TALE S 
 
 or 
 
 SOUTHERN BORDER, 
 
 BY C. W. WEBBER, 
 
 AUTHOR OP 
 
 IN THE EYE," "OLD HICKS THE GUIDE," "CHABLES mNTEKMELD ?APEK3," 
 COLD-MINES OF THE GILA," ETC. ETO. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 
 1887. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1868, by 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT 4 CO. 
 
 In the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of 
 Pennsylvania, 
 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IN presenting this series of Border Tales, there 
 seems to be little more necessary to be said than 
 that I have not only been to some pains in bringing 
 together those of my fugitive sketches that have 
 not heretofore been collected, but have also imbo- 
 died with them several somewhat lengthy stories, 
 which have now first been completed, expressly with 
 the view of rendering the collection more full and 
 varied. 
 
 Many of these sketches have been taken off-hand, 
 as the result of personal observation and experience, 
 on the spot ; and, even in those cases where I have 
 not been an immediate personal actor, are drawn 
 from such vivid memories as a frequent participation 
 with, often, the very parties themselves, in scenes 
 of nearly a similar spirit, would be likely to furnish. 
 As delineations, therefore, they may reasonably be 
 
 435776 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 supposed to convey, with something more than the 
 fidelity of the mere romancer, the wild actualities of 
 life on our most storied, yet least illustrated borders 
 those of the Great South-west and South. 
 
 I shall, some day, amuse myself by furnishing 
 notes to this series of Border Tales, which will give 
 the bare and literal outlines of historical reality upon 
 which each sketch is based ; and I am greatly mis 
 taken in my estimate of those who shall have per 
 sisted in regarding me as having drawn exclusively 
 upon my imagination for my facts, if they do not 
 find, no little to their surprise, that I have in reality 
 been more romanced against by their incredulity, 
 than romancing. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 MM 
 
 JACK LONG; OE, THE SHOT IN THE EYE 9 
 
 THE BORDER CHASE: A FIRST DAY WITH THE RANGERS.. 45 
 
 GONZALEZE AGAIN; OR, THE BRAVO S STRATAGEM 71 
 
 ADAM BAKER, THE RENEGADE 91 
 
 THE TEXAN VIRAGO AND THE TAILOB OF GOTHAM 121 
 
 DEATH OF LITTLE RED-HEAD 166 
 
 GABREELLE: THE WHITE MARE OF CHIHUAHUA 181 
 
 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA 215 
 
 THE FIGHT OF THE PINTO TRACE 280 
 
 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS... .. 293 
 
 A2 
 
JACK LONG ; 
 
 OB, 
 
 THE SHOT IN THE EYE. 
 
TALES OF THE SOUTHERN BORDER. 
 
 JACK LONG; 
 
 OR, THE SHOT IN THE EYE. 
 
 THE millions of copies of this story which have been circu 
 lated in this country through the daily and weekly press, 
 have all been from a mutilated edition which was impudently 
 pirated in an English periodical, under a new name. Ameri 
 can editors, in copying, replaced a portion of the original 
 title, to be sure, but took the text as they found it. I would, 
 therefore, present it in book form for the first time, once for 
 all pronouncing the following to be the only version author- 
 
10 JACK LONG; OR, 
 
 ized by me, of a narrative the facts of which are too nearly 
 historical to justify their having been wantonly handled. 
 r It must be confessed that the man of high civilization will 
 find some difficulty in understanding how such a deed as I 
 am about to relate requiring months to consummate could 
 have been carried through in the open face of law and of the 
 local authorities but he who has any knowledge of this 
 Texan frontier, will tell him that the rifle and the bowie 
 knife were, at the period of this narrative, all the law and 
 local authority recognized. Witness the answer President 
 Houston gave when application was first made to him for 
 his interposition with the civil force to quell the bloody 
 "Regulator Wars," which afterwards sprang up in this 
 very same county " Fight it out among yourselves, and be 
 d d to you !" A speech entirely characteristic of the man 
 ,. and the country, as it then was ! 
 
 It was the period of the first organization of the Regulators 
 to which our story refers. Shelby, in the latter part of 39, 
 was a frontier county, and bordering upon that region known 
 as the Red Lands, was the receptacle of all the vilest men 
 who had been driven across our borders, for crimes of every 
 degree ! Horse thieves, and villains of every kind, congre 
 gated in such numbers, that the open and bare-faced effort 
 had been made to convert it into a sort of " Alsatia" of the 
 West a place of refuge for all outlaws, who understood 
 universally that it was only necessary to the most perfect 
 immunity in crime, that they should succeed in effecting an 
 escape to this neighborhood, where they would be publicly 
 protected and pursuit defied. 
 
 The extent to which this thing was carried may be con 
 jectured, when it is known that bands of men, disguised as 
 Indians, would sally forth into the neighboring districts, 
 with the view of visiting some obnoxious person with their 
 vengeance either in the shape of robbery or murder. 
 Returning with great speed, and driving the valuable stock 
 
THE SHOT IN THE EYE. 11 
 
 before them, till they were among their friends again, they 
 would re-brand the horses and mules, resume their usual 
 appearance, and laugh at retaliation. Even single men 
 would, in the face of day, commit the most daring crimes, 
 trusting to an escape to Shelby for protection. They 
 seemed determined, at any risk, to hold the county good 
 against the encroachments of all honest citizens ; and this 
 came to be so notorious, that no man could move among 
 them with any citizen-like and proper motives, but at the 
 expense of his personal safety or his conscience for the 
 crime of refusing to take part with them, was in itself 
 sufficient to subject all new comers to a series of persecu 
 tions, which soon brought them into terms, or resulted in 
 their extermination. 
 
 We do not wish to be understood that the whole population 
 of the county were avowedly horse thieves and cut-throats ! 
 There was one different class of wealthy planters, and another 
 of the old stamp of restless migrating hunters, who first led 
 the tide of population over the Alleghanies. These two 
 classes made some pretensions to outward decorum, and in 
 various ways acted as restraints upon that of the worse 
 disposed ; while they, with that utter intolerance of restraint, 
 which so unbounded license necessarily engenders, deter 
 mined to submit to no presence which should in any way 
 rebuke or embarrass their deeds. Most of these bad men 
 were a kind of small land-holders, who only cultivated 
 patches of ground, dotting the spaces between the larger 
 plantations; but they kept very fine horses, and depended 
 more on their speed for acquiring plunder, than any 
 capacity of their own for labor. 
 
 They were finally wrought up to the last pitch of restless 
 ness by this closing around of unmanageable persons, and 
 organized themselves into a band of Regulators, as they 
 termed themselves. They proclaimed that the county limits 
 needed purification, and that they felt themselves specially 
 
12 
 
 called to the work. Accordingly, under the lead of a man, 
 who was himself a brutal monster, named Hinch, they com 
 menced operations. In this public-spirited and praiseworthy 
 operation, they soon managed to reduce the county to the 
 subjection of fear, if not to an affectionate recognition of the 
 prerogatives they arrogated to themselves. 
 
 The richer Planters they compelled to pay a heavy black 
 mail rent, in fee simple of a right to enjoy their own property 
 and lives, with the further understanding that they were to 
 be protected in these immunities from all danger from without 
 of a similar kind. The Planters, in return, were to wink upon 
 any deeds, whose coloring might otherwise chance to be offen 
 sive to eyes polite. 
 
 The other class of simple-hearted sturdy men were goaded 
 and tortured by the most aggravated annoyances, until, driven 
 in despair to some act of retaliation, they furnished their 
 tyrants with the shadow of an excuse, which even they felt 
 to be needed, and were then either lynched with lashes 
 and warned to leave the county in so many days, or shot if 
 they persisted in remaining ! So relentless and vindictive 
 did these wretches show themselves in hunting down every 
 one who dared to oppose himself to them in any way, that 
 very soon their ascendency in the county was almost without 
 any dispute. Indeed, there were very few left who from any 
 cause could presume to do so. Among these few, and one of 
 this last class of wandering hunters, was Jack Long. 
 
 Jack had come of a "wild turkey breed," as I have men 
 tioned the phrase to be in the West for a family remarkable 
 for its wandering propensities. He had already pushed ahead 
 of two States and a Territory, and following the game still 
 farther towards the south, had been pleased with the promise 
 of an abundance of it in Shelby county, and stopped there, 
 just as he would have stopped at the foot of the Rocky Moun 
 tains, had it been necessary to have gone so far ; without 
 troubling himself or caring to know who his neighbors were. 
 
THE SHOT IN THE EYE. 13 
 
 He had never thought it at all essential to ask leave of any 
 government as to how or where he should make himself a 
 home, or even to inquire what particular nation put in its 
 claim to any region that suited his purposes. His heritage 
 had been the young earth, with its skies, its waters, and its 
 winds, its huge primeval forests, and plains throwing out 
 their broad breasts to the sun with all the sights and 
 sounds and living things that moved and were articulate 
 beneath God s eye rand what cared he for the authority of 
 men! 
 
 The first, indeed, that was known or heard of Jack, was 
 when he had already built him a snug log-cabin, on the 
 outskirts of the county, near the bank of a small stream 
 stowed away his fair-faced young wife and two children 
 cosily into it, and was busily engaged in slaying the deer and 
 bear right and left. 
 
 He kept himself so much to himself, that for a long time, 
 little was thought or said of him. His passion for hunting 
 seemed so absorbing, he did nothing else but follow up 
 the game from morning till night, and it was so abundant, 
 that he had full opportunity for indulgence to his entire 
 content. Beyond this he seemed to have no pleasure, but in 
 that solitary hut, which, however rude, held associations dear 
 enough to fill that big heart, and quicken all the sluggish 
 veins of that ungainly body. Sometimes one of the Rangers 
 would come across him alone with his long rifle, amidst the 
 timber island of the plain, or in the deep woods; and he 
 always appeared to have been so successful, that the rumor 
 gradually got abroad that he was a splendid shot. This 
 attracted attention somewhat more to his apparently unsocial 
 and solitary habits. They had the curiosity to watch him, 
 and when they saw how devoted he was to his wife, the gibe 
 became general that he was a " hen-pecked husband, under 
 petticoat government," and other like gratifying expressions. 
 
 This, taken in connecti m with his lolling, awkward gait, and 
 B 
 
14 JACK LONG; OR, 
 
 rather excessive expression of simplicity and easy temper, 
 disposed these harsh, rude men, very greatly to sneer at him 
 as a soft fellow, who could be run over with impunity. They 
 even bullied him with taunts but Jack looked like such a 
 formidable customer to be taken hold of, that no one of 
 them felt disposed to push him too far, and risk being made, 
 individually, the subject of a display of the strength indicated 
 in the great size of his body and limbs. He was upward 
 of six feet four in height, with shoulders like the butresses 
 of a tower, a small head, and other proportions developed in 
 fine symmetry. Indeed, but for a slight inclination to 
 corpulency, and that sluggishness of manner we have spoken 
 of, which made him seem too lazy even to undertake the 
 feat he looked just the man who could take a buflalo bull 
 by the horns amidst his bellowing peers, and bring him to 
 the ground with all his shaggy bulk. 
 
 Finding they could not tempt him to a personal fray, they 
 changed the note, and by every sort of cajolery endeavored 
 to enlist the remarkable physical energy and skill he was 
 conjectured to possess, in the service of their schemes of 
 brutal violence. But Jack waived all sort of participation 
 in them with a smiling and unvarying good-humor, which, 
 although it enraged the baffled ruffians, gave them no possible 
 excuse for provocation. They would not have regarded this, 
 but there was still less invitation in that formidable person 
 and long rifle ; and somehow or other, they had an undefined 
 sense that the man was not "at himself," as the phrase 
 goes in the West that he had not yet been roused to a 
 consciousness of his own energies and capabilities, and they 
 were, without acknowledging it, a little averse to waking him. 
 
 They finally gave him up, therefore, and Jack might have 
 been left in peace to love Molly and the children as hard 
 as he pleased, and indulge his passion for marksmanship 
 only at the expense of the dumb, wild things around him, 
 but that he was led to make an unfortunate display of it. 
 
THE SHOT IN THE EYE. 15 
 
 A few log huts near the centre, constituted the county 
 town. Here was the grocery, or store, as it was dignified 
 at which alone powder and lead and whiskey were to be 
 obtained for many miles around. Jack happened to get 
 out of ammunition, and came into this place for a supply. 
 Attracted by the whiskey, this was the head-quarters of 
 the Regulators, and they were all collected for a grand 
 shooting-match, and of course getting drunk as fast as 
 possible, to steady their nerves. 
 
 When Jack arrived, he found them gathered in a group 
 under a cluster of trees, several hundred yards from the 
 house. It had been some time since there had been any 
 altercation between any of them and himself; and though 
 he supposed it was all forgotten, yet he felt some little 
 disinclination to joining them, and had resolved not to do 
 it. But as once, and again and again, that sharp report he 
 loved so well to hear, would ring out, followed by the clamors, 
 exclamations and eager grouping of the men around the 
 target, to critically examine the result of each shot, his 
 passion for the sport, and curiosity to see how others shot, 
 overcame a half-defined feeling that he was going to do 
 what, for Molly s sake, was an imprudent thing. 
 
 Hinch, the Regulator captain, had always been the 
 unrivalled hero of such occasions; for, apart from the fact 
 that he was really an admirable shot, he was known to b. 
 BO fierce, blustering and vindictive a bully, that nobody 
 dared try very hard to beat him, since he would be sure to 
 make a personal affair of it with whoever presumed to be 
 so lucky or so skillful. Now, everybody in the county was 
 aware of this but Jack, and he was either not aware, or did 
 not care for the matter, if he did know it. He knew, though, 
 that Hinch was a famous shot ; and noticing that he was 
 preparing to shoot, started to join them, determined to see 
 for himself what they called good shooting. 
 
 He came swinging himself carelessly among them, with 
 
16 JACK LONG; on, 
 
 long, heavy strides, as they were all vociferating in half- 
 drunken raptures over the glorious shot just made by Hinch, 
 and he, in his customary manner, was swearing and raving 
 at every one around him, and taunting them with their 
 bungling, and defying them to try again. 
 
 Observing Jack, he jerked the target away, and with a 
 loud, grating laugh, thrust it, insultingly, close to his face. 
 
 " Hah ! Jack Long-legs ! they say you can shoot ! Look 
 at that! look close, will you?" pushing it close to his eyes. 
 "Can you beat it?" 
 
 Jack stepped back, and looking deliberately at the target, 
 said very drily 
 
 " Pshaw ! the cross aint clean out ! I shouldn t think I 
 was doin any great things to beat such shootin as that !" 
 
 "You shouldn t, shouldn t you?" roared Hinch, furious 
 at Jack s coolness. " You ll try it, wont you ? I d like to 
 see you! You must try it! You shall try it! We ll see 
 what sort of a swell you are !" 
 
 " Oh !" said Jack, altogether unruffled, "If I must, I must ! 
 Put up his board thar, men. If you want to see me shoot 
 through every hole you can make, I ll do it for ye !" 
 
 And walking back to the " off-hand" stand at forty paces, 
 by the time the " markers" had placed the board against the 
 tree, he had wheeled, and, slowly swinging his long rifle 
 down from his shoulders to the level, fired as quick as 
 thought. 
 
 "It s fun of mine !" remarked he, nodding his head towards 
 
 Hinch, who stood near, while he was lowering his gun to the 
 
 position for reloading. " It s a trick I caught from always 
 
 shooting the varmints eyes ! I never takes em anywhar else ! 
 
 ^It s a way I ve got !" 
 
 At this moment the men standing near the target, who 
 had rushed instantly with great eagerness to see the result, 
 shouted, while one of the " markers" held it aloft " He s 
 
THE SHOT IN THE EYE. 17 
 
 done it ! His ball is the biggest he s driv it through your 
 hole and made it wider !" 
 
 Hinch turned pale. Rushing forward he tore the target 
 away from the "marker," and examining it minutely, shouted 
 hoarsely 
 
 " It s an accident ! He can t do it again ! He s a humbug ! 
 I ll bet the ears of a buffalo calf agin his that he can t do 
 it agin ! He s afraid to shooot with me agin !" 
 
 "Oh!" said Jack, winking aside at the men, "If you mean 
 by that bet, your ears against mine, I ll take it up ! Boys, 
 fit a new board up thar, with a nice cross in the centre, and 
 I will show the Captain here, the clean thing in shootin !" 
 
 As he said this he laughed good-humoredly, and the men 
 could not help joining him. 
 
 Hinch, who was loading his gun, said nothing ; but glared 
 around with white compressed lips and a chafed look of stifled 
 fury, which made those who knew the man shudder. The 
 men, who were in reality puzzled to tell whether Jack s 
 manner indicated contempt or unconscious simplicity, looked 
 on the progress of this scene, and for the result of the coming 
 trial, with intense curiosity. 
 
 The new board was now ready, and Hinch stepped forward 
 with great parade to make his shot. After aiming a long 
 time he fired. The men were around the board in a 
 moment, and instantly proclaimed a first-rate shot. And 
 so it was. The edge of the ball had broken without touching 
 the centre. Jack, with the same inexplicable coolness which 
 marked his whole bearing, and without the slightest hesitation, 
 shaking his head as he took his stand, remarked 
 
 " Twon t do yet taint plumb taint the clean thing 
 yet, boys ;" and throwing out his long rifle again in the 
 same heedless style, fired before one could think. The men 
 sprang forward and announced that the centre was cut out 
 with the most exact and perfect nicety. At the same moment, 
 
 B2 2 
 
18 JACK LONG; OR, 
 
 and greatly to the astonishment of every one, Jack walked 
 deliberately off towards the store, without waiting to hear 
 the announcement. 
 
 "Hah!" shouted Hinch furiously, after him, "I thought 
 you was a coward ! Look at the sneak ! Come back !" He 
 fairly roared, starting after him, " Come back, you can t 
 shoot as well before a muzzle." 
 
 Jack walked on without turning his head, while the Regu 
 lator, almost convulsed with fury, shouted, " Ha ! ha ! see, 
 the coward is running away to hide under his wife s petti 
 coats !" and long and loud he pealed the harsh taunt after 
 Jack s retreat. 
 
 The men, who at first had been greatly astonished at the 
 rash daring which could thus have ventured to beard the 
 lion in his most formidable mood, and felt the instinctive 
 admiration with which such traits always inspire such breasts, 
 now, on seeing what appeared so palpable a "back-out," 
 joined also in the laugh with Hinch. 
 
 They thought it was cowardice ! A holy sentiment they 
 could not understand, kept watch and ward over the terrible 
 repose of passion. If they only could have seen how that 
 broad massive face was wrenched and grew white with the 
 deep inward spasm of pride struggling for the mastery, as 
 those gibes, so hard to be borne by a free hunter, rung upon 
 his ears, they would have taken warning to beware how they 
 farther molested that slumber of fierce energies. 
 
 The strong man in reality had never been waked. His 
 consciousness was aware only of a single passion, and that 
 controlled and curbed all others. The image of his wife 
 and children rose above the swelling tumult, which shook 
 his heavy frame. He saw them deserted and helpless, with 
 no protection in this wild and lawless region, should he fall 
 in a struggle with such fearful odds. For all these men were 
 the willing slaves, the abject tools, of the ferocious vices of 
 his brutal insulter; and it would have been a contest, not 
 
THE SHOT IN THE EYE. 19 
 
 with him alone, but with all of them. This was stronger 
 than pride with Jack, and he walked on. 
 
 But he had incurred the hate of Hinch relentless and 
 unsparing. To be shorn in so unceremonious a manner of 
 the very reputation he prided himself most upon, in the 
 presence of his men ; to be deprived of so fruitful a theme 
 of self-glorification and boasting, as the reputation of being 
 the foremost marksman the frontier afforded, was too much 
 for the pride of the thick-blooded, malignant savage ; and 
 he swore to dog the inoffensive hunter to the death, or out 
 of the county. 
 
 From this time, the even tenor of Jack s simple, happy life 
 was destroyed, and indignity and outrage followed each other 
 fast. 
 
 Shortly after, a horse was stolen from a rich and powerful 
 Planter in the neighborhood of the town. The animal was a 
 fine one, and the Planter was greatly enraged at the loss ; 
 for he was one of those who paid "black-mail" to the Regu 
 lators for protection from all such annoyances, immunity 
 from depredations not only by themselves, but from any 
 other quarter. He now called upon them to hunt down the 
 thief, as they were bound under the contract to do, and 
 return the horse. 
 
 Hinch collected his band with great parade, and proceeded 
 to follow the trail, which was readily discoverable near the 
 planter s house. 
 
 Late in the evening he returned and answered, that after 
 tracing it with great difficulty through many devious windings, 
 evidently intended to puzzle pursuit, he had at last been led 
 directly to the near vicinity of Jack Long s hut. This created 
 much surprise, for no one had suspected Jack of bad habits. 
 But Hinch and his villains bruited far and wide all the 
 circumstances tending to criminate him. After making 
 these things as notorious as possible, attracting as great a 
 degree of public curiosity as he could to the further investi- 
 
20 JACK LONG; OR, 
 
 gation, which he professed to be carrying on for the purpose 
 of fixing the hunter s guilt beyond a doubt, the horse was 
 found tied with a lariat to a tree, in a dense bottom near 
 Jack s hut. 
 
 This seemed to settle the question of his criminality, and 
 a general outcry was raised against him on every side. For, 
 though the majority of those most clamorous against him 
 were horse thieves themselves, yet, according to the doctrine 
 of "honor among thieves," there could be no greater or more 
 unpardonable enormity committed, than that of stealing among 
 themselves. 
 
 "He must be warned to quit the county," was in the 
 mouth of every body, and accordingly he was privately 
 warned. Jack, with great simplicity, gave them to under 
 stand, that he was not ready to go, and that when he was, 
 he should leave at his leisure ; but that if his convenience 
 and theirs did not agree, they might make the most of it. 
 This left no alternative but force ; and yet no individual felt 
 disposed to take the personal responsibility upon himself of 
 a collision with so unpromising a person ; and even Hinch, 
 eager as he was, did not feel that the circumstances were 
 quite strong enough to justify the extremes to which he 
 intended pushing his vengeance. 
 
 Singular instances of the most vile and wanton spite now 
 began to occur in various parts of the region around. At 
 quick intervals, valuable horses and mules were found shot 
 dead close to the dwellings of the Planters, as it seemed, 
 without the slightest provocation for such unheard-of cruelty. 
 The rumor soon got out that all these animals might be 
 observed to belong to those persons who had made themselves 
 most active in denouncing Jack Long. Then was noticed 
 the curious fact, that all of them were shot through the eye ! 
 This was at once associated with the memorable remark of 
 Jack, and his odd feat of firing through a bullet hole at the 
 
THE SHOT IN THE EYE. 21 
 
 shooting-match. This seemed to designate him certainly as 
 the guilty man; and as animal after animal continued to 
 fall, every one of them slain in the same way, a perfect 
 blaze of indignation burst out on all sides. 
 
 The whole country was roused, and the excitement became 
 universal and intense. In the estimation of every body, 
 hanging, drawing and quartering, burning, lynching, any 
 thing was too good for such a monster. All this feeling 
 was most industriously fomented by Hinch and his myrmi 
 dons, until things had reached the proper crisis. Then a 
 county meeting was got up, at which one of the Planters 
 presided, and resolutions were passed that Jack Long, as a 
 bad citizen, should be lynched and driven from the county 
 forthwith. Hinch, of course, dictated a resolution which he 
 was to have the pleasure of carrying into effect. 
 
 In the meantime, Jack had given himself very little trouble 
 about what was said of him. He had kept himself so entirely 
 apart from everybody that he was nearly in perfect ignorance 
 of what was going on. The deer fell before his unerring 
 rifle in as great numbers as ever. The bear rendered up 
 its shaggy coat, the panther its tawny hide,, in as frequent 
 trophies, to the unique skill of the hunter ! 
 
 One evening he had returned, laden down as usual with 
 the spoils, to his hut. It was a snug little lodge in the 
 wilderness, that home of Jack s. It stood beneath the shade 
 of an island grove, on a hill-side, overlooking a thicket 
 which bordered a small stream. The gray, silvery moss 
 hung its matchless drapery in long fringes from the old 
 wide-armed oak above, and that mild, but most pervading 
 odor, which the winds are skillful to steal from the breath 
 of leaves, the young grass growing, and the panting languish- 
 ment of delicate wild flowers, filled the whole atmosphere 
 around. These were the perfumes and the sights the coy, 
 exacting taste of a bold rover of the solitudes must have. 
 
22 JACK LONG; OR, 
 
 The fresh face of nature, and her breathing sweet as child 
 hood s, could alone satisfy the senses and the soul of one 
 grown thus in love with the freedom of the wilderness. 
 
 The round, happy face of his wife greeted him with smiles 
 from the door as he approached, while his little boy and 
 girl, nut-brown and ruddy, strove, with emulous, short steps, 
 pattering over the thick grass, to meet him first, and clinging 
 to his fingers, prattled and shouted to tell their mother of 
 his coming. He entered, and the precious rifle was carefully 
 deposited on the accustomed "hooks" of buck s horns nailed 
 against the wall. The smoking meal her tidy care had 
 prepared was soon despatched, and the hunting adventures 
 of the day told over. 
 
 Then he threw himself with his huge length along the 
 buffalo robe on the floor, to rest and have a romp with the 
 children. While they were climbing and scrambling in 
 riotous joy about him, his wife spoke for some water for her 
 domestic affairs. It was hard for the children to give up 
 their frolic, but Molly s wish was a strong law with Jack. 
 Bounding up, he seized a vessel and started for the stream, 
 the little ones pouting wistfully as they looked after him 
 from the door. 
 
 It was against Jack s religion to step outside the door 
 without his rifle ; but this time Molly was in a hurry for the 
 water, there was no time to get the gun, and it was but a 
 short distance to the stream. 
 
 He sprang gaily along the narrow path down the hill, and 
 reached the brink. The water had been dipped up, and he 
 was returning at a rapid pace through the thicket, when, 
 where it was very high and bordered close upon the path, 
 he suddenly felt something tap him on each shoulder, and 
 his progress impeded strangely. At the same instant a 
 number of men rushed from ambush on each side of him, 
 several of them holding the end of the stout raw-hide lasso 
 which they had thrown over him. He instantly put forth all 
 
THE SHOT IN THE EYE. 28 
 
 his tremendous strength in a convulsive effort to get free ; and 
 BO powerful was his frame, that he would have succeeded, 
 but for the sure skill with which the lasso had been thrown, 
 that bound him over either arm As it was, his remarkable 
 vigor, nerved by desperation, was sufficient to drag the six 
 strong men, who clung to the rope, after him. He heard 
 the voice of Hinch shout eagerly, " Down with him ! drag 
 him down !" At that hateful sound a supernatural activity 
 possessed him, and writhing with a quick spring that shook 
 off those who clung about his limbs, he had almost succeeded 
 in reaching his own door, when a heavy blow from behind 
 felled him. The last objects which met his eye as he sunk 
 down insensible, were the terror-stricken and agonized faces 
 of his wife and children looking out upon him. 
 
 When he awoke to consciousness, it was to find himself 
 nearly stripped, and lashed to the oak which spread above 
 his hut. Hinch, with a look of devilish exultation, stood 
 before him ; his wife, wailing with piteous lamentations, clung 
 about the monster s knees; the children, endeavoring to 
 hide their faces in her dress, screamed in affright; while 
 outside the group, eight or nine men, with guns in their 
 hands, stood in a circle. 
 
 That was a fearful wakening to Jack Long ; but it was to 
 a new birth ! His eye took in all the details of the scene 
 at a glance. His enemy grinning in his face with wolfish 
 triumph; the "quirt," with its long, heavy lash of knotted 
 raw-hide, in his hand. He saw the brute spurn her violently 
 with his foot, until she pitched against the wretches around ; 
 and he heard them shout with laughter. 
 
 A sharp, electric agony, like the riving of an oak, shivered 
 along his nerves, passed out at his fingers and his feet, and 
 left him rigid as marble ; and when the blows of the hideous 
 mocking devil before him fell upon his white flesh, making 
 it welt in purple ridges, or spout dull black currents, he felt 
 them no more than the dead lintel of his door would have 
 
24 
 
 JACK LONG; OR, 
 
 done ; and the agony of that poor wife shrilling a frantic 
 echo to every harsh, slashing sound, seemed to have no more 
 effect upon his ear than it had upon the tree above them, 
 which shook its green leaves to the self-same cadence they 
 had held yesterday in the breeze. His wide open eyes were 
 glancing calmly and scrutinizingly into the faces of the men 
 around those features are never to be forgotten ! for while 
 Hinch lays on the stripes with all his furious strength, 
 blaspheming as they fell, that glance dwells on each face with 
 
THE SHOT IN THE EYE. 25 
 
 a cold, keen, searching intensity, as if it marked them 
 to be remembered forever ! The man s air was awful so 
 concentrated so still so enduring! He never spoke, or 
 groaned, or writhed but those intense eyes of his! the 
 wretches couldn t stand them, and began to shuffle and get 
 behind each other. But it was too late; he had them all 
 ten men ! THEY WERE REGISTERED. 
 
 We will drop a curtain over this scene. It. is enough 
 to say that they left him for dead, lying in his blood, his 
 wife swooning on the ground, with the children weeping 
 plaintively over her; and silence and darkness fell around 
 the desolate group as the sun went down, which had risen 
 in smiles upon the innocent happiness of that simple family. 
 
 Nothing more was seen or heard of Jack Long. His hut 
 was deserted, and his family had disappeared, nor did any 
 one know or care what had become of them. For awhile 
 there were various rumors, but the affair was soon forgotten 
 amidst the frequent occurrence of similar scenes. 
 
 It was about four months after this affair, that in company 
 with a friend, I was traversing "Western Texas. Our objects 
 were to see this portion of the country, and amuse ourselves 
 in hunting for a time over any district we found well adapted 
 for a particular sport as for bear hunting, deer hunting, 
 buffalo hunting, &c. Prairie, timber and water were better 
 distributed in Shelby than any Western county we had passed 
 through the timber predominating over the prairie, though 
 interlaid by it in every direction. This diversity of surface 
 attracted a greater variety of game, as well as afforded more 
 perfect facilities to the sportsman. Indeed, it struck us as a 
 perfect Hunter s Paradise; and my friend remembering a 
 man of some wealth, who had moved from his native State, 
 and settled, as he had understood, in Shelby, we inquired for 
 him, and very readily found him. 
 
 We were most hospitably received, and horses, servants, 
 guns, dogs, and whatever else was necessary to ensure our 
 
26 JACK LONG; OR, 
 
 enjoyment of the sports of the country, as well as the time 
 of our host himself, were forthwith at our disposal, and we 
 were soon, to our hearts content, engaged in every character 
 of exciting chase. 
 
 One day several of the neighbors were invited to join us, 
 and all our force was mustered for a grand " Deer Drive." 
 In this sport dogs are used, and under the charge of the 
 " Driver" they are taken into the wood for the purpose of 
 rousing and driving out the deer, who have a habit of always 
 passing out from one line of timber to another, at or near 
 the same place, and these spots are either known to the 
 hunters from experience or observation of the nature of the 
 ground. At these "crossing places" the "standers" are 
 stationed with their rifles, to watch for the coming out of 
 the deer, who are shot as they go by. On getting to the 
 ground, we divided into two parties, each flanking up the 
 opposite edge of a line of timber, over a mile in width, while 
 the "Driver" penetrated it with the dogs. 
 
 On our side, the sport was unusually good, till, wearied 
 with slaughter, we returned late in the afternoon towards the 
 planter s house, to partake of a dinner of game with him 
 before the party should separate. It was near sundown 
 when we dismounted. Soon after we were seated, it was 
 announced that dinner was ready. All had come in except 
 my friend, whose name was Henrie, and a man namel 
 Stoner. We sat down, and were doing undoubted justice 
 to the fare when Henrie, who was an impulsive, voluble 
 soul, came bustling into the room with something of unusual 
 flurry in his manner, beginning to talk by the time he got 
 his head into the door 
 
 " I say, Squire ! what sort of a country is this of yours ? 
 Catamounts, buffalos, horned frogs, centipedes, one would 
 think were strange creatures enough for a single country ; 
 but, by George ! I met something to-day which lays them 
 all in the shade." 
 
THE SHOT IN THE EYE. 21 
 
 " What was it ? What was it like ?" 
 
 Without noticing these questions, he continued, addressing 
 our host in the same excited tone 
 
 " Have you no cages for madmen ? Do you let them 
 run wild through the woods with rifle in hand? Or, does 
 your confounded Texas breed ghosts amongst other curious 
 creatures ?" 
 
 "Not that I know of," said the Squire, smilingly inter 
 posing, as the young fellow stopped to catch his breath; 
 "But you look flurried enough to have seen a ghost. What s 
 happened ?" 
 
 " Yes, what is it ?" " Out with it ?" " Have you seen 
 the Old Harry?" Such exclamations as this, accompanied 
 by laughter, ran around the table, while Henrie drew a long 
 breath, wiped his forehead, and threw himself into a chair. 
 Our curiosity was irresistibly excited, and as Henrie com 
 menced, the whole company leant forward eagerly. 
 
 " You know, when we parted, that Stoner and myself went 
 up the right flank of the timber. Stoner was to take me to 
 my stand, and then pass on to his own, some miles further 
 down the stream. He accordingly left me, and I have not 
 seen him since. By the way, I perceive that he is not here," 
 he exclaimed, looking sharply around the room. 
 
 " Oh, he ll be here directly," said several. " Go on !" 
 
 " I hope so," he replied, in rather an undertone. " Well, 
 I was pretty thoroughly tired of waiting before I heard the 
 dogs, but that music, you know, stirs the blood, and one 
 forgets to be tired. In a few minutes a fine buck came 
 bounding by, and I fired. He pitched forward on his knees 
 at the shot, but recovered and made off. I knew he must be 
 badly hit, and sprang upon my horse to follow him." 
 
 "Rather a verdant act, that of yours," interrupted the 
 Squire. 
 
 "Yes; I found it to be so. After a pursuit of some 
 twenty minutes, at full speed, it occurred to me that I might 
 
28 JACK LONG; OR, 
 
 get lost among the motts, and reined up. But it was too 
 late. I was lost already. How I cursed that deer as his 
 white tail disappeared in the distance between two bushes. 
 I had common sense enough left not to go very far in any 
 one direction, but kept widening my circles about the place 
 where I halted, in the hope of finding the traces of some one 
 of the party ; at last, to my great relief, I came upon an old 
 disused wagon trail, which, though the winding way it held 
 promised to lead to nowhere in particular, yet went to show 
 that I could not be very far from some habitation. 
 
 " I was following it through a high, tangled thicket, which 
 rose close on either hand; and stooping over my horse s 
 neck, was looking closely at the ground, when the violent 
 shying of my horse, made me raise my eyes and, by heaven, 
 it was enough to have stampeded a regiment of horse ! 
 
 " Just before me on the right hand, with one foot advanced, 
 as if it had paused in the act of stepping across the road, 
 stood a tall, gaunt, skeleton-like figure, dressed in skins, with 
 the hair out a confounded long beard and such eyes ! It 
 is impossible to imagine them. They didn t move at all in 
 the shaggy hollow sockets, more than if they were frozen in 
 them ; and the glare that streamed out from them was so 
 cold and freezing ! It startled my nerves so strangely, that 
 I came near dropping my gun, though he was just swinging 
 a long rifle down to the level, bearing on me." 
 
 " Why didn t you shoot ?" 
 
 " Ay ! why didn t I ? I did not think of self-defence, but 
 of those eyes. The rifle was suspended, but they fairly clung 
 upon my features till I conceived I could feel the ice-spots 
 curdle beneath my skin as they crept slowly along each 
 lineament. The fact is, I caught myself shuddering it 
 was so ghostly ! After regarding me in this way about 
 ten seconds, he seemed to be satisfied ; the rifle was slowly 
 thrown back on the shoulder, and with an impatient twitch 
 
THE SHOT IN THE EYE. 29 
 
 at his long grisly beard with his bony fingers, and a single 
 stride which carried him across the road, he plunged into 
 the bushes without a word. 
 
 " I started in vexation at my stupidity, and shouted. He 
 did not turn his head. I was now enraged, and spurred my 
 horse after him into the thicket, as far as we could penetrate, 
 but lost sight of him in a moment. I felt as if I had seen 
 the devil sure enough, and actually went back to see if he 
 had left any tracks behind." 
 
 Everybody drew a long breath. "I warrant you found 
 em cloven !" said one. " Didn t you smell sul " 
 
 "Never mind what I smelt I found a very long moccasined 
 track, or I should have been convinced I had seen something 
 supernatural. I think he must be some maniac wild man." 
 
 "He s a strange animal, any how." "Singular affair," 
 was buzzed around the table. 
 
 "Hear me out!" said Henrie. "After this incident, I 
 continued to follow the devious windings of this road, which 
 seemed to turn towards each of the cardinal points in the 
 hour, until my patience was nearly exhausted; and it was 
 not till after sunset that it finally led me out into the 
 prairie, the features of which I thought I recognized. I 
 stopped and looked around for the purpose of satisfying 
 myself, when suddenly a horse burst from the thicket behind 
 me, and went tearing off over the plain, with every indication 
 of excessive fright, snorting furiously, his head turned back, 
 and stirrups flying in the air." 
 
 " What sort of a horse ?" " What color was he ?" several 
 broke in, with breathless impatience. 
 
 " He was too far off for me to tell in the dusk, more than 
 that he was a dark horse, say the color of mine." 
 
 " Stoner s horse was a dark brown !" some one said, in a 
 low voice, while the party moved uneasily on their chairs, 
 and looked at each other. 
 
 C2 
 
30 JACK LONG; OR, 
 
 There was a pause. The Squire got up, and walked with 
 a fidgetty manner towards the window to look out, and turning 
 with a serious face to Henrie, remarked 
 
 " This is a very curious story of yours, and if I did not 
 know you too well, I should suspect that you were quizzing. 
 Did you hear a gun after you parted from this lank-sided 
 fellow you describe ?" 
 
 " I thought I did once, but the sound was so distant, that 
 I was too uncertain about its being a gun, to risk getting 
 lost again in going to find it." 
 
 " Was it about a quarter of an hour by sun ?" (that is, 
 before sundown,) interrupted the " driver." 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 6 Well, I hearn a gun about that time on your side, but 
 thought it was some of yourn." 
 
 "It may be that this madman, or whatever he is, has 
 danger in him," continued the Squire. "I can explain 
 about the winding of that road which puzzled you so. It 
 is a trail I had cut to a number of board trees we had rived 
 on the ground. They were scattered about a good deal, but 
 none of them far from any given place, where you would 
 strike the road, so that you were no great distance at any 
 time, from where this meeting occurred. We must turn out 
 and look for this creature, boys." 
 
 "I expected to find the horse; he he came on in this 
 direction," said Henrie. 
 
 "No," said the Squire, " Stoner s house is beyond here." 
 
 Henrie now seated himself at the table ; and great as was 
 the uncertainty attending the fate of Stoner, these men were 
 too much accustomed to the vicissitudes and accidents in the 
 life of the frontier hunter, to be affected by it for more than 
 a few moments, and the joke and the laugh very soon went 
 round as carelessly and pleasantly as if nothing had occurred 
 at all unusual. 
 
 In the midst of this the rapid tramp of a horse at full 
 
THE SHOT IN THE EYE. 31 
 
 gallop was heard approaching. The Squire rose hastily and 
 went out, while the room grew oppressively still. In a few 
 moments he returned, with contracted brows, and quite pale 
 
 " S toner s negro has been sent over by his wife to let ua 
 know that his horse has returned, with his reins on his neck 
 and blood on the saddle. He has been shot, gentlemen." 
 
 We all rose involuntarily at this, and stood with blank, 
 white faces, looking into each other s eyes. 
 
 "The madman!" said one, speaking in subdued tones, 
 breaking the oppressive silence. 
 
 "Henrie s bearded ghost," said another. 
 
 "Yes," exclaimed several, "devil or ghost, that s the way 
 it has happened." 
 
 "I tell you what, Henrie," said the Squire, "it has 
 occurred to me ever since you finished your story, that this 
 singular being has been on the look-out for Stoner, and 
 while you rode with your head down, thought that you were 
 he, for there are several points of resemblance, such as size, 
 color of your horses, &c., but that in the long look he took 
 at your face he discovered his mistake; and, after leaving 
 you, passed over to the left, and met Stoner returning, and 
 has shot him. He is one of the Regulators, though, and 
 Hinch is a very blood-hound. I shall send for him to be 
 here in the morning with the boys, and they will trail him 
 up, if he is the devil in earnest, and have vengeance before 
 sundown to-morrow." 
 
 This seemed the most reasonable solution of some of the 
 inexplicable features of the affair ; and, as it was too dark 
 to think of accomplishing anything that night, we had to 
 content ourselves with a sound sleep preparatory for action 
 on the morrow. 
 
 Soon after day-break, we were awakened by the sound of 
 loud blustering voices about the house. I felt sure that this 
 must be Hinch s party ; and on looking out of my window, 
 saw them dismounted and grouped about the yard. I 
 
32 JACK LONG; OR, 
 
 recognized the voice of our host in sharp, decisive altercation 
 with some one, whose harsh, overbearing tones convinced me 
 that it must be Hinch. I listened anxiously, and heard him 
 swear in round. terms, that Henrie s story was all gammon, 
 an "old woman s tale," that he didn t believe a word of it; 
 but if Stoner was murdered, Henrie was the man who did it. 
 I could only distinguish that the Planter s tone was angry 
 and decided, when they moved on out of hearing. How 
 he managed to quiet him I cannot conjecture, (Henrie, 
 fortunately, heard nothing of it,) but when we joined them, 
 Hinch greeted us with a gruff sort of civility. He was a 
 thick-set, broad-shouldered, ruffianly looking fellow ; wearing 
 the palpable marks of the debauchee in his bloated person 
 and red visage. 
 
 We were soon under way. A ride of nearly half the day 
 through the scenes of yestejday s adventures elicited nothing, 
 and we were all getting impatient, when fortunately Henrie s 
 search, undertaken at my earnest suggestion, was successful 
 in recognizing the place where he witnessed the curious 
 apparition of the evening before. On close examination, 
 the moccasined tracks were discovered, and with wonderful 
 skill the Regulators traced them for several miles, till, finally, 
 in an open glade, among the thickets, we found the fragments 
 of a man who had been torn to pieces by the wolves, numbers 
 of which, with buzzards and ravens, were hanging about the 
 place. The bones had been picked so clean, that it would 
 have been out of the question to hope to identify them, but 
 for the fact that a gun was lying near, which was instantly 
 known to be Stoner s. 
 
 I observed that there was a round fracture, like a bullet 
 hole, in the back of the skull ; but it was too unpleasant an 
 object for more minute examination. We gathered up the 
 bones to take them home to his family but before we left 
 the ground a discovery was made which startled every one. 
 It was the distinct trail of a shod horse. 
 
THE SHOT IN THE EYE. 33 
 
 Now, there was hardly a horse in Shelby County that 
 wore shoes, for where there were no stones, shoes were not 
 necessary; certainly there was not a horse in our company 
 that had them on. This must be the horse of the murderer ! 
 Of course, Henrie was freed, even from the suspicions of 
 these brutes. They believed that this trail could be easily 
 followed, and felt sure that now they should soon come upon 
 some results. They set off with great confidence, trailing 
 the shod horse till nearly night, when in spite of all their 
 ingenuity, they lost it; and though they camped near the 
 place till morning, and tried it again, could not find it. 
 They were compelled to give up in despair, and scattered for 
 their several homes. 
 
 The very next day after their breaking up, followed the 
 astounding report that the horse of a second one of their 
 number had galloped up to his master s door with an empty 
 saddle. The Regulators assembled again, and after a long 
 search, the body was found, or the fragments of it rather, 
 bare, and dismembered by the wolves. The rumor was that, 
 as in Stoner s case, the man had been shot in the back of 
 the head, but that the skull had been greatly disfigured. 
 
 These two murders occurring within three days, (for the 
 man must have been shot on the day the Regulators 
 disbanded, and while on his way home,) created immense 
 sensation throughout the country. The story of Henrie, 
 which afforded the only possible clue to the perpetrator, 
 and the singularity of all the incidents, completely aroused 
 public emotions. What could be the motive, or who was 
 this invisible assassin, (for the last effort at trailing him had 
 been equally unavailing,) remained an utter mystery. 
 
 Hinch and his band fumed and raved like madmen. They 
 swept the country in all directions, arresting and lynching 
 what they called suspicious persons, which meant any and 
 every one who had rendered nimself in the slightest degree 
 obnoxious to them. It was a glorious opportunity for 
 
34 JACK LONG; OR, 
 
 spreading far and wide a wholesome terror of their power, 
 and of wreaking a dastardly hoarded vengeance in many 
 quarters where they had not dared before to strike openly. 
 
 Public sentiments justified extreme measures, for the general 
 safety seemed to demand that the perpetrator of these secret 
 murders should be brought to light, and great as was the 
 license under which he acted, Hinch yet felt the necessity 
 of being backed by some shadow of approval growing out 
 of the case. He, and the miscreants under his command, 
 enjoyed now for several days, unchecked by any laws of God 
 or man, a perfect saturnalia of riotous violence. Outrages 
 too disgustingly hideous in their details to bear recital, were 
 committed in every part of the county. Inoffensive men 
 were caught up from the midst of their families, hung to the 
 limbs of trees in their own yards till life was nearly extinct, 
 and then cut down. This process being repeated four or five 
 times, till they were left for dead, and all to make them 
 confess their connection with the murders ! I will not further 
 particularize. 
 
 One evening, after a deed of this kind, which had afforded 
 them the opportunity of displaying such unusual resource of 
 ingenuity in torture, that they were glutted to exultation, 
 they were returning to the grocery with the determination 
 of holding a drunken revel in honor of the event. As they 
 rode on, with shouts of laughter and curses, one of the 
 number, named Winter, noticed that a portion of his horse s 
 equipment was gone. He remembered having seen it in 
 its place a mile or so back, and told them to ride on and he 
 would go back and get it, and rejoin them by the time the 
 frolic had commenced. He left them, but never came back. 
 
 They went on to the store, and commencing their orgies, 
 at once forgot, or did not notice his absence, till the next 
 day, when his family, alarmed by the return of his horse 
 with an empty saddle, sent to inquire about him. They were 
 
THE SHOT IN THE EYE. 35 
 
 instantly sobered by this announcement, which had grown to 
 be particularly significant of late. 
 
 They immediately mounted their horses and went back on 
 their trail. They were not long kept in suspense. The 
 buzzards and wolves, gathered in numbers about the edge 
 of a thicket which bordered the prairie ahead of them, soon 
 designated the whereabouts of the object of their search. 
 The unclean beasts and birds scattered as they galloped up, 
 and there lay the torn and bloody fragments of their comrade ! 
 
 Hard as these men were, they shuddered, and the cold 
 drops started from their ghastly and bloated faces. It was 
 stunning. The third of their number consigned to this 
 horrible fate eaten up by the wolves all within a week! 
 Were they doomed? What shadowy, inscrutable foe was 
 this who always struck when least expected, and with such 
 fearful certainty, yet left no trace behind ? Was it, indeed, 
 some supernatural agent of judgment, visited upon their 
 enormities? Awed and panic-stricken beyond all that may 
 be conceived of guilty fear, without any examination of the 
 neighborhood or of the bones, they wheeled and galloped back, 
 carrying the alarm on foaming horses in every direction. 
 
 The whole country shared in their consternation. I never 
 witnessed such a tumult of wild excitement. It was the 
 association of ghostly attributes, derived from Henrie s story, 
 with the probable author of these unaccountable assassina 
 tions, which so much roused all classes ; and this effect was 
 not a little heightened when the report got out that this man 
 had been shot in the same way as the others through the 
 back of the head. Hundreds of persons went out to bring 
 in the bones, making, as they said, the strictest search on 
 every side for traces of the murderer, without being able 
 to discover the slightest. 
 
 These things struck me as so peculiar and difficult to be 
 reasoned upon, that I felt no little sympathy with the popular 
 sentiment, which assigned to them something of a supernatural 
 
86 JACK LONG; OR, 
 
 origin. But Henrie laughed at the idea, and insisted that 
 it must be a maniac. In confirmation of this opinion, he 
 related many instances, given by half-romancing medical 
 writers, of the remarkable cunning of such patients in 
 avoiding detection and baffling pursuit in the accomplish 
 ment of some purpose on which their bewildered energies 
 had strangely been concentrated. This was the opinion 
 most favored among the more intelligent planters ; but the 
 popular rumors assigned him the most egregious and fan 
 tastic features. 
 
 The Bearded Ghost, as he was now generally named from 
 Henrie s description, had been seen by this, that, and the 
 other person ; now striding rapidly, like a tall thin spectre, 
 across some open glade between two thickets, and disappear 
 ing before the affrighted observer could summon courage to 
 address it now standing beneath some old tree by the road 
 side, still as its shadow, the keen, sepulchral eyes shining 
 steadily through the gloom, but melting bodily away if a 
 word was spoken ; now he was to be seen mounted, careering 
 like a form of vapor past the dark trunks of the forest aisles, 
 or hurrying swiftly away like a rain-cloud before the wind 
 across the wide prairie, always hair-clad and gaunt, with a 
 streaming beard, and the long heavy rifle on his shoulder. 
 
 I soon began to note that it was only men of a particular 
 class who pretended to say that they had actually seen with 
 their own eyes these wonderful sights, and they were those 
 Emigrant Hunters who had particularly suffered from the 
 persecutions of the Regulators. I observed, too, that they 
 always located these mysterious appearances in the close 
 vicinity of some one of the houses of the Regulators. 
 
 It at once struck me that it was a profoundly subtle 
 conspiracy of this class headed by some man of remarkable 
 personalities and skill, with the deliberate and stern purpose 
 of exterminating the Regulators, or driving them from the 
 country. 
 
 
THE SHOT IN THE EYE. 37 
 
 It seems the cunning mind of Hinch caught at the same 
 conclusion. He observed the peculiar eagerness of these men 
 in circulating wild reports, and exaggerating as highly as 
 possible the popular conception of this mysterious being. 
 His savage nature seized upon it with a thrill of unutterable 
 exultation. Now he could make open war upon the whole 
 hateful class, rid the country of them entirely, and reach 
 this fearful enemy through his coadjutors, even if he still 
 managed to elude vengeance personally. 
 
 He denounced them with great clamor ; and as the people 
 had become very much alarmed, and felt universally the 
 necessity of sifting this dangerous secret to the bottom, many 
 of them volunteered to assist and for a week four or five 
 parties were scouring in every direction. Thus doubly rein 
 forced, Hinch rushed into excesses, in comparison to which, 
 all heretofore committed were mild. Several men were 
 horribly mutilated with the lash others compelled to take 
 to the thickets, through which they were hunted like wolves. 
 At last Hinch went so far as to hang one poor fellow till he 
 was dead. 
 
 During all the time when these active and violent demon 
 strations were being made, and the whole population astir 
 and on the alert, nothing further was heard of the Bearded 
 Madman. Not even faint glimpses of him were obtained, 
 and Hinch and his party, while returning from the hanging 
 mentioned above, were congratulating themselves upon the 
 result of his sagacity, which, as they boisterously affirmed, 
 had been no less than the routing of this formidable conspi 
 racy and frightening of this crazy phantom from the field. 
 They felt so sure of being rid of him now, that they disbanded 
 at the grocery to return home. 
 
 One of their number named Rees, almost as bad and brutal 
 a man as Hinch himself, was going home alone late that 
 evening. As he rode past a thicket in full view of his own 
 
 door, his wife, who was standing in it, watching his approach, 
 D 
 
33 
 
 saw him suddenly stop his horse and turn his head with a 
 quick movement toward the thicket in the next moment 
 blue smoke rose up from it, and the ring of a rifle shocked 
 upon her ear. She saw her husband pitch forward out of 
 the saddle upon his face, and thought she could distinguish 
 a tall figure stalking rapidly on through the open wood 
 beyond, with a rifle upon his shoulder. She screamed the 
 alarm, and with the negroes around her, ran to him. They 
 found him entirely dead, hot through the eye, the ball 
 passing out at the back of the head. 
 
 A perfect blaze of universal frenzy burst out at the first 
 news of this fourth murder; but when the curious circum 
 stances noted above followed after it, very different effects, 
 and great changes in the character of the excitement, were 
 produced. 
 
 When Hinch was told that Rees had been shot through 
 the eye, and that from the course of the ball in the other 
 cases, it was probable all the others had been shot in the 
 same way, he turned livid as the dead of yesterday his 
 knees smote together and with a horrid blasphemy he 
 roared out, "Jack Long! Jack Long!" then sinking his 
 voice to a mutter " or his ghost come back for vengeance !" 
 
 Other citizens, not connected with the Regulators, felt 
 greatly relieved, now that this impenetrable affair was to some 
 degree explained. They remembered at once the peculiar 
 circumstances of Jack s noted mark, and the lynching he 
 had received ; though many still persisted in the belief that 
 it was Jack s ghost, for they said " How could it be anything 
 else, when the Regulators left him for dead ?" 
 
 But, ghost or no ghost, it was universally believed that 
 Jack Long and his rifle were identified somehow with the 
 actor in these deeds. The disfiguration of the skull, in the 
 other instances, had prevented the discovery until now ; but 
 everybody breathed more freely since it had been made. It 
 was the painfully embarrassing uncertainty as to the object 
 
THE SHOT IN THE EYE. 39 
 
 of these assassinations whether any individual in the county 
 might not be the next victim, and the propensity for murder 
 indiscriminate which had caused such deep excitement, and 
 induced the people to aid the Regulators. 
 
 But now that this uncertainty was fixed upon the shoulders 
 of the "bloody band," and their own freed of the unpleasant 
 burden, they were greatly disposed to enjoy the thing, and, 
 instead of assisting them any further, to wish Jack success 
 from the bottom of their hearts. They felt that every one 
 of these wretches deserved to die a thousand times ; at all 
 events, whether it was really Jack, his ghost, or the devil, 
 it was a single issue between him and the Regulators, and 
 no one felt the slightest inclination to interfere. 
 
 Those who professed to be very logical in solving the 
 question as to what he really was, reasoned that it must be 
 Jack in the body, beyond a doubt ; but that it was equally 
 certain that the injuries he had received must have deranged 
 his mind, and that it was from the fever of insanity he 
 derived the wonderful skill and sternness of purpose which 
 he displayed. They could not understand how a nature so 
 easy and simple as Jack s was reported to have been, could 
 be roused by any natural energies of slumbering passion to 
 such terrific deeds. 
 
 Those of Jack s own class who had escaped the exterminating 
 violence of Hinch s hate, now began to look up and come 
 forth from their hiding-places. They laughed at all these 
 versions of opinion about Jack, and insinuated that he 
 was as calm as a May morning, and that his head was as 
 clear as a bell. One testy old fellow broke loose with 
 something more than insinuation, to a crowd of men at the 
 store, who were discussing the matter. 
 
 " You re all a parcel of fools, to talk about his being a 
 ghost or a crazy man. I tell you he s as alive as a snake s 
 tongue all over, and a leetle venomouser. As for bein 
 cracked in the bore, he talks it out jest as clean as his long 
 
40 JACK LONG; OR, 
 
 rifle whar s been doin all this work. I let you know Jack 
 come of a Tory-hatin , Injun-fighten gineration, and that s a 
 blood whar s hard to cool when it gits riz. Them stripes 
 has sot his bristles up, and it ll take some blood to slick em 
 down agin." 
 
 Hinch heard of this bold talk, and, half maddened between 
 rage and fear, made one more desperate effort to get the 
 remainder of his company together. They were now afraid 
 to ride singly ; and those who were nearest neighbors collected 
 the night before, under an escort of their negroes, and started 
 for the rendezvous at the grocery next morning, in groups 
 of two and three. 
 
 Two of them, named Davis and Nixon, were riding in 
 together, prying, with great trepidation, behind every tree, 
 and into every clump and thicket they came across, large 
 enough to hide a man. They had to pass a small stream 
 which ran along the bottom of a deep, narrow gulley, the 
 banks of which were fringed along the tops by bushes about 
 six feet high. This was within half a mile of the town ; and 
 as they had seen nothing yet to rouse their suspicions > they 
 began to think they should get in unmolested. 
 
 "While they stopped to let their horses drink for a moment, 
 and were leaning over their necks, the animals suddenly 
 raised their heads, snorting, towards the top of the bank. 
 The men were startled, too, and looked up. The dreaded 
 enemy ! A grisly head and shoulders, above the bushes, and 
 the heavy rifle laid along their tops, bearing full, with its 
 dark tube, into their faces ! 
 
 The shudder which thrilled through the frame of Nixon 
 was prolonged into the death. The black muzzle gushed 
 with flame, and the wretched man pitched head-foremost into 
 the stream. Almost immediately the frightened companion 
 heard the heavy tramp of a horse s feet. 
 
 Leaving his companion in the water one crushed eye-ball, 
 and the other glaring glassily at the sky Davis urged his 
 
THE SHOT IN THE EYE. 41 
 
 tiorse up against the ascent, and saw from the top of the bank, 
 a gaunt outline of a receding figure, just losing itself through 
 the trees, among which the horse was speeding with wonderful 
 rapidity. 
 
 Davis galloped into town with the news on his white lips. 
 The Regulators dispersed in inconceivable dismay, and never 
 got together again. They shut themselves up in their houses, 
 and for two weeks not one of them dared to put his eyes 
 outside of his own door. 
 
 Jack was now sometimes seen for a time, publicly, and 
 was regarded with great curiosity and awe; for, with all he 
 had already done, it was known that his mission was not 
 yet finished. Everybody watched with intense interest the 
 progress of the work, especially the hunters, who began now 
 to express their satisfaction openly. 
 
 At last, one of the Regulators, a poor scamp, named 
 White, who was greatly addicted to drink, grew impatient 
 of abstinence, and determined to risk Jack s rifle rather than 
 do without liquor any longer. He set off in a covered wagon 
 for the grocery, to get him a barrel, lying on the bottom of 
 the wagon, while one of his negroes drove. The liquor had 
 been obtained, and he had nearly reached the entrance of a 
 lane, which led up to his house, on his return, without even 
 lifting his head so far as to expose it, when the wagon run 
 over a large chunk of wood, which had been placed across 
 the track, just where it ran close to the thicket. 
 
 The jolt was so severe as to roll the barrel over on him. 
 He forgot his prudence, and put his head out of the cover 
 to swear at the boy for his carelessness. The negro heard 
 him say, " There he is at last !" cutting short the exclamation 
 with a torrent of oaths, when a rifle-shot whistled from the 
 thicket. His master fell back heavily in the wagon, and 
 he saw a tall, "hairy man," as he called him, stalking off 
 through the woods with a gun on his shoulder. It was 
 
 observable that White, also, was shot through the eye. 
 D2 
 
42 JACK LONG; OR, 
 
 A week after this, another of them, named Garnet, who 
 had kept himself a close prisoner, fe >t up one morning at 
 sunrise, and threw open the door of his house to let in the 
 fresh air. Stepping from behind a large tree in the yard, 
 stood forth the Avenger, with that long rifle levelled, and 
 that cold eye fixed upon his face, waiting for a recognition, 
 as he did in every case, before he fired. The man attempted 
 to step back too late ! The sun was in his eye, but, winged 
 with darkness and oblivion, the quick messenger burst 
 through, shattering nerve and sense, and the seventh miserable 
 victim fell heavily across his own threshold. 
 
 But, by an ingenious elaboration of vengeance, the most 
 terrible torture of all had been reserved for Hinch. His 
 imagination became his hell. He died, through it, a thousand 
 deaths. He had been passed by, to see his comrades one by 
 one fall from around him, with the consciousness that the 
 relentless hate and marvelous skill which struck them down, 
 was strung with ten-fold sternness against himself. One, two, 
 three, four, five, six, seven ! He had counted them all many 
 times. They had all gone down under his eye, and as each 
 one fell, came the question, Shall it be my turn next ? 
 
 From the certainty that it would come, there was no 
 escaping. He had put forth all the malignant ferocity of 
 cunning and brutal passion in vain; and as successively 
 he missed his minions from his side, the dark circle grew 
 narrower and narrower, closing in terrible gloom about him, 
 till he stood almost singly in the light, the only target for 
 that pitiless aim. Ay ! the very spot where the ball should 
 strike him was distinctly marked by seven several instances ! 
 And the wretch clasped his hands before his eyes and shivered 
 in every fibre, as he felt the keen shock strike in blackness, 
 through tissues so sensitive, that even a hair touching them 
 now was agony. 
 
 Such a consciousness of coming doom was too much to bo 
 
THE SHOT IN THE EYE. 43 
 
 endured. Within a few weeks, he shrank like a rank weed, 
 from above which the sheltering boughs had been cleft, and 
 the strong sun let in upon its bare stems. His bloated face 
 became wrinkled and pallid. He became so nervous, that 
 the tap of a crisp leaf, driven by the winds against the 
 window, made him shudder and glare his eyes around, 
 expecting that dark tube to grow through upon him from 
 some crevice of his log house. 
 
 There were yet two other men besides himself, Davis and 
 "Williams ; but they were young men, much the youngest of 
 the band. They sold their property, and one night were 
 permitted to escape. Hinch caught at this incident with 
 the frantic hope of despair. They succeeded in getting 
 off, and why not he ? He managed very secretly to procure 
 one of the best horses in the country, and set forth one dark 
 night for the Red River. 
 
 The news that he was off created a strong sensation 
 through the county. However rude and primitive may be 
 the structure of any society, there is yet beneath its surface 
 a certain sense of the fitness of things, or, in other words, an 
 intuitive sentiment of justice which requires to be satisfied ; 
 and there was a feeling, not very clearly defined, of the want 
 of this satisfaction, left in the minds of men through this 
 whole region. They had recognized at once the appropriate 
 ness and savage sublimity of the retribution which had been 
 visited upon these abominable men ; but in Hinch s escape, 
 the consummation was altogether wanting. Vengeance was 
 only half complete. 
 
 Hinch reached Red River after a desperate ride. He 
 sprang from his foaming horse at the top of the bank, and 
 the poor animal fell lifeless from exhaustion as his feet 
 touched the ground. He did not pause for a single glance 
 of pity at the noble and faithful brute which had borne him 
 so far and so gallantly ; but glancing his eye around with a 
 
44 JACK LONG. 
 
 furtive expression of a thief in fear of pursuit, he descended 
 the sloping bank to the river s edge, and threw himself upon 
 the grass, to wait the coming of a boat. 
 
 In two hours he heard one puffing down the stream, and 
 saw the white wreaths of steam curling up behind the trees. 
 How his heart bounded ! Freedom, hope, and life ! once 
 more sprung through his shrivelled veins and to his lips. 
 He signalled the vessel; she rounded to and lowered her 
 yawl. His pulse bounded high, and he gazed with absorbing 
 eagerness at the crew as they pulled lustily towards the 
 shore. 
 
 A click behind him ! He turned with a shudder, 
 and there he was! That long rifle was bearing straight 
 upon him those cold eyes dwelt steadily on his for a 
 moment and, crash ! all was forever blackness to Hinch 
 the Regulator ! The men who witnessed this singular scene 
 landed, and found him shot through the eye! and saw the 
 murderer galloping swiftly away over the plain stretching 
 out from the top of the bank ! And so the vengeance was 
 consummated, and the stern hunter had wiped out with much 
 blood the stain of stripes on his free limbs ; and could now 
 do, what I was told he had never done since the night of 
 those fatal and fatally expiated stripes, look his wife again 
 in the eyes, and receive her form to rest again upon his 
 bosom. 
 
 Powerful elements sometimes slumber in the breasts of 
 quiet men ; and there is in uncultured breasts a wild sense 
 of justice, which, if it often carry retribution to the extremest 
 limits of vengeance, is none the less implanted by Him who 
 gave the passions to repose within us 
 
 " Like war s swart powder in a castle s vault 
 Until the lin-stock of occasion light it." 
 
THE BOEDER CHASE: 
 
 A FIRST DAY WITH THE RANGERS. 
 
THE BOEDER CHASE : 
 
 A FIRST DAT WITH THE RANGERS. 
 
 IT is not to be expected that an attempt at preserving the 
 chronological order of events is to constitute a very deter 
 mined feature of this series. Indeed, I must beg to assert 
 the autorial privilege of dovetailing my material whenever 
 there is no immediate connection between the parts where 
 it will best suit my own and my publisher s convenience. 
 
 The reader must remember that he now accompanies me 
 back to the extreme frontier of Texas, more than twelve 
 years since, and that portion of it, too, nearest Mexico and 
 the Indians, amid a population of whites, Spaniards, mon 
 grels, and Peones, and living in a state of perpetual feud, in 
 which the knife and rifle were the sole arbitrators ; in short, 
 where all the stable elements and organization of society 
 which afford protection in the decorous observances and staid 
 proprieties of civilized life, are totally wanting. 
 
 Strong men and unregulated passions exhibit their worst 
 and best extremes, in this atmosphere of license. History 
 scarcely affords an analogy to the fierceness of the guerilla 
 warfare constantly raging between the three races ; yet frag 
 ments of them all, under one pretence and another, amalga 
 mated in the society of San Antonio. 
 
 The Mexicans, who were greatly in the majority, were 
 
48 THE BORDER CHASE: 
 
 most of them refugees from the other side of the Rio Grande, 
 for political or criminal offences. 
 
 The Indians were wretched fragments of once powerful 
 tribes, which had been cut to pieces in their contests with 
 the other two parties, and now cowered between them, beg 
 ging protection of both, and patiently biding their time for 
 secret revenge upon either. 
 
 The whites were hardy and reckless men of every stamp, 
 fco whom the excitement of adventure of complicated and 
 incessant peril had become a necessary moral aliment. 
 
 This morbid passion certainly found abundant gratification 
 here, for with the constant liability of attack from without, 
 they were for ever surrounded within the town by natural 
 foes, the most faithless and malignant. 
 
 When it is remembered, besides, that they only numbered 
 fifteen in all, and attempted to domineer with a high hand 
 over as many hundreds of the other two races at home, and, 
 in addition, defend a line of several hundred miles of frontier 
 against the invasion of predatory bands from beyond the Rio 
 Grande, or from the mountains of the Indian country ; and 
 furthermore, were compelled to guard against and baffle the 
 treachery of spies lurking round their very doors, it may 
 well be conjectured they had their hands full. 
 
 Of course, to effect all this, a very thorough organization 
 was necessary, and a troop of Rangers, numbering generally 
 about ten men, grew out of this necessity. 
 
 It is the period of my first connection with these gay and 
 daring fellows at which I design to open my note-book of 
 daily incidents. 
 
 A few words, in general explanation of the circumstances 
 of my arrival in San Antonio : 
 
 Determined to make myself familiar with all the phases 
 of life in this curious country, I had traversed the greater 
 part of it alone. But at that time (the latter part of Feb 
 ruary, 1839,) the journey to San Antonio was too perilous 
 
A FIRST DAY WITH THE RANGERS. 49 
 
 to be undertaken singly ; so happening to meet with an old 
 acquaintance from my native state, who was, like myself, 
 anxious to make the trip, I joined him, and we undertook it 
 together. 
 
 He was a Brazos planter, and owned, of course, a number 
 of slaves. One of these, in the effort to make his escape to 
 Mexico, had succeeded in reaching the neighbourhood of San 
 Antonio, where he was arrested by the vigilant Rangers, 
 thrown into chains, and his owner advertised of the fact by 
 a special messenger. The particular object of my friend 
 Taney was to recover this boy. 
 
 Escaping to Mexico is a favourite scheme of the slaves of 
 Texas, and numbers of them annually attempt, and some few 
 effect it. They have the impression that their condition is 
 very greatly bettered by the change. Indeed, the more 
 spirited of them acquire, by contact with the whites, habits 
 of thought and action which elevate them to decided supe 
 riority over the average Mexican population ; and if they 
 succeed in reaching that country, they are generally more 
 than a match for the imbecile natives. 
 
 Several notorious instances of these runaways acquiring in 
 a short time, position and rank, added to the fact that the 
 Mexican population of Texas had always exhibited a warm 
 sympathy for them, and never failed to assist them in getting 
 off by every means in their power, contributed of late to 
 greatly increase the frequency of these attempts, and, in the 
 same ratio, the vigilance of the planters and Rangers to 
 counteract them. The San Antonio route was the only 
 practicable one across the desert plains to the Rio Grande, 
 BO that such refugees were all compelled to pass through it. 
 
 In a word, Bahai is the gate of that frontier. 
 
 After a journey full of fatigue and danger, we were ap 
 proaching it on the night of the 25th : news that the Indians 
 were down and ravaging the country, had compelled us to 
 E 4 
 
50 THE BORDER CHASE: 
 
 travel after dark, with a view of lessening the probabilities 
 of a meeting with them. 
 
 It was a very clear night, brilliant as only Texan moon 
 light can be, and I felt strongly impressed by the majestic 
 breadth of the plain upon which we had lately emerged from 
 the broken and wooded ground, and which lay sheeted in 
 the vast circumference of a becalmed and silvery ocean 
 around us. 
 
 These primeval solitudes with all the grandeur on, and 
 solemn silence that they wore when first God said, "Let 
 there be Light !" and that shining negation burst upon Old 
 Chaos, revealing all forms in its annihilation are wonder 
 fully imposing. 
 
 With the high arch above me, its glittering fretwork niched 
 with "golden candlesticks," and resting upon this broad level 
 base, which reflected their bold radiance in misty softness, I 
 felt as if we crept with our slow pace along the plumb-line 
 of the universe, under the full gaze of the infinite host of 
 heaven, with their cold keen eyes searchingly upon us. 
 
 The awe one feels upon these sky-bound prairies is posi 
 tively oppressive. If you do not realize eternity and God s 
 being and omnipresence in such a scene, then you were born 
 without a soul, or else it has died within you. 
 
 After a ride of several hours, during which neither of us 
 spoke, we observed the monotonous profile of the horizon 
 before us broken by several objects. As we approached, 
 they gradually crept up from the darkness, and we could 
 distinguish the square outline of Mexican houses very soon 
 we were among them clustered irregularly along the bank 
 of the San Antonio River, the gleam and ripple of which now 
 struck upon our senses. These houses were square stone 
 pens, thatched with bulrushes, and, as we passed them, looked 
 desolate and dark enough, for it was very late. 
 
 To some distance, above and below the ford, they were 
 dotted along without any appearance of regularity, while on 
 
A FIRST DAY WITH THE RANGERS. 51 
 
 the opposite side, the confusion of black angular masses de 
 fined against the sky, indicated the location of the main 
 town. 
 
 The river, which leaps forth with a sudden birth, from a 
 cave a few miles above, rushes roaring clamorously over the 
 wide rocky bed which constitutes the ford. 
 
 It seemed, as it really is, a hazardous experiment to cross 
 it during the night; but, however, our venturesome impa 
 tience was more fortunate than skilful in effecting a passage. 
 The bank is by no means steep, and we found ourselves, in a 
 few paces from the water, amidst the low stone and thatched 
 houses, in a narrow street of the suburbs : this, after a while, 
 led us into a broader one, in which the houses on either side 
 grew gradually from mere huts to the dignity of one, two, 
 and three stories of massive stone. 
 
 One of these, standing somewhat singular and taller than 
 the rest, my friend paused before and announced that, ac 
 cording to the topographical description of our whereabouts, 
 with which he had been furnished, this must be the house 
 of the merchant who had cashed the reward offered for the 
 apprehension of the boy, and held him in charge. There 
 was a light glimmering through the door-chinks and key 
 hole ; we dismounted, and thumped lustily and long for ad 
 mittance ; and at last a man in his shirt-sleeves thrust his 
 head cautiously through the half-open door, and demanded 
 who we were. 
 
 The night was very cold, and Taney had some difficulty, 
 from the chattering of his teeth, in making himself under 
 stood. He succeeded finally in satisfying the cautious mer 
 chant, and the door was thrown open. 
 
 When our eyes had recovered from the broad dazzle of a 
 large fire, we saw that there were a number of men sleeping 
 on cots and buffalo-robes, along the whole length of an ex 
 tended and narrow room ; near the head of each man lay a 
 Mexican saddle, gleaming with silver mounting, and a gaudy- 
 
52 THE BORDER CHASE: 
 
 coloured " serape," or Mexican blanket, thrown either ovef 
 it or the person of the sleeper. 
 
 But the object which at once arrested my gaze was the 
 figure of the negro boy, curled up upon the hearth, and, as 
 he rose to a sitting posture from his sleep, the clank and 
 glitter of heavy manacles upon his arms and legs struck me 
 most unpleasantly. 
 
 He was a young, stout, athletic-looking fellow, and after 
 rubbing his eyes in astonishment, received the quiet and 
 scornful greeting of his master, with that stolid, heavy look 
 of insensibility, which always has enraged and made me, for 
 the moment, forget any sympathy for negroes. 
 
 In a moment afterward, I was listening and inquiring of 
 the merchant, with full as much interest as Taney exhibited, 
 concerning all the details of his capture, and the present 
 circumstances which insured his safe durance till my friend 
 should call for him in the morning. 
 
 The arrangements for his close keeping seemed, at a 
 glance, so perfectly secure, that there was no probability of 
 his escaping. His chains were of the heaviest cast, and he 
 had worn them for months, under the eye of the merchant ; 
 he was sleeping in the same room with half a dozen men 
 the room lit by the blaze of a large fire its two doors 
 massive and well secured by bolt and bar. 
 
 What occasion was there to doubt of his safe keeping? 
 We could see no possibility of any, and, inquiring for the 
 locality of the American tavern, which we had understood 
 was kept in the town, we took leave. 
 
 This street led us into a large square. Precisely in its 
 centre towered a massive cathedral, in the usual century- 
 defying style of Jesuit architecture all over the world. Lights 
 in the windows of a long, low, stone building, which faced 
 the square, designated the place of which we were in search. 
 
 We dismounted, and entered a well-lighted apartment, 
 furnished very much as American bar-rooms usually are, and. 
 
 
A FIRST DAY WITH THE RANGERS. 53 
 
 as it was, fully tenanted. My first impression was that 
 we bad entered among a crowd of Mexicans, but I quickly 
 saw that their complexions were not at all consistent with 
 their costumes. 
 
 Eight or ten very young-looking persons, evidently Ameri 
 cans or Europeans, were promenading the room, back and 
 forth, puffing away, every man of them, earnestly at Mexican 
 " cigarittas," and all dressed in a costume singularly com 
 posite in Mexican and American tastes. Most of them wore 
 the "sombrero," or Mexican hat, and the many-hued "se- 
 rape," thrown carelessly over the characteristic suit of "foxed" 
 cloth, or of buckskin entire. 
 
 The sombrero is a high, sugar-loaf crowned and broad- 
 brimmed hat, generally decorated with a wide band of parti 
 coloured beads, while the scrape is a thick blanket, curiously 
 interwoven with angular zigzag figures, having a hole in the 
 centre, through which the head is thrust. This, falling down 
 to the waist, over the ordinary American dress, and exhi 
 biting the gleam of pistols and knife in the belt underneath, 
 made up a very picturesque costume. 
 
 Our arrival was noticed with nothing like the ill-bred and 
 hard-staring manner common in American villages ; but we 
 were greeted with a manly and straight-forward courtesy, 
 that at once placed us at ease with ourselves and with them. 
 
 Indeed, I was at once irresistibly impressed by the perfect 
 bon-homme, yet man-of-the-world expression, which charac 
 terized the bearing of these persons. There was nothing of 
 familiarity, but rather a degree of touch-me-not-ism, which 
 it would be difficult to give an idea of in words, tempering 
 the almost boyish and boisterous frankness with which we 
 were questioned and bantered upon the incidents of our 
 journey, precisely as though we had been old familiar friends 
 since time began. 
 
 This pleasant cordiality I have noticed is very apt to be a 
 
 trait of our frontiersmen of any grade, but it was especially 
 2 
 
54 THE BORDER CHASE: 
 
 agreeable coming from these men, with a certain touch of 
 polish and good taste in it, which reminded one strongly of 
 the wild blades and eccentrics of college life. Indeed, if by 
 any magic one could have dropped suddenly into the circle 
 without the attendant and explanatory circumstances, it would 
 have been the first impression that it was a party of merry 
 making collegiates. 
 
 These are the sort of men who are never taken by surprise 
 at any thing. Though young, their experience embraces 
 the whole round of the passions. They are prepared for all 
 that can come. Their personal familiarity with " imminent 
 perils" of every stamp, and with all the exigencies and ex 
 cesses to which the life of humanity is liable, gives to their 
 port, and regard of all circumstances alike, an air of coolness 
 and indifference, as if however startling they might be 
 they came as matters of course, which were to be expected, 
 and certainly not wondered at. 
 
 This same familiarity with danger gives to their apprecia 
 tion of the social, or rather the convivial virtues, a high 
 tone though the habit of self-reliance, engendered in scenes 
 of solitary daring, infuses a tinge of individual reserve which 
 characterizes their open good-fellowship. 
 
 I was particularly struck with the youthful appearance of 
 the whole party; my impression on glancing around was, 
 that there was not a man in the room over twenty-two. 
 
 There was not a single commonplace physiognomy among 
 them all all was decidedly expressive, one way or another ; 
 but I was greatly amused afterwards, in recollecting how in 
 congruous my first hasty conceptions were, with what I after 
 wards ascertained to be the character of each ; my faith in 
 my own sagacity was no little diminished ! 
 
 The personage who earliest arrested my notice was the 
 most boyish looking of them all. His figure, though scarce 
 the average height, was stout, and moulded with remarkable 
 symmetry his hands and feet were womanishly delicite, 
 
A FIRST DAY WITH THE RANGERS. 56 
 
 while his Grecian features were almost severely beautiful in 
 their classic chiseling. The rich brunette complexion and 
 sharp black eye, indicative of Italian blood, would have 
 made the fortune of a city belle. The softness of his voice, 
 and his caressing manner, increased the attraction of his ap 
 pearance ; and, but for a certain cold flash from those bril 
 liant eyes, I should have been entirely in love with him at 
 once. 
 
 I thought him some wild and petted scapegrace from a 
 Southern family, who had run away from his friends, and 
 fallen upon such a locality and such society by accident. 
 Yet, as I afterwards learned, this man, of all others in the 
 room, was reputed most dangerous. The quick, unscrupulous 
 vindictiveness of his passions had become proverbial, and the 
 sobriquet of "the Bravo" had been universally applied to 
 him. 
 
 The man on whom he seemed to lavish most attention, and 
 who, indeed, appeared to be regarded with particular defer 
 ence by all, was a slight, raw-boned figure, with a lean but 
 bold Roman face, and an expression of modest simplicity 
 that struck me as peculiar ; there was something absolutely 
 shrinking and hoydenish in his bearing, and I remember 
 feeling some surprise that so unsophisticated, easy, good- 
 natured looking a personage should be treated with so much 
 respect by men necessarily of so hardy cast as those around. 
 
 Yet this individual was the celebrated Captain, now Colonel 
 Hays, the leader and foremost spirit of the Rangers, a mere 
 youth ; though more distinguished for tempered skill and gal 
 lantry in the Mexican and Indian wars, than any man who 
 had yet figured in the history of that frontier. 
 
 There was still another person who specially deceived my 
 preconceptions of his character. This was a tall, heavy- 
 boned, heavy-featured, gawky Irishman, who was lolling 
 about with rather an excessive expression of abandon and 
 jollity I took him at first for a decided " flat," but I soon 
 
56 THE BORDER CHASE: 
 
 observed a deep rich current of the quaintest and most spicy 
 humour conceivable, under the surface of this careless man 
 nerism. 
 
 Indeed, young Fitzgerald, the brother of the unfortunate 
 Santa Fe prisoner, was the finest impersonation of the best 
 and most racy traits of Irish wit and Irish gallantry that I 
 had yet met with. 
 
 The remainder of the party looked like men of severe, or 
 at least of decided tempers. 
 
 But such as they were, these were the Rangers, and these 
 were my first impressions of them. 
 
 I announced my wish to Captain Hays to become one of 
 them, and share the rough and tumble as well as their jolli 
 ties with them the risks as well as pleasures. I was wel 
 comed with frank cordiality into the ranks, and called for a 
 number of bottles of " noyau" at the bar, to commemorate 
 and seal our fellowship. These were drunk merrily enough, 
 Fitzgerald giving a bantering toast before we separated : 
 
 " Here s to old Kentuck ! May he get the green out of 
 his eyes, and eat his salad as soon as possible, in preparation 
 for the close shooting and tough chawing we, the free 
 Brotherhood of Rangers, indulge in!" 
 
 The last phrase I did not fully understand until my after 
 experience in dried or "jerked beef" enlightened me. 
 
 It was past two o clock before we parted for bed, and with 
 a brain dizzied by the excitements of the day, the novelty 
 and originality of the scenes and characters I had fallen 
 upon, it was some time before I got to sleep. It seemed to 
 me that the sleep had lasted only a few minutes, when a 
 loud thumping at the door of the hostelry awakened me. 
 
 It was a messenger from the merchant, post haste, an 
 nouncing to Taney that his boy had escaped. We rose 
 hastily, and found that day was just breaking. 
 
 The messenger said the negro had got off clear, and had 
 taken with him a quantity of valuable property; that his 
 
A FIRST DAY WITH THE RANGERS. 57 
 
 chains had been left upon the hearth, the back door open, 
 and a splendid horse the very finest in the country gone "i 
 along with a fine silver-mounted saddle ; that the picket 
 fence of the back yard, which was deep set with very heavy 
 posts, had been torn up to afford him passage ; that, in ad 
 dition to the horse and saddle, he had appropriated several 
 costly " scrapes," a brace of pistols, and a fine rifle, and that 
 the direction of his trail, so far as they had taken time to 
 trace it, rendered it most evident that he had made for the 
 Rio Grande. 
 
 This was stirring news, and created for a while no little 
 confusion, as the Rangers were all forthwith astir. Taney 
 and myself hurried to the house of the merchant, to ascertain 
 for ourselves if these statements could possibly be true. 
 
 Whatever had been the causeless and petulent prejudices 
 I had indulged myself in towards this boy, on the night be 
 fore, for his stupid looks, they gave way now to almost the 
 opposite extreme of admiration for the cunning and resolute 
 skill he had displayed in the manner of effecting his escape. 
 
 It appeared that he must have had his chains filed some 
 time before, in accomplishing which we ascertained that he 
 had been assisted by a Mexican blacksmith, whose shop bor 
 dered upon the back yard, the liberty of which had been 
 granted him. 
 
 But the prudent daring of his measures had been so con 
 summate as to elicit expressions of astonishment from every 
 body. He had managed to conceal the fact of his chains 
 being filed from the vigilance of the merchant, and had pa 
 tiently bided his time, till the arrival of his master, who 
 would take him in charge the next morning, rendered it 
 necessary that decisive steps should be taken at once. 
 
 He had then after we left him, and a sufficient time 
 had elapsed for the inmates of the room to get to sleep 
 again quietly divested his limbs of the chains, which he left 
 upon the hearth ; and noiselessly possessing himself of the 
 
58 THE BORDER CHASE: 
 
 holsters, rifle, and saddle, (which last article was plated with 
 two hundred dollars worth of silver,) belonging to one of the 
 sleepers, he unfastened the back door and passed out to the 
 stable. 
 
 This stable was inside the yard, and enclosed by a high 
 picket fence. By a wonderful exertion of strength, he had 
 torn up a number of the posts, sufficient to afford a passage 
 for himself and the splendid horse he had selected from 
 among a number of others, and thus reached the street by a 
 back lane. 
 
 In addition, he had provided himself with a valise of cloth 
 ing and provisions for several days. All of these items be 
 longed to the same person a rich trader who had lately ar 
 rived from the Rio Grande. The rage and astonishment of this 
 individual, on waking in the morning and finding himself mi 
 nus to such an extent, may be better conceived than told. 
 
 After ascertaining these details for ourselves, by personal 
 observation, in company with the restless and excited mer 
 chant we returned to the front door, where, greatly to my 
 astonishment, we found Hays and several of his Rangers al 
 ready collected two of them mounted on swift horses, and 
 armed for the pursuit, waiting for us in the street. We were 
 too inexperienced of course to have thought, in our hurry 
 and confusion, of this prompt preparation, and as there was 
 no time to be lost, could not accompany them at once. One 
 of these mounted men, I observed, was the "Bravo;" the 
 other was a swarthy complexioned, handsome-looking young 
 fellow, named Littell. He was mounted on the horse of 
 Hays, the most fleet and best-trained animal in the company. 
 All the speed that could be brought to bear was obviously 
 necessary for overtaking the boy, as well mounted as he was, 
 and with such a start as he had gained. The horse of the 
 " Bravo" was also a very game animal. 
 
 "Fifty dollars for the boy!" shouted Taney to them, and 
 just as they were bending forward to apply the "quirt" and 
 
A FIRST DAY WITH THE RANGERS. 59 
 
 spur, the hoarse voice of the enraged trader rang out from 
 over our shoulders 
 
 "And fifty dollars more for the horse and saddle !" 
 
 They were off at full speed, clattering over the stone pave 
 ment, while sparks flew from the iron shoes of their receding 
 animals. It would be a severe chase, every one was aware, 
 and the possibility of recapturing the boy seemed most pro 
 blematical. I could not help hoping in my own heart, that 
 what seemed so unlikely, might not by any accident be 
 brought about ; for, apart from all abstractions, the coolness 
 and daring the fellow exhibited showed him worthy to be a 
 freeman. 
 
 The day opened bright and pleasantly. About ten o clock 
 that morning we were all collected, grouped in the sunshine, 
 in front of " Johnson s," on the square, when pistol-shooting 
 became the accidental topic, growing out of the inspection 
 of my beautiful rifle-barrels. Hays was said to be a wonder 
 ful shot, and gave us a proof that the report did justice to 
 his skill. 
 
 He held one of my pistols in his hand, when he observed a 
 chicken-cock some thirty paces off in the square, which was 
 just straightening its neck to crow. 
 
 "Boys, I ll cut that saucy fellow short," he observed, as 
 he levelled and fired quickly at it, and, sure enough, the half- 
 announced clarion note of chanticleer was lost in the explo 
 sion, and it fluttered over dead with a ball through its head. 
 Our exclamations of astonishment and admiration were inter 
 rupted by the voice of one of the party : 
 
 " Hays ! yonder come your horse and Littell full-tilt up 
 the street !" 
 
 "Yes," observed another, "he rides very stiff. He looks 
 like a dead man !" 
 
 At the same moment the panting animal dashed up among 
 us, and stopped by the side of his masters 
 
60 THE BORDER CHASE: 
 
 Never in my life did I look upon a more terrible object 
 than his rider ! 
 
 With both hands clasped convulsively around the high 
 pummel of the Mexican saddle, his eyes closed, his face ashy 
 and rigid, a clotted tide of gore issuing from his side and 
 streaming down the yellow skirt of his buckskin hunting- 
 shirt, his reins on the neck of the horse, his gun missing, his 
 whole figure stiffened and erect he looked, indeed, a spectre 
 horseman ! a riding corpse ! 
 
 " He s warm yet," said Hays, as he placed his hand upon 
 his chalky fingers ; " let s take him down. He may not be 
 dead for all." 
 
 We sprang to his assistance, and the body at the first ef 
 fort fell over into our arms. I shuddered at the cold earthy 
 weight, and that horrid smell of fresh and bloody death 
 which, once experienced, can never be forgotten. We bore 
 him into the bar-room and laid him upon a bench. 
 
 I observed, on examination, that his pulse was still beating 
 faintly, and on the application of strong restoratives, it be 
 gan, after a short interval of suspense, to rise. 
 
 We now proceeded to strip him, and on doing so, ascer 
 tained that he had received a large musket-ball just above 
 the lower rib ; and on tracing the blue line its track had left 
 half round the body to the opposite side, .we were induced to 
 hope that it had glanced under the flesh and not penetrated 
 the chest. Gradually his pulse continued to heighten, until 
 we saw the colour returning to his pallid face. 
 
 " Boys, saddle up ! The Bravo is in danger ! This is 
 the work of the cursed Mexicans, you know," exclaimed 
 Hays, as soon as our suspense had been relieved by the ap 
 pearance of these favourable symptoms. 
 
 " Yes, Mexicans, of course !" muttered Fitzgerald. " That s 
 a Mexican ball, or it wouldn t have been so bunglingly placed. 
 We ll show em the clean thing, boys, with our rifles !" 
 
 We left Littell in charge of the tavern-keeper. We were 
 
A FIRST DAY WITH THE RANGERS. 61 
 
 mounted in a very short time, and collected before the door 
 of the tavern, ready to start, when Johnson came out bare 
 headed to tell us that the wounded man had so far recovered 
 as to be able to speak a few words. His utterance was yet 
 so feeble, that he had only been able to hear so much of 
 what he said as conveyed the idea that the Bravo had been 
 in advance of him when he received the ball from a thicket. 
 
 This, at any rate, gave us a faint clue as to how the affair 
 had happened, and we immediately set off on the pursuit at 
 the full speed of our horses. It was clear enough that either 
 the negro himself, or some of his Mexican friends for him, 
 had made this murderous attempt to arrest pursuit, from 
 ambuscade ; and whether the Bravo had not fallen a positive 
 victim, we were left in painful uncertainty to conjecture. 
 
 It appeared the more probable that the hand of the 
 Mexicans was in the affair, from the fact that the ball re 
 ceived by Littell was too large to fit the rifle the boy had 
 taken with him, and apparently could only have been sent 
 from the wide muzzle of a clumsy escopet. I observed, as 
 we swept through the town, that groups of Mexicans, with 
 their heads buried in their closely-folded scrapes, were leer 
 ing at us with a grinning interest, which, to say the least of 
 it, was any thing but comforting. Those unpleasantly cheer 
 ful looks haunted me through the early part of the chase. 
 
 We soon reached the wide level of the plain on which the 
 town stands, and for several hours galloped along its vast 
 monotonous expanse. After we had become thoroughly fa 
 tigued by this objectless sameness, relief came in a dark dim 
 line which began to loom on the horizon before us, and 
 which, as we approached it, opened into broken, irregular 
 masses of timber, some of them heavy and tall, stretching for 
 miles, others low, brushy, and dense, ranged like black-shaded 
 islands of ragged and angular outlines, on either side of the 
 old Spanish trail we followed. 
 
 Just where it led us within a few paces of the edge of ono 
 F 
 
THE BORDER CHASE : 
 
 of these motts or islands, we saw a rifle lying upon the 
 ground. It was Littell s, and had the appearance of having 
 been dropped suddenly on receiving the shot from the chap- 
 paral or thicket, which was an unusually dense one, of stiff, 
 thorny bush. . 
 
 We separated to ride around it and look for the trail of 
 the assassin. On coming together again, Hays announced 
 that he had found both the trampled spot where a horse had 
 stood hitched for some time and the single trail of the flight, 
 leading off in the direction of the Rio Grande. After follow 
 ing this for a quarter of a mile, another trail of a single 
 horse, leading from the main track, was observed running 
 parallel with the first. This was that of a shod horse, and 
 Hays exclaimed, as soon as he saw it : 
 
 " Ha ! the Bravo is safe yet, boys, and after the fellow, 
 too ! We ll have him yet. Bravo had got past before Lit- 
 tell was shot, and must have caught sight of the scoundrel 
 making off." 
 
 The sharp, experienced eyes of these men at once recog 
 nised the trail of their comrade as well as the main features 
 of the occurrence. We followed these two trails for a long 
 time without difficulty, at the same headlong pace we had 
 held since starting. Though they continued to hold the 
 same general course with the old beaten trace we had left, 
 yet they did not lead into it again, but, diverging in an 
 irregular manner, dodged around among the motts, leaving 
 every proof that the chase must be a desperate one. The 
 skill with which the Rangers unerringly traced this devious 
 way, although we were going at a swift run, was very surprising. 
 
 This hard riding had of course very greatly fagged both 
 ourselves and horses, and we were beginning to fear that the 
 uight would overtake us and prevent the prosecution of the 
 pursuit to any advantage, when we came upon a wide and 
 seemingly interminable plain, the bare undulating surface of 
 which afforded us little of either pleasure or encouragement. 
 
A FIRST DAY WITH THE RANGERS. 63 
 
 Suddenly, however, and most unexpectedly, one of the 
 men in front shouted, while he pointed with his gun over to 
 the right : 
 
 "Look ! that must be the Bravo. He s got him !" 
 
 We turned our heads, and the figures of two horsemen 
 were just rising into view over the ridge of an undulation far 
 away across the plains. 
 
 The figure of a man heaving in sight amidst these wild 
 solitudes, always causes a startle and thrill of expectation 
 and doubt similar to the feeling produced by the announce 
 ment of "a strange sail ahead* on shipboard, during a long 
 voyage. 
 
 The eye glances with careless indifference over great herds 
 of deer, buffaloes, or mustangs, dotted in the distance ; but a 
 glimpse of any shape, even remotely resembling a brother 
 man, makes the pulse leap fast and sharp, and the blood rush 
 back to the heart ; for in this lawless region it is impossible 
 to conjecture whether, what would naturally be an auspicious 
 event may not result in a mortal struggle, and death to one 
 party or the other. 
 
 This distorted condition of things causes strange emotions, 
 for it does seem most outre and unnatural, that the outlines 
 which of all others ought to be the most agreeable should be 
 productive of the most unpleasant excitement while we can 
 look upon thousands and multiplied thousands of brutes with 
 a negative feeling, if not one of pleasant companionship. I 
 have been particularly struck with this while travelling 
 alone, when any thing the imagination could conjure into a 
 resemblance of the human form would produce the most un 
 comfortable sensations. 
 
 There is nothing to fear from the animals, but from that 
 likeness to yourself every thing of hate and treachery is to 
 be dreaded. 
 
 We instantly headed our horses towards these distant 
 riders, who seemed to be jogging on very sociably at a lei- 
 
64 THE BORDER CHASE! 
 
 surely gait in the direction of San Antonio. As we neared 
 them, every moment made it more probable that the man s 
 first conjecture was right. 
 
 They soon observed us, and stopped with some flurry and 
 hesitation of manner, but after a long and deliberate survey 
 they started to meet us. 
 
 I had thought at first that they intended to wheel and 
 make off, but the assured recognition was simultaneous, and 
 with a loud cheer we increased our speed. 
 
 The Bravo waved his sombrero in the air and answered us. 
 In a little while more we crowded around him and his pri 
 soner, eagerly asking a multitude of questions. 
 
 The man was tied with a lariat about his feet, which was 
 passed under the belly of his horse. His hands were also 
 tied behind him, and their appearance of sociability at the 
 distance was fully explained when we saw that the Bravo 
 was leading his horse by another lariat. He was a Mexican 
 of spare figure, with a lean Roman face, sharp black eyes, 
 and a vivid expression of bold knavery, not at all cowed by 
 our numbers and wrathful looks. His whole appearance was 
 altogether unlike the usual downward-eyed, sneaking, wolfish 
 look, common to Mexicans in circumstances of peril such as 
 those surrounding him. The audacity of the fellow s bearing 
 at once attracted comment. 
 
 "Why, Bravo, "said Fitzgerald, "what the deuse are you 
 doing with that saucy-looking fellow alive ? You are the 
 last man I should have suspected of having the vice of 
 mercy in you !" 
 
 "Ha, ha!" laughed he, "the best of the joke is, that I 
 kept him alive simply because he gave me so much trouble 
 in catching him. He s a regular curiosity ; and I wanted to 
 show you a live Mexican, who was good pluck to the very 
 back-bone the only specimen of the kind that I conjecture 
 any of you ever saw." 
 
 " The scoundrel," said Hays, " I don t see that it required 
 
A FIRST DAY WITH THE RANGERS. 65 
 
 any great bravery to shoot a man from the bush. We ll take 
 him off your hands I ll have him disposed of." 
 
 " That s just what I wanted, Jack," (so Hays was fami 
 liarly called,) " I spared the rascal once, because he made 
 me laugh by his bold impudence, just as I was in the act of 
 pulling trigger upon him for the second time, and I don t 
 feel disposed to kill him now, though I want you all to do it, 
 for he deserves it a hundred times. Don t you remember 
 him ?" 
 
 "I think I have seen him before," said Hays, "but where 
 or when I can t recollect. It doesn t matter, though : we ll 
 relieve you of him." 
 
 " You have not forgotten Gonzaleze, the dexterous thief, 
 who stole your sorrel horse, last summer, and ran him off 
 across the Rio Grande ?" 
 
 " Ha ! this is the same fellow : well, we ll pay him off all 
 scores this time." 
 
 " He understands perfectly what you say. By the way, 
 have you seen or heard any thing of Littell ? He went off 
 in a singular style. I thought he was shot." 
 
 Hays explained to him the circumstances the reader is 
 already in possession of; and while we rode slowly towards a 
 distant line of timber, indicating a stream on which we meant 
 to camp for the night, the Bravo related his story of the 
 day s events to us. 
 
 "After leaving you in the street this morning, we con 
 tinued at the best speed of our horses on the old Rio Grande 
 trail : for though we saw nothing of the boy s trail upon it at 
 first, I felt convinced we should find it after a while, for I 
 knew he must have taken this route. Sure enough, within 
 about five miles of town, we saw where it came in along with 
 another horse. I suspected at once that this was the Mexi 
 can who was guiding and assisting him. 
 
 " "We kept on very rapidly, and Littell had fallen several 
 
 hundred yards behind me, when, after passing that point of 
 F2 5 
 
66 THE BORDER CHASE: 
 
 timber some moments, I heard a gun behind me, and, turning 
 my head very quickly, I saw your horse just shying from 
 the smoke, and wheeling on the back track, while the rifle 
 of Littell dropped from his hands. 
 
 " I saw from his manner, that he was hit, and expected 
 to see him fall. The horse appeared to be greatly frightened, 
 and was clearly running without any control. It at once 
 occurred to me that the man who fired would attempt to es 
 cape from the other side of the mott, and thinking more of 
 vengeance than any thing else, as soon as I could rein up 
 and turn my horse, I galloped round it. 
 
 " I saw this fellow already in the saddle, making across 
 the prairie, and instantly took after him. He had the start 
 of me, and kept it for nearly two hours, through the hottest 
 and hardest chase that ever I had. I thought at one time 
 the scamp would beat me and get away ; but the staunch 
 bottom of my horse proved too much for his. Such doubles, 
 and turns, and twists as he made among the motts you never 
 saw in your life." 
 
 " Yes," interrupted Fitz, " we have had a very perfect 
 idea of them : haven t we been worried enough in following 
 your trail ?" 
 
 " As his horse began to fail," continued the Bravo, " he 
 doubled like a fox in the eifort to lose me among the islands ; 
 but T had no notion of being thrown off, and after a while 
 began to close rapidly upon him. 
 
 " When he became convinced that there was no chance for 
 his escape, very greatly to my astonishment, he turned sud 
 denly in the saddle, levelling a large pistol at me : I bent 
 forward over my horse s neck, and the ball whizzed above 
 me ; as I straightened up, I also fired, but missed, and at the 
 same instant my horse came full tilt against his, and we 
 went down together. 
 
 " I was on my feet first, and, with my second pistol against 
 his prostrate body, was in the act of firing into him, when, 
 
A FIRST DAY WITH THE RANGERS. 67 
 
 with the most cool and comical expression conceivable, he 
 exclaimed, as he looked up, grinning in my face 
 
 " l You missed and I missed we are even ! 
 
 " I burst into a laugh, and threw down my pistol, while 
 the fellow rose and shook himself, and began to kick and 
 curse his prostrate horse. 
 
 " Garracho ! you nasty brute, if I hadn t thought you 
 were better bottom, I should not have gone to the trouble to 
 steal you ; and turning to me, he observed, but he pushed 
 you some, any how. I shall have to steal your bay next. 
 
 " I was so tickled at this unprecedented impudence, that I 
 fairly roared, while the knave, finding he had got the right 
 side of me, continued in the same strain 
 
 " I let you pass, but it was an old grudge I had against 
 Littell. He had me whipped in Matamoras, last spring, and 
 I promised to be even with him before the year was out ; and 
 you see I have been as good as my word. I hope he s done 
 for. 
 
 " There was something so funny and original in the rascal s 
 saucy self-possession, that it was some little time before I 
 could restrain my laughter sufficiently to address him. 
 
 " You can t expect any mercy from us, you scamp, 
 said I. 
 
 " Oh ! no, I suppose you are going to have me shot. 
 Muy bueno I think I ve worked for it. I have stolen some 
 half-dozen horses from you Rangers. 
 
 " Ha ! you are Gonzaleze ? 
 
 <Yes. 
 
 " Well, I pity you if Hays or any of the boys get hold 
 of you. I mean to tie you and take you into town. 
 
 " i Bueno, he said, holding out his hands readily, and I 
 tied them, and here he is. You may shoot the fellow if you 
 can, but I ll be sworn I neither can, nor will have a hand in 
 it. He s such an odd genius, that I think it would be a SID 
 
68 THE BORDER CHASE: 
 
 almost to shoot him ; though it ought, undoubtedly, to be 
 done, and I wish you all would do it." 
 
 " Oh !" said Hays, dryly, " never fear, Bravo, we ll relieve 
 you on that score very shortly. But here s the water we ll 
 draw lots for the six who shall shoot him, as soon as we get 
 ready for camping." 
 
 I could 4 not help feeling enlisted in the Bravo s sympathy 
 for the man, who, during this conversation every word of 
 which he understood had maintained the same bearing of 
 reckless and defiant coolness. 
 
 We dismounted by the side of a clear, rapid stream, under 
 the narrow fringe of timber which bordered it, and after 
 tying the Mexican to a tree, proceeded to strip our horses, 
 stake them out to grass, kindle a fire, and make all the usual 
 preparations for camping. This was all done in perfect 
 silence, for the stern resolve which was about to be executed 
 left, under any view of it, no room for frivolity of feeling. 
 
 The Bravo had instantly, on dismounting, and in entire for- 
 getfulness of his faithful horse, stretched himself on the grass 
 in front of Gonzaleze, and continued to regard his face 
 which maintained unblenchingly its expression of calm indif 
 ference with a gaze of intensely curious interest. 
 
 Indeed, it was an awful trial his hardy nerve was sub 
 jected to looking upon the silent progress of a preparation, 
 the consummation of which he well knew was to close his 
 account with men and the world. There was to me some 
 thing positively terrible in the mute activity of our men, and 
 the sharp, fixed alertness of the regard of the prisoner. 
 
 When every thing had been arranged, we gathered around 
 the fire, in speechless awe feeling that the crisis had come, 
 yet dreading its action. 
 
 Not a word was spoken, till Hays said, in a low voice, as 
 he pulled a pencil and some paper from his pocket : 
 
 " The six men of the eleven, who draw the lowest numbers, 
 will shoot him !" 
 
A FIRST DAY WITH THE RANGERS. 69 
 
 He then proceeded to write them down, and handed them 
 round to us in his hat. 
 
 I drew my number with a degree of nervousness that sur 
 prised me ; for, independent of my natural and invincible 
 horror of a cold-blooded execution such as this, I had par 
 taken of the Bravo s liking for the singular and piquant 
 traits this fellow had exhibited, and was very loath to be 
 made an instrument of his death ! 
 
 My gratification was extreme, when I saw that my number 
 was so high as to place me out of danger. Those who drew 
 the low numbers, seemed to feel the most perfect indifference 
 about the affair, and ranged themselves in front of Gonzaleze 
 with precisely the same air that would have characterized 
 them had it been a wooden target they were going to shoot 
 at, instead of a fellow being. 
 
 The row of dark tubes was levelled at him, and Hays was 
 opening his lips to enunciate the fatal word " fire," when the 
 man, in a clear, petulant voice, said 
 
 " Garracho ! don t aim so low, you clumsy sapheads !" 
 
 The Bravo, springing to his feet, exclaimed 
 
 " Jack, hear that ! don t shoot this fellow ! spare him for 
 my sake !" 
 
 Hays waved his hand, and the guns, greatly to my grati 
 fication, were lowered, and in another moment, the Bravo 
 had cut the thongs which bound the limbs of the Mexican, 
 and he stood before us a free man. 
 
 With the same unmoved self-collection and frankness which 
 had characterized his whole bearing, he proceeded to explain 
 to us his connection with the negro s escape. 
 
 He told us that, attracted by a human sympathy for the 
 boy, whom he had accidentally met in the shop of the black 
 smith, with his heavy chains on, he had furnished him with 
 a file to cut them, and advised him to the utmost as to the 
 manner of his escape, and guided and accompanied him in 
 his flight to the thicket, where he had concealed himself 
 
70 THE BORDER CHASE. 
 
 while the boy went on, and, recognising the Bravo, had let 
 him go by ; but the features of his old and sworn enemy had 
 proved too much for his prudence, and he shot at him, with 
 the results we have seen. 
 
 Such as it was, this was my first day with the "Rangers," 
 and we were soon afterwards sound asleep on the grass. It 
 is hardly necessary to add, that the boy made good his es 
 cape across the Rio Grande, with all his plunder. 
 
GONZALEZE AGAIN; 
 
 OB, 
 
 THE BRAVO S STRATAGEM. 
 
GONZALEZE AGAIN; 
 
 OR, THE BRAVO S STRATAGEM. 
 
 IT must be confessed that our Rangers held a somewhat 
 nominal allegiance to the President of Texas, though their 
 commissions were in his name. That august official had far 
 too many hungry pap-suckers clinging to the lean bosom of 
 the home Treasury to spare one generous drop even, for the 
 nourishment of this distant frontier ; so that the bold spirits 
 who ventured there had glory to any amount meted out for 
 their subsistence by his prodigal hand, and if they found any 
 thing less sublimated and more substantial necessary, they 
 were told with a superb hauteur, that " honour was the dear 
 est gift of princes;" and that, as to these grosser matters, 
 they might shift for themselves ! 
 
 The consequence was, as " necessity knows no law," that 
 these young gentlemen could not at any rate be expected 
 to trouble themselves with framing an original code for it, 
 under such circumstances ; indeed, their veneration of a 
 custom so antiquated as that " the memory of man runneth 
 not to the contrary," would have forbidden it, if nothing 
 else ; and in this classical taste they were necessarily highly 
 prejudiced in favour of the primeval axiom, "Might is right," 
 which was adopted as their creed, moral and political ! 
 
 The fifteen hundred Mexicans, who made up the remaining 
 G 73 
 
74 GONZALEZE AGAIN; OR, 
 
 population of the town, as well as the swarms along the dis 
 tant banks of the Rio Grande, were made to appreciate very 
 fully the practical results of this creed, which was carried 
 out at their expense in sundry unceremonious contributions, 
 levied by these adventurous zealots with a faithfulness which 
 would have secured the seventh heaven to followers of Mo 
 hammed. 
 
 Captain Hays, as we have mentioned, was the master-spirit 
 of this band, and ranking next to him was the hero of our 
 adventure, whom we have already introduced as a young 
 gentleman whose very feminine and delicate features con 
 trasted remarkably with the traits of remorseless hardihood 
 which had gained him the soubriquet of " the Bravo. 1 
 
 There was no desperate enterprise in which the Bravo did 
 not of choice lead the forlorn hope ; there was nothing too 
 inadly daring and too near impossible for him to undertake, if 
 he once took the whim into his head that he would accom 
 plish it. Hays was the more powerful character, and like 
 
 " Hector in his blaze of wrath subscribed 
 To tender objects ; but he, in heat of action, 
 Was more vindictive than jealous love." 
 
 And not in the heat of action only, but under all possible 
 contingencies where the blood of the hated Mexicans of the 
 Rio Grande was at issue, he was pitiless as winter ! 
 
 Antonio Navarro, a Mexican of Hidalgo descent, who had 
 joined the Texans in their revolt, and fought shoulder to 
 shoulder with them throughout the revolution, was very 
 popular and much respected by the Americans of Bahai, who 
 had given him their votes as Mayor, and were ready to stand 
 by him under all circumstances. Navarro was rich, and car 
 ried on, through agents who were not altogether so obnoxious 
 to the Mexican government as himself, quite an extensive 
 and lucrative trade with the villages beyond the Rio Grande. 
 
THE BRAVO S STRATAGEM. 75 
 
 It happened just at this crisis that he was in a serious 
 quandary. 
 
 His last trading venture, which had been a heavy one, had 
 been successfully converted into silver ; but his faithful agent 
 had sent him word that he dared not budge a foot with his 
 precious charge, two or three mule loads of which he was 
 guarding night and day at the rancho of Navarro s old 
 friend, Don Jose, on the Texan bank of the Rio Grande. 
 For he feared that his old friend, tempted by the richness of 
 the prize, had proved unfaithful, and had given the renowned 
 and formidable outlaw, Agatone, a hint of the intended 
 transfer, that he might intercept it on the way across those 
 sterile plains which stretch between that river and Bahai. 
 
 It was very certain, at least, that he was beleaguered by 
 the spies of the bandit captain; that a detachment of his 
 troops were hanging round the rancho, waiting for the trea 
 sure to be started, with the intention of attacking those 
 having it in charge, on the prairies ; that Agatone, who was 
 the mortal enemy of Navarro, had sworn that his money 
 should never reach Bahai ; and the agent, in sore distress, 
 begged him to send a formidable escort, sufficiently strong to 
 defy the whole force of Agatone, for without this it would be 
 madness to leave the walls of the rancho ; and he was not 
 even sure, by any means, it was safe there, for that the con 
 duct of Don Jose savoured very strongly of treachery. 
 
 Poor Navarro was sadly taken aback by this news. But 
 he went instantly to work and equipped a troop of the vaga 
 bond braggadocio Mexicans about Bahai, and started it off 
 under the command of a trusted servant, to bring in his 
 silver, and frighten Agatone s cut-throats. He sent private 
 instructions through to his agent having charge of the money, 
 not to trust it to these fellows unless he had ascertained 
 whether they would stand fire or not, for on this point he 
 nad some shrewd doubts, growing out of his intimate know 
 ledge of his fellow-citizens. The agent was first to send 
 
76 GONZALEZE AGAIN; OR, 
 
 them with a great parade of sacks, stuffed with moss and 
 gravel, a day or two s journey on the return trail. 
 
 In this time the attack of Agatone would probably be 
 made, and if they should prove able to cope with him and 
 show any game, the agent might then go back and fill his 
 sacks in earnest, with some prospect of reaching home with 
 their contents. 
 
 This wary stratagem was carried out to the letter, and 
 the result proved it to have been a wise precaution, for the 
 cowardly ragamuffins scarcely waited Agatone s first charge 
 before they were scattered, flying helter-skelter in every di 
 rection over the plains ; and nearly all of them killed their 
 horses by running, and came straggling into Bahai on foot, 
 with an awful tale of robbery, blood, and devoted courage on 
 their part, each man vowing as he arrived, that he had fought 
 until all those yet left behind him were killed ; and not a 
 little laughter did it create among the Americans, as one 
 after another the ghosts of these heroes thus unceremo 
 niously consigned to the gory bed of honour, would come 
 dropping in, apparelled in the old-fashioned garb of flesh 
 and blood. 
 
 The truth was, that Agatone had not pursued them at all, 
 but stopping at the money bags, eagerly ripped them open 
 with his dagger, that he might gloat his hungry vision upon 
 the shining contents. The rage of the baffled ruffian may be 
 better conceived than told, when a stream of shells and peb 
 bles followed through the rent ; he swore all sorts of dire 
 oaths as he thrust his damaged dagger back into the sheath. 
 
 But the faithful agent, whose name was Alvarez, had taken 
 care to keep out of harm s way, and, with the most trustworthy 
 of his men, was securely housed in Don Jose s rancho, guard 
 ing the treasure like a sleepless gryphon, and in despite of 
 the treachery of his host, who dared not take ground openly, 
 he managed to keep the infuriated Agatone at bay. 
 
 Navarro of course needed no telegraphing to be made 
 
THE BRAVO S STRATAGEM. 77 
 
 aware of what had occurred ; but he was now fairly at his 
 wit s end, for it was clear enough he would never get his 
 money if he trusted to Mexican valour to bring it to him ; 
 and besides, no possible inducement would have operated in 
 organizing another expedition composed solely of Mexicans, 
 for it would take them a month or two to recover from this 
 fright ; and were he even to send double the number, they 
 would all run at the first sight of Agatone. 
 
 The jealousies between the Mexican and American citizens 
 had prevented his asking assistance of Hays and his com 
 pany, for he knew that they scorned his cowardly country 
 men too entirely to participate with them in any enterprise ; 
 and now that he had endeavoured to get along without them, 
 and being so signally defeated, he feared it would sadly in 
 jure his popularity should he employ the Americans, and 
 give them another opportunity, by contrasting the successful 
 issue of their adventure with the disgraceful one of the 
 Mexicans, to taunt and crow over them, which spirit they 
 had already carried to sufficiently galling extremes to endan 
 ger the public peace. 
 
 He knew that if he applied to the Americans now, they 
 would only assist him in view of this very triumph, and be 
 sure to make the most of it ; so that between the fear of 
 losing his popularity, and of losing his money, he was fairly 
 half-demented ; how both were to be secured, he could not by 
 any possibility conceive. 
 
 He had been chafing and foaming over the matter for 
 several days, without seeing his way any more clearly out of 
 the difficulty; and, to cap the climax, had just received 
 another message from Alvarez, urging him, as he valued his 
 silver, to hurry on some one to his relief, for he was almost 
 worn down by watching, and the aspect of affairs was be 
 coming every hour more unpromising ; but that there was a 
 solitary glimmering of hope left, for he had received infor 
 mation from a sure quarter that Agatone had gone for a ro 
 G2 
 
78 GONZALEZE AGAIX; OR, 
 
 inforcement, and was to be absent several days, but that 
 when he returned he intended storming the rancho, and had 
 sworn to cut all their throats for the trick they had played 
 on him, and have his revenge and his money any how. 
 
 He prayed Navarro to take advantage of this absence of 
 his enemy who had left his troops in command of a lieute 
 nant and slip in and get him out of this scrape, and the 
 money in before Agatone returned. That he must try to 
 effect this by stratagem, if not by force. 
 
 This was a strong appeal. The worthy merchant and 
 mayor, already near the last gasp of desperation, was almost 
 floored by it. But those self-same venerable laconics which 
 have asserted that " necessity knows no law," have also 
 christened it the "mother of invention;" and Navarro, in 
 this mortal extremity, suddenly bethought him of the " Bra 
 vo," of the violent passion he had been seized with to pos 
 sess a certain coal-black and magnificent steed which Navarro 
 had taken from a Camanche chief. 
 
 It was by far the finest animal ever seen on that frontier, 
 and the Bravo had tried often and over, in all sorts of ways, 
 to obtain him. But although Navarro valued him immensely, 
 yet the estimate did not quite overbalance his silver bags, 
 and he knew the Bravo would risk his life a hundred times 
 to get possession of him. 
 
 Delighted by the sudden illumination of this thought, he 
 sent for the Bravo at once, proposed the expedition to him, 
 and the coveted steed as the rewaid. 
 
 The eyes of the young adventurer glistened ; for of all 
 things he could conceive of just then, that horse he valued 
 the most. Money was nothing in the scale against him, for 
 no Arab had ever greater cause for regarding the mettle of 
 his horse as quite as important, in the sort of life he led, as 
 that of his dirk or his pistol ; and what was more, he had 
 not been in a single fight for a week or two : the Camanches 
 had become so distressingly shy, and the Mexicans so uncom- 
 
THE BRAVO S STRATAGEM. 79 
 
 fortably quiet, that he was almost bored to death by the 
 vapid and tiresome monotony of peace ; and his blood was 
 fairly seething for a small affair of some sort or other ; so 
 that nothing could have been more apropos than the pro 
 position of Navarro, even leaving the horse out of the ques 
 tion ; but with the prospect of getting " the black," and 
 killing a few of Agatone s rascals to boot, he was supremely 
 and perfectly beatified. 
 
 He forthwith closed with Navarro s offer, adding as con 
 ditions, that he was to have the horse to ride, and to manago 
 the whole affair in his own way, without any questioning on 
 the part of any one ; that he should select five men who were 
 to be equipped to accompany him : and great was the as 
 tonishment of Navarro when he announced that these five 
 men were to be Mexicans, and the most roguish, worthless 
 vagabonds in the town, at that. 
 
 He had expected, of course, that the Bravo would take 
 with him his own countrymen, and it was upon their com 
 bined boldness and ingenuity he had counted for success ; 
 and at this unexpected proposition he was grievously dis 
 turbed, for the inevitable result seemed to promise the loss 
 of both horse and money. In vain he remonstrated. The 
 Bravo would make no explanation of his plans, but insisted 
 upon his terms, or refused to have any thing to do with the 
 matter. 
 
 Navarro went to Hays, and begged him to use his influence 
 in persuading the Bravo to change his plans, and take Ameri 
 cans. Hays went to him, and offered to accompany him 
 with his whole troop ; but he refused the proffer, and Hays 
 turned off, saying very coolly to Navarro 
 
 " never disturb yourself about the Bravo ! he ll do it ! 
 He s got a plan of his own let him alone !" 
 
 So, as it was the only hope, Navarro was compelled to 
 equip the five Mexicans designated, and let him have his 
 own way. 
 
80 GONZALEZE AGAIN; OR, 
 
 But it was with a heavy heart he saw him start the next 
 day, curvetting over the prairie on the black steed, and he 
 drew a long sigh as his favourite horse disappeared beyond 
 the undulations ; for he never expected to hear from him or 
 his money again. 
 
 In truth, it appeared to every one, Mexicans as well as 
 Americans, the most fantastically impossible scheme that 
 ever entered the brain of desperado; the effort, in the 
 teeth of all Agatone s banditti, to bring off a large sum in 
 silver across a hundred miles of desert plains, with only five 
 cowardly Mexicans for escort, any one of whom would sell 
 his life for a plug of tobacco ! It looked like the collapse 
 stage of the dare-devil mania ! But the Bravo had done so 
 many improbable things, there was no telling what might be 
 the result now. 
 
 So everybody waited, with the most intense curiosity and 
 anxiety, the issue. With permission of our readers, we will 
 accompany the mad- cap through this promising undertaking. 
 
 He travelled with great speed, making long stages, and 
 only stopping to refresh his horse, and seeming to be utterly 
 regardless of the five Mexicans, leaving them to keep up or 
 not, as they could. They, poor rascals, were frightened at 
 the idea of being left behind to shift for themselves, in case 
 they should meet Camanches, and took very good care to 
 keep in sight, at least; though to accomplish this on their 
 inferior horses was a very serious business ; so that by the 
 time he reached the rancho of Don Jose, their animals were 
 pretty well used up. 
 
 The Bravo had purposely selected these fellows from among 
 the most notoriously drunken and faithless villains of Bexar ! 
 Honest Alvarez, who was on the watch, instantly opened the 
 gates to the Bravo. 
 
 Don Jose happened not to be at hand when this was done ; 
 out when he returned and found the single American inso 
 lently ordering his people about, and acting in all respects 
 
THE BRAVO S STRATAGEM. 81 
 
 as if he were lord of the rancho, he became furiously en 
 raged, and ordered the Bravo to clear out, and threatened 
 to tie him up and give him a quirt on his bare back. 
 
 It never occurred to him for a moment that a solitary 
 American, with only a river between him and Mexico, and 
 with several hundred Mexicans about him, would dare to offer 
 resistance ! The Bravo paid no attention to his threats, but 
 in an imperious tone demanded of him the surrender of the 
 silver. 
 
 To Don Jose this seemed capping the climax of presump 
 tion. He ordered his peones to seize and strip him. But 
 this was more easily said than done. 
 
 While they hesitated a moment without obeying, the Bravo 
 very coolly drew a pistol, and stepping up to Don Jose, who 
 was surrounded by his peones, twisted his hand into his hair, 
 and drawing down his head, placed the cold iron muzzle of 
 the pistol against his temple. At the same instant, as the 
 peones were in the act of rushing on him, some one shouted 
 from the crowd 
 
 " It s the Bravo ! It s the Bravo ! Look out !" 
 
 At this formidable name the menial herd scattered as if a 
 torpedo had fallen among them, and poor Don Jose was left 
 to his fate. 
 
 Such was the terror the singular hardihood of this man 
 had inspired the border Mexicans with, that they had as soon 
 undertake to encounter a regiment of devils as brave the 
 prowess of his single arm. He held the shivering Don Jose 
 in this pleasant position until he made him kiss the cross and 
 swear to be true this is the only form of oath at all bind 
 ing with a Mexican. 
 
 With a magnanimous air he then told him he would spare 
 his life, and released him. He ordered him to get the key, 
 and show him the most secure room in the rancho, which 
 having been done, he compelled him to assist Alvarez and 
 himself to remove the silver into it. Then speaking a few 
 
82 GONZALEZE AGAIN; OK, 
 
 words in a low tone to Alvarez, he entered the room alone, 
 closed the door, locked it on the inside, and throwing him 
 self down with the bags for a pillow, was sound asleep in a 
 few moments. 
 
 Great was the rejoicing among the Mexicans that this 
 scourge of the borders was at last entrapped had in his 
 over-daring recklessness thrown himself alone amidst swarms 
 of enemies ; and though they submitted to his insolence in 
 the rancho, and dare not attack him openly, they revelled in 
 anticipative gibes over his carcass riddled with balls, as they 
 intended it should be. How was it possible for him to 
 escape ? The faith of the villains he had brought along with 
 him had given way at the first assault for they had been 
 forthwith surrounded by the emissaries of Agatone, and for 
 a few pounds of tobacco apiece, had agreed, every man of 
 them, to join the plot for his assassination. 
 
 The lieutenant of Agatone had seen his approach, and 
 might have set upon him then, with all his men, and killed 
 him, but he chose rather to wait till he started on his return 
 with the money, and thus secure both objects at once. As 
 for poor Alvarez and his two honest followers, they were of 
 course to be exterminated along with him ! 
 
 And then, this carelessness of his, in throwing himself 
 down to sleep without taking any precautions to see that his 
 men were not tampered with, showed that he neither feared 
 nor suspected any thing ; and they fairly danced for joy, as 
 they saw every thing so propitious for a certain revenge of 
 all the high-handed indignities and murders he had com 
 mitted upon their countrymen. Alvarez seemed to be in a 
 wonderfully fine humour, highly elated at the prospects of 
 escaping, and paid no attention to the whisperings and plot- 
 tings that were going on around him. 
 
 He bought several gallons of nouya, and, with one of the 
 Mexicans who had accompanied the Bravo, called Juan, and 
 who was the most proverbial scoundrel among them, he 
 
THE BKAVO S STRATAGEM. 83 
 
 seemed determined to make a regular drunken frolic in 
 honour of his deliverance. The rest, having settled their 
 plans with Agatone s spies, who departed, were soon drawn 
 into the carouse, which they kept up regularly until day. 
 Had a sober man looked on, he would have perceived that 
 Alvarez and Juan were not quite so drunk as they wished to 
 appear. 
 
 When morning came, the Bravo chimed in with the con 
 vivial spirit of his followers, and at starting, filled all their 
 water-gourds with nouya for them. Don Jose was very offi 
 cious in furnishing the Bravo with spirits, and chuckled 
 heartily as he saw him so much disposed to drink freely, for 
 this was making assurance doubly sure of the success of the 
 plot, which he knew was to be carried into effect that night. 
 
 He rubbed his fingers with glee at the thought of the coin 
 they were soon to be counting, for he was of course to go 
 shares in the plunder. Indeed, the avarice of the traitor be 
 came so thoroughly roused by the thought of certain success 
 to all his schemes, that he began to think of the many " slips 
 betwixt the cup and the lips," and to remember that 
 Agatone s banditti had never been remarkable for* good 
 faith, and that it would be the surest course for him to be on 
 the ground in person when the money was seized, and attend 
 to securing his share ; so that his heart suddenly overflowed 
 with courtesy, and, mounting his horse, he insisted upon 
 having the honour of accompanying the Bravo the first day s 
 journey on his return. The Bravo, seeming to be thoroughly 
 mollified by the generous liquor, heartily responded to the 
 politeness. 
 
 So off they started, merry as a wedding party, the doomed 
 Bravo and Alvarez more boisterously jovial than any of 
 them, and taking great pains to make the money-bags con 
 spicuous, "for the benefit" as the apparently half-drunken 
 Bravo swaggered " of the spying whelps of that wolf-cur 
 
84 GONZALEZE AGAIN; OR, 
 
 Agatone, that are sneaking along after us through that line 
 of timber !" 
 
 As he said this, he pointed directly to where Don Jose 
 knew the spies of the banditti were hid. He was somewhat 
 startled at this for an instant; but the Bravo was so evi 
 dently under the influence of the nouya, that he forgot it 
 directly, supposing that it was an accident that he pointed so 
 truly, and merely such a boast as was natural for a half- 
 intoxicated man. 
 
 It seemed to Don Jose that his victims were perfectly in 
 fatuated, for during the whole day the Bravo and Alvarez 
 did not permit the carouse to flag ; and in this they found an 
 able coadjutor in Juan, for the knave seemed as thirsty as a 
 sand-bank. We should mention, by the way, that it is an 
 almost invariable habit on this frontier, particularly when 
 Americans are of the party, to spend the first night in camp 
 in a carouse, when a long or perilous expedition is under 
 taken ; so that all this conduct of the Bravo, however stupid 
 and reckless it might seem, was in perfect keeping with 
 usage. 
 
 They camped at night on a spot designated by Don Jose 
 as most admirably adapted for the purpose. The Bravo ap 
 peared to place unbounded confidence in the judgment of the 
 courteous ranchero, and agreed to his selection without hesi 
 tation. The spot was most excellently well chosen for a 
 night surprise. It was a small open space on the bank of a 
 stream, surrounded on all sides by a dense thicket. The 
 Bravo was not so far gone that he did not take wonderfully 
 good care of the black steed ; and Alvarez managed, with all 
 his staggering, to secure the pack of mules, and one or two 
 horses, remarkably well under the circumstances. 
 
 The supper of dried beef and tortillas over, the Bravo sud 
 denly grew excessively cautious, and would not permit a fire 
 to be built, for fear, he said 
 
 " The blaze or smoke might betray us to Agatone s fel- 
 
THE BRAVO S STRATAGEM. 85 
 
 lows; for," he continued, with a loud laugh, "I rather think 
 I ve thrown the cowardly sheep-thieves off the trail this 
 time." 
 
 Don Jose assented most heartily to this, though he laughed 
 in his sleeve as he said to himself 
 
 " The drunken fool ! a blind man couldn t miss the trail 
 he s made, even if I hadn t seen the spies following us all 
 day !" 
 
 The drinking now commenced again, and it was soon an 
 nounced that the gourds had been emptied. The fellows, 
 who had become very drunk and insolent, were clamorous 
 for more. The Bravo, at last, and seemingly with great re 
 luctance, brought a special private bottle of his own, that, 
 he said, was filled with choice brandy, which he had obtained 
 at Bahai, and brought along for contingencies. 
 
 Don Jose, who had been very wary, and had drunk nothing 
 heretofore, thought he might certainly now indulge himself 
 a little, as matters were in such glorious train ; so he took a 
 Btiff draught of the Bravo s superfine brandy, and, passing 
 the bottle round, it was very soon emptied. 
 
 One of the Mexicans shouted, laughingly, that Juan was 
 shirking, and didn t drink his ; but Juan played his swallow 
 so vehemently, that the fellow jerked the bottle out of his 
 hand, and drank himself, but was too much stupefied to no 
 tice that Juan had not lessened it a drop. 
 
 In a very few minutes after this, each man had thrown 
 himself back with his head upon his saddle for a pillow, and 
 seemed to be sleeping soundly. Don Jose had followed the 
 example of the rest, so far as position was concerned, but 
 had not the slightest idea of going to sleep. He lay thinking 
 over the occurrences of the day ; every thing had worked 
 right ; it was impossible the Bravo could have any suspicion, 
 for all his Mexicans had been bribed ; and even supposing 
 they had only pretended to be so, he had watched them 
 
86 GONZALEZE AGAIN; OR, 
 
 closely since daybreak, and it was impossible that any inti 
 mation of the plot could have been conveyed by them to the 
 Bravo without his witnessing it, though it had struck his 
 crafty mind as singular that the Bravo should be so reck 
 less as to get drunk when he knew he was surrounded by 
 deadly enemies, yet it seemed so evident that he really was 
 so, that his suspicions were entirely lulled. 
 
 He felt an unaccountable propensity for sleeping, which 
 he could not overcome, and, consoling himself with the re 
 flection that as his friends were not to come till daybreak, 
 there was plenty of time to take a short nap, he gave way 
 to the invincible inclination, intending to wake again in an 
 hour or so. 
 
 A profound silence now reigned over the camp and the 
 still snoring figures for an hour or so, and the wolves for 
 there was no sentinel out were sneaking round the death 
 like sleepers, and smelling cautiously at their noses to see if 
 they were yet breathing ; but when one of them happened 
 to try this experiment on the Bravo, it suddenly bounded 
 wildly off, shaking its head. The Bravo rose quickly, and 
 gazed after it as it dashed through the moonlight, at every 
 leap clawing with its fore-paw at the stump of an ear that 
 had been sliced off by his bowie. 
 
 He turned with a sardonic grin, and muttered, " Ah 
 ha ! my fine fellow, you will not be the only one that is bitten 
 to-night!" Alvarez and Juan were standing erect and wide 
 awake by his side. 
 
 "Come, boys, let s be quick !" 
 
 They soon had the money upon the pack-saddles, and their 
 horses equipped, all but saddling the steed of the Bravo. 
 
 " Shoot the man with his head on the silver-mounted saddle, 
 is it?" he chuckled, as he took up the rich saddle his own 
 head had been resting upon, and replaced the saddle which 
 Juan had softly taken from under the head of Don Jose, 
 with it. 
 
THE BRAVO S STRATAGEM. 87 
 
 " But that the joke is too good to lose, I couldn t afford to 
 leave my fine saddle, and forego the pleasure of splitting the 
 rascal s gizzard myself !" 
 
 He laughed as he threw the saddle of Don Jose upon the 
 "black," and leaped into it. 
 
 "Keep close under the bank, boys, and hurry !" he said, 
 as they started the pack-mules, with their precious freight, 
 down the hill into the bed of the stream on which they were 
 camped. 
 
 " Stop ! stop !" said Alvarez, as they got into the water, 
 " we have forgotten my two men who stood by me so faith 
 fully ! Wo must not leave them to be shot, when the fellows 
 find out the trick, for revenge !" 
 
 " Go back, then," said the Bravo, carelessly, " and drag 
 them by the heels into the thicket, and hide them ; you 
 needn t be afraid they will wake, for they took a heavy dose 
 of that superfine brandy of mine !" 
 
 Alvarez obeyed, and said, when he and Juan returned, 
 after an absence of a few minutes 
 
 " I ve hid em where they ll be out of harm s way when 
 they wake !" 
 
 " That s more than those jolly i yellow bellies will ever do ! 
 Come, let s be off!" said the Bravo. 
 
 It is impossible for us of the misty North to realize the 
 clear brilliancy of moonlight on the elevated prairies of 
 Western Texas. 
 
 The atmosphere is so wonderfully lucid and dry, that all 
 our preconceptions of distance are annihilated. A deer, a 
 tree, or any object, is as distinctly defined on the retina, a 
 half-mile off, as it would be in our medium at eighty paces. 
 The broad radiant face of a full moon hung almost, it 
 seemed, in reach of the tree tops, pouring such floods of mel 
 low light upon the scene, as brought in perfect relief evea 
 the thin fibres of the grass, the white thorns of the broad- 
 leafed cactus, and the slim stems of the frail flowers. 
 
88 GONZALEZE AGAIN; OR, 
 
 Faint pencillings of a stronger light were just beginning 
 to struggle dimly through the forest-shaded rim of the 
 eastern horizon, when a party of about sixty men might have 
 been seen, slowly and cautiously creeping towards the camp, 
 on the side opposite to that on which the Bravo and his 
 friends had left it. 
 
 These men were evidently Mexicans, as could be seen from 
 the broad-brimmed, sugar-loaf sombreros, which shaded their 
 tawny and moustached faces; and as they stooped and 
 crawled, and skulked among the bushes, their small black 
 eyes gleaming with a strong animal light, they looked the 
 very ideal of cowardly and traitorous assassination. They 
 soon reached a point from which the sleeping figures were 
 discernible. They raised themselves quietly amongst the 
 bushes, and looking over them, could clearly distinguish the 
 group. 
 
 "How!" whispered the man nearest the lieutenant, whose 
 quick eye had detected that all were not there who had made 
 up the party during the day. 
 
 " How ! they are not all there ! Where are the rest ?" 
 
 "All there," said the lieutenant, "that are to be shot! 
 The rest are in the bushes, out of the way. See ! there is 
 the silver-mounted saddle !" 
 
 "Remember, men," said he, elevating his voice as he 
 turned to his company, while his finger pointed at Don Jose, 
 " you are to shoot all ! but be sure you shoot the man with 
 his head on the silver-mounted saddle ! Fire !" 
 
 There was the long, rolling fire of the platoon, and they 
 all sprang forward. 
 
 " Garracho ! we have killed Don Jose, and the Bravo and 
 the money are gone !" roared the lieutenant. 
 
 " There s nothing here but the filthy .carcasses of those 
 curs of Bahai for our pains !" 
 
 Two nights after these occurrences, the young Americans 
 of Bahai met for a grand carouse, in honour of the safe re- 
 
THE BRAVO S STRATAGEM. 89 
 
 turn of the Bravo with the money of Navarro. The Bravo 
 had just finished the relation of the incidents we have nar 
 rated up to the time of his leaving the camp, and the hearty 
 bursts of laughter which had followed the Bravo s affectionate 
 leave-taking, of " Pleasant dreams to the honest Don Jose !" 
 had somewhat subsided, when Hays remarked 
 
 " But, Bravo, I don t understand how you have managed 
 to make so useful and faithful a servant out of that notorious 
 drunkard, thief, and villain Juan !" 
 
 " Oh ! the simplest thing in the world ! Even a Mexican 
 is capable of gratitude ! Juan is not the fellow s name ! 
 Have you forgotten that famous knave, Gonzaleze, you ordered 
 to be shot one morning, about two years ago, for shooting 
 Littell and stealing your favourite sorrel, and whose life I 
 took a fancy to save, because he made an impudent face at 
 us, while we were levelling our guns to fire at him ?" 
 
 "Yes. Is it possible this is the same ?" 
 
 " This is Gonzaleze, and he s given his soul to me I took 
 the other four along for the express purpose of getting them 
 killed. As they are out of the way now, may be my black 
 horse will be safe. I knew I should not be able to keep him 
 three weeks while those thieving scoundrels were alive !" 
 
 " Good ! Bravo, you deserve a vote of thanks from us 
 all. Under the shadow of your black steed, our horses will 
 now be safe !" 
 
 The vote of thanks was formally drawn up and presented ; 
 and along with it came a splendid silver-mounted saddle, 
 that did honour to the glossy back of even " the coal-black 
 steed." 
 
 H2 
 
ADAM BAKER, THE RENEGADE. 
 
ADAM BAKEK, THE RENEGADE. 
 
 THE mania for travel and adventure has always been with 
 me unconquerable. I sometimes think that there are men 
 in the world born with quicksilver in their bones where tho 
 marrow ought to be who cannot be still one incessant 
 fever of restlessness burning to the core, and only endurable 
 under the diversion of a stronger excitement in perilous 
 action and that I must be one of these unfortunates. For, 
 possessed by the mobility of the quicksilver, the " spirit of 
 unrest," or some other "blue spirit or gray," of vagabond pro 
 pensities, I have done little else than rove all my life long. 
 
 You may well conjecture that this errant humour has got 
 me into not a few scrapes, and thrown me into some singular 
 juxtapositions; and that these "accidents," if you choose to 
 call them so, have made to me some strange revelations of 
 humanity, and proved to me, too, that all its singular phases 
 are not confined to cities, called " the great hot-beds of dis 
 torted vice." 
 
 No out on the frontiers of civilization is the soil for 
 genuine monstrosities ; there they grow, like the rank vines 
 or the bottom cotton woods, 
 
 " And nothing know 
 Of stipulations, duties, reverences," 
 
 to " cabin and crib" their legitimate proportions. Tall and 
 huge they grow in that rank alluvion of license ill birds 
 nestle in their boughs, and under their thick shadows grow 
 
 93 
 
94 ADAM BAKER, THE RENEGADE. 
 
 deadly plants where reptiles suck their poison, and all the 
 air is mortal round them ; and there the daughters of the 
 free winds and the sun, with glorious colours on them, dis 
 tilled in dew-drops from the sky into their warm veins- 
 grow gentle flowers that will be fair, and smile in fragrance, 
 for all the deadly breaths about them ! 
 
 Toward the conclusion of very extended peregrinations 
 which had embraced the wildest portions of Northern Mexico 
 and Western Texas, I found myself approaching the outskirts 
 of settlement on the upper Brazos. I had been thoroughly 
 starved on "jerked beef" for a month or so, and as I came 
 in sight of a large plantation on the edge of the prairie, the 
 nasals of my imagination were busy enough snuffing hot 
 coffee and pig on the inodorous winds. 
 
 There is the dim white sheen resting upon the dark line 
 of the forest, which lies like a huge shadowy snake stretching 
 its winding length across the wide prairie. That white shim 
 mer is the play of the sunlight upon the gable that thin, 
 blue column, too ; ah, who does not know the honest curl of 
 a chimney smoke ? All the pleasant odours from the family 
 boil and roast wasted, for there is not even the man o the 
 moon above there in the empty arch to inhale it ! 
 
 Come, my good steed, we ll make a run the rest of the 
 way. Gramercy ! but it s a thumping big plantation ! 
 Here we are, in the lane at last. Here s the gate ! Hilloa ! 
 Frame house, long and low piazza in front wide passage 
 through the middle as I live ! we can see the long dinner- 
 table they have just laid the cloth and knives and forks ! 
 Halloo! "Yes, sir!" There he comes down the steps 
 man of the house, I suppose a very slight, delicate-looking 
 body for a frontier s man. 
 
 " How do you do, sir ? Get down ! Our landlord is not 
 at home no matter, though these Cherokee planters are 
 all hospitable. Leave your horse there we ll have him 
 taken care of. Any news?" 
 
ADAM BAKER, THE RENEGADE. 95 
 
 * .Nothing special ! I am just across from Bexar heard 
 of the Camanches doing some of their old jobs they speared 
 two Mexicans just out of town !" 
 
 "Ha! ha! ha! they do that trick beautifully but sit 
 down dinner will be ready directly, and I see yonder s 
 Sewene returning. He s just coming in from camp the four 
 or five neighbours he has within twenty miles have all come 
 together for a mustang drive they ve been at it four days, 
 and I suppose the herd are pretty well run down by this 
 time. You were lost when you stumbled here, warnt you?" 
 
 " Yes, rather ! I only had an indefinite idea that I was 
 approaching settlements, but what the character of them was 
 I had no conception. This is the plantation of a Cherokee, 
 you mentioned that s a new idea to me." 
 
 " Oh, some of these Cherokees are very wealthy. Sewene 
 inherited a large fortune in Georgia, and when the old cock 
 happened to get killed off in a fray with some white men, he 
 sold out every thing, put the money in his pocket, and like a 
 wise man picked the two fellows off from i the bush and 
 came to Texas, married a white woman, brought her off here, 
 and settled this plantation. Ha ! Sewene ! back already ? 
 Got the wire-edge off of them fellows yet willing to be cul 
 tivated to listen to reason ?" 
 
 " Yah ! yah ! they be dam draggle-tail git lazy m 
 switch flies so quick now." 
 
 " A stranger, Sewene ! across from Bexar lost stopped 
 awhile to rest." 
 
 " Ver good ! Stay see mustang this evenin make em 
 go fifteen to pen." 
 
 With a careless shake of the hand he passed on into the 
 house. He was a tall, portly man, with a handsome Eoman 
 face, and a complexion rather a dark, healthy olive than 
 copper, showing the presence of a foreign tinge the French 
 which language he spoke with some elegance, though he 
 made a lame sort of English. 
 
96 ADAM BAKER, THE RENEGADE. 
 
 The little man who first received me, and who seemed to 
 De a great fidget, continued walking with a rapid, restless 
 step to and fro before me, talking with wonderful volubility 
 about any thing and every thing jerking and twitching 
 with a sort of convulsive action of legs, arms, fingers, and 
 muscles of the face at each articulation. His figure and step 
 had in them an elasticity which left one altogether in doubt 
 what might not be the amount of activity and endurance 
 they indicated. His tread had the quick, soft rebound of 
 a wild-cat s, and his limbs, though small, were wonderfully 
 lithe and supple : his features, except his mouth, were sharp 
 and small, perhaps owing to their great emaciation, which 
 was so peculiar that, with the exceeding fineness of texture 
 in his skin, the effect was produced of exhibiting as under a 
 transparency the minutest play of the smallest tendon and 
 muscle in the whole bust, as far as it was exposed by tho 
 open collar. 
 
 His forehead was very white and broad, and finely deve 
 loped, and upon it fell in careless and wavy clusters, that 
 seemed to cling there from clammy damps, light chestnut 
 hair of almost gossamer texture, and very thin : his mouth 
 was wide, with thin, colourless lips, and a constant ripple 
 about the corners even when closed, which rendered it im 
 possible to catch the expression, for all expressions were 
 there in one moment ; his eyes were the most peculiar fea 
 ture they were far apart and very protruded they were 
 pale blue, and there seemed to be always a tear ready to 
 brim over the lids. 
 
 His voice was soft and low. The only particular I could 
 detect in his manner that I did not fancy, was its excessive 
 uncertainty, never dwelling on one thing long, but seeming 
 to rush into all themes with equal enthusiasm, and leaving 
 them all with equal coldness. 
 
 I pass over the dinner, welcome as it was. As soon as I 
 had time to look up from my plate, I glanced round upon 
 
ADAM BAKER, THE RENEGADE. 97 
 
 the company at table ; there were six or eight among them 
 a tall, slender personage, with florid complexion, curly hair, 
 red whiskers, and a man-of-the-world air about him ; some 
 thing that indicated polish in the very manner of lifting a 
 plate. I heard him addressed by the pale little man, whom 
 he called Williams, as Morgan. They seemed to be on very 
 familiar terms. Our hostess was a fat, ruddy, and not un 
 handsome matron, with a large, bold, black eye. 
 
 But what made me forget appetite, dinner, and every thing 
 else fortunately she had glided in without my observing her 
 before was a young girl at the side of the matron, of almost 
 startling beauty. She was evidently a daughter of the two 
 races of Sewene and his American wife but to tell how 
 the asperities of both were softened into the exquisite finish, 
 the wild graceful tenderness of her ensemble, is more than I 
 shall venture upon at once. 
 
 It is enough for you to know that splendid profile the 
 vaulting arch of that bold forehead just a summer evening s 
 tinge of orange on it, enough to make it warm under the 
 intense black of that glossy mass of hair then the free curve 
 of that classic nose, and the curl of the upper lip, that, with 
 a saucy coyness, brooded over the rich swell of its ambitious 
 twin and then the burning ebon depths of those large eyes 
 the shadow of the long, dark lashes seemed to be over 
 them in mercy for what the full blaze thereof might be, 
 imagination could not compass ; then her neck was long, 
 with a set like a listening fawn s. 
 
 Oh ! she was as beautiful as day, with the delicate tinge 
 of the mingled blood flushing almost into chestnut on her 
 cheek, as she caught the burning joy and wonder of my gaze 
 fixed upon her. Heavens ! what a revelation in this rude 
 land. My blood was fairly burning my fork and knife had 
 dropped upon my just replenished plate my third cup of 
 coffee was half out, but appetite was gone. 
 
 I saw she had noticed and was confused by the intensity 
 
98 ADAM BAKER, THE RENEGADE. 
 
 of my look, which brought me to my senses ; and, sipping 
 away with my tea-spoon through the rest of the meal, I had 
 formed the doughty resolution, by the time it was over, that 
 if no other excuse offered for my stay the next day, my horse 
 "should fall suddenly lame ! 
 
 And what added to the fixedness of this resolve, was a 
 something like assiduity in the table courtesies of Morgan. I 
 found myself cursing his infernal suavity from between my 
 teeth, wondering what right he had to take such airs. I 
 hated the man forthwith, and the more heartily that I could 
 not help acknowledging there was a " winning way" about 
 him, and that she recognised it, too, with a subdued grace 
 that was perfectly bewitching. 
 
 I was not a little enraged, when the horses were brought 
 out for a ride over to the mustang drive, to find that Morgan 
 did not go. But I could find no excuse for staying go I 
 must ! Sewene had ordered a horse of his own to be brought 
 out for me, so to get rid of my impatience I proposed that 
 we should try the gait of his horse in a canter. 
 
 This suited all parties, so away we went, Williams keeping 
 alongside of me, seeming determined to avail himself of a 
 new hearer, until finding that listen I must, and warmed, 
 too, by the motion of the animal, I found myself strangely 
 interested in this man. A more remarkable command of 
 language I never heard, but it was accompanied by a cold 
 recklessness of satire, glancing equally over all things, icy 
 always and always pitiless. He could be eloquent in enun 
 ciating generous thought, and laugh at the interest he had 
 excited. 
 
 Our brisk gait soon brought us to the camp, where we 
 found three white men lying on the grass, their horses saddled 
 near them, and evidently waiting for us. They received us 
 with a blunt cordiality, told us that the rest of the party 
 were in pursuit of the mustangs, and they thought them tired 
 enough by this time to try them at the pens. 
 
ADAM BAKER, THE REXEGADE. 99 
 
 On inquiry I found that the plan had been for half the 
 party, at a time, to follow the mustangs just near enough to 
 keep them always in motion, and give them no opportunity 
 for stopping to drink or graze, night or day. It is a silly 
 instinct of the animals to keep within their habitual range, 
 which is generally some ten or fifteen miles in circumference, 
 and pursue them as long as you may, they will still be found 
 near the same place once or twice in the twenty-four hours. 
 
 Taking advantage of one of these places for a camp, the 
 hunters in pursuit, when they or their horses become fatigued, 
 give warning by a horn as they approach to the relay, who 
 are thoroughly rested and fresh, and these catch up their 
 horses and put in to the relief of their friends, who in turn 
 take possession of their camp and refreshments. In this way 
 a party of six or eight men will keep the poor mustangs 
 travelling incessantly four or five days without food or water, 
 until they are thoroughly jaded and worn out. 
 
 The hunters have previously prepared the pen somewhere 
 in the range, in this way : They select a piece of prairie 
 ground, bordered on one side by a dense, unbroken thicket 
 for mustangs have an invincible horror of the bush, and 
 cannot be forced to take it unless there is an opening which 
 they can see through. This line of thicket is to serve for 
 one wing of the pen ; the other, stretching out a mile into 
 the prairie at a right angle, is made of posts driven into the 
 ground. These posts are eight or ten feet apart, with a 
 stiff bush woven into the intervals to the height of six or 
 eight feet. 
 
 The wing being finished, the pen is now made at the point 
 where the two lines meet ; the entrance is about ten feet wide 
 and the same height, with a sliding gate, over which a man 
 is placed to let it down. The pen itself is an area of several 
 hundred yards, fenced in with a strong stockading of heavy 
 posts. When the mustangs are to some degree subdued by 
 fatigue and the starving process, the hunters make a general 
 
100 ADAM BAKER, THE RENEGADE. 
 
 rally of all the forces they can muster, and a rush is made to 
 hurry them down the wings arid through the gate. 
 
 This was the work we had before us. We were promptly 
 under way, and a brisk gallop across the prairie soon brought 
 us within hearing of the division in pursuit. We let our 
 horses out to full speed, and soon closed with them. They 
 were going at a slow canter, keeping within about a quarter 
 of a mile of the little drove of mustangs, which evidently 
 dragged themselves along at a very heavy gait. 
 
 In the few rapid words which passed, I understood that 
 we were about half a mile from the opening of the wings, 
 and that the crisis was close at hand. We were directed to 
 form in line about a hundred yards from each other, to gra 
 dually increase our pace as we neared them, and when the 
 mustangs were once fairly in, to "rush" the animals at the 
 gate before they had time to suspect the danger. 
 
 This was all done very successfully, and now commenced 
 the barbarous process of breaking the animals to the rope. 
 This was positively revolting. A Mexican, (who always 
 makes one on such hunts,) after the gate had been firmly 
 secured, and we had stationed ourselves there to prevent the 
 horses making a rush at it, jumped down into the pen, his 
 coiled lariat in hand, and following at a run the half-frantic 
 creatures round the pen, threw the noose at one of them. It 
 fell round its neck, and in an instant the wretched animal 
 was dragged by the neck out of the huddled and hurrying 
 crowd of its fellows, and literally choked down. 
 
 The instant it was fairly stretched, the Mexican jumped 
 with his feet upon its free and glossy neck, and held it thus 
 ignominiously in the dust, while others of the party tied the 
 feet together. It was painful to me to see that silken coat 
 all defaced, those strong, graceful limbs tethered, and the 
 beautiful animal that was but a little while since so gay and 
 proud and buoyant, now trampled and bound by these coarso 
 men, to be made a slave for ever. 
 
ADAM BAKER, THE RENEGADE. 101 
 
 One after another they were all subjected to this treat 
 ment, until the whole fifteen were stretched upon their sides, 
 floundering and struggling to get free ; then, after tying the 
 other end of the stout lariat on their necks to posts set in 
 the open space of the pen, they let up four at a time, which, 
 as soon as they felt themselves on their feet again, would 
 dash off at full speed, till reaching the end of the rope, they 
 would be brought up on their backs. They sometimes break 
 their necks in this way. 
 
 After tremendous efforts to break loose, during which they 
 are choked to the ground half a dozen times, they begin to 
 "get the hang of the thing," and to fear and obey the rope. 
 They are then untied, let outside, and fastened to stakes 
 driven into the ground very deep, while the others are let up 
 in their turn. 
 
 Until now there had been so much excitement and bustle 
 that no man had any time to notice his neighbour ; but now 
 we were gathered into little groups, looking at the captured 
 animals Williams, the Cherokee and myself standing some 
 what apart, admiring a beautiful horse which our host had 
 selected for himself, when our attention was attracted by the 
 loud, angry voice of a man. 
 
 On turning, I instantly recognised him a swarthy, pow 
 erful fellow, who was leading the party in pursuit of the 
 mustangs I remembered having observed him exhibit great 
 excitement when our party joined them, staring with intense 
 fierceness at Williams, and muttering a hasty oath between 
 his teeth. 
 
 I turned to see if Williams had noticed it, but he seeming 
 to be perfectly calm, the circumstance had almost passed 
 from my mind in the rapid action that followed ; but now the 
 man and the incident were instantly associated as I saw him 
 furious, with one hand upon his belt-pistol, the other pointing 
 toward us, struggling to get away from his friends, who 
 12 
 
102 ADAM BAKER, THE RENEGADE. 
 
 seemed to be remonstrating with him. I heard him shout at 
 the top of his voice 
 
 " It ip he ! the d d traitor ! it is he ! I ll shoot him 
 
 like a wolf!" 
 
 The hunters ran to him, grouping eagerly around him, and 
 for a moment we could not hear what they said. 
 
 These vehement words sent an icy thrill through me, for 
 there was terrible meaning in them for some of us. Was it 
 Williams? I looked round; his pale face was livid, and in 
 an instant it had undergone a remarkable change : that 
 incessant muscular vibration had ceased as if struck by the 
 hand of death, and his features were cold and still as marble. 
 There was not even a quiver about his lips. 
 
 "What does this mean?" I said to him.- 
 
 He made no answer, merely shaking his head and gazing 
 with a sort of stare at the crowd, which now began to advance 
 toward us the big fellow, whose name was Koach, still en 
 deavouring to break away from the midst of them. They 
 were all talking at once, in angry, excited tones, and I could 
 only distinguish the words "guest," and " Sewene." 
 
 When they had nearly reached us, Roach, by a furious 
 effort, broke from his friends, and, springing forward, waved 
 them back with his hand, and with a large pistol cocked and 
 presented, stopped about five paces in front of Williams. 
 His friends fell back, and there was a dead pause. 
 
 I had half drawn my pistol, and so had Sewene, but the 
 singular gesture of Williams held all in suspense. He simply 
 and deliberately folded his arms upon his breast, and drawing 
 a very long breath that seemed to break a heavy trance, 
 with a quiet smile looked eloquent inquiry into Roach s eyes. 
 The savage felt his manner, and though his voice was still 
 harsh with rage, it was not so tempestuous as I expectei. 
 
 " You are Adam Baker, the murdering renegade ! Deny 
 it if you dare !" 
 
 "I do dare." 
 
ADAM BAKER, THE RENEGADE. 103 
 
 " You lie !" Roach screamed " you lie, you bloody villain ! 
 would you make me doubt my own eyes ? Did I not see you 
 at Chihuahua for weeks with my comrade Clark ? Ha ! you 
 know me now, don t you ?" 
 
 The man s rigid face had twitched slightly at this. 
 
 " Clark was murdered for his money, and you did it, you 
 cowardly cut-throat ! I shall always believe you did it. You 
 escaped that time, but I ve got you now, and you shall die 
 for it yes, die like a dog !" 
 
 Roach raised his pistol again. Williams, or Baker, still 
 in the same position, smilingly remarked, in a low, soft 
 voice 
 
 " You call yourself a brave man, my friend, and you are 
 six feet two inches in height, and strong in proportion yet 
 you ve got a long, nine-inch barrel pistol, loaded to the 
 muzzle, to blow into shivers a little atom of a man like me, 
 not stronger than a woman, and unarmed to boot, and all 
 because I happen to look like somebody you suppose mur 
 dered your friend : you d feel very foolish to find you d 
 killed the wrong man ; it will be cowardly in you to shoot 
 me unarmed I am not Baker, and you are going to play the 
 fool !" 
 
 Roach seemed to be confounded by this cool speech for an 
 instant. He raised himself upon his feet, and bringing down 
 his arm with a fierce imprecation, exclaimed 
 
 "You lie, you oily traitor! you sha n t escape me with 
 your cool impudence didn t we drink together all the even 
 ing before Clark left town with you and never came back, 
 in Callistro s tavern ? You had been running your horse 
 that day, and we had all won money and were on a spree, 
 and you got Clark drunk, and took him off and murdered 
 him ay, and this is not the only murder you have done. I 
 don t care if you are unarmed. If you had arms, you wouldn t 
 use them you never strike but in the dark. You shall die 
 
104 ADAM BAKER, THE RENEGADE. 
 
 here on this ground, if the last drop of my heart s blood pay 
 for it." 
 
 He levelled his pistol this time with deliberation. 
 
 During this scene we had all gradually closed up round 
 them I sprang forward just in time to knock the weapon 
 from its deadly level before it exploded. I looked at Wil 
 liams; he was standing in exactly the same position, the 
 blood slowly trickling down his bare white neck, but the 
 smile was still upon his ghastly face. There had been a 
 general rush to seize him, but they all recoiled awe-struck 
 from the singular being I could stand it no longer. Sewene 
 and myself, as by one impulse, rushed with our weapons in 
 hand in front of Williams. 
 
 " Gentlemen, you are going too far ; if this man be a 
 murderer, he s already wounded give him a fair trial he 
 denies that he is Baker." 
 
 " Sacre Roach !" cried Sewene, " he no Baker my friend 
 dam take that." 
 
 Sewene fired Roach staggered and pitched forward on 
 his face. Sewene s fire was instantly returned, the shot 
 striking my arm instead of him. 
 
 "You are all a pack of fools!" shouted Williams, throwing 
 himself as quick as thought into the midst of Roach s friends, 
 
 and catching at their pistols. " Fools ! d d fools ! You 
 
 are shooting at each other because that blockhead made a 
 mistake ! Are you going to kill one another because he was 
 a jackass ! I tell you I am not Baker ! Hold ! hold ! listen 
 to common sense a moment. The fellow got just what he 
 deserved ; he shot me unarmed, and an inoffensive stranger, 
 because he took a stupid fancy I was like somebody he called 
 Baker. Didn t Sewene, your own neighbour, tell you I was 
 not he ? Do you blame him for shooting the fellow who was 
 going to murder a friend and a guest ? And may be he has 
 done it, for, curse him, he hit me in the neck. Are you men, 
 and would see a man slaughtered in cold blood, making no 
 
ADAM BAKER, THE RENEGADE. 105 
 
 resistance ? Pretty Texans, you ! Mexicans might do this ! 
 I am ashamed of you !" 
 
 I saw they were impressed by this logic, and felt in an 
 instant that my wound was but a trifle, though it had para 
 lyzed my arm and prevented my returning the fire at the 
 moment. I saw, too, that Williams s policy was the only 
 one, for they were double our number, and well armed ; and 
 following it up, I said, holding up my bleeding arm 
 
 " You see one of your shot has struck me I have not 
 returned the fire, because you are all crazy ! Is there a man 
 with a soul among you, that would not have done as Sewene 
 did ? Come, let s be at quits Roach got what you know he 
 deserved he was going to kill this man in cold blood, who 
 may not be Baker; and if he is, you ll find him at Sewene s 
 whenever you can prove his identity." 
 
 " Yes, by heaven ! you will find me there for the next two 
 weeks, come when you may. Prove me to be this Baker. 
 Be sure it s the dog that killed the sheep before you hang 
 him." 
 
 "Yes," said one of the hunters, "that s fair, boys. T 
 thought Roach was hasty poor fellow, he was a brave man, 
 but he always was so." 
 
 " D n you!" said another one, "we ll hang you with a 
 dead dog at your heels if you should turn out to be Baker." 
 
 " Thank you for your polite intentions ! I hope I shall be 
 able to reciprocate compliments with you some day by our 
 selves, out on the prairie. Is the man dead?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Pity, Sewene, you hadn t planted it better he fell well!" 
 
 " Look you ! I believe you re the devil, if you are not 
 Adam Baker. You d better take yourself off from here 
 you and that young fellow there, and Sewene you d all 
 better make tracks." 
 
 " The fellow s advice is good," said Baker; " come, Sewene 
 Kentuck, let s be off!" 
 
106 ADAM BAKER, THE RENEGADE. 
 
 We turn 3d and were leaving, when the hunter who spoke 
 last shouted after us 
 
 " Sewene, look out for yourself anyhow ! Roach has got 
 a brother, you know and you, you starved whelp, who call 
 yourself Williams, murder is not the only count we have 
 against that man Baker he s a traitor to Texas, and wants 
 to sell our blood for Mexican gold. He s come in to look at 
 the state of the frontier, and report to Santa Anna. Tell 
 him, if he s a friend of yours, that there are men not far 
 from here who do know him ; and we mean to watch you, 
 my dear, night and day, so that you don t get away sleep 
 on how a hemp tie will feel you, my young fellow, look 
 out, you are in bad company !" 
 
 This was timely and consolatory advice ; my bleeding arm 
 bore testimony that my chance association had at least been 
 unfortunate, and from all I could see ahead, it was likely to 
 be more so now. But the daughter of Sewene ! Could I 
 think of personal consequences with her entrancing beauty 
 in the question and she in the midst of such ruffianly scenes 
 such wretches as these around her ? No, I rather blessed 
 my wound perhaps her own "flower soft hands" would 
 dress it. I should have an excuse for staying ; should be 
 near her in the desperate scenes which I foresaw must follow 
 this day s work might save her ! 
 
 During the process of this very prudent and sensible argu 
 mentation with myself, we had been advancing to where bur 
 horses were standing, and had stopped there to examine 
 Williams s wound. 
 
 "It s a glancer," he said; "thanks to you, Kentuck, the 
 rascal has only phlebotomized me a little haven t got much 
 of the claret to spare, though tie my handkerchief around 
 it not quite so bad, that, as the hempen one that loud-talk 
 ing fellow gave me, as a Yankee at a country wedding gives 
 a piece of gingerbread to his gal, to dream upon. Ha ! ha ! 
 Kind of him, that ! but let s go, or those cursed bears will 
 
ADAM BAKER, THE RENEGADE. 107 
 
 scratch their sore ears and snuff blood there until they get 
 furious again." 
 
 Sewene tied up my arm, and we were on horseback and 
 off. We had gone but a few paces when the Mexican, of 
 lariat memory, who had not been seen since the commence 
 ment of the affair, suddenly stepped out of the thicket, and 
 caught the bridle of Williams s horse. 
 
 With an oath Williams struck at his hand and spurred his 
 horse the horse sprang violently forward, almost jerking 
 the Mexican on his face, breaking his hold ; but the man had 
 spoken some eager words in his native tongue which I was 
 too far ahead to understand, but which seemed to produce a 
 tremendous effect upon Williams. 
 
 Reining up his horse, he wheeled and was instantly at the 
 side of the Mexican, and stooping from his saddle, close to 
 the man s face, with intense eagerness of manner, seemed to 
 be using his utmost eloquence in persuasion ; he would pat 
 him rapidly on the shoulder, then point to where his horse 
 was standing, then at Sewene, but the man drew himself 
 back and shook his head with an air of stolid obstinacy. 
 
 Williams, without straightening himself, suddenly spurred 
 his horse, and with a single plunge, placed himself between 
 the man and the bushes, and in the same instant I saw the 
 gleam of a long knife in his hand. The Mexican shrank 
 back cowering another quick gesture Williams had drawn 
 a purse from his pocket, and in trembling haste emptied a 
 handful of silver coin from it, and motioned it toward the 
 man, who instantly, with a grin upon his face, jerked his 
 " sombrero" from his head and caught it in the crown. The 
 chink of the metal acted like a charm, and as Williams held 
 toward him the handle of his poignard, which was a silver 
 cross, he stepped forward without hesitation, and making the 
 sign with his finger on his forehead, kissed it, then turning, 
 ran at full speed toward his horse. 
 
 Williams watched him until he was in the saddle, and 
 
108 ADAM BAKER, THE RENEGADE. 
 
 coming in a gallop to join us; he then rode leisurely to us, 
 his face wearing an expression of devilish glee, such as I 
 never saw on human countenance before still holding the 
 weapon in one hand, tossing the purse in the air, and catch 
 ing it with the other. 
 
 The Mexican had now closed up behind us Sewene, turn 
 ing in the saddle, looked at him inquiringly, and said to 
 Williams, " He know too much must be took care. Yah ! 
 yah ! git him home ! will be safe as wolf neck in de big steel 
 trap." 
 
 " Yes, Sewene, you know what s good for his health : the 
 bush and the river are very close." 
 
 We were here interrupted by a loud yell from the hunters, 
 above which I could distinguish "Antone," the name of the 
 Mexican. Looking around, we saw part of them mounting 
 "in hot haste," while the others were tearing a passage 
 through the bush fence. 
 
 " Sewene, they smell the rat ; there ll be hell to play if 
 they catch us. Go it for your lives, and take the fence as 
 soon as it gets low enough." 
 
 We were off in an instant. The Mexican hesitated, and 
 looked back timidly. Williams reined back, with the knife 
 raised, and a muttered oath. The man s indecision was 
 cured he bent forward, plunged spurs into his horse, and 
 was at his best speed. We were inside the wings, and the 
 men, by breaking through, would get the start of us on the 
 direct route to Sewene s plantation this was the peril. 
 
 "This fellow was a servant of Roach s," shouted Williams, 
 with a slight tremor of voice "they ve just missed him. 
 They ll kill their horses to get him. Steady, there, Sewene. 
 Can we clear it ?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Steady, then. Don t blow the horses till we are over 
 the fence." He looked back " Hell ! they ve nearly got it 
 
ADAM BAKER, THE RENEGADE. 109 
 
 down ! Take it any how, Sewene ! It s a half mile to the 
 end yet." 
 
 "Sacre! damn! yes!" 
 
 He checked up slightly, and breasted his horse at a part 
 of the fence which his quick eye had detected as lowest, 
 His horse was true and cleared it, taking off part of the top 
 brush as he went through. This made it less difficult for the 
 rest of us one after the other we followed him, Williams 
 coming last preferring to see the Mexican over and, from 
 a loud grunt the fellow gave, and blood I saw on his shoulder 
 afterward, I supposed he had pricked his courage for him ; 
 and never did I see quirt* and spur plied with such faithful 
 earnestness as were those of the poor wretch afterward, for 
 he saw death in the eye of Williams in the event of our being 
 hard pressed. 
 
 The case was urgent enough for all of us, for on looking 
 up the outside of the fence, I saw the party just emerging 
 from it, and with a fierce howl, like wild beasts, make for 
 the point of timber about three miles off, which they knew 
 our escape depended upon our reaching first. Had we been 
 compelled to go round to the end of the wing, there would 
 have been no chance, but the bold manoeuvre of leaping it 
 had somewhat equalized our distances from the timber. 
 
 All depended now upon the speed of our horses, and the 
 skill with which it was used ; if they overtook us, a bloody 
 and desperate fight, of course ; if we reached the timber first, 
 we had them so much at advantage they would hardly pursue 
 us farther. 
 
 Williams, or rather Adam Baker, as I now felt convinced 
 he was, (else why this anxiety to get in his power this servant 
 of Roach s, who had probably been with his master in Chi 
 huahua ?) said to us, hastily 
 
 " The fools are tearing it down like mad ; they will soon 
 
 * A short, heavy, Mexican \vhip, made of plaited raw-hide. 
 K 
 
110 ADAM BAKER, THE RENEGADE. 
 
 break their horses wind it s three miles they can t hold 
 that gait through it steady ! steady ! Sewene we must let 
 them think they are going to beat us that will make them 
 rush the harder ; their horses are tired already by the mus 
 tang chase ours are fresher the last mile we will let it 
 down in earnest ours won t be much blown then, and we ll 
 beat em half the distance." 
 
 I saw he was right, and the hunters fell into the trap. 
 We could soon tell, from their louder shouts and the more 
 rapid play of their arms, that the quirts were coming down 
 still hotter, and in their frantic eagerness they were over 
 tasking their horses under the impression that they were 
 closing upon us. 
 
 The interest of the scene was now wrought up to painful 
 intensity the party were within three hundred yards of us ; 
 we could hear the heavy thump of their horses feet, and 
 their savage oaths. I looked over my shoulder, and could 
 see them already disengaging their pistols for the mortal 
 onset, but their horses were evidently doing their best. We 
 played out a little, to ascertain whether we could lead off at 
 ease, and, satisfied with this experiment, merely kept the 
 same distance between us through the next mile. The trunks 
 of the trees at the point were now becoming more distinct. 
 
 With yells that were becoming hoarser, and strokes of the 
 whip that fell more heavily upon our ears, they seemed throw 
 ing the infuriate energy of their own passion into the action 
 of their horses for one last desperate effort ; and though we 
 too were now plying the quirt and the spur, the distance was 
 lessening between us. 
 
 For the next half mile both parties, with steady speed, 
 were driving on at their utmost. The rumble of the pur 
 suers tread was growing more and more fearfully distinct 
 the poor Mexican, his legs and arms going with frantic ra 
 pidity, his face collapsed and ashy with terror, his blue lips 
 drawn tight and apart, like those of a corpse that had died in 
 
ADAM BAKER, THE REXEGADE. Ill 
 
 a strong agony, showed his white, set teeth, his eyes glaring 
 wildly back at Baker, watching that long dirk, when suddenly 
 there was a break in the full tide of yells behind us one of 
 the party was down, man and horse ! 
 
 " Ha !" shouted Baker, " their horses are giving out ; 
 good ! Now for it, boys, we shall beat em ! Just as I said 
 they ve overdone it. The rest of them will go down if 
 they don t hold up steady ! we shall beat them easy enough 
 and have the half mile to spare." 
 
 The yells were less frequent now, and, as he prophesied, 
 we rapidly left them. We saw two others of their horses go 
 down the trick had been perfectly successful : in their head 
 long fury they had overdone their already fatigued horses 
 by rushing them too hard at first, and in another moment 
 we were sweeping across the friendly shadows of the heavy 
 forest their last howl of disappointed rage reverberating 
 through its columned aisles. 
 
 Baker and myself, after the excitement of this chase, found 
 ourselves suffering greatly from the loss of blood, and by the 
 time we had reached Sewene s we were almost used up. The 
 Mexican seemed to be suffering a sort of paralysis from terror, 
 and had almost to be dragged into the house, which was done 
 in very unceremonious style by two stout negroes. In obe 
 dience to Sewene s orders, given in a low tone, they hurried 
 him into a back out-house, and I heard the rattle of bolts and 
 chains. Morgan met us in the passage, with some agitation 
 upon his smooth face as he saw the blood on our persons. 
 
 " Hell is let loose upon us, Morgan ! It s all up we shall 
 have to travel !" 
 
 " Are you much hurt ? what s to pay ?" 
 
 "Death and the devil Roach, you know, was of that 
 party, and I, like an idiot, didn t notice him. He would 
 have done for me but for Kentuck here : Sewene pilled him." 
 
 "I hope he stopped his mouth. You are hurt, too, sir! 
 You must have had a rough-and-tumble of it !" 
 
112 ADAM BAKER, THE RENEGADE. 
 
 Regular rough work we shall have to leave, Morgan 
 too hot here ! Sewene, where s the brandy ?" 
 
 " Father ! father ! what have you been doing ?" The 
 daughter of Sewene, pale as death, was among us. "Blood ! 
 oh, God, are you hurt ? Another of these dreadful scenes ! 
 Oh, my father ! my father !" 
 
 She threw her arms about his neck, her long lashes droop 
 ing with tears, and gazing through the sparkling mist into 
 his eyes for an instant, she said 
 
 " Must this be always so ? Let us go ! please ! please let 
 us go to the States. That fearful man ! father, he will get 
 you killed : mother will go crazy. III! what will become 
 of me?" She shuddered, and in a low voice, clinging more 
 closely to him, as she pleaded, " Do ! you say you love your 
 child you call me sweet Nimqua when you kiss me !" 
 
 With a convulsive shiver she sank into a chair, covering 
 her face with her hands. 
 
 " Oh, I shall go wild, my father, I shall go wild, if I cannot 
 get away from such scenes !" 
 
 Sewene stood gazing down at his weeping child for an 
 instant, with a stricken and sorrowful look ; then quickly, in 
 a startlingly abrupt tone, he said 
 
 " Sacre ! no ! no ! no blood on my pale flower ! stain like 
 these !" stretching out his tawney hands. "Mother you 
 shall go New Orleans!" 
 
 " Sewene," said Morgan, who had been eagerly watching 
 this scene, " you are right ; this is noble of you. This 
 savage frontier is no place for your wife and daughter. It 
 was cruelly selfish of you to bring her here after an education 
 in the seclusion and refinement of a nunnery. Send them 
 to New Orleans ; you are wealthy, and establish them there 
 in a style worthy of your daughter s accomplishments and 
 beauty. Let them start early in the morning, at once you 
 can trust your overseer every thing will blow over in a short 
 time, if we all get out of the way. You can then come back 
 
ADAM BAKER, THE RENEGADE. 113 
 
 yourself, when you get tired of the city, and leave them there 
 until this frontier becomes more settled. Baker and myself 
 will accompany you all the way, and this gentleman," bowing 
 to me, "will, no doubt, so far as there is any danger." 
 
 I merely nodded, scarcely conscious of what was said, for 
 the ice-bolt had entered my soul from another quarter. 
 
 During this speech I had been watching Nimqua. At the 
 first sound of Morgan s voice she had started slightly, but as 
 he went on, her drooping figure had regained all its elastic 
 grace, and with neck slightly curved, her rich lips a little 
 parted, and those dark, open eyes flooding the liquid light 
 of love and gratitude in beams that lived and glowed upon 
 the air, she gazed into his face as one entranced. 
 
 I looked up so intensely had I been absorbed by the 
 scene just described, that I had not noticed, nor had any one 
 until now, the remarkable silence of Baker since he had 
 asked for the brandy. Nimqua was standing, her delicate 
 hands raised and shivering with terror, staring aghast upon 
 what was indeed a terrible object. 
 
 There, upon a bench outside of our group, lay Baker 
 stretched upon his back, his head resting upon a Mexican 
 saddle, placed there accidentally, the ashy hue of death upon 
 his face, his jaw fallen, his lips blue, with flecks of red foam 
 upon the corners, his large eyes protruding and dim, fixed 
 in that rigid, frozen stare, that once seen is for ever unmis- 
 takeable. Nimqua broke the heavy silence. 
 
 "Dead ! dead ! that dreadful man !" she gasped, and sank 
 back. I sprang forward to catch her, but Morgan was before 
 me I caught myself in the very act of striking him, as with 
 a calm bow to me he lifted her in his arms, and bore her into 
 the next room. 
 
 Sewene had rushed out to look for restoratives I was left 
 alone with Baker I lifted his hand, still clenching Jie oross- 
 hafted dagger ; it was damp and cold, and fell heavily like 
 
 lead upon his side. Strange man ! the wound had been more 
 K2 8 
 
114 
 
 desperate than we dreamed. I opened his bosom ; he wore a 
 mail shirt next his skin, and masses of clotted blood showed 
 that he had been bleeding most profusely. He had sunk 
 down with that last reckless speech upon his lips, and died 
 without a groan. 
 
 The restoratives availed nothing life was utterly extinct. 
 Sewene s manner became more and more confident as this 
 certainty became fixed ; his step became more buoyant ; his 
 whole air was that of a man who felt himself relieved from 
 some heavy impending curse some incubus that had stag 
 nated the currents of his life. 
 
 Sewene was a fiercely passionate, strong man, but very 
 much of the animal ; and the subtle intellectuality of Baker 
 had enslaved him, and turned these passions often into the 
 wrong ; and now that his better nature had been stirred by 
 the pleadings of his fair child, he felt that to be relieved from 
 that devilish influence was like a respite for his soul from a 
 black doom ; and he ordered the preparations for our journey 
 by daybreak, with the eagerness of a prisoner about to have 
 the bolts turned that were to let him out into the glad sun 
 shine again. 
 
 And what seemed strangely righteous to me, (for it was 
 the retribution of his crimes,) from the moment when it was 
 certain that he was dead, nobody approached or touched the 
 body of Baker ; and when I retired to catch a few hours* 
 rest, by the dim light of a single candle, I saw it lying in the 
 same position the foam still upon his lips, and the stony 
 eyes glaring out into the darkness alone with the silence 
 and his bad name we left him while the owls hooted and 
 the hoarse wolves chorussed a fitting requiem. 
 
 I had slept most profoundly for several hours, when I was 
 awakened by the heavy trampling of many feet in the passage 
 where the body lay, and the hoarse, subdued sound of many 
 voices. I was on my feet in an instant, arms in hand, when 
 I heard the voice of Morgan in loud, clear tones " You see 
 
ADAM BAKER, THE RENEGADE. H5 
 
 he is dead, my friends ! It matters not what his crimes 
 were, he is out of the reach of your vengeance." 
 
 " But we will drag his cursed carcass to the tail of a mus 
 tang," said a coarse voice. I opened my door and looked 
 out : there were ten or fifteen rude men grouped ahout the 
 body the faint light just sufficient to show the somewhat 
 awed but stern purpose on their features, and the gleam of 
 their long rifles. 
 
 Unarmed and half dressed, Morgan was standing in the 
 door of his room ; one of the men stepped forward suddenly, 
 and, seizing an arm, shook the body violently 
 
 " I am afraid the cunning little devil isn t dead sure 
 enough !" 
 
 The body was rigid, and the red foam bubbled over from 
 the lips ; the man drew back 
 
 "God ! I guess there s no mistake in that !" 
 
 "Yes, Jack, he s done for, certain ! Roach is revenged!" 
 
 "But Sewene did it let s have him !" 
 
 " Gentlemen," said Morgan, " in the first place you wil) 
 have a desperate fight for that we are prepared for you. 
 Sewene, the negroes, his overseer, myself, and the Kentuckian 
 are well armed, and ready to protect the females in this 
 house and our own lives, so that it will be no child s play in 
 the next place, Baker, the man you want, is dead, and you 
 surely are not going to be brutes enough to put that threat 
 into execution in the next place, you are interfering in a 
 matter that rests entirely between the brother of Roach and 
 Sewene. You will always find Sewene ready to account to 
 him, blood for blood. I appeal to you as men to leave 
 quietly, and not frighten these poor women we will fight 
 to the death rather than permit it here is his young daugh 
 ter in the house, and his wife. It will be unmanly in you ! 
 You know Sewene is not a man to shrink from responsi 
 bility !" 
 
116 ADAM BAKER, THE RENEGADE. 
 
 " Well ! well ! that s sensible, boys, and if you haven t 
 killed that Mexican, we will go." 
 
 " The Mexican is not dead here s the key he is in that 
 house; take him, and leave quietly!" 
 
 He tossed the key to one of them : the man caught it, and 
 said 
 
 " Come, boys, let s go ! leave that rotten lump there we 
 won t have a row, for the sake of the women Jim Roach will 
 be here to-morrow, and we will all come with him, and see 
 that he has a fair fight out of Sewene. Let s be off we 
 won t hurt Sewene s little girl. It s bad luck, you know, to 
 blood a white fawn. 
 
 The party moved off, and I was astonished to see these 
 ruffianly men pass out on tiptoe, cautiously as if they were 
 creeping on an enemy, for fear they might disturb the "white 
 fawn." This was a generous trait that all- conquering beauty 
 and innocence will call up, in hearts however savage and 
 brutalized. 
 
 I heard them unlock the door, and in a low, stern voice, 
 command silence of the Mexican, who had commenced a sort 
 of wail thinking, no doubt, that his time was come and in 
 a little while the sound of their horses feet died away in the 
 distance. Much to my amazement, Sewene, with thirty ne 
 groes, fully armed, and the overseer, came forward out of 
 the shade, where they had been standing in the yard, waiting 
 the result of this scene. 
 
 It was nearly day, and all was now rapid preparation for 
 setting off. I threw myself on the bed again, and when they 
 summoned me to start, I noticed, as I passed out, that the 
 body of Baker was gone. I made no inquiries what had 
 become of it ; and, after a hearty meal, we got under way, 
 Sewene, Morgan, and myself, with three negroes leading 
 pack-mules. 
 
 Our trip was a pleasant one. I found my companions very 
 greeable, and many a strange revelation Morgan (whom 1 
 
ADAM BAKER, THE RENEGADE. 117 
 
 learned to like exceedingly) made to me of his own wild 
 career and connexion with that remarkable being, Baker. 
 
 Fifteen days after, we arrived in the crescent city. And 
 it was a gay wedding that I attended, a few days after a 
 little splenetic I could not help feeling as the bridal kiss was 
 given; and Nimqua, the "White Fawn," illustrated on her 
 happy face "the silent war of lilies and of roses." 
 
THE TEXAN VIRAGO 
 
 THE TAILOR OF GOTHAM. 
 
TALES OF THE SOUTHERN BORDER. 
 
 THE TEXAN VIRAGO AND THE TAILOR 
 OF GOTHAM. 
 
 AUNT BECK was a character such as could have flourished 
 only in Texas or Australia. She was a tall and large-framed 
 woman, who, having come of Scotch and Irish parents, bore, 
 in her rounded, yet iron-jawed face, a singular union of that 
 mischievous humour and stolid will which are the character 
 istics of the two races. 
 
 We think it was evident enough when you met her eye, 
 that Aunt Beck had never been born to exhibit, under any 
 possible circumstances in this troublesome life, a very saintly 
 degree of patience for, find her in howsoever placid mood 
 you might, there was still a certain sharpness in the twinkle 
 of her humour which made your nerves creep. 
 
 This may be an uncharitable conjecture of ours, since 
 Texas (a few years after the Revolution) was by no means a 
 hot-bed of the godly virtues ; and, from all accounts, there 
 had been little in the fortunes which had befallen Aunt Beck 
 to sweeten her temper, or cultivate in her great devoutness 
 of resignation. 
 
 A partial and plausible theory asserts that circumstances 
 
 make men and women, too, we suppose ! but we incline to 
 L 121 
 
122 THE TEXAN VIRAGO 
 
 the belief that such women as Aunt Beck make their own 
 circumstances or, rather, find such as are most congenial to 
 their tempers. 
 
 She was one of those born to be despots to rule with a 
 tyrannous will whatever persons and conditions she might 
 come in contact with ; and though her fate had been a cruel 
 one, yet misfortune had as little hardened her generous im 
 pulses as it had softened her domineering temper. But she 
 stood the best sponsor of her own character ; for, though a 
 "lone woman in the world," she was known to be so remark 
 ably well able to answer for herself, that no heaven-daring 
 ruffian of the wild frontier on which she lived ever presumed 
 to cross questions with her in a way to risk provoking an ex 
 periment of her hair-splitting skill with the pistol, a brace of 
 which she carried where housewives usually carry the bunch 
 of keys. 
 
 For her log hut in the old town of Goliad of bloody 
 memory was at this time the only tavern, and she found 
 pistols more useful than keys in protecting her property, and 
 keeping her rough customers in order. 
 
 Indeed, it was perfectly understood that she ruled, with 
 an iron hand, all who claimed the hospitalities of her roof- 
 tree, and that from her despotic fiat there could be no ap 
 peal ; for if the resort was to force, her ready hand and 
 savage temper were nothing loath to meet it ; if the tongue 
 was to be the weapon, then hers was, beyond all possible 
 competition, the bitterest and most abusive that ever wagged ! 
 
 Whatever of misfortune really had occurred, Aunt Beck s 
 was a "silent sorrow ;" for she never spoke of her past life 
 in connection with any of its affections; and that she had ever 
 known those which are common to her sex at all, you could 
 only discover in occasional and unconscious outbreaks of a 
 tender impulse, which revealed the woman through the des 
 perado. 
 
 But though she herself was sternly silent at all times upon 
 
AND THE TAILOR OF GOTHAM. 123 
 
 such themes, there were plenty of others who volunteered to 
 talk for her, and it was a gloomy tale of utter desolation at 
 which these whispering rumour-bearers hinted, in connection 
 with her career in Texas. 
 
 It was said that her husband was one of the early colonists 
 with Austin, and that they had brought with them from the 
 mountains of Pennsylvania a lusty family of sons six stout 
 and manly-looking fellows as ever drew " a bead" or slung 
 an axe. She never had a daughter but her seventh and 
 youngest boy was very feminine and delicate unlike his six 
 rough brothers as contrast could make him, both in appear 
 ance and in temper. Her mother s heart clung to this boy 
 before all the rest, while her husband, who was a fierce and 
 rude old ruffian, regarded him with contempt, and finally 
 even a pitiless aversion as womanly and feeble. 
 
 Until the birth of this unfortunate child the pair had got 
 along together with as little difficulty and as few serious col 
 lisions as could be expected from natures which were mu 
 tually strong, tenacious, and unyielding that is, they had 
 quarrelled now and then pretty savagely; but as they really 
 loved and respected each other heartily, they had soon come 
 together again, with a renewal of the affection which had 
 only generated something of warmth in the separation. But 
 now his slight form, and fair, pretty, girlish face, came be 
 tween the contending powers, not as the angel of peace, but 
 of discord. 
 
 They lived amid perilous scenes, and the ruder virtues of 
 brute strength and courage were more highly valued than all 
 others, and while the old man rejoiced in the prowess and 
 daring of his six stalwart boys, who were in every sense so 
 useful and congenial in his lawless pursuits, the youngest be 
 came an eye-sore and a shame to him in their midst. Not 
 that the boy had really shown himself to be deficient in 
 manly spirit by any overt act as he grew up, but mainly be 
 cause he seemed to have no sympathy with their cherished 
 
124 THE TEXAN VIRAGO 
 
 moods of feeling and habitual deeds ; for this the elder sons 
 hated him, and aided to nourish the father s hate. 
 
 The old man was a cattle-driver, or "cow-boy," as those 
 men are and were termed who drove in the cattle of the 
 Mexican rancheros of the Rio Grande border, either by 
 stealth, or after plundering or murdering the herdsmen ! 
 They were, in short, considered as banditti before the revo 
 lution, and have been properly considered so since. This 
 term "cow-boy" was even then and still more emphatically, 
 later one name for many crimes ; since those engaged in it 
 were mostly outlaws confessedly, and if not so at the begin 
 ning, were always driven into outlawry by the harsh and 
 stern contingencies of their pursuit, which, as it was in 
 violation of all law, compelled them frequently into the most 
 heinous crimes, to protect themselves against entailed -conse 
 quences. 
 
 The predatory excursions of this man and his six boys had 
 furnished one of the earliest occasions for the harsh measures 
 of the central government toward the new colony of Texas, 
 which led to the first collisions between them. 
 
 The son, who was then sixteen years of age, had always 
 refused to accompany his father and brothers on these excur 
 sions, and, although he said little, had, in spite of their 
 united taunts and insults, persisted in remaining by the side 
 of his mother. She had heretofore taken his part, and 
 shielded him indirectly from these persecutions as quietly as 
 possible for her impetuous nature. But now a crisis had ar 
 rived. He was old enough to go with them and share in the 
 hardships, as well as dangers and crimes of their expedi 
 tions ; and the old man scornfully demanded that " the white- 
 faced gal" should go along to cook for them, if he had not 
 the spirit to do any thing else ! 
 
 The boy, it seems, was of a delicate and poetical nature, 
 and shrank, now more than ever, from the harsh and uncon 
 genial association of his father and brothers ; for the dreams 
 
AND THE TAILOR OF GOTHAM. 125 
 
 of a calmer and nobler life, which had been nourished in him 
 by the constant study of some few books which his mother 
 had brought along with her, had now begun to take the 
 warm complexion of reality ; and, with an inherited firmness 
 of will, they had become as laws and a fixed purpose to him. 
 
 He refused positively to go, or to hold any thing in com 
 mon with his father and brothers, and that with a resolution 
 and tenacity which both surprised and astounded the old 
 man, who had heretofore left him to himself and his mother 
 with a contemptuous disregard, never dreaming, of course, 
 that he would have the insolence at any time to assert his 
 life as his own. The reaction of his surprise was furious 
 anger. He loosened upon the poor child s head the vials of 
 his hoarded wrath, in words of the bitterest, the most brutal 
 and savage denunciation. This was in the presence of all 
 the six brothers and the mother. 
 
 The boy stood among them, white and firm : not a nerve 
 quivered while he looked his father steadily in the eye. This 
 only enraged the old ruffian the more. He taunted him with 
 the most merciless and even ferocious malignity the boy s 
 face merely grew whiter and more rigid. The brute now 
 roared with anger, and cursed him in dreadful curses, and 
 swore finally, with a hideous imprecation, that if the boy did 
 not start with them the next morning, he would tie him up to 
 a tree and lash his naked back with a quirt while he could 
 stand, or there was life in him. 
 
 "You will have it to do," said the child, calmly. "I 
 won t go with you, old man ! I will stay with mother !" 
 
 "You won t! won t you?" roared the old wretch, spring 
 ing forward. " Take that ! and go to her then !" 
 
 He struck him in the ungovernable paroxysm of his rage 
 struck him on his fair and delicate temple a blow that would 
 have felled an ox. The brave boy sank without a moan, the 
 olood gushing from his eyes, nose, and mouth. 
 
 The mother had stood by during the scene without offering 
 L2 
 
126 THE TEXAN VIRAGO 
 
 to interfere ; she sprang forward, as she saw the blow about 
 to be struck, to arrest her husband s arm ; but it was too late. 
 Her darling the child of her heart lay at her feet dead, 
 the red blood streaming over his white face. The woman was 
 gone a raving tigress was in her place an unnatural mon 
 ster ! She sprang upon her husband, and before the sons 
 could interfere, she had snatched the bowie knife from his 
 own belt and cut him with a dozen mortal strokes ; and then 
 charging like a demon of blind retribution upon her elder 
 sons, had scattered them with the bloody knife far and wide, 
 several of them badly wounded before they had time to 
 realize all the horror of the awful and unnatural scene. 
 
 They never dared go near her again. While pursuing 
 them with the knife, she had screamed in their ears, in the 
 broken language of her demoniac fury, that they had been 
 the cause of the boy s death that they had set their father 
 on from the first, and might have prevented him from strik 
 ing now if they had tried that they had hated the boy be 
 cause he was better than themselves ! They knew her too 
 well ever to venture into her presence again, and, bad as 
 they were, the horror of that event made them worse and 
 more desperate than ever ; so that in a few years they were 
 all killed off either in foray or fray along the border. 
 
 Who shall speak the dark, unutterable wo of this fierce 
 woman, thus left alone with the bodies of the slain, and her 
 own exhausted, reacting passion ? She lived far away from 
 any neighbours, and for several days nobody came to intrude 
 upon her mournfully fearful solitude. When at last some of 
 the neighbours gathered in having heard the report of her 
 sons they found her busied about her house as usual, and 
 when they asked her for her child and husband, she pointed 
 in stern silence to their graves, and harshly bade them go 
 about their business. 
 
 One of the party, a little more pertinacious or officious 
 than the rest, insisted that something should be done in the 
 
AND THE TAILOR OF GOTHAM. 127 
 
 case, and that she should go in with them to Brazoria to be 
 tried. The woman stepped back into her cabin, and bring 
 ing forward two guns, leaned one against the side of the 
 door, while, with a grim relentless scowl upon her ghastly 
 face, she ordered them to start, at the same time presenting 
 the other gun at them. 
 
 They were all armed of course, but they did not cnoose to 
 bide the issue of such a contest, and that with a woman, too ; 
 so they left, and nobody ever dared to mention the event to 
 her again. For more than a year it was believed no white 
 person went near her house, and that she did not see a living 
 soul, except the wild Indians, perhaps, who are said to have 
 been frequently repulsed by her single hand, in attempts 
 upon her property. 
 
 Her house was then on an old trail which led into the Rio 
 Grande border, somewhere in the neighbourhood of Mier. It 
 had formerly been traversed by the tobacco smugglers from 
 the Sabine or the coast; but of late years it had been dis 
 used, for fear of the cow-boy depredations. Her husband 
 and sons were said to have frequently robbed arid murdered 
 the companies of traders as they called themselves but 
 really smugglers along this trail ; and now that they had 
 disappeared, the bands of these equally lawless men began to 
 make their appearance again along the trail, with their long 
 trains of mules laden with bales of tobacco. 
 
 These men were the earliest intruders upon her solitude, 
 and a rough reception it was they met with at first. But 
 these men are a merry and dare-devil class, and the laughing 
 recklessness with which they braved her savageness at last 
 won upon her to a certain degree, and she sullenly permitted 
 them a sort of take-care-of-themselves hospitality. They 
 represented her appearance, when they first intruded upon 
 her, as awfully hideous. 
 
 She had been a fat and ruddy dame, with hair slightly 
 grizzled, one year before ; now she seemed tall and gaunt, 
 
128 THE TEXAN VIRAGO 
 
 and her chalky skin was shrivelled to her bones. Her hair 
 was a mass of creamy, unnatural-looking white, and her 
 sunken eyes burned with a sultry sullenness that was appal 
 ling. After the first uncontrollable shudder, these men were 
 either too brutal or too careless to pay any further regard to 
 these appearances, and they knew her reputation rather too 
 well to venture to speak of them in her presence. 
 
 Their rude and boisterous mirth seemed to have an imme 
 diate effect in rousing her life from the deadly lethargy into 
 which it was sinking. They first awakened her anger furi 
 ously, and then, as that was permitted to exhaust itself in 
 harmless vituperation upon them, her kindlier feelings be 
 came gradually aroused through the strongly-inherited mirth- 
 fulness of her Irish descent. They say that when she finally 
 broke out of a sudden in their midst into a loud laugh, they 
 were frightened that it had an unearthly sound, like the 
 dry chatter of a skeleton s laugh. She checked herself sud 
 denly, and glared around her in a fury ; but they all looked 
 so really startled and affrighted, that she burst again into a 
 roar of spasmodic mirth, which continued, peal upon peal, 
 until she sank hysterically upon the earth ; and after weep 
 ing for a long while there, she arose to her feet a changed 
 being. The spell was broken ! 
 
 She resumed a partial cheerfulness before they left, and 
 when the party returned, they found her greatly altered in 
 appearance, as she was in temper and bearing. She looked 
 like a human being now, and met their rough greetings with 
 something like good humour, though when they ventured 
 upon some rude bantering, the savage tartness of her retorts 
 warned them to keep in due bounds. As time progressed, 
 this class of outlaws became great favourites with her, and 
 her house came to be a sort of frontier rendezvous for them. 
 L The year after she heard of the death of the last of her 
 sons, she undertook a pilgrimage to the Rio Grande, for the 
 purpose of confession, penance, and absolution, at the great 
 
AND THE TAILOR OF GOTHAM. 129 
 
 cathedral of Monterey. She had been educated a Catholic, 
 but, until the events of late years, had entirely forgotten her 
 religion. The journey was a very perilous one, but she made 
 it in company with one of those smuggling bands so far as 
 the neighbourhood of Mier. 
 
 On parting with them she crossed the river above Mier, 
 and reported herself to the Padre there, who, believing her 
 account of the object of her journey, gave her a permit to 
 travel, which he obtained from the Alcalde, and forwarded the 
 pious pilgrim, with a strong escort, to his superior at Monte 
 rey she, of course, leaving behind a heavy remembrance for 
 his blessing. Returning with a conscience now entirely at 
 ease, and a purse nearly as light, she rejoined the smugglers, 
 and from that time until the revolution she was openly en 
 gaged herself in the smuggling trade, and even led her own 
 little band of men and mules in person. Her journey to the 
 confessional had given her all the advantages of information 
 she desired, and she availed herself of them in her own ad 
 venturous manner. She spoke Mexican admirably, and as 
 she now had the reputation of possessing a long purse, and, 
 of course, great piety, it was easy enough for her, on pre 
 tence of relieving her sensitive conscience, to cross into any 
 of the border towns, and, after feeing the priest heavily, ob 
 tain through him an interview with the Alcalde, who had to 
 be feed again yet more heavily for the privilege of intro 
 ducing her tobacco into the town during the night, concealed 
 beneath carts of hay or other produce for the market. 
 
 The permit or understanding being obtained, she would 
 send back a trusty Mexican servant to the camp on the 
 other side of the Rio Grande, in which she had left her com 
 pany concealed with directions where to cross, and at what 
 hour. She would then meet them, having previously, with 
 the zealous aid of her coadjutor, the worthy Alcalde, sent her 
 smuggling convoy of carts or mules to the same point by 
 many different r^tes. The tobacco being transferred to 
 
130 THE TEXAN VIRAGO 
 
 these, they scattered again, and came in by the different 
 routes, mingled in with other market-carts or mules coming 
 in from the country. 
 
 The Alcalde was, of course, on hand, in the zealous dis 
 charge of his duty, which was, in part, to see that the revenue- 
 laws were duly respected within the limits of his jurisdiction. 
 The great man was unusually condescending that morning, 
 and if he had not chosen to take his officer whose duty it 
 was to inspect all loads and packs into confidence, and go 
 shares of the plunder with him, he would so overwhelm that 
 functionary by his astonishing and loquacious condescension, 
 as to completely distract his attention from his duty, and 
 thus permit the tobacco to pass in safely. Usually, however, 
 there was no necessity for all this trouble. The Alcalde had 
 only to send for his officer and get him drunk over night, 
 and the tobacco would be safely enough housed before he 
 awoke ; or else, if he was a person he could entirely trust, he 
 would merely convey the intelligence to him that he had a 
 little speculation on foot, and desired that officer would wear 
 his brown spectacles next morning, and this hint would, of 
 course, be understood ; and when the tobacco was fairly out 
 of harm s way, this obliging functionary was to be remem 
 bered by a third heavy disbursement. 
 
 In spite of the entailed necessity for all these heavy out 
 lays and these are only the direct and legitimate ones, 
 under the easiest possible conditions the trade was occa 
 sionally so very lucrative, that the smuggler dared every 
 thing rather than give it up, though it was quite as common 
 for him to lose all as to make these enormous percentages. 
 As, for instance, the Alcalde might be attacked with a sudden 
 fit of indigestion, and, of course, of virtue and patriotic 
 zeal then his unpurchasable honour was dangerous, though 
 by no means rash. He would take the purse of the tamperer 
 with smothered indignation assist him with well-dissembled 
 activity to cross his tobacco nay, even get it into the town, 
 
AND THE TAILOR OF GOTHAM. 131 
 
 and then, in a sudden fit of abstraction, inform his officer, 
 privately, that the prey was in the net, and he would draw 
 the strings at once. Consequence forfeiture of the whole 
 seizure and imprisonment of the smuggler at the pleasure of 
 the Alcalde. 
 
 It was the duty of this virtuous person to forward such 
 prisoners to Mexico, and of course account to the govern 
 ment for the forfeited property ; but as his fit of indigestion 
 would have passed off by this time, his ears were mercifully 
 open to propositions for ransom from the friends of the cap 
 tive, and when a few thousand dollars more had been forth 
 coming, he would permit his benevolent heart the gratifica 
 tion of freeing the poor prisoner, without a shirt to his back, 
 while the government remained nothing the wiser of such 
 good deeds on the part of its distant servants. Sometimes it 
 happened that the unfortunate adventurer never saw the 
 light again, having been disposed of in some mysterious way ; 
 and as there was nobody who dared come to inquire after 
 him, nobody of course was any the wiser for his fate but the 
 sleek Alcalde and his tractable ministers. 
 
 Hard as were such contingencies, the smuggler no sooner 
 escaped from the consequences of one than he risked another 
 without fail. There seems to be a something of charm in 
 the wild and perilous exigencies of such a life, which holds with 
 it a strange power over those who have once felt its spell ; 
 no sort of danger, suffering, or defeat can deter them from a 
 renewal of the attractive risks. Strange as it is that this 
 should be so with men, it is yet more remarkable to find a 
 lone woman persevering through years of perilous vicissitude 
 in this traffic. 
 
 She is represented to have passed through nearly every 
 difficult strait to which the life of the tobacco-smuggler is 
 liable, and indeed to have personally faced a greater amount 
 and variety of dangerous extremes than any of the most 
 noted leaders of the other sex along the whole border 
 
132 THE TEXAN VIRAGO 
 
 There may have been some romancing in this statement, as 
 is natural from the unusual character of the circumstance 
 that a woman should be engaged in such a traffic at all ; but 
 these few facts are known to be absolutely certain, namely: 
 that she was for a period of five or six years on horseback 
 for three-fourths of her time, riding like a man, with pistols 
 in her holsters before her, and at her belt she never carried 
 a g un and passing between her own house and the towns 
 of the Rio Grande ; that she usually had five or six men with 
 her, one of whom was her Mexican servant, and a dozen or 
 more pack-mules loaded with tobacco going out, and some 
 with specie corning in ; that during this time she was fre 
 quently taken prisoner, and her men came straggling in 
 without a mule or a penny ; that she always came in alone 
 on these occasions, and frequently made narrow escapes 
 from, and had desperate fights with the Indians ; that she 
 never hesitated to go anywhere she chose, Indians or no In 
 dians, and did not seem to regard their being in her path at 
 all, &c. &c. 
 
 Such facts as these were notorious; and it was further 
 whispered that she owed her frequent escapes to the power 
 ful intercession, or rather interference, of the Padres down 
 along the valley from Monterey, who, it is said, held her in 
 high regard for her piety, or rather her liberality to the 
 church. It was also said that she was both feared and hated 
 by the majority of the men whom she employed ; but that 
 she always had one or two about her who were faithful. 
 
 On several occasions when they were returning, the men 
 have attempted a mutiny, to get possession of the specie, by 
 taking her life. She has always discovered the plot in time, 
 and permitting it to come to a head, has killed, often with 
 her own hands, the ringleaders. At such times she was al 
 ways as profusely liberal to the faithful few as she was piti 
 less in her vengeance upon the traitorous majority. 
 \ There are very many extraordinary stories told of her 
 
AND THE TAILOR OF GOTHAM. 133 
 
 daring, her cunning, her vindictiveness, and her humour; but 
 it is a marked and curious fact, which I have noted often 
 with great interest, that amidst all these tales, in the mouths 
 of very many different grades of lawless men, we never yet, 
 in one instance, heard any thing like an insinuation directed 
 against her fair fame and honour. She was by no means so 
 old a person that such charges would not have been thought 
 of and greedily circulated about her ; but that there was a 
 certain grave, stern, and reserved austerity, which made 
 itself so frequently apparent in her looks and bearing, in 
 spite of her humour and recklessness, that such thoughts 
 were utterly rebuked, even in the minds of the most obscene 
 blackguards. She is said, on one occasion, when near the 
 Rio Grande, on her way out with tobacco, to have slit the 
 ears of such a fellow, who said something in her presence 
 offensive to her delicacy, and then driven him from her 
 camp, without food or a gun, to find his way back as best he 
 might. This was a lesson that lasted ever afterwards, when 
 ever she was present among men, of whatever stamp ; for 
 , such an incident as this has always wide circulation. 
 
 At the time the revolution broke out, she was thought to 
 be quite wealthy, and was engaged in smuggling, on a more 
 extensive scale than any one else in Texas. She had not 
 much visible property, but her wealth was said to be all in 
 gold and silver. Be this as it may, that event broke up her 
 smuggling operations entirely, and she remained quiet at 
 home, taking sides with neither party. 
 
 But neutrality at such a time was out of the question, and 
 her house was surrounded suddenly and pillaged by the 
 blood-thirsty and brutal Cos. It is said that he carried off a 
 large sum in specie, which he found concealed under the floor 
 of her rancho. From that time she became a fierce and 
 deadly foe of Mexico and Mexicans ; and it turned out, that 
 although Cos was said to have carried off all her money, 
 she still had a great deal left to spare to the cause of Texas. 
 
134 THE TEXAN VIRAGO 
 
 She never did any thing by halves, and so, by the time the 
 war was over, she found herself nearly penniless, and was 
 compelled to begin the world anew. She had been hanging 
 around the army, sometimes taking a hand, on a pinch, with 
 her pistols, and at others cooking for the officers and attend 
 ing the wounded. 
 
 But when the army was finally disbanded, she went back 
 to her old life of solitude again, but soon found that she 
 could not live upon air; all her money was gone and her 
 stock scattered to the four winds. She would not condescend 
 to trouble the new government for repayment of the sums 
 she had advanced ; but, with characteristic recklessness and 
 energy, got together some few of the remaining men formerly 
 in her employ, and then, making a sudden descent upon the 
 distracted borders of Mexico, drove back a herd of five hun 
 dred head of cattle ; in a word, became a female " Cow 
 boy," as her husband and elder sons had been ! On reach 
 ing the settlements, the cattle were rapidly converted into 
 money, although she did not appear in the business, but 
 exacted through an agent. 
 
 Having received the money, she is said to have declared 
 her determination to alter her mode of life quit adventur 
 ing, and settle down in quiet for the rest of her life. That 
 her ideas of quiet were decidedly comparative, will be per 
 ceived, when it is known that the deserted site of Goliad, of 
 bloody memory, was the location of her new and quiet home. 
 It was then the extreme frontier of settlement west. The 
 whites had been driven from Bahai, and the little settlement 
 at Victoria was scattered ; the country was filled with out 
 laws stragglers from both armies the ravens of spoil and 
 slaughter, that were starving now for want of their unclean 
 food. 
 
 The Indians, taking advantage of the general confusion, 
 were driving the settlers steadily back and back towards the 
 San Bernard, and were constantly scouring the country back 
 
AND THE TAILOR OF GOTHAM. 135 
 
 and forth in small predatory bands. It was in the midst of 
 euch a condition of things that our wearied and saintly her- 
 mitess, sighing for the calm delights of peaceful seclusion, 
 away from the harsh strife and wicked turmoil of an evil 
 world, threw herself for the remainder of her days. She 
 was the pioneer of resettlement, and took things as they 
 came with a most philosophical resignation. If the Indians 
 troubled her stock, she sallied out and gave them a drub 
 bing if renegades and horse-thieves annoyed her, she dealt 
 with them in an equally summary manner, and soon made 
 her neighbourhood respected to such a degree, that two or 
 three adventurers from the settlements plucked up courage, 
 and came to live in deserted tenements of the old town. If 
 any one came who did not suit her, she soon drove him off 
 with a flea in his ear. 
 
 Thus several years had passed, and though there were still 
 not more than a half dozen others in the town, yet the Old 
 Trail to Bahai had begun to be travelled now and then, and 
 the little settlement at Victoria had begun to gather in 
 again, and Aunt Beck was not unfrequently called upon by 
 land-hunters, travellers, speculators, and so forth, for food 
 and lodging so she concluded, as the thing became inevita 
 ble, to give in and "keep tavern" at once. 
 
 About this time my friend Dick Hord, a wild and gallant 
 young Virginian, went to Texas to seek his fortune. He 
 was reckless as exuberant life and a mirthful and dare-devil 
 spirit could make him ; but yet he had a sober purpose before 
 him that is, he protests that he had but we have always 
 thought that he obtained the commission of surveyor of 
 Goliad county rather as an excuse for running himself into all 
 sorts of scrapes and hair-breadth ventures, rather than with 
 the thrifty view of locating the best lands for himself, and 
 thereby laying the foundation for a fortune. Be this as it 
 may, the best proof of his being a sad scamp is to be found 
 in the incidents we are about to relate. 
 
136 THE TEXAN VIRAGO 
 
 He made Goliad the centre of his operations, and of 
 course his head-quarters could be nowhere but at Aunt Beck s 
 tavern. Dick and she got along surprisingly together ; for 
 there was something in the cool matter-of-fact way in which 
 he pushed his surveying or hunting expeditions right into 
 known Indian territory without the slightest regard to their 
 numbers or formidable fame which quite won Aunt Beck s 
 heart because it was so much after her own habitual mode 
 of procedure. 
 
 Dick had been living this wandering and adventurous life 
 for over a year, when the monotony of its seclusion began to 
 be somewhat relieved. Young men were flooding into Texas 
 from every State in the Union their pockets stuffed with 
 "land scrip," the most of which was located on some imagi 
 nary grant on the remote frontier. The mania for specula 
 tion, which was the first reaction from the depressing times 
 of the revolution, had scattered this worthless paper far and 
 wide, and many a clever, warm-hearted fellow had been 
 gulled by the oily-tonguecl agents of those irresponsible com 
 panies into giving up a valuable certainty at home to chase 
 the wild goose that was to lay him golden eggs over those 
 desolate and dangerous plains. 
 
 These verdant and eager adventurers had begun to push 
 their way as far as Goliad; and sometimes when Dick came 
 in he would find a party waiting his arrival at Aunt Beck s 
 tavern, to go with them and survey these " promised lands." 
 On the occasion to which we shall particularly refer, he 
 found two young men who had just arrived from "the 
 States," and were anxiously awaiting him. One of them, 
 named Allen, was a plainly dressed, bright-eyed youth, who 
 said he was a farmer s son from Tennessee ; while the other 
 was a heroic tailor of Gotham, who had dropped one goose to 
 chase another. 
 
 The usual frank and rough greeting of the frontier being 
 over, these men, together with Dick and his two chain- 
 
AND THE TAILOR OF GOTHAM. 137 
 
 carriers, were soon seated at dinner around an old pine dry- 
 goods box, which served them for a table. In the centre of 
 this stood a large wooden bowl, filled with a boiling hotch 
 potch of beef and potatoes. A tin pint cup flanked the 
 pewter plate which was in front of each man. There was no 
 sign of spoons, and the two strangers looked with a puzzled 
 and hungry curiosity at the contents of the bowl, when Dick 
 laughingly drew his hunting-knife and commenced spearing 
 vigorously at the potatoes and fragments of meat which 
 were bobbing about in the hot and muddy-looking pool. 
 
 They took the hint and followed suit, while Aunt Beck 
 her strong features flaming from the heat of the fire 
 walked round behind them, filling each cup with coffee from 
 a great black tin boiler. Aunt Beck was usually sulky or 
 tart when strangers came ; but for a miracle she was in a 
 rare good-humour this evening. 
 
 " There ! there !" as she was running his cup over in her 
 generosity " you mean I shall have enough this evening, 
 Aunty?" 
 
 " Sure and yes, hinney ! ye should be afther ateing enough 
 while ye ve the convaniences and the bowels !" 
 
 " But Aunty, I say ! though I may not always have just 
 such luxurious conveniences at hand as you furnish here, yet 
 I don t know what s to spoil my appetite." 
 
 " Ah, chiel Dicky ! Chiel Dicky, ye r ower brash ! Them 
 long-hair d britherin o Satan will spile ye r stomach for ye 
 yet !" 
 
 "Who? the Camanches?" 
 
 "What!" interrupted young Allen, quickly, while his 
 eyes glared a little, "are the Camanches about?" 
 
 " Camanches aboun ! saft craythurs ye are, not to be 
 smellin* the wasp-nest ye r pokin ye r noses in ! Sure, 
 mon, they r thick as thrae in a bed, on these pararries : 
 This hare- em scare- em Dicky, here, has aven been plading 
 
 and inthrating of em to ase him of his wool for moonths and 
 M2 
 
138 THE TEXAN VIRAGO 
 
 moonths ; but I m a thinkin they won t hae it because it s 
 sun-burnt and frizzled. They likes fresh, slick, ilely hair, 
 like yourn, best, ninnies." 
 
 This was said with demure solemnity, and a side wink at 
 Dick. 
 
 " I hope they won t take a fancy for mine !" said the Ten 
 nessee boy, very innocently smoothing down his shining 
 black locks. 
 
 "By blood!" said the knight of the scissors, with a 
 hoarsely savage intonation, stroking rapidly, at the same 
 time, a huge moustache, " if they get mine, they ll have to 
 fight for it, by G d !" 
 
 Aunt Beck stared at him with round, opening eyes for an 
 instant ; then, lifting her hands as if in pious adjuration 
 
 " Lord help us ! a lone creetur ! how fierce he is ! Sae 
 they will, mon, nae doubt. Sorry the day ye didn t run a 
 baker s dizen of em to look at ye ! The puir divils are 
 awful fraid of the brush ; and by the sainted snake-killer ! 
 barrin your nose and eyes but ye r got the maist cantan 
 kerous brush-heap on ye r shoulders thar, that has travelled 
 since the day o guid King Macbeth !" 
 
 "I I cultivated them expressly!" said the sappy hero, 
 half closing his eyes with an excessively devil-may-care air, 
 and plucking and stroking yet more affectionately the rough, 
 reddish thicket which covered alike his throat, face, and 
 head. 
 
 " Och ! deary ! and ye should ha been more mercifuller 
 to be scarin the ignorant salvages into duck-fits so ! Bonny, 
 aisy Dicky, there, thinks physikin em wi lead pills is bad 
 enough, but ye are o er cruel craythurs wha coom fra the 
 States ! Wait till ye get to know em better, my darlin , and 
 ye r heart will be tenderer to em !" 
 
 " Oh, I am quite tender-hearted, as to that," said he of 
 the whiskers, shaking his head to one side, and putting on a 
 ferocious scowl, which clearly contradicted his words. 
 
AND THE TAILOR OF GOTHAM. 139 
 
 "Bless your sowl, deary, and so you are. The dugs o 
 the mither that nursed ye ain t safter ! Did she gi ye the 
 suck-bottle to bring along, hinney?" 
 
 This was too rich. Dick and his chain-bearers, who had 
 been nearly bursting with smothered merriment since this 
 conversation began, now exploded in the most uproarious 
 peals of laughter as they jumped from their seats and tum 
 bled convulsed about the room. Young Allen, who had be 
 gun to smell the rat, joined the laugh, but with more mode 
 ration; for he had not seen enough of life, and such life 
 especially, to exactly understand the characters about him. 
 
 The astonished tailor drew himself up to his full height ; 
 then opening his big white eyes in a wild stare around him 
 for a moment, assumed a lofty air of sneering indignation as 
 he threw out his right arm towards the offenders grandly, 
 and hissed from between his teeth 
 
 "Ye s es, old woman! Do you just show Hector 
 Napoleon Smith one of those bloody Camanches you seern to 
 be so fraid of, if you want to see whether he is done with 
 his suck-bottle or no !" 
 
 " Dicky ! Dicky, dear !" screamed the old woman, " where s 
 your pet Camancha? Let s show it to my darlinV 
 
 " You mean in the cigar-box ? There it is on the shelf, 
 outside the door." 
 
 Aunt Beck bounced out of the door, and in an instant was 
 back, holding a cigar-box in her hands, with narrow strips 
 tacked on the front. She pushed it towards the face of 
 Hector Napoleon Smith. 
 
 "There, deary! Don t faint, now. That s a Camancha! 
 Wouldn t you like to eat him without salt?" 
 
 Hector Napoleon sprang back amidst reiterated peals of 
 laughter. He looked frightened no wonder ! for it Tas 
 one of those famously hideous and loathsome creatures of the 
 southern prairies called horned frogs, and which she had 
 named her pet Camancha. 
 
140 THE TEXAN VIRAGO 
 
 " What is it ?" he gasped. " Take it away, woman !" 
 
 But Aunt Beck still followed his retreating steps, pushing 
 the box under his nose until it touched his face. He struck 
 the frog-cage aside, and pushed her rudely from him, as he 
 roared out furiously 
 
 " Get away, you d d old hag !" 
 
 " D d old hag, is it ? you moon-eyed spalpeen ! Take 
 
 that ! and that !" Heavy and fast she rained the blows upon 
 his head with the cigar-box, until it split into a thousand 
 
 fragments, while she continued to repeat "D d old hag, 
 
 is it?" every time her heavy hand came down; and then 
 " The mither that suckled a calf sha n t ken ye !" 
 
 Her quick eye detected the poor frog attempting to escape 
 along the floor of the cabin. Springing after it with wonder 
 ful activity, she seized it in her fingers, turned, and advanced 
 upon the poor tailor with the exclamation 
 
 "By the ghost of St. Patrick, he shall ate the Ca- 
 mancha !" 
 
 But Hector Napoleon Smith had availed himself of the 
 short respite to seize a heavy stool by the leg, and throw 
 himself upon the defensive, with his weapon upraised to 
 strike. The expression of the old woman, which had been 
 merely that of mischievous deviltry before, changed now to 
 one of pitiless fierceness : she put her hand beneath her 
 apron and whipped out a pistol quickly; then, laughing 
 harshly as she presented it at his head 
 
 " Down with it ! ye terrier-faced cummudgeon ! In my 
 ain house, too !" 
 
 The arm of the affrighted fellow dropped to his side, and 
 the stool fell to the floor. Looking somewhat mollified by 
 this prompt obedience, she approached as he shrunk cower 
 ing back into a corner, with a most ludicrously gracious and 
 winning leer upon her face 
 
 "Aisy, my dear, aisy! Sae bluid-thirsty a chiel as ye 
 Bhall ha it to say he s ate a Camancha without salt !" and 
 
AND THE TAILOR OF GOTHAM. 
 
 she pushed the frog nearer his mouth, which he endeavoured 
 to shield by throwing his arms pitifully across his face. 
 
 " Hut ! tut ! nae scringin , my bonnie pet ! Bite awa 
 bravely! Bite awa !" pushing it up still closer to his mouth. 
 
 " Good God !" groaned the agonized tailor, rolling his 
 eyes about him, with a wild look of forlorn, imploring de 
 spair for the filthy reptile almost touched his lips, and the 
 muzzle of the pistol gaped like a cannon s mouth before his 
 swimming vision. 
 
 " Ye ll ha it to do !" said the inexorable old creature, 
 still following his shrinking face with the frog. 
 
 But the joke had gone far enough, and Dick, who by this 
 time had sufficiently recovered from his convulsions, came to 
 the poor wretch s rescue, and snatched the pistol from the 
 old woman s hand, as he pushed her suddenly back. Thus 
 was the horrified tailor relieved, though the experiment 
 might have cost any other man a pistol-ball ; but Dick was 
 her favourite, and after abusing him a little, she joined good- 
 humouredly in the continued laughter, saying, as she turned 
 off about her housework 
 
 " Sure, I m a thinkin the dear chiel will na forget his first 
 taste o Camanches soon !" 
 
 They now resumed their seats, to finish the meal that had 
 been so farsically interrupted. Hector Napoleon looked 
 considerably chop-fallen for awhile. But Dick, who now 
 suddenly conceived a warm interest for him, consoled him by 
 exclaiming, in an emphatic whisper 
 
 " Pshaw 7 ! never mind it ! she s nothing but a woman ! 
 What man could help himself? you were obliged to stand 
 it, or strike a woman !" 
 
 Perceiving that this sort of consolation took admirably, 
 e proceeded to launch out for quantity with a string of 
 direful stories, illustrating, in highly-imaginative colouring, 
 the desperate and blood-thirsty traits of the Camanches. 
 This sort of rigmarole romancing was addressed to the tailor 
 
142 THE TEXAN VIRAGO 
 
 in a low, confidential voice, as a man of tried valour, to 
 whom such scenes were matters of course. Now and then, 
 in winding up some story in which cowardice had lost the 
 day, he would exclaim, in the most confident and enthusiastic 
 manner 
 
 " Ah ! that affair would have ended very differently, had 
 you and myself been only there! wouldn t it?" and soon he 
 had the satisfaction of seeing his victim caress the moustache 
 as affectionately as ever, and nod his head threateningly in 
 the affirmative, as he would drawl out, with the most irre 
 sistibly imposing nonchalance " I ra-a-a-ther think it would." 
 
 This was exquisitely rich to Dick s palate ; for not having 
 the slightest idea of seeing Camanches really, he had deter 
 mined to amuse himself, in crossing the prairies to-morrow, 
 by playing upon the vain-glorious valour and ignorance of 
 the tailor. He accordingly followed up the " stuffing" game, 
 until, before they took to their blankets for the night, Hector 
 Napoleon Smith was panting for the battle-field for deeds 
 of gory heroism and immortal daring, to be perpetrated at 
 the expense of the dusky skins of the poor Camanches. 
 
 It seemed that the tailor and the young Tennesseean had 
 come together by accident, both being on their way to Goliad 
 on the same errand namely, to get lands surveyed, for which 
 they had bought scrip purporting to be located there. Dick 
 found the scrip of young Allen really of value, though he 
 had some doubts of that of the tailor. He started next 
 morning, soon after sunrise, to survey Allen s land. Hector 
 Napoleon, of course, accompanied them ; and as they were 
 mounting to start, Aunt Beck came to the door and screamed 
 after him 
 
 " Arrah, hinney ! and had nt ye better take some salt 
 along, to-day, to put on their tails ! Camanches is hard to 
 catch they re a wee bit wild on the prairies, dear !" 
 
 The tailor, who did not seem to think there was any great 
 savour of the attic in this sort of wit, merely muttered some- 
 
AND THE TAILOR OF GOTHAM. 143 
 
 thing about a "d d old she-bear!" and started off into 
 
 a gallop. 
 
 Dick continued the game of last night, and amused him 
 self by stimulating, with approving flattery, the surplus 
 valour of Smith. When he would get up a false alarm now 
 and then, he would praise the firm bearing of the valorous 
 tailor, and hint how fiercely he knew he would have charged 
 into them, had they turned out to be Indians. 
 
 He thus worked the fellow up until he became more and 
 more bombastically heroic, as they progressed with impunity, 
 and would now and then let off steam by dashing his horse 
 ahead of the party, jerking his gun to his face, and eyeing 
 along the barrel at imaginary Camanches. Indeed, to all 
 appearances, he was "crazy for a fight." 
 
 Dick, who was a good-hearted fellow, wished from his very 
 core that the enthusiastic young gentleman might be gratified; 
 but as there seemed to him to be no prospect of this, he soon 
 grew tired, chuckling at the effects of his own mischievous wit. 
 
 It was time for business, for they were now in sight of the 
 line of timber in which the land lay. He now, for the first 
 time, turned his attention to it ; and on looking at his com 
 pass, found, to his great mortification, that an indispensable 
 screw of the instrument was missing. There was nothing 
 left but to gallop back to the cabin and get it, where he sup 
 posed he must have left it. He pointed out a bend in the 
 line of timber to the young men, as the place where the 
 land lay, and told them either to go back with him, or pro 
 ceed themselves to the land and ride over it until his 
 return. 
 
 The chain-carriers had not come out, for the young men 
 were to carry the chain themselves. The tailor looked a little 
 wild at this proposition to go on there alone with Allen ; 
 but the young Western man, who had become wonderfully 
 cool and self-possessed by this time, said at once 
 
 " Certainly, Mr. Hord ! I will fide on and take a good 
 
144 THE TEXAN VIRAGO 
 
 look at the land, while you go back !" and without waiting 
 to hear from the tailor, rode on as a matter of course. 
 
 They proceeded quite leisurely. The hero was in a very 
 fidgety, restless mood, talking incessantly, while Allen paid 
 little attention to him, but regarded with great curiosity the 
 beautiful scenery they were approaching. They were now 
 skirting up the timber towards the sharp elbow, or bend in 
 the stream, which it bordered. Like all the small streams 
 of Texas, this was a deep and narrow cut. Immediately on 
 its brink the timber was small and brushy, but farther out 
 into the prairie it grew larger and more scattering, until 
 there was only here and there a great live-oak to dot its 
 surface. 
 
 They turned the sharp bend, which it happened was a 
 point of thicker woods, and found themselves entering a 
 lovely nook of meadow, with these old live-oaks scattered at 
 intervals over it. Two horses, with lariats about their necks, 
 were quietly grazing among the trees, a short distance from 
 them. They stopped in astonishment, which was not a little 
 increased when two Indians, who had evidently been lying 
 upon the grass near the horses, asleep, sprang suddenly to 
 their feet with a hoarse ejaculation of surprise. 
 
 They were the dreaded Camanches ! The young men were 
 nearly between them and their horses. This, together with 
 the sudden awaking, seemed to confuse the warriors for a mo 
 ment. It was but for a moment, when one of them darted 
 for the cover of a tree which was nearer the horses, while 
 the other glided behind that beneath which they were 
 sleeping. 
 
 Both parties were too much surprised, at first, to think of 
 usiiig weapons, though, with the prompt instinct of his West 
 ern blood, young Allen s rifle was up to his face very quickly, 
 but just in time to be too late for the quick Indians. Seeing 
 the advantage they had gained, he immediately dismounted 
 and took the nearest tree himself; for on looking behind, he 
 
AND THE TAILOR OF GOTHAM. 145 
 
 had perceived at a glance that there was nothing to hope 
 from the tailor in charging them. 
 
 That heroic person, in the meantime, was sitting stock-still 
 and erect upon his horse, with mouth and eyes stretched to 
 their utmost capacity of extension staring before him in 
 blank, stupid astonishment. One of the warriors waked him 
 from his stupor very suddenly with an arrow, which glided 
 through the hairy thicket about his throat, and ripped up the 
 flesh considerably. With a quick sound, something between 
 a yelp and a roar, the fellow fell from his horse into the 
 grass, and commenced rolling over and over until he reached 
 the tree behind which Allen was sheltered. 
 
 He paid no attention, but fired. The keen ring of his 
 rifle echoed through the woods on the stream. The reply to 
 it was an Indian whoop from the same quarter. The Indian 
 he had fired at fell, but at the same moment the other sprang 
 to a tree still nearer to the horses, and answered the whoop 
 from the woods. 
 
 The horses of the young men had by this time joined those 
 of the Indians, and the rustling in the woods near, and the 
 whistle and patter of arrows around him, told Allen that re 
 inforcements had arrived. Things began to look serious, but 
 the young man only became more cool. 
 
 He nudged the tailor with his elbow, while he was loading 
 his rifle, and told him to keep a sharp eye upon those fellows 
 in the bush, and fire at the first he saw; but he would pay no 
 attention to him, and lay upon the ground moaning about 
 the scratch in the neck he had received. There was no time 
 to be lost, and Allen, utterly out of patience, drew one of his 
 pistols, and rapping the terrified noodle sharply over the 
 head, muttered a threat to give him the ball instantly if he 
 did not raise himself and watch those Indians in the bush 
 behind them. 
 
 The doubly terrified fellow now rose on his elbow, and as 
 
 five or six Indians boldly showed themselves above the bank, 
 N 10 
 
146 THE TEXAN VIRAGO 
 
 he shut his eyes and fired. It chanced that the shot told, 
 and they jumped down again. Allen, in the mean time, had 
 drawn himself round the tree, somewhat out of the range of 
 those fellows behind, and had given his whole attention to 
 watching the warrior in front of him, who was determined to 
 get to the horses. 
 
 Allen and the warrior were warily watching each other, 
 when, his attention being slightly attracted to see the effect 
 of the tailor s fire, the warrior took advantage of this to 
 reach another tree, which placed him within a few paces of 
 the horses. Allen immediately shifted his ground, too, and 
 was wounded in doing so by those behind. But the wound 
 was slight, and he could now cover perfectly the space yet to 
 be passed by his subtle foe. 
 
 All was now as still as death for a few moments. The 
 tailor had forgotten the other barrel of his gun, and crouched 
 panting at the foot of the tree, in overwhelming terror at 
 finding himself thus left alone. The Indians behind the 
 bank had changed their tactics, and proceeding farther down 
 under the shelter of the bank, took to the trees in the mea 
 dows ; and the frightened booby saw ten or twelve dusky 
 figures gliding from tree to tree, and rapidly closing around 
 him. 
 
 Remembering, in his despair, that he had a second barrel, 
 he fired it wildly towards them, and then throwing his gun 
 away, made with frantic speed for the stream they had just 
 left. With half a dozen arrows sticking in his body, he tum 
 bled headlong over the bank into the water, and this was the 
 last seen of Hector Napoleon Smith, the heroic tailor on 
 this occasion at least ; for if the arrows did not finish him, 
 he probably sank in the quicksands of the stream. 
 
 The Indians, when they saw this extraordinary manoeuvre, 
 rushed forward towards Allen and the horses with a yell of 
 triumph, which, however, was cut short by the crack of his 
 
AND THE TAILOR OF GOTHAM. 147 
 
 rifle and the death-shriek of the warrior in front, who tumbled 
 over among the horses. 
 
 Allen s load was out, and they rushed at him again, think 
 ing they had him now for a surety ; but he ran as hard as he 
 could for the horses, and succeeded in mounting into his own 
 saddle while they were yet thirty paces behind him. He 
 might now have made his escape with ease, but the Indian- 
 fighting blood of the gallant youth was up, and he determined 
 to carry off the horses too. He shot down the foremost In 
 dian with his pistol, and while the rest retreated behind 
 trees, he started off the three best horses into a gallop. 
 
 It seems that there was a large party of Camanches 
 camped on the other side of the stream, which, like many 
 others of the country, was impassable, except at particular 
 points, on account of the quicksands through which it passed. 
 The crossing-place was a mile above where the collision had 
 occurred, and those who had shown themselves after it had 
 commenced, had left their horses on the other side, and 
 crossed to the assistance of their companions, on a log, while 
 a larger party had gallopped up to the crossing-place, and 
 they now made their appearance, thundering down upon 
 Allen at full speed, yelling their hoarse war-whoop, and clat 
 tering their lances against their shields. 
 
 This was a sight one would think formidable enough to 
 shake the cast-iron nerves of a veteran Indian-fighter. But, 
 no ! Allen had sworn to carry off those horses with him as 
 trophies. He had got a taste of Indian-fighting, and found 
 it to suit him ; so he coolly took his measures to accomplish 
 his purpose, in the face of all these foes. It was too late to 
 run now, at all events ! 
 
 Reining up his horse a little to finish loading his gun, he 
 then let them have his other pistol so soon as they came in 
 range, and as that set a warrior to reeling in his saddle, it 
 somewhat checked their headlong career. He now threw 
 down his pistol, and drew his gun deliberately to his face. 
 
148 THE TEXAN VIRAGO 
 
 Quick as thought they stooped until they disappeared behind 
 the bodies of their wheeling horses, and, sending a shower of 
 arrows at him from under their necks as they passed, were 
 soon out of reach of his rifle. 
 
 They now commenced riding round him in a rapid circle, 
 so as to confuse his aim, but closing up closer with every 
 round, so as to get, imperceptibly, within reach of him for 
 their arrows. Though this was his first fight, he had yet 
 listened with such strict attention to Dick s stories, that he 
 had a pretty clear idea of the Camanche mode of fighting, 
 and how experienced frontiersmen managed them at odds. 
 
 He had learned that they never close upon a man so long 
 as they know his rifle is loaded ; so he started on his three 
 horses, and whenever they had closed up closer than he 
 liked, he would pause, and bring his rifle slowly to his face. 
 They would instantly dive behind their horses, and wheeling, 
 scatter out of reach of the ball. Then he would push on 
 again for a little distance, when the manoeuvre would be re 
 peated on both sides. 
 
 His object was to drive the horse into a mott, or island 
 of timber, he saw about a mile before him on the prairie. All 
 the timber near him was in possession of the Indians on foot ; 
 and he thought, as the mott was small, that he would be able 
 to make good his stand in it until Dick returned. But they 
 saw his object, and the Indians on foot left the timber and 
 made for the mott to cut him off; while those on horseback 
 redoubled desperately their efforts to confuse him and draw 
 his fire harmlessly. 
 
 They broke up their line, and commenced dashing, with 
 marvellous rapidity and the most hideous yells, back and 
 forth, here and there, before and behind him, and would 
 even sweep past him though going like the wind close 
 enough to hit either his horses or himself. This maddened 
 his horses, and they grew unruly. 
 
 Poor Allen himself now began to grow confused and diz- 
 
AND THE TAILOR OF GOTHAM. 149 
 
 zied by the infernal maze of those flying figures rapidly 
 weaving in and out before his eyes. The arrows had begun 
 to come faster and faster, as they grew emboldened by the 
 success of the new manoeuvre, and now they flew thick as 
 hail-stones about, and a number of them struck him, but 
 came from too great a distance to be fatal. 
 
 Their movements were so swift, that by the time he had 
 concluded upon firing at a particular Indian, he would have 
 passed out of reach, or else an arrow from behind would tap 
 him and distract his aim. His horse was deeply wounded. 
 He saw, at last, that there was no hope of getting to the 
 mott alive, and desperately threw himself from the tottering 
 animal, determined to make a breastwork of its body, and 
 sell his life as dearly as possible. 
 
 The Indians swooped at him like hawks upon the stoop, 
 and were nearly upon him when his feet touched the ground. 
 There was no time for parleying now ! He fired steadily, 
 and brought down the foremost warrior. At the crack of 
 the rifle they swerved back a little, but it was only for an in 
 stant they rushed at him with ferocious yells ; for now they 
 were sure of him with his empty gun. 
 
 The gallant boy was panting from loss of blood ; but with 
 set teeth he clubbed his gun desperately for one more blow 
 before he died, when suddenly there rang upon his fading 
 senses bang ! bang ! bang ! a number of guns a tremen 
 dous shouting and trampling when he sank to the ground 
 insensible. 
 
 The Indians, who were in the very act of plunging a dozen 
 lances in his body, were scattered as if a hurricane had 
 struck them, and Aunt Beck, with Dick and the chain-car 
 riers, their horses foaming with speed, leaped over him as 
 they swept on in pursuit of the flying Camanches. 
 
 All was oblivion with yOung Allen now, and until some 
 time after, when a sudden sense of cold water in his face re 
 vived him. The men were standing in a group around him 
 
150 THE TEXAN VIRAGO 
 
 as he opened his eyes ; and Aunt Beck stooped over him tc 
 bathe his temples from a water-gourd. 
 
 "By the ghost of St. Patrick, the little bantam is only 
 stunned !" said she, as he opened his eyes. " Sure it s cock- 
 a-doodle-doo ye may now, my bonny game-chick; for it s 
 bravely ye r fleshed your spurs to-day!" she continued, as 
 she patted him affectionately on the cheek with her rough 
 powder-stained hands. 
 
 We took Allen to Aunt Beck s tavern, where she nursed 
 him as tenderly as she knew how ; for the little Tennessee 
 bantam had completely won her heart. Indeed, during the 
 weary and almost desperate illness which followed, the cha 
 racter of Aunt Beck appeared in a new light. 
 
 She watched by the bed of this youth with all the eager 
 and yearning watchfulness of the most affectionate mother ; 
 for a long-silent chord appeared to have been once more 
 touched in her rude bosom, and her youngest her fair boy 
 the child of her heart, seemed to be replaced by this young 
 stranger, and the hard and fierce virago was subdued once 
 more into the woman. 
 
 She clung to young Allen ever afterwards with such extra 
 ordinary and boundless affection, that he could never bring 
 himself to leave her. His parents were no longer alive ; and 
 she adopted him, and, relinquishing entirely her masculine 
 pursuits, settled down into the comparatively mild, certainly 
 superlatively pains-taking and careful housewife, and all for 
 the sake of her little Tennessee bantam, as she sometimes 
 called him ever after. 
 
 Allen recovered the money she had loaned the Texas 
 government, and she gave it to him ; whereupon he prospered 
 greatly, and is now a distinguished man in the new State. 
 Dick and he continue warm friends to this day. 
 
 Several days after the fight, a haggard, ghastly wretch 
 who, as Aunt Beck said, " looked like a ghost playing boo- 
 peep through a hole in a bear-skin !" came crawling up to 
 
AND THE TAILOR OF GOTHAM. 151 
 
 the door of " The Tavern," and begged a morsel of food in 
 God s name. After some difficulty they recognised the 
 poor rascal Smith. 
 
 He had, it seemed, sunk in the quicksand, hut had 
 managed to sustain himself by a drooping limb or twig ; and 
 then, after all was quiet, had dragged himself out by its aid. 
 Starvation, and the long cold bath he was compelled to take, 
 had prevented his wounds from killing him. How he 
 managed to get back in his weakened condition nobody can 
 tell, not even himself. The old woman, at the solicitation 
 of Dick, took care of him until he recovered his strength. 
 
 But Hector Napoleon Smith was "a done-over tailor!" 
 His two experiences of Camanches quite sufficed him ; and 
 with a very humble opinion of himself, Texas in general, and 
 Aunt Beck s tongue in particular, he mounted his horse one 
 fine morning with the intention of putting as much earth and 
 water as possible between himself and such "dem d peculiar 
 doing !" 
 
 Aunt Beck screamed after him 
 
 " Arrah, darlin ! and the naixt time ye gang Camancha- 
 hunting, ye ll na forgie the salt to pat on their tails ?" 
 
DEATH OF LITTLE RED-HEAD. 
 
DEATH OF LITTLE EED-HEAD. 
 
 THE time of Secret Societies is not yet passed at all 
 events, we believe that many of them still continue to exert 
 a wide and powerful influence, little realized in our common 
 place world. It is too much the outward manner of the 
 times to sneer at the power of confederacies, though they are 
 feared nay, dreaded with a peculiar sort of vehemence, 
 and frequently even with superstition. 
 
 We mean to assert nothing disrespectful of such institu 
 tions in general, and of their results in particular ; for we do 
 believe that, in spite of the Inquisition, they have been 
 most important agents and means of progress. The deepest 
 truths must come out of the heart of the world, whence they 
 are worked up by the pale and begrimed miners of thought, 
 towards the surface, until the ruddy children of the sun 
 can grasp them, and they become, in their robust hands, 
 
 REALITIES ! 
 
 So with the principle of these Societies generally. The 
 object to be attained is most usually what is called a romantic 
 or impracticable one, and, of course, not strictly orthodox 
 therefore, secrecy may be required to prevent controversy. 
 In a word, we do not undertake to defend such organizations, 
 but simply to assert their existence in much greater numbers 
 and power than men are generally disposed to believe ; and, 
 whether for evil or for good, their tremendous influence upon 
 
 the times. 
 
 155 
 
156 DEATH OF LITTLE RED-HEAD. 
 
 Most of the pretended revelations with regard to them 
 have been proven to be false, and, of course, from the very 
 theory of their principle, we can only really know of them by 
 their effects. It is exclusively from such a point of view that 
 we would presume to speak. Such Societies have existed, and 
 do exist among us, and, as elsewhere, have exerted, and do 
 exert a most extended influence. The distance and division 
 between North and South have been more felt than expressed 
 through such organizations than otherwise therefore, it is 
 with effects that we propose to deal in this narrative, rather 
 than causes, which we must beg leave to have in a great 
 measure inferred ! 
 
 Years ago, before Texas was known as more than a wild 
 province of Mexico, there existed an extensive and powerful 
 association within the limits of our own territory, the opera 
 tions of which were extended to a greater distance than was 
 dreamed of by many of the most able and shrewd men 
 of the day. It is unnecessary to particularize further the 
 motives and methods of such an institution, than to say that 
 it was founded in a grasping, stern, but deep intelligence, 
 and had for its objects what, at that time, would have been 
 considered merely vague and wildly impossible schemes of 
 territorial acquisition, which, having been suggested by the 
 most boldly unprincipled man our country has produced, 
 have been perpetuated by some of its most able, since, to 
 a dazzling consummation. We cannot reveal more than 
 glimpses of the methods pursued, and that rather by implica 
 tion than by explanation. 
 
 It suffices to say, that young men were in some demand by 
 them but that they were young men of peculiar character. 
 Agents, everywhere in the principal cities, such as New 
 York and New Orleans particularly, kept their treacherous 
 eyes secretly upon the movements of such young men as 
 made themselves conspicuous for spirit, and were known to 
 be of good families and education. The more dissolute the 
 
DEATH OF LITTLE RED-HEAD. 157 
 
 better, so they were truly courageous. There was use for 
 such men towards the South, and many such were redeemed 
 from gambling hells or dragged from the stews by a power 
 of which they knew nothing but its munificence and its impe 
 rious dictation. 
 
 Mark Catesby was a man capable of much that was both 
 good and evil, as are all those who are capable of any thing 
 worth mentioning. His family was good ; his father, a 
 wealthy Englishman, had brought over his property to this 
 country, along with his prejudices and habits. He had set 
 tled in New York, as metropolitan, and lived in lordly style. 
 He was munificent as he was haughty, and had one vice 
 which soon told upon a large estate. 
 
 He gambled desperately, and died with the reputation of 
 great wealth, leaving his son to inherit both his vices and his 
 insolvency. 
 
 The son inherited both his vices and his virtues ; but a 
 poor sister was all that was left now to love. He became 
 more reckless than before, after the last blow that took from 
 the two their only surviving relation on the continent, and, 
 in the heat of wine, made a heavy bet that ruined him utterly. 
 His sister was an accomplished artist, and surveyed with 
 comparative calmness the wreck of every thing, and bravely 
 struggled to uphold the brother who was so dear to her. 
 
 He was a reckless young man, haughty to excess, and 
 filled with a blind family pride. When the great misfortune 
 had been fully realized by them both, it was finally deter 
 mined, amidst his despair, through the advice of their old 
 family lawyer, that the young man should commence the 
 practice of a profession he had studied with effect the law. 
 The brave young sister persuaded him too, after a long 
 struggle, to permit her to trust her own support to her 
 pencil. 
 
 Such were the determinations on all sides, when a myste 
 rious intervention came to give a new direction to events. A 
 
158 DEATH OF LITTLE RED-HEAD. 
 
 duel, attended with shocking and fatal results, occurred. It 
 had grown out of the gambling debts of Mark, and of course 
 left the already gloomy condition of things involved in still 
 greater gloom. He was not a party, but the cause ; and as 
 neither party survived, he alone was left to bear the blame. 
 
 To take the most reasonable view of the case, as Mark was 
 the only person left, immediately accessory to the fact, all the 
 public indignation and regrets were visited upon his devoted 
 head. He was denounced in every way, and shamefully perse 
 cuted by the press, until his frank and sagacious friend, the 
 old family lawyer, advised him, by all means, to go from the 
 city, and commence a career somewhere else, under more 
 favourable auspices. Although the good old man was willing 
 to do any thing in his power, or within the limit of his 
 means, to assist the son of his formerly munificent patron, 
 yet the truth was, that his own benevolent habits had so 
 straitened his resources, that he could do little more than 
 advise. 
 
 It was under these circumstances that Mark one day re 
 ceived, to his great astonishment, a letter containing a draft 
 for a considerable sum. The letter bore the city post-mark, 
 and gave no explanation, further than the words : 
 
 " Go to New Orleans ; a good practice awaits you. Be 
 silent, and you shall hear again." 
 
 The sum was sufficient to rescue him from his embarrass 
 ments, and to leave his sister in comfort ; but yet this myste 
 rious donation both shocked his pride and roused his anger. 
 What could it mean ? Who should dare insult a Catesby by 
 the offer of such a gift ? He was not yet so poor as that ! 
 and he threw down the letter in a burst of rage and rushed 
 out of the house. His sister heard his hurried exit, and, 
 entering his room, picked up the letter and draft from the 
 floor. The moment she saw the signature, which was only 
 
DEATH OF LITTLE RED-HEAD. 159 
 
 "Regulus," her face blanched, her eyes shot fire, and she 
 sank upon an ottoman. A shudder ran through her frame, 
 her lids drooped, and for several hours she sat motionless, 
 with her hands clasped before her, while tear after tear 
 coursed each other down her cheeks. 
 
 But now the silent struggle was over. She rose with a 
 deep sigh, as her brother s hurried ring was heard, and, 
 taking up the papers, met him in the parlour. He was much 
 flushed, and deeply excited. She took his hand calmly, and 
 led him to the sofa, still holding the papers in her hand. 
 
 What was the purport of the long and earnest conversation 
 of these two young persons, we are not prepared at present 
 to reveal. The result was, that the draft was cashed the 
 sister established as an artist in neat rooms on Broadway 
 and one week from that time the brother was on his way to 
 
 New Orleans. 
 
 ****** 
 
 It was the early spring of this year, but one of those rare 
 days, when the sun, tired of his icy bondage, bursts upon the 
 earth with a sudden warmth of glory that startles all nature 
 out of her chill repose into a soft dreamy state, half waking 
 and half sleeping. Bird, insect, the open blossom, air, cloud, 
 and water, responded lovingly to the call of their mother, thus 
 awakened, and for her sang in chorus songs of sweetest har 
 mony. 
 
 Filled with the exquisite loveliness of the day, Catesby 
 lingered upon his accustomed evening ride, falling uncon 
 sciously into a sympathy with the hazy dreaminess around 
 him. Lost in the one delightful sense of living, of breathing 
 the fresh luxurious air, he wandered along the river s bank, 
 utterly unheeding the danger by his side. He rode along 
 the crumbling levee, and although a tremendous flood was 
 rising, hurled down from an icy home far back on the moun 
 tains of the west, so much was he absorbed as not to notice 
 that the slight embankment along which he rode was trem 
 
160 DEATH OF LITTLE RED-HEAD. 
 
 bling beneath his horse s feet. Living and being were 
 enough for him ; for Mark had been fortunate lately ! and 
 rode with the consciousness of a man well to do in the world. 
 Business had been urged upon him in such an astonishing 
 way, that he could not but regard New Orleans as a real El 
 Dorado to spirited young lawyers. Although it had usually 
 taken the old-fashioned men of his profession more than half 
 a lifetime to get into a good practice, Mark had found his 
 youthful talent appreciated in so extraordinary a degree, 
 that he had almost come to regard the talent of these " old 
 fogies" of the bar with sovereign contempt. In fact, business 
 had flowed in upon him in a greater than usual proportion, 
 and although he could not help an occasional feeling of dis 
 trust and anxiety, in regarding the strange and unsolicited 
 commissions sent to him from unexpected quarters, yet who 
 is really angry with prosperity, in the worldly sense ? He 
 congratulated himself upon his own merit and legal skill, and 
 was supremely satisfied that a Catesby could not know want. 
 The fact was, that Mark possessed a great deal of cleverness 
 in his profession, and though his success was rather mysterious 
 and extraordinary for so young a man, and one living, too, 
 in a strange and almost foreign city, yet it was deserved, for 
 the sake of his sister, if not entirely and in strict justice for 
 his own. 
 
 It was the year of a tremendous freshet, and the planters, 
 with that sharpened experience which a long series of losses 
 gives, had, for a week past, detected the symptoms of the 
 coming flood, and had been at work with all their force in 
 strengthening the weak places of the levee, in dread of the 
 formidable "crevasse." The timbers, ropes, &c., extending 
 over the furious current, were therefore frequent along the 
 bank ; but Mark was too much absorbed to notice what waa 
 indicated by these signs. His thoughts were in other scenes, 
 and that fair sister that he loved filled all his heart. The 
 young man had never loved with passion. She alone oc- 
 
DEATH OF LITTLE RED-HEAD. 161 
 
 cupied his thoughts as yet, and he had hardly realized that 
 there was a stronger tie on earth. His life had yet been un 
 settled, though not profligate, in this respect; and as he 
 worshipped that dear sister, so he invested other women with 
 a sacred and delicious veneration, becoming to a nature 
 purely chivalrous. 
 
 He looked down into the dark and swollen flood, compar 
 ing its onward course to his own wild life. It was still with 
 him the spring-time. The summer that could calm those 
 mighty waters into a smooth and placid current had not yet 
 overtaken him. 
 
 He had now come in sight of the old and well-known con 
 vent. He looked at the curious and familiar building, ex 
 amining its walls, its windows, its gates, with a sort of dim, 
 prophetic feeling, that somehow with it his own destiny was 
 strangely mingled. 
 
 Suddenly the small gateway opened, and a single female 
 came out from the sacred precincts. His heart throbbed, 
 though he could not have told why ! 
 
 That she was young, he saw by her free, graceful carriage. 
 That she was beautiful, he felt by an admonition stronger 
 than reason. An irrepressible desire to see her, which he 
 probably mistook for natural gallantry, grew within him. 
 He urged his horse onward, and as she was walking in a 
 direction parallel with him, he was soon gratified by the sight 
 of one of the most exquisitely lovely faces that had ever 
 shone upon him this side of dreamland. 
 
 And like a dream it vanished ; for of a sudden the levee, 
 or raised bank, crumbled beneath his horse s feet, and horse 
 and rider were precipitated into the mad waters. 
 
 The current was fearfully swift, and the young man was 
 hurled with stunning violence against some beams that ex 
 tended beyond the levee over the stream, and which had 
 been used in repairing the damages of the freshet. There 
 
 were a number of ropes strewed about. The girl, who turned 
 02 11 
 
162 DEATH OF LITTLE RED-HEAD. 
 
 her head at the splash, rushed immediately to the rescue, and 
 screamed at the same time an alarm to some labourers a 
 short distance below. Without waiting, however, for their 
 arrival, she promptly threw a rope to Mark, who, although 
 considerably stunned, had consciousness enough left to grasp 
 it. His horse, snorting and struggling desperately, was 
 swept past, and went down the torrent. The frail girl leaned 
 her body against a post which had been sunk as a sort of 
 pivot into the levee for the arms of the rest of the machinery 
 to work upon, and giving the rope a turn about it, was 
 enabled to hold on, even with her small hands, until the la 
 bourers came to her aid. 
 
 They drew poor Mark up, more dead than alive ; for the 
 force of the current had bruised him terribly against the 
 very obstacle that saved him. When he recovered conscious 
 ness, he was in a convent, and a fair watcher, with dark 
 lustrous eyes, was bending over him. 
 
 Days passed, and Mark Catesby would have scorned to 
 call himself any thing but strong and well, had he been in 
 the tent were the field before him ; but it was so beautiful 
 to be an invalid with so gentle a nurse to minister to him, 
 his strength would not come ! With ever so cunning skill 
 let his tonics be prepared by the wise men of medicine, still 
 lingered his strength back in the chamber of sickness. 
 
 But this could not last always. He had to get well poor 
 sinner ! at last and about this time old Garcia, the father 
 of this sentimental young lady, made his appearance in New 
 Orleans, and on the same day, at the convent. He had a 
 long interview with his daughter, the result of which was 
 rather a significant one. She was immediately removed 
 from the convent. 
 
 Love has strange instincts ! Mark was not wrong in obey 
 ing the mysterious letter he received about this time, (and, 
 indeed, immediately after the disappearance of this beautiful 
 and tender-seeming hourie, who had haunted his bedside,) 
 
DEATH OF LITTLE RED-HEAD. 163 
 
 which ordered him immediately to the frontier-town of a 
 country then little known, except through vague report. 
 
 All that he knew of his love was, that she was a Spaniard 
 or of Spanish descent. As she was undoubtedly of this 
 race on one side or other, and most probably of an exiled 
 Mexican family, he had a faint hope that he might meet her 
 in the direction indicated by this despotic missive, which he 
 had, by the way, learned to venerate in a singular manner. 
 Commands had come to him by this one formidable signa 
 ture 
 
 "Regulus!" 
 
 He had tried to disobey. He dared not and the reason 
 he could not have told, for his life. He did obey. He sur 
 rendered his practice he gave up every thing. In a word^ 
 he went to Texas I 
 
 Our story is here too sadly we might say, madly true 
 so far as we can remember the incidents as detailed to us by 
 one of the mutilated survivors of this extraordinary affair. 
 
 Our narrator was a member of a distinguished family of 
 the District of Columbia, and had formerly held the rank of 
 lieutenant in the United States navy. An ungovernable lust 
 for wild adventure, fired by the vague and bewildering ro 
 mance which was just beginning to invest all the details we 
 could then obtain of the life upon this dangerous frontier, 
 had induced him to throw up his commission and repair 
 thither, accompanied by a few young adventurers like him 
 self. 
 
 They reached San Antonio de Bahai, through great perils, 
 for at that time nearly the whole route was infested by bands 
 of various Indian tribes, that have since been reduced to 
 complete subjection, or entirely exterminated. 
 
 They found the old Spanish town, of nearly three thousand 
 inhabitants, very coolly domineered over by a little squad of 
 eight or ten Americans, who, as military traders, adven 
 turers, and desperadoes in general, carried things, with a 
 
164 DEATH OF LITTLE KED-HEAD. 
 
 high hand, pretty much in their own way. They ostensibly 
 recognised the city government, as well as that of Mexico ; 
 but as they did not hesitate to shoot or bully any one of the 
 officers of either who might venture to make himself too 
 officious, these valorous gentlemen were very glad to wink at 
 any misdemeanours they could not avoid seeing. Though 
 hated by all classes of the Mexicans with a deadly hatred, 
 these adventurers knew too well their own value to labour 
 under any very serious apprehensions of any outbreak of 
 this feeling, further than an occasional fray in a gambling- 
 hell or pulque-shop. 
 
 They had to look out, to be sure, in passing dark door 
 ways or rounding corners, not to hug either too close, for the 
 assassin s blade is the only one the Mexican wields with 
 effect. But this made little difference with these reckless 
 men, who scorned the apprehension of danger in any form at 
 a Mexican s hand, though they took good care to keep their 
 eyes open, nevertheless. 
 
 The true secret of their power lay far enough beyond the 
 civic limits, for the Mexican inhabitants dreaded more than 
 any thing else on this earth or in purgatory, even the 
 annual descents of the Camanche tribes from their impene 
 trable mountains. These audacious plunderers had never 
 yet received a single salutary check upon this frontier until 
 the appearance of a few North Americans in Bahai ; and 
 though they had received from these some severe lessons, yet 
 they had not yet been entirely sufficient to inspire them with 
 that remarkably wholesome respect for the rifle which they 
 have since exhibited; yet these had nevertheless made them 
 somewhat shy, as the matter between them had finally come 
 to be settled by a sort of tacit arrangement of " You let me 
 alone I let you alone." 
 
 We cannot say that this agreement had at any time been 
 too strictly kept on either side ; but as the bickerings and 
 animosities between the adventurers and the Mexicans had 
 
DEATH OF LITTLE RED-HEAD. 165 
 
 become, day by day, more and more deadly on one side, and 
 ferociously contemptuous on the other, they had at last come 
 to regard the outrages of their natural enemies upon this 
 malignant and treacherous population with a jeering indif 
 ference, and enjoyment, even, that was terribly galling. 
 
 As they now pretty much confined themselves to looking 
 out for their own interests and keeping neutral, the Ca- 
 manches soon took the hint, and did not disturb them or 
 their property, unless on occasion when the temptation 
 thrown in their way proved too strong, and then I suppose 
 they thought the fault lay most at the door of the Americans 
 who, knowing their weakness, should not have subjected 
 them to so severe a trial : though the result usually was, a 
 sound drubbing the first time they could be caught. Yet as 
 no very serious disparity in accounts had arisen in the long 
 run, both parties were willing to be content in not exacting 
 too strict a settlement every time they met. 
 
 Matters had been standing in this position for some time, 
 and the Mexicans were becoming rapidly impressed with the 
 profoundest conviction that they had been unduly thankless 
 for the goods the gods had sent them in the person of the 
 redoubtable borderer, Captain Red, or "Little Red-head," 
 as the Indians had christened him, from the fiery colour of 
 his hair, and his formidable band of riflemen : they were 
 accordingly of late fawningly endeavouring to propitiate 
 them, and make every amends for the past. 
 
 But no ! The sturdy and reckless adventurers treated 
 them with more galling mockery, which they bore with only 
 increased servility. No creature on earth is so pitifully sub 
 servient as the Mexican when the " time of his fear cometh." 
 They well knew this trait, and greatly amused themselves in 
 drawing out these servile and unconscious traits, which, of 
 course, became more and more ludicrous to the Americans at the 
 usual time the spring when the time of the Camanches de 
 scent approached. They heaped indignity after indignity upon 
 
166 DEATH OF LITTLE RED-HEAD. 
 
 them, and though many a furious eye glared from beneath 
 the shadow of a slouched sombrero upon them as they passed, 
 the hand that clutched the assassin s knife dared not strike a 
 blow they feared them they hated them but they needed 
 them ! 
 
 The disasters of the last two years had cowed them ; but 
 well the Americans knew that, once released from their in 
 cumbent fear, these treacherous slaves would turn upon them 
 with redoubled vindictiveness, and therefore scorned their 
 fawning, as well as their malignity. 
 
 Matters were in about the above position when our in 
 formant, with his three comrades, arrived. They were wel 
 comed with that reckless and bantering good-fellowship, which 
 is usually so remarkable towards countrymen, among men 
 placed habitually in circumstances of great danger. 
 
 They were forthwith taken in hand, and with a boisterous 
 civility, shown round all the lions of the place monte tables 
 pulque-shops cock-pits the great cathedral not forget 
 ting, you may rest assured, the dark-eyed and voluptuous 
 Senoritas. 
 
 These preliminaries over, the parties proceeded to business, 
 though in a manner precisely as informal as every thing 
 else. 
 
 Somebody proposed, that as they were now strong enough 
 to whip all Mexico, with the Camanche nation thrown in, 
 "we do hereby organize for the above purpose !" 
 
 As this was received with tremendous applause, and as 
 nobody was of course thought of as leader but Captain Red, 
 the next question was, "What shall our name be?" Several 
 rather romantic names having been proposed by the younger 
 members, and which did not prove entirely satisfactory to the 
 rest of the company, at last the captain arose. He was a 
 man below the average height, with a head most resembling 
 that of a Scotch terrier, with its wiry, bristling hair on fire, 
 ttxcept that the bushy, freckled face, and round, quick eyes> 
 
DEATH OF LITTLE RED-HEAD. 167 
 
 were dignified by a broad, yet low forehead, of almost snowy 
 whiteness, while the stiff, heavy eyebrows fairly blazed in 
 contrast along its rim. 
 
 This singularly-looking person merely remarked in a sharp, 
 quick voice 
 
 " Boys ! it s no use with that nonsense ! We re going 
 to take care of a pretty big range around here, and why 
 shouldn t we call ourselves Rangers ?" 
 
 " Good !" " Good !" " That s the figure !" " That s the 
 name for us !" " Hurrah ! Three cheers for Captain Red !" 
 "Now three for the Texas Rangers!" was uproariously 
 shouted from as many different voices, and the matter was 
 settled. 
 
 This celebrated order, thus originating upon this frontier, 
 lost precious little time in discussing the "articles of war," 
 either on that occasion, or on many a one since, in which 
 they have made themselves felt withal, and that "with a 
 vengeance !" 
 
 They now set themselves to work in serious earnest, each 
 man equipping himself at his own expense, to regulate the 
 affairs of the Border. The country, when not scoured by 
 savage tribes, was suffering terribly from the maraudings of 
 cut-throat bands of robbers from the valley of the Rio Grande. 
 These wretches, ferocious as they were cowardly, committed 
 the most horrible outrages upon the feeble and almost de 
 fenceless rancheros on the northern side of the Rio Grande, 
 and along the river San Antonio, the Coleto, the Gauda- 
 loupe, and upon the white settlements even of the Colorado, 
 and along the Brazos to the neighbourhood of where Houston 
 now stands, on the north, and down the whole length of the 
 Nueces on the south. Whenever this daring little band 
 could hear of such depredations in reasonable time for pur 
 suit of the perpetrators, the cry was instantly " to horse !" 
 and away, on their swift and hardy steeds, in the true spirit 
 of the ancient chivalry, they rushed " to the rescue !" It 
 
168 DEATH OF LITTLE RED-HEAD. 
 
 mattered not to them who were the parties ranchero or 
 white man, so they did not belong to San Antonio they 
 perilled life and limb to avenge their wrongs, and many a 
 wild deed of fierce and summary retribution did they wreak 
 upon those dastardly plunderers, under the valiant lead of 
 the stern and chivalric "Red," whose name grew still more 
 a word of terror to robber or Camanche. 
 
 "Los INDIOS! Los Indios! Garracho! Los Indios !" 
 The dreaded cry of alarm, mingled with screams and wails 
 and yells of terror, suddenly arose in the quiet, sunny square 
 of San Antonio de Bahai, one fine morning in the early 
 spring. In a moment, above all these sounds, rang out in 
 hoarse, unearthly screeches, the wooh ! woo ! woo ! woo ! 
 wooh ! of the Camanche war-whoop while, driven pell-mell 
 before the long, lithe lances of the marauders men, women, 
 and children, mingled with cattle, horses, mules, pigs, and 
 poultry, were tumbled headlong over each other through the 
 narrow streets into the wide square. 
 
 A party of Americans, on a carouse in a long, low stone 
 house that fronted the square on the northern side, arose 
 quite deliberately from the table, and, with glasses in hand, 
 stepped, with no very steady gait, to the doors and windows, 
 to see the "sport," as they facetiously called it for they 
 understood the meaning of such sounds well enough. 
 
 Sport for devils it was, with a vengeance ! The frightened 
 Mexicans, bewildered by the suddenness of the thing for 
 this descent was unexpectedly early and by their terrors 
 together, were running confusedly here and there about the 
 square while the dark, fantastically bedizened warriors were 
 plunging to and fro upon their swift and active horses, 
 trampling the panic-stricken mass, driving their bloody 
 lances through the nearest victims, of whatever sex, age, or 
 
DEATH OF LITTLE RED-HEAD. 16? 
 
 condition, and howling like starved wild beasts with their 
 white-fanged jaws amidst a helpless prey. 
 
 The scene was sufficiently horrifying to have appalled the 
 most ferocious spirit of ruffianism ; but our jollificating 
 
 Americans, 
 
 "Albeit not used to the melting mood," 
 
 seemed rather to enjoy it most decidedly. 
 
 Some poor wretches rushed towards the door where these 
 drunken madmen stood ; one or two pushed them back with 
 their feet, "No, no! you infernal Greasers! you can t get 
 in here ! you ve got to take it as it comes !" But, to the 
 credit of human nature, Captain Red rushed forward, pushed 
 these brutes aside, and said " ISTo ! hold ! shame, boys ! let 
 them in." 
 
 He was obeyed, but with evident reluctance by some. 
 This humane act first attracted the attention of the Caman- 
 ches to them, for they had been too busy to observe their 
 presence before. The warriors in pursuit of the fugitives 
 galloped almost up to the door, when, recognising at a glance 
 the dreaded form of Little Red-head, they set up a yell of 
 surprise, and drew back. 
 
 In a moment the news spread, and the shouts of the chiefs 
 soon drew together the scattered warriors. Collected on the 
 opposite side of the square, the Rangers saw, to their no 
 little surprise, what they had not suspected during the confu 
 sion, that this was one of the most formidable body of Indians 
 any one of them had ever seen together. What the precise 
 number might be, no one could do more than make conjec 
 tures, and such passed hurriedly through the room, rating 
 them at from three to five, six, and eight hundred. 
 
 To say that these men were any more than surprised, would 
 be absurd, as the sequel will show. They were in a moment 
 or two more boisterous in their hilarity than before, and 
 crowded about the door, drinking, and laughing at the forlorn 
 appearance of the killed and wounded Mexicans strewed 
 
170 DEATH OP LITTLE RED-HEAD. 
 
 about the square, and occasionally shouting some half- 
 drunken jibe across the square at the Camanches. 
 
 In the mean time, the clatter of hoofs the neighing and 
 bellowing of their frightened owners had died away through 
 the different streets into which they had made their escape ; 
 the crowded fugitives, with their cries of pain, had disap 
 peared together into the houses around and nearest to the 
 square, and only the laughter and shouts of the Americans 
 rose occasionally above the momentary lull, of which the 
 groans from the wounded made a sort of silence. 
 
 The Camanches gathered together in a close squad, and 
 seemed to be holding a council of war for a few moments, 
 by gestures, and in such low terms that nothing could be 
 heard from them ; when suddenly, like a flock of swallows 
 diving from an old tree-top, they broke up, scattering in all 
 directions, to come together again in the middle of the square 
 as suddenly hooting, yelling, and shaking their lances in 
 the faces, almost, of the Rangers, as they darted past the 
 door of their quarters. 
 
 As this was merely bravado, they took no further notice 
 of it than to jeer at them in the most insulting manner : not 
 condescending, even, to step back into the room to fetch 
 their rifles. 
 
 But when this insolent challenge to a fight had been re 
 peated several times, and at each with some more insulting 
 demonstration, the majority of the party began to become 
 incensed. They grasped their rifles, and were rushing to 
 the door and windows to resent these indignities, when Cap 
 tain Red again restrained them. This impunity only increased 
 the insolence of the savages, whose object was clearly to 
 provoke a sally on the part of the fiery Americans ; but, if 
 some of the men were not, their captain was, cool enough to 
 understand this very well, and to prevent it, especially as he 
 could clearly perceive their exultation at the thought of hav 
 ing him at such overwhelming advantage. 
 
DEATH OF LITTLE RED-HEAD. 171 
 
 Such an infernal babel of whooping, screeches, howls, and 
 yells, as now filled that square, was probably never heard 
 before from the same number of human throats. They dared 
 not or rather it is against one of the fixed usages of their 
 warfare to charge upon a building or enclosure of any kind, 
 and therefore, when they found they were not coming forth, 
 they changed their tactics essentially, for this seemed too 
 good a chance to entrap their hated foe. 
 
 The main body drew back to the other side of the square, 
 and dismounting, laid their bows and lances down at their 
 feet, and then stood with folded arms at the heads of their 
 horses, to signify that they would be contemptuous lookers 
 on, while a party of only twenty picked warriors rode for 
 ward at a gallop, and when immediately in front of the door, 
 a fellow among them, who spoke a little Spanish, dared them 
 to come forth and meet them in equal combat, calling them 
 cowards, women, dogs, and every possible obscene epithet, 
 and pointing back to the large body of warriors behind, told 
 them that brave men scorned to fight such white-faced cowards 
 at disadvantage of numbers, and that these would not move 
 from where they were if that great coward chief, Little Red 
 head, dared to come out and prove that he was not a feeble 
 woman, &c. &c. 
 
 The Rangers, who had now recovered their good-humour, 
 only greeted this ludicrous farce with loud shouts of laughter, 
 and twirled their fingers at them ludicrously. 
 
 The savages, rendered furious at this failure of their as 
 they supposed profound stratagem, wheeled their horses 
 suddenly, and slapped their breech-clouts at them as they 
 galloped off. At this, the last indignity an Indian can offer 
 to a foe, and which no frontiersman can or will endure, by 
 one simultaneous movement the Rangers sprang to their 
 rifles, and let drive a terrible volley among them, which 
 tumbled nearly a dozen of the rash vaunters from their 
 saddles. 
 
172 DEATH OF LITTLE RED-HEAD. 
 
 This unexpected retaliation very suddenly awaked the 
 Camanches up from the delusion of impunity, and brought 
 back rather emphatically to their memories the kind of per 
 sons they were dealing with for this kind of conclusion 
 had been no part of their calculations. Their object had 
 been to taunt the Rangers forth to meet them on their own, 
 that is, open ground, where they would have all the advan 
 tage of numbers and of their peculiar modes of warfare. 
 They had thought that a brave so noted for fierce courage 
 as was the Little Red-head, would not stop to consider num 
 bers, when grossly insulted after the manner in which we 
 have seen, and, when invited to come out for an equal fight, 
 but would rush forth with all his men to meet the challenge ; 
 when they would have him in their power, as it would only 
 take an instant to regain their arms, leap into their saddles, 
 and be upon him before he could possibly regain shelter. 
 Now, when they saw some of their most noted braves tum 
 bling from their horses as the fruits of their foolish mistake, 
 their rage knew no bounds but that of usage, which pre 
 vented them from storming a fortress of any kind, and they 
 rushed forward with the horrid cries of infuriated demons ; 
 and, in face of another galling fire from the house, they bore 
 off the bodies of the slain, by this time considerably increased 
 in number, and shaking their lances behind them with dia 
 bolical gestures of menace, they passed clattering through 
 the town towards the open plains on the west, while the 
 taunting laugh of the Rangers was shouted in their ears. 
 
 They continued for an hour or so to gallop to and fro in 
 swift troops, like flocks of plovers, over the plain, making insult 
 ing gestures and uttering cries of defiance in renewed invita 
 tion to the Rangers to come forth. Some of the parties, again 
 emboldened by their quiet, re-entered the town, and com 
 mitted some most infernal outrages upon the poor Mexicans, 
 which were every now and then reported to the Rangers by 
 some breathless messenger even carrying off a number of 
 
DEATH OF LITTLE RED-HEAD. 173 
 
 handsome Mexican girls. These cool gentry heard all this 
 with the greatest unconcern, and continued their carouse amid 
 shouts of laughter at the expense of the poor Camanches. 
 
 Suddenly the Little Red-head, whose blood was now up, 
 as he had tasted battle, sprang to his feet as the shrieks of 
 some poor Mexican women, who were being dragged into 
 hateful and hideous captivity, were wafted to his ears 
 
 " Boys, I can t stand this ! Let s drive these scoundrels 
 back to their own mountains." 
 
 The words were scarcely spoken, when every man jumped 
 to his feet as by one electric impulse, and sprang for his rifle 
 amid cries of approval. 
 
 " We can whip the whole !" 
 
 " That s you, captain ! We re your boys ! We ll fan em 
 out, the filthy thieves, if they are a thousand." 
 
 " Hurrah for our captain ! He s some in a brier-patch !" 
 
 " We ll teach these dirty copper-heads to come into Bahai 
 while Rangers own it ! Whoop ! whoop ! hurrah, boys ! One 
 more glass, before we part to get our horses !" said Captain 
 Red, as he filled his to the brim. The rest followed suit, and 
 in another moment, amid the sounds of social uproar, these 
 men separated to get their horses for a ride on one of the 
 maddest dare-devil chases ever ridden by men before. 
 
 It took them but a little while to mount, for a Ranger s 
 horse is always ready at a moment s warning, as well as his 
 arms; and with one wild whoop, which made the terrified 
 Mexicans tremble and slink closer in their corners, they 
 dashed out of town at full speed, in the pursuit. 
 
 When they emerged from the streets of the town and its 
 thin, straggling suburb of dobey huts, they came abruptly 
 upon the broad plain of the prairie, which, after a short dis 
 tance, became gradually dotted, at wide intervals, with small 
 islands of timber, called "motts." They saw, to their no 
 small surprise, only a single predatory party, such as wo 
 
 have spoken of: and this seemed to have just issued from the 
 P2 
 
174 DEATH OF LITTLE RED-HEAD. 
 
 town, and to be encumbered with plunder and prisoners. 
 The hurried supposition was, that the other parties who had 
 BO lately been in sight, must have crossed the San Antonio 
 River above, and be entering the town on the other side. 
 
 Be that as it may, had it been one party or the whole 
 body of the enemy, it would have been all the same to the 
 Rangers ; so they dashed at the one in view, and, come what 
 might, they meant to overhaul it at any rate. 
 
 The race soon became exciting, since, as the flying 
 party were encumbered heavily, the Americans gained ra 
 pidly upon them, and were beginning to yell, in anticipated 
 triumph, when they reached the larger motts, which are 
 several miles out from the town. Here the fugitives were 
 suddenly joined by another party, which glided out from be 
 hind one of them, and seemed to take a portion of the em 
 barrassing burdens upon themselves by which movement the 
 pace of the first was wonderfully accelerated. 
 
 The sight of this accession only increased the enthusiasm 
 of the Americans, who urged the race with yet greater 
 eagerness ; for the Indians were just about three to one now, 
 and that would afford them some sport. The distance be 
 tween the two parties was at once considerably increased, 
 for these Indians have a wonderful faculty of getting work 
 out of their tough mountain horses so much so, indeed, 
 that they usually escape from American horsemen, even when 
 the latter are better mounted. 
 
 When the chase had continued for several miles, the Ca- 
 manches either really were, or appeared to be, losing ground. 
 Their horses flagged in speed considerably, and when this 
 was noticed, Little Red-head bent forward in his saddle, and, 
 yelling like a madman, lashed his horse until the blood flew 
 at each whacking blow, and shouting hoarsely, " They re 
 ours ! Come on !" darted ahead. His party, as much ex 
 cited as himself, responded until the welkin fairly rang again 
 with their fierce cries. 
 
DEATH OF LITTLE RED-HEAD. 175 
 
 On ! on ! sweeps the clattering race, hurled headlong 
 over the shaking plain now beginning to change its cha 
 racter which, heretofore, had been only diversified by 
 "motts" of timber, scattered promiscuously over the surface; 
 but now they were approaching a long line of thick timber, 
 fenced along its edges by a low chaparral of dense and thorny 
 growth, which was utterly impenetrable to horses, and which 
 the naked Camanches would rather die than attempt to ride 
 through, if it had been possible for horses. 
 
 This the Rangers well knew, and they had almost held 
 their breaths as they watched bending over their horses 
 heads, with parted lips and straining eyes, to see whether the 
 Indians would head in that direction, where they were as 
 securely cornered as if they had run against a stone wall. 
 The moment it became certain that this was the direction 
 they were taking, there was a universal burst of jeering 
 laughter, rendered savagely hysterical by the excited passions 
 of these wild men. 
 
 "Ha ! ha ! We ve got you now !" was almost hissed, in a 
 smothered voice, from between the set teeth of Little Red 
 head, as they closed rapidly upon the flying savages, who, 
 exhibiting every sign of terror, began to look back, and drop 
 articles of plunder. 
 
 " Ha ! peeling disgorging are you ? I ll ease your 
 stomachs for you !" muttered the leader, as he looked to 
 his rifle, which lay across the saddle before him. 
 
 "Let out another link, boys !" 
 
 He shouted in a deep tone, as they neared the wood, and 
 were now within rifle-shot. The eager men were beginning 
 to handle their rifles. 
 
 " Hold on ! Keep your horses to the work ! Time enough 
 when we re among them ! They can t escape !" was the 
 prompt command. 
 
 At this moment the Indians reached the timber, and, one 
 after another, their dark forms disappeared within its seem- 
 
176 DEATH OF LITTLE BED-HEAD. 
 
 ingly impenetrable bosom like a great black serpent, gliding 
 into its shadowy den. To describe the yell of infuriated as 
 tonishment the blank, pale look of surprise, which the 
 Rangers exchanged during one brief instant of uncertainty, 
 would be impossible. But the stern leader shouted quickly 
 " On, boys ! if they re going below, we ll follow them !" 
 The men cheered, and they swept after them into the 
 wood. One short minute beneath the shadows a little time 
 of darkened, breathless speed, and they burst into the sun 
 light of a prairie beyond. Their eyes were dazzled ! Their 
 senses stunned ! It was but for an instant. The harsh and 
 stunning howl that greeted them into this dazzling light, 
 they had heard before those dusky, hideous forms, rush 
 upon them from eveVy side but they had seen their long 
 lances and feathered crowns shake and toss in fight before 
 and though they came like a torrent closing round them, 
 these brave men were not unnerved ! 
 
 The ring of their rifles rose in deadly lullaby over the 
 triumphing howls of successful strategy recoiling the over 
 whelming waves in silence for a moment, while the smoke 
 arose but then the recoil was stayed by the tremendous 
 rush from the circles without for they were in the very 
 middle of a camp or rather ambush of over three hundred 
 Camanches, and only those nearest could reach them, of 
 course ; but then this rush drove on those before, upon them, 
 trampling the bodies of their own slain that had fallen by 
 the first fire, and in spite of the terrible execution done by 
 the pistols of the Rangers, the roaring tide hurled these 
 inward circles on. The Camanches were wild with ferocious 
 exultation for here they had, at last, entrapped their for 
 midable and most audacious foe, the Little Red-head, whose 
 fiery scalp was worth the feathered coronet of a chief to any 
 one qf them. Terribly these barbaric billows swayed and 
 rolled before the murderous fire of fifteen hemmed and des- 
 Derate men. 
 
DEATH OF LITTLE RED-HEAD. 177 
 
 Pistols soon became useless. Recoil after recoil of the 
 Indians had been driven in, yet the relentless thirst for 
 vengeance and that fiery scalp grew more and more unap 
 peasable ; and though lance grated against lance in the 
 bodies of Ranger after Ranger, and arrows flew like hail, 
 still this strange and furious fight went on. The Rangers 
 had drawn their heavy bowie-knives, and were laying about 
 them with desperate strength, clipping off the lance-heads 
 like carrot-tops, as they were frequently crossed above them 
 in the tumultuous struggle. 
 
 It was a volcanic chaos of fringed buckskins breech- 
 clouts streaming feathers rifles lances pistols arrows 
 horses oaths knives death-groans screams yells and 
 whoops, boiling and tumbling wild beneath the smiling sun 
 of God s own blessed, gentle spring. 
 
 Ah, it was horrible enough ! 
 
 It would seem as if this presumptuous squad should have 
 been borne down at once, and utterly exterminated by this 
 tremendous pressure ; but it should be kept in view, that the 
 Camanches had at that time little knowledge of firearms 
 beyond the effects from which they had suffered, or been 
 witnesses of, and therefore greatly amplified them, and indeed 
 held them in a sort of superstitious awe. 
 
 Be this as it may, perhaps the world never witnessed on 
 a small scale, to be sure a more remarkable instance of an 
 agile, fierce, relentless struggle, than this between these few 
 men and the comparative host by whom they were surrounded. 
 Think of it ! fifteen to over three hundred ! taken by sur 
 prise, too ! 
 
 There was one young man in this doomed party, who had 
 acted wildly since they set off on this fatal chase. He it 
 was who had whispered hurriedly in the ear of Little Red 
 head something that, in addition to the shrieks of women 
 they were carrying off, caused his sudden and unexpected 
 
 proposition to follow the Camanches. He had been one of 
 
 12 
 
178 DEATH OP LITTLE RED-HEAD. 
 
 those who came out in the party with the lieutenant whom I 
 have mentioned as my informant. His real name had not 
 been given. He had been the most eager and rash of the 
 Rangers, and had fought with almost superhuman fierceness. 
 Since the moment of their falling into this ambush, his ob 
 ject had seemed to be to cut his way through the over 
 whelming mass in the direction of a group of warriors at a 
 little distance, that took no part in what was going on, but 
 were evidently in charge of the prisoners. He had even 
 taken the lead of his captain, and by his frantic efforts had 
 succeeded in carving a bloody lane through the Indians to 
 this point. They had evidently been impressed with a sort 
 of panic by his incredible fury, and gave way before a despe 
 ration which seemed to bear a charmed life. Now was the 
 time to escape, if ever ! 
 
 But his eager eye had sought for one form among the 
 prisoners. There were but three. The glance was quick as 
 lightning, but seemed to be sufficient. 
 
 " Oh, God ! she is not there !" 
 
 He rather shrieked these words than spoke them, turned 
 ashy pale, and without a word more, or a single groan, 
 pitched forward over the head of his horse, among the 
 trampling hoofs. Little Red-head was at his side when he 
 thus fell, without a wound ; for, strangely enough, he had as 
 yet entirely escaped. With a strange, sorrowful cry, he 
 reigned in his horse, and the last that was seen of Little 
 Red-head, twenty lances were meeting through his unresist 
 ing body ; and as the two young men who escaped burst free 
 upon the open ground again, and made off, bleeding with 
 many wounds, the demoniac yells of triumph from the Ca- 
 manches echoed horribly in their ears. There was little 
 attempt made to overtake them, and they got in safe the 
 lieutenant with the loss of the finger and thumb of one hand, 
 together with half a dozen body-wounds, and his friend reel- 
 ng in the saddle from the loss of blood from as many more. 
 
DEATH OF LITTLE RED-HEAD. 179 
 
 Thus ended this horrible and strange affair, which, perhaps, 
 has hardly a parallel in any annals. But not the least sin 
 gular part of it was revealed afterwards. 
 
 From papers discovered among the effects of Little Red 
 head, it appeared that this young man was Mark Catesby, 
 and that Red was his natural brother an illegitimate son 
 of old Catesby ! 
 
 A paper of instructions with regard to Mark was found, 
 too, containing the mysterious signature "Regulus," and 
 which was worded in the imperious language of entire despot 
 ism. What became of the young girl Juliet Garcia, we may 
 yet hear. That she was snatched up on the street, and 
 carried off by the Camanches, is all we can say at present. 
 
GABEIELLE: 
 
 THE WHITE MARE OF CHIHUAHUA. 
 
GABRIELLE : 
 
 THE WHITE MARE OF CHIHUAHUA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE remarkable valley of Encinnillas, which extends for a 
 long distance north of the city of Chihuahua, on the route to 
 Paso del Norte, is noted for its three great haciendas, and 
 for the contrasts in colours maintained in its immense herds 
 of more than half-wild cattle. The greatest of them, the 
 Hacienda Encinnillas, at the head of the valley, contained 
 many thousand head of a dark-brown, shaggy breed, re 
 sembling the buffalo somewhat in appearance, and still more 
 in fierceness. The next, Hacienda Sauz, contained a less 
 but still very great number of a heavier-built variety, the 
 coats of which were, with the occasional exception of a few 
 small mottles, as white as the bull Europa rode ; while the 
 third, Hacienda Torrean, was covered with herds of a tall, 
 slim, active animal, possessed of enormous horns, and a 
 colour varying little from uniform jet-black, with sometimes 
 a few white marks. To a stranger moving down this pic 
 turesque valley, these marked and consistent contrasts would 
 seem very curious ; but by a provincial, they would only be 
 regarded with connoisseuring interest. 
 
 The prevalence of this sort of fancies among the privileged 
 
 and hereditary owners of these great estates, and the singu- 
 
 183 
 
184 GABRIELLE : 
 
 lar extent to which emulation would carry them in preserving 
 the integrity of their favourite colours throughout the whole 
 of their uncounted herds, were matters not only of severe 
 criticism, but of sympathetic interest, among all grades of 
 their countrymen. 
 
 Some years since, an old and proud Spaniard of the hi 
 dalgo blood, called Don Carlos Gonzaleze, was governor of 
 the province of Chihuahua, in Northern Mexico. 
 
 This venerable soldier owned the great Hacienda Encin- 
 nillas, situated as above described, between ninety and a 
 hundred miles north of the city of Chihuahua, on a small 
 tributary of the Rio Conchas. His mansion, which was 
 about in the middle of the estate, was a very extraordinary 
 looking building in some respects, though in others it was 
 only peculiar to the country, or rather to Mexico, both north 
 and south. As you approach along the winding bank of the 
 small, clear stream which descends to meet you, swift, 
 bright, and cold, from out the dark fastnesses of the huge 
 sierra, looming vaguely in the immeasurable distance toward 
 the west, you obtain the first glimpse of it, and that while 
 entering from a wide, undulating prairie, sodded with crisp- 
 curling grama grass, and covered with herds of cattle and 
 mottled horses, beneath the low shadows of a great forest 
 of live-oak trees. These oaks, although scattered over 
 the surface something in the proportion of a dozen to an 
 acre, shroud the pale sward beneath by the prodigious 
 stretchings of their low, long arms, hung from the nearest to 
 the outermost twigs with the drooping and pensile drapery 
 of a gray and shining moss, in a sort of swinging, slow and 
 nearly funereal gloom ; but the moss seems almost too much 
 alive, as it waves with a mild shine in the breeze, and, with 
 the hardy glisten of the evergreen live-oak leaves, makes a 
 sort of reflex twilight on the dainty sward. 
 
 The walls of the hacienda glitter strangely beneath the 
 sun in the distance, and visions of the miraculous creations 
 
THE WHITE MARE OF CHIHUAHUA. 185 
 
 of Aladdin s lamp are suggested ; but as you approach, the 
 illusion is dispelled, for you perceive them to be built of a 
 light-gray pudding-stone, of volcanic origin, peculiar to this 
 province, and which holds in it a large proportion of shining 
 quartz. It is a beautiful and singular stone for building, 
 and is susceptible of the highest polish, which in this in 
 stance it had received. 
 
 The singular appearance of this building is not a little 
 heightened by the great size and number of its windows, of 
 diminutive laminae of mica, which on three sides, as you ap 
 proach, reach from near the eaves of the single story to 
 within two feet of the ground, and are separated by intervals 
 of less than three feet. This gives to this portion of the 
 mansion a shiny, glistering appearance, which is grimly 
 enough contrasted with the long continuation of solid ma 
 sonry beyond, which grins with small port-holes only, and 
 looks massive enough to defy a strong cannonade. You are 
 thus forcibly reminded that though this be a sunny land of 
 the orange and the vine, it is also one of blood. 
 
 Indeed, the fortress-like appearance of the rear of the 
 house is amply enough compensated by the gay and light 
 some air of the front; for all the great windows of this 
 quaint conservatory are clustered about with sweet-scented 
 shrubs bearing delicate blooms, and filled with the mag 
 nificent flowers of the tropics, or festooned across the in 
 tervals with the polished leaves and gorgeous trumpets of 
 evergreen creepers, and wild vines of the native grape, with 
 their dark-purple clusters. 
 
 As might be expected in such a scene, the sweet voice of a 
 woman is heard. It is a low, mellow warble, swelling fitfully 
 upon the perfume-burdened air, with drowsy pauses, as if 
 some sleeping song-bird twittered in a dream. Through one 
 of those low great windows, and between the clustering 
 flowers and vines, a young Spanish cavalier was peering cau 
 tiously, as if to obtain a sight of the warbler, himself unseen. 
 Q2 
 
186 
 
 GABRIELLE I 
 
 He was very young, and a very handsome fellow, too. His 
 long, black, wavy hair fell down his shoulders, over the rich 
 colours of his splendid scrape. His trousers of buckskin, 
 beautifully dressed to resemble black velvet, with two rows 
 of silver buttons and links down the side, showed, through 
 the wide slash, the delicate pink silk of the drawers beneath, 
 while a long, black plume fell back over the wide brim of 
 his gay and bead-wrought sombrero. His slight, downy 
 moustache shaded a delicate but sensuous lip ; his nose had 
 the proud vault of the Roman, and his large black eyes 
 literally glittered with eager delight, as he gazed into that 
 great airy room. And of a truth, the object he saw there 
 was such as to justify him fully in his curious eagerness, for 
 in clear view, the delicate, voluptuous, and superlatively 
 lovely form of the beauty of the whole province, the daughter 
 of the old governor, reclined upon a sofa in all the graceful 
 abandon of unconsciousness, singing herself drowsily into 
 the siesta in which all Spanish maidens are proverbial for 
 indulging. 
 
 It was a glorious picture the young man stood bending 
 forward in breathless rapture to enjoy. She was " beautiful 
 exceedingly," that dark-eyed senorita, with her long, black 
 lashes, that fell like feathery clouds over the pale-tinted olive 
 of her glowing cheeks. The very lids seemed burdened with 
 their dark, shining weight, as they struggled heavily to rise, 
 in sleepy cadence with the sultry monody she sang. But 
 those dim peepers flew open widely enough, like a burst of 
 starlight through the darkness, when, with a sudden move 
 ment, the young man sprang through the window, which he 
 had thrown up, into her room ; and, with a low cry, half of 
 fright and half of joyful surprise, she leaped into his arms, 
 and there suddenly rang upon the air that crisp, mysterious 
 sound with which young lovers are familiar. Without regard 
 ing the poor guitar which had been leaning against her lap, 
 and now fell with a crash upon the floor, the young lovers 
 
THE WHITE MARE OF CHIHUAHUA. 187 
 
 clung to each other as if this were to be the last moment of 
 their earthly meeting. 
 
 Indeed, it was a shocking pity to serve the frail guitar so, 
 for, like every other article in the great room, it was singu 
 larly slight and delicate, and seemed as if it might have made 
 the music for Titania s court; while the harp which stood 
 near looked an aeolian thing, just fitted for the fingers of 
 young Zephyrus. 
 
 It was a fair and pleasant vision, that of the meeting of 
 these young and tender lovers, both so beautiful and fresh, 
 both so fond and so trusting, the halcyon life just dawning 
 upon them. Surely, it would never know the shadow of 
 change ! From the intimate endearments and familiarity of 
 bearing and language toward each other, it was apparent 
 that this was no sudden love-affair, but that they had known 
 each other long, even for life. In fact, the pair were neigh 
 bours, and had seldom, since early childhood, been separated 
 long at a time. They had been unconsciously betrothed since 
 childhood by their parents, who had witnessed, with many a 
 secret chuckle of no small delight, the progress of their fa 
 vourite scheme. They had been too judicious to disclose the 
 intended purpose to either party until within a very short 
 time, when the intended pair had come to them with fear and 
 trembling, to obtain that sanction to their love and proposed 
 marriage which the old governor and his chief friend and 
 supporter, his near neighbour, the old General Jose Espar- 
 tero, were so well prepared to grant in advance. 
 
 There had been a small pretence of stern questioning, par 
 ticularly on the part of the veteran general, the most anxious 
 of the two, and then, of course, a delighted assent had been 
 given ; for, as the estates of the old governor were far more 
 extensive and valuable than his own, he was something the 
 gainer by the bargain, though the convenient contiguity of 
 the Hacienda Sauz reconciled that person fully to the dis 
 
188 GABRIELLE: 
 
 parity, especially since the general was his most powerful 
 political supporter. 
 
 The young people had been thrown much, indeed, and 
 almost incessantly together. They had shared the same 
 amusements and studies, had travelled together to the city 
 of Chihuahua in the same coach of state, had danced together 
 at the fandangos of the governor s court, had gossipped 
 together, and though we do not pretend to say exactly that 
 they took their siestas together, yet we do assert that they 
 took them at the same time, and in much the same fashion ; 
 and, however shocking it may appear to American readers, 
 we further assert that they took their afternoon baths toge 
 ther, without fail, when the last cigaretta of the siesta had 
 burned up to their lips. 
 
 Thus it will be perceived they had at least been moderately 
 intimate for a long time ; and, as they were altogether the 
 handsomest and richest couple in the whole province, what 
 could be more natural than that they should have gradually 
 become inseparable ; and, although they might have had 
 with the fortune of all other lovers, for whom " the course of 
 true love never did run smooth" an occasional bickering or 
 small lovers quarrel, yet, on the whole, imagined that it was 
 mutually impossible to live without each other. They had 
 latterly, indeed, become so thoroughly convinced of this self- 
 evident truth, that the fear of death had become alarmingly 
 present with them, and the determination to dodge for the 
 present this "inevitable end" so remarkably warm, that they 
 were beseeching the old dons to set fire with the torch of 
 hymen to the whole quiverful of the arrows of that venerable 
 archer, death. The old dons were nothing loath in special, 
 but for the present, as they saw there was no need for 
 hurry, were amusing themselves by torturing the ardour of 
 their mutual heirs, in putting off the hour of bliss by pre 
 tended serious excuses about age, settlements, &c. &c. 
 
 This, by the way, a dangerous sport in any climate, is 
 
THE WHITE MARE OF CHIHUAHUA. 189 
 
 especially so in a country so near the sun as Mexico ; and if 
 much further protracted, what the result of these long, cling 
 ing caresses we have witnessed already might have been, 
 "we can better conjecture than describe !" And, indeed, they 
 are not usually very particular in inquiring about these things, 
 either of the future or of the past, in any part of Mexico ; 
 and we do not see why we should trouble ourselves to do so 
 here, especially as our future must show for itself. 
 
 We would convey no shadow of imputation against the pru 
 dence of the fair Senorita Gabrielle, any more than against 
 the unsullied purity of that modest Adonis of handsome young 
 cavaliers, Don Juan Espartero ; but we do mean to convey 
 to fond and mischievous old "governors" in general, a protest 
 and injunction against the perils of such dangerous sport, 
 especially, as we remarked, in warm climates, where the 
 " young people" are surrounded by blazing flowers, that pant 
 "with their love-laden" fiery breaths upon the sultry air, as 
 we have seen this handsome couple. 
 
 However, as providentially nothing more came of it in this in 
 stance than quite a serious expenditure of warm and still more 
 fragrant breaths than those of the amorous flowers, breathed 
 in certain mysterious explosives, at which we have hinted, 
 and quite as large a proportion in quick yearning sighs, we 
 may safely venture to relate what did follow, namely, ciga- 
 rettos ! the bath ! &c. &c. ; but one thing at a time. 
 
 The first greetings over, (we don t say how long this took,) 
 off came the gay sombrero of the young don, and from it came 
 forth the most delicately-fibred leaves of the husk envelope of 
 the ear of the Indian corn ; then his keen, jewel-hilted stil- 
 letto flashed in his jewelled-hand, as with a quick and graceful 
 movement he cuts the leaf transversely ; and then opening his 
 gold tobacco-box, filled with the dark, fat tobacco of the 
 northern barbarians, which had been chopped up quite fine, 
 he proceeds to strew a smart pinch of this along the shuck- 
 leaf he has cut ; and then, by an inconceivably rapid mampu- 
 
190 
 
 GABRIELLE : 
 
 lation, rolled it up, and presented the little tube to the se- 
 norita with a low bow. It was accepted playfully, and she 
 gabbled in the prettiest conceivable coquettish way to him 
 while watching the process of manufacturing a similar, 
 though stronger one, for himself. This completed, out 
 comes the elegant silver box, in which is carried the ever 
 lasting flint, steel, and tinder of the Mexican and Spaniard. 
 Another flash and sparkle: the burning "punk" is handed 
 to her: the cigaretta lighted, and those rich, dainty lips 
 become at once the breathing crater of a blue, curling aroma. 
 The "punk" returned to him, his own is rapidly ignited, 
 and they are quickly enveloped in the slowly-lifted cloud of 
 sleepy fumes. 
 
 Now the loving clatter of their gentle voices gradually 
 subsides into fragmentary inquiries, with answers in slow 
 pantomime from opposite sofas, while their endearing glances 
 sleepily grow dim beneath the brooding soporific. 
 
 A few minutes and they breathe in harmonious concert, 
 gentle as two young eastern nightingales within a bush of 
 poppy ; the cigaretta, in the mean time, slowly subsiding to 
 ward their compressed lips, until at last, in half an hour, it 
 had burned down into an uncomfortable neighbourhood to 
 those red-ripe " nectaries of bliss" where, as might reason 
 ably be expected, symptoms of wakeful return to their sub 
 lunary relations might readily be detected, and soon, with a 
 small start, caused by the fire that had burned down, they 
 again woke to paradise in each other s eyes. 
 
 The gentle Gabrielle sprang quickly to the neglected 
 guitar, which had lain upon the floor like some fairy toy 
 neglected, and with swift, practised fingers, beat upon its 
 taut and unmarred strings a tinkling reveillie in some wild 
 gipsy air of Andalusia, that made her young lover bound 
 with a joyous laugh to his feet, improvising the movement, 
 accompanying the air in a dance as wild and graceful as its 
 rollicking cadences. 
 
THE WHITE MARE OF CHIHUAHUA. 191 
 
 Soon the guitar is thrown down, and with arm linked in 
 arm, they go dancing through the long sunny room, toward 
 that gloomy continuation of the mansion, concerning which 
 we have spoken. They passed through a wide, strong door, 
 like the gate of a fortress, from this frail summer-house of 
 glass, into the dark shadows of the fortified court beyond. 
 Here they entered upon a square of some three or four hun 
 dred feet on each side, upon which the low but massive 
 houses of the Peones of the hacienda faced, by narrow en 
 trances at short distances, and these entrances descending, 
 by an easy and pebbly path from each, to the narrow bed of 
 the small, clear mountain stream which we have mentioned, 
 and which passed through the centre over its natural bed, 
 and then, by a short wind, came out so as to pass exactly at 
 the proper picturesque distance, before the front of the mas 
 sive palace and ice-like parlours of the mansion. 
 
 They descended through the wider door of the interior, 
 and on both sides there was a small alcove, hung with 
 drapery to the ground. Into the two the lovers separately 
 retired. There a quick transfer of the garments habitually 
 worn was effected, and they came forth in the thinnest 
 and slightest possible costume, it must be confessed ; but 
 still it was a costume, comparatively. 
 
 Hand in hand they descended into the clear, swift stream, 
 with such a shudder as any one who has been once introduced 
 to an ice-bath may well conceive ; but the shudder was soon 
 forgotten in the fun ! Such a splashing as there was ! The 
 bed of the small stream spread and deepened here into a 
 beautiful basin, extending nearly the whole length of the 
 court. This was the hour for general bathing, and the pool 
 was swarming with young girls, the daughters of the Peone 
 inmates of the court. These were entirely nude ; for nothing 
 is more common in any part of Mexico than to see females 
 of this class in such condition, bathing publicly in the rivers, 
 when they will return the wondering and curious stare of the 
 
192 GABPJELLE : 
 
 North American passer-by with interest, and then coolly 
 proceed with their sports. It is a very cheerful and en 
 livening scene, and of course peculiarly attractive to the 
 habitual connoisseur of feminine graces. We shall not un 
 dertake categorically, and with a grave technical minute 
 ness, to name, classify, and describe the genuine and specific 
 character of the charms thus frankly exposed. We can only 
 specify that their figures, from the youngest girls up to the 
 developed women, were remarkable for symmetry and a vo 
 luptuousness of outline peculiar to those southern races which 
 possess any mixture of Spanish blood. Their dark limbs 
 glowed beneath the pellucid water with a round, bewitching 
 grace that defies description ; while they stood still, in 
 abashed and half-awed silence, at the moment when their 
 young mistress and expected master were descending to the 
 water. For this little space of time they seemed, beneath 
 the veils of their long dark hair, which many of them had 
 thrown back with both hands upraised, most like a group of 
 startled Naiads, who stand listening, while " Triton winds 
 his hollow shell" to announce the sudden coming of old 
 Neptune ! 
 
 But very soon, with gradual accession, the hubbub rises to 
 be quite as great again, and all the court is ringing with the 
 merriment of sweet but reckless clamours. They kept at 
 first at a rather respectful distance from the young senorita 
 and don ; but as these cheerful persons seemed to be utterly 
 fearless of any undue encroachments upon their rank, or 
 rather unconscious of any such thing as etiquette to defend, 
 it was not long before they were in the midst of the scream 
 ing throng, being splashed, and splashing water upon them in 
 turn, and participating as noisily as the rest in the exhila 
 rating sports of the bath. 
 
 But all pleasant scenes must have an end, and so had the 
 bath ; and the two, with their thin robes clinging to dripping 
 forms, retired to the curtained alcoves to dress a process 
 
THE WHITE MARE OF CHIHUAHUA. 193 
 
 which occupied surprisingly little time on either side ; when 
 they came bounding forth at once, and hand in hand, with 
 merry voices and buoyant steps, they returned through the 
 dark passage-way to the airy summer-room beyond. 
 
 With a cry of endearment, the joyous Gabrielle sprang 
 upon the neck of a swarthy and strikingly venerable-looking 
 man, who met them at the large door or gateway of this 
 room. He greeted the fond child with a parental salute, 
 while he extended his hand with a familiar cordiality to the 
 young don. This was a beautiful picture ; the fine head of 
 the old governor, its long, white hair mingled sparsely with 
 threads of the intensest black, towered like some iron-gray 
 rock beside a magnolia-tree, to which the flowering vine that 
 clasped its rough pinnacles stretched out its gentler arms. 
 
 The appearance of Don Carlos Gonzaleze ^vas very noble 
 and careworn. It was such as you meet a thousand times 
 in Italy, Spain, and everywhere in Mexico where the Spanish 
 blood prevails. Even among the lazaroni and leperoes of 
 these ancient races, you are constantly struck by meeting 
 with those majestic heads which could only have been born 
 amid the associations of that pride which lives in the story 
 of ancient greatness, of those images and objects which are 
 the relics of a glorious art, and those sounds which are the 
 prolonged echoes of a classic lyre. It is a well-known joke 
 that many of the possessors of these noble heads make a 
 good trade of sitting to the young pilgrims of modern art 
 who visit Rome, and that their remarkable lineaments are 
 thus diffused over the four quarters of the civilized world as 
 veritable portraits of saint, apostle, hero, priest, and king 
 whose name is associated with the illustrious memories of the 
 Eternal City. 
 
 For our own part, though this fact may seem matter of 
 gibe and jest to others, it has always conveyed an impression 
 of deep sadness to us ; for in no other is the incurably 
 
 " downward tendency" of these once so magnanimous and 
 R 13 
 
194 GABRIELLE : 
 
 glorious races to be seen so forcibly. I have often met such 
 persons among Mexican population in the most unexpectedly 
 ignoble positions, frequently with not enough of rags to hide 
 the fine lines of forms possessed of those perfect symmetries 
 which are never one of the "accidents of birth," but which 
 must come from a long line of gentle descent and ennobling 
 deeds. We could never see them without the same feeling 
 with which the passionate lover of ancient art regards the 
 exhumed fragment of some buried era of peculiar grandeur. 
 We could never treat such persons, however much degraded 
 as they frequently are, though always with a proud and con 
 scious bearing even in degradation, otherwise than with con 
 sideration. They seem to me the sculptured imbodiments 
 of faded glories, done in flesh by Time, and left on his way 
 sides to perish miserably because of a perfection too high to 
 be heeded in degenerate conditions and by an emasculated 
 race. 
 
 The old Don Carlos possessed such a face ; but, as is the 
 case with many others of this stamp, those noble features 
 expressed rather the "hollow promise" of characteristics 
 formed from any age of loftiness and noble virtues, than 
 conveyed any substantial reality. lie seemed to have been 
 born more in the servilities of such an era and of such virtues 
 than with the robust possession of them at any period in their 
 vigorous health. He was proud, as might be expected; 
 ambitious, as a matter of course; brave, as something not 
 quite so consequential. He was pompous, too, and sadly 
 lacked executive energy, in his old age at least, though he 
 was said to have been possessed of most commanding power 
 at one time, in Spain. He was vain, pompous, and avaricious ; 
 audaciously unscrupulous, as such persons usually are ; and 
 his very best trait, in a word, was the most extravagant and 
 yearning affection for his daughter. She was the apple of 
 his eye, for whom he would have sold, without hesitation, 
 life, honour, and fortune. 
 
THE WHITE MARE OF CHIHUAHUA. 195 
 
 The old Don, incorrigibly pompous as he usually was, 
 always melted into an earnest and benign manner in the 
 presence of his daughter and her approved lover : then there 
 was something remarkably attractive about him, his bearing 
 possessed a gracious, pleasing loftiness, which was finely min 
 gled of the patriarch and ancient Castilian knight. 
 
 At such times you could quite forget that the heroic blood 
 of his descent was thinned not alone by his own individual 
 age, but as well by the age of his race ; which, like all noble 
 strains of animals, had been degenerated by the breeding "in 
 and in" as it is termed among farmers to which it had for 
 so many centuries been studiously insulated by the jealous 
 exclusiveness of grandee pride. You perceived, too, that 
 although the general morale and habits of the modern 
 Spaniard had in addition contributed much to this declension 
 of the more manly virtues, yet manner, that "last best gift" 
 of gentle descent, had not yet passed away, along with the 
 chastened beauty of person to which we have so often alluded. 
 Indeed, it seems that not alone " the pregnant hinges of the 
 knee," but as well every other "joint and motive" of the 
 body, must be cultivated through generations, amid the 
 graceful flections of courtly scenes, before they can attain 
 once more to the true expressions of natural politeness which 
 have been so coarsely degenerating since Adam, through our 
 debasing vices ! When the manners of civilization become 
 polite once more, we may look for Eden scenes returning ! 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE group turned from the great gate, and hand to hand 
 they promenaded the long room to the slow stately step of 
 the old knight, whose tawny and deep-seamed face shone 
 with delight as he listened to the lively and artless prattle 
 
196 GABRIELLE: 
 
 of his daughter. Sometimes they would pause for a moment 
 before one of her flower-pots, or rather great marble vases, 
 in which they grew ranged along beneath the frequent 
 windows of the room, while Gabrielle, loosing her hold of the 
 two hands which held hers, would bound away to bend over 
 her pet, like some guardian sprite, to inspect its condition or 
 caress it with her dainty lips ; then springing back to her 
 place between her emulous admirers with a light, coquettish 
 movement and ringing laugh, they would pass on. 
 
 The old Castilian seemed supremely happy, and to have 
 laid aside the cares of state in earnest for the time, while the 
 gallant Juan, as might be conjectured, realized the promised 
 beatitudes of the seventh heaven in the flesh, with the reality 
 of a dark-eyed Hourie for his guide. 
 
 The time for the evening ride had now come, and two stout 
 Peones were seen leading the horses to the door. Darting 
 away through the great gate into the interior for a moment, 
 the Senorita Gabrielle appeared equipped for the saddle. A 
 light pink jacket of silk, jingling with many rows of small 
 silver buttons and tiny links, had been put on over the boddice 
 of the white gauze robe she wore; the "rebesos," or vail for 
 the head, without which no Mexican maiden goes into the 
 open air, was clasped beneath the chin with a delicate 
 emerald brooch. Over the rebesos, which was of the lightest 
 gossamer texture, and is considered more particularly as ap 
 pertaining to the walking costume, she wore a light "gipsy 
 hat," which only differed from that with us, in having the 
 conical-shaped crown belonging to the "sombrero" of the 
 men, and in being somewhat differently ornamented, with a 
 broad band of fantastically grouped and coloured beads. Her 
 small yet voluptuously rounded figure was admirably set off 
 by this picturesque costume. 
 
 The horses of the two were held with difficulty as they 
 approached. Hers was a beautiful little mare of the Mustang 
 or wild Arab race, peculiar to the continent since Cortez 
 
THE WHITE MARE OF CHIHUAHUA. 197 
 
 introduced it here. It was white as the driven snow, with the 
 exception of a small spot of red bay on each ear ; and as is 
 always the case with white horses of the true Arab breed, its 
 skin was white also, though showing through the close hair a 
 rich creamy deepening of colour. The head was thin and 
 small, with nostrils of vast width showing red within ; and 
 though somewhat long and angular in its outlines, the ears 
 were most delicately diminutive and tapering, the large blue 
 vivacious eyes stood out prominently as those of a startled 
 antelope, while the voluminous and wavy veil of the mane 
 which flooded the forehead and fell like a cataract of daz 
 zling white from the delicate arch of the neck nearly to the 
 ground, was only rivalled by the full and flowing splendour 
 of the tail. The unshod hoof of unusual roundness was almost 
 shrouded by the graceful length of the fetlocks. The legs, 
 which appeared as you approached in front to be slim almost 
 as those of the deer, presented, as you saw them from the 
 side, a broad bone with sinews swelling like whip-cord, but 
 seeming taut as steel, and as if they would make metallic 
 twangings as she bounded. The shoulder was thin but broad 
 and high, and the long hamstrings reminded you of those of 
 that miracle of speed, the great-eared rabbit of the plains. 
 She had something of the ragged outline of the Arab in the 
 hind-quarters, which were high, and would have been too an 
 gular for beauty had she been low in flesh ; but, high con 
 ditioned now in her glistening coat, there was nothing to 
 detract from that closest approach to absolute symmetry of 
 which this blood, without at all diminishing its wonderful 
 endurance and speed, is capable. She looked, with her short 
 ears, fiercely gentle eye, her quick-arched neck, her thin and 
 mighty bones, her steel-like cords, her chest of the female 
 panther, her small, flat iron hoofs and wide-flowing mane and 
 tail, most like some hair-winged creature of a genei s spell, 
 summoned to chase his truant winds upon ; and now that she 
 
 had been tamed to human ken, the bright Gabrielle, with her 
 R2 
 
198 GABRIELLE : 
 
 sylph-like form and most etherial voluptuousness, looked the 
 best framed to mount the wizard palfrey. 
 
 The horse of Juan was, of course, larger than this mare, 
 and it is sufficient to say was a very fine animal of the same 
 stock, though it was worthy of more particular notice for a 
 peculiarity of colours, which is always emulated by the young 
 men of Mexico, whether of high or low degree. They all 
 pride themselves upon the strangeness and variety of the 
 markings of their favourite steeds. They are crossed with 
 great care, with the view of obtaining the strongest possible 
 contrast of colours in the motless blotches and spots of the 
 skin. Many of them are very curious and beautiful. Such 
 was the case with this animal, which was covered upon a 
 white ground with deep reddish-black or dark umber spots, of 
 small, but irregular size and shape, with a long, white mane, 
 and tail as snowy, except that, curiously enough, a large tuft 
 of coal-black hair burst streaming from its centre down to 
 the extreme. 
 
 They were gayly caparisoned in the semi-barbaric style 
 peculiar to Mexico, the dress-saddles being plated before and 
 behind with a great quantity of silver, and the grotesque and 
 peculiar ornament of the coraza, or seat-cover, being likewise 
 embossed with silvery thread upon fine leather, while the 
 cola de pato, or housings, of the same material and make, 
 covered the haunches ; and the bridles, with their heavy bits 
 of solid silver, jingled with rows of little bells of the same 
 metal. The head-pieces and reins were decked with bunches 
 of horse-hair dyed with the scarlet cochineal of the country. 
 The armas de pelo, formed of the long and silken fleece of 
 the Rocky Mountain goat, dyed of the same colour, and 
 richly bordered with embossed leather, hung down from the 
 high pommel of the saddle, and formed an occasional cover 
 ing for the leg of the rider when mounted. 
 
 The fairy senorita sprang lightly to her seat with little 
 assistance from her lover, who was quickly at her side, jin- 
 
THE WHITE MARE OF CHIHUAHUA. 199 
 
 gling his enormous spurs of solid silver as lie mounted, and the 
 horses keeping time with their silver bells, as they dashed off 
 merrily ; and now the rumbling of heavy wheels was heard, 
 and the chariot of the old governor rolled heavily through the 
 great gate of the court. It was driven by a smoke-dried 
 peone seated in front, and drawn by four pale-dun mules, 
 very tall, with slim and well-proportioned bodies, while their 
 fine round limbs were striped with small black marks, which 
 seemed continuations of the larger stripe which traversed the 
 back to the tail, down even which it was faintly continued. 
 The chariot was a very clumsy and primitive affair, though 
 there had been considerable effort at a rude sort of decora 
 tion, much in keeping with that of the horse-furniture I have 
 described. The spirited team moved -in a very brisk trot, 
 and soon the parties were in motion together, the two young 
 people, at a slow gallop, keeping alongside the window of the 
 chariot, to exchange a word now and then with the old 
 governor. 
 
 As its blood warmed by the motion, the fiery little palfrey 
 of Gabrielle, becoming impatient of such slow procedure, 
 darted ahead, with ears laid back, like a frolicsome pan- 
 theress, while she, looking behind, waved a laughing farewell 
 to her father, and resigned herself fearlessly to the mood of 
 her spoiled and petted favourite. Juan joined her, and away 
 they went, like two glad wild birds together, singing on the 
 wing, while the old governor looked wistfully after them, as 
 they swiftly disappeared around a turn of the road, and then 
 settled himself in his chariot with a smile of benignant and 
 happy complacency. As he thus threw himself back upon 
 the moss-stuffed cushions, he gave himself up to well-satisfied 
 speculations concerning the precise value of his neighbour s 
 estate, about to be thus ceded to his own, and to splendid 
 visions of a green and honoured old age, surrounded with all 
 the power of great wealth and influence, and with lovely 
 grandchildren added to fill up the measure of his bliss. 
 
200 GABRIELLE ! 
 
 This was a delicious evening, unusually so even for the 
 equable and mild temperature of this climate. The sun was 
 near to setting, and its mellow rays fell in long, slanting lines 
 through the huge arms of the moss-draped live-oaks, and 
 touched now and then the venerable head within, through 
 the open windows of the coach, with a golden salutation and 
 a soft farewell, that spoke of peace and hope. The sounds 
 of the evening, which are very few here, and these exceed 
 ingly sweet and low, had just commenced to fill the air with 
 a slumberous lullaby, which, with its charming drowse, 
 soothed the old man to a half sleep, filled with pleasant 
 images, while the coach rolled smoothly, as along a floor, 
 over the level road. 
 
 The monody of nature, which was creeping upon his ear, 
 seemed to him the musical receding of the dear voice of his 
 daughter, fading as she went ; and as the sleepy choir of 
 evening rose in higher strains, it seemed to him that loved 
 sound returning again in merry mood to meet him. But the 
 old man opened his eyes quickly, and with a convulsive start, 
 as the driver, in a shrill pipe, screamed into his horrified ear, 
 "Los Indios ! los Indiosl los Apache!" and without waiting 
 for any order, wheeled his team of mules, and with frantic 
 eagerness commenced lashing them into full speed down the 
 road toward the mansion. 
 
 The stricken old man, as the coach was turning, caught 
 one glimpse of a sight that, with his knowledge of that coun 
 try, was enough. It was that of the horse of Juan, with 
 head tossed on high, and streaming mane, rushing after them 
 riderless, and wild with fright. The horse soon passed in 
 its panic-stricken speed, and as it went by, the horrified 
 old man saw blood upon the splendid saddle, and that it was 
 wounded by several arrows, which still remained sticking in 
 its body. 
 
 About the meaning of these appalling signs there could 
 be no mistake, and the frightened driver lashed his mules 
 
THE WHITE MARE OF CHIHUAHUA. 201 
 
 still more desperately, and yelled with a yet more ear- 
 splitting energy of fright. And of a truth there seemed 
 to be good cause for his alarm. The dreadful war-whoop 
 was sounding in his ears, and the clatter of pursuing hoofs 
 grew more distinct each instant. There was no time for 
 looking back; none for any thing, indeed, but the most 
 headlong speed. Now the mansion is in sight. If the 
 great gate be not thrown open in time, they are lost. 
 On ! on ! rushed the goaded team. The headway is too 
 great; they cannot pause. Arrows begin to whistle past 
 the ears of the screaming and despairing Peone. Ha ! it 
 is but a few paces farther to the gate mules and chariot 
 will be dashed to pieces. The yelling as of ten thousand 
 maddened fiends deafens them from close behind. The 
 gate swings suddenly back ; they are safe ; and, as the 
 gate is slammed, with a baffled howl the dark warriors 
 swerve past like a flight of hawks that have missed their 
 quarry on the swoop. The old man springs to the ground 
 in the court, and rushing through it with all the energy 
 of youth, calls his people to arms. He passes through 
 into the summer-room, to look after the retiring foe. They 
 are just passing out of view beneath the great oaks ; and 
 he sees among their dusky forms the nutter of white 
 drapery, and rearing furiously in the effort to escape, 
 he recognises a snow-white palfrey, with long, flowing 
 mane and tail. The poor old man falls heavily to the 
 marble floor. 
 
202 GABRIELLE : 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE country called Northern Mexico is in many respects 
 peculiar, but in no other is it more entirely anomalous than 
 in its general topographical features. It really seems to be 
 all at sixes and sevens with the rest of the continent. Its 
 rivers, instead of running east, west, or south, as is the case 
 with our other rivers, coolly turn tail upon them all, and very 
 independently rush away toward the north. Whether this 
 is the result of a hauteur of temper which scorns the company 
 of " common folk," we cannot tell, though sure it is they 
 have nothing in particular to brag of, except this and a few 
 other eccentricities. 
 
 But there are some odd fashions these have, which are, if 
 any thing, still more unaccountable. There is the little Rio 
 Grande of Durango, the Rio Nazos, and the Rio Patos, which, 
 with the most unusual and extraordinary originality, start out 
 upon their own hook, from the bowels of the rude Sierra 
 Madre, and after flashing in foam-lightning with zigzag leap 
 ing down the steep bare rocks, and rumbling through the 
 deep canons beneath, subside within a hundred miles or so 
 into beautiful lakes, of comparatively small size, and having 
 no apparent outlets. 
 
 What the meaning of all this fussy parade is, we leave it 
 for sages to determine; but if we were left to conjecture, it 
 would be that it was got up simply for the sake of making a 
 fuss for the pure love of it; for those sombre old mountains 
 have quick ears, we tell you! while they stand listening 
 silently, up in the blue, crisp air, to the glad, glittering, tink 
 ling dash of the merry waters, giddy with the joy of freedom 
 
THE WHITE MARE OF CHIHUAHUA. 203 
 
 and the light, as they go tinily shouting down their rugged 
 sides ; and then, when the morning comes, haloing with tho 
 aurora their white frosty brows, they, with commendable 
 vanity, love to see themselves looking at the best, and, on 
 tiptoe, seem to lean and peer at the giant reflexes those small 
 bright lakes give forth. Ha ! ha ! the jolly old boys ! what 
 a toilet is theirs, when their hair of knotty laurels and the 
 rough mesquit has just been combed by the hurricane, and 
 all their white powder whirled off glistening into the thin air ! 
 When they look down into the mirrors at their feet they are 
 amazed, you may rest assured, to see themselves looking so 
 young, and, like punctilious, old-fashioned gentlemen, as they 
 are, sadly taken aback at the idea of appearing at court 
 before the sun, without the complement of hair-powder which 
 etiquette requires ! But the fitful winds that make their toilet 
 will soon be along ; and not the down of cygnets is so soft and 
 white as those fleecy clouds they bring, and no footfall of 
 minister of air so dimly musical as their flakes while they 
 fall! 
 
 We mentioned at the beginning, that the Hacienda En- 
 cinnillas was situated on a tributary of the Conchas : we 
 should have qualified this assertion somewhat, by saying 
 that it was rather conjectured to be a tributary than known 
 to be so; for, as the mysterious Lake Patos, in which this 
 little river lost itself, had no visible outlets, it is natural to 
 suppose that it must have an invisible one, or else, as it is 
 no miracle in point of size, it might be reasonably expected 
 to run over some day. As this "some day" has never come 
 yet, it was quite as natural to suppose that it never would ; 
 and considering it was near the Conchas, which, as it was the 
 largest, was certainly the most self-willed, proportionably, of 
 all the droll rivers in this droll country, why might it not 
 have something to do in the affair ? " Why," it might be 
 pertinently asked, "since the Conchas, like another great 
 river, the Nile, in the far countrie, has taken the fancy to 
 
204 GABRIELLB : 
 
 run north, while all the rest of the world runs south, should 
 it not as well be a pipe-laying politician, and have under 
 ground tributaries which would darkly and secretly work to 
 swell its importance?" The thing seems plain. However, 
 whether right or wrong, the Patos River and Lake are 
 pretty generally considered as underhand contributors to the 
 rather turbulent importance of the Conchas ! 
 
 On the morning after the occurrences we have related, the 
 shores of this little Lake Patos were thronged with a strange 
 assemblage. On the southern side, where its shores were 
 stupendously abrupt, with the exception of a narrow beach 
 at the foot of the cliffs, this curious mass was rushing along 
 the sand, and stretched like a rabble army nearly a mile in 
 length. Such bellowing and pushing as there was in that 
 great herd of brown, black, and white cattle, all mingled, who, 
 urged by the sharp lances of their Indian captors, gored, 
 roared, and butted, throwing out their heels, pitching, tum 
 bling, and trampling each other in the wildest panic of pain 
 and rage ! Their fierce captors, as they passed the fallen, re 
 lentlessly lanced and left them writhing on the ground. 
 Then came a thousand mules, and nearly as many horses, 
 rearing, plunging, biting, snorting, leaping, and kicking, in 
 a sort of pent-up stampede, for they could not break 
 through the heavy and compact masses before them, nor 
 could they get by without rushing into the lake. Then came 
 a curious jumble of Indians mixed up with their Mexican 
 prisoners, and hundreds of mules laden with plunder of every 
 kind articles of which were strewing the sands at nearly 
 every stride they made. Then came the main body of the 
 robbers, half a mile in the rear, and consisting of over two 
 hundred warriors, darker than any of the southern tribes, 
 naked to the clout, and wearing horse-tail cues attached to 
 their long hah, and streaming on the wind behind. Their 
 lances were ornamented with horse-hair, as also their bridles, 
 which were plaited and tufted with it ; and their rawhide quirts 
 
THE WHITE MARE OF CHIHUAHUA. 205 
 
 had the same appendages. To increase the spirit, if not the 
 spirituality of the scene, these wild devils were yelling like a 
 herd of wolves with the staggering prey in view, only that 
 the voice of the human monster was more terrifically hoarse 
 and alarming. 
 
 Suddenly the lead of this headlong mass diverged toward 
 the lake, and such a splashing ! The hundreds of " browns" 
 were followed hy the hundreds of "blacks," and then the 
 hundreds of "whites" capped, like horned foam, the waves 
 of the startled lake. Then came the mules and horses, and 
 even some animals, bearing the Mexican prisoners, rushed in 
 with their screaming burdens. So strong is the propensity 
 among beasts of all grades to follow the lead ! 
 
 It was now rather a peculiar sight, it must be confessed, 
 that placid lake, that seemed ever to have slept beneath the 
 eyes of stars and shadows of great rocks, suddenly invoked 
 by this wild tumult of heads and horns, of snorts and sneezes, 
 bellowings, plunges, rearing, shrieking, winding up with 
 horrid yells as the rear-guard of warriors came up and 
 boldly plunged their horses into the lake, and, urging them 
 through the now tumultuous water, struck out to drive back 
 the refractory drove. 
 
 Many were drowned, but it was not long before the great 
 body were turned in toward the shore, and were seen meekly 
 wading back through the near shallows, and showing them 
 selves tame as drowned rats. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that these audacious warriors had 
 been urging this mad rout because they were afraid of pur 
 suit or of their pursuers, by any means. How that is, you 
 will probably perceive soon ; but you may rest assured this 
 whole affair was entirely a matter of common usage and de 
 liberate calculation with them. They knew well that the 
 wild and frightened animals they had thus unceremoniously 
 appropriated would be unruly customers to manage in 
 
 driving as they were, and that it was necessary to teach 
 S 
 
J6 GABRIELLE : 
 
 them some manners at the outset ; so they cunningly chose 
 this long beach, where they knew it was impossible for them 
 to break but in one direction, and that one the best calcu 
 lated to cool off their surplus vehemence into the lake ! 
 
 When once on the beach there was no escape : they had 
 either to be goaded in the manner we have described, through 
 the whole tedious length of some fifteen miles, when they 
 would be thoroughly used up, or else they must take to the 
 water, either of which alternatives would have, as they well 
 knew, the desired effect ! 
 
 Now by the time the swimming warriors reached the sands, 
 all dripping as they were, they marshalled their humble and 
 drooping victims into double herds, which walked meekly on, 
 not needing the goad of lance or frightening yell. 
 
 But amid all the noise and confusion attendant upon 
 such an event as this we have just witnessed, there was one 
 party of four warriors which stood fast, immovably watching 
 the scene. They bore between them, as they sat upon their 
 horses, a rude kind of litter, composed of a buffalo-robe 
 stretched between two lances, and another above thrown over 
 the arches formed by two withes of green boughs lashed 
 across to each of the lances, and at both ends. What was 
 held in this curious litter was not so apparent, although the 
 flutter of a white garment occasionally, within, might have 
 rendered it suspicious that we had seen or heard of the 
 owner before ; and more especially, since you discovered, in 
 the thickest and most tumultuous part of the throng, a small, 
 and snow-white mare, with flowing mane and tail, which was 
 kicking, biting, and leaping here and there like an enraged 
 pantheress, thus managing to add no little spirit to her part 
 of the scene, and give some trouble at least to the youthful, 
 but comely young warrior who bestrode her, side-saddle and 
 all ! She seemed wild with furious indignation, and snorted 
 her wrath and neighed her scorn at the filthy barbarians 
 that were presuming to profane her silken hide with their 
 
THE WHITE MARE OF CHIHUAHUA. 207 
 
 vulgar touch, and lashed out her heels with savage emphasis, 
 and without distinction, at all who presumed to approach her. 
 She had already bitten several warriors or their horses, and 
 lance after lance had been levelled at her side, but as her 
 bold young rider always assumed the attitude of defence for 
 his prize, their owners had finally concluded to give her a 
 wide berth and let her alone. When they plunged into the 
 lake, she came very near taking her rider "out to sea," for 
 she clenched the bit in her teeth, and started out across the 
 water for the other shore, four miles distant ; and when the 
 young warrior attempted to check her up, she plunged and 
 went under very deep with the most vixenish desperation, 
 as if determined to drown him off, or drown herself, and thus 
 get rid of her ignominy. But he was not to be baffled, and, 
 with wonderful coolness, (his bath had made him cool, if he 
 had not been so otherwise,) he held her head above water, 
 and, in spite of her struggles, urged her toward the shore. 
 When arrived there, instead of being tempered down as the 
 other animals were, she commenced rearing and plunging 
 among the disordered crowd, even more ungovernable than 
 before. She made her way through the throng of cattle, by 
 leaping over the backs of some with most astonishing bounds, 
 that would have unseated any other rider than a Southern 
 Indian or an Arab, and by dashing out most furiously, or 
 biting them, until she had carried her rider, " whether-or-no," 
 through the divisions of the white and black, and reached 
 that of the shaggy browns. Here she began to behave 
 better; and the young warrior, who had been absolutely 
 sweating with his exertions to " keep her on the wind," 
 began apparently to console himself that the trouble was 
 all over, when, to his great astonishment and discomfiture, 
 she all at once lifted her head, and, with a wild shrill neigh, 
 cleared in swift successive bounds the backs of three or four 
 of these great shaggy brutes, and then, with head down and 
 nose before, nearly dragging the poor warrior off, she rushed 
 
208 GABRIELLE ! 
 
 through the crowding herd ; and then, with a strange, eager 
 cry as they got through, leaped over the back of a burden 
 mule, and stopped so suddenly as to pitch the unfortunate 
 young fellow violently forward and nearly over her neck, 
 with his head thrust into the opening of that unique litter of 
 buffalo-robes, concerning which we have spoken. 
 
 The scream of terror that followed, and his look of grin 
 ning delight as he regained his reins and seat, were not far 
 from comical, to say the least ; but what was absolutely so, 
 was the whinnying ecstasy with which the little mare thrust 
 her fine head into the same place, though more gently, and 
 begged a recognition from her lawful mistress ; and, further 
 more, it was not a little comical to see the unavailing efforts 
 of the laughing young warrior to get her away from that im 
 mediate vicinity, after her fair mistress, who had been some 
 what reassured by the appearance of that familiar nose, had 
 stroked and kissed it, and spoken some familiar words of en 
 dearment. The young warrior, after various desperate efforts, 
 finding it was of no avail to try to get away from that litter, 
 seemed to resign himself to his fate, and now rode quietly 
 along in its rear. 
 
 Thus it pressed on, this wild, tumultuous mass. Lake after 
 lake was passed, whose sunlines roughly broken by the wild 
 invasion, set all the solemn mountain-tops dancing in their 
 bosoms, like colossal shadows in fantastic wake above the 
 death of ancient solitude. They tossed their hairy arms 
 about in many a measured wave, nodding their white heads 
 seriously and slow, while far beneath their huge limbs 
 flashed in quick and zigzag antics, that seemed strangely 
 limber for such grave and stiff-kneed watchers of the storms. 
 Perhaps their stout, unbending natures had yielded their 
 venerable proprieties to grief, that the deep bosom of this 
 quiet they so long had guarded was thus being robbed of its 
 informing presence of its fairest incarnation the lightsome, 
 joyous, and gentle Gabrielle, whose delicate spirit had 
 
THE WHITE MARE OP CHIHUAHUA. 209 
 
 humanized them all, and whose regal will had bound them 
 as her servitors, held by the imperious etiquette of her ma 
 jestic court to breathe not over loud themselves, nor let the 
 uncivil winds dare more than whisper on their pipes a drowsy 
 undertone that all the rocks and waters of that wreck- 
 piled, caverned earth, might hear the mellowest ripple of her 
 silvery laugh, and soothe their bristling horrors into the ver 
 nal smiles of a perpetual peace. 
 
 Alas, alas, ye cold-nosed mountains ! well may the slow 
 teardrops, now trickling from many an eyelid spring adown 
 your rugged points, freeze in funereal pendence, glistening 
 aloft in that icy, desert air, the which the soft radiance of 
 her spring-like smiles may never soothe and thaw again ! 
 She has been reft from thee she is departing ! Are not 
 thy moveless pinnacles all tottering with the weight of sorrow 
 even now ? In thy wild wrath, may they not be hurled be 
 neath, upon the doomed war-crest of that black and savage 
 herd, that would thus ravage all thy joy away ? 
 
 Thou troubled lakes, whose crystal quiet has been thus 
 profaned, deep in the cavernous chambers of thy mystery, 
 hast thou no pent-up floods to loosen overwhelming on this 
 sacrilegious rout, that ye may bear her on the white mare, 
 triumphing on the unsoiled crest of your white-foaming 
 strength ? 
 
 Alas, alas, the flinty heart of mountains and the torpid 
 power of those dumb lakes, they are yet unmoved ! May 
 the genii of those baffled storms possess them both hereafter 
 with wildest throes. The angel of their old-time peace has 
 vanished ! Gabrielle, the fair Gabrielle, has passed away ! 
 She has been torn from their midst, their guardian arms all 
 unresisting ! 
 
 Though deserted by her natal guardians, the power of 
 lake and wood, rock and stream, the fair Gabrielle retained 
 at least one fast and faithful friend in the beautiful white 
 
 mare of Chihuahua: who, having by this time taught her 
 S2 14 
 
210 GABRIELLE : 
 
 swarthy captors that "her will was to be law, now, with her 
 nose close against the litter, followed demurely with droop 
 ing ears, and large eyes melancholy-moist, seeming to respond 
 from her deep chest in sighs to every sob of the frail pri 
 soner within, who, forgetful of aught else, strove, yet in vain, 
 through closed lids, to shut out some gory spectacle that 
 would rise up, bearing the form, scalpless and torn, of her 
 own gallant Juan. 
 
 Poor child ! poor child ! She thought not of her dread 
 ful future. The past brought darkness and horror enough 
 to her faint heart. 
 
 Still it rushed on that ruthless herd, and roar and yell, 
 and clang of lance and shield yet mingled in dull and dread 
 ful monody upon her listless ear. Still the white mare clung 
 close beside her still the young chief had failed to move her 
 wilful, dogged faith still those white ears dropped still 
 that deep chest heaved with mute and pent-up wrath, and 
 the funereal trail of her white mane and tail swept the curt 
 brown sod. 
 
 Night came and still the troubled mass rolled on beneath 
 the pitiless stars and the cold, staring moon no pause, no 
 rest was there. 
 
 The bellowings of the goaded herds were only now and 
 then rendered less distinct by the shrill shrieks and outcries 
 that told how the ferocious robbers had turned aside to strike 
 some new hacienda near their path, or sweep fresh victims 
 from the pillaged suburbs of defenceless villages, to hurl 
 them onward in the turbid rush of the dark flood they urged 
 before them to their mountain home. 
 
 The morning came and a more general wail uprose from 
 all the shaking land they trampled, and a great concourse of 
 prisoners weeping as she wept, and for many another scalped 
 and gory Juan, too swelled the long, mournful train of 
 fairest Gabrielle. 
 
 Suddenly, as with a great shock, all this bewildered tumult 
 
THE WHITE MARE OF CHIHUAHUA. 211 
 
 now was stilled. The insolent marauders had paused before 
 the very gates of the city of Chihuahua and leaving a few 
 of their number to guard their prisoners and plunder, charged, 
 howling their fierce war-whoops, rattling their shields and 
 lances against each other, upon a force of some five hundred 
 regulars, constituting the garrison of the city, which was 
 issuing from the open gates with characteristic pomp and 
 bluster to punish the aggressors. These flaunting, ferocious 
 champions of New Mexican honour, scarcely awaited the 
 charge of less than three hundred half-naked savages, but, 
 breaking instantly, were driven back in panic-struck confusion 
 to the wide-open gates of their city, their dreaded foes enter 
 ing pell-mell with them. 
 
 The lieutenant-colonel to whom the gallant old Governor 
 Gonzaleze had intrusted the sole command during his retire 
 ment at his hacienda, had been first to lead forth his tinselled 
 troops to meet this wild band ; and, with equal promptness 
 and activity, had proved the first to enter, not only the gates 
 of the city, in this shameful retreat, but the first as well to 
 reach the shelter of the citadel. 
 
 Fortunately, their foes held the environment of walls in 
 deep aversion, and did not venture to penetrate so far as the 
 citadel, of which, no doubt, they might have possessed them 
 selves with equal ease, in the panic. 
 
 At the sound of the escopets, which a few stragglers had 
 nervously fired into the air in their retreat, the white mare 
 of Chihuahua had pricked her ears, and darting forward with 
 a shrill snort, had succeeded, by the suddenness of her move 
 ment, in unseating her tenacious rider, and then, with the 
 speed of an arrow from the bow, her wild hair singing in the 
 wind, she had darted with fierce neighings through the 
 crowded gate, and held her way, trampling and overturning 
 every thing opposed, direct to the citadel, into Ae accustomed 
 courts of which she rushed, plunging and foaming like 
 wizard, wild thing, broken loose. 
 
212 GABRIELLE I 
 
 Nothing could restrain her furious neighings, and as the 
 gates were now closed, the gallant colonel was soon made 
 aware of her presence. 
 
 The cheek of the chivalrous Don Diez turned yet a shade 
 paler, and his long, silken moustache quivered still more pal 
 pably, as he recognised the favourite palfrey of Senorita 
 Gabrielle, yet fully caparisoned, showing full plainly that 
 evil had come to her whom he well knew to be as more than 
 the apple of the eye to his indulgent master, the old 
 Governor Gonzaleze. 
 
 She must be a prisoner to this wild horde and now a 
 double disgrace stared upon him like a death s head, should 
 he do nothing to rescue her. No excuse could save him now, 
 no lying bombast of reported prodigies of valour could avail 
 him now. No swaggering bulletins from imaginary fields of 
 blood would divert that old father s heart from the stern 
 questioning which would demand her his life his child ! 
 the child of his old age at his hands. 
 
 The recreant felt that indeed something must be done to 
 save appearances ; and instantly, with loud gasconading, he 
 ordered the white palfrey to be equipped for him for his own 
 warrior seat that upon it alone he would lead them forth 
 to die a thousand deaths, or to the rescue of their mistress. 
 
 The Apaches had now left the town, and for hours and 
 hours the chivalrous knight galloped hither and yon about 
 the city, collecting his scattered heroes, thus managing to 
 waste the precious time within, which it might safely be con 
 jectured that the foe, he was thus ferociously bent upon ex 
 terminating, could have reached a security beyond the possi 
 bility of pursuit, within the fastnesses of the neighbouring 
 Anahuac mountains. 
 
 But his swarthy foe, meanwhile, proved to be in no hurry 
 to gain this desirable shelter ; and after loitering for some 
 time plundering the suburbs and insultingly challenging the 
 garrison to come forth and fight them upon open ground, 
 
THE WHITE MARE OF CHIHUAHUA. 213 
 
 they at length leisurely moved on with their encumbered 
 train, sending forth many a bitter taunt and defiance to 
 pursue. 
 
 When they were at length safely out of sight, and even 
 miles away, the gallant Lieutenant-colonel Diez came forth, 
 all renewed in burnished splendour, leading his valorous 
 force of green and gold-laced chivalry. The white palfrey 
 that he rode seemed verily snorting flames, so eager was she 
 chafing to plunge away at once upon the wild pursuit. 
 
 And now the drama hastens to a close. Hours have 
 passed, and it nears evening. The listless Apaches, who are 
 gorged at last with rapine and with blood, are slowly moving, 
 in a long, straggling, careless line, toward the entrance of 
 the first defile into the sheltering mountains. 
 
 Some, half asleep, bend forward, resting with their shields 
 upon the brooding necks of their jaded steeds. Others, in 
 reckless attitudes, gossip in groups as they walk lounging 
 beside their horses. A deep and tangled chaparral stretches 
 on either side, from the mouth of the defile out into the plain. 
 The advance-guard of warriors has already entered the 
 pass, while behind them, stretching for more than a mile, 
 follows the scattered train of stolen herds, and after these 
 the loose phalanx of their prisoners, tied upon horses and 
 mules, or straggling on foot the precious litter of which we 
 have spoken, alone being guarded, on the extremest rear. 
 Then came the lounging rear-guard of some fifty apathetic 
 warriors, when, as they were about entering the defile, a 
 thumping and irregular discharge of escopets, from the 
 chaparral on either side, told of an ambush when the listless 
 warriors, like drowsy wild-hawks to the clash of coming wings, 
 are on the instant wide enough awake, and bending for the 
 Btoop, glance fiercely round them for the coming foe. 
 
 Shot after shot burst dully, thumping round them; and 
 yet no harm seems done, no warrior falls, nor even starts 
 with sudden wound when suddenly, with a loud, derisive 
 
214 GABRIELLE : 
 
 laugh, they wheeled and darted back, to turn the chaparral 
 on either side, and rout the foe their scorn had so surely 
 recognised. 
 
 It was but a moment, and the chivalrous knights of Mexico 
 were seen scurrying, in sad disarray, hither and yon across 
 the open plain, back for Chihuahua, far faster than they came. 
 
 But see ! yon gayly plumed knight, who leads the frantic 
 rout, has suddenly wheeled from out the press, and is darting 
 back alone, upon his snow-white steed, as if in shame and 
 scorn he left the coward rabble, to expiate with his own gentle 
 blood this foul blot upon the high chivalry of Spain, or with 
 his own puissant arm singly to rescue the fair prisoner in 
 yon guarded litter. 
 
 It is the gallant Diez ! Who but he ? Mark what a falcon 
 flight he flies ! How direct is that fell swoop he makes ! 
 Shall his swarthy foes stand up before him ? Dare they 
 abide his fearful coming ? See, he is upon them ! Their 
 warrior ranks are opened. Hark as he passes ! was that a 
 wild yell of derision ? That furious neigh of his fiery steed, 
 those tremendous vaultings ! Hah ! Lieutenant-colonel 
 Diez is unseated by his snowy steed his foot drags in the 
 stirrup fiercely lashing his prostrate form with her heel, 
 the white mare of Chihuahua drags his lifeless body over 
 the plain, through, around, and amid the jeering warriors, 
 who will not deign to honour all that fallen chivalry with one 
 good, honest weapon-thrust. And so this fierce knight died 
 without one warrior wound. Alas ! alas ! 
 
 The rout now disappeared within the deep defile, and the 
 fair Gabrielle and her milk-white wizard palfrey have 
 passed from before our vision ! It may be for ever we 
 shall see ! 
 
THE 
 
 WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
TALES OF THE SOUTHERN BORDER. 
 
 THE WILD GIKL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE WANDERING HUNTERS. 
 
 WE are off ! and, far through the illimitable evening, are 
 
 " Flying an eagle s flight bold and forth on !" 
 
 Swiftly the cities of men are left behind our daring way, 
 and then, as we swing, flapping with tireless pinions through 
 the mid-air brushing fleecy edges of clouds away the towns 
 seem lessening into villages, and these are sown broadcast 
 now, dotting the hill or river side, the forest, valley and 
 plain. Now the little farms are scattered widely, and here 
 and there a "settlement" flecks the unbroken wild, at broad 
 intervals, with openings that let in the sun. 
 
 On ! on ! The forests darken the hills, the river, and the 
 prairies look more solemn. Here and there a hunter s lodge 
 seems to crouch from loneliness beneath their shadows, and 
 then the thin blue column of a camp-fire smoke soars upward. 
 
 Now there is a wide interval of dark and unrelieved repose. 
 The shadows look as if they never had been crossed, so still 
 are they upon the smoothly-gliding surface of wide, swift 
 rivers so still are they upon the rippling edges of broad, 
 ocean-like prairies, whose green, flowery surfaces are bowed 
 
 and lifted, wave-like, as the winds go by so still are they, 
 T 217 
 
218 
 
 THE WILD GIRL OP THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 flung down from abrupt cliffs into the dim, hushed valleys so 
 still are they, laid across the brows of grim and time-stained 
 rocks so sombre-bright are they, dropped in golden chequer- 
 work beneath the tangles of old forests 
 
 " The nodding horror of whose shady brows" 
 
 had else been threatening so dark, on the abyss of cataracts, 
 flashing as they leap, that even the thunder of their fall is 
 awed, and does not wake the ancient silence. 
 
 Now again columns of smoke pillar the clouds at far in 
 tervals ; but they ascend from the fires of another race. By 
 the bed of the great Missouri, and along its many arms, the 
 Arabs of the South have planted their tents of buffalo-hide, 
 and from their blazing fires ascend the streams of incense to 
 HIM they worship as Manitou the Great Spirit and essence 
 of all things ! 
 
 There they are ! half-naked, decked with dyed horse-hair, 
 and feathers, bearing long lances, quivers, and short bows ! 
 They go scudding to and fro, like swallows on the wing, upon 
 their swift and mottled horses wild and tameless knights 
 are they ! Ho ! for the Prairie Chivalry ! 
 
 This is towards the south ; but on the northern side of the 
 terrible river the smokes of a different race ascend. They 
 live in villages, and are wholly clothed in garments of dressed 
 skins, and these are made most picturesque by long fringes 
 and figures, worked with a rude art by the fingers of their 
 swarthy maidens. Then their frightful necklaces of the 
 claws of grizzly bears, their plucked crowns, with the long 
 scalp-lock tufted in eagle feathers, and their paint-begrimed 
 faces, remind us of the sterner and more ferocious North. 
 
 They, too, have quivers, bows, and lances, like their neigh 
 bours with the darker skins, but each is on a larger, heavier 
 Bcale ; and then they have the ugly war-club of the North. 
 
 They, too, have the white man s most terrible weapon, the 
 rifle, here and there among them. They are horsemen, too 
 

 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 219 
 
 but not such Centaurs as their southern neighbours are ; for 
 with them horse and man are one alike agile, tireless, and 
 fleet. 
 
 Here the Kansas river, after a long and weary way from 
 out the sterile country of the Arapahoes, comes bounding on 
 to meet the wild Missouri ; and farther yet above, the cold 
 and swift Nebraska is hurled, like a shining lance, down from 
 the strange and snow-capped mountain tangles of the " Three 
 Parks," into that remorseless bourn. 
 
 Amidst these wilds we find a group of wanderers. It is 
 composed of six in all, four of whom are rude, athletic men, 
 who reveal at once that they are frontiersmen, hunters, and 
 guides, by the incessant and restless habit of turning their 
 heads to look in all directions as they advance. They, as 
 usual, are armed in the old-fashioned manner, with the long- 
 barrelled rifle and single-barrelled pistols ; for, as a class, 
 they have an unconquerable aversion to innovations of what 
 ever kind in arms or equipment. 
 
 The other two, like men of sense coming out from civiliza 
 tion, had brought with them its most important improvements 
 in weapons. Each carried a pair of Colt s revolving pistols 
 at his belt, and a short steel-barrelled rifle, that told at nearly 
 a quarter of a mile with fatal accuracy. This they bore 
 before them, across the pummel of their saddles. The heavy 
 and terrible bowie-knife, with its keen, broad, polished blade, 
 hung, too, at their sides, in a leathern sheath. 
 
 Their dress was a strange commingling of the two extremes 
 of civilized and savage costume. It consisted of the ordinary 
 buckskin hunting-shirt, and trousers of gray cloth, but faced, 
 or "foxed," as the frontier term is, with the same material 
 as the shirt that is, those portions of it which were particu 
 larly liable to abrasion in the circumstances of their rough 
 life, were covered by this stout defence, stitched on to the 
 cloth. 
 
 They carried long lariats of plaited raw-hide, coiled and 
 
220 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 hung by a slight thong to the horn of their Mexican saddles 
 across the deep seats of which the blankets that covered 
 the riders at night were folded. A small bag of provisions 
 was slung beneath them, pannier-like, on either side, and 
 behind were tied a tin-cup and water-gourd. They were all 
 well mounted, but he who led the party seemed superlatively 
 so. The airy-necked and light-limbed mare that carried him 
 stepped as if she were shod with wings. 
 
 The person at his side was a smaller figure, yet there was 
 something exceedingly springy and cat-like in his alert bear 
 ing and gray, glittering eye. The face was what sentimental 
 young ladies would call "plain," for there was nothing pecu 
 liar about it, except the mouth and eyes. The former was- 
 something wide for the size of the face, with thin lips, the 
 upper one of which, even in profound repose, was curved in 
 a perpetual sneer. The square under-jaw expressed immense 
 and inexorable energy of will. Over all the face there was 
 an expression that irresistibly attracted, while it left you 
 uneasy and dissatisfied with the fascination. 
 
 " Carter, I am heartily tired of this whim of yours !" said 
 he, pettishly. 
 
 " I am sorry for it, Newnon ! But it is certainly a whim 
 by which we have gained a great deal, for it has filled our 
 veins with healthy blood, and made us stronger in every 
 sense by a hundred-fold than we were before." 
 * "Pshaw! I am not particularly emulous of the seven 
 labours of Hercules, and do not care to be able to grapple 
 hand to claw with a grizzly bear, or pummel a panther to 
 death with my fists ! I was strong enough already so far 
 as brute strength is concerned." 
 
 "Ah! but, Newnon, you are, as usual, uncandid. If we 
 do not have literally to battle in brute strength with the 
 seven labours of Hercules now, we shall have to do it intel 
 lectually with a far greater number and we cannot escape 
 the unfortunate accident, that the spiritual and physical lives 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 221 
 
 are so mutually dependent, that one must be toned by the 
 other. So I shall regard you an ingrate if you do not pro 
 nounce, in the solemn presence of this vast prairie-wilderness, 
 your infinite obligations to its free airs and rude accidents, 
 which have renewed your lungs, your digestion, and your 
 nerves, far beyond any previous capacity of either !" 
 
 " I do not need the lungs of a Camanche, the digestion of 
 an alligator, or the nerves of a horse ; for I only set up for 
 a simple gentleman, and had, as I conceive, quite enough of 
 all these before." 
 
 " But, Newnon, you must confess to having had the oppor 
 tunity of letting off your spleen in several hearty fights, 
 which I thought at the time you seemed to relish very much." 
 
 "Why, my good fellow, how you mistake me! I am no 
 warrior, any more than I am an alligator. I consider the 
 idea of chivalry to be most broadly burlesqued, in our firing 
 at these poor naked rascals with our terrible and resistless 
 weapons. I should never have brought myself to do murder 
 upon them, but that I found, in the first camp we sacked, 
 that they only carried parched wheat with them on their expe 
 ditions. I accordingly set them down as the primitive origi 
 nators of all those Grahamitish sins of light diet which sent 
 you out here an aimless wanderer, and, therefore, gave them 
 my pistol-balls with peculiar relish. It is a ludicrous mistake, 
 though, to suppose that there is knighthood or valour in 
 fighting, at any odds, such a pitiable foe. It is vastly 
 chivalric first to see your enemy enfeebled by starvation, 
 and then strike him because he is too weak to lift his arm !" 
 
 " I judge you will find out, before we are done with these 
 4 naked rascals, as you call them, that there is something 
 sufficiently formidable and annoying in their enmity, to make 
 them, if not * foemen worthy of your steel in the chivalric 
 sense, at least worthy extermination in the common sense." 
 
 " Not a bit of it ; I only shudder with apprehension for 
 
 the poor wretches, since every time we meet them I expect 
 T2 
 
222 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 to see you spiritually moved to deliver them a homily upon 
 the sin and consequences of eating beef, and to find the 
 tawny reprobates so exalted by your apostolic eloquence, that 
 they will eschew the flesh-pots forthwith, and make such a 
 descent upon the gardens and granaries of civilization, aa 
 will quite astound your benevolence !" 
 
 " My benevolence or philosophy, as you choose, is not so 
 easily astounded. I have eaten meat myself since we came 
 out here, and should continue to do so if I had it in my 
 power to use other food. I shall conform to the conditions 
 of savage life so long as I have no means or power of elevat 
 ing it ; but what is morally and physically true of the life 
 here, is not necessarily so of the higher life of civilization. 
 It may be well enough for the warrior, whose trade is 
 blood, to live upon the death of red-blooded animals ; but for 
 the philosopher, who deals with the lofty themes of pure 
 intellection, to congest and fever the clear-eyed calm of his 
 benignant purpose with such gross and bestial juices, is to 
 me revolting. I am quite conscious that I live the life of a 
 brute and a savage now, but that does not decrease my 
 aspiring veneration for the highest possibilities of our de 
 velopment. The machinery of society is oiled by compro 
 mises, and this is one I am willing to make." 
 
 " Do you know, Frank, I pity you greatly. You have 
 evidently been born too late. The time of the lawgivers, 
 prophets, and reformers is long since past. You are not a 
 Mohammed or a Moses therefore you clearly belong to the 
 modern type of fanatic, and it has so emphatically secured 
 the derision of civilization, that I am not surprised that you 
 should take refuge amid the unsophisticated stupidity of this 
 savage life. You have some chance here, for you can at 
 least preach to the deer and buffalo, provided they will conde 
 scend to stop and listen to you." 
 
 " Whether the deer and buffalo pause or not, I feel assured 
 that Humanity will at some time listen to this thought. 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE Is T EBRASKA. 223 
 
 But, however, the dark is coming on, and here, in this green 
 meadow, beside that stream, is a beautiful place for camping." 
 
 "Agreed." 
 
 Upon a swift and narrow branch of the arrowy Nebraska, 
 this company of wanderers pitched their tents or rather 
 spread down their blankets for the night. The shadows 
 settle over them, and darkness rested there. 
 
 The night was spent, in many respects, like other nights, 
 but the tired sentinels must have slept at their posts on the 
 last watches, for, when the full morning came, they looked 
 around in vain for their horses, which had been staked out 
 to graze at a little distance about the camp. They gazed 
 over the prairies until their eyes ached they turned toward 
 the forest, along the banks of the stream, but its dark sha 
 dows revealed nothing. 
 
 Poor fellows ! Could it be ! on foot in this vast and remote 
 wilderness ? What can they do ? How can they ever get 
 back to civilization ? Mariners, left by their wrecked vesse 1 
 on some desert island, would scarcely have been more deso 
 late than they. 
 
 They rubbed their eyes they stared and stared about 
 them, but it was of no avail the thing was done ! Their 
 horses had been quietly "stampeded" during the night, and 
 were now far enough away, scurrying over the wide prairie 
 before some band of Indian plunderers. 
 
 Our friend Clenny rages and fumes. It is an alternative 
 he had never calculated upon. His contempt for " the half- 
 naked rascals" was somewhat ameliorated, when he came to 
 recognise fully the extent and amount of the mischief done 
 by their silent prowess. The hunters had scattered in every 
 direction in the bootless search, and the two young m<in were 
 left alone in the camp in the chagrin of their solitude. They 
 stood together on the border of the prairie, and looked out 
 upon its blank and vast perspective with a forlorn and hope 
 less expression that was almost ludicrous. 
 
224 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 "Frank, may the devil take you and your scatterbrain 
 projects ! Would I had been tied to the bed-post, and you 
 to your grandmother s apron-string, before this silly expedi* 
 tion was undertaken ! But for your eccentric babyisms, we 
 should be comfortably secure now in our arm-chairs, with 
 coffee and breakfast before us, instead of having the unre 
 lieved prospect of some thousand miles or so, over valley, hill, 
 and plain, on foot, with the sure alternative of starvation to 
 console us." 
 
 " Good ! good ! I thought just now that these half-clad 
 savages were in every sense too contemptible to interrupt, in 
 the slightest degree, the calm equanimity of your life ! The 
 case is bad enough, I must confess, and we have the prospect 
 of trudging back home on foot. But ho ! What is that 
 coming toward us, with such directness, out of the vague 
 distance over the prairie ?" 
 
 " It is some wild animal." 
 
 " No, no ! It is my gentle and dear Celeste ! She has 
 escaped from the rude brutes, and is coming back to me !" 
 
 As the young man spoke, the beautiful mare came rushing 
 past Clenny right up to him, and thrust her small head 
 against his bosom. 
 
 " Beautiful Celeste," said the young man, as he gently 
 patted the glistening neck of his returned favourite, "you 
 would not stay with the greasy barbarians. Welcome, wel 
 come ! Come, thou faithful pet, we will go out into the 
 wilderness again, and search for some means of rescuing our 
 poor, forlorn comrades." 
 
 It required but a few moments to equip the willing animal, 
 and then bounding into the saddle, Frank Carter gayly waved 
 adieu to his disheartened friend, and darted off across the 
 plain to search for help in any form. 
 
 For hours and hours his gallant mare kept on towards the 
 west with speed that did not flag. The rider was even more 
 weary than she seemed to be, and still they both urged on. 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 225 
 
 He had seen nothing yet that looked like hope, when out of 
 the wide prairie he rushed beneath the deep shadows of a 
 heavy forest, skirting a stream. 
 
 He now held up the pace of his mare, and as the last rays 
 of the setting sun fell down through the great armed trees, 
 he for the first time realized that he was lost. He had in 
 his hurry become confused as to the direction he had been 
 going, and now was utterly confounded with regard to the 
 course back to camp. All the day he had chased the shadow 
 of a vague hope, and now even that had vanished ; not even 
 the thousandth-and-one chance of meeting with some wan 
 dering fragment of a friendly Indian tribe remained, as it 
 seemed. 
 
 All was unrelieved despondency and gloom to him. Tho 
 gallant mare dragged her once elastic feet heavily along, as 
 she slowly, and at random, threaded the aisles of the old 
 forest. Here and there the solemn farewell of the day broke 
 through in golden splendour, illumining the huge trunks even 
 up to their summits and most minute twigs, and down to the 
 delicate mosses and flower-bells at their feet. Though the 
 young man was weary and heartsick, yet the glory of the 
 fading evening fell across his spirit with a forlorn smile. 
 
 He had no craven fears ; for, had he been capable of such, 
 his arms made him secure against prodigious odds ; but he 
 was sad because his friends expected him to come back with 
 help to them, and he could not go, since he was now as help 
 less as if a thousand miles intervened. 
 
 His beautiful mare walked with her fine ears drooping, and 
 with an expression of utter weariness that entirely corre 
 sponded with his own condition. Ho ! Her ears are pricked 
 forward, and she starts with a bound and a clear neigh. Her 
 fine senses have discovered something friendly in the pathless 
 forest. The young man spurs forward. There, beneath a 
 grand old beech-tree, a young girl is mounted on a black and 
 
 glossy horse, that moves as if inspired with all volatile es- 
 
 15 
 
226 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 sences of grace. Our wanderer pauses, for a slight check 
 will stop even the fresh impulse of his weary Celeste. This 
 is a strange, extravagant sight to start from out the depths 
 of the savage wilderness yet it is real. 
 
 A young girl, with golden hair and it is not less golden 
 that the mellow sunset mingles with its glistening threads 
 sits easily on a shining horse, that goes quickly into shadow, 
 and comes glancing into light again as it circles round the 
 tree. 
 
 A strange attraction, surely, is that in the great tree, 
 round which she circles on her horse, snapping her fingers, 
 singing as she whirls ! On a large limb a tawny panther 
 crouches. Its ears are laid close back upon its head, its long 
 tail is waving to and fro, and it is ready for the spring. 
 Still that young girl gallops round and round him, disturbing 
 the aim of its gathered leap by the swift movements of her 
 beautiful horse, and taunts the hot glare of those fierce eyes, 
 snapping her white fingers gayly in their angry gleam, as she 
 goes by ! 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE ADVENTURE. 
 
 IT was strange enough how that young creature came here 
 thus illumining the savage wilderness. Her presence, too, 
 would have been strange enough anywhere, for it expressed, 
 at a glance, all the wilful and bright tenderness of the young 
 imbodied April. 
 
 But by what spell, yet stranger and more powerful, had 
 such a being been made to start forth from this blank bar 
 baric wild mounted, too, like some oriental princess coming 
 out of Dream-land, on a sleek steed, that glistened as if new 
 sprung from a young poet s brain ! 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 227 
 
 And then that strange, fantastic whim of hers ! To circle 
 round and round on her fleet horse, the spotted cougar crouch 
 ing on the limb, taunting his heated eyes as she went by, 
 with snapping fingers and her mocking song ! No dreamer 
 ever dreamed a dream of such wild, subtile daring, and yet 
 our poor, forlorn Frank Carter looked upon the real from 
 beneath drooping lids. 
 
 Hah ! They drooped but for a moment with the over 
 coming weariness of his long ride and hopeless mood, but 
 when he saw to realize the happy gay, audacity of that bright 
 creature, his eyes flew open wide, and the gleam that lit 
 them shot through all his frame, and caused Celeste to bound 
 forward, sympathetically with all her morning springiness. 
 
 The young girl, who was intent upon her perilous sport, 
 did not perceive him, even, although very near when her 
 black steed pricked his ears forward sharply, and gave her 
 warning that either friend or foe was coming. 
 
 She did not turn her eyes from off those of the dangerous 
 brute she was teasing, but, watching her chance, quickly 
 urged her fiery animal, lifting him by the rein at the same 
 time one tremendous leap ! the circle was broken, and she 
 was far beyond the reach of the cougar s spring. 
 
 She does not pause, but the \black steed darts off with 
 much longer and swifter bounds through the trees. 
 
 Poor Carter, whose life has suddenly been inspired, now 
 perceives the beamy source of the inspiration to be vanishing 
 through the shadows. 
 
 With her flying form goes all the hope of many things as 
 dear or dearer even to him than life the prospect of finding 
 his friend and comrades again of rescuing them from their 
 painful position, and worse than even this of losing from 
 his sight the clearest, brightest gleam of beauty that has 
 ever crossed his path ! 
 
 He is utterly maddened by the thought, and wildly urges 
 his exhausted mare. But Celeste has caught the fire of his 
 
228 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 eager will for her instinct teaches her that to follow that 
 flying steed must lead her to food and rest, and so she bounds 
 away as if with renewed wings, and needs not the hot urgings 
 of his impatience. 
 
 Away they go, pursuer and pursued, down long aisles of 
 the old forest, flying with speed across the deepening shadows. 
 Now and then he perceives, far ahead of him, a glimpse of 
 fluttering drapery between the trees, and this is enough to 
 lead him. 
 
 It was vain for him to shout after her for, in the stupor 
 of his surprise, he had forgotten to do this until she was far 
 enough beyond the reach of his voice. 
 
 Now she is gone she has disappeared utterly the last 
 flutter of the drapery that guided him has met his aching 
 eye alas ! poor Frank, how his heart beats ! 
 
 The forest has suddenly grown more close with thickets of 
 underbrush, and among these she has quickly glided, disap 
 pearing like some fleet white-footed vision through the gates 
 of sleep. 
 
 " Curses ! curses !" muttered the young man, from out the 
 depths of his despair, as he checked up to look for the trail 
 of her horse ; " I have overrun her trail far enough by this 
 time ! Oh ! accursed luck or stupidity, rather ! What 
 shall I do ?" 
 
 Then acting under a sudden impulse, he gave the reins to 
 his mare, while he muttered 
 
 " Her astonishing instinct has often befriended me before, 
 perhaps it may now." 
 
 The sagacious creature instantly understood, and turned 
 abruptly to the left of the course he was pursuing. Her pace 
 for the last few moments had greatly fagged, as if she was 
 discouraged by the knowledge that they were going wrong ; 
 but now she bounded on as buoyantly as at the beginning of 
 the day. 
 
 Frank Carter had so often tested the sagacity of horses 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 229 
 
 under such circumstances of bewilderment to the rider, and 
 felt such entire confidence in that of the high-bred crea 
 ture he now rode, that the blood rushed back to his temples 
 with a warm flush of reviving hope, and raising himself in 
 the stirrup, he laughed aloud 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! my vagabond Sprite of the woods ! we will 
 catch you yet !" 
 
 A clear, musical laugh rang out in silvery gladness, close 
 to his side. Celeste gave a desperate shy, that nearly threw 
 him from the saddle. 
 
 He turned his head as quickly as he could recover his seat, 
 and just in time to see the strange object of his wild pursuit 
 vaulting her black horse in a tremendous leap across the 
 deep, wide fissure cut down into the alluvion by a small stream 
 which passed a few paces to the right of his course. 
 
 She drew up on the other side and turned, still laughing 
 merrily. 
 
 "Your vagabond Wood-Sprite is not so easily caught, sir ! 
 Now follow my Black Hawk across that gap, if you can ?" 
 
 " If I only had wings, I might ; but my poor Celeste is 
 leg-weary." 
 
 " Pity, for she seems a beautiful creature ! But you, sir ! 
 who are you ? As you can t get at me, I will hold a parley 
 with you, and want a few questions answered ; you had as 
 well be docile, and answer me in downright honesty for if 
 you displease me, I shall leave you to your fate since I judge 
 you to be lost, and it will be impossible for you to get across 
 the deep cut of that stream, this night, to follow me ; and 
 besides, Black Hawk can beat your Celeste running, clear 
 out of sight." 
 
 "Not so sure of that, my pretty chatterbox!" said Frank 
 Carter, with a slight laugh, while his heart beat high, for 
 there was a musical freshness ir that voice and in those 
 bantering words that started his bhod in career, though he 
 
 could see her form very indistinctly through the deepening 
 U 
 
230 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 shadows. " Give Celeste a few days to rest, and I will try 
 the truth of your boast. But, to answer your first question, 
 I am a Southern planter, and, I hope, a gentleman ! If 
 that satisfies you, let us have your next question." 
 
 " You Southern planters, I suspect, are quaint gentlemen, 
 then ; see how you have illustrated them ! First, you come 
 suddenly and without warning, to interrupt the private amuse 
 ments of an innocent young maiden ; then, you chase her 
 timid flight through the forest as furiously as if she had been 
 some savage wild beast, upon whose thick hide you were 
 emulous to wreak your chivalry ; then, to crown all, you in 
 sult her by calling her a vagabond Wood-Sprite ! Do you 
 Southern gentlemen habitually deal in such hard names about 
 young maidens?" 
 
 " Southern gentlemen are not frequently, I must confess, 
 honoured, as I have been, by an introduction to such mys 
 terious characters as Wood-Sprites or yourself; therefore, I 
 cannot undertake to say how their language would be guarded 
 in speaking of them particularly if they did not expect to 
 be heard. But recollect, most merciless mystery ! that you 
 can be quite as witty at my expense when we are a little 
 nearer together. I fear that sweet voice will catch cold, if 
 you persist in sending it out on the night-air so far, and over 
 this water, too !" 
 
 " Most tender solicitude, that of yours, my gallant South 
 erner ! But you must first tell me how it happens, that you 
 are here in this wild, dangerous region, alone ; and then, if I 
 am satisfied, I will take the case of your immediate relief 
 from durance vile into consideration." 
 
 " The tale is soon told. The horses of our party were 
 stampeded last night, and every one carried off; but my 
 faithful Celeste here would not stay stampeded, but made 
 her escape, and came back at full speed to rub her head 
 against my bosom. I came off on her to look for help at 
 random, and got lost, as you conjectured ; you know the rest. 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 231 
 
 for j-uu can best explain how fate has made this dark day 
 bright to me !" 
 
 "A very touching story, that particularly the portion of 
 it relating to the conduct of your gentle Celeste for whose 
 bright sake I must relent towards her saucy master. She 
 must have comfortable quarters this night, and of course may 
 bring you along in spite of the sentimental twang you gave 
 to the close of your piteous tale !" 
 
 "Any way !" said he, laughing; "I am willing to accept 
 such patronage on any terms only let me be nearer you, 
 and I am content." 
 
 " Fie ! fie ! Hush ! or I shall be compelled to make you 
 carry Celeste instead of she you. But come on, and I will 
 show you a crossing-place some distance farther up." 
 
 She started off at a gallop, waving him to follow with her 
 hand, the whiteness of which showed through the dark which 
 had now fairly set in. 
 
 He kept along the stream parallel with her for about a 
 mile, in perfect silence, when she suddenly halted and ex 
 claimed 
 
 " Here, my chivalric friend ! Here you can get across, if 
 you are careful. It is a crossing-place for deer and elk, but 
 its ups and downs are very abrupt and narrow. Look sharp 
 for the path, and leave the rest to Celeste !" 
 
 This last caution he was by this time, if not before, wise 
 enough to profit by. Horses see better in the dark than 
 men, as he was aware, and after getting into the deep trace, 
 he gave up the reins passively. The sagacious animal de 
 scended with great caution, and before she reached the bottom 
 gathered her feet together after the fashion of mules in de 
 scending steep places, and steadily slid the rest of the way. 
 When the water was reached, and Celeste paused to slake 
 her thirst in the shallow but singularly rapid stream, he 
 looked up, and perceived that it had cut the banks square 
 
232 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 down some twenty feet. This would have been an ugly pit 
 fall to stumble into in the dark ! 
 
 Now, by a desperate struggle of the gallant mare the 
 ascent was gained, and he stood side by side with the en 
 chantress who had led him so wild a chase. 
 
 " Gallantly done, my brave Celeste !" and she stooped 
 forward to caress, with her white hand, the slight neck of 
 the gentle animal. " You shall have a good night s lodging 
 for that same feat ! How silky her hair is !" she exclaimed, 
 with a childlike expression of astonishment, as she ran her 
 fingers through the wavy mane of the panting Celeste. 
 
 " The mare is well enough, but I, too, have silken hair ; 
 may I not claim some slight recognition as well ?" said he, 
 in a tone of affected pettishness. 
 
 " Upon my word, I did not know, sir, that your hair was 
 silken it is too dark for me to see ; consider yourself, then, 
 if you please, as recognised through the coincidence !" 
 
 "Accept my gratitude for the large honour." 
 
 " With pleasure, sir ! But come ! come ! it is time this 
 dear Celeste was stabled, and I suppose she must bring you, 
 whether or no ! Come, Celeste ! Black Hawk and I are off! 
 bring him with you you may!" and with a gay laugh she 
 darted along the old trace, followed by Celeste whom she 
 had so coquettishly dignified, and her laughing burden, our 
 philosophical friend, Frank Carter. 
 
 For some distance, the trace was too narrow for them to 
 approach sufficiently near for conversation but then it 
 widened rapidly, so that before they had passed from be 
 neath the heavy gloom of the forest, the emulous Celeste had 
 closed up alongside of the light-heeled Black Hawk for she, 
 too, had been inspired by the soft touch of those white hands 
 and of course brought along her depreciated burden with her 
 "into position." 
 
 Frank Carter felt the strange, delicious thrill of a new joy 
 passing into his life. His voice trembled slightly, with a 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 233 
 
 tender eagerness he could not control, but endeavoured to 
 conceal under the affectation of humorous bantering. 
 
 " Ha ! it becomes you, most wicked and incomprehensible 
 of sprites, to remember that you are now in my power ; and 
 confess to me, on penalty of losing your wings, what sort of 
 resting-place you expect to find in this wild and gloomy 
 forest, to-night. I suspect it will prove to be some mighty 
 Druidical work, amid the moss-draped boughs of which your 
 light hammock swings while Black Hawk is stabled at the 
 hollow root ! Will there be room, think you, for poor Celeste, 
 in such narrow quarters?" 
 
 " Never mind, inquisitive sir, whether my house be on the 
 earth, under the earth, or above the earth, so that Celeste 
 be properly provided for ; and, besides, supposing your sup 
 position to be true, Black Hawk, I can tell you, sir, is a gal 
 lant gentleman for I have not heard him call Celeste a 
 single hard name yet, or threaten to cut her ears off with 
 his teeth, as my wings were threatened once by somebody 
 under the moon ! Black Hawk would surrender his stall, 
 and neigh with delight at the opportunity of so honouring 
 himself." 
 
 "Fortunate Celeste! you shall surely be embalmed, in 
 honour of the interest you have excited, if I do not have the 
 misfortune to die first of envy !" said the young man, in a 
 dolorous voice, stooping to pat the animal s neck. 
 
 The merry girl bent forward, too, over her saddle-bow, in 
 an ecstasy of laughter, but it was subdued, like the soft 
 twittering of an oriole singing in its dreams. 
 
 Now they emerged from beneath the deep shadows of the 
 forest into the open prairie, and, as she raised her delicate 
 face, the cold moon shone upon its white, laughing beauty, 
 and was warmed amid the golden tangles of the curls that 
 fell about it from beneath her close riding-cap. 
 
 " Well ! well ! be comforted, poor gentleman. I will 
 
 (J2 
 
234 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 undertake, with the most disinterested pleasure, to officiate 
 for you in the same capacity, provided such an event occurs. 
 I should like myself to have you preserved as an extraordi 
 nary specimen of sentimental melancholy, and should label 
 you, for the warning of future ages, Died of a broken 
 heart. " 
 
 And indeed, to have witnessed the rapt, ecstatic trance of 
 gazing wonder into which our friend the enthusiast had fallen 
 since the upturning of that face in the clear moonlight, one 
 would have been justified in fearing some sentimental ca 
 tastrophe. 
 
 If the partial glimpse he had obtained of that face at the 
 tree had been sufficient to thrill the core of his life and urge 
 him on through the desperate pursuit which followed, this 
 clear unveiling of it held him in a sort of trembling awe that 
 lulled his whole being into the mute reverence of worship of 
 a God-revealed beauty, the presence of which was even now 
 at his side ! 
 
 His nature, electrically convulsed, was changed utterly 
 changed in one wild instant. The strong spell was on him. 
 He had lived a century in the time of a few hushed breath 
 ings. The world was the same world, and went around on 
 its old axle at the same appointed speed but now, it had 
 hurled its shadowy garments off through the dark space, and 
 let in a new light, flashing over it revealing itself to him so 
 calmly glorious, that he marvelled whether he was not stand 
 ing in a dream upon some starry paradise. 
 
 This glorifying light was in himself, though not the less real 
 to him. The smouldering fires upon that sacred altar in the 
 centre of his life, which he had so long and jealously guarded, 
 had, at last, been lit by the searching spark, which, alone, 
 could rouse them ; and they had flamed up through all the 
 senses, illumining the outer world through every portal. 
 
 Before the end of her last speech, the young girl had been 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 235 
 
 arrested by the strange intensity of his look. Her face 
 sobered in an instant, while her voice, too, sobered with the 
 conclusion. A bright light, that had shone from out her 
 whole face, seemed to gather towards her eyes, leaving the 
 rest of the face at once solemnly cold, and centring in them 
 with a keen and glittering brilliancy that was almost blinding, 
 dwelt steadily with those of the young man through some 
 moments of profound and mutual silence. 
 
 That look ! that look ! as their swift horses sped on beneath 
 the brilliant moonlight, and they with faces turned gazed in 
 a flashing, still communion, into each other s eyes ! One 
 soul, at least, was born again ! 
 
 Ah ! that was a fearful moment pregnant with all the 
 purpose and the joy of one life, or of both ! We shall see. 
 
 Frank Carter was mute ; he forgot to inake any reply, or 
 that any was necessary. His life was stilled within itself, 
 striving to realize the bliss of the new birth. 
 
 The strange, bright creature by his side was silent, too, as 
 if she felt her being had been strangeiy startled ; but then 
 she urged her horse impatiently, until he had bounded many 
 paces ahead of the weary Celeste. It seemed as if she were 
 rushing away, utterly to leave them. 
 
 Poor Carter was stupified, and had not realized the danger, 
 when Celeste neighed with such an agonizing, shrill, peculiar 
 neigh, as can only come from out the chest of a noble horse, 
 weary and starving, who trumpets the despairing alarm for 
 help. 
 
 Black Hawk heard it and stopped. The young girl passed 
 her hand quickly as if confused across her brow, and then 
 wheeled the eager animal to return. She galloped back, and 
 reining up close to the side of Carter, she leaned forward 
 towards his ear, and said, with a musical shout 
 
 " Ho ! Hilloa ! Dreamer, wake up ! The lights of my 
 father s rancho are in sight. We shall be there in a few 
 
236 THE WILD GIRL OP THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 moments, and I would not have him imagine I have picked 
 up some vagabond," and she lifted her finger, archly "What 
 shall I say lunatic or genius ? So wake up, and make your 
 self presentable, by self-possession, before a pair of eyes that 
 read men mathematically !" 
 
 The trance was over with him for the time, for her levity 
 shocked him out of it. 
 
 "Bah!" said he, " I have a contempt in general for minds 
 which call themselves mathematical those which are really 
 so, never know it, and only express it in results those who 
 feel the want of this great poising central element of thought, 
 always manage to get the reputation for it, through the noise 
 they make to conceal their great want. However," said he, 
 with a laugh, " understand that I shall be entirely prepared 
 in meeting this mathematical father of yours to recognise 
 him through the i coincidence ! 
 
 Frank Carter said this with more bitterness than he him 
 self could have accounted for. 
 
 These young people were now farther apart than when 
 they first spoke together, and yet neither could tell the reason 
 why. It is one of the mysteries of the grand passion, which 
 time may explain. 
 
 The lights which were in the distance now seemed close at 
 hand, and as they came from the prairie into the edge of the 
 skirting forest, all the sounds and sights peculiar to a rancho 
 of the extreme frontier greeted them at once. 
 
 They dismounted amid the barbarous hubbub in which 
 the lowing of cows, bleating of sheep and goats, the neighing 
 of horses, the baying of dogs, and the jargon of Indians of 
 all ages collected before the gates of the high, strong pick 
 eting, which surrounded the rancho, were mingled. 
 
 The arrival of their bright mistress was greeted with shouts 
 by all the Indians, of every age, who were collected as if 
 awaiting her coming. They gave up their horses to these 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 237 
 
 willing servants, though not until the young girl had given 
 an imperative injunction to several with regard to the treat 
 ment of Celeste. 
 
 Turning now, they mounted the high blocks leading to the 
 top of the picketing which surrounded the rancho. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE QUARREL AND THE BREAKFAST. 
 
 FRANK CARTER and his fair guide, on descending the 
 stiles of the picketing, found themselves in the wide court 
 of the rancho. 
 
 On the two sides of the square, as they advanced, were 
 low ranges of huts, composed of smaller picket-posts, the 
 interstices of which were filled with moss and mud. A buffalo* 
 robe hung across each entrance, and served for a door while 
 the flat roofs were thatched with bulrushes. 
 
 The opposite side of the square towards which they were 
 moving, presented a higher front, the upright posts of which 
 were larger, while there appeared to be but a single entrance 
 in the centre, which was closed by a wide, strong door. 
 
 The light streamed out from a part of its length, through 
 small, square openings, like the port r holes in the sides of a 
 man-of-war. The noise which heralded their approach, had 
 evidently caused some commotion inside, and the lights were 
 seen glancing to and fro behind the port-holes, passing ra 
 pidly along the whole length of the front. The lights shone 
 for an instant through the port-holes of that portion of it 
 which had been heretofore obscured, and then it was left 
 again in darkness. All this Frank Carter observed before 
 they reached the great door in the centre, for their way was 
 absolutely impeded by the crowd of dogs composed of 
 
238 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 "Mongrel grim, 
 
 Hound or spaniel, brach or lym, 
 Or bobtail tike or trundle-tail," 
 
 which came thronging about them, smelling at the stranger, 
 or bounding in rude gambols around the feet of their young 
 mistress. 
 
 When they reached the great door, the young girl seized 
 a string which hung outside, and jerking it sharply, caused a 
 loud rattling within. 
 
 After the delay of a few moments, the bolts within were 
 sprung, and as the heavy door swung slowly back, a mellow, 
 manly voice exclaimed 
 
 " What has kept you out so late ? this is dangerous, my 
 daughter !" 
 
 A stout man, dressed in fringed buckskins, with a brace 
 of pistols at his belt, stood in the doorway. 
 
 "Papa, I have brought my excuse for the delay along 
 with me here he is!" and she made way for Frank Carter, 
 who had been standing in the shade behind her, to come 
 forward and present himself. 
 
 The man lifted the large iron lamp he carried, above his 
 head, and as Carter stepped boldly and quickly forward, he 
 fell back with a gliding movement, while his hand, as it 
 seemed, involuntarily moved towards his pistol, though it 
 dropped quickly again. 
 
 There was no appearance of startle, or even surprise, in 
 the face of this man, upon which the habitual smile about the 
 facile mouth was unbroken. The gesture seemed to be rather 
 one of habitual caution than of fear. His hair was as white 
 as the driven snow, and but for the extraordinary contrast 
 of heavy eyebrows, which were as black as midnight, and 
 compelled the eye to dwell on them, it would never have been 
 observed that a slight shade of vexation crossed them th^ 
 moment his glance took in the whole figure of Frank. 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 239 
 
 The men stood facing each other, with steady regard, 
 without speaking, for several moments. 
 
 The young girl came forward with a very demure look, 
 and said 
 
 " Papa, I found this person lost and wandering through 
 the dangerous forest of the Black Walnut Bottom. His 
 beautiful mare, Celeste, was nearly exhausted, and I knew 
 they would both break their necks by stumbling through the 
 dark into some of the deep cuts which cross it, so I took 
 them under my patronage, and piloted them here for safety." 
 
 "You did right, my child," said the gray-haired man; 
 and, bowing with a bland, benevolent smile, to Frank Carter, 
 said, "You are welcome to the rude shelter and hospitalities 
 of my rancho, sir. Walk in." 
 
 " Thank you, sir," said Carter, somewhat stiffly, and still 
 pausing at the threshold. " The horses of my party were 
 stampeded this morning by the Indians, and I was on the 
 look-out for help for my comrades, when I was fortunate 
 enough to meet this young lady." 
 
 "A very common accident in this region. But come, sir, 
 walk in, if you please. We will first see to your own com 
 fort, and then to-morrow we will concert measures for the 
 relief of your friends ;" and he turned, holding the lamp 
 courteously, so as to show the way, and led the young man 
 back through a passage formed of stout stockading, like the 
 outside. At the farther extremity there was a door on either 
 side, opposite. He threw open the door on the left, and 
 handing the lamp to the young girl, said " See to the gen 
 tleman s comfort, while I return to refasten the entrance." 
 Then he bowed to Carter " Enter, sir ; and please excuse 
 me for an instant. We find the precaution of bolts and bars 
 is not to be neglected here." 
 
 He retired, and Carter followed the young girl into a 
 square apartment, the sides of which were roughly plastered 
 over the logs. 
 
240 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 A fire blazed merrily upon the broad hearth at the farther 
 extremity, and though Carter had not realized that the night 
 was somewhat chilly, he now found its heat very pleasant as 
 he approached. 
 
 The young girl placed the lamp upon a rough board table, 
 and pointing to a side of the room along which a number of 
 guns were ranged in racks, formed of buck s horns nailed 
 against the logs, said 
 
 " See, there is my father s armory. You can dispose of 
 your rifle somewhere amid that array of antlered pride, and 
 then be seated." 
 
 The young man obeyed, and deposited his rifle and other 
 equipments, except his pistols, which he retained at his belt, 
 as he had perceived that his host wore them within doors. 
 The young girl, who was divesting herself of her riding-cap, 
 said, with something like her former gayety 
 
 " I hope, sir, although you may not find this home of mine 
 quite so airy as the one you supposed me to occupy in the 
 old Druidical oak, that it will nevertheless prove to be sub 
 stantially comfortable after your exhausting ride !" 
 
 " Yes, I find all the difference to be in favour of the sub 
 stantial reality. This place is singularly cosy, and promises, 
 from the odours of the kitchen, something more than a sop 
 of moonshine for supper." 
 
 He turned as he spoke, and for the first time these young 
 people confronted each other with heads uncovered, and in 
 the blaze of a broad light, too. It was a decisive moment 
 with them both. 
 
 A necessary consequence of the mutual revulsion which wo 
 have described as occurring directly after that extraordinary 
 interchange of electrical sympathy during the moonlight ride, 
 had been distrust of themselves and distrust of each other. 
 They felt as if the astonishing and romantic circumstances 
 of their meeting had unduly excited their senses and imagi 
 nations. That possibly the object of this excitement would 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 241 
 
 appear, under other conditions, to be a very commonplace 
 and unattractive person ; then these riding-caps had obscured 
 that portion of the face, or rather head, which is instinctively 
 felt to be the most significant of power, sentiment, and truth. 
 
 They now faced each other with those white fronts un 
 veiled, which are the tablets upon which God s own hand has 
 placed his immortal signet of the Spiritual. 
 
 It is beyond measure surprising what a difference in our 
 first recognition of persons is sometimes caused by the simple 
 act of lifting a hat or bonnet from the face. Both remem 
 bered this fact in their experience, and were, from the causes 
 we have given, prepared to be shocked in some degree. 
 
 But, whatever the effect, there was but a moment left for 
 its expression. 
 
 The young man saw her golden hair fall down, from its 
 release, upon her neck like a shower of summer sunshine upon 
 a bank of snow he saw that in breadth and height her head 
 expressed as much of dignity as her face had of gentleness, 
 sentiment, and wit and then the inexpressible presence of 
 joy and beauty which had charmed and arrested his whole 
 life ! it seemed now to be glorified by the strong light. 
 
 The young man had only time to see this in one timid 
 glance, and to meet her downcast eye as it flashed on him 
 for a moment from beneath the drooping lids and then she 
 turned away hastily. 
 
 They knew each other now, and had no more time for, or 
 thought of, bantering that night again : at least Frank Carter 
 supposed this to be so, and that her sudden turning off was 
 caused by the sound of the quick approaching steps of her 
 father. 
 
 The gray-haired man entered the room. 
 
 " Of course, sir, you are hungry. Child, see that the 
 gentleman has enough of substantial comfort to-night, to 
 make him realize that we do not intend to starve him, after 
 
 all his fatigue and fasting since the morning." 
 V 16 
 
242 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 "Yes, papa!" and she glided out through an opening 
 beside the fire-place. 
 
 " Be seated, sir ; our chairs are, as you perceive, con 
 structed after a primitive model. The green raw-hide, 
 stretched upon this frame, when once dried, holds it together 
 like iron and that, too, without nails." 
 
 "Yes," said Frank, as he seated himself, " I have observed 
 that the Southern Indians make great use of the same ma 
 terial ; their saddles are constructed in a like manner with 
 your chairs, and are as firm as iron could make them, except 
 under a long soaking in the water. But this is an extra 
 ordinary position of yours, so remote from civilization that I 
 am surprised to find even common comforts around you." 
 
 " Oh ! comforts, in the common sense of civilization, 
 we have none of, but we dare to live here as boldly as 
 men dream they can live that is, amid plenty and without 
 fear." 
 
 Frank Carter turned suddenly to look in the face of the 
 man who could pronounce himself one of those who were 
 wild enough to hope so much for the future of humanity. 
 
 "What!" said he, earnestly, "are you Utopian, and at 
 your age, too? I thought young poets only had such visions. 
 I should hardly expect to be forgiven, myself, for being 
 guilty of the audacity of supposing that the time might come 
 when every man would have enough to eat, and no one be 
 compelled to wear pistols at his belt." 
 
 "What you say of pistols at his belt would be witty 
 enough in New York, but here it is too much an inconvenient 
 necessity to be joked about. For certainly, if a prodigal 
 Nature yields us a profuse abundance, the ingenuity of Colt 
 has guaranteed us, in his revolvers, a secure possession thereof. 
 I can only control the savage herd about me by the terror 
 which the constant presence of this, to them, mysterious and 
 really formidable weapon inspires." 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 243 
 
 " You seem to have been singularly successful in taming 
 these wild Ishmaelites ?" 
 
 " Yes ! I have been a sort of providence to these you see 
 gathered around me. I found them the forlorn fragment of 
 a tribe that had been cut to pieces in a mortal and desperate 
 feud with their distant neighbours, the Pawnees. I dis 
 covered they were remarkable, even among Indians, for their 
 skill in trailing ; and, as this is a very useful trait in the life 
 of a frontiersman, I secured them to my service by presents, 
 and have gathered them about me in the double capacity of 
 herdsmen and scouts." 
 
 "Do you think they can find my friends, to-morrow?" 
 said Carter, eagerly. 
 
 " Not a doubt of it. They can take your trail back from 
 where you dismounted this night, and follow it up through 
 every turn of your wanderings, to-day, to the spot from which 
 you started ; and if your friends have been patient or saga 
 cious enough to remain where you left them, we shall find 
 them before sundown." 
 
 " You greatly delight and reassure me. But, if I may not 
 be deemed intrusive, what do you propose to accomplish by 
 a settlement so remote as this ?" 
 
 " Oh ! as to that, I propose to accomplish my own purposes, 
 and to be out of the way of curiosity." 
 
 "A thousand pardons, sir !" said Carter, flushing up to the 
 roots of his hair. " The question was idly asked. I mis 
 took you for a philosopher, and supposed that your purposes 
 here were beneficent and candid. I hope you will forgive the 
 impertinence." 
 
 " Hold up, my young friend !" said the gray-haired man, 
 laughingly. " The question was natural and pertinent enough, 
 without being christened m-pertinent ; my position here is 
 sufficiently novel to excite curiosity in any one. I did not 
 mean my answer to apply to you in particular but merely 
 to express that I came out here to live as I pleased, apart 
 
244 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 from the insolent comments and saucy prying peculiar to the 
 haunts of men. You evidently have enough of philosophy 
 and a knowledge of the world in you to understand all this, 
 without offence." 
 
 " Yes ; I hope so. But pardon me, for I did not under 
 stand but" 
 
 Here the young girl came back, bearing the supper on a 
 wooden tray. 
 
 Frank Carter was unsentimental enough to rather rejoice 
 in the steams of the fat venison, though in her divinest 
 presence. 
 
 She set the food on the table before him, and withdrew 
 without a word. 
 
 Soon after a meal, which was enjoyed not the less for the 
 fact that it appeared to have been prepared by her, Carter 
 lay down upon a pile of buffalo-robes, at the invitation of his 
 host, and slept, as only men who are profoundly weary can 
 sleep. 
 
 When morning came, the first thought of the young man 
 was, after the image of his enchantress, of course, that of 
 purchasing horses and going to the relief of his friends. He 
 rose soon after daybreak, and was promptly joined by his 
 gray-haired host. 
 
 " You have horses for sale, sir, I judge, from the general 
 character of your establishment?" 
 
 " Oh, yes ; plenty of them ; come with me, and look at them." 
 
 They went out into the fresh morning air, and passing 
 through the picketing by a small gate behind the house, came 
 into the " horse-pen." 
 
 Here were fifteen or twenty animals, sleepily leaning 
 against each other. 
 
 Frank Carter instantly recognised, among them, the horses 
 that had been carried off in the stampede from his camp, and 
 turned upon his host with an inquiring look of startled 
 astonishment. 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 245 
 
 The gray-haired man smiled mischievously, and said, with 
 a slight laugh 
 
 "You know those fellows, do you?" 
 
 " Yes !" said Carter, haughtily drawing up his person, and 
 flashing his wide open eyes in interrogation, while his hand 
 Bought the handle of his pistol. " What den of common 
 robbers or horse-thieves is this I have fallen into ?" 
 
 " Hold ! hold ! my impulsive friend ! I am not a horse- 
 thief, nor do you understand, from what you see, half of what 
 I have to explain to you." 
 
 But our impulsive friend, as the gray-haired man facetiously 
 designated him, was not to be so easily restrained. 
 
 The fact, that the horses stolen from him in the morning 
 were here openly exposed in the horse-pen of the rancho of 
 his host, was instantly, in the mind of Frank Carter, asso 
 ciated with what had fallen from him during the conversation 
 of the preceding night, with regard to the uses to which his 
 Indians were applied, with all their remarkable skill in 
 trailing. 
 
 Then, too, he remembered the pistols worn inside the for 
 tress-like building the cautious stepping back as he entered 
 the care with which the strong door was bolted and barred 
 when he and the young girl had passed in and now the cool 
 and smiling impudence with which he had been shown into 
 the horse-pen to look upon his own wrong. All combined 
 to flash through the brain of Frank Carter the startling con 
 viction that he had stumbled or been decoyed into the den of 
 an audacious frontier robber, whose sang froid was probably 
 proportioned to the sense of absolute impunity in crime which 
 his remote position secured him. 
 
 This was a terrible blow to poor Frank ! His first impulse 
 was one of fierce indignation and even a deadly resentment 
 would have been the immediate consequence, but that the 
 image of the singular enchantress of the preceding evening s 
 
 adventure crossed his brain, from heart-wise, at this moment. 
 V2 
 
246 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 restraining his quick hand, to pause and listen for an 
 instant. 
 
 " The facts speak for themselves of what possible expla 
 nation can they admit ? For, if not a robber or horse-thief, 
 what are you?" said he, sternly, with his hand still resting 
 on the handle of his pistol. 
 
 " Why," said the gray-haired man, smiling blandly, " I am 
 simply an honest man, so circumstanced and surrounded that 
 I cannot help the occasional dishonesty of those in my 
 employ !" 
 
 " Pah ! I should think your honesty might find a very 
 effectual mode of protection from such little accidents as this, 
 in not keeping thieves about you. How do you account for 
 the complacency with which you offered me horses for sale as 
 your property, of the mode of acquiring which you knew 
 nothing ?" 
 
 This was said with such a manner of lofty and insulting 
 scorn, that it seemed as if it should have aroused rage in the 
 breast of a canonized saint. But our acquaintance of the 
 black eyebrows only elevated them with a more benevolent 
 and friendly look than ever. 
 
 There was no exaggeration of kindliness or friendliness 
 not even the shadow of a shade of what might be termed 
 insincerity, much less derision, that could be apparent to an 
 uninterested observer of the acutest discernment, in that 
 look, or in the mild, open smile which accompanied it yet it 
 aroused to the utmost degree the already angry mood of 
 Frank Carter. 
 
 He had been abominably outraged had expressed with 
 proper emphasis his sense of it had even assumed an ag 
 gressive posture, and yet this insolent bandit, as he now 
 thought him, presumed to smile in the face of his wrathful 
 common sense, or rather of a deep instinct of aversion, which 
 DOW possessed him entirely. 
 
 " Insolent, wretch !" said he, furiously, interrupting the 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 247 
 
 other as he was proceeding in a deprecatory tone of mildness 
 with the explanation he had promised. "You shall not add 
 the personal indignity of a taunt to every other outrage. I 
 have unfortunately partaken of your hospitality, and must 
 for the present hold my hand from chastising you as you 
 deserve." (Here the man laughed derisively, while Frank, 
 with a deepening flush upon his face, continued) " But, 
 sir, you shall not treat my just anger with levity, for if I 
 have not my horse- whip in reach to scourge you as you de 
 serve, I at least wear my boots conveniently enough for your 
 enlightenment on the spot," and he advanced, as he spoke, 
 into a sort of threatening proximity to the person of the 
 ^ray-haired man. 
 
 The man stepped back with that gliding serpent-like move 
 ment, of which we have before spoken. The smile upon his 
 face had not changed a line. It was the same smile, except 
 that suddenly it became a white smile, and a fiercer glitter 
 leaped from out his still eyes, about which his black brows 
 contracted strangely. 
 
 Frank Carter did not know fear, but there was something 
 so appallingly deadly and remarkable in the face before him, 
 that he forgot his rage in wonder at the psychological phe 
 nomenon, and paused for an instant to stare, dropping his 
 hand to his side. 
 
 The man muttered, as if to himself, "The wrong-headed 
 young fool won t listen ! He s given me trouble enough 
 already. Ha ! he will have it !" and at the same moment 
 whipped a revolver from his belt. 
 
 Carter was as quick as he sprang forward knocked up 
 his arm, and the weapon exploded into the air. He then 
 closed in, grasping the arm which yet held the still deadly 
 weapon with one hand, while he clutched the throat of his 
 murde^us antagonist with the other. 
 
 The struggle was a desperate one ; for the gray-haired 
 man was stouter and heavier, while the other was more agile. 
 
248 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 Several moments of darkened and furious wrestling, which 
 seemed as many centuries to Carter, had elapsed, when the 
 man, one of whose arms was free, snatched one of Frank s 
 own pistols from his belt, and placed it against his side. 
 
 Before he could fire the pistol, it was jerked away the 
 shrill scream of a woman s voice in terror accompanying 
 the act. 
 
 Frank released his desperate grasp, and staggered back. 
 
 " Father ! father ! In the good God s name, forbear. He 
 is our guest ;" and the young girl threw her arms about him 
 in such a way as to prevent his using the remaining pistol, 
 had he been disposed. 
 
 The man of the dark eyebrows did not struggle in this 
 embrace, and passively dropped his pistol. Frank Carter 
 stepped back yet farther, and for the first time turned ashy 
 pale, while he folded his arms across his breast. 
 
 The man s face remained still, and seemed shrunken in a 
 white and terrible collapse. The young girl shuddered visibly 
 through all her frame, and, reaching up, kissed his blanched 
 lips. 
 
 "Dear papa, do not look so. You always do what you 
 repent of, when your face looks this way." 
 
 " Child, be still !" he muttered, in a singularly solemn 
 undertone " The boy is a heady fool. He will not listen 1" 
 
 " But, dear papa, will you remember that he is my guest, 
 and pardon him for my sake. He is sacred to us both, what 
 ever he may have done, so long as he is here," and she 
 kissed him again. 
 
 " What could he have done, papa, to bring you into this 
 dreadful mood we both fear so much ?" and she turned back 
 her head as she clung about her father s neck, towards the 
 marble-like figure of Frank Carter, with a look in which re 
 proach and a wild, eager curiosity were strangely blended 
 
 "What did you do, sir?" 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 249 
 
 " Ask him !" said Carter, in a smothered, difficult voice, 
 as if he were choking. 
 
 "Dearest papa, tell me. I am sure I can make peace 
 between you." And she renewed her caresses with a sort of 
 clinging, frantic tenderness, that produced its immediate 
 effect for that singularly shrunken, white expression, ra 
 pidly gave way to the glow of life returning to the surface. 
 
 She looked up inquiringly into his face. In a moment it 
 had resumed its habitual expression of settled and calm 
 benignity. 
 
 "Father, dearest father, all will be right now!" and with 
 a warm kiss, she struggled from his now embracing arms, 
 and turned, with eyes glancing joy, upon Frank Carter, and 
 with a laugh as gay as that which first saluted him, said 
 
 " Come, my chivalric friend, you have no excuse. Tell 
 me what it is that has frozen you so suddenly into such a 
 sombre model of living statuary ?" 
 
 Frank Carter smiled faintly at first, but the penetrating 
 power of purity had gone out like a subtile aroma from the 
 life of this strange, bright creature, illumining, with a soft 
 light, that of both these persons. 
 
 Upon her father, we have seen its effect, or rather, felt it 
 glance like sun s rays into and from the ice. Into the soul 
 of the young man it shot with a keen, living flame that 
 vitalized the now smouldering fires upon that sacred central 
 altar, and sent them blazing up with the old fierceness 
 through vein, muscle, nerve, and sense. 
 
 His arms were unfolded as if he had been galvanized the 
 chill dropped from his person, like accumulated snow from 
 the drooped cedar that had been kissed by the warm sun of 
 spring, and as the freezing burden slided off, his keenest 
 sensations sprang back to the topmost reach of their aspir 
 ing, more lithe and vigorous than ever. 
 
 He said, laughingly "Ah, my guardian Sprite! the whole 
 of it is, that there was to me some slight mystery growing 
 
250 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 out of the peculiar circumstances of your father s life which, 
 as I did not understand at first glance, I was stupid enough 
 to fly into a passion about. I hope he and yourself may 
 forgive me for my haste for now I am satisfied of my mis 
 take, and that every thing will prove to be correct !" 
 
 In the mean time, the Indians of the rancho had come 
 crowding around the scene, attracted by the ominous sound 
 of the pistol-shot. 
 
 The gray-haired man turned to them with an imperious 
 wave of the hand, and spoke a few words in their own lan 
 guage. They dispersed instantly, almost, with a seeming of 
 affright. 
 
 " You had better go in, my child ; the explanation between 
 this gentleman and myself can as well be made while you 
 superintend the preparation of our morning s meal." 
 
 " Yes, papa ; I am so sure that all is understood between 
 you two now, that I go with entire cheerfulness don t be 
 too long !" 
 
 And she bounded away, glancing her bright face back with 
 a beaming look at Frank Carter as she went. 
 
 The father watched her until she disappeared, and then 
 turning, said, with a kindly voice 
 
 "Now, young sir, permit me to say, that had you only 
 waited a little for me to proceed, you would have been 
 satisfied." 
 
 " Possibly so, sir ! But pardon my impatient hastiness, 
 and proceed now." 
 
 "You are young your blood is quick and warm, and 
 therefore you are to be forgiven. I am anxious to satisfy 
 you that you have done me injustice. 
 
 " Now look at the probabilities of the case ! You think 
 or thought me a robber and horse-thief, because you find the 
 horses stolen from your camp in the horse-pen of my rancho. 
 Pretty strong circumstantial evidence to begin with ! Now 
 suppose I shoulJ tell you that I knew the horses to be in the 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 251 
 
 pen when I brought you here that I knew them to be stolen, 
 and suspected they had been stolen from you the moment I 
 heard your story what would you think?" 
 
 " Proceed, sir ! I would rather hear you fully, before I 
 hazard an opinion again." 
 
 " Discretion comes better late than never, young sir ! Now 
 hear how I will unravel all this vexed tangle for you. I spoke 
 to you, last night, of my Indians, and gave you some idea of 
 the uses to which their peculiar modes and habits are applied 
 by me to the necessities of my remote and isolated position 
 here." 
 
 " Yes you spoke of having used them as herdsmen and 
 scouts." 
 
 " This is their primary use to me. My daughter, as you 
 are probably by this time aware, is something bold and eccen 
 tric, so far as her out-goings and in-comings are concerned. 
 Her life here is companionless, and she seeks and will have, 
 in distant and solitary excursions, at nearly all hours, through 
 the forest and prairies in the neighbourhood, a dreamy fellow 
 ship with all the external forms of being presented by the 
 rude nature amid which we live." 
 
 Frank Carter stepped forward nearer to the gray-haired 
 man ; his form relaxed from the stately rigidity which had 
 heretofore characterized his bearing, and in an instant he 
 seemed like an eager child, listening to some fairy tale. He 
 had entirely forgotten his wrath, his suspicions, and every 
 thing else that was unpleasant now, and asked, with the un 
 conscious simplicity of some boy whose big eyes glistened 
 with curiosity 
 
 "What can she find out there to love, sir?" 
 
 The answer was accompanied by a slight inflexion of the 
 presiding smile 
 
 " Oh ! she has the faculty of finding things to love, and it 
 is necessary for me to see that her wilful humour is protected 
 on these amatory excursions ; I, therefore, send a portion of 
 
252 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 my Indian scouts, each day, to make the circuit of the range 
 usually travelled by her, to see that there are no trails com 
 ing in which indicate the approach of dangerous intruders 
 upon her play-ground. Others are employed to herd my 
 cattle and horses others are sent off as hunters, and these 
 must necessarily have a license with regard to horses, which 
 I cannot well control for, since I pay them a certain price 
 a head, it is impossible for me to tell whether they have stolen 
 them from a wandering party of Indians or adventurers, as 
 they always represent to me that they catch them with the 
 lasso from a drove of mustangs. I can only have my sus 
 picions from the appearance of the horses, as in the case 
 of" 
 
 "Never mind any further explanation," said Frank, with 
 eager impatience. "But tell me who are her playfellows, 
 and what are the objects of her love?" 
 
 His tormenter, with a mischievous turning down of the 
 corners of the mouth, proceeded 
 
 " Oh ! she has playmates in plenty, and seems to find things 
 enough to love, for, to my certain knowledge, she holds 
 tryst in the forest every morning, mounted on her favourite 
 Black Hawk. Do not blanch so quickly, my young friend, 
 for I think that there has been enough of that between us 
 this morning." 
 
 " Sir !" said Carter, bracing himself up and flushing very 
 much, " I was not aware that you added a connoisseurship 
 of complexions to the many accomplishments you have al 
 ready exhibited. However, it occurs to me, from my recol 
 lections of the morning, that this should be rather a sore 
 subject with you !" 
 
 The other went on, without appearing to notice the petulant 
 bitterness of this speech. 
 
 "Yes; I am informed by my scouts, who, among other 
 duties, are sometimes called to attend her wilful progress, 
 that she has quite as many love affairs as that old, diabolical 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 253 
 
 witch, Circe. For instance, she calls upon a favourite to ac 
 company her to tryst, before the sun has risen. Away they 
 go ! perhaps to the deep and heavy forest of the Black 
 Walnut Bottom the scout following at a respectful distance. 
 In a deep glen, or may be on a sunny knoll, she will pause 
 quickly at the foot of some huge hollow oak, and rapping on 
 its side with her riding-switch, her cautious lover will come 
 timidly forth, whisking" 
 
 " Papa, breakfast is ready !" 
 
 " Yes, dear ! Come, sir, let us walk in !" 
 
 Frank Carter followed, laughing an internal laughter, that 
 made the chambers of his heart to ring again with joyous 
 echoes ; yet he could not help biting his lips, too, with petty 
 vexation, for he felt that he had been most gracefully and 
 ingeniously quizzed in the first place, and in the next, that 
 he had been brutally hasty that morning. 
 
 It was with a half-abashed look that he seated himself at 
 the rude table. 
 
 How was the young man surprised at that meal ! 
 
 Before his host and himself were placed two large pewter 
 dishes, on one of which steamed venison, and on the other 
 a delicate hump-steak of buffalo ; between these was a dish 
 of hommony, as it is prepared by the Indians, out of the un 
 broken grain of Indian corn, and a plate of nicely-browned 
 cakes, composed of the same grain coarsely pounded. 
 
 But what caused his "special wonder" was the character 
 of the food placed before the young girl, who sat opposite to 
 them. 
 
 On one side of her was a square, shallow basket, fancifully 
 woven of coloured grasses. This was heaped with a variety 
 of nuts, ready cracked as the walnut, chestnut, hickory-nut, 
 beach-nut, pecan, etc., with a flavorous representative of the 
 family of acorns in a chincupin peculiar to that region. 
 
 On the other side were two smaller baskets of the same 
 
 shape and material, one heaped with pungent wild herbs, 
 W 
 
254 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 small, ruddy grapes, and plums, fresh with the dew upon 
 them, and the other filled with the white, flower-like grains 
 of parched or " popped" corn. 
 
 Our enthusiast stared, and was silent with the mute com- 
 munings of his surprise and wonder. He now remembered 
 what he had not noticed before, because he was too tired and 
 hungry then that she had not eaten with him the night 
 before. 
 
 He took and tasted mechanically of the food her father 
 placed upon his plate, but he watched her with breathless 
 interest. 
 
 He answered, mechanically, the bantering questions of his 
 host, while he watched her. Was that intended merely as a 
 dessert to their breakfast ? But the father never offered to 
 help her to the dishes before him, nor did she seem to suppose 
 it at all necessary to invite him or her guest to partake of 
 her simple food. 
 
 He watched her ! He saw her take the kernels from those 
 delicate nuts nearly whole, with the skill which showed a life- 
 habit, and then she would turn to the young herbs and grapes 
 new births of the "bedabbled morn" to freshen her glow 
 ing lips with their cool, dewy aromas. 
 
 Ah ! this seemed so chaste to him. 
 
 The wonder in his eyes grew warmer, and he saw, as she 
 placidly ate, what he had not observed before, but only felt, 
 which was the crystalline clearness of her complexion. It 
 seemed as if all the body was a window to the heart as if 
 you looked down through the perfect symmetries of some 
 large precious gem, wrought out by the spell of some weird 
 sculptor, that glowed of its own beauty in welcome to any 
 curious eye that sought to read that throbbing mystery in its 
 centre. 
 
 "Beautiful! beautiful!" thought the young man, while he 
 stammered incoherently, in answer to the father : " Here, at 
 last, I have found life to burn with a pure flame ! Here we 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 255 
 
 have no murky smoke arising from fatty fuel, to darken and 
 begrim the chambers of its royal palace ! Beautiful ! beauti 
 ful reality !" 
 
 The food of which he was partaking became utterly dis 
 tasteful now, and he asked her, with a pleading look, almost 
 of reverence, while he drew his chair nearer to her, " May 
 I not share with you your simple breakfast ? You seem to 
 have enough for both." The young girl opened her eyes in 
 astonishment, and pushing her baskets towards him quietly, 
 said 
 
 " Why, sir, you surprise me ! How does it happen, that a 
 man from civilization can have any taste for acorns, fruits, 
 nuts, and herbs ? Surely, you do not mean to cajole me ?" 
 
 " No ; not cajole, but honour you. You have adopted the 
 regimen of daily life out of that pure and holy instinct which 
 comes straight to us from the fresh Eden of innocent and 
 primitive humanity. There God and his good angels walked 
 with the young children of an infant earth, and partook with 
 them of the fruits that were ruddied by sunbeams and in 
 spired by the stars and the calm moon with keener and milder 
 essences, that constituted the fit nutriment of immortal 
 natures !" 
 
 The young girl looked at the speaker as if she thought 
 that he came from a new sphere, and said, with an expression 
 of utter amazement on her face 
 
 " What ! you don t think it extraordinary that I should 
 love such natural things ? Who but men, that struggle with 
 the ruder exigencies of life, could think of accepting as food 
 any thing else than what drops down from towards heaven, 
 as nuts and fruits do from the trees, like manna in a cloud 
 less rain, which only warns us in the pattering voice of its 
 all, that it has come to be eaten! And then vegetables, 
 herbs, flowers, and all humble plants that are not noxious 
 they seem to me to look up to us with a wise pleading, suppli 
 cating through their eloquent colours and odours that they 
 
V 
 
 256 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 may rather be absorbed by -me through either sense, and thus 
 passed up into a life more high, than, being browsed by some 
 coarse brute, to go back to nearly utter nothingness. Every 
 herb we rescue from such a downward fate, every flower whose 
 odours we inhale, becomes as much an angel as we do when 
 we too are absorbed or inhaled by a life as much higher than 
 ours as ours than theirs" 
 
 " Why, I am afraid that you, too, are an enthusiast !" said 
 Frank, with a look in which his life seemed shot through his 
 eyes ; " but your wise and inspired rhapsody will not satisfy 
 the common mind. Where is the limit you would place and 
 define clearly, between the two extremes of vegetable and 
 meat diet ?" 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FANNY AND THE RIDE. 
 
 THE final adjustment of the nice question we left at issue 
 between these two young people was deferred by an inter 
 ruption of a somewhat unique character. 
 
 Frank had for some moments heard, without noticing it in 
 particular, amid the novel excitement by which he was filled, 
 that there was a distant cry of hounds in pursuit, which every 
 moment seemed to bring nearer. 
 
 At once the cry burst upon the startled group as if inside 
 the picket-court, and coming directly towards them ; but now 
 it was commingled with the most terrific yells of curs and 
 Indian papooses, the whoopings of the men, and the shrill 
 screeches of the squaws outside. 
 
 The party at the breakfast-table had scarcely time to raise 
 their heads and look with startled inquiry into each other s 
 eyes, when there was a quick clattering sound along tne pas 
 sage from the great door, and at once a fine doe burst into 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 257 
 
 the room, and with a swift bound cleared the table which 
 was in the middle brushing the hair of Carter with its hoofs, 
 as it passed over. 
 
 The creature had a wreath of flowers, withered, amid ever 
 greens, about its neck, and paused for a moment, and shivered 
 so all over with affright, that you could scarcely see how deep 
 its pantings were. The doe listened for an instant, with neck 
 stretched high and wildly-glistening eyes, then lowering its 
 fine head, ran to its mistress and hid it in her embrace. 
 
 In the mean time, the gray-haired man sprang to his feet, 
 and, assisted by Carter, drove out the fierce, clamorous pack 
 that were rushing after in pursuit. 
 
 The hubbub outside was indescribable ; for, between quell 
 ing the dogs and quieting the excited Indians of the rancho 
 who were crowding with eager curiosity in the passage, 
 and gathered outside of the great door the two men had 
 enough to occupy them for several minutes. 
 
 "When they turned to go back to the breakfast-room, Frank 
 Carter, who was in advance, saw distinctly the faces of two 
 men withdrawn quickly from the partly-opened door at the 
 end of the passage, of which we have spoken as being oppo 
 site to that which led into the breakfast-room. The door was 
 hastily closed, and he heard the sound of a bolt. Frank was 
 terribly shocked at this sight. All those suspicions which 
 led to the ugly scene before breakfast, came back upon him 
 with redoubled force. 
 
 It could be no mistake ! There were two faces one of 
 them was hairy, and seemed to intimate a cross between the 
 mastiff and wire-haired Scotch terrier ; the other one, which 
 was thin and fox-like, and white, he did not see so distinctly. 
 There had been but a moment for him to see, yet that moment 
 was enough. Frank felt that he should know either face, if 
 he saw it again anywhere for they were of distinct types 
 of character, and could by no possibility be mistaken. Then 
 
 he recollected instantly how, as they approached the house 
 W2 17 
 
258 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 the night before, that end of it into which he had been intro 
 duced was lighted, and how, at the noise of their coming, 
 the lights passed hastily by the dark port-holes of the other 
 wing, before his host came to the door. He muttered to 
 himself 
 
 " The men were passing into concealment, then ! They 
 have betrayed themselves, by looking out to ascertain the 
 cause of the unusual hubbub. As I suspected a robber s 
 stronghold ! Ah ! can it be she knows of this ?" he groaned, 
 in the silent agony of his heart s inmost depths. 
 
 All this passed with the rapidity of light through the brain 
 of Frank Carter, for there were a few steps intervening be 
 fore he reached the door of the breakfast-room ; but with all 
 the startle and commotion within himself, there was not the 
 slightest variation in the manner of his gait or tread, which 
 could indicate that he had perceived any thing unusual ; for 
 he felt sure that sharp eyes were upon him from behind, the 
 astuteness of which he now swore to baffle, will with will. 
 
 He entered, with brows contracted like one suffering the 
 sharp wrench of a mortal pain. He was unconscious of this, 
 and that all his face was death-like, as that of a swooning 
 man, and that curses bitter curses of her were hissing 
 through his teeth. He paused though, as he entered the 
 door, irresistibly arrested by the scene. 
 
 The young girl had not heard him. She had turned her 
 seat a little aside from the table, and, in entire forgetfulness 
 of every thing else, was stooping over her pet doe. 
 
 The bright, gentle creature had forgotten its fright already, 
 and, at the moment Frank entered, was reaching up to caress 
 the bowed cheek of its mistress with its small tongue, and 
 breathe on her the sweetly-scented breath of its gratitude 
 for her protection, and for the fresh herbs she held to it from 
 her basket. She was speaking quaint words of childlike, soft 
 endearment to the creature, as if to allay its fright and re 
 assure it of its safety, now that it was with her. 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 259 
 
 There was too much of touching and unconscious innocence 
 in this scene, not to dissipate even the hideous gloom of the 
 latest shadow suspicion had thrown across the brain of Frank. 
 He moved towards her slightly, to the impulse of a swift joy 
 that sprang forward out of the darkness of his heart to lead 
 him. 
 
 Now that the noises outside were somewhat stilled, the 
 creature s fine senses detected the movement, and pricking 
 forward sharply its long and beautifully rounded ears, re 
 garded him with lifted head and glistening stare, while it 
 stamped petulantly with its fine hoofs upon the earthen floor. 
 The young girl, who had a presentiment of the comer, said, 
 as she turned her head slowly, while she still continued to 
 caress the creature 
 
 " You see, sir, my pet is impatient because our love-scene 
 has been interrupted !" 
 
 " Sorry to interrupt so pleasant a scene !" said he, in a 
 very low voice, that shook, in spite of him, with a slight 
 tremor. 
 
 " Oh, never mind ! Fanny and I have plenty of time to 
 make love! Sir, you look unwell! have you been hurt?" 
 and she rose in haste, with a look that glowed in the eager 
 ness of alert sympathy, while her pet bounded forward, lower 
 ing its delicate head with a ludicrously threatening shake, as 
 if to frighten back the intruder. 
 
 Frank, whose face had not quite recovered from its pallor, 
 now laughed outright. He merely said, in answer to her 
 question, " Oh, nothing nothing !" and then advanced with 
 playful gesture ; but the doe commenced a retrograde move 
 ment, still shaking its lowered head at him, until it had backed 
 against the side of the room. 
 
 " Take care, sir ! she will strike you !" said the young girl, 
 nervously. 
 
 "Never mind ; I know them !" 
 
 As he spoke, the creature struck quickly at him with its 
 
260 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 snarp forefoot or hoof, as is their formidable manner of de 
 fence. Frank avoided the blow, and before it could be re 
 peated merely touched it slightly on the point of the nose, 
 and stroked it softly up the face and along the neck. 
 
 The creature struck out once more, but not so vehemently 
 this time ; and now it stood for some moments sullenly, with 
 head to the ground and hair set forward, and submitted to be 
 stroked by him. Then it raised its head gradually, smoothed 
 its hair, and commenced licking his hand. 
 
 "You see, I have conquered your jealous pet?" said he, 
 turning to the young girl, who was looking on in smiling 
 wonder. 
 
 " Yes ; you must carry a spell, for such creatures, in your 
 touch ! Fanny has always been incorrigibly combative to 
 wards every one but myself, before. How did you manage ?" 
 
 " Oh, easily and naturally enough ! Let the magnetism 
 of the human touch be accompanied by a gentleness that 
 soothes the blindness of brute impulse long enough for that 
 powerful illumination to wake their dumb senses, and then 
 they recognise their God-appointed liege, and submit in hum 
 ble joy to gambol at his feet. It is because we have been 
 their bloody and brutal tyrants, that these simple creatures 
 fear us. The wildest and most savage brute can be tamed in 
 a few hours, by a gentle and wisely graduated application of 
 this supreme law of love, which is represented by the mag 
 netic power as it is called indwelling in the human, who is 
 the highest earthly type of that God whose essence is love. 
 This is the secret of all those mysterious spells which men 
 have pretended to cast upon wild animals. They must be 
 controlled by one of the two extremes fear or love. Fear 
 is most usually resorted to, and works morbid wonders, which 
 sometimes react fearfully upon those who trifle with them. 
 But the conquest of love is like that of the sun upon the 
 mute and sheathed seed : it springs forth in joy, and lives to 
 do worship in its green luxuriance to its conqueror, and 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 261 
 
 render up the incense of its flowering-time to rejoice his 
 nostrils !" 
 
 " This is the spell you have unconsciously exerted upon 
 this creature, and, as I should judge, upon many others as 
 well." 
 
 " Quite a profound exposition, that !" said the laughing 
 voice of the gray-haired man, who had been for some mo 
 ments standing in the doorway, attentively observing the 
 manner and language of Frank. He now came forward, 
 watching the expression of his face with a sharp scrutiny, 
 while he smiled a very pleasant smile. 
 
 He had not witnessed the first part of the scene we have 
 described, for he had lingered behind a little while, probably 
 for the purpose of passing into the next apartment. 
 
 " I should like to know if you can tame men and women 
 as effectually, by this apostolic ceremony of the laying on 
 of hands, my young friend ? For I have a great many rude 
 people about me, of both sexes, who require to be tamed by 
 some stronger spell than any I know of." 
 
 "Oh, no," said Frank, looking up from caressing the deer, 
 and meeting that shrewd questioning glance with one of the 
 most entire and smiling unconsciousness. "I know no spells 
 but gold and fear, that will tame the human brute !" 
 
 " Sit down, and let us finish breakfast." They drew once 
 more about the table. " You do not compliment the humble 
 human, particularly, as contrasted with your four-footed 
 friends?" 
 
 " There is no room for compliment or comparison in the 
 case. Man is the most hideously perverted from his natural 
 instincts, and the human brute is the most remorseless of all. 
 Gold falls faster, flashing down an abyss, than the loose clod 
 of common earth, and requires a stronger hand to draw it up 
 again. We are at present gods to the brute ; but our God 
 is out of sight, and acts through the representatives of power 
 he has appointed among us !" 
 
262 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 " Ah, my young friend," said the gray-haired man, bending 
 forward with a placid look and a smile of benevolent reproof, 
 " I fear you either sneer captiously, or are strangely infidel 
 for one so young ! Does not that love which you spoke of 
 as constituting the representative presence of God in hu 
 manity, also imply justice and wisdom ? Are these, then, 
 more likely to fail in enlightening the blindness of sense in 
 the highest and purest forms of its organization, than in 
 those which are lower and more gross ? Confess, then, that 
 you rather sneered than thought when you spoke ?" 
 
 Frank flushed a little, and stared in the confusion of blank 
 surprise into the bland face of this extraordinary man. Was 
 the wretch mocking, with the insolent mockery of a devilish 
 intellection, or had all those circumstances, which so strongly 
 aroused his suspicions, been illusory ? Could it be he was 
 the mild and gentle philosopher he seemed ! " Surely, I 
 must be mistaken, for he is her father !" he muttered to him 
 self, and said aloud, with a faint effort at a smile 
 
 " Perhaps you are right, sir, and I spoke with the foolish 
 affectation of an incredulity I did not feel. But you must 
 admit that the two extremes easily occur in contrast. Lucifer 
 fell from heaven the brute, at the worst, can only tumble 
 down a precipice." 
 
 "Yes, but fortunate Lucifer had wings to break his fall," 
 laughed the gray-haired man pleasantly, as he rose from the 
 table. " You two must amuse yourselves as you can, until 
 dinner. I will see to despatching a party of my scouts to 
 the relief of your comrades, sir." 
 
 "Ah, I shall go with them," said Frank, rising quickly. 
 
 " You can, of course, do as you please, but I assure you 
 there is not the slightest necessity for your going. My 
 Indians will find them more readily without your aid or pre 
 sence, than with it you will only embarrass their move 
 ments. If you persist in going, let me warn you that to 
 keep up with them will be the most difficult, vexatious, and 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 263 
 
 fatiguing feat of horsemanship that you have ever undertaken. 
 If I might assume the privilege of a host, I would advise that 
 you simply write a few lines to one of your friends, stating 
 where you are, and requesting them to join you. The fact 
 that my Indians will bring their horses back to them, will be 
 a sufficient guaranty of honest intention on their part. I 
 engage they will accept such guidance without hesitation, 
 and will probably reach here by to-morrow night. In the 
 mean time, my daughter will cheerfully undertake to amuse 
 you by showing you the country around, and introducing you 
 to those mysterious lovers of hers. If you tire of this, we 
 will get up a grand hunt to-morrow, and give you a practical 
 illustration of the uses of my Indians." 
 
 During this frank and hospitable speech, Carter was walk 
 ing hurriedly up and down the room. His brain was in a 
 confused whirl of uncertainty. " How much was this strange 
 man to be trusted ? How much real cause for the vague, but 
 almost shuddering aversion and distrust he felt for him, was 
 there in the circumstances thus far ? Was he doing justice 
 to his comrades in permitting them to come here even in 
 viting them into the midst of such suspicious surroundings ? 
 But then he remembered their revolvers, their devotion to 
 him, and their personal prowess. With them ever at his 
 side, if this place proved to be what he had some reason to 
 suspect, he could and would at once destroy the den. But 
 suppose this man does not intend they shall ever reach here ! 
 A sure ambush might be an easy thing ! But then, if I went, 
 I should most assuredly come back. I feel that the game of 
 my life must be played here. The time has come at last ! I 
 will not give up this young girl until I understand more of 
 all this, and of her, though I die for it. This man, if he be 
 a villain, is an astonishing one, and I like to study such cha 
 racters ; it excites and charms me to play around the viper s 
 coil, and then baffle its spring. As yet this man confounds 
 me. He invites all my friends to his rancho, in the face of 
 
264; THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 u, most hostile avowal of my suspicions. This does not look 
 like guilt or fear. One of two things is sure he is acting 
 with the most direct and straightforward honesty, or with 
 the most diabolical purpose. Pshaw ! I am here alone if 
 he had any foul designs, what interest could he have in 
 slaughtering my friends ? They could never find him or me, 
 of course. He has all our horses what more can he want ? 
 I have been made childish by this singular instinct of aversion 
 and distrust which has possessed me since I first met this 
 man s eye ! The course he advises is entirely sensible ; and 
 then that reproof he gave me at table just now ! oh, I have 
 done the man injustice ! I don t care for the mystery of the 
 two faces that shocked me so. He is her father ! neverthe 
 less I will warn Clenny to be on his guard /" He looked up. 
 
 While this vehement struggle which we have endeavoured 
 to furnish some idea of in expression had been passing 
 swiftly through his mind, the gray-haired man had ceased to 
 speak, and stood regarding his restless and abstracted move 
 ments for a moment with a curious smile. 
 
 Frank saw it, and said promptly 
 
 " You are right, sir. I shall do as you advise. I perceive 
 that you are amused at the degree of uncertainty as to the 
 proper course for me to pursue, apparent in my manner ; but 
 you must remember, sir, that the tie of companionship in 
 danger is a very sacred one ; and I could not but feel that 
 my less fortunate comrades would have good reason to con 
 sider me selfish in remaining here, surrounded by comforts, 
 while I merely send to them a troop of half-naked Indian 
 scouts, with orders to escort them to me ! I need not remind 
 you that such a course would hardly be in the spirit of good- 
 fellowship demanded by such relations this was the cause 
 of my doubts. But I am now convinced that my going will 
 probably do them more harm than good, as you suggested. 
 I will have the note ready by the time your scouts are 
 mounted You have writing materials?" 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 265 
 
 " My daughter will furnish you. I understand and respect 
 your feeling, which was a very natural and proper one. My 
 fellows will be ready for you in a little while." 
 
 He passed out, while the young girl sprang up, followed 
 by Fanny, and passed through the small door we have before 
 mentioned as near the fireplace. 
 
 She was gone for a moment or two, and returned with a 
 small rose-wood escretoire, which she placed before Frank. 
 The presence of this elegant article in so rude a place, tended 
 not a little to heighten the curiosity with which he had con 
 tinued occasionally, during the morning, to regard that 
 narrow door through which he had first seen her bright form 
 disappear. 
 
 Every thing about this little article was feminine and deli 
 cate there was to his sense even an indescribable fragrance 
 which it seemed to have brought along with it, and he forgot 
 to finish his note while his erratic fancy wandered through 
 that door to breathe the air made fragrant by her dreams, or 
 conjure many a graceful object, the creation of her own fresh 
 taste and daring humours, or hallowed by the caressing of 
 her touch. 
 
 She noticed his abstraction, and with a joyous laugh, ex 
 claimed 
 
 " What ho ! out of the land of shadows, there ! my 
 father will want your note in a few minutes." 
 
 " Yes, yes I will be ready in a minute ;" and he wrote 
 on eagerly, bending low over the paper to conceal the flush 
 upon his face. 
 
 They soon after went out to the great gate of the rancho, 
 to see the Indian scouts set off. They seemed to be a sort 
 of transition race, occupying a middle ground between the 
 characteristics of the two great races north and south of the 
 Missouri. 
 
 In a word, there was an insolent look of savage and cun 
 ning ferocity about them, the formidable character of whicn 
 
266 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 was not a little increased by the superior finish of their 
 weapons and the assured ease and familiarity with which 
 they handled them. 
 
 They numbered eight warriors. When Frank handed his 
 note to the leader of the party, the fellow, whose complexion 
 was much fairer than that of his followers, smiled cunningly, 
 and by a significant gesture betrayed the " itching palm." 
 
 Frank threw him a dollar, and with a broad, obsequious 
 grin and cringing bow he darted away, followed by his war 
 riors. 
 
 " That fellow has all the vices of a mongrel, if he be not 
 one," said Frank, as they turned back to enter the rancho. 
 
 " Yes !" said the young girl, somewhat hastily. " He is a 
 half-breed, and father thinks him faithful!" 
 
 "Of what tribe are these ruffians ?" 
 
 "I believe they are an off-shoot of the Kansas. My 
 father never explained to me particularly ; and as I am not 
 very curious about such matters, I cannot tell you more than 
 this. But shall we not ride this morning ? I hear the im 
 patient stamp of Black Hawk, and no doubt Celeste is by 
 this time thoroughly refreshed. Papa has left us with the 
 day before us, to make it out between ourselves as best we 
 may!" 
 
 "Let us ride, certainly !" said Frank, with eagerness. 
 
 She called an Indian and gave the necessary orders. In 
 a short time the horses were equipped, when they mounted, 
 and were off in a brisk, emulous gallop, the fine animals they 
 rode neighing their joy upon the morning, and looking out 
 from the skirting forest towards the wide prairie, with ears 
 pricked forward and eagerly, as if they meant to take wing 
 and fly across its green and flowering expanse. 
 
 Their riders, too, seemed quite elate enough to enjoy such 
 a proceeding wonderfully perhaps with the proviso that 
 they and their horses should keep together in the flight. 
 
 The riders were long silent. Frank was too full to speak. 
 
THE WILD GIRL OP THE NEBRASKA. 267 
 
 He could not see the forest, the prairie with its multitudinous 
 flowers the white fantastic islands sailing through the blue 
 and shoreless sea the blessed sun that smiled a benediction 
 over all ! 
 
 There was but for him one light, and she was its source ! 
 The glory of the outward world was felt not seen for he 
 was looking upon her as she rode by his side with downcast, 
 averted eyes, and face that glowed consciously beneath his 
 gaze. 
 
 What a marvellous being she seemed to him ! It was as 
 if the fluent summer had been wooed to stay and curl its 
 yellow warmth all peacefully in clinging play about the young 
 roses of the fresh-cheeked April for her prodigal hair shook 
 such perfume off to the rude breeze that he felt the flowering 
 time of all the year had now come together in his life. 
 
 She rode with loose reins, as if her beautiful horse moved 
 of her permission. She seemed as reposeful and abstracted 
 as though she saw through his eyes and guided his move 
 ments by an unconscious exercise of will. 
 
 Frank thought, if she had only willed that her black steed 
 should 
 
 " Paw up the light, 
 And do strange deeds upon the clouds !" 
 
 that forthwith he would have climbed the beams and, poor 
 fellow ! blessed himself that no such freak happened to pos 
 sess her for the time since, left alone, he would have felt 
 unutterably desolate. 
 
 He broke the silence at last. 
 
 " But I thought you were to introduce me to your wil 
 derness friends ? What are they ? of what substance are 
 they made ? I am beginning to be quite jealous !" 
 
 At this moment both their horses shyed, quite violently, 
 and on looking round, they saw Fanny with all the withered 
 flowers torn from out the wreath upon her neck coming in 
 long leaps close after them with tail drooped, as if she had 
 
268 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 been shot, and shaking her lowered head with every bound, 
 as if in rage at her desertion ! 
 
 They reined up, and she came alongside her mistress. 
 The first petulant movement was to strike viciously at Black 
 Hawk, as if he were responsible for carrying off her mistress. 
 
 The horse seemed to be familiar with such demonstrations, 
 and merely jerked up his leg to avoid the blow, and then 
 with ears playfully laid back, turned to bite at his assailant. 
 Fanny dodged him as if it were an old play between them 
 and then she rose as if on the leap, to caress with her 
 tongue the hand of her mistress. 
 
 " You see my pretty Fanny has come to guide us come ! 
 The jealous witch has found out all my secrets and as she 
 made peace with you, maybe she will condescend to be our 
 guide !" 
 
 Fanny now went frisking and anticking before them 
 pausing now and then to look behind, as if to invite them to 
 follow. 
 
 " Come !" said the young girl, starting into a swift gallop. 
 " We will follow Fanny, and see my people of the wilder 
 ness." 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE RIDE. 
 
 AWAY ! away over the bending grass of the prairie these 
 two young riders sped, with a swiftness that caused their 
 nerves to tingle, and made the great beds of sunflowers, over 
 which they trampled, to run together as though a swift stream 
 of molten gold went by on either hand while Fanny, whom 
 their speed had overtaken, seemed, as she gambolled by the 
 side of her mistress, a strange dolphin sporting on a wave as 
 sirange ! 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 269 
 
 Even the gentle breeze they met was roused by their wild 
 speed, and went roaring in a gale of rollicking laughter past 
 their ears while, as for their exulting horses ! 
 
 "Through mane and tail the high wind sighs, 
 Fanning the hairs, which wave like feathered wings !" 
 
 Away ! away ! with their hearts on fire, their blood bounds 
 faster than fleet-footed steeds can go. They do not look 
 upon each other now. They touch occasionally, and one 
 sphere encircles them. They feel that if they pause, their 
 hearts will pale to ashes in that fierce, consuming flame 
 that they must on ! and shake off the keen ardour that has 
 gathered there, through motion, outwardly upon the cool wind, 
 that it may go to warm the soul of nature, and relieve them 
 of a present death of too much joy. 
 
 On ! on they go ! The yellow flowers have been passed, 
 and now they come to great beds of the pink sweet-william ; 
 and the swift stream on either hand grows paler suddenly 
 with a delicate flush, till they seem to be careering down 
 some roseate river, rippling through the gates of dawn. 
 
 On ! on ! The pink flowers have been passed, and now 
 come great beds of blue ; and the swift stream on either hand 
 seem like a liquid sky fallen in, with here and there a fleecy 
 flake of cloud-foam on it, where some white flower swings its 
 delicate plume along the wave. 
 
 But then this mad motion cannot last for ever. For several 
 miles they had thus gone, when the cool winds and the calm 
 of the blessed sun drew forth the burning fever of that over 
 coming ecstasy from their throbbing brains ; and now their 
 pulses could gradually subside to the full but slower beat of 
 a less tempestuous happiness. 
 
 They reined up their reeking horses to a gentle canter ; 
 and then the subtle and more soothing influence of the scene 
 through which they passed had time to interpenetrate their 
 
 beings, and they were hushed in voiceless awe ! 
 X2 
 
270 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 These wonderful prairies ! How gorgeously strange they 
 seemed to them through their love-illumined senses ! 
 
 Even to their accustomed eyes, they still were a wonder 
 and a miracle for they combine many of the most picturesque 
 characteristics of both the ocean and the sky. 
 
 Here it lay skirted in the vast circumference of a sky- 
 bounded sea, while the stilled undulations rise and dip with 
 the regular sweep of waves. Had the shadow of God s pre 
 sence passed upon the waters just while they rose and fell in 
 the long swells after a storm, and they had grown afraid, and 
 paused, to wait through all time for his mandate of release 
 then would that enchanted sea have been like the prairie. 
 
 And then, if on the green, glassy mirror of those quiet 
 billows the gorgeous sunset of a day of summer storms threw 
 down the glorious reflex of its cloud-capped splendours, they 
 might see in it the flowering robes the grand prairie wears. 
 
 And then all the living creatures that they see upon it 
 each one, whether deer, mustang, or tall white crane, stand 
 ing so still as they approach amid the solemn silence of that 
 primeval solitude 
 
 "As idle as a painted ship 
 Upon a painted ocean !" 
 
 that when one moves it makes them start to see it, as if that 
 were a kind of miracle. 
 
 The only sounds they hear are the loud, sweet thrill of the 
 yellow meadow-lark, which, bounding from the grass before 
 them, turns its head as it goes off, to show them the black 
 shield on its breast, and leaves a sigh of timid music, like a 
 perfume, behind it, on their ears. 
 
 Or else the little grass-sparrow, with a shrill, affrighted 
 chirp, darts from near their very feet, and dips quickly into 
 covert again. Or when they approach too near the tall, 
 stately cranes, and they begin to stalk majestically to and 
 fro with ludicrous gesticulations of their long, shifting necks 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 271 
 
 their hoarse, sudden croak will strike thumping on their 
 ears, like a pistol shot at midnight. 
 
 Scattered motts of timber begin to loom upon the blue 
 distance, like islands in the sea. They approach them more 
 slowly. Soon, from banks of haze, they become more dis 
 tinct ; and first the outlines of tree-tops, and then that of 
 each trunk, is clearly defined. 
 
 " Come !" said the young girl, breaking the silence at 
 last, as she urged Black Hawk to a renewal of his speed. 
 " Here are some of my wilderness loves, in this little 
 valley." 
 
 As she spoke, they commenced descending a gentle slope 
 from the prairie level, the sides of which were covered with 
 a scattering growth of noble oaks. A stream, narrow and 
 glistening with the speed it made, held its way down the 
 centre of the valley, and lit the dark trunks and foliage 
 above with the golden shimmer thrown up by its ripples. 
 
 Here the grass seemed greener than elsewhere, for the tint 
 was fresher; and as they passed down below the general 
 level, the roar of the opposing breeze ceased upon their ears, 
 and it was as if they had come suddenly upon the pulseless, 
 sleepy silence of the fenced valley of the Lotus Eatus ! 
 
 Before Carter could realize how strange this transition was, 
 the young girl had bounded from her horse, throwing the 
 reins upon his neck, and turned to him with a flushed cheek 
 and joyous laugh 
 
 " Dismount, sir ! if you would see and know my Lilliputian 
 people !" 
 
 Carter had already obeyed, and was approaching her 
 hastily, when she stooped forward, spreading out her arms 
 as if to protect something which he was crushing beneath his 
 tread, and exclaimed, in a voice of tender entreaty 
 
 " Oh ! beware, sir ! Step more carefully ! See ! see my 
 gentle flowers." 
 
 Frank paused and looked down for the first time, since all 
 
272 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA, 
 
 his eyes had been for her. He saw that the sod about him 
 was enameled with small flowers of the most rarely delicate 
 forms, and of colours as various as they were strange. 
 
 He paused, in blank astonishment ! He had never seen 
 any thing so chastely beautiful 
 
 She laughed merrily 
 
 " Oh, you need not look so wild, sir ! I have done no 
 work of enchantment here ! Spring tarries in this sheltered 
 valley nearly all the year and spring, you know, possesses 
 a refining necromancy. All flowers that I bring here become 
 gentle people, soon !" 
 
 " Ah !" said Frank, with an impulse of tenderness he could 
 not resist, " there need be no idealization to account for all, 
 since the imbodied Spring is here ! But how have you 
 managed to bring together so many curious and delicate 
 flowers upon this remote spot ? I am puzzled ! the groups 
 seem too rich for unassisted nature, and yet they follow her 
 order perfectly ! What is it you have done, and how have 
 you done it?" 
 
 "Nothing wonderful !" said she, with a mischievous twinkle 
 in her eye. "Nothing, at least, which entitles me to assert 
 myself to be an imbodiment of Spring. The greater num 
 ber of the flowers you see clustered along this slope down to 
 the water s edge, are the growth of this valley. Here, the 
 grass is finer, the soil more loose and better irrigated, and 
 the protection from the wind is perfect. The shade of these 
 few scattering trees is just sufficient to preserve the cool, 
 spring temperature. Here, therefore, all the most delicate 
 flowers grow best and flourish longest ; and wherever I have 
 found them, during my rides, I have taken them up carefully, 
 to be transplanted to this natural garden." 
 
 " But do you not cultivate them ? I see no evidence that 
 you have done so." 
 
 " It is not what you would call cultivation, in the cities. 
 T merely observe carefully the location, the character of the 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 273 
 
 soil and surroundings in which I find them originally ; and 
 when the time for transfer comes, I bring each flower here, 
 and place it, as nearly as I can remember, in a similar loca 
 tion and amid like surroundings. I then pluck away the 
 grass and weeds from immediately about it, that it may have 
 a fair chance for a start ; after that it must take care of 
 itself and usually does." 
 
 " I see you have none of those prairie-flowers here, through 
 such enormous beds of which we galloped so ruthlessly, on 
 our way here ?" 
 
 " Oh, no ! I have no use for such coarse flowers, in those 
 vast and firmly matted beds ; presenting, with but little varia 
 tion, a single colour at a time. They suit well to the extent 
 and grandeur of the scene they are intended to diversify. 
 They are like those singular changes in the colour of the 
 water of the ocean, with the indications of which mariners 
 are so familiar ; but they are all alike the individuality of 
 each is lost and merged in the general effect !" 
 
 "Ah ! I see !" said Frank, eagerly. "The great sea-like 
 plain of the prairie furnishes, in its broad contrasts and gar 
 ish tints, a rude type of earth s epic or heroic poetry, in 
 colours; while, in this sheltered nook, where each of the 
 elements is tempered as the wind to the shorn lamb, and all 
 
 the blest infusions 
 
 That dwell in vegatives, metals, stones, 
 
 co-operate harmoniously with them the higher forms of this 
 poetry are produced in more delicate shapes, and far intenser, 
 more varied and glorious colours. It is much like the con 
 trast of the vague splendours of Milton s great epic, with 
 the chisseled, gem-like, and exquisite perfection of particular 
 beauties of the Mask of Comus, and others of his minor 
 poems." 
 
 She bent with a fond, caressing gesture, over a strange, 
 
 frail little flower, the three petals of which were shaped 
 
 18 
 
274 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 the wings of a small outterfly out were of such a new, 
 peculiar, and unearthly tint of blue, that it seemed as if, in 
 fluttering down from heaven, it must have brushed the colour 
 off from farthest space ! it looked so unfamiliar and so un 
 like all other tints we know. 
 
 " Yes ; it would seem quite as sacrilegious to me, to hear 
 this rare, blue stranger which is born only beneath the most 
 beneficent smiles of God profaned by the association of a 
 vulgar name, as to find the common metre ballad-mongers 
 aiming at the glowing, chaste, yet infinite simplicity of such 
 an image as 
 
 4 The holy dew tis like a pearl 
 Dropt from the opening eyelids of the morn 
 Upon the bashful rose ! 
 
 Milton said that ; and in doing so, conveyed an image to my 
 mind that comes, whenever memory brings it up, with scarcely 
 less of the recurring charm of strangeness, than does the 
 presence of this wonderful little flower !" 
 
 " They are very like with the distinction that one is the 
 creation of God, and the other of a godlike humanity. But 
 I suppose you have the type, in colours and in odours, of 
 many a rare thought of highest poetry ?" 
 
 " Surely ; for nature s inspiration is more sure than that 
 of any madman of them all, with eyes in fine frenzy roll 
 ing. These creatures are my mute familiars, and I have 
 always thought they seemed to know me when I came. 
 These are my gentle nurslings of the wilderness." 
 
 " But you are far from home, here. I wonder at your 
 audacity !" 
 
 " It must be a fleet and wary foe that can surprise me, 
 with two such quick-sensed watchers as Black Hawk and 
 Fanny. They run to me instantly, on the slightest indication 
 of the approach of any thing that has danger in it, and leap 
 ing with one bound into the saddle, I am safe, for Black 
 Hawk can defy in speed all the marauders, of whatever 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 275 
 
 colour, from whom I am in danger out here. See ; I will 
 show you !" 
 
 She gave a shrill whistle, by placing her two fingers in her 
 mouth, and the noble horse, who was feeding a hundred paces 
 off, with his head half-buried in the tall grass, wheeled in 
 stantly and dashed to her side, with the last tuft he had 
 plucked still in his mouth. She placed her hand -on the 
 saddle-bow and sprang quickly into the seat. 
 
 Frank called Celeste, who came, though not quite so 
 quickly : and away they went once more. Fanny looked 
 after them a moment, then shook her head, and, with a gay 
 frisk, followed. 
 
 They followed down the valley, which led them through 
 the open grove, amid a maze of timber-islands. Through 
 these they soon came to a vast and magnificent old forest 
 like an English park with a cheerful greensward underneath, 
 and the mighty trees standing far apart. 
 
 Now, his strange guide seemed to have almost forgotten 
 poor Frank, who became jealous. Here a bird s nest had to 
 be visited, the winged people of which seemed half a mind 
 not to be frightened ; she would look into it, without touch 
 ing, then drop some food near, and gallop on. Then she 
 made Frank pause in sight of a great old oak. She rode up 
 to it alone, and, tapping on it with her switch right sharply, 
 she waited some moments for her summons to be obeyed. 
 Soon, to his infinite amazement and delight, Frank saw a 
 small head put forth from a round hole some distance up the 
 trunk : a gray squirrel came forth cautiously, and, with wide 
 spread tail, making a low chattering sound, commenced de 
 scending towards her white, outstretched hand. 
 
 Soon came another forth, which was smaller, and seemed 
 to be a young one. Others followed, until there were four 
 of them upon the trunk, beside the old one. These were 
 more timid, and did not come down quite to her hand ; but 
 the mother did, and, snatching from it a small ear of pop-corn. 
 
276 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 darted up the trunk again, and disappeared in the hole, fol 
 lowed by her young. 
 
 She laughed gayly, and turning towards Frank said, as she 
 joined him 
 
 " You see, sir, that you are a formidable person, for my timid 
 Bunny would not stay to be caressed as usual, for her quick 
 senses had perceived that there was a stranger near. I called 
 to her Bunny ! Bunny ! without avail, for she had caught 
 a glimpse of you, and would not stay to thank me." 
 
 " But how, in the name of all miracles and wonders, have 
 you managed to tame this wild creature so?" 
 
 " Oh ! naturally enough ! Bunny was an old pet of mine, 
 and lived in my room with me for two years ; and then I took 
 a fancy to bring her out here into the neighbourhood of my 
 flowers ! I found that old oak without any tenants in its 
 chambers, and I brought her here, leaving a sufficient supply 
 of food at the foot of the tree to last her for some days, until 
 she became accustomed to the new circumstances, and learned 
 to provide for herself. She took possession of the tree, and, 
 as I came to visit her every day, our friendship has never 
 fallen through ! 
 
 " I have almost made a conquest, too, of the wild lover she 
 has found out here : and shall certainly make friends with 
 her little folks one of which frequently comes down to eat 
 from my hand. So you see, sir, I am not quite a witch, 
 after all !" 
 
 " I do not know that I am any the less convinced of that, 
 now !" said Frank, with a meaning smile. 
 
 They rode on slowly through the forest. She had a thou 
 sand things to show him, for her sharp observation and soli 
 tary wanderings had made her quite as familiar with the 
 homes and habits of the creatures of that forest, as if it had 
 been a city of humanity, in exploring the haunts and charac 
 ters of which, her life had been spent. 
 
 Now, she would tell him of some peculiar shrub or tree, 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 277 
 
 remarkable for beauty or for rareness, and then she would 
 dart away to lead him to see it with her. 
 
 Then Frank would murmur in her ear 
 
 " Confess that my suspicions are well grounded ; repeat, 
 now, the confessional after me : 
 
 * I am the power 
 
 Of this fair wood ; to live in open bower, 
 To nurse the saplings tall, and curl the grove 
 With ringlets quaint and wanton windings, 
 And all my plants to save from nightly ill 
 Of noisome winds and blasting vapours chill ; 
 And from the boughs brush off the evil dew, 
 And heal the harms of thwarting thunder blue ; 
 Or, what the cross, dire-looking planet smites, 
 Or hurtful worm, with canker d venom, bites ! " 
 
 " Pshaw ! pshaw ! You are even more sadly beset than 
 the lost lady in the enchanted wood ; for, though I found you 
 lost a gloomy wanderer, and have been doing all since that 
 I could to open your eyes to the real world about you, still 
 you will hear the airy tongues. 
 
 " No ; you cannot dodge my implication so for what is 
 your mission now, but to 
 
 Number your ranks, and visit every sprout 
 With puissant words and murmurs, made to bless ! 
 
 Answer me this?" 
 
 u Oh, never mind ! Come on !" and away she would lead 
 again, to show him the fox s den ; and when they came near 
 it, she would rein up, and approach with a slow, cautious tread, 
 and point out to him the young cubs gambolling in the sun 
 before a hole which had been dug beneath the upturned 
 roots of some huge forest Titan, that had been thrown in 
 wrestling with the storm. 
 
 When they took the alarm, and hurried in, she was off again 
 with a merry laugh. 
 
 Now, she would stop her horse suddenly beside the decay 
 ing stump of a small tree, into which the woodpeckers had 
 
278 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 hollowed for themselves a chamber once upon a time ; but 
 now, when she touched it, a flying-squirrel would rush out, 
 with its large and meek black eyes glistening in affright, and 
 from the top would dart away, with its rich-furred membrane 
 spread like wings all white beneath and sail to some neigh 
 bouring trunk. 
 
 Then she would take the soft young ones from their warm 
 bed and caress them tenderly, and show Frank their bright, 
 gentle eyes, and talk to them in a quaint, rippling tongue, 
 which she seemed to have learned from the waters, the winds, 
 and the trees. 
 
 They were placed back all gingerly and snug again, and 
 some food left for the mother, which Frank now, for the first 
 time, observed was taken from a pouch which she carried at 
 her saddle-bow. 
 
 Now they were off again, for she had always some new 
 pet or wonder that he must see ; and so the day went swiftly 
 
 by- 
 
 The dinner was forgotten by them both, for they were too 
 happy to think of eating. 
 
 As the evening came on, the character of the forest they 
 were travelling became changed. From the open glades, 
 which it seemed as if the most careful cultivation could not 
 have improved, they had gradually come into a more rank 
 and denser growth. 
 
 Frank had an idea that they had been skirting the edge 
 of the great prairie round towards the rancho again, and 
 were entering the dense and formidable forest of the Black 
 Walnut Bottom, concerning which we have already heard 
 something. They had been happy all day too happy for 
 words to tell ! Like unheeding children, they had gone out 
 to play, and through hours had gambolled on the lap of Na 
 ture that ancient mother, who yet is ever young. 
 
 They had rather felt each other, and been meekly joyous, 
 as they went side by side, than talked much, except in a 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 279 
 
 fragmentary way. This was too much happiness. It could 
 not be real ! There must be some wild delusion here ! He 
 had struggled so forlornly all his life with that ever present 
 yet treacherous Shadow of the Ideal, that he could not realize 
 this the embodied Real found at last. 
 
 The reaction of the bewildering joy the glorified beatitude 
 of all that day was now distrust. Every thing he had yet 
 found to lavish the garnered tenderness of his whole life 
 upon, had somehow played him false! 
 
 Could it be that this was any higher, purer than the rest ? 
 Certainly he had never met a being that seemed to nestle 
 with such sublime faith right close to the heart of Nature, 
 where her pulses might be felt to guide a life by but yet ! 
 but yet ! there was too much joy in all this for him to realize 
 at once ! 
 
 There were dark suspicions gathered around the life of 
 this fair young creature. Her father was a wonderfully 
 acute, and, may be, bad man. She evidently loved him with 
 an entire devotion. It might be, if this gray-haired man 
 was vicious as he instinctively felt him to be that he still 
 had enough of sacredness left in him to guard her from a 
 knowledge of his vices and his crimes, and felt that he pro 
 pitiated Heaven in permitting her to live, in unconscious 
 ignorance of all this, happily with Nature. 
 
 With such gloomy and distrustful thoughts as these, the 
 life of Frank Carter had been hushed for some time, and his 
 brows grown unconsciously contracted. The shadow, too, 
 had fallen on the girl, and she rode mutely by his side, in 
 timid consciousness ; but what it meant she knew not. That 
 she was all at once unhappy, she knew. 
 
 They were penetrating more deeply into the sombre forest, 
 and the lengthened shadows, as they fell across his form, 
 seemed to darken his heart yet more. 
 
 But there was that in this primitive Nature, wearing her 
 century-calms upon her front, which could not fail to over- 
 
280 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 come him with a spell to sink a nameless awe into his being 
 brooding in shadowy peace upon the tumult of excitement 
 the passions had been subjected to during the late incidents. 
 
 Nowhere does this invisible power make itself so palpably 
 felt as in the deep-tangled aisles of an old Southern forest ; 
 when the sun is near setting, too, as it was then, and strikes 
 its levelled rays square athwart the gloom, glorifying in lines 
 and angles the stout, rugged boles and gnarled arms over 
 head, leaving the severed shades sharply defined beneath and 
 between the sheeted gold. 
 
 High up, sitting in the halo, the roseate-headed Caracara 
 eagle screams to its mate the black-squirrel sputters and 
 barks, whisking its dusky brush, and saucily stamping on the 
 pecan bark the long whoo-oose of the bull-bat sighs hoarsely 
 through the air the paroquet, with its shrill, waspish chat 
 tering, in a glimmer of lit emeralds, goes by the far tocsin 
 tolled from out the swamp-lake by the wood-ibis, or dropped 
 smiting suddenly from the clouds, as the great snowy crane 
 sails over the low, quavering wail of the dotted ocelot the 
 hack-hack, and quick, prolonged rattle of the ivory-billed 
 woodpecker s hammer the smothered shriek of the prowling 
 wild-cat, impatient for the night the chirr ! chirr ! of the 
 active little creeper the cracked gong of the distant bittern 
 these were the sights and sounds that gradually lulled and 
 charmed him into utter abstraction and of course into entire 
 forgetfulness of every other purpose and object than the 
 passion in his heart, and the being at his side who had thus 
 led him in reach of their enchantment. 
 
 His heedless pace had gradually slackened for the mood 
 of dreams was on him. The unpleasant realities of the wild, 
 unnatural life he had been leading disappeared, and in deli 
 cious revelations the ideal life of calm and holy peace came 
 around him ; and in the hushed quiet of that lull, the bewil 
 dered fancy danced with its own airy creatures to the merry 
 click of the castanet a bright-eyed woodchuck was sounding, 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 281 
 
 as it sat familiarly on the other end of a log by which they 
 paused. 
 
 Doubts, anger, suffering, suspicions, all were as things that 
 had been and were not, while his heart was made blissful of 
 its latest memories amid these evening choristers ! 
 
 Now his trance was broken, and he turned to her with a 
 bright, meaning look, and her life answered to the summons 
 joyously, for she knew that his spirit had struggled into 
 freedom now. 
 
 During the hour s gallop which it required to reach home, 
 they rode with clasped hands, without speaking a word. 
 When they reached the rancho, the young girl found that 
 her father was not at home ; and, with a bewitching air of 
 confidence, invited the young man to pass with her that 
 narrow door beside the fireplace, which he had regarded with 
 such curious envy. 
 
 Here he found every thing as pure as he had dreamed it 
 should be in the penetralia of such a life. 
 
 There were many books, a harp, and a guitar. The rude 
 walls were hung about with quaint, but wild and graceful 
 ornaments. Beside these, her ingenious fingers had plaited 
 of flowers inwreathed with coloured quills and natural grasses, 
 there were paintings, in water-colours, of scenes and faces 
 which indicated the highest order of talent. 
 
 After the evening meal, she sang to him many songs, with 
 the accompaniment of one or the other instrument. Most of 
 these airs were old familiar friends to him ; but many of 
 them seemed to be improvised, as if she had caught the 
 strathspey that the wild winds make when they go echoing 
 amid cliffs, whispering through the deep, mysterious woods, 
 or moaning off through vast prairies into silence ! 
 
 Frank went to bed that night, and could not tell, for a 
 long time, whether it was that he dreamed or was afloat upon 
 a strange, gleaming sea, that lulled him on its waves of light, 
 
 as they rocked to and fro harmoniously. It was enough that, 
 Y2 
 
282 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 sleeping or waking, the cup of joy was filled up for him, until 
 even with 
 
 "Beaded bubbles winking at the brim." 
 
 The next day was much a repetition of the last, so far as 
 these young people were willing actors. 
 
 There had been no word of love spoken between them, and 
 why was this necessary ? They felt each other, saw each 
 other, heard each other, lived through each other, and what 
 more? 
 
 It seemed to Frank as if the sun was bright because her 
 cheek was to shine upon, and he grew savagely jealous of 
 
 "The common-kissing Titan." 
 
 The earth rejoiced because of her, and the birds sang to 
 do her praise ! 
 
 They went forth again to visit the sweet valley of wild 
 flowers, to see the squirrels, and many another wild thing 
 that she knew and loved. 
 
 As they skirted the forest, on their return, they saw a long- 
 winged hawk swoop from the clouds and disappear in the 
 deep grass of the prairie. In a moment, it came flapping 
 heavily up again, bearing a hare in its claws. The creature 
 cried out, as it was borne up, with that plaintive, melancholy 
 wail peculiar to the species when captured and in pain. 
 
 It was quite close to them that it had been struck ; for the 
 hawk had, as is their custom on the prairies, been poised for 
 some time above the heads of the riders, watching to strike 
 whatever small game they should scare up in their progress. 
 
 The wail of the poor creature was so touching, that they 
 urged their horses forward with one impulse, in the hope to 
 rescue it. They did not succeed, but were close enough to 
 see the bright, inexorable eye of the winged marauder. 
 
 Frank raised his gun, and was about to fire, when she 
 touched his arm. 
 
 "No, no! do not shoot let him go!" He lowered hi? 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 283 
 
 gun, and turned to her in surprise, which was heightened when 
 he saw that tears were streaming from her eyes. 
 
 " Why not shoot ? You are weeping for the poor hare !" 
 
 " Yes ; because its plaintive cry was eloquent to me, for 
 help and mercy ! Yet to the hawk, that same cry was only 
 an appetizer, whetting the raven in its maw ! The hawk was 
 hungry, and the hare must die !" 
 
 u But suppose I was hungry ; should the hare die then ?" 
 And Frank gazed into her face with curious eagerness. 
 
 " Yes ; surely ! if there was absolutely nothing else for 
 you to eat. I do not reason I only feel ! But it seems to 
 me, that even if you seized the hare with the clutch of famish 
 ing eagerness, you would feel that such a piteous moan as we 
 just heard, would move you to weep before you could devour 
 the creature with flesh and blood so like your own !" 
 
 " Thank you ! thank you a thousand times !" said Frank, 
 joyously. " Your beautiful instincts clearly confirm my own 
 theory. You feel a profound truth, without reasoning upon 
 it. The power of articulating sound which is, of course, 
 the most perfect mode of conveying sensation constitutes 
 the dividing line between a monstrous cannibalism and a legiti 
 mate diet. Man is the highest type of the Divine the most 
 immediate representative of God upon the earth. All articu 
 lated sounds are significant to him ; and, wherever the power 
 of producing these sounds exists, it evidently places the crea 
 ture in intelligent communion with its loyal liege for it 
 enables it to appeal to him for mercy, for protection, and for 
 help ! It is well enough for hawks, wild-cats, and all other 
 creatures, who are, on the ascending scale, merely birds and 
 beasts of prey, to be dumb to this sort of appeal ; but for us, 
 who should be angels unto them, with a compelling splendour 
 on our brows who walk among them with a higher sense, 
 and know the mournful language of their agony, to devour 
 them, groans, shrieks, yells, moans, red blood, and all, is one 
 of the worst forms of cannibalism ! You will observe that it 
 
284 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 is only the red-blooded animals which are capable of pro 
 ducing sounds the meaning of which our senses can compre 
 hend. The evening song of the mocking-bird teems with 
 inspiration, and is a joy and a glory to us, while that of the 
 katydid contains about as much, significant of the desires and 
 passions of the creature itself, as the rasping sound of two 
 dry sticks rubbed together." 
 
 So the day passed, while they looked love, but discoursed 
 of curious truths. They reached the rancho about dark, and 
 found there all the bustle and confusion which indicated a 
 new arrival. 
 
 There were many horses grouped outside the picketing, 
 and the Indians of the rancho were busy in hospitable cares 
 among them. 
 
 " Ha ! they have come !" said Frank, eagerly springing 
 to the ground. He almost forgot to offer his hand to assist 
 the young girl in dismounting, so full was he of joy. But she 
 saved him the trouble, and led the way over the picketing. 
 
 He found all his friends in the room where he had first 
 been received. Then congratulations were warmly exchanged, 
 and he even embraced Clenny in his rapture. The gray- 
 haired man was there, and formally presented his daughter 
 to Mr. Clenny. 
 
 Frank was not so far blinded by his happiness that he 
 failed to observe how pale she turned, as she recognised his 
 friend most formally, after an involuntary start, either when 
 she heard his name, or saw his features fully, he could not 
 tell which. But he remembered the fact for many a day 
 after. 
 
 She continued to be pale, abstracted, and constrained 
 during the remainder of the evening, and Frank was greatly 
 troubled. It was a relief to him when their host proposed 
 they should retire to sleep. 
 
 Frank noticed, too for his watchful eye let nothing pass 
 that although himself and the four men were invited to 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 285 
 
 sleep upon the floor of the same room, still his friend Clenny 
 was invited to sleep elsewhere perhaps in that mysterious 
 room a vision through the half-open door of which had 
 already cost him so much of pain. 
 
 That night, when Carter was fast enough asleep, dreaming 
 of love and joy, four men were awake wide awake, in that 
 mysterious chamber, plotting of many things which would 
 not have quite comported with the tenor of his dreams. 
 
 There were three pallets of buffalo-robes upon the floor of 
 this room, and when the gray-haired man entered, bearing a 
 shaded lamp in his hand, the three men sprang to their feet 
 as they had lain down, fully dressed, and with their arms 
 about them. 
 
 He set the lamp down on the small, rude table, and they 
 gathered about it. 
 
 " What the d 1 is the meaning, my honoured uncle 
 
 Cedric, of this last most inconvenient and most ridiculous 
 stratagem of yours the stampede of all the horses belonging 
 to our party ? You left me in a nice position, sucking my 
 thumbs like a bear or a zaney." 
 
 " Pshaw ! Newnon, do not be impertinent. You know 
 that my scheme was well devised. You should have known 
 the topography of the country better than to have permitted 
 him to come this way. My spies told me that your general 
 course would bring you directly into this neighbourhood. 
 This was to be prevented. I did not wish him to see Freta, 
 and you were likely to cross her eccentric track any moment. 
 My Indians carried off your horses, but that cursed Celeste 
 broke away and went back, only to bring about the very 
 meeting that I dreaded. They met in the woods, and she 
 brought him here. I knew the youngster at a glance, though 
 I wondered utterly how you could have let him go. I found 
 him to be just the fiery, impracticable fool you had repre 
 sented ; for when he saw the horses of your party in my 
 horse-pen, the next morning, he was so savagely indignant 
 
286 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 and insulting, that he raised the devil even in me ! Freta 
 interposed in time to prevent my getting rid of the trouble 
 some yonker. I had one of my white fits on me, which, as 
 you know, do not often occur for nothing ! but when the 
 girl interposed, a new idea flashed upon me. I saw that he 
 was already in love, and I determined to encourage the thing 
 to the utmost." 
 
 " Why did you not have him shot at once ?" said Clenny, 
 with a spasmodic gesture. 
 
 " Keep cool, my gentle Newnon," said Cedric, with a 
 sneering smile. 
 
 "I see clearly how we are to manage this incorrigible 
 youth, without the necessity of resorting to any such extremi 
 ties. We have only to disgust him with his ideal here, and 
 he will go back to Myra Haynes again ! So you need not 
 grow any whiter, if you can help it. This child you seem to 
 have cultivated an insane passion for since her infancy, is 
 quite as astute as you. She is only to be won through her 
 intellect. I have given her sympathies the proper direction 
 to insure this. This boy cannot touch her life, for she has 
 learned to love and expend her overflowing sentiment and 
 sympathies upon another class of objects, and now she is 
 only to be commanded. 
 
 " This is a stern word, Newnon ; but you are just the man 
 to live up to its condition. Make her respect your intellect 
 impose her life with the results you shall accomplish, and 
 she will give to you the love she has to spare from her 
 flowers, birds, trees, and indeed all the wild creatures of the 
 natural world, with whom she is now in strict communion." 
 
 " I like the peril of the game, my good uncle ! there is 
 something exciting in it to me. But what are we to do with 
 that person for the present ? I recall my hasty speech just 
 now. I have a respect for him personally, for he has a great 
 deal in him ; and when he can be scourged out of the sphere 
 of this childish sentimentalism, which has given me so much 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 287 
 
 trouble, he will be a great acquisition to us for even if he 
 lives merely upon the memory of that daring enthusiasm of 
 his, he would be the subtlest agent of our purpose we have 
 ever had for, of a surety, it would impose upon Lucifer 
 himself! How do you propose to get rid of him ?" 
 
 " Never mind ! I shall get rid of him to-morrow ! But 
 let us proceed to other business." 
 
 The two men whose faces Frank had seen for a moment, 
 and who had appeared to be impassive spectators during all 
 this scene, now drew up closely around the table, and at 
 once the four persons went into a close discussion of other 
 matters, which, however far-reaching, we must leave to be 
 developed in their future results. 
 
 The morning has come, and Frank has gone forth again 
 upon his gay Celeste, with the young girl on her glossy 
 steed and they are full of love as yesterday. 
 
 Away ! away they go, asking of Nature only joy and 
 leaving the gray Cedric to scheme with his apt nephew of 
 " stratagems and spoils." They were unconscious of every 
 thing but of the sunshine and of happiness. 
 
 The day had gone by with them as the others they looked 
 love into each other s eyes, as they had done since they first 
 met, and now felt it more, because the passion had grown 
 stilled within them, and warmed them with a quiet glow, like 
 that which the sun sinks down into the earth, in spring, to 
 come up again in such an odorous beaming silence through 
 young flowers. 
 
 They were riding through a narrow path which led from 
 out the dark tangles of the forest of the Black Walnut Bottom 
 Frank was speaking to her of the gentle themes which had 
 absorbed their lives, and she clung upon his words with looks, 
 when all at once Celeste and Black Hawk shied together, 
 and darted away in a panic of affright, and on the instant 
 poor Frank found himself constrained and dragged powerless 
 from his saddle, with a lasso about his neck, while several 
 
288 THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 
 
 Indians rushed upon him from the thicket. With fading 
 vision he last saw the young girl going off at speed, as if 
 unconscious he had disappeared from her side. 
 
 The latest sound he heard, too, was the shrill neigh of 
 Celeste, and then a choking sensation darkened on his life 
 and all was black to him ! 
 
 DREAMS come to dreamers out on the waste ways and in 
 the wilderness, as well as in narrow walls amid crowded 
 streets. The ideal is pursued in both, and is as fleeting 
 here as there. Should it seem strange, then, that our hunter- 
 poet has dreamed a short dream beneath the deep shadows 
 of that old forest by the far and swift Nebraska? His 
 awakening into darkness is but the common way. Does not 
 black night follow the rosy-tinted morn ? Even the bird, 
 with most aspiring pinion, flashes not the sunlight off it 
 always ; he too must sink from his exulting, and crouch be 
 neath the overcoming shadows, where the prowling owl goes 
 hooting with the moaning wolf, and all foul things shine upon 
 the dark, with their green, phosphorescent eyes. We have no 
 new paradise as yet on earth, all fenced about against its 
 evils ; we have no dove-cotes of the ideal where hungry kites 
 forget to swoop. It is all alike the flowers grow in wilder 
 ness as well as city and though the winds may make them 
 wilder, as our Freta was, yet not less delicate are they. 
 Young, manly hearts beat fast and warm, and yearn upon 
 the amorous air, though may be with a swifter beat, out-doors 
 upon the sea-like plain, and through the mighty aisles of 
 "perplexed wood." 
 
 We shall see we shall see ! Perhaps the wild flower wilts 
 within the city. Perhaps the dreams forsake the dreamer 
 where the dust of strife is thickened. The ideal may not 
 live in a sooty, stifling air. We shall see ! 
 
THE WILD GIRL OF THE NEBRASKA. 289 
 
 A just knowledge of life requires a degree of familiarity 
 with its two extremes. The madness and crime of the one 
 may be the joy or justice of the other. These extremes 
 reflect upon and are interwoven with each other, far more 
 clearly and intimately than fireside philosophy can usually 
 realize. 
 
 It is our business to give the realities of the Border, to be 
 sure ; but then these realities are by no means confined to the 
 wilderness. They may leave their footprints as plainly 
 upon Broadway or Chestnut street, as upon the war-path or 
 buffalo-trace. Such brief and sudden episodes as this we 
 have just given in the adventures of our friend Frank Carter, 
 are by no means peculiar to either condition of life, savage 
 or civilized, since we have daily examples that, let it begin 
 in whichever extreme it may, it frequently ends in the oppo 
 site. Nor is it any more true that cut-throats and despe 
 radoes, spitfires and viragoes are the only characters to be 
 found on the frontiers of civilization or in the hearts of the 
 wilderness, than it is true that burglars and sharpers, the 
 murderess and the shrew, are the sole and peculiar denizens 
 of the city. Each has its contrasts and concerning these I 
 shall proceed to "speak that I do know." 
 
 19 
 
THE FIGHT OF THE PINTO TKACE. 
 
 BUT while these sentimental and mysterious affairs, men 
 tioned in our last chapters were being enacted, the author, 
 who, it will be found, has been in one way or another mixed 
 up with the whole apparently disconnected train of events 
 heretofore given in this series, was engaged, a little farther 
 south, in a rougher and somewhat different amusement. I 
 was still with the Rangers, who had lately enjoyed a longer 
 period of idleness than was usual ; and although we had quite 
 fallen into listless and loaferish habits, the news that the 
 Camanches were down in considerable force, and ravaging 
 the settlements, was sufficient to drive us to the saddle in 
 double-quick time. The dusky marauders of the mountains 
 had been unusually audacious on this new foray, and we 
 heard, from all the settlements within fifty miles, alarms of 
 their bloody visitation. 
 
 They move from point to point with such surprising ra 
 pidity, that a long line of frontier is frequently swept by 
 them before the alarm can be spread sufficiently to permit a 
 rally of its defenders in time to intercept the mischief. They 
 can then only pursue ; and as these robber horsemen are, 
 though laden down with plunder, often as prompt and cun 
 ning in their return as in the descent, the pursuit is fre 
 quently bootless. 
 
 We had usually been quick enough for them since our 
 
 Ranger organization had been perfected bv Hays in view of 
 
 291 
 
292 THE FIGHT OF THE PINTO TRACE. 
 
 immediate efficiency in these very emergencies but this 
 time we somehow missed the figure. We wefe promptly 
 enough under way when we heard the news perhaps in 
 fifteen minutes we were all mounted and off! But the re 
 ports which came in were confused and vague, which caused 
 us to lose a great deal of time in finding the true seat of 
 operations. 
 
 We started wrong, and lost a whole day in finding the 
 trail of the plunderers. When we at last found it, we saw 
 that they must have passed nearly twelve hours before. With 
 such a start, it was useless to hope that we could overtake 
 them by following up the windings of the trail. 
 
 Our only chance was to intercept them by some short cut 
 before they reached the mountains. Hays judged from their 
 general course that they would make for the head waters of 
 the Guadaloupe ; and trusting to his sagacity, we crossed the 
 trail and struck off over the plains in that direction. 
 
 We were fifteen men in all, and now that our course had 
 been determined, we moved on at a spanking pace, like men 
 who had something certain to accomplish before them. The 
 outset of a pursuit of this kind is always a merry time with 
 the Rangers. They have had a rest, and are flushed with 
 animal spirits, if not with spirits of another sort, and rush 
 forth whooping in ungovernable delight at the prospect of 
 any new excitement. Their horses are fresh, too, and drink 
 the strong breeze against which they breast as fuel to their 
 headlong speed. Accordingly, very hard riding, laughter, 
 shouts, and merry jokes, constitute the order of the first day. 
 Then fatigue and disappointment have somewhat taken the 
 wire-edge off, and the second is more subdued, but still earnest 
 and impetuous. 
 
 But the third day of suspense is almost uniformly too much 
 for such volatile temperaments to get through with on an 
 uncertainty. They become impatient, listless, and careless 
 to an unmanageable degree, and unless some trace of the 
 
THE FIGHT OF THE PINTO TRACE. 293 
 
 enemy be found to enliven them, the pursuit had as well be 
 given up. 
 
 So Hays found it to be, on the third evening of this pur 
 suit. We had failed again to cross the trail of the Indians, 
 as he had calculated ; the first blush of excited animal spirits 
 had been dissipated in the weariness consequent upon ex 
 cessive hard riding. The men had laughed at each other s 
 old jokes in the jolly abandon of the start, but now the 
 attempted repetition of them was a serious matter, and the 
 laughter such attempts called forth any thing but jocose. 
 
 As evening closed in, there was an anxious consultation 
 held by Hays with the most spirited and experienced of our 
 Rangers, while we still continued slowly to advance in care 
 less, straggling order. Nothing satisfactory was elicited 
 except the mutual conclusion that unless we found some 
 traces of the Indians early in the day to-morrow, it would be 
 as well for us to give up in despair. 
 
 We felt assured that we had come too fast for them to 
 have passed up the valley of the Guadaloupe, without our 
 crossing their trail soon, if they were ahead. If we were 
 ahead of them, the best thing we could possibly do would be 
 to wait for them at a place some distance farther up, where 
 the valley branched in several directions. Hays had been 
 quite certain that they would attempt to reach the mountains 
 by this route, because it was not only the most direct, but 
 t*he most practicable. 
 
 On this route they were sure of firm, open ground to run 
 upon of good grazing and plenty of water. These were 
 advantages which our astute captain felt assured they would 
 and could not overlook in a retreat. Indeed they had scarcely 
 ever been known to fail of selecting this valley to get out by, 
 when they had come in upon the settlements north of Bahai. 
 
 During the greater part of the day we had found ourselves 
 surrounded by quite novel and peculiar features of scenery. 
 
 Although the ground was tolerably level in the valley, yet in 
 Z2 
 
294 THE FIGHT OF THE PINTO TRACE. 
 
 the early part of the day we could easily perceive a low, 
 broken and irregular line of hills undulating the horizon on 
 either side. 
 
 Gradually with the evening these distant lines closed in, 
 and as the shadows lengthened in the setting sun, they almost 
 lay across the valley. Now that we were near them, we 
 could perceive that these hills were quite unlike any others 
 we ha.d seen ; for instead of occurring in a chain, with some 
 thing like regularity, they were isolated, and appeared as if 
 they had been sown broadcast over the plain. What had 
 seemed to us in the distance to be a line of hills, was only 
 the nearer edge of this singular formation. 
 
 We rode in among them, and it reminded me most of a 
 huge forest, the mighty tops of which had been torn off by 
 the wrench of a whirlwind. They stood at irregular dis 
 tances apart, and each hill or mound was of a shape peculiar 
 to itself, and of a size for which none of its neighbours were 
 even indirectly accountable, except in contrast. The river 
 here broke up into a number of smaller head-streams, which 
 wound away by the feet of these curious hills, and we could 
 look up their several valleys from nearly the same point of 
 view. A heavy forest of several miles in extent skirted the 
 opposite bank of the largest of these streams. It was at 
 once resolved that we should cross and camp in the forest 
 or on the edge of it, rather for the night. We passed 
 around a steep and long-backed hill, which stood along the 
 water s edge on this side; a little beyond it we found a 
 buffulo-crossing, which we knew to be always safe. We 
 crossed, and, following up the buffalo-trace through a sort of 
 meadow-break, or opening in the forest, we found that in a 
 few hundred yards it intersected another very wide and deep 
 trace, which led off up the valley towards the north-west, 
 through a continuation of this prairie opening in the forest. 
 
 Hays and the spies examined this trace very carefully for 
 any signs of the Indians having passed, but none were appa- 
 
THE FIGHT OF THE PINTO TRACE. 295 
 
 rent. He said this was the Pinto Trace, and that as it was 
 greatly trampled by buffalo, he expected that the Indians 
 would endeavour to lose their trail on its hard and confused 
 surface. But the sharpest eyes of our trailers could discover 
 nothing which indicated that they had passed. 
 
 It was, therefore, concluded that we must be ahead of 
 them, or else have missed them entirely. We found a small 
 thread-like stream running through this meadow, or strip of 
 prairie, beside which we camped, just under the shadow of 
 the forest. 
 
 We had by this time given up all hopes of finding the In 
 dians, and accordingly all the ordinary precautions of the 
 scout were neglected. We turned our horses on the luxuriant 
 meadow to graze their fill, while we in the mean time were 
 not disposed to be behind them in gratifying our appetites, 
 which had for three days been stinted upon jerked beef, 
 eaten without cooking, since the smoke of a fire is considered 
 quite too significant a telegraph to be carelessly used upon 
 the prairies while in pursuit of an enemy, or while in his 
 possible neighbourhood. 
 
 We determined to have a full meal this night, in amends, 
 and thought of or cared for nothing else but how to secure 
 what we desired. The stringent requisitions of our early 
 march were laughed at now, and recklessly contrasted with 
 the devil-may-care method or rather want of method in 
 our proceedings. 
 
 We built an enormous fire, while the most skilful hunters 
 scattered in every direction to search for game. They came 
 straggling in until some time after dark, and brought with 
 them quite a sufficient complement of game to satisfy even 
 our cravings. The greater part of a fat buck and of a young 
 bear were basted before the blazing fire, while several wild- 
 geese, and a turkey or two, gave variety to our feast. 
 
 Before the feast was over, a belated hunter came in, who 
 announced that he had discovered a bee-tree, not far from 
 
296 THE FIGHI OF THE PINTO TRACE. 
 
 the camp, and it was determined by a party of us that wo 
 would go and cut it down, the first thing in the morning, and 
 get the honey in time for breakfast, to eat with the remainder 
 of our bear-steaks. The announcement and the proposition 
 were received with great glee by the Rangers ; for there is no 
 higher luxury known to frontier life than bear-steaks and 
 wild honey. 
 
 After indulging their appetites to the full, with the inten 
 tion of waiting for the more delicate feast promised in the 
 morning, one after another stretched himself upon his blan 
 ket and dropped off to sleep. 
 
 Nothing especial occurred during the night, and with the 
 earliest morning a party of five or six of us were up and 
 equipping ourselves for taking the bee-tree. We took our 
 arms, of course, but, as well, carried with us a hatchet and 
 several coils of lariat, which were to answer for ropes, should 
 they be needed. We left our horses behind. Sam Walker 
 
 and G went with us on horseback, to keep a look-out for 
 
 possibilities ! Walker, who has since made himself so illus 
 trious by his extraordinary feats in the opening of the war 
 with Mexico, and whose renowned death, as a Captain of the 
 Rifles, thrilled the country lately to its heart s core, was 
 then a subordinate Ranger, like the rest of us, and under the 
 command of Hays. 
 
 G , too, was a gallant fellow, distinguished for his 
 
 skill in trailing he had, since we set out, been acting as the 
 associate of Walker in spying. We proceeded about a half 
 mile through the forest to the bee-tree, which we found to be 
 barely in sight of the long -backed hill on the opposite side 
 of the river, and around the end of which we had been com 
 pelled to turn before we found the crossing. Our spies went 
 on to reconnoitre, while we proceeded to attack the bee-tree. 
 
 It was a very large post-oak ; and we soon perceived that 
 the bees had hived in a limb of great size, the hollow en 
 trance to which was some ten feet out from the main branch. 
 
THE FIGHT OF THE PINTO TRACE. 297 
 
 The tree was too thick through to be cut down in any rea- 
 Bonable time, and the readiest expedient seemed to be that it 
 should be climbed by some one who should cut off the limb 
 from the trunk. 
 
 No one appeared to be inclined to undertake this opera 
 tion ; for climbing trees, however pleasant an amusement it 
 may be to us as boys, is never particularly agreeable to men. 
 So general was this disinclination, that our designs upon the 
 beehive seemed to be in a fair way to be relinquished utterly, 
 when one of the men who had lately joined us, and who was 
 a big, fat, and clumsy greenhorn, laughed out with a sort of 
 wheezing chuckle, and said that we were " pretty fellows, not 
 to be able to climb sich a tree as that." 
 
 The unfortunate sucker ! no one had thought of him be 
 fore ; but now, so soon as he had spoken and attracted atten 
 tion to himself, the determination to victimize him flashed 
 simultaneously upon the minds of all, and we accordingly be 
 set him. He had made himself ridiculous, ever since he 
 joined us, by boasting, after the most loud-mouthed and bom 
 bastic fashion, of his surprising feats in every possible de 
 partment of human prowess. But the deeds of valour which 
 he described, and of which he was the modest hero, were al 
 ways only just surpassed by the incomprehensible feats of 
 personal agility which accompanied them incomprehensible 
 when we looked upon the fat, unwielding personalities of the 
 panting boaster. 
 
 Every one now slyly assailed him upon the weak side 
 his stupendous vanity; and between us we finally coaxed, 
 wheedled, flattered, or bullied poor Lynn into undertaking 
 the very thing, of all others, he was precisely most unfitted 
 for accomplishing. 
 
 The tree was not very difficult to climb after the first limbs 
 had been reached, and we were all emulously officious to 
 boust the heavy fellow upon our shoulders, until he reached 
 vhe lower limbs and got a footing. Then we threw up the 
 
298 THE FIGHT OP THE PINTO TKACE. 
 
 coil of a lariat to him, that he might at his leisure draw after 
 him the hatchet which we attached to the other end. 
 
 Now that he was fairly started on his way up, we threw 
 ourselves upon the earth at the foot of the tree, and rolled 
 over, and with bursts and roars of unrestrained laughter, as 
 we watched his awkward and timid ascent. Now we would 
 applaud him with cheers for some suspiciously insignificant 
 step in his upward progress then we would taunt him when 
 he faltered to take breath, until the poor fellow seemed to be 
 scarcely sure whether he were not performing some unheard 
 of labour, worthy to enlist the applause and enthusiasm of as 
 sembled nations. Indeed, his round face glowed down upon 
 us in the pauses of his ascent, like the red disc of the harvest 
 moon just rising, and its general expression of doubt, triumph, 
 and vexation was so blended with his sweaty pantings, that 
 we fairly roared again with laughter whenever this occurred. 
 
 At last, however, he succeeded in reaching the limb, and 
 according to our directions, proceeded to tie one end of the 
 lariat about it, as far out as he could reach, and then passing 
 the other over a smaller limb, dropped the lariat down to us, 
 that we might ease the limb to the ground, when he had 
 severed it from the trunk. This he now proceeded to do, 
 and at last succeeded in cutting it through. 
 
 As it swung off, and we were easing it down by the lariat, 
 out came the whole swarm of bees, and attacked the poor fel 
 low furiously. He had cut it too far out, and blundered into 
 the hollow. 
 
 He now steadied himself as best he could, and was fighting 
 blindly with both hands to protect his face, and in his agony 
 had even forgot to cry out, while we were convulsed and 
 rocking with cruel laughter below, when suddenly Walker 
 and G shouted, " Indians ! Indians !" 
 
 This ominous cry was sufficient to sober us in a hurry. We 
 let gc the lariat, and dropped our coveted honey very sud 
 denly; for though we could not see the Indians, we knew too 
 
THE FIGHT OF THE PINTO TRACE. 299 
 
 well that no false alarm could come through such men aa oar 
 spies were. 
 
 The alarm caused something of a panic; for the contract 
 was too broad between our reckless hilarity and the imma- 
 diate danger threatened. 
 
 Some of the men at the foot of the tree took up the cry, 
 "Indians!" Poor Lynn, who was already half-maddened 
 and blinded by the bee-stings, heard it, and gave a yell of 
 such agonized, despairing terror as would have stampeded a 
 drove of broken-down pack-mules. 
 
 The pain of the bee-stings seemed to be forgotten in a 
 moment, and he dropped himself, with the agility of a mon 
 key, from the limb on which he stood. He was about forty 
 feet from the ground, and taking every thing together, it was 
 no special wonder that he miscalculated his momentum some 
 what. 
 
 Although we were all thoroughly startled by the alarm, 
 yet I do not think two men budged while we watched the 
 ludicrous descent of our frightened victim. He had clearly 
 forgotten all about the bees, and was dropping hastily from 
 limb to limb, with a constantly increasing momentum, until 
 at last, when something like twenty feet from the ground, he 
 let go all holds, and came crushing down, with the agonizing 
 cry, as he thumped against it his helpless, mushy form, 
 J s ! them Indians ! Wait, boys !" 
 
 But we did not choose to wait now, and with one long 
 burst of laughter, which sent us staggering off, we hurried 
 back to the camp. We saw that Lynn had no bones or limbs 
 broken, and he was certainly of as much use as he lay there 
 grunting and frightened at the foot of that tree, as he could 
 be under any other possible condition of things ; so we left 
 him to pluck the bee-stings out of his face, and dream of new 
 prodigies of individual valour. 
 
 We found G already in camp with the news, and 
 
 nearly all the horses caught up, in readiness. While we 
 
300 THE FIGHT OF THE PINTO TRACE. 
 
 were mounting, G returned to join Walker, and we fol 
 lowed in the shortest possible time. 
 
 We passed out of the forest along the buffalo trail, and as 
 we came out of the narrow meadow, in sight of the crossing 
 
 we had used, we saw Walker and G already mounting 
 
 the other bank of the river. Our course was thus indicated, 
 though we as yet saw no enemy. 
 
 We hurried on, and when we reached the ford we saw 
 them. They were slowly and deliberately ascending the 
 steep and long-backed hill of which I have spoken, while our 
 two spies rode slowly out into the plain they had left, and 
 seemed to be looking up curiously after them. 
 
 We were urging on in the mean time ; for though we were 
 in sight, we were still a considerable distance off. It was a 
 large body of warriors ! at least it seemed so to us, as we 
 saw them slowly mounting the steep hill in a long compact 
 line, from which the gaudy feathers flaunted bravely from 
 their heads and from the tops of their long lance-handles. 
 
 The two spies followed them slowly in advance of us. 
 When we reached the ford, they had mounted to the crest of 
 the hill, and clustering along its brow, had begun to make 
 insulting and defying gestures to us. But these gestures 
 
 seemed to be particularly addressed to Walker and G , 
 
 who were far in advance of us, and in full view of them, 
 while we were concealed somewhat in crossing the river. 
 
 Their position was so favourable, and their numbers so im 
 mensely superior, that Hays, reckless and daring as he was, 
 hesitated about charging upon them. Indeed, he would and 
 could never have been rash enough to make deliberately an 
 up-hill onset upon four or five times his number; but the 
 thing was precipitated. There was among them a person 
 who spoke imperfect English, and he roared out insulting 
 
 taunts to Walker and G , defying them to come on, with 
 
 the most filthy and opprobrious epithets. 
 
 These fiery and chivalric men had never been in the habit 
 
THE FIGHT OF THE PINTO TRACE. 301 
 
 of counting noses when they were insulted and accordingly, 
 without turning their heads to see whether we were at hand 
 or not, they urged their horses alone up the hill in the face 
 of nearly a hundred insolent savages. 
 
 So soon as we saw this movement, all hesitation which at 
 any rate had been but momentary was gone, and we urged 
 our horses up the steeps at their best speed. It was a rough 
 and precipitous ascent, and with all our eagerness, we made 
 slow work of it. We saw the gallant and reckless Walker 
 break into their insolent front, and a warrior tumble as his 
 pistol went off. The throng fell back before him as he gave 
 
 another shot from his revolver, and then G closed in 
 
 with quick successive shots from his deadly repeater. 
 
 But though the panic might be for an instant, yet it was 
 too much to suppose that two men, even with so much auda 
 city, backed even by repeaters, could rout a force of eighty 
 insolent and defying warriors. 
 
 We saw them close about our rash and beloved comrades. 
 We urged our horses like madmen up the steep. We saw 
 Walker go down, and with a frantic cry which was most 
 like the ferocious wail of a pantheress for her young we 
 burst into the fray with drawn revolvers. 
 
 They made terrible work, and although the Indians fought 
 like men possessed to maintain their vantage ground, we 
 drove them back along the ridge with ruthless slaughter. 
 They could not stand before our murderous revolvers. 
 
 I remember, as it were yesterday, seeing, as we swept past, 
 poor Walker lying on his face with a lance through him ! 
 I considered him as done for, and never expected to see him 
 
 on his feet again. Poor G was writhing near him, with 
 
 a dozen lance-wounds. The Indians retreated before our 
 furious charge, and, leaving their dead behind, they started 
 off in the most extraordinary panic along the ridge of the 
 hill. 
 
 Before long they rallied, and met us again in full shock. 
 2A 
 
302 THE FIGHT OP THE PINTO TRACE. 
 
 The collision lasted only for a moment, when they broke 
 again, leaving their dead as before. Thus this terrible fight 
 continued for nearly six miles they pausing every now and 
 then to fight a moment, and then Breaking up before our 
 resistless charge, to fly a few miles farther and make a new 
 stand, to be routed as before. We drew up at last, abso 
 lutely weary of slaughter, and permitted them to escape into 
 some timber, with more than one-half their whole number 
 killed or wounded. 
 
 This was the most bloody and ferocious fight which ever 
 occurred between our race and the Camanches. We were 
 about fourteen men to eighty stout and well-armed warriors. 
 We routed them from their chosen position on the hill, and 
 with the loss of three men and four wounded, literally cut 
 them to pieces killing nearly half of their whole number. 
 But for our revolvers, the attack would never have been 
 made ; and had it been, we should only have been awfully 
 whipped. 
 
 When we returned to the camp, we found that Walker, 
 whom we had supposed to be slain, had drawn the lance out, 
 which had been driven into him from behind, and crawled 
 down to the water to drink. It had missed the vitals, and 
 he lived to render his name illustrious and die at last right 
 gloriously ! 
 
 G was stone dead, with fatal wounds enough on his 
 
 body to have killed half our whole number. We buried him 
 decently ; and, on the examination of the papers on his person 
 by Hays, in the presence of us all, there came to light a 
 small parchment, which was no sooner looked at by Hays, 
 than he hastened to conceal it in his bosom, turning slightly 
 pale as he glanced eagerly around at our faces. It was too 
 late ! The signature was in bold, large letters, and many of 
 us saw it it was " Regulus!" Not a word was spoken. 
 
 As for the man of the bee-tree, we found him with his eyes 
 BO bunged that he was never able to see double any more. 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
TALES OF THE SOUTHERN BOEDER. 
 
 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Six months have elapsed. We have seen Frank Carter, the 
 vague dreamer, the boyish enthusiast, and haughty Quixote 
 of the Ideal, dragged down, almost from the very embraces 
 of the Dulcinea of his wilderness-errantry, and choked into 
 obliviousness by the lasso of a dirty Indian tightened about 
 his throat. 
 
 Ah, what a fall ! Poor Frank ! Only six months since, 
 what an heroic ascetic thou wast, in thy young champion 
 ship ! 
 
 The allurements of women, wealth, position, every thing, 
 indeed, that the cities of civilization had to offer of excite 
 ment and bewildering enchantment to the senses of fire- 
 hearted youth, had been passed through calmly, and he had 
 come forth from all unscathed. 
 
 But the wilderness ! the weird and shadow-peopled wil 
 derness ! alas ! that Frank Carter ever should have ven 
 tured to penetrate those haunted depths. 
 
 Alas ! alas ! for the haunted wilderness. Ho ! for the 
 cities of men again ! We are back in New York city ! 
 
 Facing St. John s Square, on the east side, stands a large, 
 2A2 20 305 
 
306 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 plain brick building, the only peculiarity of the external of 
 which is that it is somewhat taller than the other residences 
 of the block. 
 
 Lately, this building had seemed to be occupied in a man 
 ner so peculiar, as to attract a great deal of attention to it 
 in the neighbourhood, which was a remarkably quiet and 
 staid one. 
 
 At all hours, from about noon until three or four in the 
 morning, well-dressed men principally young men were to 
 be seen apparently making calls. 
 
 The popularity of this house attracted first curiosity, and 
 then suspicion. The drowsy neighbours thought it could be 
 for no good that their rest was so broken in upon at all hours 
 by the clattering hoofs of reckless riders, dashing up to the 
 door ; particularly as these sounds were not unfrequeiitly ac 
 companied bv shouts of gay laughter when the parties came 
 forth late. 
 
 Few vehicles of any kind came ; but at least one, and often 
 four or five, and sometimes more saddle-horses of the finest 
 blood and action usually stood before the door, pawing the 
 pavement impatiently, under the charge of several negro 
 grooms, who seemed to belong to the establishment. 
 
 The neighbours had in vain questioned the servants, all of 
 whom were negroes or mulattoes. What follows would be 
 about all the satisfaction they could obtain in answer to their 
 inquiries, beginning 
 
 "Whose house is that?" 
 
 " Dat s masa s house, to be sure !" 
 
 " Who is your 4 massa, as you call him ?" 
 
 " Massa is a gemman !" 
 
 "Where s he from?" 
 
 " He a n t no red-mouph Yankee dat s sartain !" 
 
 " Are you all his slaves ?" 
 
 "We waits on him!" 
 
 " Where were you born ?" 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 307 
 
 " Not in dis city, tank de Lord !" 
 
 " Where then were you born ?" 
 
 " Whar Aunt Dinah live !" 
 
 " What s your master s name, then ?" 
 
 " Massa s friends know he name !" 
 
 "What does he do?" 
 
 " Minds he s own business ! Here, Pomp, yonder comes 
 anudder gemman ! Be spry, here, you nigger, to hold dat 
 horse !" 
 
 And the baffled meddler would be obliged to sneak away 
 as wise as he came, for his pains. 
 
 About eleven o clock of a still winter evening, with a bril 
 liantly clear moonlight, quite a cluster of horses stood before 
 the door of this house. All at once the darkies opened their 
 eyes and rolled up the whites in astonishment, as a light 
 cabriolet whirled round the nearest corner at a great pace, 
 and dashed headlong into the midst of the group they were 
 in charge of, causing great confusion and affright. 
 
 Before they had time to think or speak, the tall slim form 
 of the driver, which was enveloped in a long cloak, had 
 bounded to the pavement, and throwing the reins towards 
 one of the grooms, sprang hastily up the steps. 
 
 u Gor A mighty, but dat gemman in a hurry! Whew!" 
 whistled Pompey, as he stooped to catch up the reins. 
 
 But great as the hurry of the gentleman seemed to have 
 been, he paused for a moment at the door, as if to compose 
 himself, and then turning the latch, entered without ringing 
 the bell. A negro servant stood in the hall. He sprang 
 forward with a low bow. 
 
 " Berry fine evening, Massa Tinkink. Me take de cloak, 
 massa." 
 
 " There, my dark-browed thunderer," said the gentleman, 
 dismantling himself with great deliberation, and revealing 
 a lithe, elegant figure, and dark, shining, restless eyes. 
 
308 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 Jupiter, I suppose your master has more company than 
 usual, to-night ?" 
 
 " Yes, massa ; dar is some more gemman dan ob usual, on 
 dis night." 
 
 " They are at supper ?" 
 
 "Yes, massa !" 
 
 "Show me in!" 
 
 "Dis way, massa !" 
 
 Jupiter threw open the door of the parlour, and, with a 
 deep salaam, announced 
 
 "Massa Tinkink!" 
 
 The clinking din and joyous clamour of a convivial supper 
 burst upon his ears, as the door flew open, while it was almost 
 impossible, between the sudden glare of lights and the brood 
 ing haze of cigar-smoke, to distinguish faces at all, for the 
 moment. 
 
 There was a momentary lull, and a voice from the fog said 
 
 " Jupiter, what sort of a name is that you have given my 
 friend ? Tynenck ! Tyn-enck is the name, next time, you 
 thick-tongued rascal ! not Tinker, or any other such plebeian 
 cognomen." 
 
 The speaker sits at the foot of the table ; and, as he rises 
 to greet the new comer, we cannot fail to recognise the face 
 of our friend, Frank Carter, though he is looking ten years 
 older, with sunken cheeks, sharpened features, and eyes that 
 gleam with an unnatural fire ! He stretches out a thin, bony 
 hand 
 
 " Come ! Tynenck ; I have kept a seat for you. You see, 
 I have not been able to drill that fellow of mine into the 
 pronunciation of that Gotham-honoured name of yours. Sit 
 down when you get ready but first order what you will have ; 
 for you perceive that we have the start of you, and have got 
 somewhat along into the night." 
 
 " Resume your seat, Carter ; I shall take care of myself!" 
 and he passed down the table, exchanging greetings. Wheu 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 309 
 
 his eye met that of the person seated at the head, there was 
 a scarcely perceptible start, a significant interchange of 
 glances, and Tynenck turned suddenly, and said 
 
 " Carter, I did not observe, before, that you had resigned 
 your seat as host. Hope you are not reduced to dodge the 
 hammer already ? You should have let me know, before it 
 came to this extremity. I would have taken your place 
 myself." 
 
 " Not if you mean the presiding hammer ! I have al 
 ready so much honoured myself, in the resignation thereof to 
 mine ancient comrade and tried Newnon Clenny, to whom 
 I beg to introduce you," the gentlemen bowed formally, 
 " that I thought there was no other honour left me, in that 
 line. But your offer to take my place overwhelmed me, 
 Tynenck. Though my place is now that of a guest to my 
 friend, I hope you will feel no hesitation in sharing it with 
 me. By the way" and he looked sharply from one face to 
 the other "my friend Newnon is an old resident of New 
 York ! I should have thought it probable that you two 
 would have met." 
 
 "Never as personal acquaintances, though I have long 
 recognised Mr. Clenny by sight and reputation, and desired 
 to know him." 
 
 " Curious !" said the clear, shrill, commanding voice of 
 Clenny. " We have almost jostled each other a thousand 
 times, with a mutual recognition and desire of acquaintance, 
 and yet the accident of pray know my friend had never yet 
 occurred, before ! But better late than never. Have you 
 ordered any thing, Mr. Tynenck?" 
 
 "Yes; some oysters on the shell. I have not heard of 
 you, in the city, for some years past, Mr. Clenny ?" 
 
 "No; my friend Carter can best account for my absence. 
 I have been with him adventuring, at the South- West." 
 
 "Ah! here are the oysters! Some pale Sherry now, 
 Sam !" said Tynenck, as he seated himself. 
 
310 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 " I say, Tynenck !" said a florid-looking person, in a some 
 what loud voice, as he leaned forward over the table, several 
 seats above, "what s the news from the bridge, to-night? 
 You always know." 
 
 " My dear fellow, how can I know any more than you your 
 self know ? The boats are not in from Albany; none of the 
 expresses can arrive for several hours. Ah ! these delicious 
 oysters !" 
 
 " Pshaw !" said a young man from the opposite side of the 
 table, and upon whose white, effeminate hand gleamed a large 
 diamond, as he stretched it forth. "Pass on that cham 
 pagne, Tom ! You need be in no hurry to hear from the 
 bridge ; your miserable party is already defunct, and I ex 
 pect, in my morning dream, to hear your sweet voices in 
 chorus with the last, melancholy shriek of that long bray we 
 
 have been hearing from since the late convention. 
 
 Here s to the lungs of your chief chorister Tom !" 
 
 The young aristocrat raised the foaming glass to his lips, 
 with a sneer upon them ; while Tom Durfee flushed a yet 
 deeper scarlet, and, instead of lifting his glass, began to 
 fumble confusedly in his pockets, while he glanced furtively 
 towards Tynenck and Clenny. 
 
 Tynenck was just taking a large oyster ; and, as he laid 
 down the shell, he looked up archly, and said, with a distinct, 
 emphatic intonation 
 
 " Mr. Catesby, what is that morning dream of your s worth 
 to you ?" 
 
 " Why, Tynenck, have you turned plebeian, too ?" The 
 young man looked surprised, but quietly proceeded, after 
 laying down the cigar he was about to light, to draw forth 
 his pocket-book. " It is worth whatever you are disposed to 
 cover, Mr. Tynenck !" 
 
 " I ll bet you five hundred that the Democratic candidate 
 w elected!" said Tom Durfee, eagerly. 
 
 " Good ! Friend Thomas, you are booked J I am sorry 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 311 
 
 for you," and Catesby proceeded to make the entry on a fly 
 leaf. 
 
 "Pshaw! Tom, you must be drunk, or else you are a 
 fool," said one of his neighbours. 
 
 "No; let Tom alone he ll win it," said another, a tall 
 man, who sat next, and whose hair was as black as midnight, 
 and whose eyes shone strangely out of a saturnine and 
 ghastly face. He leaned forward and whispered, " He s got 
 his cue ! He knows what he is about let him alone." 
 
 Frank heard this whisper, and marked the man. 
 
 "I have five thousand at your service, Mr. Catesby," said 
 Tynenck, as he stooped to take another oyster. 
 
 " You are up in the figures to-night, Tynenck. You came 
 in last. Pray, how old is your faith in your candidate ?" 
 
 The buzz around the table was hushed. 
 
 Tynenck took another oyster, and laying down the shell 
 deliberately, he looked up with an expression of surprise. 
 
 "Why, what s the matter, friend Catesby? Are you 
 frightened at five thousand ? Make it a hundred, then, or 
 even fifty, if that will suit you better." 
 
 Catesby flushed a little. His suspicions might have been 
 correct enough, but the cool tact of this man had placed him in 
 a false position. He had spoken from an instinctive impulse 
 rather than from judgment. He now saw that Tynenck had 
 placed himself right, in his answer to the first question, with 
 regard to the news from the bridge, in saying that it was yet 
 impossible that any news could have arrived. He had tact, 
 and made the most of an awkward predicament. 
 
 " I will see you," he said, " and something more. But a 
 man who has just come in from the fresh air to a party al 
 ready four hours gone, should not be surprised that we show 
 wonder whether he has not heard from farthest Ind in that 
 time." 
 
 "Ay! But you will see me and something more," said 
 Tynenck, with a scarcely perceptible smile. "All that is 
 
312 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 right enough. I am satisfied with regard to every thing ex- 
 cept the amount you are willing to stake to-night upon the 
 result of this election." 
 
 " Do you propose to bet on the State of New York, as will 
 be decided by the news of the morning, or on the general 
 result ?" 
 
 " You may take either." 
 
 " Then I will take the result." 
 
 "At what figure?" 
 
 " Any, from five to ten." 
 
 "Then let it be ten." 
 
 With a slight increase of paleness, but a perfectly firm 
 hand, Catesby wrote out a draft for the amount, while Ty- 
 nenck did the same. 
 
 Tynenck was about to hand them to Carter, but something 
 in his look forbade. He turned toward Clenny for a mo 
 ment, and then rising, handed him the draft. Catesby did 
 she same, and Clenny deposited them in his pocket-book. 
 
 The roysterers had forgotten their merriment for the time, 
 Awhile the formalities of this heavy bet, were settled. Frank 
 Carter looked on with his sepulchral, hollow eyes, and said, 
 with a quiet sneer, which it seemed as if he could not con 
 trol 
 
 " I congratulate you, gentlemen, upon the accession of self- 
 complacency the morning will bring to the one or the other 
 of you. One will be just ten thousand times better pleased 
 with himself, his principles, and his party. Happy man ! 
 Happy party ! with such a formidable accession to its suc 
 cesses. Devil take the hindmost !" 
 
 " Hear him ! Hear him ! Our host from the South is 
 spiritually moved to sermonize," said Tynenck, with a 
 laugh. 
 
 "Will you take some champagne now, Mr. Tynenck?" 
 
 " Yes. Those were glorious oysters, and the sherry seems 
 flat after them!" 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 313 
 
 Frank drained the long-necked glass at a draught, and 
 said 
 
 "A truce to politics it is a stupid game of knave to 
 fool. Boy, place a bottle before every man, and let no time 
 be lost in circulation." 
 
 The order was executed with a surprising promptness, and 
 in less than a minute a bottle of champagne was placed be 
 fore each guest. The wires, with great nicety, had been so 
 nearly severed, that it only required a slight wrench with the 
 thumb to start the cork, and in a moment they were popping all 
 along the table, amid merry laughter and quaint witticisms. 
 
 " I say, Carter, do you intend to get us all tipsy again 
 to-night, as usual ?" 
 
 " I should feel that I was doing a good and disinterested 
 service, Catesby, to drink you under the table ; for then, at 
 least, you would be incapable of playing the fool and betting 
 your fine fortune away." 
 
 " Pray, Mr. Ascetic, how much better use are you making 
 of yours?" 
 
 " Far better ! I chpose to seek relief from the satieties in 
 convivialities; but in this I am at least unselfish. I do not 
 ask men to do or to suffer what I am not willing to share. 
 If they wake up with a headache after a night with me, they 
 have at least the consolation that I have a headache too, and 
 am sharing with them the wages of sin. But the gambler 
 who has lost, wakes with hatred in his heart and the gambler 
 who has won, with a pitiless exultation !" 
 
 " Pshaw ! Frank, stop your preaching, and fill up your 
 glass !" said Clenny, jeeringly. 
 
 "Let him alone!" said Tynenck, laughing; "our friend 
 belongs to a common type of fanatic. He hugs his favourite 
 sin to his heart with his left hand, and does battle with the 
 sins of all the world with his right. He loves the excite 
 ment of wine and rich feeding, but shrinks from the more 
 refined and intellectual stimulus of gambling." 
 
 2B 
 
314 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 "Because it revolts my taste !" 
 
 "No," said the dark-haired, saturnine man, with the 
 gleaming eyes, whose whisper we have mentioned Frank had 
 heard and noted. "No, sir; there is, perhaps, a higher 
 reason for all this : Mr. Carter is too honourable to bet upon 
 a certainty !" 
 
 " What do you mean, sir ?" said Tynenck, looking startled. 
 
 "I mean what I say !" 
 
 Every glass was arrested midway, and all the buzz around 
 the table stilled in an instant. 
 
 " But what do you mean to say ?" asked Tynenck, blanch 
 ing somewhat, and looking towards Clenny, as if in appeal. 
 The brows of Clenny were contracting, and his eyes growing 
 large and shining underneath. 
 
 " I mean to say that the heavy bet you made just now 
 with Mr. Catesby was made upon a certainty." 
 
 " How upon a certainty ?" 
 
 The man with the shining eyes went on as calmly and coolly 
 as if he were demonstrating a problem in mathematics. 
 
 "You run a private express, in connection with other 
 swindling gamblers, and have the new r s from the bridge 
 several hours ahead of the mails. You are in a fair way to 
 make a clean percentage to-night, in that bet of ten thou 
 sand you made just now." 
 
 " Carter, who is this insolent fellow ?" said Tynenck, with 
 a rigid and pale, though somewhat flurried air. 
 
 Carter answered coolly, as he sipped from his champagne 
 glass " That gentleman is my friend, or he would not have 
 been here, It is Captain Yeiger, late of the United States 
 navy." 
 
 "Ah ! he has been a captain, has he? Then he ought to 
 know how to take care of himself ; and must be aware of the 
 consequences of his vulgar impudence to-night." 
 
 " Captain Yeiger has been so long in the habit of taking 
 care of himself, that it has grown to be quite an unconscious 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 315 
 
 thing with him," said the man with the glittering eyes, very 
 slowly. " Captain Yeiger can even now afford a sort of half- 
 pay conscience, which impels him to warn honourable young 
 men, when he finds them compromised to the tune of ten 
 thousand by a cool and subtle swindler." 
 
 The convivialists looked all aghast, and, with one accord, 
 drew their chairs back from the table. 
 
 " Pshaw ! Carter, this is some low fanatic, who has imposed 
 upon your philosophic tendencies." 
 
 Carter said nothing. But the captain rose from his seat, 
 and deliberately dashed his glass, wine and all, into the face 
 of Tynenck. 
 
 " Pray, is that a philosophic tendency, sir ?" 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE bolt had fallen ! The astounding shock of unexpected 
 defeat had stunned into almost death-like stillness the warm 
 hearts of many thousand earnest, chivalric friends of Mr. 
 Clay, in New York city. 
 
 Would that so many otherwise faultless citizens and still 
 nobler men had not been hurried, amid the sanguine heat 
 and dusty turmoil of that strife, into fatal compromises by 
 the gambling spirit, and then, through the breathless stillness 
 of that pause, the snapping of so many heart-chords would 
 not have been heard to fill it twanging in a low, mournful 
 cadence, as they died away. 
 
 Ah ! that was a terrible day to New York, when the cer 
 tainty of Mr. Clay s defeat became known ! For hours and 
 hours, long after the cool heads of the party had resigned 
 themselves and given up all for lost, the great body of the 
 Whigs continued to struggle against conviction. They could 
 
316 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 not realize it they would not realize it; they almost gasped 
 for breath, to shout till the last, "It cannot be so !" 
 
 But the obstinate refusal to be convinced could not help 
 them ; and when those millions which had been so rashly staked 
 upon the result, changed hands, then came the realization, 
 tangible and palpable crushing through brain and sense in 
 an awful collapse of purses and patriotism ! 
 
 It would have been well enough had these tremendous 
 losses been confined to the gamblers of the Whig party. But, 
 alas ! it was chiefly the true-hearted, unsuspecting members 
 of the party, who, with an honourable enthusiasm, went for 
 principle, upon the faith of a long-tried confidence in Mr. 
 Clay, that suffered deepest, and were plucked most bare, by 
 the wary sharpers on the other sides. 
 
 These were mostly men of character, substance, and posi 
 tion, who, whatever caution they might exhibit towards an 
 opponent, were too frank and just to themselves to imagine 
 such a crime as treason in the camp. They would never 
 dream when betting on a certain result on the strength of 
 hints from a leading spirit of their party, who was known to 
 be most frequently sure of his ground that the very sums 
 they lost to seeming opponents, would go into the pockets of 
 their astute adviser. 
 
 Still less could they dream that the heavy sum, by staking 
 which this said oily adviser had demonstrated substantially 
 to them his own faith with regard to the question at issue, 
 was in no danger of ever leaving his note-book let what 
 might turn up ! 
 
 That in a word, it was a mere stool-pigeon operation 
 the pluckings from which were shared between their distin 
 guished Whig friend and his perhaps equally distinguished 
 Democratic friend, in a cool, private settlement afterward. 
 
 Plucker and Pluckee would meet in a few hours to ex 
 change condolences, and Pluckee would be so melted by the 
 ugubrious melancholy expressed upon the hopeless face of 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 317 
 
 his friend Plucker, that his honest, sympathetic heart could 
 not but be moved by the remembrance of old friendships, 
 and, if not ruined already, the pathetic interview would pro 
 bably be concluded by an offer on his part of a loan to assist 
 the impudent swindler in redeeming his position. 
 
 So the game went. Perhaps never before in the history 
 of our somewhat remarkable country did so large a body of 
 men pay such heavy penalties for the misfortune of being 
 honest, as on the issue of this extraordinary election. 
 
 It was like to prove a fatal accident to poor Mark Catesby, 
 that he enjoyed the enviable reputation of being extremely 
 rich. His father inherited an immense fortune and proud 
 rank in England, and had, for some unexplained cause, come 
 over to sink both, in a great measure, among the pale-haired 
 Manhattanese. 
 
 He was fiercely aristocratic, and yet dissipated, though 
 magnificent, in his habits. He had invested, by the merest 
 accident, a comparatively small sum in vacant property 
 around Union Square. 
 
 He was unfortunately a victim of the demon of chance, 
 although he scorned the common gambler. In his time, men 
 had not outlived the chivalric though melancholy delusion 
 that there was such a thing as honour among gamblers. He 
 was the knightly soul of honour himself, and lived and died 
 in the blind, yet generous faith that his noble fortune had 
 been honourably squandered among honourable men. 
 
 He left his two children, Mark and Ruth, the mere frag 
 ment of his estate his wife was dead before he came over. 
 Mark, who was then nearly a man, managed, through the 
 counsel of his family lawyer, with great tact, to keep up 
 appearances and retain for a while the old mansion, which 
 was lower down town, until the unregarded investment in 
 Union Square had so far appreciated in value as to make it 
 desirable for him to resign the old house to his father s cre 
 ditors, and move upon this property. 
 2B2 
 
318 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 He had nothing left him in the world to love but his sister 
 Ruth this tie had been unboundedly sufficient for him. 
 They loved each other with the beautiful holiness of that 
 chaste, unselfish relation. 
 
 The house he now had built for their home expressed the 
 perfect and refined taste of each in its different departments, 
 and was as well the wonder and admiration of the square. 
 
 But yet Mark Catesby was not rich not near so rich as 
 society gave him credit for being. 
 
 The reputation of unlimited wealth which the extravagant 
 habits of his father had impressed upon society, had, through 
 his docile and cautious observance of the conduct and pro 
 cedure laid down by the old and honoured lawyer of his 
 family, been sufficient in preserving that reputation and con 
 sequent credit intact. Now this reputation and credit was 
 worth more to Catesby than even his beautiful house and 
 somewhat valuable property. 
 
 He had guarded it with the most jealous care for the sake 
 of his dear Ruth for the fact of his father s bankruptcy had 
 been as carefully concealed from her as from the public. 
 
 Enormously wealthy as he was conceived to be, the loss of 
 ten thousand dollars last night was utterly crushing to him. 
 All his property would have to be sacrificed, unless his ficti 
 tious credit could be promptly sustained. With the certainty 
 of success before him, he had bet upon his credit, which he 
 well knew to be beyond the limit of his bank account. Yet 
 he had liabilities to nearly the same amount in other quarters, 
 which would come due at the same hour, which fact he had 
 overlooked in the flush of that excitement which was as well 
 hereditary as accidental. 
 
 What was he to do to save himself and his dear Ruth from 
 utter ruin? This was the agonizing question which caused a 
 strange collapse in the features of the young man when he 
 came down to breakfast, about noon on that eventful day, 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 819 
 
 after having read all the fatal news of the morning, before 
 he rose. 
 
 His sister was at the table. She was very frail and fair, 
 this same sister Ruth of his ; but her fairness was not the 
 unnatural bleach of confinement, nor that general seeming 
 of physical frailty, the result of wasting disease. Her com 
 plexion was perfectly fresh, and there was a suggestive trans 
 parency in its whiteness that reminded one of the ou-tside 
 petals of a blush rosebud, which, though blanched by the 
 sunlight on its surface, seemed to sink, in a delicate, deep 
 ening glow, through every fold, as if it would invite the eye 
 to follow it down to the warm, red heart. 
 
 The frailty of her figure was rather apparent than real ; 
 for when you saw her close at hand, it was evidently caused 
 by that fineness of bone and texture which is the result of 
 high breeding and a great purity of genealogy through many 
 generations ; for slight as her limbs seemed, they were firmly 
 knit, and she rather appeared to bound than walk, with an 
 exceeding airiness of movement. 
 
 Her features were almost of the pure Grecian, except that 
 the nose turned up slightly, and the chin was somewhat ad 
 vanced from the true line of that classic profile, which gave 
 to their expression a certain degree of haughtiness, that was 
 not a little heightened by the crisp, beautiful curl of her 
 short upper lip. 
 
 This face would have been unpleasantly proud, and even 
 savagely fastidious, but for the surprising tenderness of those 
 meek, blue eyes, that seemed all brimming up to overflow in 
 a quick sympathy, and then they could in an instant freeze 
 the warm tears in which they swam, and glisten coldly on 
 you, if her nice and imperious taste were outraged in the 
 smallest degree. 
 
 She sat with her back to the door as he entered, and re 
 cognising his beloved step as he advanced, she pouted her 
 budding lips in expectation of the morning kiss. As he 
 
320 BACK FKOM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 * 
 
 .stooped over her, she raised her eyes to his face, and for the 
 first time caught a glimpse of the expression there. 
 
 She sprang up as if she had been shot, and with a faint 
 scream upon her lips, threw her arms about his neck her quick 
 instinct had divined it all in the instant of that one glance. 
 
 " Mark ! Mark ! my brother, what has happened ?" 
 
 He shook in her arms as one stricken with a palsy. She 
 knew his whole soul far more thoroughly than he did himself. 
 She knew the fatal passion he had inherited, and had long 
 prepared herself for this result and now his deep emotion 
 confirmed her fears. The blow had come at last ! 
 
 "Dearest brother, never mind it. Let it go. We are 
 sufficient unto each other and unto ourselves. You can sell 
 this house, and you know you say I am such a good artist 
 now," and she kissed him fondly. "Oh, do not look so, 
 Mark ! You will kill me ! I can bear any thing but that 
 white agony!" 
 
 The wretched young man staggered to a chair. He drew 
 her to his breast. 
 
 " Sweet Ruth," he moaned. 
 
 She kissed him again. 
 
 "Dear brother, why should you be so sad? You know 
 that it has always been a favourite whim of mine to take a 
 room on Broadway, and have up on the side of the door a 
 nice little shingle, with Ruth Catesby, Artist, on it in gold 
 letters. Oh, I shall be so proud and strong then ! It must 
 be such a glorious thing to live by one s own labour ! Then 
 old Mr. Kenyon says you are a first-rate lawyer, and have 
 remarkable talents as a pleader. You have only to stick up 
 your little shingle, too, and you will soon get into practice. 
 Won t it be beautiful then, when we get together at night, 
 after a hard day s work, in my snug little back-room ?" 
 
 "You are a dear, brave girl, Ruth," said the young man, 
 mournfully, and with quivering lips. " Ah, what a besotted 
 Wretch I have been !" 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 321 
 
 " Do not talk so, Mark. You have only done what thou 
 sands of the best men in the land have done during the fear 
 ful excitement of this election. Had I been a man, no doubt 
 I would have done so too." 
 
 "No, Ruth, you would never have done this," said he, 
 with an expression of bitter self-reproach. " You would 
 never have compromised a gentle, loving sister, in your mad 
 ness, and driven her to face the ignominious alternative of 
 labouring with her white, delicate hands, for the very bread 
 she puts into her mouth. It can never be, Ruth. I am not 
 quite so far degraded yet, that I will consent to see the last 
 daughter of our honourable house become a menial of the 
 vulgar public dancing attendance on its brutal patron 
 age. I" 
 
 "Brother! brother!" 
 
 "Do not interrupt me, Ruth," he continued, while his face 
 flushed through its pallor and assumed somewhat of the 
 haughty air habitual to it. 
 
 " It can never be, I say. I have thrown away your for 
 tune and my own ; squandered it shamefully, as I have rea 
 son to believe, upon infamous swindlers ; and I owe you a 
 great reparation. You must let me make it. I know I can 
 succeed in the law. What is done cannot be mended ; but 
 after saving my honour, by giving up all, I can borrow money 
 enough among the old friends of my father for us to live upon 
 genteelly, and as Catesbys should, until I get into practice, 
 which will not be long. It shall then be the joy and charm 
 of my life to make you comfortable, and surround you soon 
 again with all the elegances to which you have been accus 
 tomed. The law is an honourable profession, and it is 
 honourable for any man to win distinction in it; but the idea 
 of a daughter of a Catesby offering, nay, advertising her rare 
 and graceful accomplishment in art for sale to the highest 
 bidder, to be criticised by a plebeian taste to be rated, 
 
 cheapened, and trafficked for by rich, retired grocers, as they 
 
 21 
 
322 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 had once trafficked for a side of bacon or a string of onions 
 is rather more than even this dark misfortune has prepared 
 me to face. It cannot be, dear Ruth. Your spiritual genius 
 would not long survive this desecration of its gentle craft. 
 Your art would be vulgarized !" 
 
 During this speech, the young girl had gradually released 
 herself from the arms of her brother, and now stood before 
 him, her form unconsciously drawn proudly up, and her meek 
 blue eyes lit with a solemn fire. She said slowly, and in a 
 low voice 
 
 " My brother, Art is too high to be vulgarized ! It is the 
 apostle of the beautiful, and preaches to the masses of THE 
 UNKNOWN GOD ! They cannot touch its austere life by 
 praise or blame, because it is self-derived, and conscious 
 ness is its highest reward. Art does not ask the masses to 
 come to it ; it simply commands them by the yearnings for 
 higher life instinctive in them and of which it is the in 
 terpreter, through form. The raiment of camel s hair and 
 the food of locusts and wild honey better becomes those 
 who aspire to be even the voices in the wilderness that an 
 nounce the coming of Art to tranquillize, ameliorate, and 
 ennoble our race, than the silken security of luxurious homes. 
 Art has nothing to fear of desecration, through me, my bro 
 ther ; for I know that I am a true artist, and I fear nothing 
 for it from the modest contact for Art has been the great 
 compeller of refinement, through all time. As for the degra 
 dation of labouring with my own hands, it is a degradation I 
 have long aspired to ; and I tell you that the name of which 
 you are so sensitively proud will be far more honoured by 
 such a dedication of what talents I have to boast, and high- 
 purposed labour, than by the vain, childish, and unfruitful 
 life of luxurious and stately etiquette ! I am determined to 
 be an artist, brother ! and to live by art, for the labourer is 
 worthy of his hire !" 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 323 
 
 "Remember you are a woman, Ruth!" said Mark some 
 what impatiently. 
 
 " Woman has as much right to work as you have, for she 
 was doomed to live by the sweat of her brow." 
 
 "Ah! dear Ruth, you are, and always have been, a 
 strange, wilful creature but never unkind, though. I am 
 sure you will let me persuade you out of these extraordinary 
 opinions and purposes, before the time shall arrive for carry 
 ing them into execution;" and he drew her to him, and 
 kissed her fondly. 
 
 " I fear you will not, Mark !" said she quietly, as she 
 struggled free of his embrace ; and then turning to him with 
 a pleasant smile, as she resumed her place at the breakfast 
 table, she said " Come, brother I let us take one more happy 
 meal together, at least." 
 
 We leave these young people now, for a time, and the ques 
 tion at issue by themselves to be settled, from the firm con 
 viction that the truest purpose makes the strongest will in 
 such contests, and that right will govern might between 
 them. 
 
 About this same hour, two persons are at breakfast in the 
 easy and luxurious back-parlour of the mysterious house in 
 St. John s Square. 
 
 The conversation of these two persons, which has been 
 long and confidential, has just now turned upon the affairs 
 and interests of the individuals we have just left. We will 
 listen for awhile. 
 
 Captain Yeiger has finished his toast, and is sipping his 
 claret, taking a grape now and then from his plate. 
 
 " There can be no doubt, Mr. Carter, that Catesby is ruined 
 utterly and irredeemably ruined ! I knew his father inti 
 mately, and have watched this young man closely. He has 
 never been a gambler, except as a losing one, as his father 
 was an d f or the same reason that he is strictly honourable, 
 and will not know the wretched knaves of the profession. He 
 
324 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 loses to-day much more than he is worth, as I have ascertained 
 since the scene last night. The passion he inherited rose up 
 in the form of a monomania, and he had bet wildly, as hig 
 father used to do, during all the day, and the fever was still 
 raging in his blood when that subtle scoundrel, Tynenck, who 
 thinks him to be richer than he really is, tempted him into 
 that last ruinous bet. Catesby was not really a sane man 
 then ; and as soon as Tynenck entered the room, I felt what 
 he came for. He knew Catesby would be here ; he had re 
 ceived the necessary intelligence, through means concerning 
 which I have given you some general hints, which really are 
 all I have to order now, though I think I am on the track 
 of a certainty, sure as proof of holy writ, which, when I 
 have further elaborated, you shall have the benefit of. He 
 thought him immensely rich and heard of his bold bets 
 during the day, and came post-haste, as I ascertained from 
 your negro groom, Pompey, for the purpose of securing a 
 heavy bet with him, which he accomplished. I could not 
 contain my indignation, since I knew that Catesby was not 
 to be the only sufferer. Had that been the case, I should 
 have held my peace, for I felt that the lesson would be good 
 for him ! But I knew that there was a fair, gentle girl, as 
 gentle as she was strong, who would be most injured by this 
 terrible imprudence of his." 
 
 "Was or is this girl his mistress?" interposed Carter, 
 coldly. 
 
 " No ! no ! His sister, man !" 
 
 " I beg pardon ! Proceed I am interested now!" 
 
 " This young girl has no particular provision made for 
 her in the will of her father. He clung to the old idea of 
 the right of primogeniture, and left her an entire dependant 
 upon the older brother. The old Catesby had little to will ; 
 for his immense property was so involved and cut up with 
 mortgages and debts of honour, that he did not know him 
 self what he might legitimately call his own, and so willed to 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 325 
 
 his only son all his unembarrassed estate. This spirited and 
 charming girl is, therefore, left without provision of any sort, 
 except what a spotless name and highly cultivated talents 
 can afford." 
 
 "Is she really talented?" said Carter, eagerly. 
 
 " Yes. I am consummately skilled in the use of the pistol, 
 and feel strangely disposed to visit upon him a righteous re 
 tribution for the wrong, the cold, merciless wrong, he has 
 deliberately done to this young girl, in swindling her in 
 fatuated, but honourable brother, out of the last fragment of 
 the magnificent estate their father left them. It was a swin 
 dle base and cold-blooded swindle and you will see, when I 
 wing the uncertain-eyed scoundrel to-morrow, that he will 
 confess it before he is carried off the ground." 
 
 " I hope you may do it, Yeiger ; but this man has been in 
 the field before successfully." 
 
 " Pshaw ! he has never met an eye before. I know my 
 man !" 
 
 " Well, well, look out. He knows how to take you at an 
 advantage, as he did poor Catesby. Five o clock to-morrow 
 morning !" 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 As the day broke, there were three men standing at the 
 row-boat stairs on the North River side of the Battery, foot 
 of Pier No. 1. It was too early even for the habits of that 
 most tenacious, wide-awake, fare-abiding animal the Battery 
 oarsman. 
 
 They have to wait and we can see, first, that they all 
 
 have on large, heavy cloaks ; second, that two of them carry 
 2C 
 
326 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 a mahogany case under the right arm, and that said cases 
 have a very suspicious look. 
 
 A handsome carriage, which appears to have brought them 
 down, stands in waiting a short distance off. 
 
 They soon enter a boat, and are pushed off. 
 
 The oarsman seemed to understand his course perfectly; 
 for, without a word of direction, he passed among the vessels 
 of war that were anchored off the castle, and struck out 
 boldly across the bay, in a south-westerly direction, for the 
 Jersey shore. 
 
 No word was spoken until they had reached the open 
 water, when Jack, who had been eying suspiciously those 
 mahogany cases, which were deposited carefully in the bot 
 tom of the boat, said, after squirting an immense mouthful 
 of tobacco-juice over the side, which was sufficient to have 
 made a shoal of porpoises drunk, had there been any near 
 
 " Capt en, I ve seen them things afore." 
 
 " I suppose you have, Jack. "What then ?" 
 
 " Only I wanted to know if it was you this time ?" 
 
 " Well, supposing it is me, Jack what have you to say in 
 such a case?" 
 
 "Nothing, Capt en, nothing only I hope you won t for 
 get that famous line-shot of yourn, that anchored that saucy 
 Englisher so safe on the beach of the Mediterranean, the last 
 time I took you out with them things at daybreak. Just 
 under the pit of the right arm it was, Capt en." 
 
 "Yes, I remember." 
 
 " The Britishers said that was too trim betwixt wind and 
 water for them, though it was one of their own people, and 
 they gave us a wide berth afterwards on that station." 
 
 " Never fear, Jack. I shall take care about my line-shot, 
 and have it all right, if you will only get me to the ground. 
 Lay to your oars, my man it is late." 
 
 " Ay, ay," and Jack pulled away now as if for dear life. 
 The party had been perfectly silent for some time, and the 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 327 
 
 boat was rapidly nearing the Jersey shore, when Captain 
 Yeiger looked up suddenly and said 
 
 " Ah ! Carter, there is one thing I had as well mention to 
 you, now I think of it. In my rooms at the Astor House, 
 there is a small portable writing-desk, which is filled with 
 sheets of manuscript, containing notes of information I have 
 collected during several years of close observation. You will 
 find it all bears upon a certain dangerous mystery, which 
 was yesterday the subject of interesting conversation between 
 us. Should any thing happen to me at any time suddenly, I 
 desire you to take charge of that desk and of the manuscript, 
 and make what use you deem proper of the facts you will 
 find it to contain. They may be of great importance to 
 yourself individually, and of some to the world. You will 
 find the key in the left pocket of my vest : it is in a small 
 leather pouch, which also contains directions how to use it, 
 for the lock is very peculiar. You will remember this for 
 me, will you not ?" 
 
 " Certainly, captain I will not fail you. But I hope I 
 shall not be called upon soon to fulfil such a duty." 
 
 " Oh, there is little probability of that, this morning at 
 least. It was merely a suggestion which happened to occur 
 to me, with no more particular reference to the business in 
 hand than to any other ordinary contingency." 
 
 This was said so very quietly, that Carter was considerably 
 relieved ; for he feared his friend had been overtaken by one 
 of those prophetic threatening shadows of doom which some 
 times fall mysteriously across the sunlight of the souls of 
 the bravest men, to unnerve them in the moments of their 
 greatest peril. 
 
 They had now reached the shore a few miles below Jersey 
 city. They landed near a narrow slip of woods which came 
 down close to the water. A boat like their own was moored 
 a hundred yards off, and they could see the rower leaning 
 
328 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 back in it, apparently fast asleep. No other human being 
 was in sight. 
 
 " They are here, and waiting for us !" said Captain Yeiger, 
 with an expression of vexation, as he looked at his watch. 
 
 Carter smiled. 
 
 " Never mind, captain. They will have no reason to com 
 plain, since they have had just fifteen minutes the advantage 
 of us to grow cool in and survey the ground." 
 
 " They are welcome to all the advantage that will afford, 
 for I know that one glance of your eye over the field will be 
 sufficient to baffle all their tactics." 
 
 "Yes; my eyes are usually open." 
 
 They had now reached the narrow point or tongue of tim 
 ber. The growth was very thick, but they could hear the 
 sound of voices beyond. They now paused, and Frank 
 turned towards the third person of the party, who had not 
 heretofore spoken at all. 
 
 " Doctor, you had better stop here. You are close enough 
 to hear the pistols; but you will please wait my personal 
 summons before making your appearance on the field. There 
 is no reason why you, who came out professionally, should be 
 annoyed, in case of criminal prosecution, by being in any 
 way implicated as an accessory or summoned as a witness." 
 
 The person thus addressed had a hard, sharp, professional 
 face, and merely said, in a dry tone 
 
 " Right ; perfectly right, Mr. Carter. I am more inte 
 rested for the bones of your friend than for his honour ! I 
 shall be comfortable enough, provided you are not too long 
 in getting them broken for him !" 
 
 And placing his case of instruments upon the sand, at the 
 foot of a small tree, he sat down upon it very deliberately, 
 and leaning back, folded his cloak about him as if he were 
 going to take a nap in the mean time. 
 
 Frank could not help smiling ; but, as he was turning off, 
 he saw, to his great surprise, the oarsman hobbling towards 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 329 
 
 them across the sands. He was about to wave him back im 
 patiently to his boat, when Yeiger arrested his arm. 
 
 " Let him alone, Carter ! Jack knows what he is about. 
 He has been with me too often on such occasions to compro 
 mise us in any degree." 
 
 " Well, well, you know the man. Come, let s go round 
 the point." 
 
 A few steps brought them around the sharp angle of the 
 wood. Here there seemed to have been a sort of inlet or 
 arm of the bay, which had once run up some distance into 
 the old wood, but as the waters receded, a white and sterile 
 bed of sand had been left, which was yet quite firm to the 
 tread, like that along the beach. 
 
 It was a singular nook ; and the woods on both sides of it 
 shut out the probabilities of observation, although there were 
 four houses within less than a quarter of a mile, on both 
 Bides. 
 
 Some fifty paces distant a tall figure was walking impa 
 tiently to and fro, holding a watch in his hand: two other 
 persons were seated on a log at the edge of the wood. The 
 tall man paused, returned the watch to his pocket, and the 
 others rose as the two came in sight. One of them advanced, 
 and, to the infinite and inexpressible horror of Frank Carter, 
 he recognised in this person Newnon Clenny. 
 
 Poor fellow ! He nearly fainted, although not given to the 
 melting mood. It seemed to him as if the sky had fallen in 
 upon his soul ! 
 
 " Great God !" he exclaimed, " Freta false ; and this man, 
 whom I have loved so much, a traitor to our long friendship 
 to all truth and friendship !" 
 
 He griped the arm of Yeiger convulsively, as if to keep 
 him from falling. This singular person seemed to under 
 stand the mood of Frank and its causes, as if he read an illu 
 minated scroll. He merely said in a loud whisper, the 
 
 emphasis of which was hissed into his ear 
 2C2 
 
330 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 " Be a man, Carter ! I KNOW this person to be ONE OP 
 THEM !" 
 
 " Hah ! said Frank, in the same tone, but with a sort of 
 choked convulsiveness. " What a fool I have been not to 
 suspect this before ! How infamously the purest, highest, 
 and noblest instincts of my nature have been trifled with and 
 speculated upon !" 
 
 The experience of twenty years of pain and wrong could 
 hardly have congealed a warm heart so utterly as that of 
 Frank became in one instant now. The mild arch of his 
 brows sunk down square above his eyes, with a painful wrin 
 kle between them, which seemed chiselled and fixed in a mar 
 ble and sphinx-like eternity of suffering. 
 
 He greeted Clenny coldly, and as an utter stranger, in re 
 ply to his formal salutation. 
 
 " We have been accidentally detained in getting over this 
 morning. I hope, sir, we have not kept you waiting long?" 
 
 "No, no, sir! My friend is very patient. Our cloaks 
 are something heavier for the mist, but we shall only be the 
 lighter when we throw them off. You have no surgeon, I 
 perceive ?" 
 
 " I am gratified to relieve your apprehension we have a 
 skilful and proper person within call." 
 
 " Why not bring him forward, as we have done our sur 
 geon ?" 
 
 "Because I do not perceive the necessity of implicating 
 persons who come out in a professional capacity, in the civil 
 or criminal consequences of our acts." 
 
 "Then, sir, I will send our surgeon to join yours." 
 
 " If he turns that point of timber, he will not fail to find 
 him, and, most probably, sound asleep, too." 
 
 "I will send him." 
 
 Clenny walked back rapidly, and soon returned with his 
 surgeon, instrument case, and all. 
 
 "Go around the point," said Frank, "and you will pro- 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 331 
 
 bably find him sound asleep behind a tree. You will both 
 please to wait there until we call for you." 
 
 The surgeon obeyed ; and, taking his case of instruments 
 under his arm, walked off without a word. 
 
 They now walked forward to the ground, which seemed to 
 have been selected by the party which came first. It was 
 flanked on either side by the wood, and opened toward the 
 bay. Frank Carter saw all the capabilities of the spot, and 
 quietly waited the demonstration of the other party. 
 
 They now approached each other, and Tynenck and Yeiger 
 lifted their hats in formal and frigid greeting. It was out 
 of the question to talk or think of compromise and conces 
 sion in a case like this, so the business of the morning pro 
 ceeded in a most methodical manner. 
 
 The distance was ten paces, and Clenny commenced to 
 measure the. ground. Carter watched him in cold silence, 
 and did not attempt to interfere, as was his duty and right. 
 He had a purpose in this passiveness. The mist had now 
 risen, and the sun was nearly above the horizon. 
 
 Clenny marked the places of the combatants, and Tynenck 
 rather hastily stepped forward toward his own. The sun 
 would be up in a few moments. Neither Carter nor Yeiger 
 had yet thrown off their cloaks, and both stood with folded 
 arms and without speaking. We have mentioned that the 
 inlet opened toward the bay, and east. 
 
 " Mr. Carter, will you please to measure this ground ?" 
 
 "Yes, sir," said Carter suddenly; and, dropping his cloak, 
 proceeded formally to step it between the marks that Clenny 
 had made. 
 
 "You have measured correctly, sir this is just ten 
 paces." 
 
 He said this as he reached the spot which Clenny had evi 
 dently assigned to Tynenck. His back was towards Clenny, 
 and we have mentioned that Tynenck had advanced some 
 what prematurely towards his position. 
 
332 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 Carter regarded him with a blank, inexpressive look, while, 
 without turning his head, he said in a careless tone 
 
 "Your friend seems to be somewhat in a hurry to assume 
 his position, Mr. Clenny, which is a pity, when it is evident 
 that the advantage it gives him, will be so much heightened 
 as the sun rises !" 
 
 Tynenck was near enough to hear this distinctly, and 
 turned very pale, while Carter proceeded, almost playfully, 
 as he faced about 
 
 " It probably did not occur to you, Mr. Clenny, in select 
 ing this ground, that it would require an extraordinary power 
 of vision on the part of my friend to see his opponent at all 
 with the rising sun in his face. You have unconsciously paid 
 him a singular and poetical compliment in thus taking it for 
 granted that his is an eagle s eye!" 
 
 " The sun is not yet up, Mr. Carter." 
 
 "It will be," and he pulled out his watch, "according to 
 the almanac, up in five minutes. Besides, Mr. Clenny, a 
 dark background is understood, in art, to bring forward the 
 lights and shades in a picture. You have set the person of 
 my friend quite artistically against the dark background of 
 those trees." 
 
 " Your humorous vein is out of place, Mr. Carter. We 
 are not here on your habitual debauch." 
 
 "Evidently not; for in vino veritas, and I might tell you 
 some unpleasant truths." 
 
 Frank looked him steadily in the eye, and could not sub 
 due an involuntary shudder as he recognised the serpent-like 
 malignity which crept into the face of Clenny. 
 
 For the first time he read this bad, malicious man, through 
 and through, and saw clear down into the yawning hell of 
 hate and evil in his heart. His manner changed instantly, 
 and his voice became cold and severe. 
 
 " Mr. Clenny, I cannot consent to place my friend in the 
 unfair position you have so officiously chosen. Alter their 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 333 
 
 position let us have it across this inlet, and then your com 
 mon sense will show you that, with small trees behind each, 
 they are on an equal footing." 
 
 " Very good, sir ; very good. My choice of positions, out 
 of which you have managed to extract matter for grandilo 
 quent heroics, was entirely accidental. Let it be as you 
 propose." 
 
 The ground was accordingly measured, and now the par 
 ties took their places. But, since the altercation which we 
 have given, a sort of pitiless gloom had settled clown upon 
 the faces of these four persons, which was only the more 
 ominous from its stillness. 
 
 Captain Yeiger had been standing with folded arms during 
 all this scene ; and now, with a sneering smile, threw off his 
 cloak and came forward to his place. His eyes were strangely 
 enlarged, and glittered with a deadly fierceness as they met 
 those of his foe. In Tynenck s eye there was the cold, dan 
 gerous look of the assassin, which could not dwell upon, but 
 played around this angry splendour. 
 
 They cast up a coin, and the word fell to Clenny. Just 
 before it was given, Yeiger whispered to Carter 
 
 "I told you, yesterday morning, I meant to wing him. 
 I have changed my mind I mean to wing him now for the 
 other world. Look for my shot under the pit of the right 
 arm." 
 
 " Are you ready, gentlemen ? Fire, one, two, three." 
 
 Yeiger fired at the word with singular quickness. The 
 form of Tynenck swayed slightly, and then, as it swung 
 round, he fired at "three." Yeiger shuddered down to his 
 very feet, but stood firm. 
 
 Frank sprang forward eagerly. 
 
 " Are you hit, captain ?" 
 
 " Only touched, Carter ; but I must have another shot. I 
 hit that man !" 
 
 Tynenck was leaning in the arms of Clenny, and his face 
 
834 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 had assumed a sick and chalk-like whiteness. He rallied as 
 Carter approached, and in a faint voice expressed his readi 
 ness for another shot. 
 
 Clenny at first protested that his friend was too badly hurt 
 to continue the combat ; but Tynenck, with a feeble smile, 
 assured him that he was not hurt, and was anxious that there 
 should be another fire. 
 
 The pistols were quickly loaded. Yeiger had, in the mean 
 time, been standing like a stiffened corpse, without having 
 moved a limb. His face was terribly ghastly, and his black 
 eyes scintillated a still, concentrated wrath. 
 
 Had Frank Carter been less excited or engrossed, he would 
 have seen there was a pool of blood about the feet of this 
 stern, strong man. 
 
 His shoes had run over, and he stood in the ebbing current 
 of his own life. 
 
 He snatched eagerly at the pistol which Carter handed 
 him. This time Tynenck fired Hurriedly as soon as the word 
 "fire" was pronounced by Clenny; but Yeiger waited with 
 an immovable tension of nerve then fired at "three." 
 
 Tynenck dropped instantly with a ball through his fore 
 head. Yeiger sank down gradually, with the blood gushing 
 from his mouth. He muttered, while his eyes were glazing 
 
 " There is no mail there I hit him at first he wears mail 
 about his body!" 
 
 Frank rushed forward toward the body of Tynenck, and 
 tore open his vest. Clenny interposed. 
 
 "What do you mean, sir?" 
 
 "I mean, sir," said Frank, with a savage look, "to ascer 
 tain whether this friend of yours wears mail or not." 
 
 " Stand back, sir," said Clenny, with a wild gesture, 
 stretching his hand over the still body of Tynenck. 
 
 " I will not stand back ! I mean to see what he wears 
 next his skin." 
 
 Frank clutched the vest and shirt of the dead man, when 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 335 
 
 Clenny sprang at him, with a sort of shriek, but Frank met 
 him with a blow which stunned him. Clenny fell, and Frank 
 tore open the bosom, and thus revealed beneath, not a steel- 
 linked shirt, as the romances have it, but a close-stitched 
 quilting of silk. 
 
 It was only necessary to turn over the coat and vest to see 
 that the ball had struck the fatal line, and been glanced off 
 by this most effective coat of mail. The man had been 
 stunned by the force of the ball, though it had not pene 
 trated the silk. 
 
 Yeiger had stiffened as he sank down, and the last words 
 he spoke were, "REMEMBER THE KEY !" 
 
 The surgeons now made their appearance, coming hastily 
 forward ; and Jack, the sailor, rushed out of the wood and 
 fell upon his knees by the body of his old captain. 
 
 " Gentlemen," said Carter, solemnly pointing to the body 
 of Tynenck, " please examine the body of that assassin, and 
 bear me witness that he deserved his fate and that this 
 wretch !" pointing scornfully at Clenny, who was sitting with 
 an ashy face, " has been accessary to the fact of a deliberate 
 murder upon the body of my friend !" 
 
 "The bloody villain!" said Jack, looking up with stream 
 ing eyes. " It s a murder he s done, is it ?" and he began to 
 finger his knife, while he looked viciously at Clenny. 
 
 Frank saw that more mischief was threatened, and stepped 
 hastily between the sailor and Clenny. 
 
 "No more blood ! no more blood ! Enough has been shed 
 this morning!" 
 
 " You have no use for me here any longer. These bones 
 are past my skill." And the technical surgeon turned away. 
 
336 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 POOR Frank Carter ! It did seem, literally, as if the vials 
 of all wrath had been poured upon his head. He had for 
 tune, but what of that ? He had walked over the fresh 
 graves of all that were nearest and dearest to him, into its 
 possession. 
 
 Mother, father, brother, and sister, one after another, the 
 whole family group of precious ones so beautifully elevated 
 in the tender memories of his boyhood, as the mythology of 
 that young time of holy peace and trusting worship he had 
 seen swept away by the terrible fevers of the South. 
 
 When the last went oh ! how desolate, in the mighty be 
 reavement, that tall, lithe youth stood up like a young tree, 
 the last of the forest, which only held erect for pride, although 
 "the cross, quick lightning" had as well touched to the core 
 its life. 
 
 But then that life was very vigorous, and responded 
 quickly to the blessing of the sun, and through the healing 
 influence was aroused to spread its arms and reach with up 
 ward yearnings once again. And now there had come to 
 him a weird, new Presence, which filled the " valley and the 
 shadow" where his soul stood, with a warm, strange light, 
 but a light no other eyes could see. It was the light of 
 dreams, which entereth the dark gates of sense to make the 
 earthly tabernacle glow through all its chambers, as if an 
 angel had come in to rest. But it was an angel all too mild 
 to hurt with "the destroying splendour," and seemed to 
 plead with his soul for room, while with a meek command it 
 glided in without his answer, and nestled down beside his 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 337 
 
 heart, turning the starshine calm eyes upon it, as if to 
 watch the throbbings. 
 
 This was the Ideal, yet he did not worship it consciously, 
 but rather the soul within him lay down beside it peacefully 
 splendour to splendour and watched with it how his own 
 heart went. 
 
 But sometimes the "elemental rack" of wrath or lust 
 would smite upon that heart, from outward, through the 
 roused and maddened senses, until it bounded wild, and then 
 the Presence and the starshine would go away and leave his 
 forlorn soul to struggle with the tempest through deep night 
 but it would as surely come back again as the moon does to 
 the storm-lashed sea, through the first rift of clouds. 
 
 This was his time to worship it ; for he prayed through the 
 dark waves that it would come to his agony, and when he 
 felt its warm light back again, ah ! felt what worship his be 
 wildered joy made out of gratitude, until his heart grew calm 
 once more, and then his soul lay happily down beside it, 
 splendour to splendour all assured as before. 
 
 But these storms returned less frequently after this Pre 
 sence came, and gradually he grew watchful that his life 
 should be kept still and his heart-pulse regular, lest the 
 bright inmate, with the starshine in its eyes that watched it, 
 should be frightened, and go away again. He grew steady 
 upon this poise, and lived so through years of transition 
 from youth to manhood. 
 
 Often, for a time, he was shaken as if an earthquake 
 urged and worked within him, when he saw a vague some 
 thing in the eyes of a young girl which reminded of that star- 
 shine near his heart but then the REALITY went suddenly 
 away from its close nestle by that centre of the sensuous 
 life, and he was left to struggle through the dim red haze of 
 a voluptuous mist, like a blind man feeling through " outer 
 darkness" until his fingers waked him from the grobd delu 
 sion, pah ! 
 
 2D 22 
 
338 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 Then, after a while, the starshine would creep back through 
 the gloom of sultry moodings, and the Presence would lie 
 down again in peace and joy on its old couch of light, to 
 watch his heart grow calm once more. So his life had 
 flowed with ebbing alternations, passion, gloom, and peace 
 contending, until the time when we first knew him, an adven 
 turer of the wilderness, when the starshine was in the ascend 
 ant, though he had substituted friendship, just then, as he 
 supposed, for this ideal passion, because it was more like its 
 deep calm, that shone about his heart, and could not disturb 
 its repose. 
 
 This man Clenny had come to him with the surest guaran 
 ties, through letters from faithful and time-honoured corre 
 spondents of his father, and he had embraced him at once as 
 a brother. 
 
 Carter had before known many friends with whom he 
 warmly sympathized, as participating with him to a certain 
 interior degree in the conditions of his life just then ; but in 
 meeting Clenny, he first found " THE SOCIAL SKEPTIC" the 
 unbeliever in the hope and future of humanity the shrewd 
 and biting sneerer at all the sacredness of its tameless and 
 undying aspirations. 
 
 The character was a novelty to him, and attracted him 
 strongly, at once, as a novelty. He could not believe that 
 any being born beneath God s sunshine, who had ever seen 
 the young flowers grow, could live, and not have felt his soul 
 swell pregnant, not alone to the kiss of spring, and blossom 
 through his brain in fragrant thoughts of tender joy, which 
 deepened on to the summer of opened roses arid all glorious 
 flowers into the autumn of hope s fruition. 
 
 He could not realize, and would not realize such ungentle 
 skepticism. He could realize that such faith should be want 
 ing to the heavy boor, who woke to eat, as the wild beast 
 does, to absolute engorgement, and of the same bloody food 
 *Jiat he should work, work, plod drowsily through all the 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 339 
 
 day, without any other presence in his congested brain than 
 the thought of his next meal ; but that a man of refined cul 
 tivation should level his faith to that of the dull-eyed boor, 
 was beyond his comprehension. 
 
 The one could see the stars through a clear empyrean 
 above him the other, with his "downward eye," see them but 
 in their reflex in the puddle at his feet. 
 
 He did not believe the sneers of Clenny to be real expres 
 sions of his inmost life and thought. He belived that, like 
 many proud and sensitive men, this one had unconsciously 
 fallen into the habit of jeering at the sacredness of others, as 
 a sort of petulant and skin-deep disguise for his own, which 
 he shrank from revealing. 
 
 He saw that Clenny was as brave as a lion, and took all 
 the rest for granted ; for with quite characteristic impulsive 
 ness, he did not understand how a brave man could be any 
 thing else than generous, true, and honourable. 
 
 Indeed, Clenny well understood how to sustain an illusion 
 of this kind, for with him it was quite an indifferent matter 
 whether he did a princely and generous thing, on your behalf, 
 mathematically, or ruined you utterly, body and soul, through 
 the same process of cold calculation. The power of numbers 
 was the power of conscience with him, and ruled a will as 
 patient and inexorable as death. 
 
 He was witty and intellectual as he was caustic, and Frank 
 was charmed by the contrast. Though very reserved and 
 cautious in forming such ties, he had yet thrown himself 
 with all his enthusiasm into this friendship of Clenny. 
 
 As for Myra Haynes with whom Clenny had seemed, 
 with strange pertinacity, to be endeavouring to entangle him 
 into a match, through the several years of their intercourse 
 she had never for a moment by her presence stirred the star- 
 shine by his heart. 
 
 But ah, when he met Freta, his angel guest rose up and 
 went forth with all its glory on, and disappeared within her 
 
340 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 form for ever. Then he saw, with his outward vision, that 
 same star-shine appear in her eyes, and felt it upon his heart 
 as of old through the walls of the tabernacle now, rather 
 than from within its chambers. His IDEAL had gone forth 
 and been embodied. 
 
 A few brief days, and rapture had been agony a bright 
 storm now raged within him, and shook his life with a joy so 
 tameless and intense, that it could be only uttered in electric 
 flashes down the nerves. 
 
 But ah, the desolating and terrific gloom which followed 
 lassoed, and borne away all helpless while SHE, too, seemed 
 going off all cold and unregardful, without even turning her 
 head for a farewell look. Then his IDEAL had gone out in 
 horror and in gloom. 
 
 Months of delirium and nearly fatal illness followed, and 
 he awoke in deep night and went forth a stumbling, stricken 
 man. He yet went groping, plunging on, always through 
 thick darkness, with only one pale star his passionate friend 
 ship for Clenny before him ; and now even that had gone 
 out in bloody wrath in the shame of unutterable dishonour 
 and the gloomy mystery of concerted and premeditated 
 crime. 
 
 What wonder, then, that "the Enthusiast" became wild 
 now ! He was too strong to die too fiercely proud to ac 
 knowledge himself utterly crushed, even to himself. 
 
 Despair had no funeral gloom so fearful, or so blind to 
 him, as that his own conscious self-respect would bring in the 
 awful shadows of a ruthless wrath upon him, should he prove 
 recreant to his CENTRAL WILL, against the combined universe 
 of sentiment and action. 
 
 He had blinded and stunned and made a beast of himself, 
 in his excesses, and yet through all his strong individuality 
 was asserted, and could not be degraded by the wildest 
 extremes. Though plunged into the most extravagant dis- 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 341 
 
 sipation, still in its gloomiest disguises he preserved this 
 central consciousness and firmness of will. 
 
 Had he been brought up to what he then considered the 
 prejudiced bar of " public opinion," to answer for his acts, 
 he would have haughtily plead guilty, without any excuse 
 deliberately guilty, with eyes wide open guilty, because he 
 chose to be so. He was outraging the truth in himself, rather 
 than any truth in the social organization, and asked no mercy 
 at its hands. 
 
 Thus he thought, felt, and acted ; and had he been some 
 poor man, who only managed to decently compromise between 
 honour and poverty, he would have been hunted down by the 
 hue and cry of drunkard, ruffian, etc. ; but as his great 
 wealth was well known, all these things were politely termed 
 the eccentricities of a young Southerner. 
 
 Unconscious Frank, had they outlawed him a hundred 
 times, he would have come back, though it had been from the 
 gloomiest depths of poverty, with such a calm and steadfast 
 assurance of a right to place his feet where he willed to place 
 them, that the silly, clamorous crowd of denunciators would 
 have been stilled to ask respectfully, " Who is it ?" He did 
 not care the possession of wealth made no difference with 
 him the question between himself and society was a paltry 
 one too paltry to be regarded by him for a moment but 
 with scorn. 
 
 The only issue he recognised, was that between himself, his 
 own central consciousness, and God the God of justice ; 
 righteousness, and truth. He was under an awful cloud now, 
 for his IDEAL was gone with the vanished starshine, and his 
 friendship had been fatally outraged, and he was struggling 
 towards the sunlight as best he could through the darkness. 
 What did he care what men said about the mode and moods 
 of this struggle ? 
 
 It was his business a private matter between God and 
 
 himself and he utterly scorned and contemned the senti- 
 2D2 
 
342 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 ment of a public which pronounced upon him ignorantly, out 
 of an unreasoning prejudice. 
 
 Had he been ever so poor, his indomitable CONSCIENTIOUS 
 NESS was strong enough to have outlived the clamour of acci 
 dent and occasion, and come up out of the shadow with calm, 
 commanding eyes, which would have wrested a place for him 
 out of their vulgar hate. 
 
 Since that bloody duel, he had been what the charitable 
 world would call a madman. That is, he was sober enough 
 to see discreetly to the private burial of Yeiger; and further 
 more, to get possession of the mysterious desk and key ; and 
 again had prudence enough not to denounce Clenny, and to 
 hush the whole affair, so far as money could go, and then to 
 lock up both desk and key in his own room. 
 
 But yet he went into the wildest excesses, and threw off all 
 restraint, except those which his own will regulated. His 
 brain was too much congested, now, to open or read the 
 curious manuscript which Yeiger had told him was contained 
 in that small desk. 
 
 The weekly suppers at his rooms had heretofore been at 
 tended by persons representing one or the other phase of a 
 more polished development. But now, they had assumed 
 rather a quaint character, since, alongside of recognised 
 gentlemen, clothed in all the proprieties of elegant costume, 
 the flash sporting-characters about town, even ruffians, were 
 to be seen squalid, wretched, and threadbare as they came 
 from the lowest dens of brutal vice. 
 
 Rough, with their tatters on, they sat beside the varnished 
 gentlemen, and made a rude, ribald wit from out their degra 
 dation. 
 
 Some of these scenes, if we had time, we would look in 
 upon more curiously ; but at present we can only follow to 
 others, which are their consequences ! 
 
 The winding up of these parties almost invariably found 
 Frank partially intoxicated ; and frequently, after all were 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 343 
 
 gone, he would go forth disguised, and, in the haunted 
 wretchedness of his life, wander through the great city, 
 stopping here and there amid its gloomiest alleys and low- 
 portalled dens, to relieve the congestion of agony gathering 
 upon his heart and brain from out those passionate, mourn 
 ful memories by looking upon a degree of suffering and 
 depth of degradation which was, in its physical expression at 
 least, more profound and hideous than his own. He gained 
 relief therefrom, and that dumb wail within his heart was 
 often shocked into profoundest torpor by the contrast : he 
 felt almost a savage joy, that there were others more pro 
 foundly accursed than himself! 
 
 In all this we recognise the war going on in Frank s mind. 
 He had set out in life frank and confiding, believing the world 
 as noble, as generous as himself; and he had been bitterly 
 disappointed ! 
 
 The result had been a common one though one none the 
 less wrong : he had lost all faith in humanity ; he had be 
 come a scorner of the show-virtue, because having, in his 
 recklessness, committed vices, he abhorred the hypocrisy of 
 concealing them. His nature, in fact, was passing through a 
 bitter ordeal. Ah ! would that his angel Freta would arise, 
 would rescue him from himself, would restore him to faith, to 
 virtue, and to society ! 
 
 In this world of mixed good and evil, the great lesson to 
 be learned is, that the cant of others is no excuse for our own 
 excesses. The perfidy of some ought not to teach us to de 
 spise all. 
 
 This was the lesson that our hero was now learning. His 
 soul is like a volcano in eruption lurid, fiery, scattering ruin 
 around ; but time will exhaust the torrent, the lava will cool, 
 fertile fields will spring up, and the whole landscape smile. 
 
 It was now several months since the duel, and the life of 
 Frank continued, in the general features of its eccentricities, 
 to be much the same as that we have disclosed before. 
 
344 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 He had taken the precaution, lately, to carry arms on h 
 person whenever he went out at night because he had good 
 reason to believe that his house was watched, and that his 
 steps were dogged from place to place. 
 
 At first he paid no attention to the fact which his in 
 domitable habits of observation had never failed to note, in 
 spite of the wine he drank that there were always persons 
 in sight, loitering about the Park, when he came out from his 
 house. At first this made no impression upon him, from a 
 feeling of recklessness ; yet gradually the recollection of it 
 took hold upon him, in spite of himself. 
 
 He found that, go where he might, into alleys and dens 
 however obscure, he would always, when he carne forth, de 
 tect that there was somebody on the alert in the neighbour 
 hood ; and he came finally to suspect that surveillance was 
 carried on even from within the railings of the Park, although 
 that was well known to be exclusive ground, and could only 
 be entered by members of such families who held keys. And 
 he frequently thought of using his own key for examination. 
 
 Then, if he went off, even at full speed, through the streets 
 as he sometimes did there seemed to follow him a sort of 
 faint, ghost-like sound of pursuing steps. 
 
 He came at last to notice this fact with a degree of 
 nervous apprehension which he could scarcely account for. 
 From what quarter could this sort of insolent surveillance 
 come? 
 
 He tried to escape from this haunting sound of steps pur 
 suing. He would run on for several streets, and then dodge 
 behind the columns of some public edifice, or crouch beneath 
 the vestibule of some private building, and wait for the pur 
 suing step to come on, but always without success ; for when 
 he stopped, all was silent as death. 
 
 At last, one night he armed himself, changed his ordinary 
 disguise, and thrust a pair of India-rubber shoes into the 
 large pockets of his rough overcoat, and came forth at the 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 345 
 
 usual time, with the determination to find out, at all risks, 
 who this was, and what all these presumptuous dodgings 
 meant. 
 
 He walked off with his boot-heels clattering along the 
 pavement ; and, after turning down two or three streets and 
 around several squares, he became convinced that he was fol 
 lowed as usual. 
 
 He now ran on at full speed until he turned a corner, and 
 then quickly slipping on his India-rubber shoes, glided back 
 with noiseless footfall, keeping as much within the shadow 
 of the lamp as possible. The night was dark, and in a little 
 time he heard the faint pattering of coming feet. He hid 
 behind the columns of a church. 
 
 He had scarcely concealed himself, when a man came up 
 with a cautious, gliding step, as if in fear that the sound of 
 his own footfall would prevent him from hearing something 
 for which he listened ahead. 
 
 His body was stooped, and his ear turned towards the 
 ground, or pavement rather. Frank at once recognised the 
 posture of an Indian pursuing his enemy, or his game, by the 
 nice sense of hearing, which detects the flying tread in rever 
 berations along the earth. 
 
 He sprang out at once from his concealment to grapple 
 with him. With all the angry eagerness of his spring, Frank 
 was not quick enough to secure the person of his pursuer. 
 
 The man seemed to have felt him coming, so alert was he 
 in escaping from his clutch ; and Frank only succeeded in 
 tearing out a fragment of the rough overcoat which he wore, 
 which remained in his hand. 
 
 The man had succeeded in wresting himself from his im 
 perfect grasp by a movement as serpent-like as it was vigor 
 ous ; but in the momentary struggle, which occurred under 
 one of the street-lamps, Frank thought he recognised, in the 
 pale, copper face there revealed, one which he had good 
 cause to remember. 
 
346 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 He stood still, looking at the fragment he held in his hand, 
 in blank confusion and amaze, for some moments, while the 
 receding footsteps throbbed upon his startled ear. 
 
 "Great God !" he muttered, "is SHE here ?" 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE INDIAN. 
 
 *THE discovery last made left Frank in a condition of be 
 wilderment which it would be difficult to realize. The man s 
 brain was literally stunned by the detonation of this surprise, 
 and the smothered heart-fires within him moiled and raged 
 anew in the blinded tumult of old tenderness. All was chaos 
 with him for a while chaos darkened indeed but storm-like, 
 and wildly illuminated here and there with keen and fiercely 
 vivid flashes of electric joy from out the Past that would 
 show as well the dreary void yawning in the Present of his 
 desperate and aimless life. For a long period of gross and 
 self-inflicted degradation, his inner consciousness had stretched 
 forth the arms of sense, feeling dumbly for a soul within 
 the gloom, and yet there had been no response until now 
 and now was ecstasy that only did not swoon ! Doubt, joy, 
 hope, shame! how or by which was he dizzied? Was it a 
 mere vision, or had the ineffable returned within his sphere ? 
 He had no tongue to ask, no thought to reason he could 
 merely feel! 
 
 He had discovered a trace however dim of Freta. It 
 mattered not to him how vague, it yet was real how fleeting, 
 its palpability was still assured. The good angel had returned 
 \o his life, and hovered invisible about his steps ! The star- 
 shine had arisen once more to glimmer from its dark bed be 
 side his heart faint however faintly, yet he felt the light ! 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 347 
 
 The recognition of the face of the Indian beneath the lamp, 
 instantaneous as it was, had yet been perfect. He had had 
 good reason for remembering those strange, wan features, and 
 dark, ghastly, hollow eyes. They had been the first that 
 shone upon him when he aroused from the death-like stupor 
 which followed upon his being choked down with the lasso, as 
 he rode joyously beside Freta. 
 
 He had found himself on board a steamboat descending the 
 Missouri River, with this Indian face bending over him, and 
 he remembered well this man as a favourite serviteur of Freta s, 
 who had always accompanied her on her wild rides at a re 
 spectful distance, to guard her from impending dangers. He 
 remembered as well, too, the tumult of rage and tenderness 
 commingled which this recognition had caused him ; for, re 
 garding Freta as in someway a party to the foul treachery 
 of which he had been the victim, his heart had struggled des 
 perately within him to forswear its faith, and curse her in his 
 wrath; yet the presence of this man, whom he knew to have 
 been much trusted by her, had suggested vague and happy 
 doubts as to her wilful agency in the grievous wrong he had 
 endured ; and then his sudden reappearance here in the great 
 city his close haunting upon his track which he had detected 
 had called up, ah, a world of blissful mysteries, to which he 
 dared not give a name, even within himself! He now re 
 membered, too, that there had been in the face of this Indian 
 an expression of settled and yearning melancholy, expressive 
 of sentiment more refined and spiritualized than he had 
 ever supposed the coarse organization of the race permitted. 
 This unusual character had therefore been strongly impressed 
 upon his mind, apart from the fact of the Indian having been 
 his close and constant nurse during a considerable period of 
 illness which had followed. And then there was another cha 
 racteristic which he vividly remembered, which was, that this 
 man had always, and with marked pertinacity, refused, in 
 seeming at least to understand a single phrase of the Englibh 
 
348 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 tongue ; in regard to the most common terms, he remained 
 inexorably mute and would only afford apparent recognition, 
 when addressed in his own tongue or by gestures, which con 
 stituted his favourite mode of communication with others. 
 
 Frank could not help thinking it strange that this young 
 Indian, who had for years been in constant intercourse with 
 Freta and her father, should yet refuse any recognition of 
 the sounds of the tongue in which they habitually spoke. He 
 had, however, marked it as a proud and sulky peculiarity of 
 the Indian race, rather than in any suspicious light. Although 
 the man had watched over him until his complete recovery, 
 at New Orleans, with a zeal and carefulness which seemed 
 almost religious, yet he had there suddenly disappeared, leav 
 ing with Frank not even the slightest trace of the means or 
 manner of his exit. Since that time, even amid the wildest 
 excesses of his debauched life, the image of this singular In 
 dian had frequently occurred to him, as constituting the con 
 necting link between him and the troubled though delicious 
 Past. That glancing recognition could not therefore now 
 have failed him. 
 
 He was sure, and his heart made the assurance doubly sure, 
 that it was Freta s closest serviteur he had seen, and that, by 
 some indescribable process of sympathy, Freta must be near 
 near! near! 
 
 And why near ? Watching over him ? through her agent 
 or, it might be tumult of tenderness ! through her own 
 eyes. It might be that from some window that overlooked 
 his daily life, she even saw him now and then, and in her 
 proper flesh. 
 
 Oh, ecstasy ! might it be so ? Might it be, that all the 
 yearnings of his inner life would yet find their reality that 
 treachery, gloom, and hate had not yet overcome the beautiful 
 within him ? He became instantly a new man the trammels 
 of habit were thrown off; and the aimless energies he had 
 peen dissipating were concentrated upon a single purpose to 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 349 
 
 find Freta to look once more upon that face that had so 
 thrilled and charmed his life ! 
 
 This Indian must be watched in turn, until some clue to the 
 locality of Freta s dwelling might be obtained through his 
 movements. Days and nights of sleepless vigilance were at 
 length so far rewarded as to have enabled him to trace this 
 man to the back entrance of a large dwelling near his own. 
 He saw him approach it cautiously, and with a bounding heart 
 assured himself that he had entered noiselessly. Here at 
 least seemed a discovery a great point of certainty gained. 
 Here must be the home of Freta, and, as he had at first 
 wildly conjectured near his own ! Ah, joyful reality ! and 
 then it might all be true ! he had not been demented quite ! 
 His soul had indeed been electrified into a seer-like vision; 
 and now his fate was within those walls it had been upon 
 him ever, a vague but mighty and resistless shadow; and now 
 it was to take incarnate form again become a substance of 
 reality, and he had found for it "a local habitation." Only 
 those walls divided them he should see her to-morrow face 
 to face, and all mysteries and doubts should banish before the 
 radiant beamings of that face ! He held down his heart for 
 joy, and mused dreamily beneath the moon. 
 
 All that Frank previously knew of this house amounted to 
 nothing more than that it was known to be occupied, though 
 the inmates were seldom seen, and were supposed to be 
 foreigners. It had not once occurred to him that there 
 might be any difficulty in obtaining entrance. Why should 
 he ? Walls and doors were no barriers to be thought of now ! 
 His life was up his will aroused why should he think of 
 physical obstructions, or forms and customs, as between him 
 and his joy? His feet were scarce on earth now, and why 
 should he regard the more earthly obstructions in his way? 
 His first attempt, however, sufficed to wake him promptly 
 enough from this momentary delusion. To be sure, when 
 
 gruffly informed by a burly and insolent servant, who slammed 
 2E 
 
850 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 the door in his face at the same time, that he "knowed no 
 such oman" as she whom he named, he felt for an instant as 
 if making a breathless descent to the common globe again ; 
 yet, when the jolt was over, he smiled, though his heart felt 
 deadly sick, and, choking down the upheaving within him, he 
 walked leisurely away ; coolly bethinking him of the absurdity 
 ho had committed, and of the new measures to secure him 
 against failure in the future. 
 
 Ridiculous ! how could he have expected it to be other 
 wise! of course she was under restraint! How could he 
 have expected that any message from himself would be per 
 mitted to reach her ! He would seek out this ruffian jailor of 
 hers Thomson was said to be his name, and he was called 
 an Englishman and find out something first from him, if 
 possible if not, demand an interview, which if he also re 
 fused, should finally be compelled by the intervention of the 
 police, from which he should obtain a search-warrant for her 
 rescue. In the mean time, he would address her through the 
 post, and watch the house continually. These and a thou 
 sand other resolutions Frank endeavoured to carry into effect 
 but, with all his vigilance and energy, with about like suc 
 cess in each. He could obtain no satisfaction whatever from 
 the stolid or astonished Englishman he could not well judge 
 which. His letters remained unanswered his vigils brought 
 no result ; and, therefore, he was compelled to perceive that 
 any attempt at forcible entry upon the premises would be re 
 garded by the very police whose intervention he had thought 
 to seek, as absurdly quixotic, if not criminal. 
 
 Baffled in these directions, but by no means discouraged 
 or convinced withal, Frank at once determined, if possible, 
 to out-general the young Indian, who had kept himself as in 
 visible during all these efforts as if those silent walls through 
 which he had beheld him disappear had been sealed upon him 
 for ever. The Indian had somehow obtained the advantage 
 of position of him, and warily kept himself out of view. Re- 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 351 
 
 solved to throw him off his guard, Frank suddenly and secretly 
 disappeared from the city, first closing up his house, and 
 sending off his servants, as if the chase had either been given 
 up in despair, or he had departed upon some false scent. 
 
 This cost him a sufficiently severe struggle indeed, but he 
 heroically stood it out until, as he thought, the certainty of 
 his absence had become sufficiently assured to throw even the 
 Indian off his guard : he, in the mean time, through an un 
 suspected agent, kept himself informed of the general move 
 ments of the household. When things were fully ripe, Frank 
 entered the city carefully disguised, one night, and approach 
 ing with circumspection the scene, discovered the Indian at 
 his old accustomed post, within the privileged railings of St. 
 John s Park. Provided with his own key, Frank cautiously 
 entered, and concealing himself within the abounding shrub 
 bery, he glided in noiseless movement upon the man, who, 
 with body cowering in an attitude singularly expressive of 
 dejection, sat with face turned toward his closed mansion. 
 Frank stood watching this motionless form for a few moments 
 with feelings indescribably agitated by curiosity in regard 
 to the meaning of what he had seen and now saw in the ex 
 pression of this strange being together with eagerness to 
 hold him once fairly within his grasp, and wrest from him, by 
 force if it must be, the secret which he felt assured was held 
 by him. 
 
 Thus trembling on tiptoe he stood, then sprang upon the 
 man, clasping him about with an embrace that not all the 
 startled strength of savage energies could break for though 
 the stern and breathless struggle held long in silent fury, yet 
 the Indian, who seemed to be somewhat emaciated, appeared 
 finally sinking from exhaustion, as his chin fell upon his breast, 
 and his whole frame quivered as in an ague-fit. His hands 
 dropped listlessly to his side as Frank slowly released his 
 terrible grasp, and the two men, panting for breath, stood re - 
 garding each other with cold, dilated gaze. There was nei- 
 
352 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 ther hate nor rage in the expression : they simply bore them 
 selves as two old gladiators would, who paused to rest for a 
 moment in the arena. But the struggle which now com 
 menced was not again of physical forces, but of will. The 
 Indian made no further effort to escape, but stood sullenly 
 obdurate; while Frank, with the fiery eagerness of the con 
 queror, demanded, through gestures, the truth as to the resi 
 dence of Freta. 
 
 The Indian, with folded arms, made no reply, but continued 
 to watch his eyes with steady gaze. Frank threatened and 
 raved but all in vain. The man s face and figure were like 
 marble. At last the young lover, rendered wild by the agony 
 of these continued delays this last and most harrowing baffle, 
 sobbed aloud, beating his breast for the wo. Then seizing 
 the Indian, shook him as if he would have annihilated him 
 while, with streaming eyes, and passionate, imploring gestures, 
 he pointed mutely toward the suspected house. 
 
 The Indian shuddered through his whole frame while for 
 an instant his dry eyes glared upon Frank a sultry look of 
 furious hate, then melting into softness, he suddenly, as if his 
 tongue were now by some miracle first loosed 
 
 "Shethar!" 
 
 Frank could scarcely restrain the shout of exultation 
 forgetting in his excitement the strangeness of the fact, that 
 the Indian had just now for the first time found his tongue 
 
 " She is there! Oh, you will make me to see her? I will 
 give you much money I will make you rich!" 
 
 The Indian with a sudden gesture threw off Frank s grasp, 
 drew himself proudly up, and regarded him with that peculiar 
 deadly look which we have already noticed. Frank saw r he 
 had made a mistake, and it instantly recalled all that he had 
 observed in this man s remarkable bearing; and now it came 
 upon him like a flash that this unusual expression, which he 
 had so often observed, might have a direction similar to that 
 with which his own life was filled. Fool ! not to have thought 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 353 
 
 of this before ! How could it be otherwise ? How could any 
 living thing approach her but with the same results. Had 
 not the very creatures of the wilderness where he had found 
 her, loved her ? Had not the very wild-flowers bowed their 
 heads in adoration as she passed ? Had not the stars been 
 "sicklied o er" that she came not forth, when the moon paled 
 for her sweet presence? Could this free child of nature 
 then escape the pure enthralment? Could he, day by day, 
 live within the sphere that radiated only love and holy joy, 
 and not have yielded to the soft enchantment? It could not 
 be ! He now first realized this being with whom he strove ! 
 Theirs was one common bond! and, without one jealous 
 pang v his heart yearned toward him in this new fraternity of 
 worship. 
 
 His whole manner changed at once, and, grasping the man s 
 hand, he exclaimed 
 
 "Indian love Freta! Indian my brother!" 
 The man crouched for a moment, and bent himself nearly 
 double, as if shot through the heart! his secret had been 
 discovered ! but with a deep groan he now lifted himself, 
 and stood erect his face beaming with an expression Frank 
 had never seen upon it. It now expressed all of frankness, 
 eagerness, and tenderness combined while, with vehemence 
 almost incoherent, he proceeded to inform Frank that Freta 
 was actually under durance in the house which he had 
 suspected to contain her that he was the only person with 
 whom she was permitted to communicate freely that he had 
 only been permitted to approach her thus under the pretence 
 on his part of acting as a spy on her movements that, 
 playing this part, he had kept her constantly informed of 
 Frank s outgoings and incomings that, learning of his reck 
 less life in New York, she had only been content while she 
 knew that the Indian followed close upon him, watching his 
 every step. To Frank s vehement questioning as to who 
 
 they were who held her under this rigid surveillance, the In- 
 2E2 23 
 
354 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 dian only shook his head mournfully, but made no reply; at 
 once seemingly overwhelmed by a sudden influx of feeling 
 the Indian exhorted Frank, in his broken tongue, to go to 
 her expressing in his picturesque gesticulation, "that she 
 was dying ! dying of a broken heart and that he alone could 
 rescue her!" 
 
 The Indian now again sank into a brooding silence, from 
 which Frank laboured, for a long time in vain, to arouse him. 
 For, by no means yet satisfied, he wished to arrange with him 
 the proper arid necessary expedients for obtaining the so 
 much desired interview with Freta. The Indian would only 
 shake his head, and repeat she had forbidden it ! until at 
 last, roused again by Frank s imploring despair, he resumed his 
 late bearing and energies. Again he proceeded, frequently in 
 terrupting himself with the exclamation " She die must be 
 done!" to explain to Frank the difficulties which beset any 
 attempts at ingress, and to arrange with him a plan by which 
 they might all be set aside, and an interview be obtained for 
 him in the morning at eleven o clock. Having made himself 
 fully understood, the Indian darted suddenly away beneath 
 the shadows, and in another moment Frank heard the iron 
 clank of a door of the park. 
 
 His heart and brain were too full and when silence had 
 returned he sank upon the grass, where he lay for hours press 
 ing his throbbmg temples against the dewy sod. 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 355 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE INTERVIEW. 
 
 THE next morning the plan of the interview succeeds, 
 and at eleven o clock Frank has passed the hitherto invincible 
 portals, and finds himself, with a heart that fluttered ah, 
 how wildly! in the presence of Freta herself. He was all 
 dishevelled as he came from his night-watch under the 
 heavy dews of the park. His hair, damp and dark, hung elf- 
 wise about his ashen cheeks, and his great hollow eyes glowed 
 with an illumination that seemed almost madness. He threw 
 off the rough outer garb of his disguise as the Indian threw 
 open the door of a large darkened room and retired. He 
 trembled a moment with faintness on the threshold, then 
 entered the deep silence on tiptoe, lest an echo of the sacred 
 stillness that reigned there should be disturbed. The room 
 at first seemed unoccupied save by a few articles of costly 
 furniture when in the most shaded extremity, he detected 
 a pure and delicately small, white hand, that seemed to lie 
 upon the folds of a dove-coloured silk drapery that lay upon an 
 ottoman. His heart bounded convulsively, and stealing softly 
 across the room, in another moment he knelt and pressed 
 his trembling lips thereon. The hand was slowly withdrawn, 
 and with a calm and listless movement, the figure arose to a 
 sitting posture. Her eyes were half closed, and she was wail 
 as death. She gradually opened them as her gaze met his 
 where he knelt there with lips half parted. Like the sun s 
 arrows, the devouring splendour struck her to the heart, for she 
 knew not of his coming, and, with a faint cry of childlike 
 ecstasy, she swooned upon his neck, her cold cheek nestled 
 
356 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 against his, and her arm wound about his neck in a convul 
 sive clasp. Bewildered with the burden of a single sense, 
 Frank thought not of other relief but kissing her back to life. 
 When it came at last, and those great blue eyes, swimming 
 in tenderness, trembled to full opening upon him, and became 
 fixed in one large, liquid, steadfast gaze, he felt his inmost 
 soul go up into them, and light and life transferred into those 
 still orbs. Long they gazed thus, while the Present seemed 
 lost to both. Together they were all unconscious of the Past, 
 and a soft smile would flit ah, how sweetly! across the 
 wan transparency of her face, as some gay bright image would 
 arise : Black Hawk and the panther, her wild-wood pets 
 Fanny, the fawn the gallop across the rainbow-hued prairie, 
 the wild-flower beds, and back again upon the circle that 
 strange moment when their souls leaped and flamed to meet 
 each other as they rode beneath the moon on the night of 
 their first meeting. Then came the dark shadow of that sud 
 den and frightful separation by the lasso, when Black Hawk, 
 who had been first purposely wounded from the thicket by 
 an arrow, ran away with her, when the shudder from the 
 trance into which she had fallen recalled her with a cry of ter 
 ror to the present, as at the same moment a door of the 
 apartment swung rudely open. 
 
 Frank sprang to his feet, and the blood rushed fiercely to 
 his brow, as he saw Clenny, in his white cravat, dressed in the 
 utmost precision of fashion, advancing directly toward them. 
 There had been a slight corrugation of this man s brow, and 
 the slightest perceptible flush had darted across his smooth 
 fair cheek, as the scene presented itself to him on his opening 
 the door. But now his brow was as impassive as marble, and 
 his smile as bland as ever, while he proceeded in formal terms 
 to apologize for interrupting what he termed a pleasing scene. 
 
 "A renewal of your acquaintance with my betrothed, 
 Mr. Carter ! Ah, I remember you were then quite like very 
 young people will be together affectionate very ! You had 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 357 
 
 both of you nothing else to do out there in the wilderness. Let 
 me see you seated, Mr. Carter ! The health of my betrothed is 
 rather delicate at present !" And placing a chair for Frank, 
 he was proceeding to push himself between him and Freta. 
 
 Frank listened to the cool effrontery of this speech : at the 
 word betrothed his eye sought that of Freta, who had sunk 
 back, with her head upon the pillow of the lounge. The 
 reply to his appeal was a look of such utter and hopeless 
 despair, that Frank felt that the pretensions of this man 
 could not be entirely groundless : however it came about, 
 she was clearly in this man s power. He had not once taken 
 his eye from hers, and as Clenny made this last movement, as 
 if to interpose himself between them, Frank s frame, although 
 his face remained unmoved, suddenly dilated with such an 
 expression of resistless passion, that Freta, with a mingled 
 expression of tenderness and terror, lifted her hand and ex 
 claimed 
 
 "No ! no ! Do not touch him ! It is so !" 
 
 " Ah !" uttered Frank with a deep exhalation from his 
 oppressed lungs then turning to Clenny, who had taken his 
 position nearest Freta, and now faced him with a cold half 
 smile, he bowed, and with perfect ease, saying 
 
 " I was not at first aware, sir, of your relations to this lady, 
 you will therefore pardon my very natural surprise at meet 
 ing you here. You will, no doubt, however, my dear sir, per 
 mit me the pleasure of renewing, at an early date, the long 
 interrupted intercourse with my old friend, Newnon Clenny! 
 
 "With pleasure, sir!" said Clenny; "I shall be delighted 
 at the opportunity of such renewal ! Shall it be this evening, 
 at three?" 
 
 "At three, at our old rendezvous," said Frank, bowing him 
 self toward the door. For one moment he looked back at 
 Freta she had raised her head ! the wild and mournful tender 
 ness of that last gaze, darkened as it was by the shadow of a 
 mortal terror could he ever forget it ? Alas, poor Frank ! 
 
858 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ARRANGEMENTS FOR A VOYAGE. 
 
 AT three o clock, according to appointment, the young men 
 met ; and as it was yet too early for the Battery to be much 
 occupied, they sauntered carelessly down Broadway toward 
 that famous promenade, conversing indifferently as they went 
 upon the passing scenes. Arrived there, and selecting the 
 most unfrequented walk, they turned in. They were now 
 alone. ," Clenny," said Frank quietly, " you remember our 
 conversation one night at the St. Charles Hotel, just before 
 we set off on that hunting excursion to the West." 
 
 " Yes, I remember it well and that you talked a great 
 deal of nonsense, too !" 
 
 " No doubt ! I merely wish to recall it to you, however. 
 I happened, by some amazing combinations of chance, or the 
 resistless attraction of some law of affinities, to have been led 
 directly through the vicissitudes of our adventure, to the forest 
 home of her who was the incarnation of that ideal of which 
 I spoke and whom I had vainly sought through life, as one 
 blindly seeketh for his flitting angel through his dream." 
 
 " Yes, yes !" said Clenny, somewhat pettishly. " I know, 
 as a very romantic young gentleman knight-errant, seeking 
 for his Dulcinea among buffaloes and greasy Indian squaws, 
 you chanced to meet with a very young and silly girl, whom 
 you, in your chivalric honour, were bound to recognise as 
 neither more nor less than the veritable Lady Del Toboso, 
 and to adore accordingly. But it won t do, friend Frank! 
 Such nonsense" 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 359 
 
 " Hark ye, friend Newnon ! No prosing, if you please ! 
 There have been certain passages between I and you, since 
 the time when I could afford to listen to such. For one thing, 
 there is a certain unavenged blow! Hey? You attempted 
 to stop my hand when I was stripping the body of your trai 
 torous confederate, to exhibit the chain-mail which he wore 
 next his skin !" 
 
 "Well, sir what then?" drawled Clenny in a deliberate 
 tone, turning his eye with a quick, keen flash upon Frank. 
 
 "Oh, nothing, nothing," said Frank with a smile, and look 
 ing carelessly about. " I only wanted you too hold this in 
 mind, when you feel good-natured enough to commence with 
 your confounded and perpetual snarling at my acts, sayings, 
 and opinions." 
 
 "Never fear, Frank, that the account will ever lose any 
 thing in my keeping !" 
 
 " Ah ! that s the way to talk ! Now I love you, * mine 
 ancient. But this last item, Newnon, makes it rather heavy 
 to run longer, does it not?" 
 
 "Pray explain!" 
 
 "With pleasure, sir. You have, by treason and strata 
 gem, or what not device of your black spirit, robbed me of 
 my young love of Freta or, if you have not already done 
 so, it is your fixed purpose so to do! Is it not?" 
 
 "It is my purpose to marry Freta, most certainly call it 
 robbery or what not!" 
 
 " Yes ! Well, it is equally my purpose that marry Freta you 
 shall not! I shall require her at your hands, at your peril!" 
 
 " Pooh, boy ! I am no driveller of La Mancha, whatever 
 you may imagine yourself to be. At my peril, forsooth!" 
 
 "Look you, Newnon my blow has already branded you 
 as a caitiff and an assassin and I will at once here, and on 
 the spot, hide you as a hound, if your language to me is not 
 more measured!" 
 
 Here Frank stopped, while the big veins knotted on his 
 
360 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 temples. The eyes of the two men met, and glinted against 
 each other for one steadfast minute. At length Frank said 
 in a low tone 
 
 "It s no use, Newnon, we ve got to fight. Death alone 
 can decide this issue between us. I feel that you have no 
 purpose to give her up and you feel as well that I have no 
 purpose of relinquishing her to you!" 
 
 "But suppose I will not fight? The game is in my own 
 hands I should be a fool to do so ! I have other modes of 
 securing my ends. No wise man risks his life for what can 
 be secured without it!" 
 
 " Yes, you will fight, Newnon and by this sign I tell you, 
 I know that you will fight ! She loves me and hates you ! 
 While you love her, and, as you know, hopelessly while I live. 
 You will, therefore, never brook my living !" 
 
 "Ay! if I only knew what you say to be true, I might 
 oblige you, my friend!" muttered Clenny, grinding his teeth. 
 "Bah! it was only a girlish romance! Is it not so?" 
 
 "Console yourself!" continued Frank quietly. "But all 
 was renewed between us in that interview which you so 
 opportunely interrupted with your villanous politeness!" 
 
 Clenny stamped his foot upon the ground, and his teeth 
 clanked as they came together. 
 
 "Yes, it is vain to console yourself. I know you for a 
 villain, Clenny, as you are very well aware that you would 
 take a man s life by treachery as coolly as you would rub out 
 a decimal from your infernal mathematics. I know that you 
 have a secret power that you wield a terrible, and even 
 mysterious force, that could at any time be brought to bear 
 upon my extermination and I might fear you but that I 
 know you better than your confederates, perhaps. I know 
 you to be brave as steel game to the very backbone and 
 proud as Lucifer. With all your cunning, you are more of the 
 wolf than the fox! There are passions in which you will 
 know no fear, and can brook no rival 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 361 
 
 "Sagacious!" 
 
 "Yes, sagacious. It is by this sign of personal courage, 
 which redeems you from utter monstrosity back to common 
 humanity that I do not fear your secret power and that I 
 know you will fight." 
 
 "Upon my word, Master Frank, you are appreciative! 
 You reason cogently. I have half a mind to admire your 
 logic ! But, pray, how can what you seem to think such 
 reasonable expectations be realized without entailing a degree 
 of notoriety which would be disagreeably enhanced by the 
 late incident to which you are pleased to refer, and in which 
 we were both conspicuously prominent?" 
 
 "My little yacht lies here at the wharf, and is equipped 
 for a voyage. There is, as you say, quite enough notoriety 
 connected with us already, concerning late events. Come 
 on board to-morrow. A short and pleasant voyage to the 
 Gulf will take us to a country you wot of where they are 
 used to these things." 
 
 "Ah, I understand! just the thing I will be with you. 
 We manage this matter between ourselves?" 
 
 " Of course ! of course ! We go alone no necessity for 
 any parade between old friends. Come on board at two 
 o clock precisely." And Frank turned upon his heel as if to 
 leave. 
 
 "Ha ! no treachery, now, Frank !" said Clenny with a raised 
 voice, smiling strangely at the same time. 
 
 "No fear of you, at any rate! I know you, Ne wnon! 
 Remember the time ! two o clock ! I must send my crew on 
 board." And then the two young men parted. 
 
362 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE CONVERSATION. 
 
 IN order to the full comprehension of the occurrences and 
 characters of our narrative, it becomes necessary to turn back 
 upon the track of years. 
 
 Long prior to the scene last given between Frank and 
 Newnon Clenny, the two young men were sitting one night 
 in a room of the St. Charles Hotel, smoking. It was late, 
 for they had already been conversing long and earnestly. 
 They had come to a dead pause, and for at least five minutes 
 had been puffing away most industriously, and staring absently 
 through the window, in front of which a wan, struggling moon 
 seemed to have much ado to keep the track amidst the ugly, 
 black masses rapidly driving against its keen, shining prow. 
 At last Clenny, the elder of the two, tipped the white ashes 
 from the end of his segar on the point of his boot, which 
 rested on the window-sill, nearly as high as his head, and 
 broke the silence. 
 
 "The fact of the business is, Frank Carter, that this 
 fastidiousness of yours amounts to nothing but a miserable 
 affectation." 
 
 "Affectation ! the deuse ! Clenny, are you demented. You 
 call it affectation, do you ? to be disgusted with a woman 
 who eats beef heavily twice a day, and at a lunch, too, for 
 all I know?" 
 
 " I do ; and the most egregious affectation, too. This is a 
 mere morbid whim. You have more common sense than to 
 be in earnest about breaking off an affair which has progressed 
 BO far and promises so well as this, simply because the wo- 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 363 
 
 man has an appetite. This is namby-pamby stuff, and might 
 do for some open-collared Byron-struck sop o moonshine of 
 a country village, who flourishes a whalebone cane, and fills 
 a corner in the country paper with rhymes of breezes, tresses, 
 wooing, cooing, loves and doves, and signs himself Alonzo ; 
 but for you, who pretend to some calibre, it is utterly pre 
 posterous." 
 
 " But be reasonable, man. I actually see her habitually 
 eat more beefsteak for breakfast than you and you are no 
 mincer." 
 
 " Pish, ! Frank, this is coarse as well as ridiculous. What 
 business have you with what the woman eats? Does that 
 prevent her from being pretty, witty, and rich?" 
 
 "Yes! it prevents her being pretty and witty at least." 
 
 " What are you talking about ? Isn t she the belle unri 
 valled of New Orleans the scourge and terror of all bores 
 more feared and famous for her wit and satire than any wo 
 man of the day ? Besides, what connection is there between 
 beauty and wit, and beefsteak for breakfast?" 
 
 " A much greater affinity than between the true state of 
 the case and that which you have described. She is not a 
 wit or a satirist; but in good honest English, she is coarse 
 and unfeeling, as every other woman is who is so given to 
 strong meats, and plumes herself upon the reputation of being 
 sarcastic. Any one whose social backers family and wealth 
 are strong enough, and who has impudence and petty cru 
 elty enough, can make a reputation with the mob of society 
 for sarcasm. It is only necessary to say mean and malicious 
 things, and sneer at all that is exquisite and sacred, to have 
 a herd of tinselled small fry c cap-and-knee slaves haw ! 
 haw ! to any degree. When a really silly woman does this, 
 it is all well enough j she is living out the purpose of her 
 being, and there is no harm done : but when a woman like 
 Myra Haynes, who has naturally a good heart and a fine, 
 nay, even brilliant intellect, has so far fallen from the high 
 
364 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 estate of womanly delicacy as to permit, much less glory in, 
 a reputation of this kind, I set it down that there is a 
 strong constitutional obesity at the bottom of it that her 
 nervous susceptibility that gossamer network vibrating to 
 the faintest airs from dream-land, which should guard about 
 the heart of a pure woman has been actually drowned, 
 smothered in animal oils. "Willie Shakspeare says, When 
 the mind is free the body s delicate, and I believe him, too. 
 It is as much impossible that a woman the ducts and con 
 duits of whose body are turgid with unctuous humours 
 can buoy herself steadily in the rare empyrean of the 
 beautiful and true, as that a goose fatted for the spit can 
 play the humming-bird, and suck nectar from the woodbine s 
 coral trumpet on the wing. She may flutter along the earth, 
 pounding up the dust with sufficient strength of pinion to 
 show that she might make a glorious air-voyage but for the 
 too great ballast of essential oils on hand that is all. There 
 is nothing like the pungent subtlety of the Attic, smarting 
 while it cures, in her wit; this could not live upon "breath 
 rank with gross diet." 1 
 
 " Carter, such thoughts are rank of grossness, connected 
 with the name of Myra Haynes. Pray, my transcendental 
 coxcomb, would you have her sip dew from cups of violets 
 for breakfast ; dine on fricasseed larkspurs and butterflies, 
 and take moon-sop for supper? Such whimsicalities are 
 undignified and unmanly, when they lead to serious results. 
 Why, a pale dyspeptic miss of fifteen, sighing at the stars 
 from the garret attic of a convent, would blush to disclose 
 them to her "soul s sister" in earnest; and yet for such 
 splenetic fantasies of a cloyed taste, you talk of sacrificing 
 the just expectations of your father, friends, and the lady 
 herself. It is only people who have gormandized themselves 
 into an indigestion whose brains generate such weak vapours. 
 Your favourite Willie says 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 365 
 
 1 Who can speak broader than he that has no house 
 To put his head in such may rail against great buildings. 
 
 So with those who have no stomach they fret their irritable 
 souls into winnings, and speaking broad against those who 
 have. Such may rail against the pleasures of the table, 
 talk of coarseness, stupidity want of just sentiment being 
 the necessary concomitants of an indulgence in them, but 
 who will give them credit for either discrimination or sin 
 cerity ? Besides, your own authority is expressly against 
 you. Recollect 
 
 The veins unfill d, our blood is cold, and then 
 
 We pout upon the morning 
 
 But when we ve stufFd 
 
 These pipes, and these conveyances of our blood, 
 With wine and feeding, we have suppler souls. 
 
 And Caesar says, Let me have men about me who are fat. 
 And furthermore, Mr. Frank, I am astonished that you 
 haven t the good taste to admire her independence. She 
 scorns the finicking, contemptible affectation of those would- 
 be zephyr misses, who are horrified at the idea of eating 
 honest, substantial food before folk, but nibble puffs and 
 sip flummery at balls most daintily, with the determination 
 to make up for it on hog s foot and horniny, or some other 
 such delicacy, when they get home. I am afraid you are 
 losing your balance and becoming a regular new-light 
 Grahamite, or some other sort of fanatic. 
 
 "No, sir ! I am neither a dyspeptic, a Grahamite, or any 
 tie else. But I know enough of the moral and physical 
 anatomy of our being to be convinced that the law of self- 
 control is the stern law of the higher life, and that the un 
 constrained indulgence of appetite in man or woman, whether 
 strong or weak, is inaccordant with the spiritual harmonies, 
 unfriendly to physical as well as moral and intellectual 
 
 symmetry to that consistent repose and balance of at- 
 2F2 
 
866 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 tributes which makes the powerful unity. For my part, I d 
 rather die as Icarus, suddenly, of a fall from the clouds, 
 than sink, as the gourmand does, inch by inch, into the 
 greasy slough of sensuality. The diseases, the intellectual 
 and physical monstrosities, the low-browed ferocious super 
 stitions, the hopeless, rayless, animal-eyed ignorance, as well 
 as the small swarm of captious jealousies, feverish malignities, 
 hatreds and fears with all uncleanly lusts which make 
 hideous, poison and convulse the social organism, are one 
 and all the venomous spawn of this monster vice. Science 
 has demonstrated it common sense tells us it is so, yet it is 
 fanatical to denounce it, indelicate to speak of it, even when 
 you mark its ravages in the wilted skin, the suffused cheek, 
 the hollow eyes, with their unnatural flashes of fantastic and 
 capricious humours, on the person of the woman you arc ex 
 pected to love. By all that is blissful ! I have no fanc} ? for 
 the ingenious purgatory, the cross-grained and perverted 
 energies of such a woman would be expended in inventing 
 for my benefit !" 
 
 " Hold up, Frank, for Heaven ssake ! Are you going to 
 elocutionize even on till daybreak ? Give me another segar ! 
 I see you have been taking a sagacious peep into the mill 
 stone as well as the transcendentalists, and are grown quite 
 Orphic. I suppose this misty revelation of yours, being 
 interpreted, means that you intend to measure female at 
 tractions by a scale of dietetics, and that the nearer they 
 come to starving themselves into the second sight seeing 
 visions, dreaming dreams, and hearing ; airy tongues that 
 syllable men s names, and such like ghostly accomplish 
 ments the nearer will they approach to victimizing you. 
 Shade of Cupid! but you have found a new road to the 
 heart, through the stomach. You are clearly a New- 
 Light, Frank!" 
 
 "It is a light as old as time, that the stomach has a great 
 deal to do with the sentiments. I won t quote Records upon 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDER.NJ^s. 367 
 
 you, to show that it was once considered the seat of them ; 
 but jour own experience, if you will be candid, will suffice 
 to convince you that there can be no delicate truthfulness 
 of sentiment no clear, concise thinking, where the laws of 
 life have been outraged systematically as is the case three 
 times a day with those given to table excess. I tell you, 
 sir, I had rather be assured of the habitual self-command 
 of a woman in this particular, which is founded either on an 
 unviolated instinct, which we all have, and which a proper 
 education might keep intact, or a sense of duty, than to be 
 familiar with any or every other of her habitudes. I mean 
 the woman I should think of as my wife ; for were I satisfied 
 on this point, I should feel there was every thing to hope, 
 since what she lacked in elevation and refinement, she would 
 acquire naturally, as the flower drinks splendour in the 
 beam-lit dew; but, in the other case, however much of fitful 
 brilliancy she might display, I should only look forward 
 through a painful perspective of fading still fading! 
 
 "But what does all this monody amount to, more than 
 that you saw your lady-love honestly eat a beefsteak for 
 breakfast in your presence, and thereat you are hugely in 
 dignant, seeing that from what you know of spirit-land the 
 young ladies there who wear wings never carry such heavy 
 ballast ! I warrant you, if these shadowy damsels took a 
 long gallop on horseback every day, or danced three or four 
 hours every night, as Myra Haynes does, they would find 
 something more substantial quite comfortable." 
 
 "Beefsteak is strong food for a labouring man not 
 stopping to discuss whether it isn t grosser than is needful 
 for him but for the delicate organization of such a woman, 
 it is rank poison. During the riding party this morning, I 
 could see its effects in the rather boisterous gayety, which 
 would have been charming in you ; in the spiteful, malignant 
 abuse heaped upon every thing and every body, except your 
 humble servant, remember ! and which you call wit and sar- 
 
368 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 casm in her love of headlong, rapid motion. It had pre 
 cisely the effect upon her a stiff glass of brandy would have 
 had upon me. Her blood was evidently burning in her 
 veins; there was no repose, no natural dignity of sentiment 
 drawn from her own healthful and happy emotions ; no calm 
 appreciation, and clear-souled mirroring the charmed quiet 
 and wonders of apparelled Earth. She seemed restless as 
 one fever-stricken; her eye rested nowhere; she talked high- 
 flown sentiment, but it was by rote; she borrowed it from 
 Bulwer, who borrowed it from Byron, so that it was but the 
 ghost of an echo indeed! and yet the Thing-a-mys who 
 made up the party sighed and rolled up their eyes, or haw- 
 haw d like mad, as they took their cue from her expression 
 and she looked triumphant and such triumphs ! She may 
 have them all to herself hereafter for me; and yet the wo 
 man is capable of higher things ! It is fortunate that the 
 effect of such indulgences and excesses is as legible as the 
 blossoms on a toper s nose ; so that the honesty you boast 
 of her displaying amounts to nothing. The man who goes 
 with his eyes open can detect these things just as readily as 
 you can detect the three sheets in the wind of your boon 
 companion." 
 
 "Frank, all this hyperbole of criticism sounds superbly 
 ridiculous, when you remember that it is applied to a peer 
 less beauty, universally toasted as the most fascinating wo 
 man of the South !" 
 
 " That very fact of her being a universal toast is another 
 link in the chain of effects I have been tracing. That any 
 whipster who can sport rooms and a cab, does not feel it 
 is presumption to take her name in vain on his unhallowed 
 lips, but swaggers over wine to his brother ape of his last 
 real or imaginary passage at wits with the famous Belle, 
 Myra Haynes, and swears she is a dem foin girl ! is proof 
 conclusive enough that she herself has authorized this by 
 the reckless exhibition of an inordinate passion for display 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 369 
 
 in perfect keeping with the exaggerated, garish taste I re 
 marked in the morning ride. It is always a woman s own 
 fault, when such tailor-advertisements as these dare to take 
 liberties with her name she has licensed them, you may 
 be sure. There is a reverence of exalted Womanhood living 
 in the minds of men, which does not easily give way ; and 
 untrue to that standard she must have been whose name, 
 whether for praise or censure, is a common topic. I tell you 
 there is a fence of awful dignity about the clear innocent Na 
 ture, which pert vulgarity would sooner attempt to scale the 
 blue walls of heaven than to break through. Why, I have seen 
 a Whiskerando in comparison of whom a forked winter-tur 
 nip, with its bunch of frosted greens, was a respectable entity 
 look about him in consternation, as if he expected the earth 
 to gape, and sink his voice to a whisper, when it was neces 
 sary for his polluted lips to pronounce the powerful name 
 of a pure Woman." 
 
 "All a la transcendentale, and very fine! But, Master 
 Frank, I think your prayer had better be, Give me an 
 ounce of civet, good apothecary, to sweeten my imagination, 
 if you can t make a better use of it, in the presence of a 
 beautiful woman, than tracing the effects of her digestion 
 in all sorts of incongruities. It strikes me it would be 
 more gallantly employed, at all events, in robing her in azure 
 and evening beams, and sprouting zephyr pinions on her 
 shoulders !" 
 
 " Bah ! If the world choose to be hoodwinked, well and 
 good. I want the use of my eyes, and I should not stretch 
 the courtesy of conventional blindness quite so far as not to 
 see the bloat of debauchery on the person of a man ad 
 dressing my sister ; or, if my sweetheart took opium, refuse 
 to mark its ravages upon her cheek ; or if, as in the instance 
 we discuss, she be guilty of other excesses which, equally 
 with these, unharmonize the exquisite Ideal I demand, be 
 mole-eyed and dumb, because a flippant delicacy bans the 
 
 24 
 
#70 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 topic. I can only afford to be blind when I meet a reality 
 BO dazzlingly like the radiant Seraph which is haunting me, 
 as to make it a luxury to close my eyes and take the rest 
 on faith ; but I can never be dumb or blind because a selfish 
 and stupid fashion requires it. These things, upon which I 
 insist so much, no doubt appear to you mere specks in the 
 sun; but to me, who thirst only for the Pure and Perfect, 
 they seem monstrous blotches !" 
 
 " Vastly complimentary to my taste ! But I can stand 
 the contrast with a frigid acumen which so ingeniously inverts 
 the common instincts of gallantry!" 
 
 "* Still harping on my daughter ! But I insist, my dear 
 fellow, it is a woman s own fault when these cruelly unsweet 
 ened imaginings you complain of, run riot in a man s brain. 
 Wh^, sir, the clear eyes of a True Woman are the win 
 dows of heaven to me in their unfathomable depths I see 
 infinite beauties the glancing of embodied Joys and Hopes, 
 soft-plumed and sunny browed, beckoning me to bliss. My 
 whole being is transformed by the enchantment low gushes 
 from the rills and fountains of the Better Land odours, like 
 whispered symphonies, of starry flowers and pleasant airs 
 they burden all my sense with ecstasy, until I feel what 
 Angels hymn about, and adoration goes exulting up in praise 
 to God that he has blest us so has sent this Living Beam 
 of his own Love to throw its shining track across the deso 
 lation and the wastes of life, leading our aspirations right 
 to him. My heart brims up with calmest happiness 
 flows out in faith and charity through all the world ; for I 
 have seen the sure Promise in a Daughter of our race, and 
 know the white feet of Angels to be yet upon our hills." 
 
 " A precious specimen of rhapsodizing that ! But, my foam 
 ing Pythian, I fear our poor belles would be sadly taken 
 aback should they be required by the fiat of etiquette 
 to make every young fellow who looked into their eyes, see 
 sights so wondrous in them, and smell and hear at the same 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 371 
 
 time odours so ravishing ! I should be dreadfully alarmed 
 lest, to dodge the letter of the law, they would hide all the 
 windows of heaven behind goggles !" 
 
 "Newnon, you would strangle a Peri singing among 
 flowers, if you could get your rude fingers on its throat. It 
 does not follow that in such a case the emotions of every 
 man must be identical with mine ; but that they must be en 
 nobling and elevating to the height of his susceptibilities 
 under the influence of a pure woman s eye, is very certain ; 
 and I thank God that unless all is right within, this power 
 over our holiest impulses fades from out her glance. I tell 
 you, sir, Woman floats in a rarer atmosphere above us, and 
 between us and the light of Heaven and all the sacred rays 
 from the Eternal throne which reach us, must be first re 
 fracted through her heart ; if that be dark, then is earth 
 dark to us ; if that be clear, then do we see Heaven and 
 Earth are filled with beams. My reverence of her in this 
 high place the sense of my dependence on her as, under 
 God, the medium of all Good, is too profound to permit me, 
 as a patient witness, to look on while she of her own accord 
 deliberately will, for the mess of pottage, to cast her wings 
 and sink unutterably ! I glory in this dependence though, 
 and however often I may be disappointed, yet will I be 
 strong in faith. One fleeting glimpse through the crystal 
 bars of Paradise, half lifted, is sufficient to last a mortal life, 
 and that I have had ! and cheerily I ll plod onward in the 
 pilgrimage before me. When heart-sick, as now, I ll go 
 aside to open the gern-lettered scroll of memory, and feed 
 my spirit with refreshing on its light still elate in hope that 
 Earth has yet another Wanderer of the Skies hid somewhere 
 in its green nooks, awaiting me ! Woman can never make 
 me worse than my own passions have but she can make me 
 better, immeasurably far, and happier; her power ceases 
 when our course is prone, she lends strength only to the 
 wings !" 
 
372 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 " I think you would immortalize yourself as the champion 
 of Woman s Rights, and be feasted the round of the cities 
 on sugar-plums! Hadn t you better try it, Frank ?" 
 
 " Woman s rights ! They can be fanatics as well as we. 
 Her rights, are to be true to herself, and elevate man, and 
 she will have nothing to complain of. The truth is, I am 
 sick of the flat, stale, common-place, and vapid cant of the 
 Society-Woman, and as to Men, I care nothing for them. 
 I am determined that I will plunge beneath the mighty 
 shadows of the great West where the wild Daughters and 
 flowers of Earth spring together the nurslings of the 
 mountain-winds amid ocean plains and cloud-aspiring forests, 
 with torrent rivers thundering past for lullabies they will, 
 at least, be free and strong, and fresh, as prodigal nature 
 made them ; and my lungs and heart which, in this sickly 
 air of hot-house faint perfumes, have almost wearied in 
 their vocations, will learn again to play boldly and free as 
 theirs!" 
 
 " Yonder s the morning star! let us at least take a nap 
 before you set out!" 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE CHILD FRETA. 
 
 AGAIN we must revert yet farther back than this memora 
 ble conversation, from which those adventurings of Frank 
 Carter we have previously traced, took origin ; to show how 
 fate had already prepared for him those surprises and start 
 ling realizations which so enthralled his life in the heart of 
 that deep wilderness toward which we have seen his vague 
 yearnings urging him. 
 
 Ho ! presto ! The parlour of one of the magnificent homes 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 37o 
 
 of the " Merchant Princes" of New York in 1836 is open to 
 our view. 
 
 This palace is in Waverly Place. It is large and very 
 imposing, with its granite front but the interior, which has 
 been thus suddenly revealed, is far more extraordinary. 
 The subtlest refinements of luxury seem to have been lavished 
 in perfecting its splendid comfort. The most learned and 
 exacting taste in upholstery can ask nothing more delicate 
 in drapery or richly massive in furniture. The travelled 
 connoisseur would be astounded to recognise upon its walls 
 pictures of such value as he had thought only the galleries 
 of foreign princes might aspire to contain. The gorgeous 
 chandelier throws down a soft shaded light like moon-rays, 
 and the white figures of grouped statuary start forth beneath 
 it from the niches and corners of the great room, seeming to 
 hold the silence pulseless by the awe of their immortal ges 
 tures. Though the silence is very profound, you may detect 
 in the most shaded corner, the figure of a man almost buried 
 between the silken swell of purple cushions, amid which it is 
 listlessly reclined. The shadow of a bust of Talleyrand, by 
 David, falls across the head of this man. The broad white 
 calm of the marble brow, and the chill, yet honeyed sweet 
 ness of the subtly sculptured mouth above, seem to smile 
 that shadow down in congenial coldness upon a brow as 
 slumberously powerful, and mouth of much the same danger 
 ous beauty. But there are yet differences not easily detected 
 between the marble bust and that breathing bust. The calm 
 of the first is unutterably inscrutable. The face of Talley 
 rand lives in marble as it lived in flesh the illumination in 
 it as cold and sweet as the sun-light falling through the 
 petals of a frozen lily. The face of this man upon which 
 that frore shadow falls, is stamped with much the same 
 character, and is now very still and marble-like, yet it be 
 trays something. There are two slight lines between the 
 eyebrows, and one still fainter slanting upward from each 
 
374 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 corner of the ever-smiling mouth, which hint at the "lurking 
 devil." It seems as if in striving to attain the consummate 
 art 
 
 "To speak and purpose not," 
 
 a passion had overflown its aim and left the marks of rude 
 brushing wings behind upon that face. He is not an old 
 man, for though his hair is white as snow, yet it is as luxu 
 riant as ever, and falls back behind his ears in massive flakes. 
 He is clearly not over fifty, since his eyebrows are as black 
 as a crow s wing, and the bronzed flesh of his lean face has 
 a singularly firm look. There is "speculation in his eye" 
 those clear gray eyes, that look off into the distance 
 steadily as if that dead wall before them were not seen, and 
 far beyond they traced some grave majestic dream, uplifting 
 airy battlements and wondrous shapes against the sky. 
 
 It almost oppresses you that this man should be so very 
 still that you cannot hear him breathing should look as if 
 in body and in soul he had been frozen ! 
 
 Suddenly there is a loud, harsh scream, and then a shout 
 of tiny laughter, as if a dozen little silver bells had all gone 
 mad together a clumsy mulatto servant-girl bursts into the 
 parlour, screaming yet louder with genuine fright, as the 
 golden-haired little elf in chase seizes her dress. With one 
 hand this little creature strives to arrest the flight of her 
 frightened maid while at the same time she advances the 
 other, which is gloved to the elbow, closer and closer toward 
 the face of the shrinking slave. The mulatto tumbles head 
 long to the floor, shrieking in an agony of terror. "Massa ! 
 De snake! de snake! Miss Freta make he bite me!" 
 
 "Freta, my child, what have you there!" and the frozen, 
 gray-haired man springs forward quickly. 
 
 Seizing the little hand, as she was almost sinking to the 
 floor, beside her victim, in the muscular convulsions of her 
 laughter, he saw that she held in it, firmly grasped between 
 forefinger and thumb, the neck of a small "house-snake," 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 375 
 
 while the striped length of the reptile was coiled about her 
 arm. 
 
 "Freta! Freta! what a whim is this! Where did you 
 get that loathsome thing ?" 
 
 She sprang quickly to her feet, and stroked its shuddering 
 back lightly with the other hand. 
 
 " Papa, it is not a loathsome thing ; it is pretty, very 
 pretty !" 
 
 "Where did you find it, dear?" 
 
 " In the conservatory ! Oh, papa ! it was under my 
 beautiful Luxemburg rose, and Sylvy there was frightened !" 
 She pointed with a scornful gesture toward the girl, who 
 was crouched and creeping off on her hands and knees over 
 the carpet. 
 
 " I was not scared though, papa, for I never was afraid 
 of any thing beautiful. Its little black diamond eyes were 
 so pretty ! and its forked tongue made such a funny light 
 flash! flash! flash!" 
 
 "But how did you catch it, child?" 
 
 "Oh, right easy, papa! I knew that some snakes were 
 poisonous, but I did not think this little fellow was, he 
 looked so bright and innocent ! I put on my gloves, and 
 that not because I was afraid, pa, but because I thought 
 that the feel of creeping things is not pleasant to people; 
 then I seized it by the back of the head, and chased Sylvy 
 with it. But don t yo^u think it is pretty, papa?" 
 
 "Pretty for a snake, child; but you know that such crea 
 tures have a bad name in the world." 
 
 " No, that was a serpent, pa ! not a snake that made Eve 
 do wrong. But I don t care ! If I had been Eve, I would 
 have strangled it for saying naughty things to me that s 
 all!" 
 
 " Well ! well ! you little heretic ! throw your snake out 
 into the street now it is not a suitable pet for little girls to 
 have." 
 
376 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 "But, papa, it has made me happy ; and it is cold out of 
 doors ! I do not like to ! It was the warm air in the con 
 servatory that made it come out to see the roses and me, 
 and now you want me to pay it by throwing it out to freeze 
 in the street!" 
 
 " But, Freta, it is a base reptile. What would you do with 
 it? You cannot love it !" 
 
 " I should not kill it if I can t love it, papa ; for if our 
 conservatory had not been warm it would not have come out 
 from his hole until summer-time, and then it could have 
 taken care of itself now I ought to take care of it." 
 
 "Well, well! you wilful imp, go; warm it anywhere but 
 in your heart or bed, and I will be satisfied, for the creature 
 is entirely innocuous!" and stooping by her side, this hard 
 and subtle-seeming man smiles tenderly, as with gentle touch 
 he parts those dishevelled curls of "paly gold" from off that 
 fair sweet forehead, and presses a soft kiss upon it. 
 
 Those large, blue, jutting eyes flash against his frigid face, 
 and warm it for an instant with the light of love, which 
 sparkles through a momentary suffusion of tears. The bright 
 creature bounds away, followed shyly and at a distance by 
 the still terror-stricken Sylvy. That strange, smooth man 
 looks after the bounding step of the child for a moment, as 
 he stands erect where she left him, and then smiling proudly 
 as he turns toward the sofa, again mutters 
 
 "Daring witch! she knows nothing of vulgar fears she 
 will be invaluable to me !" and he sinks down heavily amid 
 the silken pile of cushions. 
 
 In a little while his face resumes the cold, placid, and 
 abstracted expression we first observed : then " silence comes 
 heavily again" in that great gorgeous room. All is still 
 once more, and the statues become eloquent as his own 
 figure. Now, you cannot hear him breathe ; but there comes 
 the gay tintinnabula of low, melodious shouts and laugh 
 ter ! Again the sprite-like Freta bounds into the room ! 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 377 
 
 Her arms about his neck, and she nestles gently in his 
 lap. 
 
 " Father ! father ! I let go the pretty snake beneath my 
 rose, and do you think it would not stay ! It glided off, 
 shining as it went, and then I did not see it any more. 
 Wasn t it a naughty snake to run away so ?" 
 
 " So you will find many bright things to glide from beneath 
 your grasp, my child." 
 
 "But then I will love them, papa, because they were 
 bright and gave me pleasure ! Kiss me, won t you ? You do 
 not look happy to-night !" 
 
 She turned up her delicately pouting lips with such a 
 bewitching sweetness, that the hard man could but melt, 
 and he bent over to kiss her, while a tear fell upon her 
 cheek. The beautiful child laid her face in his bosom for a 
 moment, and then looked up through her brimming eyes, 
 and said tremulously, "Papa is not happy to-night?" 
 
 At once she dashes the moisture from her eyes, and spring 
 ing away from his arms, says gayly, " papa, I will play 
 for you that merry reel you love so much. Listen, listen !" 
 
 She took her place before the open piano opposite, and, with 
 a skill most extraordinary in so young a creature, launched 
 into the wild cadences of Scottish music. 
 
 A furious ring at the door-bell interrupts there is a 
 pause. The tones of the stammering Sylvy, commingling 
 with those of a clear, commanding voice, are heard for a mo 
 ment, and then a young man enters the parlour, somewhat 
 hastily, hat in hand. The gray-haired man almost might 
 be said to spring to his feet, so quickly does he rise to meet 
 the new-comer. 
 
 " Hah ! my venerable uncle Cedric !" said the young man 
 as he stepped rapidly forward and placed his hat on the centre- 
 table, " it is all up with us. But here is little Freta ! Kiss 
 me, little witch and cousin mine." 
 
 He catches the struggling little one in his arms, and only 
 2G2 
 
378 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 succeeds in kissing her white forehead, when she escapes 
 from the room with the flushed haste of aversion apparent 
 on her face. 
 
 " Now, Newnon, what have you to say what news do 
 you bring me ?" said the gray-haired man, whose life seemed 
 thoroughly startled out of its deep stillness since the new 
 arrival. " I have expected your coming this hour." 
 
 " Well, good uncle, I am too much a pupil of your own 
 ever to permit myself to be either hurried or flurried by 
 any thing. I stayed just long enough down-town to hear all 
 that it was necessary for you and me to know." 
 
 " That was right. Well, what is the result ?" 
 
 " Why, in the first place, the failure of your house this 
 morning was the sole topic upon Wall-street, and of course 
 it made the bulls and bears stare more wildly than they have 
 ever done through all the lets down and l crashes that 
 have occurred during the last disastrous six weeks." 
 
 " That I expected, of course ; but have they discovered 
 any thing with regard to my operations ?" 
 
 " Ah, my good uncle, that s the question i To be or 
 not, &c. you understand?" and the young dandy sinks 
 listlessly upon the cushioned sofa, and, stretching out his 
 legs, looks admiringly at his delicate boots. 
 
 " Pshaw, coxcomb ! what do these antics mean ? They 
 have got wind of it, have they ?" 
 
 The gray-haired man stands up before the dandy, smiling 
 placidly, yet impatience is apparent in the slight twitchings 
 of the muscles not of his face but of his body. 
 
 " Y-a-w !" a long gape, and the young gentleman 
 switches the point of his exquisite boot with his frail cane. 
 " Yes, my good uncle, as usual, you divine rightly ! They 
 have got wind of your operations or our operations, if 
 you insist upon implicating me, an innocent victim. And 
 the plain English of it is, that you must make me your exe 
 cutor, and be found minus to-morrow morning, or else the 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 3?<J 
 
 Tombs will be plus a distinguished character, on charge of 
 sundry you best know what little peccadilloes !" 
 
 " That white-livered scoundrel, Nevers, has betrayed all !" 
 
 " Yes, yes ! we ll take care of him so do not fret your 
 self on that score. I have brought you all the gold and 
 available notes I could raise." 
 
 He lazily drew from beneath his clothes several fat, 
 heavy-looking packages, which he placed upon the table. 
 
 "You will probably not get out of the reach of the hue 
 and cry this side of the bounds of civilization. The schooner 
 Grattan sails to-night for New Orleans; I have secured 
 passage for yourself, Freta, and Sylvy ; so you see every 
 thing is ready to your hand. For a person of my easy 
 habits, you must admit that I have done well, since all these 
 preparations have been made within three hours." 
 
 "You have done well," said the other coolly. "Have 
 you seen any of our people in the mean time ?" 
 
 "Yes, they are all true as steel. They are somewhat 
 indignant, to be sure; and we expect to feel prodigiously 
 the absence of your controlling influence but you will be 
 obeyed as implicitly a thousand miles distant as if you were 
 here." 
 
 " I have rather anticipated this result for several days ; 
 but I think, on the whole, that it may not prove so unfortu 
 nate for us. I shall extend the limits of our operations, as 
 I pass through the South where I shall take occasion to 
 see, personally, to this affair of the Haynes estate, which we 
 have so much at heart. Perhaps I may find it best to give 
 over the entire management of it into your hands. You 
 have known one of the parties, at least, since boyhood; and 
 if I find that you retain the strong hold that I suspect upon 
 his memory, I shall probably send for you to take him in 
 hand. In the mean time, try and keep this nestling-place 
 intact for me, for I have spent too much in adorning it to 
 my taste, to relish the idea of having these rare gems of art 
 
380 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 profaned by the vulgar mob of New York soap-boilers, who 
 have come to wear purses!" 
 
 "Set your mind at ease upon that point as well, my most 
 admirable and venerated uncle ; for this is a very clever 
 establishment which your rare and restless genius has 
 elaborated for my peculiar benefit. I can occupy it for 
 several years quite pleasantly, greatly to my own glorifica 
 tion and comfort. If you have got the deed we spoke of 
 in anticipation made out in due form, I think I can promise 
 myself an unquestioned occupancy." 
 
 "All is prepared in due form here is the deed!" 
 
 He pressed a spring beneath the lid of the centre-table, a 
 segment flew up, and the papers were revealed. 
 
 "You perceive I have been as careful of you, as you have 
 this night proven yourself to have been of me and mine. 
 Take that package!" 
 
 The young man obeyed, rising at the same time and 
 grasping his hat. Cedric shut down the lid of the table, 
 and the two stood face to face in silence. He extended his 
 hand the young man took it without speaking. There was 
 no passion in their clear and cool gray eyes that met each 
 other steadfastly for a few moments not as if in search of 
 regrets at parting of memories of the past or hopes of the 
 future of any sympathies indeed, or even Faith but as if 
 two diamonds came quietly together, point with point, be 
 tween the tremendous pressure of great wills that tried if 
 either could be made to crumble one fine atom of its spiritual 
 edge ! Then the young man turned, leaving the parlour with 
 a sauntering, listless air. Cedric, the gray-haired man, 
 stands alone in that magnificent room; but now, when he 
 relapses quickly into that old air of frozen abstraction, we 
 are not so much surprised, and we can see before the distant 
 gaze of those calm eyes, new schemes of grand and subtle 
 villany, rising beyond the wreck amid which he stands so 
 dauntlessly. 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS, 381 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 REGULUS. 
 
 TEN years, which would again bring us back to about the 
 period of the conversation at the St. Charles , have now 
 elapsed since the unceremonious exodus of Cedric with Freta 
 described in our last chapter took place, and yet we must 
 now return again to the mansion in Waverley Place. Its ex 
 terior is not changed since we saw it first, though such a 
 period has intervened. Even less change is apparent in the 
 interior of that magnificent parlour. The chandelier, the 
 drapery, the pictures, the statuary, the sofas, all, indeed, 
 look the same. It seems as if the presence of the gray- 
 haired Cedric, though he is far enough away, still holds that 
 room, and all that it contains even to its very atmosphere 
 frozen motionless as he left it. 
 
 Out of doors the night was very gloomy, and the neigh 
 bourhood was badly lighted. The clock of St. John s gave 
 out that one melancholy stroke, which sounds so like a 
 wailing cry of the young day breaking upon the dark silence 
 of its mournful birth, and then, one after another, the diffe 
 rent quarters of the great city took it up, until it died away, 
 sobbing in the distance. 
 
 You will perceive two figures glide into that silent parlor 
 noiselessly. The doors and windows are all closed, and you 
 will observe that they must have found some other mode of 
 entrance, since they advance from behind a group of statuary 
 in one corner. They stop beside the centre-table, and be 
 neath the softened light of the chandelier. The man who 
 comes forward with a light, quick step, as if he trod upon 
 
382 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 eggs, has a very pleasant face, for though the cut of his 
 eyebrows be sharp and square, and that of his eyes be sharp 
 and hard, yet you feel that the mellifluous mouth " overcomes" 
 the face with sweetness like a summer-cloud. You cannot 
 well realize now the comparative and superlative degrees of 
 sharpness expressed in the nose and chin, which neighbour 
 that placid nectary of smiles. The smooth forehead is so 
 disproportionably expanded above the temples that you can 
 not but think the outline of the face resembles that of a fox 
 but that it is all so delicately blanched, it is impossible to 
 associate an image of gross animality with it especially 
 since that acute chin rests upon a snowy neckcloth, which is 
 duly relieved by a full suit of irreproachable black. 
 
 This person might readily be placed in the calendar of the 
 Saints ; but whether among those who have been sanctified 
 by their devotion to the Christian s God, or to that Pagan 
 deity of Wall street the god Mammon might, perhaps, be 
 cautiously doubted. He has a quick, imperative manner 
 about him, as if accustomed to command. If there are no 
 wrinkles on his brow, the spirit of them so rested there, that 
 you thought in mathematics from magnetic sympathy in 
 his presence, and were not surprised to see the slave behind 
 him look, act, and speak like a machine. This man pressed 
 the same concealed spring that we have seen the gray-haired 
 Cedric press, and up flew a segment of the table. He took 
 out sundry packages of sealed letters, which, from the di 
 versity of the postmarks, seemed to have come from all 
 quarters of the Union, and even the distant extremes of the 
 continent. The negro placed a chair behind him and re 
 treated to a respectful distance standing as though on drill. 
 The man sat down, and stooping low over the table, as if 
 near-sighted, broke seal after seal in quick succession, and 
 glancing rapidly down the sheets, laid the letters aside. It 
 was impossible to perceive any thing in his expression as he 
 read, until at last he came to one which was greatly soiled. 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 383 
 
 and had several post-marks upon it. This one he Dpened 
 with a nervous eagerness, which was quite perceptible, and 
 bent lower than ever while he read. 
 
 He had finished and rose quickly. " Dick, it is time they 
 were coming go and unbolt the basement door into the back 
 alley?" 
 
 "Yes, Massa !" said the negro, and wheeled about me 
 chanically to execute his mission. 
 
 " Stop there, Dick ! are you sure our Captain of Police is 
 on duty to-night?" 
 
 "B lieve him is, Massa." 
 
 " There must be no doubt about it. Run back into 
 Washington Place and see if he is on the look-out. Tell 
 him to count the men who enter the alley, carefully, and 
 look sharp for lurkers in the neighbourhood." 
 
 "Yes, Massa." 
 
 " And look you, Master Dick ! be very sure of The Word 
 before you let any irian in below !" 
 
 "Yes, Massa;" and the negro marched off alertly. 
 
 When he disappeared behind the group of statuary, you 
 might have heard a slight sound as of sliding panels, and 
 then all was still again. For fifteen minutes this man walked 
 back and forth restlessly, still holding that soiled letter in 
 his hand. Now and then he would pause by the heap of 
 opened letters on the table, take one from it, stoop, glance 
 over it, and lay it down to resume his walk. A slight sound 
 had reached his acute ear, and he reseats himself quickly, 
 and appears to be absorbed with the letters. A tall man, 
 whose face and figure is completely shrouded in a long black 
 cloak, enters with a noiseless step from behind the group of 
 statuary. When this new comer had approached the table, 
 the man seated at it merely nods in recognition, as he looks 
 up from his labour for a moment. The new comer acknow 
 ledges the recognition in the same business-like manner, and 
 proceeds to divest himself of his large cloak and broad 
 
384 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 brimmed hat in a very leisurely manner. This proceeding 
 revealed the tall slim figure of a very intellectual-seeming 
 man, whose bright unsteady eye expressed a quick and vola 
 tile nature entirely in unison with that lithe and supple 
 frame. He was dressed in the last degree of rich and ele 
 gant fashion. He said, as he sank down listlessly upon a 
 sofa, "You seem to have a heavy mail before you, to-night, 
 Mr. Secretary. I hope there is something from our nomadic 
 President, for it is full time we heard from him!" 
 
 "There is and something of importance, too as you 
 shall hear when the rest arrive!" 
 
 " Glad of it, we want something to stir us up ! What is 
 it now Financial, Commercial, Political, or what?" 
 
 "Political!" 
 
 "I thought so, for it is high time high time!" and he 
 gave a long yawn, and threw himself back upon the sofa. 
 
 At this moment another person entered by the same way, 
 and in the same noiseless manner we have described. Before 
 he had divested himself of his cloak, another followed, and 
 then soon another, until in a short time there were ten men 
 lounging or standing in scattered groups through that 
 magnificent parlour. There could be no mistake as to the 
 social rank of these men. It was stamped upon their pale, 
 intellectual faces, expressed in their calm, possessed and 
 purposeful bearing, and advertised in their faultless cos 
 tume. It requires "no ghost come from the grave to tell" 
 that they are all men of the world men of position and 
 refined cultivation, who know perfectly well what they are 
 about, whether it be for evil or for good. There was one 
 prevailing trait which characterized the expression of this 
 company not so much individually as collectively and that 
 was intellectual daring a cutting, cold, calculating audacity 
 of purpose and will. There was no attempt at disguise be 
 yond that they had worn from the street. They all seemed 
 to know each other well, both personally and socially, and 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 385 
 
 out-door titles and designations were used with the famili 
 arity and freedom that would have characterized a meeting 
 "on Change." The banker, merchant, politician, lawyer, 
 doctor, gentleman, poet, editor, and priest, had evidently met 
 there in that gorgeous room to hear something of importance 
 from the mellifluous lips of that fair, sharp-faced gentleman 
 in black, who sat beside the centre-table still bending over 
 his letters. This person looked up at last, and glancing his 
 eye quickly around the room, said in a clear, formal tone, 
 "I believe all are here. Gentlemen, shall we proceed to 
 business?" 
 
 There was a general rustling through the room as those 
 who stood seated themselves, and those who were seated at a 
 distance drew nearer the centre table. 
 
 " I am prepared, as usual, gentlemen, with a full synopsis 
 of our correspondence since we met last night. It is more 
 than usually voluminous, and brings us many items of inte 
 resting intelligence. First, we have news from our commer 
 cial agent at New Orleans, which has been sent through at 
 an expense of over a thousand dollars, and which is twenty- 
 four hours ahead of the mail, and twelve ahead of any other 
 express. He says, that up to the moment of despatch, cot 
 ton had risen two cents, with a steady upward determination 
 thinks it will reach three, on account of heavy orders from 
 England." 
 
 While the sensation caused by this intelligence was yet 
 buzzing through the room in a low-voiced commentary, the 
 technical secretary, in his clear, formal tones and sweetly 
 placid manner, went on with his synopsis. 
 
 "Another from our trusty agent of manufactures in Mas 
 sachusetts, who speaks in glowing terms of the spread of our 
 system of industrial monopoly in that state; and says that 
 our mills are becoming the sole and central arbiters of Labour, 
 and are rapidly absorbing every form of production on a small 
 
 scale, and that even independent agriculture had begun to 
 2H 25 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 acknowledge the power of our combinations. He mentions 
 that the wool-growing districts are at our feet already, and 
 thinks that our system of espionage and individual denun 
 ciation, if inexorably persevered in, will awe these small 
 farmers and the operatives of our mills into subjection, and 
 that we shall soon control the value of produce and prices of 
 labour as we proposed. He mentions the name of several 
 of our agents whose conduct should be inquired into, as they 
 exhibit a faint-hearted disinclination to push our great idea, 
 and are beginning to cant about the cruelty of crushing the 
 poor operatives. You perceive that it is necessary they 
 should be attended to promptly, since the third section of 
 our constitution expressly provides that all disaffected, opin- 
 ionative and fanatical persons, who maybe discovered among 
 our employees in, this as well as some other departments of 
 our operations, must be dismissed and provided for." 
 
 "Yes! Yes!" "Down with them!" "They must be 
 seen to at once !" " We will ballot to-night for who shall go 
 to see to this matter!" And such like expressions ran around 
 the room, while the pale secretary paused. 
 
 " Here are several other letters from our New England 
 agents, with regard to improvements in labour-saving ma 
 chinery, which require our careful supervision, for they con 
 tain unusually important suggestions. They develop several 
 important agents of monopoly in manufactures, which can 
 not be passed by without our careful regard but these must 
 lie over for action till to-morrow, as we have more pressing 
 business on hand to-night." 
 
 " That will do. Put them aside." 
 
 " Here is a letter with regard to the Dickson property, 
 in Apalachicola, Florida. Our agent writes that the widow 
 has been frightened by the costs of the suit with which ta 
 has threatened her, and desires a compromise. She will 
 take ten thousand dollars in hand, and surrender her right 
 to us. Shall we make the appropriation, gentlemen ?" 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 387 
 
 There was a pause, then a few hurried words of consulta 
 tion. The whole party rose to their feet. The secretary 
 glanced coldly around upon them, and muttered as he made 
 a note upon the sheet before him, 
 
 "Unanimous ! That s done with." 
 
 They sat down and he resumed. 
 
 " Here are some thirty letters from various quarters of tho 
 Union and adjacent territories, mostly of minor importance, 
 considering the business we have yet before us ; their con 
 tents are generally satisfactory as to the success of our 
 operations. Specially does our old-established system of 
 transplanting ruined adventurers into the new countries of 
 the South-West, at the successive occupation and annexation 
 of which we aim, seems to be working well. We hear of 
 new concessions obtained everywhere, discipline seems per 
 fect, and the spell of our formidable signature, Regulus, 
 seems to be potent as ever. We must continue to use it with 
 the greatest discretion. Any abuse of it would be fearful 
 to us !" 
 
 Putting this correspondence aside, the secretary took up 
 another paper from the table, and shaking it slightly in 
 his hand toward them, he went on. 
 
 "Here we have an interesting report from our chief of 
 police in this city. We have first, as usual, all the crimes 
 of the month, with the names, characters, residences, and 
 haunts of the criminals. I observe that there is quite a 
 number of suspected persons, who have been ; spotted as 
 such by the city police, who are in our employ. This only 
 calls for greater watchfulness on our part. There are several 
 names presented which particularly demand our attention. 
 They are those of persons most of whom have been, or ought 
 to have been, sent to the Tombs and to Sing-Sing, for sun 
 dry crimes, and are now at large. They are Free-soilers, 
 Abolitionists, and Professors, both male and female, of new 
 sciences and isms; expounders of Woman s rights, Amalga- 
 
388 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 mation, &c. But our report represents them as persons of 
 indomitable energy, extraordinary recklessness and daring ; 
 who have a rude eloquence, which can impress the mob. 
 These people have clutched the Agrarian ideas of reform, 
 and as all their tendencies are disorganizing and subversive, 
 as they are wielding an immense power with the labouring 
 classes, they require encouragement. They have already 
 organized extensively. They have clubs and newspapers, 
 and are prepared to exert a very formidable influence in this 
 city, and through the country, upon the coming Presidential 
 election. We must see to, and propitiate these persons, as 
 you will clearly perceive. The estimated cost of that sub 
 stantial aid and comfort which should be extended by us at 
 the present crisis toward these incendiaries, is fifty thousand 
 dollars. Here are the names. You will perceive that this 
 expenditure refers only to their leaders for the people mus 
 have a magical watchword, if we expect to lead them; even 
 all our enormous capital will not bribe the masses, while a 
 simple ivord will arm them to follow us as trustingly as sheep 
 to the shambles, at the heels of their shepherd. I think, 
 however, that the vote with regard to expenditure had better 
 not be taken until our next meeting, as I have yet some most 
 important matter in this connection to submit in reference 
 to the greater encouragement to be offered to a class of 
 restless, flippant, and fanatical women, who are rapidly be 
 coming prominent at the North. The sickly sympathies, the 
 clap-trap cant, and termagant vituperation of this disaffected 
 sisterhood of virginity, promise a most decided and practical 
 availability for our general purposes of corruption and dis 
 organization of the Republican in favour of Oligarchical 
 tendencies ! Their babble will do much toward increasing 
 the wordy dust of disaffection between the North and the 
 South, under the cloud of which we operate successfully 
 This is to be looked to." 
 
 The report was rapidly glanced over by the most curious 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 389 
 
 T)f these men ; and, as the names were read, the idea that 
 these persons whom they all knew were to be secured, 
 seemed to be unanimously recognised ; but it was hastily laid 
 by, for it was now late, and all knew that the secretary had 
 reserved the most important communication for the last. 
 He drew the soiled letter from his pocket, and with great 
 deliberation proceeded to unfold it. " That must be from 
 our President!" 
 
 "What has he to say?" 
 
 "Let us hear!" 
 
 The secretary read out in the same tone. 
 
 "He writes from the remote home he established as a 
 place of refuge a number of years since. He has just re 
 turned from an extended excursion through the valley of 
 the Mississippi, including all the principal States and towns 
 of the great South- West. He has been remarkably success 
 ful generally, and sends a long list of agents who will co 
 operate with us, and correspond regularly. But what is of 
 far more importance, he thinks that he has at last consum 
 mated the great purpose for which we have so long and 
 patiently laboured. He pronounces the South-West to be 
 fully prepared for a war of conquest with Mexico. The 
 secret society organized by him so many years ago, has 
 spread and prospered wonderfully. This resurrection of the 
 grand scheme of his patron and master, Burr which he 
 effected so long ago, and has worked at with such indomitable 
 purpose ever since has, after including among its sworn 
 supporters, two Presidents and four great popular leaders, 
 resulted in the annexation of Texas. Now, he says, the peo 
 ple have grappled in earnest the magnificent idea, with all 
 its vast sequences, and nothing can stay their resistless will. 
 At the coming Baltimore Convention it has been determined 
 that we shall throw aside the old King of Trumps on both 
 sides, and take up that new Ace of Spades, which will 
 
 open our way to the mines of Mexico. Who he ia to be, 
 2H2 
 
390 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 depends upon his availability; but an apt pupil of Jackson 
 and the old regime of Democracy, is to be preferred. This 
 is determined upon, and no power upon earth can prevent 
 its consummation. It is our old purpose, and the whole 
 strength of our immense capital and extended chain of influ 
 ence is to be cast in its favour ! Now, gentlemen, what do 
 you think?" 
 
 The sharp-eyed secretary looked around with a keen, unim- 
 passioned glance into the faces of those about him. The 
 proposition was tremendously startling, and some of the well- 
 schooled faces there betrayed that they felt it to be so. The 
 smooth-tongued, placid secretary continued in the same tone, 
 as he handed over the letter to them. 
 
 "You perceive that he furnishes a list of names from the 
 North, South, East, and West, who are solemnly sworn to 
 support this movement and this nomination. If you look at 
 the list carefully you will recognise them as veritable signa 
 tures ; and it presents an array of names, powerful enough, 
 if united, to tear to pieces and utterly subvert the Federal 
 constitution. The movement is evidently matured ; we have 
 but to resolve, and it is consummated !" 
 
 The paper was passed around, and carefully examined by 
 every one. No one seemed to be taken entirely by surprise, 
 though all were somewhat astounded by the suddenness with 
 which the question, involving such great consequences, had 
 been presented for their adjudication. But these were 
 prompt men prepared, by their previous training and 
 thought, to act in any emergency. 
 
 There was a pause of some fifteen minutes, during which 
 the letter and list were examined, and some consultation in 
 an undertone went on, and then one of them said in a sharp, 
 impatient voice, 
 
 " We are ready for a vote, Mr. Secretary, upon this letter ; 
 go on!" 
 
 "Gentlemen approving, will rise." 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 391 
 
 They all rose simultaneously, and then there was a general 
 movement toward cloaks and hats, as for a breaking up 
 when the secretary said, in a shrill, loud voice, 
 
 " Gentlemen, there is yet another letter to which I would 
 direct your attention. It is from our Vice President, Newnon 
 Clenny, who dates from the St. Charles Hotel, New Orleans." 
 
 "Well, what does he say in short! Let us hear!" 
 
 " It is that Frank Carter proves to be a dreamy enthusiast, 
 and he fears is an incorrigible fool, of whom we can make 
 nothing. For some silly whim he has broken his engage 
 ment with the daughter of old Haynes, and is about pushing 
 off to the Rocky Mountains on a vague and boyish adventure. 
 I fear that our schemes with regard to those two enormous 
 estates are to be greatly compromised by the eccentricities 
 of this unripe whipster. Clenny thinks there is something 
 available in him yet, and proposes to keep by him through 
 this new enterprise." 
 
 " Clenny is in earnest, and the boy is safe enough in his 
 hands. If I had any designs upon the morals of Lucifer 
 himself, I should send Clenny to him with his subtle sneer. 
 But it is late let us go." 
 
 This was said by the tall, elegant man, as he threw on his 
 cloak, and they all started toward the group of statuary. 
 
 "One moment more, gentlemen," said the secretary, 
 rising. "What do you say to the appropriation spoken of 
 in the report of our Chief of Police?" 
 
 "You must have it!" 
 
 "You must have it, of course!" said several, while all 
 nodded assent. 
 
 " Certainly," said the tall man ; " we have just resolved to 
 bait the Bear of Conservatism, and we must find our bull 
 dogs in butcher s meat!" 
 
 With a slight laugh they all disappeared. In a few mo 
 ments that large parlour was left alone with the silence and 
 its statues. 
 
392 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE ESCRITOIRE. 
 
 THE author, being a resident of New York during the 
 period of the principal incidents narrated as occurring in 
 that city, had formed the acquaintance of the principal per 
 sonages. Himself a Southerner, he had, from the natural 
 affinities of origin, inevitably been attracted toward Carter. 
 The intercourse between them, at first reserved, had imper 
 ceptibly warmed into a degree of intimacy, which, however, 
 had by no means been such as to render him at all cognisant, 
 beyond the merest generalities, of the progress of his private 
 affairs. He was not a little surprised, therefore, at finding, 
 one day, an elegant escritoire of dark, rich wood, heavily 
 banded in the old-fashioned style with silver, which had 
 been placed, in his absence, on the table of his sanctum. A 
 note, in a sealed envelope, lay upon it. He instantly re 
 cognised the hand-writing of the address as that of Mr. Car 
 ter, and broke the envelope. 
 
 It was evidently written in great haste, but without any 
 sign of trepidation. It ran thus : 
 
 "My DEAR FRIEND: 
 
 " I have no time for explanations, as I am in the midst of 
 hurried preparations for an unexpected yacht-voyage upon 
 which I set sail in a few minutes. I send you the escritoire, 
 which was left in my charge by a highly valued friend. He 
 was an extraordinary man ; and its contents are, I doubt not, 
 of great value to the world. 
 
BACK PROM THE WILDERNESS. 393 
 
 It was given me, with the injunction that it should not 
 be opened until six months after his death. The six months 
 were up some weeks since, but I have lately been too much 
 otherwise absorbed to think of making use of the privi 
 lege of the key. I now therefore transfer to you this bequest 
 in full, with the proviso that you will not open it for 
 six months. If at the end of that time I have not been 
 heard from, please open, and without reserve make what 
 use of it your excellent sense may justify. Please take 
 charge of whatever correspondence may arrive to my ad 
 dress for the same length of time, at the expiration of 
 which time you will also please to consider yourself as my 
 executor open my correspondence and proceed as you may 
 think best. Pardon this unceremonious intrusion of re 
 sponsibilities upon an intimacy, the terms of which I hardly 
 feel would strictly justify me ; but the plea that I know 
 no one else whom I can trust, and have no time for further 
 explanations, will I am sure justify me in the eyes of a bro 
 ther Southron. 
 
 " Yours truly, 
 
 FRANK CARTER." 
 
 Six months having elapsed, and still no news of my singu 
 lar friend Carter, the fulfilment of the important duties of 
 executor, thus unexpectedly devolved upon him, were de 
 ferred by the narrator as long his sense of duty would pos 
 sibly admit. At last, when longer delay would have seemed 
 to assume almost the aspect of criminality, the duty of 
 opening the correspondence was unwillingly entered upon. 
 As little that was there revealed was specially germain to 
 the purposes of this book, the writer will be excused for 
 using his discretion so far as to reveal the contents of but 
 a single letter. It was from Freta, and was dated on the 
 morning of the day on which Carter sailed on his raysteri 
 ous yacht voyage. 
 
394 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 " St. Johns Square. 
 
 " Oh, my friend, do not believe, when I wrote you yesterday 
 eve, that I meant you should never think of me again on 
 earth : when I said that we must never meet again, that 
 I was leaving the city for ever, and that it would be in vain 
 that you attempted to trace me. I said what was right 
 for I am betrothed to another. That promise was forced from 
 me as the actual price of my father s life, and unwearied 
 assiduities, extending from my childhood up through my 
 whole life, and sanctioned by my father. Yet, though my 
 heart was never given, my word has been wrested from me, 
 and my honour is pledged. He will never release me. I 
 know his inexorable temper well, therefore have I resolved 
 to face this issue. I have long known that its consummation 
 must be instant death to me and with prayers and tears 
 I have won respite from time to time, hoping always that I 
 might see you once again on earth. I have been favoured 
 I have watched over you long through my faithful Indian 
 and I was happy, though I felt myself to be dying fast. 
 I beheld you at length for the first time since our horrid 
 separation, and my frame yet quivers with the ecstasy. Oh ! 
 the joy, the joy I felt that I had swooned into heaven on 
 your shoulder. Again and again the interminable thrills yet 
 cleave through my soul. If this be love, it shall die free 
 with me, as it came as pure in its warm flood that seemeth 
 ever gushing down the boundaries of sense, as when in single 
 drops of dew, through flowers and all the forms of beauty 
 in the natural world, it freshened my still life in that far 
 wilderness. Aye, all thoughts, all shapes, all aromas of the 
 beautiful, gather like drops in this wild glowing tide of love 
 on which I am born aerially elate, where wings could never 
 bear me. I ll know no other existence ! Life, that has given 
 me this, lifted me to the fair beatification of Death through 
 which Nature exalts her soul to transcendent realities. I 
 
t 
 
 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 395 
 
 would not say to you do not die ! but strive to be ever 
 near me in soul. Do not come near me on earth, but be 
 with me always ! 
 
 " FRETA." 
 
 This letter had missed Frank, and who can say what 
 effect upon his destiny its reaching him would have had. 
 Our paths here are sometimes inscrutably darkened. 
 
 Nearly two years had now passed, and still not a syllable 
 of news from the yatch voyage. The escritoire had been 
 opened, and found to contain many valuable and strangely 
 interesting papers, the startling character of which (the 
 writer would mention incidentally) would justify him in giv 
 ing them hereafter in form of a sequel to the present. The 
 escritoire will, of course, be recognised as that left in the 
 hands of Frank by the murdered Yerga, who fell in the trea 
 cherous duel to which Clenny was a party, and which has 
 been previously described. 
 
 Accident at last threw in our way one of those methodical, 
 matter-of-fact, quiet sort of personages, who seem to have 
 been born nowhere to have never had a home ; who are 
 always penniless, but whose lives appear to have been as 
 constantly spent in adventuring as they most probably 
 originated in an adventure. One of those warps and estrays 
 of love which seem to have taken 
 
 "More composition and fierce equality," 
 
 in "the lusty stealth of nature," than enters into the organi 
 zation of a dozen common citizens. 
 
 This man gave me an account of an extraordinary scene, 
 to which he was accidentally an eye-witness, which may 
 throw some light upon the fate of the persons in whom we 
 are interested. 
 
396 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE DUEL BY MOONLIGHT. 
 
 HE relates that on one occasion he had crossed over from 
 the mainland of Texas some distance south of the entrance 
 to Matagorda Bay, to a curiously insulated beach, which 
 stretches for many miles parallel with the coast. There is 
 a wide channel of deep water between the coast and this 
 narrow beach, or breakwater, as it might most properly be 
 called. Here the turtles resort in incredible numbers to de 
 posit their eggs in the sand ; and, as he had been in from 
 the Frontier idling about Matagorda for some time, he be 
 thought him of turtle-egging by the way of a small adven 
 ture and by way of passing the time. He had gone over alone, 
 with the purpose of spending the night, which was very 
 pleasant, and watching the turtles deposit their eggs, pre 
 paratory to the morning operations. The moon did not rise 
 until late, so he threw himself down upon the sand for an 
 early nap intending to rise with the moon. He waked as 
 he thought, about eleven o clock; the red disk of the moon 
 was just then showing itself above the waters. When he had 
 raised himself upon his elbow, he was not a little startled at 
 perceiving the broad, white sails, and slender spars of a small 
 schooner-rigged vessel lying between him and the mainland. 
 In a moment his ear caught the creaking of pulleys, as the 
 sail went down, and she swung round as if she had just 
 reached her mooring. He was startled at this unexpected 
 appearance, and with excellent reason. He knew that this 
 beach had long been famous as the resort of smugglers, who 
 were in the lubit of gliding into the channel during the 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 397 
 
 night, to land their goods here, when they buried them in 
 the loose sand, and then stole out again before daybreak 
 leaving them to be carried across to the mainland, in small 
 boats, by accomplices, at their leisure. 
 
 He knew well that if this were a smuggling vessel with 
 such an object in view, his presence there would be very 
 dangerous to him. He, therefore, in no inconsiderable tre 
 pidation, crouched close upon the sand, and began to look 
 about him to discover whether the inequalities of the ground 
 were such as to enable him, by crawling, to place a greater 
 distance between him and such unwelcome neighbours. 
 There was clearly no hope for him ; the surface of the beach 
 presented few undulations, and the only chance for a hiding 
 place seemed to be an old drift log, that lay in rather un 
 comfortable proximity to low-water mark. He crawled to 
 this with all possible speed, and having ensconced himself 
 behind, felt considerably more comfortable, although every 
 dash of the waves drenched half his body. The fact that 
 the little vessel bore no light at her bows, had increased hid 
 suspicions of her character from the first. But now little 
 time was left him for further speculation, for a splash at her 
 side announced the launching of a small boat, and in another 
 moment a small lantern appeared over the side, and he could 
 distinguish the sound of adjusting oars, and men taking their 
 places in the boat. In a moment afterward it shot from 
 under the shadow of the vessel, and he could distinguish, 
 though faintly, for the moon was behind him then, there 
 were four persons in the boat. The oarsmen, whose general 
 appearance was that so far as he could distinguish it of 
 man-of-war s men, and two passengers, who wore glazed 
 caps, and what appeared to be a sort of undress Navy uni 
 form. He had thought, as they entered the boat, that he 
 could distinguish the flash and clatter of weapons being de 
 posited in the bottom. He heard no sound of voices, while 
 
 the boat was pulled rapidly to the beach. The two passen- 
 21 
 
398 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 gers were landed within two hundred paces of his hiding 
 place. There was only a moment s delay, when the boat 
 returned in profound silence to the vessel, which received it 
 and then in an instant every thing was dumb and dark as 
 death on board. 
 
 The two men who had landed, stood watching the boat, 
 and then turning, they walked a little higher up on the 
 beach. There were but few words spoken, the sound of 
 which faintly reached the watcher s ear, when they sud 
 denly stopped, and stood facing each other. Directly, he 
 saw a quick flash a sudden movement of both men, and 
 the steely clank of meeting blades shocked upon his shud 
 dering ear. 
 
 So great was his horror and astonishment that he had 
 almost sprung erect. But with a returning sense of caution 
 he again crouched, though not so low as to deprive him of a 
 full clear view of this singular combat for combat it now 
 surely was as the swift blades flashed and gleamed with 
 fearful rapidity ; while the forms of the two men, beneath 
 the now full splendour of the moon, seemed endowed with a 
 supernatural activity as they flitted to and fro, shifting po 
 sition with the various changes of the fight. The men had 
 thrown off their caps. The taller of the two, who wore his 
 hair in lovely curls, seemed the most impetuous while the 
 other, with close locks, stood most on the defensive, and 
 seemed wary and cold, but active as a panther. 
 
 The combatants were singularly well matched, and for 
 several moments the sparks fell in heavy showers from the 
 rapid collision of their short Roman blades. Suddenly 
 the taller and more impetuous staggered and seemed struck. 
 His opponent bounded quickly in upon him, and for a 
 moment they writhed as in one embrace wben at once the 
 taller man, shaking himself as if to get free, sprang back 
 ward, when the other fell forward upon his face and was still. 
 There was now no weapon in the tall man s hand, and he 
 
BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 399 
 
 folded his arms and stood still, looking down upon the body 
 of his foe as he lay. There was the gleam of the sword- 
 blade that came up through his back as he lay upon his 
 face. The survivor did not touch him again, but shak 
 ing his hair he sounded three calls upon a whistle, and then 
 picking up his cap, walked with an unsteady step along the 
 beach straight to the driftwood, behind which our trembling 
 watcher lay. He did not seem to observe him, however, 
 but sat down upon the log with his back toward him. He 
 groaned once, as if in deep pain, as he pressed his hands 
 upon his side. The man saw he was pale as death, had a 
 very high forehead, and said he thought he was remarkably 
 handsome. 
 
 The boat had been instantly lowered, and when it ran 
 upon the beach, he rose with difficulty ; the men came for 
 ward and helped him into the boat. He simply ordered 
 them back to the vessel, and they asked no explanation, al 
 though they could plainly see the other man lying dead 
 upon the beach. After putting him on board, two men 
 came back with them, and they now rowed directly toward 
 where the dead man lay. They landed, and after digging 
 a hole, higher up on the beach, and returning to the body, my 
 informer plainly saw them draw the blade from the breast 
 of the corpse. They then took it up to the hole and buried 
 it, first placing the cap upon its head. 
 
 As they returned by the place where the combat occurred 
 they picked up the, bloody sword, which had no doubt passed 
 through the heart of the dead man, pushed off the boat, and 
 returned to their vessel, which immediately set sail, and 
 when day-light came was out of sight. 
 
 The young man, when he arose and shook his stiffened 
 limbs, found it difficult to realize that all had not been a ter 
 rible and solemn drama. But there were the unmistakable 
 traces of the struggle in the sand ; there was a black stain 
 where the dead man had fallen ; there was the blood upon 
 
400 BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 the log, where the survivor had sat down so close to him 
 and last of all, there was the new-made grave ! You may be 
 sure our young adventurer did not gather many turtle eggs 
 that morning. 
 
 Some eighteen months from this time, while promenading 
 Broadway one fine morning, the author s attention, in com 
 mon with a thousand other pedestrians, was attracted to a 
 stand-still of admiration, at the elegant horsewomanship 
 of what all would judge to be a Southern woman, who, 
 mounted upon an airy-limbed and magnificently spirited 
 black horse, swept along the pave at a bounding gallop, ac 
 companied by a gentleman, who was also splendidly mounted. 
 
 A strange thrill passed through me as I recognised the 
 striking features of this man, whose long dark hair fell about 
 his shoulders. It was undoubtedly my old friend Frank Car 
 ter ; and if one had risen from the grave, it could not have 
 caused me greater astound. And that superbly etherial beauty 
 by his side, with her translucent complexion, and great mi 
 raculous eyes, must be Freta ! 
 
 I found Frank considerably sobered and cured of many 
 ultraisms of opinion in regard to dietetics, &c. But the man 
 seemed walking in such a trance of assured bliss, that he 
 continually appeared as one who knew not that this was 
 the old common Earth he yet tarried upon, so did his soul 
 overflow toward all things in love ! 
 
 Sylva is still the favourite waiting-maid of Freta ; who 
 tells me that her faithful Indian, after having brought 
 Frank and her together, again disappeared strangely, on the 
 morning of their marriage. 
 
 Concerning the fate of Cedric I could hear nothing 
 Thomson, the Englishman, was a mere minion of Clenny s. 
 Concerning the mysterious and omnipresent "Regulus," we 
 may yet learn something more. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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