is ; you can ask him," the monk answered. In fact, a man was entering the me- son at this moment. Harry looked down in confusion, while Dick tapped the table with his dagger and whistled. A smile of undefinable meaning wan- dered over the monk's pallid lips. CHAPTER XIII. RED CEDAR. RED CEDAR was more than six feet in height ; his enormous head was fas- tened to his square shoulders by a short and muscular neck, like a bull's ; his bony members were covered with mus- cles hard as ropes. In short, his whole person was a specimen of brute strength at its culminating point. A fox- skin cap, pressed down on his head, allowed escape to a few tufts of coarse greyish hair, and fell on his little grey eyes, which were close' to a nose that was hooked like the beak of a bird of prey ; his wide mouth was filled with white, large teeth ; his cheek bones were prominent and purpled ; and the lower part of his face disap- peared in a thick black beard, mingled with grey hairs, lie. wore a hunting shirt of striped calico, fastened round the waist by a strap of brown leather, through which were passed two j> an axe, and a long knife ; a pair of leg- gins of tawny leather, sewed at equal distances with hair, fell down to his knees ; while his legs were protected by Indian moccasins, ornamented with a profusion of beads and bells. A game bag of fawn-skin, which seemed" full, fell over his right hip ; and he held in his hand an American rifle, studded with copper nails. No one knew who Red Cedar was, or whence he came. About two years prior to the period of our story opening he had suddenly made his appearance in the country, accompanied by a wife of a certain age a species of Megaera, of masculine form and repel lant aspect ; a girl of seventeen ; and three vigorous lads, who resembled him too closely not to be his own, and whose age va- ried from nineteen to twenty-four. Red Cedar himself appeared to be fifty-five at the most. The name by which he was known had been given to him by the Indians, of whom he had declared himself the implacable enemy, and boasted that he had killed two hun- dred. The old woman was called Betsy ; the girl, Ellen ; the eldest son, Nathan; the second, Sutter; and the last, Shaw. This family had built a shanty in the forest, a few miles from Paso, and lived alone in the desert, without having en- tered into any relations with the inhab- itants of the village, or the trappers and wood-rangers, its neighbors. The mysterious conduct of these strangers had given rise to numerous comments ; but all had remained without reply or solution, and after two years they re- mained as perfect strangers as on the day of their arrival. Still, mournful and sad stories were in circulation on their account : they inspired an instinctive hatred and in- voluntary terror in the Mexicans. Some said in a whisper that old Red Cedar and his three sons were nothing THE TRAIL-HUNTER. less than " scalp-hunters ;" that is to say, in the public esteem, people placed beneath the pirates of the prairies, that unclean breed of birds of prey which everybody fears and despises. The entry of Red Cedar was signifi- cant ; the otherwise unscrupulous men who filled the venta hurriedly retired on his approach, and made room for him with a zeal mingled with disgust. The old Partisan crossed the room with head erect; a smile of haughty [disdain played round his thin lips at the sight of the effect his presence pro- duced, and he went up to the monk and his two companions. On reaching them lie roughly placed the butt of his rifle on the ground, leaned his two crossed hands upon the barrel, and after bending a cunning glance on the persons before him, said to the monk in a hoarse voice : "The deuce take you, senor padre ! Here I am : what do you want with me?" .Far from being vexed at this brutal address, the latter smiled on the colos- us, and held out his hand to him, as he graciously made answer : " You are welcome, Red Cedar ; we were expecting you impatiently. Sit down by rny side on this butacca, and we will talk while drinking a glass of pulque." " The deuce twist your neck, and may your accursed pulque choke you ! Do you take me for a wretched abor- tion of your sort ?" the other answered as he fell into the seat offered him. " Order me some brandy, and that of the strongest. 1 am not a babe, I sup- pose." Without making the slightest obser- vation, the monk rose, went to speak with the host, and presently returned t with a bottle, from which he poured a bumper for the old hunter. The latter emptied the glass at a draught, put it back on the table with a sonorous " hum !" and turned to the monk with a grimacing smile. " Come, the devil is not always so black as he looks, senor padre," he said, as he passed his hand over his mouth to wipe his moustache. " I see that we can come to an understanding." " It will only depend on yon, Red Cedar. Here are two worthy Cana- dian hunters who will do nothing with- out your support." The Hercules took a side glance at the young men. " Eh 1" he said, " what do you want with these children ? Did I not pro- mise you to reach the placer with my sons only T' " He, he ! you are powerfully built, both you and your lads, I allow ; but I doubt whether four men, were they twice as strong as you are, could carry out this affair successfully. You will have numerous enemies to combat on your road." " All the better ! The more there are, the more we shall kill," he an- swered with a sinister laugh, "Senor padre," Dick .interrupted, " as far as 1 am concerned, I care little about it." But he was suddenly checked by a meaning glance from his mate. "What do you care little about, my pretty lad ?" the giant asked in a mock- ing voice. " Nothing," the young man answered drily. " Suppose I had not spoken." " Good," Red Cedar remarked ; " it shall be as you wish. Here's your health." And he poured the rest of the bottle into his glass. " Come," said Harry, " Let us have but few words. Explain yourself once for all, without beating about the bush, senor padre." "Yes," Red Cedar observed, "men ought not to waste their time thus in chattering." " Very good. This, then, is what I propose. Red Cedar will collect with- in three days from this time thirty re- solute men, of whom he will take the command, and we will start immediate- ly in search of the placer. Does it suit you in that way ?" "Hum!" Red Cedar said. "In order to go in search of the placer we must know a little in what direction it is, or deuce take me if I undertake the business !" " Do not trouble yourself about that, Red Cedar j I will accompany you. THE TRAIL-HUNTER. 59 Have [ not got a plan of the country f The c ..lossus shot at the monk a glance which sparkled under his dark t-velash, but he hastened to moderate its brilliancy by letting his eyes fall. " That is true," he said with feigned indifference ; " 1 forgot that you were coming with us. Then you will leave your parishioners during your ab- sence ?" " Heaven will watch over them." " Eh ! it will have its work cut out. However, that does not concern me at all. But why did you oblige me to come to this meson ?" " In order to introduce you to these two hunters, who will accompany us." " I beg your pardon," Dick observed, " but 1 do not exactly see of what use I can be to you in all this : my aid, and that of my mate, do not appear to rne to be indispensable." " On the contrary," the monk an- swered quickly, " I reckon entirely on you." The giant had risen. " What!" he said, as he roughly laid his enormous hand on Dick's shoulder, " you do not understand that this honor- able personage, who did not hesitate to kill a man in order to rob him of the secret of the placer, has a terrible fear of finding himself alone with me on the prairie 1 He fears that I shall kill him in my turn to'rob him of the secret of which he became master by a crime. Ha, ha, ha !" And he turned his back unceremo- niously. " How can you suppose such things, Red Cedar?" the monk exclaimed. " Do you fancy that I did not read you V the latter answered. " But it is all the same to you. Do as you please : I leave you at liberty to act as you like." " What ! you are off already ?" " Hang it ! what have 1 to do any longer here 1 ? All is settled between us. In three days thirty of the best frontiers men will be assembled by my care at Grizzly Bear Creek, where, we shall ex- pect you." After shrugging his shoulders once again he went off without any salute, or even turning his head. " It must be confessed," Dick ob- served, " that the man has -\ most vil- lanous face. What a hideous fellow !" " Oh !" the monk answered with a sigh, " the exterior is nothing. You should know the inner man." " Why, in that case, do you have any dealings with him ?" The monk blushed slightly. " Because it must be so," he muttered. " All right for you," Dick continued ; " but as nothing obliges my friend and myself to have any more intimate re- lations with that man, you must not mind, senor padre, if " "Silence, Dick!" Harry shouted, angrily. "You do not know what you are talking about. We will accompany you, senor padre. You can reckon on us to defend you if necessary, for I sup- pose that Red Cedar is right." " In what way ?" " You do not wish to trust your life defencelessly in his hands, and you reckoned on us to protect you. Is it not so ?" "Why should I feign any longer? Yes, that man terrifies me, and I do not wish to trust myself to his mercy." " Do not be alarmed ; we shall be there, and on our word as hunters, not a hair of your head shall fall." A lively satisfaction appeared on the monk's pale face at this generous pro- mise. " Thanks," he said warmly. Harry's conduct appeared so extra- ordinary to Dick, who knew the lofty sentiments arid innate honor of his com- rade, that, without striving to fathom the motives which made him act thus, he contented himself by backing up his words by an affirmative nod of the head. "Be assured, caballeros, that when we have reached the placer, I will give you a large share, and you will have no cause to regret accompanying me." " The money question has but slight interest with us," Harry answered. " My friend and I are free hunters, car- ing very little for riches, which would be to us rather a source of embarrass- ment than of pleasure and enjoyment. Curiosity alone, and the desire of ex- ploring strange countries, are sufficient to make us undertake this journey.* 60 THE TRAIL-HUNTER. " Whatever the reason that makes you accept my proposals, I am not the less obliged to you." " Now you will permit us to take leave of you, and we shall hold our- selves at your orders." " Go, gentlemen ; 1 will not keep you longer. I know where to find you when 1 want you." The young men took up their hats, slung their rifles on their shoulders, and left the meson. The monk looked after them. " Oh !" he muttered, " I believe I can trust to those men : they have still in their veins a few drops of that honest French blood which despises treachery. No matter," he added, as if on reflec- tion ; " 1 will take my precautions." After this aside, he rose and looked around him. The room was full of ad- venturers, who drank or played at monte, and whose energetic faces st-