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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Overland, by John William De Forest
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Overland
+
+Author: John William De Forest
+
+Release Date: May 13, 2004  [eBook #12335]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: iso-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OVERLAND***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Curtis Weyant, Barbara Tozier, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+OVERLAND.
+
+A Novel
+
+By
+
+J. W. DE FOREST,
+
+Author of "Kate Beaumont," "Miss Ravenel's Conversion," &c.
+
+1871
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+In those days, Santa Fé, New Mexico, was an undergrown, decrepit,
+out-at-elbows ancient hidalgo of a town, with not a scintillation of
+prosperity or grandeur about it, except the name of capital.
+
+It was two hundred and seventy years old; and it had less than five
+thousand inhabitants. It was the metropolis of a vast extent of country,
+not destitute of natural wealth; and it consisted of a few narrow,
+irregular streets, lined by one-story houses built of sun-baked bricks.
+Owing to the fine climate, it was difficult to die there; but owing to
+many things not fine, it was almost equally difficult to live.
+
+Even the fact that Santa Fé had been for a period under the fostering
+wings of the American eagle did not make it grow much. Westward-ho
+emigrants halted there to refit and buy cattle and provisions; but always
+started resolutely on again, westward-hoing across the continent. Nobody
+seemed to want to stay in Santa Fé, except the aforesaid less than five
+thousand inhabitants, who were able to endure the place because they had
+never seen any other, and who had become a part of its gray, dirty, lazy
+lifelessness and despondency.
+
+For a wonder, this old atom of a metropolis had lately had an increase of
+population, which was nearly as great a wonder as Sarah having a son when
+she was "well stricken in years." A couple of new-comers--not a man nor
+woman less than a couple--now stood on the flat roof of one of the largest
+of the sun-baked brick houses. By great good luck, moreover, these two
+were, I humbly trust, worthy of attention. The one was interesting because
+she was the handsomest girl in Santa Fé, and would have been considered a
+handsome girl anywhere; the other was interesting because she was a
+remarkable woman, and even, as Mr. Jefferson Brick might have phrased it,
+"one of the most remarkable women in our country, sir." At least so she
+judged, and judged it too with very considerable confidence, being one of
+those persons who say, "If I know myself, and I think I do."
+
+The beauty was of a mixed type. She combined the blonde and the brunette
+fashions of loveliness. You might guess at the first glance that she had
+in her the blood of both the Teutonic and the Latin races. While her skin
+was clear and rosy, and her curling hair was of a light and bright
+chestnut, her long, shadowy eyelashes were almost black, and her eyes were
+of a deep hazel, nearly allied to blackness. Her form had the height of
+the usual American girl, and the round plumpness of the usual Spanish
+girl. Even in her bearing and expression you could discover more or less
+of this union of different races. There was shyness and frankness; there
+was mistrust and confidence; there was sentimentality and gayety. In
+short, Clara Muñoz Garcia Van Diemen was a handsome and interesting young
+lady.
+
+Now for the remarkable woman. Sturdy and prominent old character,
+obviously. Forty-seven years old, or thereabouts; lots of curling
+iron-gray hair twisted about her round forehead; a few wrinkles, and not
+all of the newest. Round face, round and earnest eyes, short,
+self-confident nose, chin sticking out in search of its own way, mouth
+trembling with unuttered ideas. Good figure--what Lord Dundreary would
+call "dem robust," but not so sumptuous as to be merely ornamental;
+tolerably convenient figure to get about in. Walks up and down,
+man-fashion, with her hands behind her back--also man-fashion. Such is
+Mrs. Maria Stanley, the sister of Clara Van Diemen's father, and best
+known to Clara as Aunt Maria.
+
+"And so this is Santa Fé?" said Aunt Maria, rolling her spectacles over
+the little wilted city. "Founded in 1581; two hundred and seventy years
+old. Well, if this is all that man can do in that time, he had better
+leave colonization to woman."
+
+Clara smiled with an innocent air of half wonder and half amusement, such
+as you may see on the face of a child when it is shown some new and rather
+awe-striking marvel of the universe, whether a jack-in-a-box or a comet.
+She had only known Aunt Maria for the last four years, and she had not yet
+got used to her rough-and-ready mannish ways, nor learned to see any sense
+in her philosophizings. Looking upon her as a comical character, and
+supposing that she talked mainly for the fun of the thing, she was
+disposed to laugh at her doings and sayings, though mostly meant in solemn
+earnest.
+
+"But about your affairs, my child," continued Aunt Maria, suddenly
+gripping a fresh subject after her quick and startling fashion. "I don't
+understand them. How is it possible? Here is a great fortune gone; gone in
+a moment; gone incomprehensibly. What does it mean? Some rascality here.
+Some man at the bottom of this."
+
+"I presume my relative, Garcia, must be right," commenced Clara.
+
+"No, he isn't," interrupted Aunt Maria. "He is wrong. Of course he's
+wrong. I never knew a man yet but what he was wrong."
+
+"You make me laugh in spite of my troubles," said Clara, laughing,
+however, only through her eyes, which had great faculties for sparkling
+out meanings. "But see here," she added, turning grave again, and putting
+up her hand to ask attention. "Mr. Garcia tells a straight story, and
+gives reasons enough. There was the war," and here she began to count on
+her fingers, "That destroyed a great deal. I know when my father could
+scarcely send on money to pay my bills in New York. And then there was the
+signature for Señor Pedraez. And then there were the Apaches who burnt the
+hacienda and drove off the cattle. And then he--"
+
+Her voice faltered and she stopped; she could not say, "He died."
+
+"My poor, dear child!" sighed Aunt Maria, walking up to the girl and
+caressing her with a tenderness which was all womanly.
+
+"That seems enough," continued Clara, when she could speak again. "I
+suppose that what Garcia and the lawyers tell us is true. I suppose I am
+not worth a thousand dollars."
+
+"Will a thousand dollars support you here?"
+
+"I don't know. I don't think it will."
+
+"Then if I can't set this thing straight, if I can't make somebody
+disgorge your property, I must take you back with me."
+
+"Oh! if you would!" implored Clara, all the tender helplessness of Spanish
+girlhood appealing from her eyes.
+
+"Of course I will," said Aunt Maria, with a benevolent energy which was
+almost terrific.
+
+"I would try to do something. I don't know. Couldn't I teach Spanish?"
+
+"You _shan't_" decided Aunt Maria. "Yes, you _shall_. You shall be
+professor of foreign languages in a Female College which I mean to have
+founded."
+
+Clara stared with astonishment, and then burst into a hearty fit of
+laughter, the two finishing the drying of her tears. She was so far from
+wishing to be a strong-minded person of either gender, that she did not
+comprehend that her aunt could wish it for her, or could herself seriously
+claim to be one. The talk about a professorship was in her estimation the
+wayward, humorous whim of an eccentric who was fond of solemn joking. Mrs.
+Stanley, meanwhile, could not see why her utterance should not be taken in
+earnest, and opened her eyes at Clara's merriment.
+
+We must say a word or two concerning the past of this young lady.
+Twenty-five years previous a New Yorker named Augustus Van Diemen, the
+brother of that Maria Jane Van Diemen now known to the world as Mrs.
+Stanley, had migrated to California, set up in the hide business, and
+married by stealth the daughter of a wealthy Mexican named Pedro Muñoz.
+Muñoz got into a Spanish Catholic rage at having a Yankee Protestant
+son-in-law, disowned and formally disinherited his child, and worried her
+husband into quitting the country. Van Diemen returned to the United
+States, but his wife soon became homesick for her native land, and, like a
+good husband as he was, he went once more to Mexico. This time he settled
+in Santa Fé, where he accumulated a handsome fortune, lived in the best
+house in the city, and owned haciendas.
+
+Clara's mother dying when the girl was fourteen years old, Van Diemen felt
+free to give her, his only child, an American education, and sent her to
+New York, where she went through four years of schooling. During this
+period came the war between the United States and Mexico. Foreign
+residents were ill-treated; Van Diemen was sometimes a prisoner, sometimes
+a fugitive; in one way or another his fortune went to pieces. Four months
+previous to the opening of this story he died in a state little better
+than insolvency. Clara, returning to Santa Fé under the care of her
+energetic and affectionate relative, found that the deluge of debt would
+cover town house and haciendas, leaving her barely a thousand dollars. She
+was handsome and accomplished, but she was an orphan and poor. The main
+chance with her seemed to lie in the likelihood that she would find a
+mother (or a father) in Aunt Maria.
+
+Yes, there was another sustaining possibility, and of a more poetic
+nature. There was a young American officer named Thurstane, a second
+lieutenant acting as quartermaster of the department, who had met her
+heretofore in New York, who had seemed delighted to welcome her to Santa
+Fé, and who now called on her nearly every day. Might it not be that
+Lieutenant Thurstane would want to make her Mrs. Thurstane, and would have
+power granted him to induce her to consent to the arrangement? Clara was
+sufficiently a woman, and sufficiently a Spanish woman especially, to
+believe in marriage. She did not mean particularly to be Mrs. Thurstane,
+but she did mean generally to be Mrs. Somebody. And why not Thurstane?
+Well, that was for him to decide, at least to a considerable extent. In
+the mean time she did not love him; she only disliked the thought of
+leaving him.
+
+While these two women had been talking and thinking, a lazy Indian servant
+had been lounging up the stairway. Arrived on the roof, he advanced to La
+Señorita Clara, and handed her a letter. The girl opened it, glanced
+through it with a flushing face, and cried out delightedly, "It is from my
+grandfather. How wonderful! O holy Maria, thanks! His heart has been
+softened. He invites me to come and live with him in San Francisco. _O
+Madre de Dios!_"
+
+Although Clara spoke English perfectly, and although she was in faith
+quite as much of a Protestant as a Catholic, yet in her moments of strong
+excitement she sometimes fell back into the language and ideas of her
+childhood.
+
+"Child, what are you jabbering about?" asked Aunt Maria.
+
+"There it is. See! Pedro Muñoz! It is his own signature. I have seen
+letters of his. Pedro Muñoz! Read it. Oh! you don't read Spanish."
+
+Then she translated the letter aloud. Aunt Maria listened with a firm and
+almost stern aspect, like one who sees some justice done, but not enough.
+
+"He doesn't beg your pardon," she said at the close of the reading.
+
+Clara, supposing that she was expected to laugh, and not seeing the point
+of the joke, stared in amazement.
+
+"But probably he is in a meeker mood now," continued Aunt Maria. "By this
+time it is to be hoped that he sees his past conduct in a proper light.
+The letter was written three months ago."
+
+"Three months ago," repeated Clara. "Yes, it has taken all that time to
+come. How long will it take me to go there? How shall I go?"
+
+"We will see," said Aunt Maria, with the air of one who holds the fates in
+her hand, and doesn't mean to open it till she gets ready. She was by no
+means satisfied as yet that this grandfather Muñoz was a proper person to
+be intrusted with the destinies of a young lady. In refusing to let his
+daughter select her own husband, he had shown a very squinting and
+incomplete perception of the rights of woman.
+
+"Old reprobate!" thought Aunt Maria. "Probably he has got gouty with his
+vices, and wants to be nursed. I fancy I see him getting Clara without
+going on his sore marrow-bones and begging pardon of gods and women."
+
+"Of course I must go," continued Clara, unsuspicious of her aunt's
+reflections. "At all events he will support me. Besides, he is now the
+head of my family."
+
+"Head of the family!" frowned Aunt Maria. "Because he is a man? So much
+the more reason for his being the tail of it. My dear, you are your own
+head."
+
+"Ah--well. What is the use of all _that_?" asked Clara, smiling away those
+views. "I have no money, and he has."
+
+"Well, we will see," persisted Aunt Maria. "I just told you so. We will
+see."
+
+The two women had scarcely left the roof of the house and got themselves
+down to the large, breezy, sparsely furnished parlor, ere the lazy,
+dawdling Indian servant announced Lieutenant Thurstane.
+
+Lieutenant Ralph Thurstane was a tall, full-chested, finely-limbed
+gladiator of perhaps four and twenty. Broad forehead; nose straight and
+high enough; lower part of the face oval; on the whole a good physiognomy.
+Cheek bones rather strongly marked; a hint of Scandinavian ancestry
+supported by his name. Thurstane is evidently Thor's stone or altar;
+forefathers priests of the god of thunder. His complexion was so reddened
+and darkened by sunburn that his untanned forehead looked unnaturally
+white and delicate. His yellow, one might almost call it golden hair, was
+wavy enough to be handsome. Eyes quite remarkable; blue, but of a very
+dark blue, like the coloring which is sometimes given to steel; so dark
+indeed that one's first impression was that they were black. Their natural
+expression seemed to be gentle, pathetic, and almost imploring; but
+authority, responsibility, hardship, and danger had given them an ability
+to be stern. In his whole face, young as he was, there was already the
+look of the veteran, that calm reminiscence of trials endured, that
+preparedness for trials to come. In fine, taking figure, physiognomy, and
+demeanor together, he was attractive.
+
+He saluted the ladies as if they were his superior officers. It was a
+kindly address, but ceremonious; it was almost humble, and yet it was
+self-respectful.
+
+"I have some great news," he presently said, in the full masculine tone of
+one who has done much drilling. "That is, it is great to me. I change
+station."
+
+"How is that?" asked Clara eagerly. She was not troubled at the thought of
+losing a beau; we must not be so hard upon her as to make that
+supposition; but here was a trustworthy friend going away just when she
+wanted counsel and perhaps aid.
+
+"I have been promoted first lieutenant of Company I, Fifth Regiment, and I
+must join my company."
+
+"Promoted! I am glad," said Clara.
+
+"You ought to be pleased," put in Aunt Maria, staring at the grave face of
+the young man with no approving expression. "I thought men were always
+pleased with such things."
+
+"So I am," returned Thurstane. "Of course I am pleased with the step. But
+I must leave Santa Fé. And I have found Santa Fé very pleasant."
+
+There was so much meaning obvious in these last words that Clara's face
+colored like a sunset.
+
+"I thought soldiers never indulged in such feelings," continued the
+unmollified Aunt Maria.
+
+"Soldiers are but men," observed Thurstane, flushing through his sunburn.
+
+"And men are weak creatures."
+
+Thurstane grew still redder. This old lady (old in his young eyes) was
+always at him about his manship, as if it were a crime and disgrace. He
+wanted to give her one, but out of respect for Clara he did not, and
+merely moved uneasily in his seat, as men are apt to do when they are set
+down hard.
+
+"How soon must you go? Where?" demanded Clara.
+
+"As soon as I can close my accounts here and turn over my stores to my
+successor. Company I is at Fort Yuma on the Colorado. It is the first post
+in California."
+
+"California!" And Clara could not help brightening up in cheeks and eyes
+with fine tints and flashes. "Why, I am going to California."
+
+"We will see," said Aunt Maria, still holding the fates in her fist.
+
+Then came the story of Grandfather Muñoz's letter, with a hint or two
+concerning the decay of the Van Diemen fortune, for Clara was not worldly
+wise enough to hide her poverty.
+
+Thurstane's face turned as red with pleasure as if it had been dipped in
+the sun. If this young lady was going to California, he might perhaps be
+her knight-errant across the desert, guard her from privations and
+hardships, and crown himself with her smiles. If she was poor, he
+might--well, he would not speculate upon that; it was too dizzying.
+
+We must say a word as to his history in order to show why he was so shy
+and sensitive. He had been through West Point, confined himself while
+there closely to his studies, gone very soon into active service, and so
+seen little society. The discipline of the Academy and three years in the
+regular army had ground into him the soldier's respect for superiors. He
+revered his field officers; he received a communication from the War
+Department as a sort of superhuman revelation; he would have blown himself
+sky-high at the command of General Scott. This habit of subordination,
+coupled with a natural fund of reverence, led him to feel that many
+persons were better than himself, and to be humble in their presence. All
+women were his superior officers, and the highest in rank was Clara Van
+Diemen.
+
+Well, hurrah! he was to march under her to California! and the thought
+made him half wild. He would protect her; he would kill all the Indians in
+the desert for her sake; he would feed her on his own blood, if necessary.
+
+As he considered these proper and feasible projects, the audacious thought
+which he had just tried to expel from his mind forced its way back into
+it. If the Van Diemen estate were insolvent, if this semi-divine Clara
+were as poor as himself, there was a call on him to double his devotion to
+her, and there was a hope that his worship might some day be rewarded.
+
+How he would slave and serve for her; how he would earn promotion for her
+sake; how he would fight her battle in life! But would she let him do it?
+Ah, it seemed too much to hope. Poor though she was, she was still a
+heaven or so above him; she was so beautiful and had so many perfections!
+
+Oh, the purity, the self-abnegation, the humility of love! It makes a man
+scarcely lower than the angels, and quite superior to not a few reverenced
+saints.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+"I must say," observed Thurstane--"I beg your pardon for advising--but I
+think you had better accept your grandfather's invitation."
+
+He said it with a pang at his heart, for if this adorable girl went to her
+grandfather, the old fellow would be sure to love her and leave her his
+property, in which case there would be no chance for a proud and poor
+lieutenant. He gave his advice under a grim sense that it was his duty to
+give it, because the following of it would be best for Miss Van Diemen.
+
+"So I think," nodded Clara, fortified by this opinion to resist Aunt
+Maria, and the more fortified because it was the opinion of a man.
+
+After a certain amount of discussion the elder lady was persuaded to
+loosen her mighty grip and give the destinies a little liberty.
+
+"Well, it _may_ be best," she said, pursing her mouth as if she tasted the
+bitter of some half-suspected and disagreeable future. "I don't know. I
+won't undertake positively to decide. But, if you do go," and here she
+became authentic and despotic--"if you do go, I shall go with you and see
+you safe there."
+
+"Oh! _will_ you?" exclaimed Clara, all Spanish and all emotion in an
+instant. "How sweet and good and beautiful of you! You are my guardian
+angel. Do you know? I thought you would offer to go. I said to myself, She
+came on to Santa Fé for my sake, and she will go to California. But oh, it
+is too much for me to ask. How shall I ever pay you?"
+
+"I will pay myself," returned Aunt Maria. "I have plans for California."
+
+It was as if she had said, "Go to, we will make California in our own
+image."
+
+The young lady was satisfied. Her strong-minded relative was a mighty
+mystery to her, just as men were mighty mysteries. Whatever she or they
+said could be done and should be done, why of course it would be done, and
+that shortly.
+
+By the time that Aunt Maria had announced her decision, another visitor
+was on the point of entrance. Carlos Maria Muñoz Garcia de Coronado was a
+nephew of Manuel Garcia, who was a cousin of Clara's grandfather; only, as
+Garcia was merely his uncle by marriage, Coronado and Clara were not
+related by blood, though calling each other cousin. He was a man of medium
+stature, slender in build, agile and graceful in movement, complexion very
+dark, features high and aristocratic, short black hair and small black
+moustache, eyes black also, but veiled and dusky. He was about
+twenty-eight, but he seemed at least four years older, partly because of a
+deep wrinkle which slashed down each cheek, and partly because he was so
+perfectly self-possessed and elaborately courteous. His intellect was
+apparently as alert and adroit as his physical action. A few words from
+Clara enabled him to seize the situation.
+
+"Go at once," he decided without a moment's hesitation. "My dear cousin,
+it will be the happy turning point of your fortunes. I fancy you already
+inheriting the hoards, city lots, haciendas, mines, and cattle of our
+excellent relative Muñoz--long may he live to enjoy them! Certainly. Don't
+whisper an objection. Muñoz owes you that reparation. His conduct has
+been--we will not describe it--we will hope that he means to make amends
+for it. Unquestionably he will. My dear cousin, nothing can resist you.
+You will enchant your grandfather. It will all end, like the tales of the
+Arabian Nights, in your living in a palace. How delightful to think of
+this long family quarrel at last coming to a close! But how do you go?"
+
+"If Miss Van Diemen goes overland, I can do something toward protecting
+her and making her comfortable," suggested Thurstane. "I am ordered to
+Fort Yuma."
+
+Coronado glanced at the young officer, noted the guilty blush which peeped
+out of his tanned cheek, and came to a decision on the instant.
+
+"Overland!" he exclaimed, lifting both his hands. "Take her overland! My
+God! my God!"
+
+Thurstane reddened at the insinuation that he had given bad advice to Miss
+Van Diemen; but though he wanted to fight the Mexican, he controlled
+himself, and did not even argue. Like all sensitive and at the same time
+self-respectful persons, he was exceedingly considerate of the feelings of
+others, and was a very lamb in conversation.
+
+"It is a desert," continued Coronado in a kind of scream of horror. "It is
+a waterless desert, without a blade of grass, and haunted from end to end
+by Apaches. My little cousin would die of thirst and hunger. She would be
+hunted and scalped. O my God! overland!"
+
+"Emigrant parties are going all the while," ventured Thurstane, very angry
+at such extravagant opposition, but merely looking a little stiff.
+
+"Certainly. You are right, Lieutenant," bowed Coronado. "They do go. But
+how many perish on the way? They march between the unburied and withered
+corpses of their predecessors. And what a journey for a woman--for a lady
+accustomed to luxury--for my little cousin! I beg your pardon, my dear
+Lieutenant Thurstane, for disagreeing with you. My advice is--the
+isthmus."
+
+"I have, of course, nothing, to say," admitted the officer, returning
+Coronado's bow. "The family must decide."
+
+"Certainly, the isthmus, the steamers," went on the fluent Mexican. "You
+sail to Panama. You have an easy and safe land trip of a few days. Then
+steamers again. Poff! you are there. By all means, the isthmus."
+
+We must allot a few more words of description to this Don Carlos Coronado.
+Let no one expect a stage Spaniard, with the air of a matador or a
+guerrillero, who wears only picturesque and outlandish costumes, and
+speaks only magniloquent Castilian. Coronado was dressed, on this spring
+morning, precisely as American dandies then dressed for summer promenades
+on Broadway. His hat was a fine panama with a broad black ribbon; his
+frock-coat was of thin cloth, plain, dark, and altogether civilized; his
+light trousers were cut gaiter-fashion, and strapped under the instep; his
+small boots were patent-leather, and of the ordinary type. There was
+nothing poetic about his attire except a reasonably wide Byron collar and
+a rather dashing crimson neck-tie, well suited to his dark complexion.
+
+His manner was sometimes excitable, as we have seen above; but usually he
+was like what gentlemen with us desire to be. Perhaps he bowed lower and
+smiled oftener and gestured more gracefully than Americans are apt to do.
+But there was in general nothing Oriental about him, no assumption of
+barbaric pompousness, no extravagance of bearing. His prevailing
+deportment was calm, grave, and deliciously courteous. If you had met him,
+no matter how or where, you would probably have been pleased with him. He
+would have made conversation for you, and put you at ease in a moment; you
+would have believed that he liked you, and you would therefore have been
+disposed to like him. In short, he was agreeable to most people, and to
+some people fascinating.
+
+And then his English! It was wonderful to hear him talk it. No American
+could say that he spoke better English than Coronado, and no American
+surely ever spoke it so fluently. It rolled off his lips in a torrent,
+undefiled by a mispronunciation or a foreign idiom. And yet he had begun
+to learn the language after reaching the age of manhood, and had acquired
+it mainly during three years of exile and teaching of Spanish in the
+United States. His linguistic cleverness was a fair specimen of his
+general quickness of intellect.
+
+Mrs. Stanley had liked him at first sight--that is, liked him for a man.
+He knew it; he had seen that she was a person worth conciliating; he had
+addressed himself to her, let off his bows at her, made her the centre of
+conversation. In ten minutes from the entrance of Coronado Mrs. Stanley
+was of opinion that Clara ought to go to California by way of the isthmus,
+although she had previously taken the overland route for granted. In
+another ten minutes the matter was settled: the ladies were to go by way
+of New Orleans, Panama, and the Pacific.
+
+Shortly afterward, Coronado and Thurstane took their leave; the Mexican
+affable, sociable, smiling, smoking; the American civil, but taciturn and
+grave.
+
+"Aha! I have disappointed the young gentleman," thought Coronado as they
+parted, the one going to his quartermaster's office and the other to
+Garcia's house.
+
+Coronado, although he had spent great part of his life in courting women,
+was a bachelor. He had been engaged once in New Mexico and two or three
+times in New York, but had always, as he could tell you with a smile, been
+disappointed. He now lived with his uncle, that Señor Manuel Garcia whom
+Clara has mentioned, a trader with California, an owner of vast estates
+and much cattle, and reputed to be one of the richest men in New Mexico.
+The two often quarrelled, and the elder had once turned the younger out of
+doors, so lively were their dispositions. But as Garcia had lost one by
+one all his children, he had at last taken his nephew into permanent
+favor, and would, it was said, leave him his property.
+
+The house, a hollow square built of _adobe_ bricks in one story, covered a
+vast deal of ground, had spacious rooms and a court big enough to bivouac
+a regiment. It was, in fact, not only a dwelling, but a magazine where
+Garcia stored his merchandise, and a caravansary where he parked his
+wagons. As Coronado lounged into the main doorway he was run against by a
+short, pursy old gentleman who was rushing out.
+
+"Ah! there you are!" exclaimed the old gentleman, in Spanish. "O you pig!
+you dog! you never are here. O Madre de Dios! how I have needed you! There
+is no time to lose. Enter at once."
+
+A dyspeptic, worn with work and anxieties, his nervous system shattered,
+Garcia was subject to fits of petulance which were ludicrous. In these
+rages he called everybody who would bear it pigs, dogs, and other more
+unsavory nicknames. Coronado bore it because thus he got his living, and
+got it without much labor.
+
+"I want you," gasped Garcia, seizing the young man by the arm and dragging
+him into a private room. "I want to speak to you in confidence--in
+confidence, mind you, in confidence--about Muñoz."
+
+"I have heard of it," said Coronado, as the old man stopped to catch his
+breath.
+
+"Heard of it!" exclaimed Garcia, in such consternation that he turned
+yellow, which was his way of turning pale. "Has the news got here? O Madre
+de Dios!"
+
+"Yes, I was at our little cousin's this evening. It is an ugly affair."
+
+"And _she_ knows it?" groaned the old man. "O Madre de Dios!"
+
+"She told me of it. She is going there. I did the best I could. She was
+about to go overland, in charge of the American, Thurstane. I broke that
+up. I persuaded her to go by the isthmus."
+
+"It is of little use," said Garcia, his eyes filmy with despair, as if he
+were dying. "She will get there. The property will be hers."
+
+"Not necessarily. He has simply invited her to live with him. She may not
+suit."
+
+"How?" demanded Garcia, open-eyed and open-mouthed with anxiety.
+
+"He has simply invited her to live with him," repeated Coronado. "I saw
+the letter."
+
+"What! you don't know, then?"
+
+"Know what?"
+
+"Muñoz is dead."
+
+Coronado threw out, first a stare of surprise, and then a shout of
+laughter.
+
+"And here they have just got a letter from him," he said presently; "and I
+have been persuading her to go to him by the isthmus!"
+
+"May the journey take her to him!" muttered Garcia. "How old was this
+letter?"
+
+"Nearly three months. It came by sea, first to New York, and then here."
+
+"My news is a month later. It came overland by special messenger. Listen
+to me, Carlos. This affair is worse than you know. Do you know what Muñoz
+has done? Oh, the pig! the dog! the villainous pig! He has left everything
+to his granddaughter."
+
+Coronado, dumb with astonishment and dismay, mechanically slapped his boot
+with his cane and stared at Garcia.
+
+"I am ruined," cried the old man. "The pig of hell has ruined me. He has
+left me, his cousin, his only male relative, to ruin. Not a doubloon to
+save me.'
+
+"Is there _no_ chance?" asked Coronado, after a long silence.
+
+"None! Oh--yes--one. A little one, a miserable little one. If she dies
+without issue and without a will, I am heir. And you, Carlos" (changing
+here to a wheedling tone), "you are mine."
+
+The look which accompanied these last words was a terrible mingling of
+cunning, cruelty, hope, and despair.
+
+Coronado glanced at Garcia with a shocking comprehension, and immediately
+dropped his dusky eyes upon the floor.
+
+"You know I have made my will," resumed the old man, "and left you
+everything."
+
+"Which is nothing," returned Coronado, aware that his uncle was insolvent
+in reality, and that his estate when settled would not show the residuum
+of a dollar.
+
+"If the fortune of Muñoz comes to me, I shall be very rich."
+
+"When you get it."
+
+"Listen to me, Carlos. Is there no way of getting it?"
+
+As the two men stared at each other they were horrible. The uncle was
+always horrible; he was one of the very ugliest of Spaniards; he was a
+brutal caricature of the national type. He had a low forehead, round face,
+bulbous nose, shaking fat cheeks, insignificant chin, and only one eye, a
+black and sleepy orb, which seemed to crawl like a snake. His exceedingly
+dark skin was made darker by a singular bluish tinge which resulted from
+heavy doses of nitrate of silver, taken as a remedy for epilepsy. His face
+was, moreover, mottled with dusky spots, so that he reminded the spectator
+of a frog or a toad. Just now he looked nothing less than poisonous; the
+hungriest of cannibals would not have dared eat him.
+
+"I am ruined," he went on groaning. "The war, the Yankees, the Apaches,
+the devil--I am completely ruined. In another year I shall be sold out.
+Then, my dear Carlos, you will have no home."
+
+"_Sangre de Dios!_" growled Coronado. "Do you want to drive me to the
+devil?
+
+"O God! to force an old man to such an extremity!" continued Garcia. "It
+is more than an old man is fitted to strive with. An old man--an old,
+sick, worn-out man!"
+
+"You are sure about the will?" demanded the nephew.
+
+"I have a copy of it," said Garcia, eagerly. "Here it is. Read it. O Madre
+de Dios! there is no doubt about it. I can trust my lawyer. It all goes to
+her. It only comes to me if she dies childless and intestate."
+
+"This is a horrible dilemma to force us into," observed Coronado, after he
+had read the paper.
+
+"So it is," assented Garcia, looking at him with indescribable anxiety.
+"So it is; so it is. What is to be done?"
+
+"Suppose I should marry her?"
+
+The old man's countenance fell; he wanted to call his nephew a pig, a dog,
+and everything else that is villainous; but he restrained himself and
+merely whimpered, "It would be better than nothing. You could help me."
+
+"There is little chance of it," said Coronado, seeing that the proposition
+was not approved. "She likes the American lieutenant much, and does not
+like me at all."
+
+"Then--" began Garcia, and stopped there, trembling all over.
+
+"Then what?"
+
+The venomous old toad made a supreme effort and whispered, "Suppose she
+should die?"
+
+Coronado wheeled about, walked two or three times up and down the room,
+returned to where Garcia sat quivering, and murmured, "It must be done
+quickly."
+
+"Yes, yes," gasped the old man. "She must--it must be childless and
+intestate."
+
+"She must go off in some natural way," continued the nephew.
+
+The uncle looked up with a vague hope in his one dusky and filmy eye.
+
+"Perhaps the isthmus will do it for her."
+
+Again the old man turned to an image of despair, as he mumbled, "O Madre
+de Dios! no, no. The isthmus is nothing."
+
+"Is the overland route more dangerous?" asked Coronado.
+
+"It might be made more dangerous. One gets lost in the desert. There are
+Apaches."
+
+"It is a horrible business," growled Coronado, shaking his head and biting
+his lips.
+
+"Oh, horrible, horrible!" groaned Garcia. "Muñoz was a pig, and a dog, and
+a toad, and a snake."
+
+"You old coward! can't you speak out?" hissed Coronado, losing his
+patience. "Do you want me both to devise and execute, while you take the
+purses? Tell me at once what your plan is."
+
+"The overland route," whispered Garcia, shaking from head to foot. "You go
+with her. I pay--I pay everything. You shall have men, horses, mules,
+wagons, all you want."
+
+"I shall want money, too. I shall need, perhaps, two thousand dollars.
+Apaches."
+
+"Yes, yes," assented Garcia. "The Apaches make an attack. You shall have
+money. I can raise it; I will."
+
+"How soon will you have a train ready?"
+
+"Immediately. Any day you want. You must start at once. She must not know
+of the will. She might remain here, and let the estate be settled for her,
+and draw on it. She might go back to New York. Anybody would lend her
+money."
+
+"Yes, events hurry us," muttered Coronado. "Well, get your cursed train
+ready. I will induce her to take it. I must unsay now all that I said in
+favor of the isthmus."
+
+"Do be judicious," implored Garcia. "With judgment, with judgment. Lost on
+the plains. Stolen by Apaches. No killing. No scandals. O my God, how I
+hate scandals and uproars! I am an old man, Carlos. With judgment, with
+judgment."
+
+"I comprehend," responded Coronado, adding a long string of Spanish
+curses, most of them meant for his uncle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+That very day Coronado made a second call on Clara and her Aunt Maria, to
+retract, contradict, and disprove all that he had said in favor of the
+isthmus and against the overland route.
+
+Although his visit was timed early in the evening, he found Lieutenant
+Thurstane already with the ladies. Instead of scowling at him, or
+crouching in conscious guilt before him, he made a cordial rush for his
+hand, smiled sweetly in his face, and offered him incense of gratitude.
+
+"My dear Lieutenant, you are perfectly right," he said, in his fluent
+English. "The journey by the isthmus is not to be thought of. I have just
+seen a friend who has made it. Poisonous serpents in myriads. The most
+deadly climate in the world. Nearly everybody had the _vomito_; one-fifth
+died of it. You eat a little fruit; down you go on your back--dead in four
+hours. Then there are constant fights between the emigrants and the
+sullen, ferocious Indians of the isthmus. My poor friend never slept with
+his revolver out of his hand. I said to him, 'My dear fellow, it is cruel
+to rejoice in your misfortunes, but I am heartily glad that I have heard
+of them. You have saved the life of the most remarkable woman that I ever
+knew, and of a cousin of mine who is the star of her sex.'"
+
+Here Coronado made one bow to Mrs. Stanley and another to Clara, at the
+same time kissing his sallow hand enthusiastically to all creation. Aunt
+Maria tried to look stern at the compliment, but eventually thawed into a
+smile over it. Clara acknowledged it with a little wave of the hand, as
+if, coming from Coronado, it meant nothing more than good-morning, which
+indeed was just about his measure of it.
+
+"Moreover," continued the Mexican, "overland route? Why, it is overland
+route both ways. If you go by the isthmus, you must traverse all Texas and
+Louisiana, at the very least. You might as well go at once to San Diego.
+In short, the route by the isthmus is not to be thought of."
+
+"And what of the overland route?" asked Mrs. Stanley.
+
+"The overland route is the _other_," laughed Coronado.
+
+"Yes, I know. We must take it, I suppose. But what is the last news about
+it? You spoke this morning of Indians, I believe. Not that I suppose they
+are very formidable."
+
+"The overland route does not lead directly through paradise, my dear Mrs.
+Stanley," admitted Coronado with insinuating candor. "But it is not as bad
+as has been represented. I have never tried it. I must rely upon the
+report of others. Well, on learning that the isthmus would not do for you,
+I rushed off immediately to inquire about the overland. I questioned
+Garcia's teamsters. I catechized some newly-arrived travellers. I pumped
+dry every source of information. The result is that the overland route
+will do. No suffering; absolutely none; not a bit. And no danger worth
+mentioning. The Apaches are under a cloud. Our American conquerors and
+fellow-citizens" (here he gently patted Thurstane on the shoulder-strap),
+"our Romans of the nineteenth century, they tranquillize the Apaches. A
+child might walk from here to Fort Yuma without risking its little scalp."
+
+All this was said in the most light-hearted and airy manner conceivable.
+Coronado waved and floated on zephyrs of fancy and fluency. A butterfly or
+a humming-bird could not have talked more cheerily about flying over a
+parterre of flowers than he about traversing the North American desert.
+And, with all this frivolous, imponderable grace, what an accent of verity
+he had! He spoke of the teamsters as if he had actually conversed with
+them, and of the overland route as if he had been studiously gathering
+information concerning it.
+
+"I believe that what you say about the Apaches is true," observed
+Thurstane, a bit awkwardly.
+
+Coronado smiled, tossed him a little bow, and murmured in the most
+cordial, genial way, "And the rest?"
+
+"I beg pardon," said the Lieutenant, reddening. "I didn't mean to cast
+doubt upon any of your statements, sir."
+
+Thurstane had the army tone; he meant to be punctiliously polite; perhaps
+he was a little stiff in his politeness. But he was young, had had small
+practice in society, was somewhat hampered by modesty, and so sometimes
+made a blunder. Such things annoyed him excessively; a breach of etiquette
+seemed something like a breach of orders; hadn't meant to charge Coronado
+with drawing the long bow; couldn't help coloring about it. Didn't think
+much of Coronado, but stood somewhat in awe of him, as being four years
+older in time and a dozen years older in the ways of the world.
+
+"I only meant to say," he continued, "that I have information concerning
+the Apaches which coincides with yours, sir. They are quiet, at least for
+the present. Indeed, I understand that Red Sleeve, or Manga Colorada, as
+you call him, is coming in with his band to make a treaty."
+
+"Admirable!" cried Coronado. "Why not hire him to guarantee our safety?
+Set a thief to catch a thief. Why does not your Government do that sort of
+thing? Let the Apaches protect the emigrants, and the United States pay
+the Apaches. They would be the cheapest military force possible. That is
+the way the Turks manage the desert Arabs."
+
+"Mr. Coronado, you ought to be Governor of New Mexico," said Aunt Maria,
+stricken with admiration at this project.
+
+Thurstane looked at the two as if he considered them a couple of fools,
+each bigger than the other. Coronado advanced to Mrs. Stanley, took her
+hand, bowed over it, and murmured, "Let me have your influence at
+Washington, my dear Madame." The remarkable woman squirmed a little,
+fearing lest he should kiss her ringers, but nevertheless gave him a
+gracious smile.
+
+"It strikes me, however," she said, "that the isthmus route is better. We
+know by experience that the journey from here to Bent's Fort is safe and
+easy. From there down the Arkansas and Missouri to St. Louis it is mostly
+water carriage; and from St. Louis you can sail anywhere."
+
+Coronado was alarmed. He must put a stopper on this project. He called up
+all his resources.
+
+"My dear Mrs. Stanley, allow me. Remember that emigrants move westward,
+and not eastward. Coming from Bent's Fort you had protection and company;
+but going towards it would be different. And then think what you would
+lose. The great American desert, as it is absurdly styled, is one of the
+most interesting regions on earth. Mrs. Stanley, did you ever hear of the
+Casas Grandes, the Casas de Montezuma, the ruined cities of New Mexico? In
+this so-called desert there was once an immense population. There was a
+civilization which rose, flourished, decayed, and disappeared without a
+historian. Nothing remains of it but the walls of its fortresses and
+palaces. Those you will see. They are wonderful. They are worth ten times
+the labor and danger which we shall encounter. Buildings eight hundred
+feet long by two hundred and fifty feet deep, Mrs. Stanley. The
+resting-places and wayside strongholds of the Aztecs on their route from
+the frozen North to found the Empire of the Montezumas! This whole region
+is strewn, and cumbered, and glorified with ruins. If we should go by the
+way of the San Juan--"
+
+"The San Juan!" protested Thurstane. "Nobody goes by the way of the San
+Juan."
+
+Coronado stopped, bowed, smiled, waited to see if Thurstane had finished,
+and then proceeded.
+
+"Along the San Juan every hilltop is crowned with these monuments of
+antiquity. It is like the castled Rhine. Ruins looking in the faces of
+ruins. It is a tragedy in stone. It is like Niobe and her daughters.
+Moreover, if we take this route we shall pass the Moquis. The independent
+Moquis are a fragment of the ancient ruling race of New Mexico. They live
+in stone-built cities on lofty eminences. They weave blankets of exquisite
+patterns and colors, and produce a species of pottery which almost
+deserves the name of porcelain."
+
+"Really, you ought to write all this," exclaimed Aunt Maria, her
+imagination fired to a white heat.
+
+"I ought," said Coronado, impressively. "I owe it to these people to
+celebrate them in history. I owe them that much because of the name I
+bear. Did you ever hear of Coronado, the conqueror of New Mexico, the
+stormer of the seven cities of Cibola? It was he who gave the final shock
+to this antique civilization. He was the Cortes of this portion of the
+continent. I bear his name, and his blood runs in my veins."
+
+He held down his head as if he were painfully oppressed by the sense of
+his crimes and responsibilities as a descendant of the waster of
+aboriginal New Mexico. Mrs. Stanley, delighted with his emotion, slily
+grasped and pressed his hand.
+
+"Oh, man! man!" she groaned. "What evils has that creature man wrought in
+this beautiful world! Ah, Mr. Coronado, it would have been a very
+different planet had woman had her rightful share in the management of its
+affairs."
+
+"Undoubtedly," sighed Coronado. He had already obtained an insight into
+this remarkable person's views on the woman question, the superiority of
+her own sex, the stolidity and infamy of the other. It was worth his while
+to humor her on this point, for the sake of gaining an influence over her,
+and so over Clara. Cheered by the success of his history, he now launched
+into pure poetry.
+
+"Woman has done something," he said. "There is every reason to believe
+that the cities of the San Juan were ruled by queens, and that some of
+them were inhabited by a race of Amazons."
+
+"Is it possible?" exclaimed Aunt Maria, flushing and rustling with
+interest.
+
+"It is the opinion of the best antiquarians. It is my opinion. Nothing
+else can account for the exquisite earthenware which is found there.
+Women, you are aware, far surpass men in the arts of beauty. Moreover, the
+inscriptions on hieroglyphic rocks in these abandoned cities evidently
+refer to Amazons. There you see them doing the work of men--carrying on
+war, ruling conquered regions, founding cities. It is a picture of a
+golden age, Mrs. Stanley."
+
+Aunt Maria meant to go by way of the San Juan, if she had to scalp
+Apaches herself in doing it.
+
+"Lieutenant Thurstane, what do you say?" she asked, turning her sparkling
+eyes upon the officer.
+
+"I must confess that I never heard of all these things," replied
+Thurstane, with an air which added, "And I don't believe in most of them."
+
+"As for the San Juan route," he continued, "it is two hundred miles at
+least out of our way. The country is a desert and almost unexplored. I
+don't fancy the plan--I beg your pardon, Mr. Coronado--but I don't fancy
+it at all."
+
+Aunt Maria despised him and almost hated him for his stupid, practical,
+unpoetic common sense.
+
+"I must say that I quite fancy the San Juan route," she responded, with
+proper firmness.
+
+"I venture to agree with you," said Coronado, as meekly as if her fancy
+were not of his own making. "Only a hundred miles off the straight line
+(begging your pardon, my dear Lieutenant), and through a country which is
+naturally fertile--witness the immense population which it once supported.
+As for its being unexplored, I have explored it myself; and I shall go
+with you."
+
+"Shall you!" cried Aunt Maria, as if that made all safe and delightful.
+
+"Yes. My excellent Uncle Garcia (good, kind-hearted old man) takes the
+strongest interest in this affair. He is resolved that his charming little
+relative here, La Señorita Clara, shall cross the continent in safety and
+comfort. He offers a special wagon train for the purpose, and insists that
+I shall accompany it. Of course I am only too delighted to obey him."
+
+"Garcia is very good, and so are you, Coronado," said Clara, very thankful
+and profoundly astonished. "How can I ever repay you both? I shall always
+be your debtor."
+
+"My dear cousin!" protested Coronado, bowing and smiling. "Well, it is
+settled. We will start as soon as may be. The train will be ready in a day
+or two."
+
+"I have no money," stammered Clara. "The estate is not settled."
+
+"Our good old Garcia has thought of everything. He will advance you what
+you want, and take your draft on the executors."
+
+"Your uncle is one of nature's noblemen," affirmed Aunt Maria. "I must
+call on him and thank him for his goodness and generosity."
+
+"Oh, never!" said Coronado. "He only waits your permission to visit you
+and pay you his humble respects. Absence has prevented him from attending
+to that delightful duty heretofore. He has but just returned from
+Albuquerque."
+
+"Tell him I shall be glad to see him," smiled Aunt Maria. "But what does
+he say of the San Juan route?"
+
+"He advises it. He has been in the overland trade for thirty years. He is
+tenderly interested in his relative Clara; and he advises her to go by way
+of the San Juan."
+
+"Then so it shall be," declared Aunt Maria.
+
+"And how do you go, Lieutenant?" asked Coronado, turning to Thurstane.
+
+"I had thought of travelling with you," was the answer, delivered with a
+grave and troubled air, as if now he must give up his project.
+
+Coronado was delighted. He had urged the northern and circuitous route
+mainly to get rid of the officer, taking it for granted that the latter
+must join his new command as soon as possible. He did not want him
+courting Clara all across the continent; and he, did not want him saving
+her from being lost, if it should become necessary to lose her.
+
+"I earnestly hope that we shall not be deprived of your company," he said.
+
+Thurstane, in profound thought, simply bowed his acknowledgments. A few
+minutes later, as he rose to return to his quarters, he said, with an air
+of solemn resolution, "If I can possibly go with you, I _will_."
+
+All the next day and evening Coronado was in and out of the Van Diemen
+house. Had there been a mail for the ladies, he would have brought it to
+them; had it contained a letter from California, he would have abstracted
+and burnt it. He helped them pack for the journey; he made an inventory of
+the furniture and found storeroom for it; he was a valet and a spy in one.
+Meantime Garcia hurried up his train, and hired suitable muleteers for the
+animals and suitable assassins for the travellers. Thurstane was also
+busy, working all day and half of the night over his government accounts,
+so that he might if possible get off with Clara.
+
+Coronado thought of making interest with the post-commandant to have
+Thurstane kept a few days in Santa Fé. But the post-commandant was a grim
+and taciturn old major, who looked him through and through with a pair of
+icy gray eyes, and returned brief answers to his musical commonplaces.
+Coronado did not see how he could humbug him, and concluded not to try it.
+The attempt might excite suspicion; the major might say, "How is this your
+business?" So, after a little unimportant tattle, Coronado made his best
+bow to the old fellow, and hurried off to oversee his so-called cousin.
+
+In the evening he brought Garcia to call on the ladies. Aunt Maria was
+rather surprised and shocked to see such an excellent man look so much
+like an infamous scoundrel. "But good people are always plain," she
+reasoned; and so she was as cordial to him as one can be in English to a
+saint who understands nothing but Spanish. Garcia, instructed by Coronado,
+could not bow low enough nor smile greasily enough at Aunt Maria. His dull
+commonplaces moreover, were translated by his nephew into flowering
+compliments for the lady herself, and enthusiastic professions of faith in
+the superior intelligence and moral worth of all women. So the two got
+along famously, although neither ever knew what the other had really said.
+
+When Clara appeared, Garcia bowed humbly without lifting his eyes to her
+face, and received her kiss without returning it, as one might receive the
+kiss of a corpse.
+
+"Contemptible coward!" thought Coronado. Then, turning to Mrs. Stanley, he
+whispered, "My uncle is almost broken down with this parting."
+
+"Excellent creature!" murmured Aunt Maria, surveying the old toad with
+warm sympathy. "What a pity he has lost one eye! It quite injures the
+benevolent expression of his face."
+
+Although Garcia was very distantly connected with Clara, she gave him the
+title of uncle.
+
+"How is this, my uncle?" she said, gaily. "You send your merchandise
+trains through Bernalillo, and you send me through Santa Anna and Rio
+Arriba."
+
+Garcia, cowed and confounded, made no reply that was comprehensible.
+
+"It is a newly discovered route," put in Coronado, "lately found to be
+easier and safer than the old one. Two hundred and fifty years in learning
+the fact, Mrs. Stanley! Just as we were two hundred and fifty years
+without discovering the gold of California."
+
+"Ah!" said Clara. Absent since her childhood from New Mexico, she knew
+little about its geography, and could be easily deceived.
+
+After a while Thurstane entered, out of breath and red with haste. He had
+stolen ten minutes from his accounts and stores to bring Miss Van Diemen a
+piece of information which was to him important and distressing.
+
+"I fear that I shall not be able to go with you," he said. "I have
+received orders to wait for a sergeant and three recruits who have been
+assigned to my company. The messenger reports that they are on the march
+from Fort Bent with an emigrant train, and will not be here for a week. It
+annoys me horribly, Miss Van Diemen. I thought I saw my way clear to be of
+your party. I assure you I earnestly desired it. This route--I am afraid
+of it--I wanted to be with you."
+
+"To protect me?" queried Clara, her face lighting up with a grateful
+smile, so innocent and frank was she. Then she turned grave, again, and
+added, "I am sorry."
+
+Thankful for these last words, but nevertheless quite miserable, the
+youngster worshipped her and trembled for her.
+
+This conversation had been carried on in a quiet tone, so that the others
+of the party had not overheard it, not even the watchful Coronado.
+
+"It is too unfortunate," said Clara, turning to them, "Lieutenant
+Thurstane cannot go with us."
+
+Garcia and Coronado exchanged a look which said, "Thank--the devil!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+The next day brought news of an obstacle to the march of the wagon train
+through Santa Anna and Rio Arriba.
+
+It was reported that the audacious and savage Apache chieftain, Manga
+Colorada, or Red Sleeve, under pretence of wanting to make a treaty with
+the Americans, had approached within sixty miles of Santa Fé to the west,
+and camped there, on the route to the San Juan country, not making
+treaties at all, but simply making hot beefsteaks out of Mexican cattle
+and cold carcasses out of Mexican rancheros.
+
+"We shall have to get those fellows off that trail and put them across the
+Bernalillo route," said Coronado to Garcia.
+
+"The pigs! the dogs! the wicked beasts! the devils!" barked the old man,
+dancing about the room in a rage. After a while he dropped breathless into
+a chair and looked eagerly at his nephew for help.
+
+"It will cost at least another thousand," observed the younger man.
+
+"You have had two thousand," shuddered Garcia. "You were to do the whole
+accursed job with that."
+
+"I did not count on Manga Colorada. Besides, I have given a thousand to
+our little cousin. I must keep a thousand to meet the chances that may
+come. There are men to be bribed."
+
+Garcia groaned, hesitated, decided, went to some hoard which he had put
+aside for great needs, counted out a hundred American eagles, toyed with
+them, wept over them, and brought them to Coronado.
+
+"Will that do?" he asked. "It must do. There is no more."
+
+"I will try with that," said the nephew. "Now let me have a few good men
+and your best horses. I want to see them all before I trust myself with
+them."
+
+Coronado felt himself in a position to dictate, and it was curious to see
+how quick he put on magisterial airs; he was one of those who enjoy
+authority, though little and brief.
+
+"Accursed beast!" thought Garcia, who did not dare just now to break out
+with his "pig, dog," etc. "He wants me to pay everything. The thousand
+ought to be enough for men and horses and all. Why not poison the girl at
+once, and save all this money? If he had the spirit of a man! O Madre de
+Dios! Madre de Dios! What extremities! what extremities!"
+
+But Garcia was like a good many of us; his thoughts were worse than his
+deeds and words. While he was cogitating thus savagely, he was saying
+aloud, "My son, my dear Carlos, come and choose for yourself."
+
+Turning into the court of the house, they strolled through a medley of
+wagons, mules, horses, merchandise, muleteers, teamsters, idlers, white
+men and Indians. Coronado soon picked out a couple of rancheros whom he
+knew as capital riders, fair marksmen, faithful and intelligent. Next his
+eye fell upon a man in Mexican clothing, almost as dark and dirty too as
+the ordinary Mexican, but whose height, size, insolence of carriage, and
+ferocity of expression marked him as of another and more pugnacious, more
+imperial race.
+
+"You are an American," said Coronado, in his civil manner, for he had two
+manners as opposite as the poles.
+
+"I be," replied the stranger, staring at Coronado as a Lombard or Frankish
+warrior might have stared at an effeminate and diminutive Roman.
+
+"May I ask what your name is?"
+
+"Some folks call me Texas Smith."
+
+Coronado shifted uneasily on his feet, as a man might shift in presence of
+a tiger, who, as he feared, was insufficiently chained. He was face to
+face with a fellow who was as much the terror of the table-land, from the
+borders of Texas to California, as if he had been an Apache chief.
+
+This noted desperado, although not more than twenty-six or seven years
+old, had the horrible fame of a score of murders. His appearance mated
+well with his frightful history and reputation. His intensely black eyes,
+blacker even than the eyes of Coronado, had a stare of absolutely
+indescribable ferocity. It was more ferocious than the merely brutal glare
+of a tiger; it was an intentional malignity, super-beastly and sub-human.
+They were eyes which no other man ever looked into and afterward forgot.
+His sunburnt, sallow, haggard, ghastly face, stained early and for life
+with the corpse-like coloring of malarious fevers, was a fit setting for
+such optics. Although it was nearly oval in contour, and although the
+features were or had been fairly regular, yet it was so marked by hard,
+and one might almost say fleshless muscles, and so brutalized by long
+indulgence in savage passions, that it struck you as frightfully ugly. A
+large dull-red scar on the right jaw and another across the left cheek
+added the final touches to this countenance of a cougar.
+
+"He is my man," whispered Garcia to Coronado. "I have hired him for the
+great adventure. Sixty piastres a month. Why not take him with you
+to-day?"
+
+Coronado gave another glance at the gladiator and meditated. Should he
+trust this beast of a Texan to guard him against those other beasts, the
+Apaches? Well, he could die but once; this whole affair was detestably
+risky; he must not lose time in shuddering over the first steps.
+
+"Mr. Smith," he said, "very glad to know that you are with us. Can you
+start in an hour for the camp of Manga Colorada? Sixty miles there. We
+must be back by to-morrow night. It would be best not to say where we are
+going."
+
+Texas Smith nodded, turned abruptly on the huge heels of his Mexican
+boots, stalked to where his horse was fastened, and began to saddle him.
+
+"My dear uncle, why didn't you hire the devil?" whispered Coronado as he
+stared after the cutthroat.
+
+"Get yourself ready, my nephew," was Garcia's reply. "I will see to the
+men and horses."
+
+In an hour the expedition was off at full gallop. Coronado had laid aside
+his American dandy raiment, and was in the full costume of a Mexican of
+the provinces--broad-brimmed hat of white straw, blue broadcloth jacket
+adorned with numerous small silver buttons, velvet vest of similar
+splendor, blue trousers slashed from the knee downwards and gay with
+buttons, high, loose embroidered boots of crimson leather, long steel
+spurs jingling and shining. The change became him; he seemed a larger and
+handsomer man for it; he looked the caballero and almost the hidalgo.
+
+Three hours took the party thirty miles to a hacienda of Garcia's, where
+they changed horses, leaving their first mounting for the return. After
+half an hour for dinner, they pushed on again, always at a gallop, the
+hoofs clattering over the hard, yellow, sunbaked earth, or dashing
+recklessly along smooth sheets of rock, or through fields of loose,
+slippery stones. Rare halts to breathe the animals; then the steady,
+tearing gallop again; no walking or other leisurely gait. Coronado led the
+way and hastened the pace. There was no tiring him; his thin, sinewy,
+sun-hardened frame could bear enormous fatigue; moreover, the saddle was
+so familiar to him that he almost reposed in it. If he had needed physical
+support, he would have found it in his mental energy. He was capable of
+that executive furor, that intense passion of exertion, which the man of
+Latin race can exhibit when he has once fairly set himself to an
+enterprise. He was of the breed which in nobler days had produced
+Gonsalvo, Cortes, Pizarro, and Darien.
+
+These riders had set out at ten o'clock in the morning; at five in the
+afternoon they drew bridle in sight of the Apache encampment. They were on
+the brow of a stony hill: a pile of bare, gray, glaring, treeless,
+herbless layers of rock; a pyramid truncated near its base, but still of
+majestic altitude; one of the pyramids of nature in that region; in short,
+a butte. Below them lay a valley of six or eight miles in length by one or
+two in breadth, through the centre of which a rivulet had drawn a paradise
+of verdure. In the middle of the valley, at the head of a bend in the
+rivulet, was a camp of human brutes. It was a bivouac rather than a camp.
+The large tents of bison hide used by the northern Indians are unknown to
+the Apaches; they have not the bison, and they have less need of shelter
+in winter. What Coronado saw at this distance was, a few huts of branches,
+a strolling of many horses, and some scattered riders.
+
+Texas Smith gave him a glance of inquiry which said, "Shall we go
+ahead--or fire?"
+
+Coronado spurred his horse down the rough, disjointed, slippery declivity,
+and the others followed. They were soon perceived; the Apache swarm was
+instantly in a buzz; horses were saddled and mounted, or mounted without
+saddling; there was a consultation, and then a wild dash toward the
+travellers. As the two parties neared each other at a gallop, Coronado
+rode to the front of his squad, waving his sombrero. An Indian who wore
+the dress of a Mexican caballero, jacket, loose trousers, hat, and boots,
+spurred in like manner to the front, gestured to his followers to halt,
+brought his horse to a walk, and slowly approached the white man. Coronado
+made a sign to show that his pistols were in his holsters; and the Apache
+responded by dropping his lance and slinging his bow over his shoulder.
+The two met midway between the two squads of staring, silent horsemen.
+
+"Is it Manga Colorada?" asked the Mexican, in Spanish.
+
+"Manga Colorada," replied the Apache, his long, dark, haggard, savage face
+lighting up for a moment with a smile of gratified vanity.
+
+"I come in peace, then," said Coronado. "I want your help; I will pay for
+it."
+
+In our account of this interview we shall translate the broken Spanish of
+the Indian into ordinary English.
+
+"Manga Colorada will help," he said, "if the pay is good."
+
+Even during this short dialogue the Apaches had with difficulty restrained
+their curiosity; and their little wiry horses were now caracoling,
+rearing, and plunging in close proximity to the two speakers.
+
+"We will talk of this by ourselves," said Coronado. "Let us go to your
+camp."
+
+The conjoint movement of the leaders toward the Indian bivouac was a
+signal for their followers to mingle and exchange greetings. The
+adventurers were enveloped and very nearly ridden down by over two hundred
+prancing, screaming horsemen, shouting to their visitors in their own
+guttural tongue or in broken Spanish, and enforcing their wild speech with
+vehement gestures. It was a pandemonium which horribly frightened the
+Mexican rancheros, and made Coronado's dark cheek turn to an ashy yellow.
+
+The civilized imagination can hardly conceive such a tableau of savagery
+as that presented by these Arabs of the great American desert. Arabs! The
+similitude is a calumny on the descendants of Ishmael; the fiercest
+Bedouin are refined and mild compared with the Apaches. Even the brutal
+and criminal classes of civilization, the pugilists, roughs, burglars, and
+pickpockets of our large cities, the men whose daily life is rebellion
+against conscience, commandment, and justice, offer a gentler and nobler
+type of character and expression than these "children of nature." There
+was hardly a face among that gang of wild riders which did not outdo the
+face of Texas Smith in degraded ferocity. Almost every man and boy was
+obviously a liar, a thief, and a murderer. The air of beastly cruelty was
+made even more hateful by an air of beastly cunning. Taking color,
+brutality, grotesqueness, and filth together, it seemed as if here were a
+mob of those malignant and ill-favored devils whom Dante has described and
+the art of his age has painted and sculptured.
+
+It is possible, by the way, that this appearance of moral ugliness was due
+in part to the physical ugliness of features, which were nearly without
+exception coarse, irregular, exaggerated, grotesque, and in some cases
+more like hideous masks than like faces.
+
+Ferocity of expression was further enhanced by poverty and squalor. The
+mass of this fierce cavalry was wretchedly clothed and disgustingly dirty.
+Even the showy Mexican costume of Manga Colorada was ripped, frayed,
+stained with grease and perspiration, and not free from sombre spots which
+looked like blood. Every one wore the breech-cloth, in some cases nicely
+fitted and sewed, in others nothing but a shapeless piece of deerskin tied
+on anyhow. There were a few, either minor chiefs, or leading braves, or
+professional dandies (for this class exists among the Indians), who
+sported something like a full Apache costume, consisting of a
+helmet-shaped cap with a plume of feathers, a blanket or _serape_ flying
+loose from the shoulders, a shirt and breech-cloth, and a pair of long
+boots, made large and loose in the Mexican style and showy with dyeing and
+embroidery. These boots, very necessary to men who must ride through
+thorns and bushes, were either drawn up so as to cover the thighs or
+turned over from the knee downward, like the leg-covering of Rupert's
+cavaliers. Many heads were bare, or merely shielded by wreaths of grasses
+and leaves, the greenery contrasting fantastically with the unkempt hair
+and fierce faces, but producing at a distance an effect which was not
+without sylvan grace.
+
+The only weapons were iron-tipped lances eight or nine feet long, thick
+and strong bows of three or three and a half feet, and quivers of arrows
+slung across the thigh or over the shoulder. The Apaches make little use
+of firearms, being too lazy or too stupid to keep them in order, and
+finding it difficult to get ammunition. But so long as they have to fight
+only the unwarlike Mexicans, they are none the worse for this lack. The
+Mexicans fly at the first yell; the Apaches ride after them and lance them
+in the back; clumsy _escopetos_ drop loaded from the hands of dying
+cowards. Such are the battles of New Mexico. It is only when these
+red-skinned Tartars meet Americans or such high-spirited Indians as the
+Opates that they have to recoil before gunpowder. [Footnote: Since those
+times the Apaches have learned to use firearms.]
+
+The fact that Coronado dared ride into this camp of thieving assassins
+shows what risks he could force himself to run when he thought it
+necessary. He was not physically a very brave man; he had no pugnacity and
+no adventurous love of danger for its own sake; but when he was resolved
+on an enterprise, he could go through with it.
+
+There was a rest of several hours. The rancheros fed the horses on corn
+which they had brought in small sacks. Texas Smith kept watch, suffered no
+Apache to touch him, had his pistols always cocked, and stood ready to
+sell life at the highest price. Coronado walked deliberately to a retired
+spot with Manga Colorada, Delgadito, and two other chiefs, and made known
+his propositions. What he desired was that the Apaches should quit their
+present post immediately, perform a forced march of a hundred and forty
+miles or so to the southwest, place themselves across the overland trail
+through Bernalillo, and do something to alarm people. No great harm; he
+did not want men murdered nor houses burned; they might eat a few cattle,
+if they were hungry: there were plenty of cattle, and Apaches must live.
+And if they should yell at a train or so and stampede the loose mules, he
+had no objection. But no slaughtering; he wanted them to be merciful: just
+make a pretence of harrying in Bernalillo; nothing more.
+
+The chiefs turned their ill-favored countenances on each other, and talked
+for a while in their own language. Then, looking at Coronado, they
+grunted, nodded, and sat in silence, waiting for his terms.
+
+"Send that boy away," said the Mexican, pointing to a youth of twelve or
+fourteen, better dressed than most Apache urchins, who had joined the
+little circle.
+
+"It is my son," replied Manga Colorada. "He is learning to be a chief."
+
+The boy stood upright, facing the group with dignity, a handsomer youth
+than is often seen among his people. Coronado, who had something of the
+artist in him, was so interested in noting the lad's regular features and
+tragic firmness of expression, that for a moment he forgot his projects.
+Manga Colorada, mistaking the cause of his silence, encouraged him to
+proceed.
+
+"My son does not speak Spanish," he said. "He will not understand."
+
+"You know what money is?" inquired the Mexican.
+
+"Yes, we know," grunted the chief.
+
+"You can buy clothes and arms with it in the villages, and aguardiente."
+
+Another grunt of assent and satisfaction.
+
+"Three hundred piastres," said Coronado.
+
+The chiefs consulted in their own tongue, and then replied, "The way is
+long."
+
+"How much?"
+
+Manga Colorada held up five fingers.
+
+"Five hundred?"
+
+A unanimous grunt.
+
+"It is all I have," said Coronado.
+
+The chiefs made no reply.
+
+Coronado rose, walked to his horse, took two small packages out of his
+saddle-bags and slipped them slily into his boots, and then carried the
+bags to where the chiefs sat in council. There he held them up and rolled
+out five _rouleaux_, each containing a hundred Mexican dollars. The
+Indians tore open the envelopes, stared at the broad pieces, fingered
+them, jingled them together, and uttered grunts of amazement and joy.
+Probably they had never before seen so much money, at least not in their
+own possession. Coronado was hardly less content; for while he had
+received a thousand dollars to bring about this understanding, he had
+risked but seven hundred with him, and of these he had saved two hundred.
+
+Four hours later the camp had vanished, and the Indians were on their way
+toward the southwest, the moonlight showing their irregular column of
+march, and glinting faintly from the heads of their lances.
+
+At nine or ten in the evening, when every Apache had disappeared, and the
+clatter of ponies had gone far away into the quiet night, Coronado lay
+down to rest. He would have started homeward, but the country was a
+complete desert, the trail led here and there over vast sheets of
+trackless rock, and he feared that he might lose his way. Texas Smith and
+one of the rancheros had ridden after the Apaches to see whether they kept
+the direction which had been agreed upon. One ranchero was slumbering
+already, and the third crouched as sentinel.
+
+Coronado could not sleep at once. He thought over his enterprise,
+cross-examined his chances of success, studied the invisible courses of
+the future. Leave Clara on the plains, to be butchered by Indians, or to
+die of starvation? He hardly considered the idea; it was horrible and
+repulsive; better marry her. If necessary, force her into a marriage; he
+could bring it about somehow; she would be much in his power. Well, he had
+got rid of Thurstane; that was a great obstacle removed. Probably, that
+fellow being out of sight, he, Coronado, could soon eclipse him in the
+girl's estimation. There would be no need of violence; all would go easily
+and end in prosperity. Garcia would be furious at the marriage, but Garcia
+was a fool to expect any other result.
+
+However, here he was, just at the beginning of things, and by no means
+safe from danger. He had two hundred dollars in his boot-legs. Had his
+rancheros suspected it? Would they murder him for the money? He hoped not;
+he just faintly hoped not; for he was becoming very sleepy; he was asleep.
+
+He was awakened by a noise, or perhaps it was a touch, he scarcely knew
+what. He struggled as fiercely and vainly as one who fights against a
+nightmare. A dark form was over him, a hard knee was on his breast, hard
+knuckles were at his throat, an arm was raised to strike, a weapon was
+gleaming.
+
+On the threshold of his enterprise, after he had taken its first hazardous
+step with safety and success, Coronado found himself at the point of
+death.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+When Coronado regained a portion of the senses which had been throttled
+out of him, he discovered Texas Smith standing by his side, and two dead
+men lying near, all rather vaguely seen at first through his dizziness and
+the moonlight.
+
+"What does this mean?" he gasped, getting on his hands and knees, and then
+on his feet. "Who has been assassinating?"
+
+The borderer, who, instead of helping his employer to rise, was coolly
+reloading his rifle, did not immediately reply. As the shaken and somewhat
+unmanned Coronado looked at him, he was afraid of him. The moonlight made
+Smith's sallow, disfigured face so much more ghastly than usual, that he
+had the air of a ghoul or vampyre. And when, after carefully capping his
+piece, he drawled forth the word "Patchies," his harsh, croaking voice had
+an unwholesome, unhuman sound, as if it were indeed the utterance of a
+feeder upon corpses.
+
+"Apaches!" said Coronado. "What! after I had made a treaty with them?"
+
+"This un is a 'Patchie," remarked Texas, giving the nearest body a shove
+with his boot. "Thar was two of 'em. They knifed one of your men. T'other
+cleared, he did. I was comin' in afoot. I had a notion of suthin' goin'
+on, 'n' left the critters out thar, with the rancheros, 'n' stole in. Got
+in just in time to pop the cuss that had you. T'other un vamosed."
+
+"Oh, the villains!" shrieked Coronado, excited at the thought of his
+narrow escape. "This is the way they keep their treaties."
+
+"Mought be these a'n't the same," observed Texas. "Some 'Patchies is wild,
+'n' live separate, like bachelor beavers."
+
+Coronado stooped and examined the dead Indian. He was a miserable object,
+naked, except a ragged, filthy breech-clout, his figure gaunt, and his
+legs absolutely scaly with dirt, starvation, and hard living of all sorts.
+He might well be one of those outcasts who are in disfavor with their
+savage brethren, lead a precarious existence outside of the tribal
+organization, and are to the Apaches what the Texas Smiths are to decent
+Americans.
+
+"One of the bachelor-beaver sort, you bet," continued Texas. "Don't run
+with the rest of the crowd."
+
+"And there's that infernal coward of a ranchero," cried Coronado, as the
+runaway sentry sneaked back to the group. "You cursed poltroon, why didn't
+you give the alarm? Why didn't you fight?"
+
+He struck the man, pulled his long hair, threw him down, kicked him, and
+spat on him. Texas Smith looked on with an approving grin, and suggested,
+"Better shute the dam cuss."
+
+But Coronado was not bloodthirsty; having vented his spite, he let the
+fellow go. "You saved my life," he said to Texas. "When we get back you
+shall be paid for it."
+
+At the moment he intended to present him with the two hundred dollars
+which were cumbering his boots. But by the time they had reached Garcia's
+hacienda on the way back to Santa Fé, his gratitude had fallen off
+seventy-five per cent, and he thought fifty enough. Even that diminished
+his profits on the expedition to four hundred and fifty dollars. And
+Coronado, although extravagant, was not generous; he liked to spend money,
+but he hated to give it or pay it.
+
+During the four days which immediately followed his safe return to Santa
+Fé, he and Garcia were in a worry of anxiety. Would Manga Colorada fulfil
+his contract and cast a shadow of peril over the Bernalillo route? Would
+letters or messengers arrive from California, informing Clara of the death
+and will of Muñoz? Everything happened as they wished; reports came that
+the Apaches were raiding in Bernalillo; the girl received no news
+concerning her grandfather. Coronado, smiling with success and hope, met
+Thurstane at the Van Diemen house, in the presence of Clara and Aunt
+Maria, and blandly triumphed over him.
+
+"How now about your safe road through the southern counties?" he said.
+"Apaches!"
+
+"So I hear," replied the young officer soberly. "It is horribly unlucky."
+
+"We start to-morrow," added Coronado.
+
+"To-morrow!" replied Thurstane, with a look of dismay.
+
+"I hope you will be with us," said Coronado.
+
+"Everything goes wrong," exclaimed the annoyed lieutenant. "Here are some
+of my stores damaged, and I have had to ask for a board of survey. I
+couldn't possibly leave for two days yet, even if my recruits should
+arrive."
+
+"How very unfortunate!" groaned Coronado. "My dear fellow, we had counted
+on you."
+
+"Lieutenant Thurstane, can't you overtake us?" inquired Clara.
+
+Thurstane wanted to kneel down and thank her, while Coronado wanted to
+throw something at her.
+
+"I will try," promised the officer, his fine, frank, manly face
+brightening with pleasure. "If the thing can be done, it will be done."
+
+Coronado, while hoping that he would be ordered by the southern route, or
+that he would somehow break his neck, had the superfine brass to say,
+"Don't fail us, Lieutenant."
+
+In spite of the managements of the Mexican to keep Clara and Thurstane
+apart, the latter succeeded in getting an aside with the young lady.
+
+"So you take the northern trail?" he said, with a seriousness which gave
+his blue-black eyes an expression of almost painful pathos. Those eyes
+were traitors; however discreet the rest of his face might be, they
+revealed his feelings; they were altogether too pathetic to be in the head
+of a man and an officer.
+
+"But you will overtake us," Clara replied, out of a charming faith that
+with men all things are possible.
+
+"Yes," he said, almost fiercely.
+
+"Besides, Coronado knows," she added, still trusting in the male being.
+"He says this is the surest road."
+
+Thurstane did not believe it, but he did not want to alarm her when alarm
+was useless, and he made no comment.
+
+"I have a great mind to resign," he presently broke out.
+
+Clara colored; she did not fully understand him, but she guessed that all
+this emotion was somehow on her account; and a surprised, warm Spanish
+heart beat at once its alarm.
+
+"It would be of no use," he immediately added. "I couldn't get away until
+my resignation had been accepted. I must bear this as well as I can."
+
+The young lady began to like him better than ever before, and yet she
+began to draw gently away from him, frightened by a consciousness of her
+liking.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Miss Van Diemen," said Thurstane, in an inexplicable
+confusion.
+
+"There is no need," replied Clara, equally confused.
+
+"Well," he resumed, after a struggle to regain his self-control, "I will
+do my utmost to overtake you."
+
+"We shall be very glad," returned Clara, with a singular mixture of
+consciousness and artlessness.
+
+There was an exquisite innocence and almost childish simplicity in this
+girl of eighteen. It was, so to speak, not quite civilized; it was not in
+the style of American young ladies; our officer had never, at home,
+observed anything like it; and, of course--O yes, of course, it fascinated
+him. The truth is, he was so far gone in loving her that he would have
+been charmed by her ways no matter what they might have been.
+
+On the very morning after the above dialogue Garcia's train started for
+Rio Arriba, taking with it a girl who had been singled out for a marriage
+which she did not guess, or for a death whose horrors were beyond her
+wildest fears.
+
+The train consisted of six long and heavy covered vehicles, not dissimilar
+in size, strength, and build to army wagons. Garcia had thought that two
+would suffice; six wagons, with their mules, etc., were a small fortune:
+what if the Apaches should take them? But Coronado had replied: "Nobody
+sends a train of two wagons; do you want to rouse suspicion?"
+
+So there were six; and each had a driver and a muleteer, making twelve
+hired men thus far. On horseback, there were six Mexicans, nominally
+cattle-drivers going to California, but really guards for the
+expedition--the most courageous bullies that could be picked up in Santa
+Fé, each armed with pistols and a rifle. Finally, there were Coronado and
+his terrible henchman, Texas Smith, with their rifles and revolvers. Old
+Garcia perspired with anguish as he looked over his caravan, and figured
+up the cost in his head.
+
+Thurstane, wretched at heart, but with a cheering smile on his lips, came
+to bid the ladies farewell.
+
+"What do you think of this?" Aunt Maria called to him from her seat in one
+of the covered wagons. "We are going a thousand miles through deserts and
+savages. You men suppose that women have no courage. I call this heroism."
+
+"Certainly," nodded the young fellow, not thinking of her at all, unless
+it was that she was next door to an idiot.
+
+Although his mind was so full of Clara that it did not seem as if he could
+receive an impression from any other human being, his attention was for a
+moment arrested by a countenance which struck him as being more ferocious
+than he had ever seen before except on the shoulders of an Apache. A tall
+man in Mexican costume, with a scar on his chin and another on his cheek,
+was glaring at him with two intensely black and savage eyes. It was Texas
+Smith, taking the measure of Thurstane's fighting power and disposition. A
+hint from Coronado had warned the borderer that here was a person whom it
+might be necessary some day to get rid of. The officer responded to this
+ferocious gaze with a grim, imperious stare, such as one is apt to acquire
+amid the responsibilities and dangers of army life. It was like a wolf and
+a mastiff surveying each other.
+
+Thurstane advanced to Clara, helped her into her saddle, and held her hand
+while he urged her to be careful of herself, never to wander from the
+train, never to be alone, etc. The girl turned a little pale; it was not
+exactly because of his anxious manner; it was because of the eloquence
+that there is in a word of parting. At the moment she felt so alone in the
+world, in such womanish need of sympathy, that had he whispered to her,
+"Be my wife," she might have reached out her hands to him. But Thurstane
+was far from guessing that an angel could have such weak impulses; and he
+no more thought of proposing to her thus abruptly than of ascending
+off-hand into heaven.
+
+Coronado observed the scene, and guessing how perilous the moment was,
+pushed forward his uncle to say good-by to Clara. The old scoundrel kissed
+her hand; he did not dare to lift his one eye to her face; he kissed her
+hand and bowed himself out of reach.
+
+"Farewell, Mr. Garcia," called Aunt Maria. "Poor, excellent old creature!
+What a pity he can't understand English! I should so like to say something
+nice to him. Farewell, Mr. Garcia."
+
+Garcia kissed his fat fingers to her, took off his sombrero, waved it,
+bowed a dozen times, and smiled like a scared devil. Then, with other
+good-bys, delivered right and left from everybody to everybody, the train
+rumbled away. Thurstane was about to accompany it out of the town when his
+clerk came to tell him that the board of survey required his immediate
+presence. Cursing his hard fate, and wishing himself anything but an
+officer in the army, he waved a last farewell to Clara, and turned his
+back on her, perhaps forever.
+
+Santa Fé is situated on the great central plateau of North America, seven
+thousand feet above the level of the sea. Around it spreads an arid plain,
+sloping slightly where it approaches the Rio Grande, and bordered by
+mountains which toward the south are of moderate height, while toward the
+north they rise into fine peaks, glorious with eternal snow. Although the
+city is in the latitude of Albemarle Sound, North Carolina, its elevation
+and its neighborhood to Alpine ranges give it a climate which is in the
+main cool, equable, and healthy.
+
+The expedition moved across the plain in a southwesterly direction.
+Coronado's intention was to cross the Rio Grande at Peña Blanca, skirt the
+southern edge of the Jemez Mountains, reach San Isidoro, and then march
+northward toward the San Juan region. The wagons were well fitted out with
+mules, and as Garcia had not chosen to send much merchandise by this risky
+route, they were light, so that the rate of progress was unusually rapid.
+We cannot trouble ourselves with the minor incidents of the journey.
+Taking it for granted that the Rio Grande was passed, that halts were
+made, meals cooked and eaten, nights passed in sleep, days in pleasant and
+picturesque travelling, we will leap into the desert land beyond San
+Isidoro.
+
+The train was now seventy-five miles from Santa Fé. Coronado had so pushed
+the pace that he had made this distance in the rather remarkable time of
+three days. Of course his object in thus hurrying was to get so far ahead
+of Thurstane that the latter would not try to overtake him, or would get
+lost in attempting it.
+
+Meanwhile he had not forgotten Garcia's little plan, and he had even
+better remembered his own. The time might come when he would be driven to
+_lose_ Clara; it was very shocking to think of, however, and so for the
+present he did not think of it; on the contrary, he worked hard (much as
+he hated work) at courting her.
+
+It is strange that so many men who are morally in a state of decomposition
+should be, or at least can be, sweet and charming in manner. During these
+three days Coronado was delightful; and not merely in this, that he
+watched over Clara's comfort, rode a great deal by her side, gathered wild
+flowers for her, talked much and agreeably; but also in that he poured oil
+over his whole conduct, and was good to everybody. Although his natural
+disposition was to be domineering to inferiors and irascible under the
+small provocations of life, he now gave his orders in a gentle tone, never
+stormed at the drivers for their blunders, made light of the bad cooking,
+and was in short a model for travellers, lovers, and husbands. Few human
+beings have so much self-control as Coronado, and so little. So long as it
+was policy to be sweet, he could generally be a very honeycomb; but once a
+certain limit of patience passed, he was like a swarm of angry bees; he
+became blind, mad, and poisonous with passion.
+
+"Mr. Coronado, you are a wonder," proclaimed the admiring Aunt Maria. "You
+are the only man I ever knew that was patient."
+
+"I catch a grace from those who have it abundantly and to spare," said
+Coronado, taking off his hat and waving it at the two ladies.
+
+"Ah, yes, we women know how to be patient," smiled Aunt Maria. "I think we
+are born so. But, more than that, we learn it. Moreover, our physical
+nature teaches us. We have lessons of pain and weakness that men know
+nothing of. The great, healthy savages! If they had our troubles, they
+might have some of our virtues."
+
+"I refuse to believe it," cried Coronado. "Man acquire woman's worth?
+Never! The nature of the beast is inferior. He is not fashioned to become
+an angel."
+
+"How charmingly candid and humble!" thought Aunt Maria. "How different
+from that sulky, proud Thurstane, who never says anything of the sort, and
+never thinks it either, I'll be bound."
+
+All this sort of talk passed over Clara as a desert wind passes over an
+oasis, bringing no pleasant songs of birds, and sowing no fruitful seed.
+She had her born ideas as to men and women, and she was seemingly
+incapable of receiving any others. In her mind men were strong and brave,
+and women weak and timorous; she believed that the first were good to hold
+on to, and that the last were good to hold on; all this she held by
+birthright, without ever reasoning upon it or caring to prove it.
+
+Coronado, on his part, hooted in his soul at Mrs. Stanley's whimsies, and
+half supposed her to be of unsound mind. Nor would he have said what he
+did about the vast superiority of the female sex, had he supposed that
+Clara would attach the least weight to it. He knew that the girl looked
+upon his extravagant declarations as merely so many compliments paid to
+her eccentric relative, equivalent to bowings and scrapings and flourishes
+of the sombrero. Both Spaniards, they instinctively comprehended each
+other, at least in the surface matters of intercourse. Meanwhile the
+American strong-minded female understood herself, it is to be charitably
+hoped, but understood herself alone.
+
+Coronado did not hurry his courtship, for he believed that he had a clear
+field before him, and he was too sagacious to startle Clara by overmuch
+energy. Meantime he began to be conscious that an influence from her was
+reaching his spirit. He had hitherto considered her a child; one day he
+suddenly recognized her as a woman. Now a woman, a beautiful woman
+especially, alone with one in the desert, is very mighty. Matches are made
+in trains overland as easily and quickly as on sea voyages or at quiet
+summer resorts. Coronado began--only moderately as yet--to fall in love.
+
+But an ugly incident came to disturb his opening dream of affection,
+happiness, wealth, and success. Toward the close of his fourth day's
+march, after he had got well into the unsettled region beyond San Isidore,
+he discovered, several miles behind the train, a party of five horsemen.
+He was on one summit and they on another, with a deep, stony valley
+intervening. Without a moment's hesitation, he galloped down a long slope,
+rejoined the creeping wagons, hurried them forward a mile or so, and
+turned into a ravine for the night's halt.
+
+Whether the cavaliers were Indians or Thurstane and his four recruits he
+had been unable to make out. They had not seen the train; the nature of
+the ground had prevented that. It was now past sundown, and darkness
+coming on rapidly. Whispering something about Apaches, he gave orders to
+lie close and light no fires for a while, trusting that the pursuers would
+pass his hiding place.
+
+For a moment he thought of sending Texas Smith to ambush the party, and
+shoot Thurstane if he should be in it, pleading afterwards that the men
+looked, in the darkness, like Apaches. But no; this was an extreme
+measure; he revolted against it a little. Moreover, there was danger of
+retribution: settlements not so far off; soldiers still nearer.
+
+So he lay quiet, chewing a bit of grass to allay his nervousness, and
+talking stronger love to Clara than he had yet thought needful or wise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+Lieutenant Thurstane passed the mouth of the ravine in the dusk of
+twilight, without guessing that it contained Clara Van Diemen and her
+perils.
+
+He had with him Sergeant Weber of his own company, just returned from
+recruiting service at St. Louis, and three recruits for the company,
+Kelly, Shubert, and Sweeny.
+
+Weber, a sunburnt German, with sandy eyelashes, blue eyes, and a scar on
+his cheek, had been a soldier from his eighteenth to his thirtieth year,
+and wore the serious, patient, much-enduring air peculiar to veterans.
+Kelly, an Irishman, also about thirty, slender in form and somewhat
+haggard in face, with the same quiet, contained, seasoned look to him, the
+same reminiscence of unavoidable sufferings silently borne, was also an
+old infantry man, having served in both the British and American armies.
+Shubert was an American lad, who had got tired of clerking it in an
+apothecary's shop, and had enlisted from a desire for adventure, as you
+might guess from his larkish countenance. Sweeny was a diminutive Paddy,
+hardly regulation height for the army, as light and lively as a monkey,
+and with much the air of one.
+
+Thurstane had obtained orders from the post commandant to lead his party
+by the northern route, on condition that he would investigate and report
+as to its practicability for military and other transit. He had also been
+allowed to draw by requisition fifty days' rations, a box of ammunition,
+and four mules. Starting thirty-six hours after Coronado, he made in two
+days and a half the distance which the train had accomplished in four. Now
+he had overtaken his quarry, and in the obscurity had passed it.
+
+But Sergeant Weber was an old hand on the Plains, and notwithstanding the
+darkness and the generally stony nature of the ground, he presently
+discovered that the fresh trail of the wagons was missing. Thurstane tried
+to retrace his steps, but starless night had already fallen thick around
+him, and before long he had to come to a halt. He was opposite the mouth
+of the ravine; he was within five hundred yards of Clara, and raging
+because he could not find her. Suddenly Coronado's cooking fires flickered
+through the gloom; in five minutes the two parties were together.
+
+It was a joyous meeting to Thurstane and a disgusting one to Coronado.
+Nevertheless the latter rushed at the officer, grasped him by both hands,
+and shouted, "All hail, Lieutenant! So, there you are at last! My dear
+fellow, what a pleasure!"
+
+"Yes, indeed, by Jove!" returned the young fellow, unusually boisterous in
+his joy, and shaking hands with everybody, not rejecting even muleteers.
+And then what throbbing, what adoration, what supernal delight, in the
+moment when he faced Clara.
+
+In the morning the journey recommenced. As neither Thurstane nor Coronado
+had now any cause for hurry, the pace was moderate. The soldiers marched
+on foot, in order to leave the government mules no other load than the
+rations and ammunition, and so enable them to recover from their sharp
+push of over eighty miles. The party now consisted of twenty-five men, for
+the most part pretty well armed. Of the other sex there were, besides Mrs.
+Stanley and Clara, a half-breed girl named Pepita, who served as lady's
+maid, and two Indian women from Garcia's hacienda, whose specialties were
+cooking and washing. In all thirty persons, a nomadic village.
+
+At the first halt Sergeant Weber approached Thurstane with a timorous air,
+saluted, and asked, "Leftenant, can we leafe our knabsacks in the vagons?
+The gentleman has gifen us bermission."
+
+"The men ought to learn to carry their knapsacks," said Thurstane. "They
+will have to do it in serious service."
+
+"It is drue, Leftenant," replied Weber, saluting again and moving off
+without a sign of disappointment.
+
+"Let that man come back here," called Aunt Maria, who had overheard the
+dialogue. "Certainly they can put their loads in the wagons. I told Mr.
+Coronado to tell them so."
+
+Weber looked at her without moving a muscle, and without showing either
+wonder or amusement. Thurstane could not help grinning good-naturedly as
+he said, "I receive your orders, Mrs. Stanley. Weber, you can put the
+knapsacks in the wagons."
+
+Weber saluted anew, gave Mrs. Stanley a glance of gratitude, and went
+about his pleasant business. An old soldier is not in general so strict a
+disciplinarian as a young one.
+
+"What a brute that Lieutenant is!" thought Aunt Maria. "Make those poor
+fellows carry those monstrous packs? Nonsense and tyranny! How different
+from Mr. Coronado! _He_ fairly jumped at my idea."
+
+Thurstane stepped over to Coronado and said, "You are very kind to relieve
+my men at the expense of your animals. I am much obliged to you."
+
+"It is nothing," replied the Mexican, waving his hand graciously. "I am
+delighted to be of service, and to show myself a good citizen."
+
+In fact, he had been quite willing to favor the soldiers; why not, so long
+as he could not get rid of them? If the Apaches would lance them all,
+including Thurstane, he would rejoice; but while that could not be, he
+might as well show himself civil and gain popularity. It was not
+Coronado's style to bark when there was no chance of biting.
+
+He was in serious thought the while. How should he rid himself of this
+rival, this obstacle in the way of his well-laid plans, this interloper
+into his caravan? Must he call upon Texas Smith to assassinate the fellow?
+It was a disagreeably brutal solution of the difficulty, and moreover it
+might lead to loud suspicion and scandal, and finally it might be
+downright dangerous. There was such a thing as trial for murder and for
+conspiracy to effect murder. As to causing a United States officer to
+vanish quietly, as might perhaps be done with an ordinary American
+emigrant, that was too good a thing to be hoped. He must wait; he must
+have patience; he must trust to the future; perhaps some precipice would
+favor him; perhaps the wild Indians. He offered his cigaritos to
+Thurstane, and they smoked tranquilly in company.
+
+"What route do you take from here?" asked the officer.
+
+"Pass Washington, as you call it. Then the Moqui country. Then the San
+Juan."
+
+"There is no possible road down the San Juan and the Colorado."
+
+"If we find that to be so, we will sweep southward. I am, in a measure,
+exploring. Garcia wants a route to Middle California."
+
+"I also have a sort of exploring leave. I shall take the liberty to keep
+along with you. It may be best for both."
+
+The announcement sounded like a threat of surveillance, and Coronado's
+dark cheek turned darker with angry blood. This stolid and intrusive brute
+was absolutely demanding his own death. After saying, with a forced smile,
+"You will be invaluable to us, Lieutenant," the Mexican lounged away to
+where Texas Smith was examining his firearms, and whispered, "Well, will
+you do it?"
+
+"I ain't afeared of _him_," muttered the borderer. "It's his clothes. I
+don't like to shute at jackets with them buttons. I mought git into big
+trouble. The army is a big thing."
+
+"Two hundred dollars," whispered Coronado.
+
+"You said that befo'," croaked Texas. "Go it some better."
+
+"Four hundred."
+
+"Stranger," said Texas, after debating his chances, "it's a big thing. But
+I'll do it for that."
+
+Coronado walked away, hurried up his muleteers, exchanged a word with Mrs.
+Stanley, and finally returned to Thurstane. His thin, dry, dusky fingers
+trembled a little, but he looked his man steadily in the face, while he
+tendered him another cigarito.
+
+"Who is your hunter?" asked the officer. "I must say he is a devilish
+bad-looking fellow."
+
+"He is one of the best hunters Garcia ever had," replied the Mexican. "He
+is one of your own people. You ought to like him."
+
+Further journeying brought with it topographical adventures. The country
+into which they were penetrating is one of the most remarkable in the
+world for its physical peculiarities. Its scenery bears about the same
+relation to the scenery of earth in general, that a skeleton's head or a
+grotesque mask bears to the countenance of living humanity. In no other
+portion of our planet is nature so unnatural, so fanciful and extravagant,
+and seemingly the production of caprice, as on the great central plateau
+of North America.
+
+They had left far behind the fertile valley of the Rio Grande, and had
+placed between it and them the barren, sullen piles of the Jemez
+mountains. No more long sweeps of grassy plain or slope; they were amid
+the _débris_ of rocks which hedge in the upper heights of the great
+plateau; they were struggling through it like a forlorn hope through
+_chevaux-de-frise_. The morning sun came upon them over treeless ridges of
+sandstone, and disappeared at evening behind ridges equally naked and
+arid. The sides of these barren masses, seamed by the action of water in
+remote geologic ages, and never softened or smoothed by the gentle
+attrition of rain, were infinitely more wild and jagged in their details
+than ruins. It seemed as if the Titans had built here, and their works had
+been shattered by thunderbolts.
+
+Many heights were truncated mounds of rock, resembling gigantic platforms
+with ruinous sides, such as are known in this Western land as _mesas_ or
+_buttes_. They were Nature's enormous mockery of the most ambitious
+architecture of man, the pyramids of Egypt and the platform of Baalbek.
+Terrace above terrace of shattered wall; escarpments which had been
+displaced as if by the explosion of some incredible mine; ramparts which
+were here high and regular, and there gaping in mighty fissures, or
+suddenly altogether lacking; long sweeps of stairway, winding dizzily
+upwards, only to close in an impossible leap: there was no end to the
+fantastic outlines and the suggestions of destruction.
+
+Nor were the open spaces between these rocky mounds less remarkable. In
+one valley, the course of a river which vanished ages ago, the power of
+fire had left its monuments amid those of the power of water. The
+sedimentary rock of sandstone, shales, and marl, not only showed veins of
+ignitible lignite, but it was pierced by the trap which had been shot up
+from earth's flaming recesses. Dikes of this volcanic stone crossed each
+other or ran in long parallels, presenting forms of fortifications, walls
+of buildings, ruined lines of aqueducts. The sandstone and marl had been
+worn away by the departed river, and by the delicately sweeping,
+incessant, tireless wings of the afreets of the air, leaving the iron-like
+trap in bold projection.
+
+Some of these dikes stretched long distances, with a nearly uniform height
+of four or five feet, closely resembling old field-walls of the solidest
+masonry. Others, not so extensive, but higher and pierced with holes,
+seemed to be fragments of ruined edifices, with broken windows and
+shattered portals. As the trap is columnar, and the columns are horizontal
+in their direction, the joints of the polygons show along the surface of
+the ramparts, causing them to look like the work of Cyclopean builders.
+The Indians and Mexicans of the expedition, deceived by the similarity
+between these freaks of creation and the results of human workmanship,
+repeatedly called out, "Casas Grandes! Casas de Montezuma!"
+
+It would seem, indeed, as if the ancient peoples of this country, in order
+to arrive at the idea of a large architecture, had only to copy the
+grotesque rock-work of nature. Who knows but that such might have been the
+germinal idea of their constructions? Mrs. Stanley was quite sure of it.
+In fact, she was disposed to maintain that the trap walls were really
+human masonry, and the production of Montezuma, or of the Amazons invented
+by Coronado.
+
+"Those four-sided and six-sided stones look altogether too regular to be
+accidental," was her conclusion. Notwithstanding her belief in a
+superintending Deity, she had an idea that much of this world was made by
+hazard, or perhaps by the Old Harry.
+
+In one valley the ancient demon of water-force had excelled himself in
+enchantments. The slopes of the alluvial soil were dotted with little
+buttes of mingled sandstone and shale, varying from five to twenty feet in
+height, many of them bearing a grotesque likeness to artificial objects.
+There were columns, there were haystacks, there were enormous bells, there
+were inverted jars, there were junk bottles, there were rustic seats. Most
+of these fantastic figures were surmounted by a flat capital, the remnant
+of a layer of stone harder than the rest of the mass, and therefore less
+worn by the water erosion.
+
+One fragment looked like a monstrous gymnastic club standing upright, with
+a broad button to secure the grip. Another was a mighty centre-table, fit
+for the halls of the Scandinavian gods, consisting of a solid prop or
+pedestal twelve feet high, swelling out at the top into a leaf fifteen
+feet across. Another was a stone hat, standing on its crown, with a brim
+two yards in diameter. Occasionally there was a figure which had lost its
+capital, and so looked like a broken pillar, a sugar loaf, a pear.
+Imbedded in these grotesques of sandstone were fossils of wood, of
+fresh-water shells, and of fishes.
+
+It was a land of extravagances and of wonders. The marvellous adventures
+of the "Arabian Nights" would have seemed natural in it. It reminded you
+after a vague fashion of the scenery suggested to the imagination by some
+of its details or those of the "Pilgrim's Progress." Sindbad the Sailor
+carrying the Old Man of the Sea; Giant Despair scowling from a
+make-believe window in a fictitious castle of eroded sandstone; a roc with
+wings eighty feet long, poising on a giddy pinnacle to pounce upon an
+elephant; pilgrim Christian advancing with sword and buckler against a
+demon guarding some rocky portal, would have excited no astonishment here.
+
+Of a sudden there came an adventure which gave opening for
+knight-errantry. As Thurstane, Coronado, and Texas Smith were riding a few
+hundred yards ahead of the caravan, and just emerging from what seemed an
+enormous court or public square, surrounded by ruined edifices of gigantic
+magnitude, they discovered a man running toward them in a style which
+reminded the Lieutenant of Timorous and Mistrust flying from the lions.
+Impossible to see what he was afraid of; there was a broad, yellow plain,
+dotted with monuments of sandstone; no living thing visible but this man
+running.
+
+He was an American; at least he had the clothes of one. As he approached,
+he appeared to be a lean, lank, narrow-shouldered, yellow-faced,
+yellow-haired creature, such as you might expect to find on Cape Cod or
+thereabouts. Hollow-chested as he was, he had a yell in him which was
+quite surprising. From the time that he sighted the three horsemen he kept
+up a steady screech until he was safe under their noses. Then he fell flat
+and gasped for nearly a minute without speaking. His first words were,
+"That's pooty good sailin' for a man who ain't used to't."
+
+"Did you run all the way from Down East?" asked Thurstane.
+
+"All the way from that bewt there--the one that looks most like a
+haystack."
+
+"Well, who the devil are you?"
+
+"I'm Phineas Glover--Capm Phineas Glover--from Fair Haven, Connecticut.
+I'm goin' to Californy after gold. Got lost out of the caravan among the
+mountings. Was comin' along alone, 'n' run afoul of some Injuns. They're
+hidin' behind that bewt, 'n' they've got my mewl."
+
+"Indians! How many are there?"
+
+"Only three. 'N' I expect they a'nt the real wild kind, nuther. Sorter
+half Injun, half engineer, like what come round in the circuses. Didn't
+make much of 'n offer towards carvin' me. But I judged best to quit, the
+first boat that put off. Ah, they're there yit, 'n' the mewl tew."
+
+"You'll find our train back there," said Thurstane. "You had better make
+for it. We'll recover your property."
+
+He dashed off at a full run for the butte, closely followed by Texas Smith
+and Coronado. The Mexican had the best horse, and he would soon have led
+the other two; but his saddle-girth burst, and in spite of his skill in
+riding he was nearly thrown. Texas Smith pulled up to aid his employer,
+but only for an instant, as Coronado called, "Go on."
+
+The borderer now spurred after Thurstane, who had got a dozen rods the
+lead of him. Coronado rapidly examined his saddle-bags and then his
+pockets without finding the cord or strap which he needed. He swore a
+little at this, but not with any poignant emotion, for in the first place
+fighting was not a thing that he yearned for, and in the second place he
+hardly anticipated a combat. The robbers, he felt certain, were only
+vagrant rancheros, or the cowardly Indians of some village, who would have
+neither the weapons nor the pluck to give battle.
+
+But suddenly an alarming suspicion crossed his mind. Would Texas Smith
+seize this chance to send a bullet through Thurstane's head from behind?
+Knowing the cutthroat's recklessness and his almost insane thirst for
+blood, he feared that this might happen. And there was the train in view;
+the deed would probably be seen, and, if so, would be seen as murder; and
+then would come pursuit of the assassin, with possibly his seizure and
+confession. It would not do; no, it would not do here and now; he must
+dash forward and prevent it.
+
+Swinging his saddle upon his horse's back, he vaulted into it without
+touching pommel or stirrup, and set off at full speed to arrest the blow
+which he desired. Over the plain flew the fiery animal, Coronado balancing
+himself in his unsteady seat with marvellous ease and grace, his dark eyes
+steadily watching every movement of the bushwhacker. There were sheets of
+bare rock here and there; there were loose slates and detached blocks of
+sandstone. The beast dashed across the first without slipping, and cleared
+the others without swerving; his rider bowed and swayed in the saddle
+without falling.
+
+Texas Smith was now within a few yards of Thurstane, and it could be seen
+that he had drawn his revolver. Coronado asked himself in horror whether
+the man had understood the words "Go on" as a command for murder. He was
+thinking very fast; he was thinking as fast as he rode. Once a terrible
+temptation came upon him: he might let the fatal shot be fired; then he
+might fire another. Thus he would get rid of Thurstane, and at the same
+time have the air of avenging him, while ridding himself of his dangerous
+bravo. But he rejected this plan almost as soon as he thought of it. He
+did not feel sure of bringing down Texas at the first fire, and if he did
+not, his own life was not worth a second's purchase. As for the fact that
+he had been lately saved from death by the borderer, that would not have
+checked Coronado's hand, even had he remembered it. He must dash on at
+full speed, and prevent a crime which would be a blunder. But already it
+was nearly too late, for the Texan was close upon the officer. Nothing
+could save the doomed man but Coronado's magnificent horsemanship. He
+seemed a part of his steed; he shot like a bird over the sheets and
+bowlders of rock; he was a wonder of speed and grace.
+
+Suddenly the outlaw's pistol rose to a level, and Coronado uttered a shout
+of anxiety and horror.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+At the shout which Coronado uttered on seeing Texas Smith's pistol aimed
+at Thurstane, the assassin turned his head, discovered the train, and,
+lowering his weapon, rode peacefully alongside of his intended victim.
+
+Captain Phin Glover's mule was found grazing behind the butte, in the
+midst of the gallant Captain's dishevelled baggage, while the robbers had
+vanished by a magic which seemed quite natural in this scenery of
+grotesque marvels. They had unquestionably seen or heard their pursuers;
+but how had they got into the bowels of the earth to escape them?
+
+Thurstane presently solved the mystery by pointing out three crouching
+figures on the flat cap of stone which surmounted the shales and marl of
+the butte. Bare feet and desperation of terror could alone explain how
+they had reached this impossible refuge. Texas Smith immediately consoled
+himself for his disappointment as to Thurstane by shooting two of these
+wretches before his hand could be stayed.
+
+"They're nothin' but Injuns," he said, with a savage glare, when the
+Lieutenant struck aside his revolver and called him a murdering brute.
+
+The third skulker took advantage of the cessation of firing to tumble down
+from his perch and fly for his life. The indefatigable Smith broke away
+from Thurstane, dashed after the pitiful fugitive, leaned over him as he
+ran, and shot him dead.
+
+"I have a great mind to blow your brains out, you beast," roared the
+disgusted officer, who had followed closely. "I told you not to shoot that
+man." And here he swore heartily, for which we must endeavor to forgive
+him, seeing that he belonged to the army.
+
+Coronado interfered. "My dear Lieutenant! after all, they were robbers.
+They deserved punishment." And so on.
+
+Texas Smith looked less angry and more discomfited than might have been
+expected, considering his hardening life and ferocious nature.
+
+"Didn't s'p'ose you really keered much for the cuss," he said, glancing
+respectfully at the imperious and angry face of the young officer.
+
+"Well, never mind now," growled Thurstane. "It's done, and can't be
+undone. But, by Jove, I do hate useless massacre. Fighting is another
+thing."
+
+Sheathing his fury, he rode off rapidly toward the wagons, followed in
+silence by the others. The three dead vagabonds (perhaps vagrants from the
+region of Abiquia) remained where they had fallen, one on the stony plain
+and two on the cap of the butte. The train, trending here toward the
+northwest, passed six hundred yards to the north of the scene of
+slaughter; and when Clara and Mrs. Stanley asked what had happened,
+Coronado told them with perfect glibness that the robbers had got away.
+
+The rescued man, delighted at his escape and the recovery of his mule and
+luggage, returned thanks right and left, with a volubility which further
+acquaintance showed to be one of his characteristics. He was a profuse
+talker; ran a stream every time you looked at him; it was like turning on
+a mill-race.
+
+"Yes, capm, out of Fair Haven," he said. "Been in the coastin' 'n' Wes'
+Injy trade. Had 'n unlucky time out las' few years. Had a schuner burnt in
+port, 'n' lost a brig at sea. Pooty much broke me up. Wife 'n' dahter gone
+into th' oyster-openin' business. Thought I'd try my han' at openin' gold
+mines in Californy. Jined a caravan at Fort Leavenworth, 'n' lost my
+reckonin's back here a ways."
+
+We must return to love matters. However amazing it may be that a man who
+has no conscience should nevertheless have a heart, such appears to have
+been the case with that abnormal creature Coronado. The desert had made
+him take a strong liking to Clara, and now that he had a rival at hand he
+became impassioned for her. He began to want to marry her, not alone for
+the sake of her great fortune, but also for her own sake. Her beauty
+unfolded and blossomed wonderfully before his ardent eyes; for he was
+under that mighty glamour of the emotions which enables us to see beauty
+in its completeness; he was favored with the greatest earthly second-sight
+which is vouchsafed to mortals.
+
+Only in a measure, however; the money still counted for much with him. He
+had already decided what he would do with the Muñoz fortune when he should
+get it. He would go to New York and lead a life of frugal extravagance,
+economical in comforts (as we understand them) and expensive in pleasures.
+New York, with its adjuncts of Saratoga and Newport, was to him what Paris
+is to many Americans. In his imagination it was the height of grandeur and
+happiness to have a box at the opera, to lounge in Broadway, and to dance
+at the hops of the Saratoga hotels. New Mexico! he would turn his back on
+it; he would never set eyes on its dull poverty again. As for Clara? Well,
+of course she would share in his gayeties; was not that enough for any
+reasonable woman?
+
+But here was this stumbling-block of a Thurstane. In the presence of a
+handsome rival, who, moreover, had started first in the race, slow was far
+from being sure. Coronado had discovered, by long experience in flirtation
+and much intelligent meditation upon it, that, if a man wants to win a
+woman, he must get her head full of him. He decided, therefore, that at
+the first chance he would give Clara distinctly to understand how ardently
+he was in love with her, and so set her to thinking especially of him, and
+of him alone. Meantime, he looked at her adoringly, insinuated
+compliments, performed little services, walked his horse much by her side,
+did his best in conversation, and in all ways tried to outshine the
+Lieutenant.
+
+He supposed that he did outshine him. A man of thirty always believes that
+he appears to better advantage than a man of twenty-three or four. He
+trusts that he has more ideas, that he commits fewer absurdities, that he
+carries more weight of character than his juvenile rival. Coronado was far
+more fluent than Thurstane; had a greater command over his moods and
+manners, and a larger fund of animal spirits; knew more about such social
+trifles as women like to hear of; and was, in short, a more amusing
+prattler of small talk. There was a steady seriousness about the young
+officer--something of the earnest sentimentality of the great Teutonic
+race--which the mercurial Mexican did not understand nor appreciate, and
+which he did not imagine could be fascinating to a woman. Knowing well how
+magnetic passion is in its guise of Southern fervor, he did not know that
+it is also potent under the cloak of Northern solemnity.
+
+Unluckily for Coronado, Clara was half Teutonic, and could comprehend the
+tone of her father's race. Notwithstanding Thurstane's shyness and
+silences, she discovered his moral weight and gathered his unspoken
+meanings. There was more in this girl than appeared on the surface.
+Without any power of reasoning concerning character, and without even a
+disposition to analyze it, she had an instinctive perception of it. While
+her talk was usually as simple as a child's, and her meditations on men
+and things were not a bit systematic or logical, her decisions and actions
+were generally just what they should be.
+
+Some one may wish to know whether she was clever enough to see through the
+character of Coronado. She was clever enough, but not corrupt enough. Very
+pure people cannot fully understand people who are very impure. It is
+probable that angels are considerably in the dark concerning the nature of
+the devil, and derive their disagreeable impression of him mainly from a
+consideration of his actions. Clara, limited to a narrow circle of good
+intentions and conduct, might not divine the wide regions of wickedness
+through which roved the soul of Coronado, and must wait to see his works
+before she could fairly bring him to judgment.
+
+Of course she perceived that in various ways he was insincere. When he
+prattled compliments and expressions of devotion, whether to herself or to
+others, she made Spanish allowance. It was polite hyperbole; it was about
+the same as saying good-morning; it was a cheerful way of talking that
+they had in Mexico; she knew thus much from her social experience. But
+while she cared little for his adulations, she did not because of them
+consider him a scoundrel, nor necessarily a hypocrite.
+
+Coronado found and improved opportunities to talk in asides with Clara.
+Thurstane, the modest, proud, manly youngster, who had no meannesses or
+trickeries by nature, and had learned none in his honorable profession,
+would not allow himself to break into these dialogues if they looked at
+all like confidences. The more he suspected that Coronado was courting
+Clara, the more resolutely and grimly he said to himself, "Stand back!"
+The girl should be perfectly free to choose between them; she should be
+influenced by no compulsions and no stratagems of his; was he not "an
+officer and a gentleman"?
+
+"By Jove! I am miserable for life," he thought when he suspected, as he
+sometimes did, that they two were in love. "I'll get myself killed in my
+next fight. I can't bear it. But I won't interfere. I'll do my duty as an
+honorable man. Of course she understands me."
+
+But just at this point Clara failed to understand him. It is asserted by
+some philosophers that women have less conscience about "cutting each
+other out," breaking up engagements, etc., than men have in such matters.
+Love-making and its results form such an all-important part of their
+existence, that they must occasionally allow success therein to overbear
+such vague, passionless ideas as principles, sentiments of honor, etc. It
+is, we fear, highly probable that if Clara had been in love with Ralph,
+and had seen her chance of empire threatened by a rival, she would have
+come out of that calm innocence which now seemed to enfold her whole
+nature, and would have done such things as girls may do to avert
+catastrophes of the affections. She now thought to herself, If he cares
+for me, how can he keep away from me when he sees Coronado making eyes at
+me? She was a little vexed with him for behaving so, and was consequently
+all the sweeter to his rival. This when Ralph would have risked his
+commission for a smile, and would have died to save her from a sorrow!
+
+Presently this slightly coquettish, yet very good and lovely little
+being--this seraph from one of Fra Angelica's pictures, endowed with a
+frailty or two of humanity--found herself the heroine of a trying scene.
+Coronado hastened it; he judged her ready to fall into his net; he managed
+the time and place for the capture. The train had been ascending for some
+hours, and had at last reached a broad plateau, a nearly even floor of
+sandstone, covered with a carpet of thin earth, the whole noble level bare
+to the eye at once, without a tree or a thicket to give it detail. It was
+a scene of tranquillity and monotony; no rains ever disturbed or remoulded
+the tabulated surface of soil; there, as distinct as if made yesterday,
+were the tracks of a train which had passed a year before.
+
+"Shall we take a gallop?" said Coronado. "No danger of ambushes here."
+
+Clara's eyes sparkled with youth's love of excitement, and the two horses
+sprang off at speed toward the centre of the plateau. After a glorious
+flight of five minutes, enjoyed for the most part in silence, as such
+swift delights usually are, they dropped into a walk two miles ahead of
+the wagons.
+
+"That was magnificent," Clara of course said, her face flushed with
+pleasure and exercise.
+
+"You are wonderfully handsome," observed Coronado, with an air of thinking
+aloud, which disguised the coarse directness of the flattery. In fact, he
+was so dazzled by her brilliant color, the sunlight in her disordered
+curls, and the joyous sparkling of her hazel eyes, that he spoke with an
+ingratiating honesty.
+
+Clara, who was in one of her unconscious and innocent moods, simply
+replied, "I suppose people are always handsome enough when they are
+happy."
+
+"Then I ought to be lovely," said Coronado. "I am happier than I ever was
+before."
+
+"Coronado, you look very well," observed Clara, turning her eyes on him
+with a grave expression which rather puzzled him. "This out-of-door life
+has done you good."
+
+"Then I don't look very well indoors?" he smiled.
+
+"You know what I mean, Coronado. Your health has improved, and your face
+shows it."
+
+Fearing that she was not in an emotional condition to be bewildered and
+fascinated by a declaration of love, he queried whether he had not better
+put off his enterprise until a more susceptible moment. Certainly, if he
+were without a rival; but there was Thurstane, ready any and every day to
+propose; it would not do to let _him_ have the first word, and cause the
+first heart-beat. Coronado believed that to make sure of winning the race
+he must take the lead at the start. Yes, he would offer himself now; he
+would begin by talking her into a receptive state of mind; that done, he
+would say with all his eloquence, "I love you."
+
+We must not suppose that the declaration would be a pure fib, or anything
+like it. The man had no conscience, and he was almost incomparably
+selfish, but he was capable of loving, and he did love. That is to say, he
+was inflamed by this girl's beauty and longed to possess it. It is a low
+species of affection, but it is capable of great violence in a man whose
+physical nature is ardent, and Coronado's blood could take a heat like
+lava. Already, although he had not yet developed his full power of
+longing, he wanted Clara as he had never wanted any woman before. We can
+best describe his kind of sentiment by that hungry, carnal word _wanted_.
+
+After riding in silent thought for a few rods, he said, "I have lost my
+good looks now, I suppose."
+
+"What do you mean, Coronado?"
+
+"They depend on my happiness, and that is gone."
+
+"Coronado, you are playing riddles."
+
+"This table-land reminds me of my own life. Do you see that it has no
+verdure? I have been just as barren of all true happiness. There has been
+no fruit or blossom of true affection for me to gather. You know that I
+lost my excellent father and my sainted mother when I was a child. I was
+too young to miss them; but for all that the bereavement was the same;
+there was the less love for me. It seems as if there had been none."
+
+"Garcia has been good to you--of late," suggested Clara, rather puzzled to
+find consolation for a man whose misery was so new to her.
+
+Remembering what a scoundrel Garcia was, and what a villainous business
+Garcia had sent him upon, Coronado felt like smiling. He knew that the old
+man had no sentiments beyond egotism, and a family pride which mainly, if
+not entirely, sprang from it. Such a heart as Garcia's, what a place to
+nestle in! Such a creature as Coronado seeking comfort in such a breast as
+his uncle's was very much like a rattlesnake warming himself in a hole of
+a rock.
+
+"Ah, yes!" sighed Coronado. "Admirable old gentleman! I should not have
+forgotten him. However, he is a solace which comes rather late. It is only
+two years since he perceived that he had done me injustice, and received
+me into favor. And his affection is somewhat cold. Garcia is an old man
+laden with affairs. Moreover, men in general have little sympathy with
+men. When we are saddened, we do not look to our own sex for cheer. We
+look to yours."
+
+Almost every woman responds promptly to a claim for pity.
+
+"I am sorry for you, Coronado," said Clara, in her artless way. "I am,
+truly."
+
+"You do not know, you cannot know, how you console me."
+
+Satisfied with the results of his experiment in boring for sympathy, he
+tried another, a dangerous one, it would seem, but very potent when it
+succeeds.
+
+"This lack of affection has had sad results. I have searched everywhere
+for it, only to meet with disappointment. In my desperation I have
+searched where I should not. I have demanded true love of people who had
+no true love to give. And for this error and wrong I have been terribly
+punished. The mere failure of hope and trust has been hard enough to bear.
+But that was not the half. Shame, self-contempt, remorse have been an
+infinitely heavier burden. If any man was ever cured of trusting for
+happiness to a wicked world, it is Coronado."
+
+In spite of his words and his elaborately penitent expression, Clara only
+partially understood him. Some kind of evil life he was obviously
+confessing, but what kind she only guessed in the vaguest fashion.
+However, she comprehended enough to interest her warmly: here was a
+penitent sinner who had forsaken ways of wickedness; here was a struggling
+soul which needed encouragement and tenderness. A woman loves to believe
+that she can be potent over hearts, and especially that she can be potent
+for good. Clara fixed upon Coronado's face a gaze of compassion and
+benevolence which was almost superhuman. It should have shamed him into
+honesty; but he was capable of trying to deceive the saints and the
+Virgin; he merely decided that she was in a fit frame to accept him.
+
+"At last I have a faint hope of a sure and pure happiness," he said. "I
+have found one who I know can strengthen me and comfort me, if she will. I
+am seeking to be worthy of her. I am worthy of her so far as adoration can
+make me. I am ready to surrender my whole life--all that I am and that I
+can be--to her."
+
+Clara had begun to guess his meaning; the quick blood was already flooding
+her cheek; the light in her eyes was tremulous with agitation.
+
+"Clara, you must know what I mean," continued Coronado, suddenly reaching
+his hand toward her, as if to take her captive. "You are the only person I
+ever loved. I love you with all my soul. Can your heart ever respond to
+mine? Can you ever bring yourself to be my wife?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+When Coronado proposed to Clara, she was for a moment stricken dumb with
+astonishment and with something like terror.
+
+Her first idea was that she must take him; that the mere fact of a man
+asking for her gave him a species of right over her; that there was no
+such thing possible as answering, No. She sat looking at Coronado with a
+helpless, timorous air, very much as a child looks at his father, when the
+father, switching his rattan, says, "Come with me."
+
+On recovering herself a little, her first words--uttered slowly, in a tone
+of surprise and of involuntary reproach--were, "Oh, Coronado! I did not
+expect this."
+
+"Can't you answer me?" he asked in a voice which was honestly tremulous
+with emotion. "Can't you say yes?"
+
+"Oh, Coronado!" repeated Clara, a good deal touched by his agitation.
+
+"Can't you?" he pleaded. Repetitions, in such cases, are so natural and so
+potent.
+
+"Let me think, Coronado," she implored. "I can't answer you now. You have
+taken me so by surprise!"
+
+"Every moment that you take to think is torture to me," he pleaded, as he
+continued to press her.
+
+Perhaps she was on the point of giving way before his insistence. Consider
+the advantages that he had over her in this struggle of wills for the
+mastery. He was older by ten years; he possessed both the adroitness of
+self-command and the energy of passion; he had a long experience in love
+matters, while she had none. He was the proclaimed heir of a man reputed
+wealthy, and could therefore, as she believed, support her handsomely.
+Since the death of her father she considered Garcia the head of her family
+in New Mexico; and Coronado had had the face to tell her that he made his
+offer with the approval of Garcia. Then she was under supposed obligations
+to him, and he was to be her protector across the desert.
+
+She was as it were reeling in her saddle, when a truly Spanish idea saved
+her.
+
+"Muñoz!" she exclaimed. "Coronado, you forget my grandfather. He should
+know of this."
+
+Although the man was unaccustomed to start, he drew back as if a ghost had
+confronted him; and even when he recovered from his transitory emotion, he
+did not at first know how to answer her. It would not do to say, "Muñoz is
+dead," and much less to add, "You are his heir."
+
+"We are Americans," he at last argued. "Spanish customs are dead and
+buried. Can't you speak for yourself on a matter which concerns you and me
+alone?"
+
+"Coronado, I think it would not be right," she replied, holding firmly to
+her position. "It is probable that my grandfather would be better pleased
+to have this matter referred to him. I ought to consider him, and you must
+let me do so."
+
+"I submit," he bowed, seeing that there was no help for it, and deciding
+to make a grace of necessity. "It pains me, but I submit. Let me hope that
+you will not let this pass from your mind. Some day, when it is proper, I
+shall speak again."
+
+He was not wholly dissatisfied, for he trusted that henceforward her head
+would be full of him, and he had not much hoped to gain more in a first
+effort.
+
+"I shall always be proud and gratified at the compliment you have paid
+me," was her reply to his last request.
+
+"You deserve many such compliments," he said, gravely courteous and quite
+sincere.
+
+Then they cantered back in silence to meet the advancing train.
+
+Yes, Coronado was partly satisfied. He believed that he had gained a
+firmer footing among the girl's thoughts and emotions than had been gained
+by Thurstane. In a degree he was right. No sensitive, and pure, and good
+girl can receive her first offer without being much moved by it. The man
+who has placed himself at her feet will affect her strongly. She may begin
+to dread him, or begin to like him more than before; but she cannot remain
+utterly indifferent to him. The probability is that, unless subsequent
+events make him disagreeable to her, she will long accord him a measure of
+esteem and gratitude.
+
+For two or three days, while Clara was thinking much of Coronado, he gave
+her less than usual of his society. Believing that her mind was occupied
+with him, that she was wondering whether he were angry, unhappy, etc., he
+remained a good deal apart, wrapped himself in sadness, and trusted that
+time would do much for him. Had there been no rival, the plan would have
+been a good one; but Ralph Thurstane being present, it was less
+successful.
+
+Ralph had already become more of a favorite than any one knew, even the
+young lady herself; and now that he found chances for long talks and short
+gallops with her, he got on better than ever. He was just the kind of
+youngster a girl of eighteen would naturally like to have ride by her
+side. He was handsome; at any rate, he was the handsomest man she had seen
+in the desert, and the desert was just then her sphere of society. You
+could see in his figure how strong he was, and in his face how brave he
+was. He was a good fellow, too; "tendir and trew" as the Douglas of the
+ballad; sincere, frank, thoroughly truthful and honorable. Every way he
+seemed to be that being that a woman most wants, a potential and devoted
+protector. Whenever Clara looked in his face her eyes said, without her
+knowledge, "I trust you."
+
+Now, as we have already stated, Thurstane's eyes were uncommonly fine and
+expressive. Of the very darkest blue that ever was seen in anybody's head,
+and shaded, moreover, by remarkably long chestnut lashes, they had the
+advantages of both blue eyes and black ones, being as gentle as the one
+and as fervent as the other. Accordingly, a sort of optical conversation
+commenced between the two young people. Every time that Clara's glance
+said, "I trust you," Thurstane's responded, "I will die for you." It was a
+perilous sort of dialogue, and liable to involve the two souls which
+looked out from these sparkling, transparent windows. Before long the
+Lieutenant's modest heart took courage, and his stammering tongue began to
+be loosed somewhat, so that he uttered things which frightened both him
+and Clara. Not that the remarks were audacious in themselves, but he was
+conscious of so much unexpressed meaning behind them, and she was so ready
+to guess that there might be such a meaning!
+
+It seems ridiculous that a fellow who could hold his head straight up
+before a storm of cannon shot, should be positively bashful. Yet so it
+was. The boy had been through West Point, to be sure; but he had studied
+there, and not flirted; the Academy had not in any way demoralized him. On
+the whole, in spite of swearing under gross provocation, and an
+inclination toward strictness in discipline, he answered pretty well for a
+Bayard.
+
+His bashfulness was such, at least in the presence of Clara, that he
+trembled to the tips of his fingers in merely making this remark: "Miss
+Van Diemen, this journey is the pleasantest thing in my whole life."
+
+Clara blushed until she dazzled him and seemed to burn herself.
+Nevertheless she was favored with her usual childlike artlessness of
+speech, and answered, "I am glad you find it agreeable."
+
+Nothing more from Ralph for a minute; he was recovering his breath and
+self-possession.
+
+"You cannot think how much safer I feel because you and your men are with
+us," said Clara.
+
+Thurstane unconsciously gripped the handle of his sabre, with a feeling
+that he could and would massacre all the Indians of the desert, if it were
+necessary to preserve her from harm.
+
+"Yes, you may rely upon my men, too," he declared. "They have a sort of
+adoration for you."
+
+"Have they?" asked Clara, with a frank smile of pleasure. "I wonder at it.
+I hardly notice them. I ought to, they seem so patient and trusty."
+
+"Ah, a lady!" said Thurstane. "A good soldier will die any time for a
+lady."
+
+Then he wondered how she could have failed to guess that she must be
+worshipped by these rough men for her beauty.
+
+"I have overheard them talking about you," he went on, gratified at being
+able to praise her to her face, though in the speech of others. "Little
+Sweeny says, in his Irish brogue, 'I can march twic't as fur for the
+seein' av her!'"
+
+"Oh! did he?" laughed Clara. "I must carry Sweeny's musket for him some
+time."
+
+"Don't, if you please," said Thurstane, the disciplinarian rising in him.
+"You would spoil him for the service."
+
+"Can't I send him a dish from our table?"
+
+"That would just suit his case. He hasn't got broken to hard-tack yet."
+
+"Miss Van Diemen," was his next remark, "do you know what you are to do,
+if we are attacked?"
+
+"I am to get into a wagon."
+
+"Into which wagon?"
+
+"Into my aunt's."
+
+"Why into that one?"
+
+"So as to have all the ladies together."
+
+"When you have got into the wagon, what next?"
+
+"Lie down on the floor to protect myself from the arrows."
+
+"Very good," laughed Thurstane. "You say your tactics well."
+
+This catechism had been put and recited every day since he had joined the
+train. The putting of it was one of the Lieutenant's duties and pleasures;
+and, notwithstanding its prophecy of peril, Clara enjoyed it almost as
+much as he.
+
+Well, we have heard these two talk, and much in their usual fashion. Not
+great souls as yet: they may indeed become such some day; but at present
+they are only mature in moral power and in capacity for mighty emotions.
+Information, mental development, and conversational ability hereafter.
+
+In one way or another two or three of these tête-à-têtes were brought
+about every day. Thurstane wanted them all the time; would have been glad
+to make life one long dialogue with Miss Van Diemen; found an aching void
+in every moment spent away from her. Clara, too, in spite of maidenly
+struggles with herself, began to be of this way of feeling. Wonderful
+place the Great American Desert for falling in love!
+
+Coronado soon guessed, and with good reason, that the seed which he had
+sown in the girl's mind was being replaced by other germs, and that he had
+blundered in trusting that she would think of him while she was talking
+with Thurstane. The fear of losing her increased his passion for her, and
+made him hate his rival with correlative fervor.
+
+"Why don't you find a chance at that fellow?" he muttered to his bravo,
+Texas Smith.
+
+"How the h--l kin I do it?" growled the bushwhacker, feeling that his
+intelligence and courage were unjustly called in question. "He's allays
+around the train, an' his sojers allays handy. I hain't had nary chance."
+
+"Take him off on a hunt."
+
+"He ain't a gwine. I reckon he knows himself. I'm afeard to praise huntin'
+much to him; he might get on my trail. Tell you these army chaps is resky.
+I never wanted to meddle with them kind o' close. You know I said so. I
+said so, fair an' square, I did."
+
+"You might manage it somehow, if you had the pluck."
+
+"Had the pluck!" repeated Texas Smith. His sallow, haggard face turned
+dusky with rage, and his singularly black eyes flamed as if with
+hell-fire. A Malay, crazed with opium and ready to run _amok_, could not
+present a more savage spectacle than this man did as he swayed in his
+saddle, grinding his teeth, clutching his rifle, and glaring at Coronado.
+What chiefly infuriated him was that the insult should come from one whom
+he considered a "greaser," a man of inferior race. He, Texas Smith, an
+American, a _white man_, was treated as if he were an "Injun" or a
+"nigger." Coronado was thoroughly alarmed, and smoothed his ruffled
+feathers at once.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said, promptly. "My dear Mr. Smith, I was entirely
+wrong. Of course I know that you have courage. Everybody knows it.
+Besides, I am under the greatest obligations to you. You saved my life. By
+heavens, I am horribly ashamed of my injustice."
+
+A minute or so of this fluent apologizing calmed the bushwhacker's rage
+and soothed his injured feelings.
+
+"But you oughter be keerful how you talk that way to a white man," he
+said. "No white man, if he's a gentleman, can stan' being told he hain't
+got no pluck."
+
+"Certainly," assented Coronado. "Well, I have apologized. What more can I
+do?"
+
+"Square, you're all right now," said the forgiving Texan, stretching out
+his bony, dirty hand and grasping Coronado's. "But don't say it agin.
+White men can't stan' sech talk. Well, about this feller--I'll see, I'll
+see. Square, I'll try to do what's right."
+
+As Coronado rode away from this interview, he ground his teeth with rage
+and mortification, muttering, "A _white_ man! a _white_ man! So I am a
+black man. Yes, I am a greaser. Curse this whole race of English-speaking
+people!"
+
+After a while he began to think to the purpose. He too must work; he must
+not trust altogether to Texas Smith; the scoundrel might flinch, or might
+fail. Something must be done to separate Clara and Thurstane. What should
+it be? Here we are almost ashamed of Coronado. The trick that he hit upon
+was the stalest, the most threadbare, the most commonplace and vulgar that
+one can imagine. It was altogether unworthy of such a clever and
+experienced conspirator. His idea was this: to get lost with Clara for one
+night; in the morning to rejoin the train. Thurstane would be disgusted,
+and would unquestionably give up the girl entirely when Coronado should
+say to him, "It was a very unlucky accident, but I have done what a
+gentleman should, and we are engaged."
+
+This coarse, dastardly, and rather stupid stratagem he put into execution
+as quickly as possible. There were some dangers to be guarded against, as
+for instance Apaches, and the chance of getting lost in reality.
+
+"Have an eye upon me to-day," he suggested to Texas. "If I leave the train
+with any one, follow me and keep a lookout for Indians. Only stay out of
+sight."
+
+Now for an opportunity to lead Clara astray. The region was favorable;
+they were in an arid land of ragged sandstone spurs and buttes; it would
+be necessary to march until near sunset, in order to find water and
+pasturage. Consequently there was both time and scenery for his project.
+Late in the afternoon the train crossed a narrow _mesa_ or plateau, and
+approached a sublime terrace of rock which was the face of a second
+table-land. This terrace was cleft by several of those wonderful grooves
+which are known as cañons, and which were wrought by that mighty
+water-force, the sculpturer of the American desert. In one place two of
+these openings were neighbors: the larger was the route and the smaller
+led nowhere.
+
+"Let the train pass on," suggested Coronado to Clara. "If you will ride
+with me up this little cañon, you will find some of the most exquisite
+scenery imaginable. It rejoins the large one further on. There is no
+danger."
+
+Clara would have preferred not to go, or would have preferred to go with
+Thurstane.
+
+"My dear child, what do you mean?" urged Aunt Maria, looking out of her
+wagon. "Mr. Coronado, I'll ride there with you myself."
+
+The result of the dialogue which ensued was that, after the train had
+entered the gorge of the larger cañon, Coronado and Clara turned back and
+wandered up the smaller one, followed at a distance by Texas Smith. In
+twenty minutes they were separated from the wagons by a barrier of
+sandstone several hundred feet high, and culminating in a sharp ridge or
+frill of rocky points, not unlike the spiny back of a John Dory. The
+scenery, although nothing new to Clara, was such as would be considered in
+any other land amazing. Vast walls on either side, consisting mainly of
+yellow sandstone, were variegated with white, bluish, and green shales,
+with layers of gypsum of the party-colored marl series, with long lines of
+white limestone so soft as to be nearly earth, and with red and green
+foliated limestone mixed with blood-red shales. The two wanderers seemed
+to be amid the landscapes of a Christmas drama as they rode between these
+painted precipices toward a crimson, sunset.
+
+It was a perfect solitude. There was not a breath of life besides their
+own in this gorgeous valley of desolation. The ragged, crumbling
+battlements, and the loftier points of harder rock, would not have
+furnished subsistence for a goat or a mouse. Color was everywhere and life
+nowhere: it was such a region as one might look for in the moon; it did
+not seem to belong to an inhabited planet.
+
+Before they had ridden half an hour the sun went down suddenly behind
+serrated steeps, and almost immediately night hastened in with his
+obscurities. Texas Smith, riding hundreds of yards in the rear and
+concealing himself behind the turning points of the cañon, was obliged to
+diminish his distance in order to keep them under his guard. Clara had
+repeatedly expressed her doubts as to the road, and Coronado had as often
+asserted that they would soon see the train. At last the ravine became a
+gully, winding up a breast of shadowy mountain cumbered with loose rocks,
+and impassable to horses.
+
+"We are lost," confessed Coronado, and then proceeded to console her. The
+train could not be far off; their friends would undoubtedly seek them; at
+all events, would not go on without them. They must bivouac there as well
+as might be, and in the morning rejoin the caravan.
+
+He had been forethoughted enough to bring two blankets on his saddle, and
+he now spread them out for her, insisting that she should try to sleep.
+Clara cried frankly and heartily, and begged him to lead her back through
+the cañon. No; it could not be traversed by night, he asserted; they would
+certainly break their necks among the bowlders. At last the girl suffered
+herself to be wrapped in the blankets, and made an endeavor to forget her
+wretchedness and vexation in slumber.
+
+Meantime, a few hundred yards down the ravine, a tragedy was on the verge
+of action. Thurstane, missing Coronado and Clara, and learning what
+direction they had taken, started with two of his soldiers to find them,
+and was now picking his way on foot along the cañon. Behind a detached
+rock at the base of one of the sandstone walls Texas Smith lay in ambush,
+aiming his rifle first at one and then at another of this stumbling trio,
+and cursing the starlight because it was so dim that he could not
+positively distinguish which was the officer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+For the second time within a week, Texas Smith found himself upon the
+brink of opportunity, without being able (as he had phrased it to
+Coronado) to do what was right.
+
+He levelled at Thurstane, and then it did not seem to be Thurstane; he had
+a dead sure sight at Kelly, and then perceived that that was an error; he
+drew a bead on Shubert, and still he hesitated. He could distinguish the
+Lieutenant's voice, but he could not fix upon the figure which uttered it.
+
+It was exasperating. Never had an assassin been better ambuscaded. He was
+kneeling behind a little ridge of sandstone; about a foot below its edge
+was an orifice made by the rains and winds of bygone centuries; through
+this, as through an embrasure, he had thrust his rifle. Not a chance of
+being hit by a return shot, while after the enemy's fire had been drawn he
+could fly down the ravine, probably without discovery and certainly
+without recognition. His horse was tethered below, behind another rock;
+and he felt positive that these men had not come upon it. He could mount,
+drive their beasts before him into the plain, and then return to camp. No
+need of explaining his absence; he was the head hunter of the expedition;
+it was his business to wander.
+
+All this was so easy to do, if he could only take the first step. But he
+dared not fire lest he should merely kill a soldier, and so make an uproar
+and rouse suspicions without the slightest profit. It was not probable
+that Coronado would pay him for shooting the wrong man, and setting on
+foot a dangerous investigation. So the desperado continued to peer through
+the dim night, cursing his stars and everybody's stars for not shining
+better, and seeing his opportunity slip rapidly away. After Thurstane and
+the others had passed, after the chance of murder had stalked by him like
+a ghost and vanished, he left his ambush, glided down the ravine to his
+horse, waked him up with a vindictive kick, leaped into the saddle, and
+hastened to camp. To inquiries about the lost couple he replied in his
+sullen, brief way that he had not seen them; and when urged to go to their
+rescue, he of course set off in the wrong direction and travelled but a
+short distance.
+
+Meantime Ralph had found the captives of the cañon. Clara, wrapped in her
+blankets, was lying at the foot of a rock, and crying while she pretended
+to sleep. Coronado, unable to make her talk, irritated by the faint sobs
+which he overheard, but stubbornly resolved on carrying out his stupid
+plot, had retired in a state of ill-humor unusual with him to another
+rock, and was consoling himself by smoking cigarito after cigarito. The
+two horses, tied together neck and crupper, were fasting near by. As
+Coronado had forgotten to bring food with him, Clara was also fasting.
+
+Think of Apaches, and imagine the terror with which she caught the sounds
+of approach, the heavy, stumbling steps through the darkness. Then imagine
+the joy with which she recognized Thurstane's call and groped to meet him.
+In the dizziness of her delight, and amid the hiding veils of the
+obscurity, it did not seem wrong nor unnatural to fall against his arm and
+be supported by it for a moment. Ralph received this touch, this shock, as
+if it had been a ball; and his nature bore the impress of it as long as if
+it had made a scar. In his whole previous life he had not felt such a
+thrill of emotion; it was almost too powerful to be adequately described
+as a pleasure.
+
+Next came Coronado, as happy as a disappointed burglar whose cue it is to
+congratulate the rescuing policeman. "My dear Lieutenant! You are heaven's
+own messenger. You have saved us from a horrible night. But it is
+prodigious; it is incredible. You must have come here by enchantment. How
+in God's name could you find your way up this fearful cañon?"
+
+"The cañon is perfectly passable on foot," replied the young officer,
+stiffly and angrily. "By Jove, sir! I don't see why you didn't make a
+start to get out. This is a pretty place to lodge Miss Van Diemen."
+
+Coronado took off his hat and made a bow of submission and regret, which
+was lost in the darkness.
+
+"I must say," Thurstane went on grumbling, "that, for a man who claims to
+know this country, your management has been very singular."
+
+Clara, fearful of a quarrel, slightly pressed his arm and checked this
+volcano with the weight of a feather.
+
+"We are not all like you, my dear Lieutenant," said Coronado, in a tone
+which might have been either apologetical or ironical. "You must make
+allowance for ordinary human nature."
+
+"I beg pardon," returned Thurstane, who was thinking now chiefly of that
+pressure on his arm. "The truth is, I was alarmed for your safety. I can't
+help feeling responsibility on this expedition, although it is your train.
+My military education runs me into it, I suppose. Well, excuse my
+excitement. Miss Van Diemen, may I help you back through the gully?"
+
+In leaning on him, being guided by him, being saved by him, trusting in
+him, the girl found a pleasure which was irresistible, although it seemed
+audacious and almost sinful. Before the cañon was half traversed she felt
+as if she could go on with him through the great dark valley of life,
+confiding in his strength and wisdom to lead her aright and make her
+happy. It was a temporary wave of emotion, but she remembered it long
+after it had passed.
+
+Around the fires, after a cup of hot coffee, amid the odors of a plentiful
+supper, recounting the evening's adventure to Mrs. Stanley, Coronado was
+at his best. How he rolled out the English language! Our mother tongue
+hardly knew itself, it ran so fluently and sounded so magniloquently and
+lied so naturally. He praised everybody but himself; he praised Clara,
+Thurstane, and the two soldiers and the horses; he even said a flattering
+word or two for Divine Providence. Clara especially, and the whole of her
+heroic, more than human sex, demanded his enthusiastic admiration. How she
+had borne the terrors of the night and the desert! "Ah, Mrs. Stanley! only
+you women are capable of such efforts."
+
+Aunt Maria's Olympian head nodded, and her cheerful face, glowing with tea
+and the camp fires, confessed "Certainly!"
+
+"What nonsense, Coronado!" said Clara. "I was horribly frightened, and you
+know it."
+
+Aunt Maria frowned with surprise and denial. "Absurd, child! You were not
+frightened at all. Of course you were not. Why, even if you had been
+slightly timorous, you had your cousin to protect you."
+
+"Ah, Mrs. Stanley, I am a poor knight-errant," said Coronado. "We Mexicans
+are no longer formidable. One man of your Anglo-Saxon blood is supposed to
+be a better defence than a dozen of us. We have been subdued; we must
+submit to depreciation. I must confess, in fact, that I had my fears. I
+was greatly relieved on my cousin's account when I heard the voice of our
+military chieftain here."
+
+Then came more flattery for Ralph, with proper rations for the two
+privates. Those faithful soldiers--he must show his gratitude to them; he
+had forgotten them in the basest manner. "Here, Pedronillo, take these
+cigaritos to privates Kelly and Shubert, with my compliments. Begging
+_your_ permission, Lieutenant. _Thank_ you."
+
+"Pooty tonguey man, that Seenor," observed Captain Phineas Glover to Mrs.
+Stanley, when the Mexican went off to his blankets.
+
+"Yes; a very agreeable and eloquent gentleman," replied the lady, wishing
+to correct the skipper's statement while seeming to assent to it.
+
+"Jess so," admitted Glover. "Ruther airy. Big talkin' man. Don't raise no
+sech our way."
+
+Captain Glover was not fully aware that he himself had the fame of
+possessing an imagination which was almost too much for the facts of this
+world.
+
+"S'pose it's in the breed," he continued. "Or likely the climate has
+suthin' to do with it: kinder thaws out the words 'n' sets the idees
+a-bilin'. Niggers is pooty much the same. Most niggers kin talk like a
+line runnin' out, 'n' tell lies 's fast 's our Fair Haven gals open
+oysters--a quart a minute."
+
+"Captain Glover, what do you mean?" frowned Aunt Maria. "Mr. Coronado is a
+friend of mine."
+
+"Oh, I was speakin' of niggers," returned the skipper promptly. "Forgot we
+begun about the Seenor. Sho! niggers was what I was talkin' of. B' th'
+way, that puts me in mind 'f one I had for cook once. Jiminy! how that man
+would cook! He'd cook a slice of halibut so you wouldn't know it from
+beefsteak."
+
+"Dear me! how did he do it?" asked Aunt Maria, who had a fancy for kitchen
+mysteries.
+
+"Never could find out," said Glover, stepping adroitly out of his
+difficulty. "Don't s'pose that nigger would a let on how he did it for ten
+dollars."
+
+"I should think the receipt would be worth ten dollars," observed Aunt
+Maria thoughtfully.
+
+"Not 'xactly here," returned the captain, with one of his dried smiles,
+which had the air of having been used a great many times before. "Halibut
+too skurce. Wal, I was goin' to tell ye 'bout this nigger. He come to be
+the cook he was because he was a big eater. We was wrecked once, 'n' had
+to live three days on old shoes 'n' that sort 'f truck. Wal, this nigger
+was so darned ravenous he ate up a pair o' long boots in the time it took
+me to git down one 'f the straps."
+
+"Ate up a pair of boots!" exclaimed Aunt Maria, amazed and almost
+incredulous.
+
+"Yes, by thunder!" insisted the captain, "grease, nails, 'n' all. An' then
+went at the patent leather forepiece 'f his cap."
+
+"What privations!" said Aunt Maria, staring fit to burst her spectacles.
+
+"Oh, that's nothin'," chuckled Glover. "I'll tell ye suthin' some time
+that 'll astonish ye. But jess now I'm sleepy, 'n' I guess I'll turn in."
+
+"Mr. Cluvver, it is your durn on card do-night," interposed Meyer, the
+German sergeant, as the captain was about to roll himself in his blankets.
+
+"So 'tis," returned Glover in well feigned astonishment. "Don't forgit a
+feller, do ye, Sergeant? How 'n the world do ye keep the 'count so
+straight? Oh, got a little book there, hey, with all our names down. Wal,
+that's shipshape. You'd make a pooty good mate, Sergeant. When does my
+watch begin?"
+
+"Right away. You're always on the virst relief. You'll fall in down there
+at the gorner of the vagon bark."
+
+"Wal--yes--s'pose I will," sighed the skipper, as he rolled up his
+blankets and prepared for two hours' sentry duty.
+
+Let us look into the arrangements for the protection of the caravan. With
+Coronado's consent Thurstane had divided the eighteen Indians and
+Mexicans, four soldiers, Texas Smith, and Glover, twenty-four men in all,
+into three equal squads, each composed of a sergeant, corporal, and six
+privates. Meyer was sergeant of one squad, the Irish veteran Kelly had
+another, and Texas Smith the third. Every night a detachment went on duty
+in three reliefs, each relief consisting of two men, who stood sentry for
+two hours, at the end of which time they were relieved by two others.
+
+The six wagons were always parked in an oblong square, one at each end and
+two on each side; but in order to make the central space large enough for
+camping purposes, they were placed several feet apart; the gaps being
+closed with lariats, tied from wheel to wheel, to pen in the animals and
+keep out charges of Apache cavalry. On either flank of this enclosure, and
+twenty yards or so distant from it, paced a sentry. Every two hours, as we
+have said, they were relieved, and in the alternate hours the posts were
+visited by the sergeant or corporal of the guard, who took turns in
+attending to this service. The squad that came off duty in the morning was
+allowed during the day to take naps in the wagons, and was not put upon
+the harder camp labor, such as gathering firewood, going for water, etc.
+
+The two ladies and the Indian women slept at night in the wagons, not only
+because the canvas tops protected them from wind and dew, but also because
+the wooden sides would shield them from arrows. The men who were not on
+guard lay under the vehicles so as to form a cordon around the mules.
+Thurstane and Coronado, the two chiefs of this armed migration, had their
+alternate nights of command, each when off duty sleeping in a special
+wagon known as "headquarters," but holding himself ready to rise at once
+in case of an alarm.
+
+The cooking fires were built away from the park, and outside the beats of
+the sentries. The object was twofold: first, to keep sparks from lighting
+on the wagon covers; second, to hide the sentries from prowling archers.
+At night you can see everything between yourself and a fire, but nothing
+beyond it. As long as the wood continued to blaze, the most adroit Indian
+skulker could not approach the camp without exposing himself, while the
+guards and the garrison were veiled from his sight by a wall of darkness
+behind a dazzle of light.
+
+Such were the bivouac arrangements, intelligent, systematic, and military.
+Not only had our Lieutenant devised them, but he saw to it that they were
+kept in working order. He was zealously and faithfully seconded by his
+men, and especially by his two veterans. There is no human machine more
+accurate and trustworthy than an old soldier, who has had year on year of
+the discipline and drill of a regular service, and who has learned to
+carry out instructions to the letter.
+
+The arrangements for the march were equally thorough and judicious. Texas
+Smith, as the Nimrod of the party, claimed the right of going where he
+pleased; but while he hunted, he of course served also as a scout to nose
+out danger. The six Mexicans, who were nominally cattle-drivers, but
+really Coronado's minor bravos, were never suffered to ride off in a body,
+and were expected to keep on both sides of the train, some in advance and
+some in rear. The drivers and muleteers remained steadily with their
+wagons and animals. The four soldiers were also at hand, trudging close in
+front or in rear, accoutrements always on and muskets always loaded.
+
+In this fashion the expedition had already journeyed over two hundred and
+twenty miles. Following Colonel Washington's trail, it had crossed the
+ranges of mountains immediately west of Abiquia, and, striking the Rio de
+Chaco, had tracked its course for some distance with the hope of reaching
+the San Juan. Stopped by a cañon, a precipitous gully hundreds of feet
+deep, through which the Chaco ran like a chased devil, the wagons had
+turned westward, and then had been forced by impassable ridges and lack of
+water into a southwest direction, at last gaining and crossing Pass
+Washington.
+
+It was now on the western side of the Sierra de Chusca, in the rude,
+barren country over which Fort Defiance stands sentry. Ever since the
+second day after leaving San Isidore it had been on the great western
+slope of the continent, where every drop of water tends toward the
+Pacific. The pilgrims would have had cause to rejoice could they have
+travelled as easily as the drops of water, and been as certain of their
+goal. But the rivers had made roads for themselves, and man had not yet
+had time to do likewise.
+
+The great central plateau of North America is a Mer de Glace in stone. It
+is a continent of rock, gullied by furious rivers; plateau on plateau of
+sandstone, with sluiceways through which lakes have escaped; the whole
+surface gigantically grotesque with the carvings of innumerable waters.
+What is remarkable in the scenery is, that its sublimity is an inversion
+of the sublimity of almost all other grand scenery. It is not so much the
+heights that are prodigious as the abysses. At certain points in the
+course of the Colorado of the West you can drop a plumb line six thousand
+feet before it will reach the bosom of the current; and you can only gain
+the water level by turning backward for scores of miles and winding
+laboriously down some subsidiary cañon, itself a chasm of awful grandeur.
+
+Our travellers were now amid wild labyrinths of ranges, and buttes, and
+cañons, which were not so much a portion of the great plateau as they were
+the _débris_ that constituted its flanks. Although thousands of feet above
+the level of the sea, they still had thousands of feet to ascend before
+they could dominate the desert. Wild as the land was, it was thus far
+passable, while toward the north lay the untraversable. What course should
+be taken? Coronado, who had crimes to commit and to conceal, did not yet
+feel that he was far enough from the haunts of man. As soon as possible he
+must again venture a push northward.
+
+But not immediately. The mules were fagged with hard work, weak with want
+of sufficient pasture, and had suffered much from thirst. He resolved to
+continue westward to the pueblas of the Moquis, that interesting race of
+agricultural and partially civilized Indians, perhaps the representatives
+of the architects of the Casas Grandes if not also descended from the
+mound-builders of the Mississippi valley. Having rested and refitted
+there, he might start anew for the San Juan.
+
+Thus far they had seen no Indians except the vagrants who had robbed
+Phineas Glover. But they might now expect to meet them; they were in a
+region which was the raiding ground of four great tribes: the Utes on the
+north, the Navajos on the west, the Apaches on the south, and the
+Comanches on the east. The peaceful and industrious Moquis, with their gay
+and warm blankets, their fields of corn and beans, and their flocks of
+sheep, are the quarry which attracts this ferocious cavalry of the desert,
+these Tartars and Bedouin of America.
+
+Thurstane took more pains than ever with the guard duty. Coronado,
+unmilitary though he was, and heartily as he abominated the Lieutenant,
+saw the wisdom of submitting to the latter's discipline, and made all his
+people submit. A practical-minded man, he preferred to owe the safety of
+his carcass to his rival rather than have it impaled on Apache lances.
+Occasionally, however, he made a suggestion.
+
+"It is very well, this night-watching," he once observed, "but what we
+have most to fear is the open daylight. These mounted Indians seldom
+attack in the darkness."
+
+Thurstane knew all this, but he did not say so; for he was a wise,
+considerate commander already, and he had learned not to chill an
+informant. He looked at Coronado inquiringly, as if to say, What do you
+propose?
+
+"Every cañon ought to be explored before we enter it," continued the
+Mexican.
+
+"It is a good hint," said Ralph. "Suppose I keep two of your
+cattle-drivers constantly in advance. You had better instruct them
+yourself. Tell them to fire the moment they discover an ambush. I don't
+suppose they will hit anybody, but we want the warning."
+
+With two horsemen three or four hundred yards to the front, two more an
+equal distance in the rear, and, when the ground permitted, one on either
+flank, the train continued its journey. Every wagon-driver and muleteer
+had a weapon of some sort always at hand. The four soldiers marched a few
+rods in advance, for the ground behind had already been explored, while
+that ahead might contain enemies. The precautions were extraordinary; but
+Thurstane constantly trembled for Clara. He would have thought a regiment
+hardly sufficient to guard such a treasure.
+
+"How timorous these men are," sniffed Aunt Maria, who, having seen no
+hostile Indians, did not believe there were any. "And it seems to me that
+soldiers are more easily scared than anybody else," she added, casting a
+depreciating glance at Thurstane, who was reconnoitring the landscape
+through his field glass.
+
+Clara believed in men, and especially in soldiers, and more particularly
+in lieutenants. Accordingly she replied, "I suppose they know the dangers
+and we don't."
+
+"Pshaw!" said Aunt Maria, an argument which carried great weight with her.
+"They don't know half what they claim to. It is a clever man who knows
+one-tenth of his own business." (She was right there.) "They don't know so
+much, I verily and solemnly believe, as the women whom they pretend to
+despise."
+
+This peaceful and cheering conversation was interrupted by a shot ringing
+out of a cañon which opened into a range of rock some three hundred yards
+ahead of the caravan. Immediately on the shot came a yell as of a hundred
+demons, a furious trampling of the feet of many horses, and a cloud of the
+Tartars of the American desert.
+
+In advance of the rush flew the two Mexican vedettes, screaming, "Apaches!
+Apaches!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+When the Apache tornado burst out of the cañon upon the train, Thurstane's
+first thought was, "Clara!"
+
+"Get off!" he shouted to her, seizing and holding her startled horse.
+"Into the wagon, quick! Now lie down, both of you."
+
+He thundered all this out as sternly as if he were commanding troops.
+Because he was a man, Clara obeyed him; and notwithstanding he was a man,
+Mrs. Stanley obeyed him. Both were so bewildered with surprise and terror
+as to be in a kind of animal condition of spirit, knowing just enough to
+submit at once to the impulse of an imperious voice. The riderless horse,
+equally frightened and equally subordinate, was hurried to the rear of the
+leading wagon and handed over to a muleteer.
+
+By the time this work was done the foremost riders of the assailants were
+within two hundred yards of the head of the train, letting drive their
+arrows at the flying Mexican vedettes and uttering yells fit to raise the
+dead, while their comrades behind, whooping also, stormed along under a
+trembling and flickering of lances. The little, lean, wiry horses were
+going at full speed, regardless of smooth faces of rock and beds of loose
+stones. The blackguards were over a hundred in number, all lancers and
+archers of the first quality.
+
+The vedettes never pulled up until they were in rear of the hindermost
+wagon, while their countrymen on the flanks and rear made for the same
+poor shelter. The drivers were crouching almost under their seats, and the
+muleteers were hiding behind their animals. Thus it was evident that the
+entire brunt of the opening struggle would fall upon Thurstane and his
+people; that, if there was to be any resistance at all, these five men
+must commence it, and, for a while at least, "go it alone."
+
+The little squad of regulars, at this moment a few yards in front of the
+foremost wagon, was drawn up in line and standing steady, precisely as if
+it were a company or a regiment. Sergeant Meyer was on the right, veteran
+Kelly on the left, the two recruits in the centre, the pieces at a
+shoulder, the bayonets fixed. As Thurstane rode up to this diminutive line
+of battle, Meyer was shouting forth his sharp and decisive orders. They
+were just the right orders; excited as the young officer was, he
+comprehended that there was nothing to change; moreover, he had already
+learned how men are disconcerted in battle by a multiplicity of
+directions. So he sat quietly on his horse, revolver in hand, his
+blue-black eyes staring angrily at the coming storm.
+
+"Kelly, reserfe your fire!" yelled Meyer. "Recruits,
+ready--bresent--aim--aim low--fire!"
+
+Simultaneously with the report a horse in the leading group of charging
+savages pitched headlong on his nose and rolled over, sending his rider
+straight forward into a rubble of loose shales, both lying as they fell,
+without movement. Half a dozen other animals either dropped on their
+haunches or sheered violently to the right and left, going off in wild
+plunges and caracolings. By this one casualty the head of the attacking
+column was opened and its seemingly resistless impetus checked and
+dissipated, almost before Meyer could shout, "Recruits, load at will,
+load!"
+
+A moment previous this fiery cavalry had looked irresistible. It seemed to
+have in it momentum, audacity, and dash enough to break a square of
+infantry or carry a battery of artillery. The horses fairly flew; the
+riders had the air of centaurs, so firm and graceful was their seat; the
+long lances were brandished as easily as if by the hands of footmen; the
+bows were managed and the arrows sent with dazzling dexterity. It was a
+show of brilliant equestrianism, surpassing the feats of circus riders.
+But a single effective shot into the centre of the column had cleft it as
+a rock divides a torrent. It was like the breaking of a water-spout.
+
+The attack, however, had only commenced. The Indians who had swept off to
+right and left went scouring along the now motionless train, at a distance
+of sixty or eighty yards, rapidly enveloping it with their wild caperings,
+keeping in constant motion so as to evade gunshots, threatening with their
+lances or discharging arrows, and yelling incessantly. Their main object
+so far was undoubtedly to frighten the mules into a stampede and thus
+separate the wagons. They were not assaulting; they were watching for
+chances.
+
+"Keep your men together, Sergeant," said Thurstane. "I must get those
+Mexicans to work."
+
+He trotted deliberately to the other end of the train, ordering each
+driver as he passed to move up abreast of the leading wagon, directing the
+first to the right, the second to the left, and so on. The result of this
+movement would of course be to bring the train into a compact mass and
+render it more defensible. The Indians no sooner perceived the advance
+than they divined its object and made an effort to prevent it. Thurstane
+had scarcely reached the centre of the line of vehicles when a score or so
+of yelling horsemen made a caracoling, prancing charge upon him,
+accompanying it with a flight of arrows. Our young hero presented his
+revolver, but they apparently knew the short range of the weapon, and came
+plunging, curveting onward. Matters were growing serious, for an arrow
+already stuck in his saddle, and another had passed through his hat.
+Suddenly there was a bang, bang of firearms, and two of the savages went
+down.
+
+Meyer had observed the danger of his officer, and had ordered Kelly to
+fire, blazing away too himself. There was a headlong, hasty scramble to
+carry off the fallen warriors, and then the assailants swept back to a
+point beyond accurate musket shot. Thurstane reached the rear of the train
+unhurt, and found the six Mexican cattle-drivers there in a group,
+pointing their rifles at such Indians as made a show of charging, but
+otherwise doing nothing which resembled fighting. They were obviously
+panic-stricken, one or two of them being of an ashy-yellow, their nearest
+possible approach to pallor. There, too, was Coronado, looking not exactly
+scared, but irresolute and helpless.
+
+"What does this mean?" Thurstane stormed in Spanish. "Why don't you shoot
+the devils?"
+
+"We are reserving our fire," stammered Coronado, half alarmed, half
+ashamed.
+
+Thurstane swore briefly, energetically, and to the point. "Damned pretty
+fighting!" he went on. "If _we_ had reserved our fire, we should all have
+been lanced by this time. Let drive!"
+
+The cattle-drivers carried short rifles, of the then United States
+regulation pattern, which old Garcia had somehow contrived to pick up
+during the war perhaps buying them of drunken soldiers. Supported by
+Thurstane's pugnacious presence and hurried up by his vehement orders,
+they began to fire. They were shaky; didn't aim very well; hardly aimed at
+all, in fact; blazed away at extraordinary elevations; behaved as men do
+who have become demoralized. However, as the pieces had a range of several
+hundred yards, the small bullets hissed venomously over the heads of the
+Indians, and one of them, by pure accident, brought down a horse. There
+was an immediate scattering, a multitudinous glinting of hoofs through the
+light dust of the plain, and then a rally in prancing groups, at a safe
+distance.
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted Thurstane, cheering the Mexicans. "That's very well. You
+see how easy it is. Now don't let them sneak up again; and at the same
+time don't waste powder."
+
+Then turning to one who was near him, and who had just reloaded, he said
+in a calm, strong, encouraging tone--that voice of the thoroughly good
+officer which comes to the help of the shaken soldier like a
+reinforcement--"Now, my lad, steadily. Pick out your man; take your time
+and aim sure. Do you see him?"
+
+"Si, señor," replied the herdsman. His coolness restored by this steady
+utterance and these plain, common-sense directions, he selected a warrior
+in helmet-shaped cap, blue shirt, and long boots, brought his rifle slowly
+to a level, took sight, and fired. The Indian bent forward, caught the
+mane of his plunging pony, hung there for a second or two, and then rolled
+to the ground, amid a yell of surprise and dismay from his comrades. There
+was a hasty rush to secure the body, and then another sweep backward of
+the loose array.
+
+"Good!" called Thurstane, nodding and smiling at the successful marksman.
+"That is the way to do it. You are a match for half a dozen of them as
+long as you will keep cool."
+
+The besieged travellers could now look about quietly and see how matters
+stood with them. The six wagons were by this time drawn up in two ranks of
+three each, so as to form a compact mass. As the one which contained the
+ladies had been the leader and the others had formed on it to right and
+left, it was in the centre of the first rank, and consequently pretty well
+protected by its neighbors. The drivers and muleteers had recovered their
+self-possession, and were all sitting or standing at their posts, with
+their miscellaneous arms ready for action. Not a human being had been hit
+as yet, and only three of the mules wounded, none of them seriously. The
+Apaches were all around the train, but none of them nearer than two
+hundred yards, and doing nothing but canter about and shout to each other.
+
+"Where is Texas Smith?" demanded Thurstane, missing that mighty hunter,
+and wondering if he were a coward and had taken refuge in a wagon.
+
+"He went off shutin' an hour ago," explained Phineas Glover. "Reckon he's
+astern somewhere."
+
+Glover, by the way, had been useful. In the beginning of the affray he had
+brought his mule alongside of the headmost wagon, and there he had done
+really valuable service by blazing away alarmingly, though quite
+innocuously, at the gallopading enemy.
+
+"It's a bad lookout for Texas," observed the Lieutenant "I shouldn't want
+to bet high on his getting back to us."
+
+Coronado looked gloomy, fearing lest his trusted assassin was lost, and
+not knowing where he could pick up such another.
+
+"And how are the ladies?" asked Thurstane, turning to Glover.
+
+"Safe 's a bug in a rug," was the reply. "Seen to that little job myself.
+Not a bugger in the hull crew been nigh 'em."
+
+Thurstane cantered around to the front of the wagon which contained the
+two women, and called, "How are you?"
+
+At the sound of his voice there was a rustle inside, and Clara showed her
+face over the shoulder of the driver.
+
+"So you were not hurt?" laughed the young officer. "Ah! that's bully."
+
+With a smile which was almost a boast, she answered, "And I was not very
+frightened."
+
+At this, Aunt Maria struggled from between two rolls of bedding into a
+sitting posture and ejaculated, "Of course not!"
+
+"Did they hit you?" asked Clara, looking eagerly at Thurstane.
+
+"How brave you are!" he replied, admiring her so much that he did not
+notice her question.
+
+"But I do hope it is over," added the girl, poking her head out of the
+wagon. "Ah! what is that?"
+
+With this little cry of dismay she pointed at a group of savages who had
+gathered between the train and the mouth of the cañon ahead of it.
+
+"They are the enemy," said Thurstane. "We may have another little tussle
+with them. Now lie down and keep close."
+
+"Acquit yourselves like--men!" exhorted Aunt Maria, dropping back into her
+stronghold among the bedding.
+
+Sergeant Meyer now approached Thurstane, touched his cap, and said,
+"Leftenant, here is brifate Sweeny who has not fired his beece once. I
+cannot make him fire."
+
+"How is that, Sweeny?" demanded the officer, putting on the proper
+grimness. "Why haven't you fired when you were ordered?"
+
+Sweeny was a little wizened shaving of an Irishman. He was not only quite
+short, but very slender and very lean. He had a curious teetering gait,
+and he took ridiculously short steps in marching, as if he were a monkey
+who had not learned to feel at ease on his hind legs. His small, wilted,
+wrinkled face, and his expression of mingled simplicity and shrewdness,
+were also monkey-like. At Thurstane's reprimand he trotted close up to him
+with exactly the air of a circus Jocko who expects a whipping, but who
+hopes to escape it by grinning.
+
+"Why haven't you fired?" repeated his commander.
+
+"Liftinint, I dasn't," answered Sweeny, in the rapid, jerking, almost
+inarticulate jabber which was his usual speech.
+
+Now it is not an uncommon thing for recruits to dread to discharge their
+arms in battle. They have a vague idea that, if they bang away, they will
+attract the notice of some antagonist who will immediately single them out
+for retaliation.
+
+"Are you afraid anybody will hit you?" asked Thurstane.
+
+"No, I ain't, Liftinint," jabbered Sweeny. "I ain't afeard av them niggers
+a bit. They may shoot their bow arrays at me all day if they want to. I'm
+afeard of me gun, Liftinint. I fired it wonst, an' it kicked me to
+blazes."
+
+"Come, come! That won't do. Level it now. Pick out your man. Aim. Fire."
+
+Thus constrained, Sweeny brought his piece down to an inclination of
+forty-five degrees, shut his eyes, pulled trigger, and sent a ball clean
+over the most distant Apaches. The recoil staggered him, but he recovered
+himself without going over, and instantly roared out a horse-laugh.
+
+"Ho! ho! ho!" he shouted. "That time I reckon I fetched won av 'em."
+
+"Sweeny," said Thurstane, "you must have hit either the sun or the moon, I
+don't know which."
+
+Sweeny looked discomfited; the next breath he bethought himself of a
+saving joke: "Liftinint, it 'ud sarve erry won av 'em right;" then another
+neigh of laughter.
+
+"I ain't afeard av the ball," he hastened to asseverate; "it's the kick av
+it that murthers me. Liftinint, why don't they put the britch to the other
+end av the gun? They do in the owld counthry."
+
+"Load your beece," ordered Sergeant Meyer, "and go to your bost again, to
+the left of Shupert."
+
+The fact of Sweeny's opening fire did not cause a resumption of the close
+fighting. Quiet still continued, and the leaders of the expedition took
+advantage of it to discuss their situation, while the Indians gathered
+into little groups and seemed also to be holding council.
+
+"There are over a hundred warriors," said Thurstane.
+
+"Apaches," added one of the Mexican herdsmen.
+
+"What band?"
+
+"Manga Colorada or Delgadito."
+
+"I supposed they were in Bernalillo."
+
+"That was three weeks ago," put in Coronado.
+
+He was in profound thought. These fellows, who had agreed to harry
+Bernalillo, and who had for a time carried out their bargain, why had they
+come to intercept him in the Moqui country, a hundred and twenty miles
+away? Did they want to extort more money, or were they ignorant that this
+was his train? And, supposing he should make himself known to them, would
+they spare him personally and such others as he might wish to save, while
+massacring the rest of the party? It would be a bold step; he could not at
+once decide upon it; he was pondering it.
+
+We must do full justice to Coronado's coolness and readiness. This
+atrocious idea had occurred to him the instant he heard the charging yell
+of the Apaches; and it had done far more than any weakness of nerves to
+paralyze his fighting ability. He had thought, "Let them kill the Yankees;
+then I will proclaim myself and save _her_; then she will be mine." And
+because of these thoughts he had stood irresolute, aiming without firing,
+and bidding his Mexicans do the same. The result was that six good shots
+and superb horsemen, who were capable of making a gallant fight under
+worthy leadership, had become demoralized, and, but for the advent of
+Thurstane, might have been massacred like sheep.
+
+Now that three or four Apaches had fallen, Coronado had less hope of
+making his arrangement. He considered the matter carefully and
+judiciously, but at last he decided that he could not trust the vindictive
+devils, and he turned his mind strenuously toward resistance. Although not
+pugnacious, he had plenty of the desperate courage of necessity, and his
+dusky black eyes were very resolute as he said to Thurstane, "Lieutenant,
+we trust to you."
+
+The young veteran had already made up his mind as to what must be done.
+
+"We will move on," he said. "We can't camp here, in an open plain, without
+grass or water. We must get into the cañon so as to have our flanks
+protected. I want the wagons to advance in double file so as to shorten
+the train. Two of my men in front and two in rear; three of your herdsmen
+on one flank and three on the other; Captain Glover alongside the ladies,
+and you and I everywhere; that's the programme. If we are all steady, we
+can do it, sure."
+
+"They are collecting ahead to stop us," observed Coronado.
+
+"Good!" said Thurstane. "All I want is to have them get in a heap. It is
+this attacking on all sides which is dangerous. Suppose you give your
+drivers and muleteers a sharp lecture. Tell them they must fight if the
+Indians charge, and not skulk inside and under the wagons. Tell them we
+are going to shoot the first man who skulks. Pitch into them heavy. It's a
+devilish shame that a dozen tolerably well-armed men should be so
+helpless. It's enough to justify the old woman's contempt for our sex."
+
+Coronado rode from wagon to wagon, delivering his reproofs, threats, and
+instructions in the plainest kind of Spanish. At the signal to march, the
+drivers must file off two abreast, commencing on the right, and move at
+the fastest trot of the mules toward the cañon. If any scoundrel skulked,
+quitted his post, or failed to fight, he would be pistolled instanter by
+him, Coronado _sangre de Dios_, etc.!
+
+While he was addressing Aunt Maria's coachman, that level-headed lady
+called out, "Mr. Coronado, your very voice is cheering."
+
+"Mrs. Stanley, you are an example of heroism to our sex," replied the
+Mexican, with an ironical grin.
+
+"What a brave, noble, intelligent man?" thought Aunt Maria. "If they were
+only all like him!"
+
+This business took up five minutes. Coronado had just finished his round
+when a loud yell was raised by the Apaches, and twenty or thirty of them
+started at full speed down the trail by which the caravan had come.
+Looking for the cause of this stampede, the emigrants beheld, nearly half
+a mile away, a single horseman rushing to encounter a score. It was Texas
+Smith, making an apparently hopeless rush to burst through the environment
+of Parthians and reach the train.
+
+"Shall we make a sally to save him?" demanded Coronado, glancing at
+Thurstane.
+
+The officer hesitated; to divide his small army would be perilous; the
+Apaches would attack on all sides and with advantage.
+
+But the sight of one man so overmatched was too much for him, and with a
+great throb of chivalrous blood in his heart, he shouted, "Charge!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+An hour before the attack Texas Smith had ridden off to stalk a deer; but
+the animal being in good racing condition in consequence of the thin fare
+of this sterile region, the hunting bout had miscarried; and our desperado
+was returning unladen toward the train when he heard the distant charging
+yell of the Apaches.
+
+Scattered over the plateau which he was traversing, there were a few
+thickets of mesquite, with here and there a fantastic butte of sandstone.
+By dodging from one of these covers to another, he arrived undiscovered at
+a point whence he could see the caravan and the curveting mêlée which
+surrounded it. He was nearly half a mile from his comrades and over a
+quarter of a mile from his nearest enemies.
+
+What should he do? If he made a rush, he would probably be overpowered and
+either killed instantly or carried off for torture. If he waited until
+night for a chance to sneak into camp, the wandering redskins would be
+pretty apt to surprise him in the darkness, and there would be small
+chance indeed of escaping with his hair. It was a nasty situation; but
+Texas, accustomed to perils, was as brave as he was wicked; and he looked
+his darkling fate in the face with admirable coolness and intelligence.
+His decision was to wait a favorable moment, and when it came, charge for
+life.
+
+When he perceived that the mass of the Indians had gathered on the trail
+between the wagons and the cañon, he concluded that his chance had
+arrived; and with teeth grimly set, rifle balanced across his saddle-bow,
+revolver slung to his wrist, he started in silence and at full speed on
+his almost hopeless rush. If you will cease to consider the man as a
+modern bushwhacker, and invest him temporarily with the character,
+ennobled by time, of a borderer of the Scottish marches, you will be able
+to feel some sympathy for him in his audacious enterprise.
+
+He was mounted on an American horse, a half-blood gray, large-boned and
+powerful, who could probably have traversed the half-mile in a minute had
+there been no impediment, and who was able to floor with a single shock
+two or three of the little animals of the Apaches. He was a fine spectacle
+as he thundered alone across the plain, upright and easy in his seat,
+balancing his heavy rifle as if it were a rattan, his dark and cruel face
+settled for fight and his fierce black eyes blazing.
+
+Only a minute's ride, but that minute life or death. As he had expected,
+the Apaches discovered him almost as soon as he left the cover of his
+butte, and all the outlying members of the horde swarmed toward him with a
+yell, brandishing their spears and getting ready their bows as they rode.
+It would clearly be impossible for him to cut his way through thirty
+warriors unless he received assistance from the train. Would it come? His
+evil conscience told him, without the least reason, that Thurstane would
+not help. But from Coronado, whose life he had saved and whose evil work
+he had undertaken to do--from this man, "greaser" as he was, he did expect
+a sally. If it did not come, and if he should escape by some rare chance,
+he, Texas Smith, would murder the Mexican the first time he found him
+alone, so help him God!
+
+While he thought and cursed he flew. But his goal was still five hundred
+yards away, and the nearest redskins were within two hundred yards, when
+he saw a rescuing charge shoot out from the wagons. Coronado led it. In
+this foxy nature the wolf was not wanting, and under strong impulse he
+could be somewhat of a Pizarro. He had no starts of humanity nor of real
+chivalry, but he had family pride and personal vanity, and he was capable
+of the fighting fury. When Thurstane had given the word to advance,
+Coronado had put himself forward gallantly.
+
+"Stay here," he said to the officer; "guard the train with your infantry.
+I am a caballero, and I will do a caballero's work," he added, rising
+proudly in his stirrups. "Come on, you villains!" was his order to the six
+Mexicans.
+
+All abreast, spread out like a skirmish line, the seven horsemen clattered
+over the plain, making for the point where Texas Smith was about to plunge
+among the whirling and caracoling Apaches.
+
+Now came the crisis of the day. The moment the sixty or seventy Apaches
+near the mouth of the cañon saw Coronado set out on his charge, they
+raised a yell of joy over the error of the emigrants in dividing their
+forces, and plunged straight at the wagons. In half a minute two wild,
+irregular, and yet desperate combats were raging.
+
+Texas Smith had begun his battle while Coronado was still a quarter of a
+mile away. Aiming his rifle at an Apache who was riding directly upon him,
+instead of dodging and wheeling in the usual fashion of these cautious
+fighters, he sent the audacious fellow out of his saddle with a
+bullet-hole through the lungs. But this was no salvation; the dreaded
+long-range firearm was now empty; the savages circled nearer and began to
+use their arrows. Texas let his rifle hang from the pommel and presented
+his revolver. But the bowshots were more than its match. It could not be
+trusted to do execution at forty yards, and at that distance the Indian
+shafts are deadly. Already several had hissed close by him, one had gashed
+the forehead of his horse, and another had pierced his clothing.
+
+All that Texas wanted, however, was time. If he could pass a half minute
+without a disabling wound, he would have help. He retreated a little, or
+rather he edged away toward the right, wheeling and curveting after the
+manner of the Apaches, in order to present an unsteady mark for their
+archery. To keep them at a distance he fired one barrel of his revolver,
+though without effect. Meantime he dodged incessantly, now throwing
+himself forward and backward in the saddle, now hanging over the side of
+his horse and clinging to his neck. It was hard and perilous work, but he
+was gaining seconds, and every second was priceless. Notwithstanding his
+extreme peril, he calculated his chances with perfect coolness and with a
+sagacity which was admirable.
+
+But this intelligent savage had to do with savages as clever as himself.
+The Apaches saw Coronado coming up on their rear, and they knew that they
+must make short work of the hunter, or must let him escape. While a score
+or so faced about to meet the Mexicans, a dozen charged with screeches and
+brandished lances upon the Texan. Now came a hand-to-hand struggle which
+looked as if it must end in the death of Smith and perhaps of several of
+his assailants. But cavalry fights are notoriously bloodless in comparison
+to their apparent fury; the violent and perpetual movement of the
+combatants deranges aim and renders most of the blows futile; shots are
+fired at a yard distance without hitting, and strokes are delivered which
+only wound the air.
+
+One spear stuck in Smith's saddle; another pierced his jacket-sleeve and
+tore its way out; only one of the sharp, quickly-delivered points drew
+blood. He felt a slight pain in his side, and he found afterward that a
+lance-head had raked one of his ribs, tearing up the skin and scraping the
+bone for four or five inches. Meantime he shot a warrior through the head,
+sent another off with a hole in the shoulder, and fired one barrel without
+effect. He had but a single charge left (saving this for himself in the
+last extremity), when he burst through the prancing throng of screeching,
+thrusting ragamuffins, and reached the side of Coronado.
+
+Here another hurly-burly of rearing and plunging combat awaited him.
+Coronado, charging as an old Castilian hidalgo might have charged upon the
+Moors, had plunged directly into the midst of the Apaches who awaited him,
+giving them little time to use their arrows, and at first receiving no
+damage. The six rifles of his Mexicans sent two Apaches out of their
+saddles, and then came a capering, plunging joust of lances, both parties
+using the same weapon. Coronado alone had sabre and revolver; and he
+handled them both with beautiful coolness and dexterity; he rode, too, as
+well as the best of all these other centaurs. His superb horse whirled and
+reared under the guidance of a touch of the knees, while the rider plied
+firearm with one hand and sharply-ground blade with the other. Thurstane,
+an infantryman, and only a fair equestrian, would not have been half so
+effective in this combat of caballeros.
+
+Coronado's first bullet knocked a villainous-looking tatterdemalion clean
+into the happy hunting grounds. Then came a lance thrust; he parried it
+with his sabre and plunged within range of the point; there was a sharp,
+snake-like hiss of the light, curved blade; down went Apache number two.
+At this rate, providing there were no interruptions, he could finish the
+whole twenty. He went at his job with a handy adroitness which was almost
+scientific, it was so much like surgery, like dissection. His mind was
+bent, with a sort of preternatural calmness and cleverness, upon the
+business of parrying lance thrusts, aiming his revolver, and delivering
+sabre cuts. It was a species of fighting intellection, at once prudent and
+destructive. It was not the headlong, reckless, pugnacious rage of the old
+Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian berserker. It was the practical, ready,
+rational furor of the Latin race.
+
+Presently he saw that two of his rancheros had been lanced, and that there
+were but four left. A thrill of alarm, a commencement of panic, a desire
+to save himself at all hazards, crisped his heart and half paralyzed his
+energy. Remembering with perfect distinctness that four of his barrels
+were empty, he would perhaps have tried to retreat at the risk of being
+speared in the back, had he not at this critical moment been joined by
+Texas Smith.
+
+That instinctive, ferocious, and tireless fighter, while seeming to be
+merely circling and curveting among his assailants, contrived to recharge
+two barrels of his revolver, and was once more ready for business. Down
+went one Apache; then the horse of another fell to reeling and crouching
+in a sickly way; then a charge of half a dozen broke to right and left in
+irresolute prancings. At sight of this friendly work Coronado drew a fresh
+breath of courage, and executed his greatest feat yet of horsemanship and
+swordsmanship. Spurring after and then past one of the wheeling braves, he
+swept his sabre across the fellow's bare throat with a drawing stroke, and
+half detached the scowling, furious, frightened head from the body.
+
+There was a wide space of open ground before him immediately. The Apaches
+know nothing of sabre work; not one of those present had ever before seen
+such a blow or such an effect; they were not only panic-stricken, but
+horror-stricken. For one moment, right between the staring antagonists, a
+bloody corpse sat upright on a rearing horse, with its head fallen on one
+shoulder and hanging by a gory muscle. The next moment it wilted, rolled
+downward with outstretched arms, and collapsed upon the gravel, an inert
+mass.
+
+Texas Smith uttered a loud scream of tigerish delight. He had never, in
+all his pugnacious and sanguinary life, looked upon anything so
+fascinating. It seemed to him as if _his_ heaven--the savage Walhalla of
+his Saxon or Danish berserker race--were opened before him. In his ecstasy
+he waved his dirty, long fingers toward Coronado, and shouted, "Bully for
+you, old hoss!"
+
+But he had self-possession enough, now that his hand was free for an
+instant from close battle, to reload his rifle and revolver. The four
+rancheros who still retained their saddles mechanically and hurriedly
+followed his example. The contest here was over; the Apaches knew that
+bullets would soon be humming about their ears, and they dreaded them;
+there was a retreat, and this retreat was a run of an eighth of a mile.
+
+"Hurrah for the waggins!" shouted Texas, and dashed away toward the train.
+Coronado stared; his heart sank within him; the train was surrounded by a
+mob of prancing savages; there was more fighting to be done when he had
+already done his best. But not knowing where else to go, he followed his
+leader toward this new battle, loading his revolver as he rode, and
+wishing that he were in Santa Fé, or anywhere in peace.
+
+We must go back a little. As already stated, the main body of the Apaches
+had perceived the error of the emigrants in separating, and had promptly
+availed themselves of it to charge upon the train. To attack it there were
+seventy ferocious and skilful warriors; to defend it there were twelve
+timorous muleteers and drivers, four soldiers, and Ralph.
+
+"Fall back!" shouted the Lieutenant to his regulars when he saw the
+equestrian avalanche coming. "Each man take a wagon and hold it."
+
+The order was obeyed in a hurry. The Apaches, heartened by what they
+supposed to be a panic, swarmed along at increased speed, and gave out
+their most diabolical screeches, hoping no doubt to scare men into
+helplessness, and beasts into a stampede. But the train was an immovable
+fortress, and the fortress was well garrisoned. Although the mules winced
+and plunged a good deal, the drivers succeeded in holding them to their
+places, and the double column of carriages, three in each rank, preserved
+its formation. In every vehicle there was a muleteer, with hands free for
+fighting, bearing something or other in the shape of a firelock, and
+inspired with what courage there is in desperation. The four flankers,
+necessarily the most exposed to assault, had each a United States regular,
+with musket, bayonet, and forty rounds of buck and ball. In front of the
+phalanx, directly before the wagon which contained the two ladies, sat as
+brave an officer as there was in the American army.
+
+The Apaches had also committed their tactical blunder. They should all
+have followed Coronado, made sure of destroying him and his Mexicans, and
+then attacked the train. But either there was no sagacious military spirit
+among them, or the love of plunder was too much for judgment and
+authority, and so down they came on the wagons.
+
+As the swarthy swarm approached, it spread out until it covered the front
+of the train and overlapped its flanks, ready to sweep completely around
+it and fasten upon any point which should seem feebly or timorously
+defended. The first man endangered was the lonely officer who sat his
+horse in front of the line of kicking and plunging mules. Fortunately for
+him, he now had a weapon of longer range than his revolver; he had
+remembered that in one of the wagons was stored a peculiar rifle belonging
+to Coronado; he had just had time to drag it out and strap its
+cartridge-box around his waist.
+
+He levelled at the centre of the clattering, yelling column. It
+fluctuated; the warriors who were there did not like to be aimed at; they
+began to zigzag, caracole, and diverge to right or left; several halted
+and commenced using their bows. At one of these archers, whose arrow
+already trembled on the string, Thurstane let fly, sending him out of the
+saddle. Then he felt a quick, sharp pain in his left arm, and perceived
+that a shaft had passed clean through it.
+
+There is this good thing about the arrow, that it has not weight enough to
+break bones, nor tearing power enough to necessarily paralyze muscle.
+Thurstane could still manage a revolver with his wounded arm, while his
+right was good for almost any amount of slashing work. Letting the rifle
+drop and swing from the pommel, he met the charge of two grinning and
+scowling lancers. One thrust he parried with his sabre; from the other he
+saved his neck by stooping; but it drove through his coat collar, and
+nearly unseated him. For a moment our bleeding and hampered young
+gladiator seemed to be in a bad way. But he was strong; he braced himself
+in his stirrups, and he made use of both his hands. The Indian whose spear
+was still free caught a bullet through the shoulder, dropped his weapon,
+and circled away yelling. Then Thurstane plunged at the other, reared his
+tall horse over him, broke the lance-shaft with a violent twist, and swung
+his long cavalry sabre. It was in vain that the Apache crouched, spurred,
+and skedaddled; he got away alive, but it was with a long bloody gash down
+his naked back; the last seen of him he was going at full speed, holding
+by his pony's mane. The Lieutenant remained master of the whole front of
+the caravan.
+
+Meantime there was a busy popping along the flankers and through the
+hinder openings in the second line of wagons. The Indians skurried,
+wheeled, pranced, and yelled, let fly their arrows from a distance, dashed
+up here and there with their lances, and as quickly retreated before the
+threatening muzzles. The muleteers, encouraged by the presence of the
+soldiers, behaved with respectable firmness and blazed away rapidly,
+though not effectively. The regulars reserved their fire for close
+quarters, and then delivered it to bloody purpose.
+
+Around Sweeny, who garrisoned the left-hand wagon of the rearmost line,
+the fight was particularly noisy. The Apaches saw that he was little, and
+perhaps they saw that he was afraid of his gun. They went for him; they
+were after him with their sharpest sticks; they counted on Sweeny. The
+speck of a man sat on the front seat of the wagon, outside of the driver,
+and fully exposed to the tribulation. He was in a state of the highest
+Paddy excitement. He grinned and bounced like a caravan of monkeys. But he
+was not much scared; he was mainly in a furious rage. Pointing his musket
+first at one and then at another, he returned yell for yell, and was in
+fact abusive.
+
+"Oh, fire yer bow-arreys!" he screamed. "Ye can't hit the side av a
+waggin. Ah, ye bloody, murtherin' nagers! go 'way wid yer long poles. I'd
+fight a hundred av the loikes av ye wid ownly a shillelah."
+
+One audacious thrust of a lance he parried very dexterously with his
+bayonet, at the same time screeching defiantly and scornfully in the face
+of his hideous assailant. But this fellow's impudent approach was too much
+to be endured, and Sweeny proceeded at once to teach him to keep at a more
+civil distance.
+
+"Oh, ye pokin' blaggard!" he shouted, and actually let drive with his
+musket. The ball missed, but by pure blundering one of the buck-shot took
+effect, and the brave retreated out of the mêlée with a sensation as if
+his head had been split. Some time later he was discovered sitting up
+doggedly on a rock, while a comrade was trying to dig the buckshot out of
+his thick skull with an arrow-point.
+
+"I'll tache 'em to moind their bizniss," grinned Sweeny triumphantly, as
+he reloaded. "The nasty, hootin' nagers! They've no rights near a white
+man, anyhow."
+
+On the whole, the attack lingered. The Apaches had done some damage. One
+driver had been lanced mortally. One muleteer had been shot through the
+heart with an arrow. Another arrow had scraped Shubert's ankle. Another,
+directed by the whimsical genius of accident, had gone clean through the
+drooping cartilage of Phineas Glover's long nose, as if to prepare him for
+the sporting of jewelled decorations. Two mules were dead, and several
+wounded. The sides of the wagons bristled with shafts, and their canvas
+tops were pierced with fine holes. But, on the other hand, the Apaches had
+lost a dozen horses, three or four warriors killed, and seven or eight
+wounded.
+
+Such was the condition of affairs around the train when Coronado, Texas
+Smith, and the four surviving herdsmen came storming back to it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+The Apaches were discouraged by the immovability of the train, and by the
+steady and deadly resistance of its defenders. From first to last some
+twenty-five or twenty-seven of their warriors had been hit, of whom
+probably one third were killed or mortally wounded.
+
+At the approach of Coronado those who were around the wagons swept away in
+a panic, and never paused in their flight until they were a good half mile
+distant. They carried off, however, every man, whether dead or injured,
+except one alone. A few rods from the train lay a mere boy, certainly not
+over fifteen years old, his forehead gashed by a bullet, and life
+apparently extinct. There was nothing strange in the fact of so young a
+lad taking part in battle, for the military age among the Indians is from
+twelve to thirty-six, and one third of their fighters are children.
+
+"What did they leave that fellow for?" said Coronado in surprise, riding
+up to the senseless figure.
+
+"I'll fix him," volunteered Texas Smith, dismounting and drawing his
+hunting knife. "Reckon he hain't been squarely finished."
+
+"Stop!" ordered Coronado. "He is not an Apache. He is some pueblo Indian.
+See how much he is hurt."
+
+"Skull ain't broke," replied Texas, fingering the wound as roughly as if
+it had been in the flesh of a beast. "Reckon he'll flop round. May do
+mischief, if we don't fix him."
+
+Anxious to stick his knife into the defenceless young throat, he
+nevertheless controlled his sentiments and looked up for instructions.
+Since the splendid decapitation which Coronado had performed, Texas
+respected him as he had never heretofore hoped to respect a "greaser."
+
+"Perhaps we can get information out of him," said Coronado. "Suppose you
+lay him in a wagon."
+
+Meanwhile preparations had been made for an advance. The four dead or
+badly wounded draft mules were disentangled from the harness, and their
+places supplied with the four army mules, whose packs were thrown into the
+wagons. These animals, by the way, had escaped injury, partly because they
+had been tethered between the two lines of vehicles, and partly because
+they had been well covered by their loads, which were plentifully
+stuck-with arrows.
+
+"We are ready to march," said Thurstane to Coronado. "I am sorry we can't
+try to recover your men back there."
+
+"No use," commented Texas Smith. "The Patchies have been at 'em. They're
+chuck full of spear holes by this time."
+
+Coronado shouted to the drivers to start. Commencing on the right, the
+wagons filed off two by two toward the mouth of the cañon, while the
+Indians, gathered in a group half a mile away, looked on without a yell or
+a movement. The instant that the vehicle which contained the ladies had
+cleared itself of the others, Thurstane and Coronado rode alongside of it.
+
+"So! you are safe!" said the former. "By Heavens, if they _had_ hurt you!"
+
+"And you?" asked Clara, very quickly and eagerly, while scanning him from
+head to foot.
+
+Coronado saw that look, anxious for Thurstane alone; and, master of
+dissimulation though he was, his face showed both pain and anger.
+
+"Ah--oh--oh dear!" groaned Mrs. Stanley, as she made her appearance in the
+front of the vehicle. "Well! this is rather more than I can bear. This is
+just as much as a woman can put up with. Dear me! what is the matter with
+your arm, Lieutenant?"
+
+"Just a pin prick," said Thurstane.
+
+Clara began to get out of the wagon, with the purpose of going to him, her
+eyes staring and her face pale.
+
+"Don't!" he protested, motioning her back. "It is nothing."
+
+And, although the lacerated arm hurt him and was not easy to manage, he
+raised it over his head to show that the damage was trifling.
+
+"Do get in here and let us take care of you," begged Clara.
+
+"Certainly!" echoed Aunt Maria, who was a compassionate woman at heart,
+and who only lacked somewhat in quickness of sympathy, perhaps by reason
+of her strong-minded notions.
+
+"I will when I need it," said Ralph, flattered and gratified. "The arm
+will do without dressing till we reach camp. There are other wounded.
+Everybody has fought. Mr. Coronado here has done deeds worthy of his
+ancestors."
+
+"Ah, Mr. Coronado!" smiled Aunt Maria, delighted that her favorite had
+distinguished himself.
+
+"Captain Glover, what's the matter with your nose?" was the lady's next
+outcry.
+
+"Wal, it's been bored," replied Glover, tenderly fingering his sore
+proboscis. "It's been, so to speak, eyelet-holed. I'm glad I hadn't but
+one. The more noses a feller kerries in battle, the wuss for him. I hope
+the darned rip'll heal up. I've no 'casion to hev a line rove through it
+'n' be towed, that I know of."
+
+"How did it feel when it went through?" asked Aunt Maria, full of
+curiosity and awe.
+
+"Felt's though I'd got the dreadfullest influenzee thet ever snorted.
+Twitched 'n' tickled like all possessed."
+
+"Was it an arrow?" inquired the still unsatisfied lady.
+
+"Reckon 'twas. Never see it. But it kinder whished, 'n' I felt the
+feathers. Darn 'em! When I felt the feathers, tell ye I was 'bout half
+scairt. Hed 'n idee 'f th' angel 'f death, 'n' so on."
+
+Of course Aunt Maria and Clara wanted to do much nursing immediately; but
+there were no conveniences and there was no time; and so benevolence was
+postponed.
+
+"So you are hurt?" said Thurstane to Texas Smith, noticing his torn and
+bloody shirt.
+
+"It's jest a scrape," grunted the bushwhacker. "Mought'a'been worse."
+
+"It was bad generalship trying to save you. We nearly paid high for it."
+
+"That's so. Cost four greasers, as 'twas. Well, I'm worth four greasers."
+
+"You're a devil of a fighter," continued the Lieutenant, surveying the
+ferocious face and sullen air of the cutthroat with a soldier's admiration
+for whatever expresses pugnacity.
+
+"Bet yer pile on it," returned Texas, calmly conscious of his character.
+"So be you."
+
+The savage black eyes and the imperious blue ones stared into each other
+without the least flinching and with something like friendliness.
+
+Coronado rode up to the pair and asked, "Is that boy alive yet?"
+
+"It's about time for him to flop round," replied Texas indifferently.
+"Reckon you'll find him in the off hind wagon. I shoved him in thar."
+
+Coronado cantered to the off hind wagon, peeped through the rear opening
+of its canvas cover, discovered the youth lying on a pile of luggage,
+addressed him in Spanish, and learned his story. He belonged to a hacienda
+in Bernalillo, a hundred miles or more west of Santa Fé. The Apaches had
+surprised the hacienda and plundered it, carrying him off because, having
+formerly been a captive among them, he could speak their language, manage
+the bow, etc.
+
+For all this Coronado cared nothing; he wanted to know why the band had
+left Bernalillo; also why it had attacked his train. The boy explained
+that the raiders had been driven off the southern route by a party of
+United States cavalry, and that, having lost a number of their braves in
+the fight, they had sworn vengeance on Americans.
+
+"Did you hear them say whose train this was?" demanded Coronado.
+
+"No, Señor."
+
+"Do you think they knew?"
+
+"Señor, I think not."
+
+"Whose band was this?"
+
+"Manga Colorada's."
+
+"Where is Delgadito?"
+
+"Delgadito went the other side of the mountain. They were both going to
+fight the Moquis."
+
+"So we shall find Delgadito in the Moqui valley?"
+
+"I think so, Señor."
+
+After a moment of reflection Coronado added, "You will stay with us and
+take care of mules. I will do well by you."
+
+"Thanks, Señor. Many thanks."
+
+Coronado rejoined Thurstane and told his news. The officer looked grave;
+there might be another combat in store for the train; it might be an
+affair with both bands of the Apaches.
+
+"Well," he said, "we must keep our eyes open. Every one of us must do his
+very utmost. On the whole, I can't believe they can beat us."
+
+"Nombre de Dios!" thought Coronado. "How will this accursed job end? I
+wish I were out of it."
+
+They were now traversing the cañon from which they had been so long
+debarred. It was a peaceful solitude; no life but their own stirred within
+its sandstone ramparts; and its windings soon carried them out of sight of
+their late assailants. For four hours they slowly threaded it, and when
+night came on they were still in it, miles away from their expected
+camping ground. No water and no grass; the animals were drooping with
+hunger, and all suffered with thirst; the worst was that the hurts of the
+wounded could not be properly dressed. But progress through this labyrinth
+of stones in the darkness was impossible, and the weary, anxious, fevered
+travellers bivouacked as well as might be.
+
+Starting at dawn, they finished the cañon in about an hour, traversed an
+uneven plateau which stretched beyond its final sinuous branch gullies,
+and found themselves on the brow of a lofty terrace, overlooking a sublime
+panorama. There was an immense valley, not smooth and verdurous, but a
+gigantic nest of savage buttes and crags and hills, only to be called a
+valley because it was enclosed by what seemed a continuous line of
+eminences. On the north and east rose long ranges and elevated
+table-lands; on the west, the savage rolls and precipices of the Sierra
+del Carrizo; and on the south, a more distant bordering of hazy mountains,
+closing to the southwest, a hundred miles away, in the noble snowy peaks
+of Monte San Francisco.
+
+With his field-glass, Thurstane examined one after another of the mesas
+and buttes which diversified this enormous depression. At last his
+attention settled on an isolated bluff or mound, with a flattened surface
+three or four miles in length, the whole mass of which seemed to be solid
+and barren rock. On this truncated pyramid he distinguished, or thought he
+distinguished, one or more of the pueblos of the Moquis. He could not be
+quite sure, because the distance was fifteen miles, and the walls of these
+villages are of the same stone with the buttes upon which they stand.
+
+"There is our goal, if I am not mistaken," he said to Coronado. "When we
+get there we can rest."
+
+The train pushed onward, slowly descending the terrace, or rather the
+succession of terraces. After reaching a more level region, and while
+winding between stony hills of a depressing sterility, it came suddenly,
+at the bottom of a ravine, upon fresh green turf and thickets of willows,
+the environment of a small spring of clear water. There was a halt; all
+hands fell to digging a trench across the gully; when it had filled, the
+animals were allowed to drink; in an hour more they had closely cropped
+all the grass. This was using up time perilously, but it had to be done,
+for the beasts were tottering.
+
+Moving again; five miles more traversed; another spring and patch of turf
+discovered; a rough ravine through a low sandstone ridge threaded; at last
+they were on one of the levels of the valley. Three of the Moqui towns
+were now about eight miles distant, and with his glass Thurstane could
+distinguish the horizontal lines of building. The trail made straight for
+the pueblos, but it was almost impassable to wagons, and progress was very
+slow. It was all the slower because of the weakness of the mules, which
+throughout all this hair-brained journey had been severely worked, and of
+late had been poorly fed.
+
+Presently the travellers turned the point of a naked ridge which projected
+laterally into the valley. There they came suddenly upon a wide-spread
+sweep of turf, contrasting so brilliantly with the bygone infertilities
+that it seemed to them a paradise, and stretching clear on to the bluff of
+the pueblos.
+
+There, too, with equal suddenness, they came upon peril. Just beyond the
+nose of the sandstone promontory there was a bivouac of half naked,
+dark-skinned horsemen, recognizable at a glance as Apaches. It was
+undoubtedly the band of Delgadito.
+
+The camp was half a mile distant. The Indians, evidently surprised at the
+appearance of the train, were immediately in commotion. There was a rapid
+mounting, and in five minutes they were all on horseback, curveting in
+circles, and brandishing their lances, but without advancing.
+
+"Manga Colorada hasn't reached here yet," observed Thurstane.
+
+"That's so," assented Texas Smith. "They hain't heerd from the cuss, or
+they'd a bushwhacked us somewhar. Seein' he dasn't follow our trail, he
+had to make a big turn to git here. But he'll be droppin' along, an' then
+we'll hev a fight. I reckon we'll hev one any way. Them cusses ain't
+friendly. If they was, they'd a piled in helter-skelter to hev a talk an'
+ask fur whiskey."
+
+"We must keep them at a distance," said Thurstane.
+
+"You bet! The first Injun that comes nigh us. I'll shute him. They mustn't
+be 'lowed to git among us. First you know you'd hear a yell, an' find
+yourself speared in the back. An' them that's speared right off is the
+lucky ones."
+
+"Not one of us must fall into their hands," muttered the officer, thinking
+of Clara.
+
+"Cap, that's so," returned Texas grimly. "When I fight Injuns, I never
+empty my revolver. I keep one barl for myself. You'd better do the same.
+Furthermore, thar oughter be somebody detailed to shute the women folks
+when it comes to the last pinch. I say this as a friend."
+
+As a friend! It was the utmost stretch of Texas Smith's humanity and
+sympathy. Obviously the fellow had a soft side to him.
+
+The fact is that he had taken a fancy to Thurstane since he had learned
+his fighting qualities, and would rather have done him a favor than murder
+him. At all events his hatred to "Injuns" was such that he wanted the
+lieutenant to kill a great many of them before his own turn came.
+
+"So you think we'll have a tough job of it?" inferred Ralph.
+
+"Cap, we ain't so many as we was. An' if Manga Colorada comes up, thar'll
+be a pile of red-skins. It may be they'll outlast us; an' so I say as a
+friend, save one shot; save it for yourself, Cap."
+
+But the Apaches did not advance. They watched the train steadily; they
+held a long consultation which evidently referred to it; at last they
+seemed to decide that it was in too good order to fall an easy prey; there
+was some wild capering along its flanks, at a safe distance; and then,
+little by little, the gang resettled in its bivouac. It was like a swarm
+of hornets, which should sally out to reconnoitre an enemy, buzz about
+threateningly for a while, and sail back to their nest.
+
+The plain, usually dotted with flocks of sheep, was now a solitude. The
+Moquis had evidently withdrawn their woolly wealth either to the summit of
+the bluff, or to the partially sheltered pasturage around its base. The
+only objects which varied the verdant level were scattered white rocks,
+probably gypsum or oxide of manganese, which glistened surprisingly in the
+sunlight, reminding one of pearls sown on a mantel of green velvet. But
+already the travellers could see the peach orchards of the Moquis, and the
+sides of the lofty butte laid out in gardens supported by terrace-walls of
+dressed stone, the whole mass surmounted by the solid ramparts of the
+pueblos.
+
+At this moment, while the train was still a little over two miles from the
+foot of the bluff, and the Apache camp more than three miles to the rear,
+Texas Smith shouted, "The cusses hev got the news."
+
+It was true; the foremost riders, or perhaps only the messengers, of Manga
+Colorada had readied Delgadito; and a hundred warriors were swarming after
+the train to avenge their fallen comrades.
+
+Now ensued a race for life, the last pull of the mules being lashed out of
+them, and the Indians riding at the topmost speed of their wiry ponies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+When the race for life and death commenced between the emigrants and the
+Apaches, it seemed as if the former would certainly be able to go two
+miles before the latter could cover six.
+
+But the mules were weak, and the soil of the plain was a thin loam into
+which the wheels sank easily, so that the heavy wagons could not be
+hurried beyond a trot, and before long were reduced to a walk. Thus, while
+the caravan was still half a mile from its city of refuge, the foremost
+hornets of Delgadito's swarm were already circling around it.
+
+The chief could not charge at once, however, for the warriors whom he had
+in hand numbered barely a score, and their horses, blown with a run of
+over five miles, were unfit for sharp fighting work. For a few minutes
+nothing happened, except that the caravan continued its silent, sullen
+retreat, while the pursuers cantered yelling around it at a safe distance.
+Not a shot was fired by the emigrants; not a brave dashed up to let fly
+his arrows. At last there were fifty Apaches; then there was a hurried
+council; then a furious rush. Evidently the savages were ashamed to let
+their enemies escape for lack of one audacious assault.
+
+This charge was led by a child. A boy not more than fourteen years of age,
+screaming like a little demon and discharging his arrows at full speed
+with wicked dexterity, rode at the head of this savage _hourra_ of the
+Cossacks of the American desert. As the fierce child came on, Coronado saw
+him and recognized him with a mixture of wonder, dread, and hate. Here was
+the son of the false-hearted savage who had accepted his money, agreed to
+do his work, and then turned against him. Should he kill him? It would
+open an account of blood between himself and the father. Never mind;
+vengeance is sweet; moreover, the youngster was dangerous.
+
+Coronado raised his revolver, steadied it across his left arm, took a calm
+aim, and fired. The handsome, headlong, terrible boy swayed forward,
+rolled slowly over the pommel of his saddle, and fell to the ground
+motionless. In the next moment there was a general rattle of firearms from
+the train, and the mass of the charging column broke up into squads which
+went off in aimless caracolings. Barring a short struggle by half a dozen
+braves to recover the young chief's body, the contest was over; and in two
+minutes more the Apaches were half a mile distant, looking on in sulky
+silence while the train crawled toward the protecting bluff.
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted Thurstane. "That was quick work. Delgadito doesn't take
+his punishment well."
+
+"Reckon they see we had friends," observed Captain Glover. "Jest look at
+them critters pile down the mounting. Darned if they don't skip like
+nanny-goats."
+
+Down the huge steep slope, springing along rocky, sinuous paths or over
+the walls of the terraces, came a hundred or a hundred and fifty men,
+running with a speed which, considering the nature of the footing, was
+marvellous. Before many in the train were aware of their approach, they
+were already among the wagons, rushing up to the travellers with
+outstretched hands, the most cordial, cheerful, kindly-eyed people that
+Thurstane had seen in New Mexico. Good features, too; that is, they were
+handsomer than the usual Indian type; some even had physiognomies which
+reminded one of Italians. Their hair was fine and glossy for men of their
+race; and, stranger still, it bore an appearance of careful combing.
+Nearly all wore loose cotton trousers or drawers reaching to the knee,
+with a kind of blouse of woollen or cotton, and over the shoulders a gay
+woollen blanket tied around the waist. In view of their tidy raiment and
+their general air of cleanliness, it seemed a mistake to class them as
+Indians. These were the Moquis, a remnant of one of the semi-civilizations
+of America, perhaps a colony left behind by the Aztecs in their
+migrations, or possibly by the temple-builders of Yucatan.
+
+Impossible to converse with them. Not a person in the caravan spoke the
+Moqui tongue, and not a Moqui spoke or understood a word of Spanish or
+English. But it was evident from their faces and gestures that they were
+enthusiastically friendly, and that they had rushed down from their
+fastness to aid the emigrants against the Apaches. There was even a little
+sally into the plain, the Moquis running a quarter of a mile with amazing
+agility, spreading out into a loose skirmishing line of battle,
+brandishing their bows and defying the enemy to battle. But this ended in
+nothing; the Apaches sullenly cantered away; the others soon checked their
+pursuit.
+
+Now came the question of encampment. To get the wagons up the bluff, eight
+hundred feet or so in height, along a path which had been cut in the rock
+or built up with stone, was obviously impossible. Would there be safety
+where they were, just at the base of the noble slope? The Moquis assured
+them by signs that the plundering horse-Indians never came so near the
+pueblos. Camp then; the wagons were parked as usual in a hollow square;
+the half-starved animals were unharnessed and allowed to fly at the
+abundant grass; the cramped and wearied travellers threw themselves on the
+ground with delight.
+
+"What a charming people these Monkeys are!" said Aunt Maria, surveying the
+neat and smiling villagers with approval.
+
+"Moquis," Coronado corrected her, with a bow.
+
+"Oh, Mo-kies," repeated Aunt Maria, this time catching the sound exactly.
+"Well, I propose to see as much of them as possible. Why shouldn't the
+women and the wounded sleep in the city?"
+
+"It is an excellent idea," assented Coronado, although he thought with
+distaste that this would bring Clara and Thurstane together, while he
+would be at a distance.
+
+"I suppose we shall get an idea from it of the ancient city of Mexico, as
+described by Prescott," continued the enthusiastic lady.
+
+"You will discover a few deviations in the ground plan," returned
+Coronado, for once ironical.
+
+Aunt Maria's suggestion with regard to the women and the wounded was
+adopted. The Moquis seemed to urge it; so at least they were understood.
+Within a couple of hours after the halt a procession of the feebler folk
+commenced climbing the bluff, accompanied by a crowd of the hospitable
+Indians. The winding and difficult path swarmed for a quarter of a mile
+with people in the gayest of blankets, some ascending with the strangers
+and some coming down to greet them.
+
+"I should think we were going up to the Temple of the Sun to be
+sacrified," said Clara, who had also read Prescott.
+
+"To be worshipped," ventured Thurstane, giving her a look which made her
+blush, the boldest look that he had yet ventured.
+
+The terraces, as we have stated, were faced with partially dressed stone.
+They were in many places quite broad, and were cultivated everywhere with
+admirable care, presenting long green lines of corn fields or of peach
+orchards. Half-way up the ascent was a platform of more than ordinary
+spaciousness which contained a large reservoir, built of chipped stone
+strongly cemented, and brimming with limpid water. From this cistern large
+earthen pipes led off in various directions to irrigate the terraces
+below.
+
+"It seems to me that we are discovering America," exclaimed Aunt Maria,
+her face scarlet with exercise and enthusiasm.
+
+Presently she asked, in full faith that she was approaching a metropolis,
+"What is the name of the city?"
+
+"This must be Tegua," replied Thurstane. "Tegua is the most eastern of the
+Moqui pueblos. There are three on this bluff. Mooshaneh and two others are
+on a butte to the west. Oraybe is further north."
+
+"What a powerful confederacy!" said Aunt Maria. "The United States of the
+Moquis!"
+
+After a breathless ascent of at least eight hundred feet, they reached the
+undulated, barren, rocky surface of a plateau. Here the whole population
+of Tegua had collected; and for the first time the visitors saw Moqui
+women and children. Aunt Maria was particularly pleased with the specimens
+of her own sex; she went into ecstasies over their gentle physiognomies
+and their well-combed, carefully braided, glossy hair; she admired their
+long gowns of black woollen, each with a yellow stripe around the waist
+and a border of the same at the bottom.
+
+"Such a sensible costume!" she said. "So much more rational and convenient
+than our fashionable fripperies!"
+
+Another fact of great interest was that the Moquis were lighter
+complexioned than Indians in general. And when she discovered a woman with
+fair skin, blue eyes, and yellow hair--one of those albinos who are found
+among the inhabitants of the pueblos--she went into an excitement which
+was nothing less than ethnological.
+
+"These are white people," she cried, losing sight of all the brown faces.
+"They are some European race which colonized America long before that
+modern upstart, Columbus. They are undoubtedly the descendants of the
+Northmen who built the old mill at Newport and sculptured the Dighton
+Rock."
+
+"There is a belief," said Thurstane, "that some of these pueblo people,
+particularly those of Zuni, are Welsh. A Welsh prince named Madoc, flying
+before the Saxons, is said to have reached America. There are persons who
+hold that the descendants of his followers built the mounds in the
+Mississippi Valley, and that some of them became the white Mandans of the
+upper Missouri, and that others founded this old Mexican civilization. Of
+course it is all guess-work. There's nothing about it in the Regulations."
+
+"I consider it highly probable," asserted Aunt Maria, forgetting her
+Scandinavian hypothesis. "I don't see how you can doubt that that
+flaxen-haired girl is a descendant of Medoc, Prince of Wales."
+
+"Madoc," corrected Thurstane.
+
+"Well, Madoc then," replied Aunt Maria rather pettishly, for she was
+dreadfully tired, and moreover she didn't like Thurstane.
+
+A few minutes' walk brought them to the rampart which surrounded the
+pueblo. Its foundation was a solid blind wall, fifteen feet or so in
+height, and built of hewn stone laid in clay cement. Above was a second
+wall, rising from the first as one terrace rises from another, and
+surmounted by a third, which was also in terrace fashion. The ground tier
+of this stair-like structure contained the storerooms of the Moquis, while
+the upper tiers were composed of their two-story houses, the entire mass
+of masonry being upward of thirty feet high, and forming a continuous line
+of fortification. This rampart of dwellings was in the shape of a
+rectangle, and enclosed a large square or plaza containing a noble
+reservoir. Compact and populous, at once a castle and a city, the place
+could defy all the horse Indians of North America.
+
+"Bless me! this is sublime but dreadful," said Aunt Maria when she learned
+that she must ascend to the landing of the lower wall by a ladder. "No
+gate? Isn't there a window somewhere that I could crawl through? Well,
+well! Dear me! But it's delightful to see how safe these excellent people
+have made themselves."
+
+So with many tremblings, and with the aid of a lariat fastened around her
+waist and vigorously pulled from above by two Moquis, Aunt Maria clutched
+and scraped her way to the top of the foundation terrace.
+
+"I shall never go down in the world," she remarked with a shuddering
+glance backward. "I shall pass the rest of my days here."
+
+From the first platform the travellers were led to the second and third by
+stone stairways. They were now upon the inside of the rectangle, and could
+see two stories of doors facing the plaza and the reservoir in its centre,
+the whole scene cheerful with the gay garments and smiling faces of the
+Moquis.
+
+"Beautiful!" said Aunt Maria. "That court is absolutely swept and dusted.
+One might give a ball there. I should like to hear Lucretia Mott speak in
+it."
+
+Her reflections were interrupted by the courteous gestures of a
+middle-aged, dignified Moqui, who was apparently inviting the party to
+enter one of the dwellings.
+
+Pepita and the other two Indian women, with the wounded muleteers, were
+taken to another house. Aunt Maria, Clara, Thurstane, and Phineas Glover
+entered the residence of the chief, and found themselves in a room six or
+seven feet high, fifteen feet in length and ten in breadth. The floor was
+solid, polished clay; the walls were built of the large, sunbaked bricks
+called adobes; the ceilings were of beams, covered by short sticks, with
+adobes over all. Skins, bows and arrows, quivers, antlers, blankets,
+articles of clothing, and various simple ornaments hung on pegs driven
+into the walls or lay packed upon shelves.
+
+"They are a musical race, I see," observed Aunt Maria, pointing to a pair
+of painted drumsticks tipped with gay feathers, and a reed wind-instrument
+with a bell-shaped mouth like a clarionet. "Of course they are. The Welsh
+were always famous for their bards and their harpers. Does anybody in our
+party speak Welsh? What a pity we are such ignoramuses! We might have an
+interesting conversation with these people. I should so like to hear their
+traditions about the voyage across the Atlantic and the old mill at
+Newport."
+
+Her remarks were interrupted by a short speech from the chief, whom she at
+first understood as relating the adventures of his ancestors, but who
+finally made it clear that he was asking them to take seats. After they
+were arranged on a row of skins spread along the wall, a shy, meek, and
+pretty Moqui woman passed around a vase of water for drinking and a tray
+which contained something not unlike a bundle of blue wrapping paper.
+
+"Is this to wipe our hands on?" inquired Aunt Maria, bringing her
+spectacles to bear on the contents of the tray.
+
+"It smells like corn bread," said Clara.
+
+So it was. The corn of the Moquis is blue, and grinding does not destroy
+the color. The meal is stirred into a thin gruel and cooked by pouring
+over smooth, flat, heated stones, the light shining tissues being rapidly
+taken off and folded, and subsequently made up in bundles.
+
+The party made a fair meal off the blue wrapping paper. Then the meek-eyed
+woman reappeared, removed the dishes, returned once more, and looked
+fixedly at Thurstane's bloody sleeve.
+
+"Certainly!" said Aunt Maria. "Let her dress your arm. I have no doubt
+that unpretending woman knows more about surgery than all the men doctors
+in New York city. Let her dress it."
+
+Thurstane partially threw off his coat and rolled up his shirt sleeve.
+Clara gave one glance at the huge white arm with the small crimson hole in
+it, and turned away with a thrill which was new to her. The Moqui woman
+washed the wound, applied a dressing which looked like chewed leaves, and
+put on a light bandage.
+
+"Does it feel any better?" asked Aunt Maria eagerly.
+
+"It feels cooler," said Thurstane.
+
+Aunt Maria looked as if she thought him very ungrateful for not saying
+that he was entirely well.
+
+"An' my nose," suggested Glover, turning up his lacerated proboscis.
+
+"Yes, certainly; your poor nose," assented Aunt Maria. "Let the lady cure
+it."
+
+The female surgeon fastened a poultice upon the tattered cartilage by
+passing a bandage around the skipper's sandy and bristly head.
+
+"Works like a charm 'n' smells like peach leaves," snuffled the patient.
+"It's where it's handy to sniff at--that's a comfort."
+
+After much dumb show, arrangements were made for the night. One of the
+inner rooms was assigned to Mrs. Stanley and Clara, and another to
+Thurstane and Glover. Bedding, provisions, and some small articles as
+presents for the Moquis were sent up from the train by Coronado.
+
+But would the wagons, the animals, and the human members of the party
+below be safe during the night? Young as he was, and wounded as he was,
+Thurstane was so badgered by his army habit of incessant responsibility
+that he could not lie down to rest until he had visited the camp and
+examined personally into probabilities of attack and means of defence. As
+he descended the stony path which scored the side of the butte, his
+anxiety was greatly increased by the appearance of a party of armed Moquis
+rushing like deer down the steep slope, as if to repel an attack.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+Thurstane found the caravan in excellent condition, the mules being
+tethered at the reservoir half-way up the acclivity, and the wagons parked
+and guarded as usual, with Weber for officer of the night.
+
+"We are in no tanger, Leftenant," said the sergeant. "A large barty of
+these bueplo beeble has shust gone to the vront. They haf daken atfandage
+of our bresence to regover a bortion of the blain. I haf sent Kelly along
+to look after them a leetle und make them keep a goot watch. We are shust
+as safe as bossible. Und to-morrow we will basture the animals. It is a
+goot blace for a gamp, Leftenant, und we shall pe all right in a tay or
+two."
+
+"Does Shubert's leg need attention?"
+
+"No. It is shust nothing. Shupert is for tuty."
+
+"And you feel perfectly able to take care of yourselves here?"
+
+"Berfectly, Leftenant."
+
+"Forty rounds apiece!"
+
+"They are issued, Leftenant."
+
+"If you are attacked, fire heavily; and if the attack is sharp, retreat to
+the bluff. Never mind the wagons; they can be recovered."
+
+"I will opey your instructions, Leftenant."
+
+Thurstane was feverish and exhausted; he knew that Weber was as good a
+soldier as himself; and still he went back to the village with an anxious
+heart; such is the tenderness of the military conscience as to _duty_.
+
+By the time he reached the upper landing of the wall of the pueblo it was
+sunset, and he paused to gaze at a magnificent landscape, the _replica_ of
+the one which he had seen at sunrise. There were buttes, valleys, and
+cañons, the vast and lofty plateaus of the north, the ranges of the Navajo
+country, the Sierra del Carrizo, and the ice peaks of Monte San Francisco.
+It was sublime, savage, beautiful, horrible. It seemed a revelation from
+some other world. It was a nightmare of nature.
+
+Clara met him on the landing with the smile which she now often gave him.
+"I was anxious about you," she said. "You were too weak to go down there.
+You look very tired. Do come and eat, and then rest. You will make
+yourself sick. I was quite anxious about you."
+
+It was a delightful repetition. How his heart and his eyes thanked her for
+being troubled for his sake! He was so cheered that in a moment he did not
+seem to be tired at all. He could have watched all that night, if it had
+been necessary for her safety, or even for her comfort. The soul certainly
+has a great deal to do with the body.
+
+While our travellers sleep, let us glance at the singular people among
+whom they have found refuge.
+
+It is said hesitatingly, by scholars who have not yet made comparative
+studies of languages, that the Moquis are not _red men_, like the
+Algonquins, the Iroquois, the Lenni-Lenape, the Sioux, and in general
+those whom we know as _Indians_. It is said, moreover, that they are of
+the same generic stock with the Aztecs of Mexico, the ancient Peruvians,
+and all the other city-building peoples of both North and South America.
+
+It was an evil day for the brown race of New Mexico when horses strayed
+from the Spanish settlements into the desert, and the savage red tribes
+became cavalry. This feeble civilization then received a more cruel shock
+than that which had been dealt it by the storming columns of the
+conquistadors. The horse transformed the Utes, Apaches, Comanches, and
+Navajos from snapping-turtles into condors. Thenceforward, instead of
+crawling in slow and feeble bands to tease the dense populations of the
+pueblos, they could come like a tornado, and come in a swarm. At no time
+were the Moquis and their fellow agriculturists and herdsmen safe from
+robbery and slaughter. Such villages as did not stand upon buttes
+inaccessible to horsemen, and such as did not possess fertile lands
+immediately under the shelter of their walls, were either abandoned or
+depopulated by slow starvation.
+
+It is thus that we may account for many of the desolate cities which are
+now found in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Not of course for all; some,
+we know, were destroyed by the early Spaniards; others may have been
+forsaken because their tillable lands became exhausted; others doubtless
+fell during wars between different tribes of the brown race. But the
+cavalry of the desert must necessarily have been a potent instrument of
+destruction.
+
+It is a pathetic spectacle, this civilization which has perished, or is
+perishing, without the poor consolation of a history to record its
+sufferings. It comes near to being a repetition of the silent death of the
+flint and bronze races, the mound-raisers, and cave-diggers, and
+cromlech-builders of Europe.
+
+Captain Phineas Glover, rising at an early hour in the morning, and having
+had his nosebag of medicament refilled and refitted, set off on an
+appetizer around the ramparts of the pueblo, and came back marvelling.
+
+"Been out to shake hands with these clever critters," he said. "Best
+behavin' 'n' meekest lookin' Injuns I ever see. Put me in mind o' cows 'n'
+lambs. An' neat! 'Most equal to Amsterdam Dutch. Seen a woman sweepin' up
+her husband's tobacco ashes 'n' carryin' 'em out to throw over the wall.
+Jest what they do in Broek. Ever been in Broek? Tell ye 'bout it some
+time. But how d'ye s'pose this town was built? _I_ didn't see no stun up
+here that was fit for quarryin'. So I put it to a lot of fellers where
+they got their buildin' m'ter'ls. Wal, after figurin' round a spell, 'n'
+makin' signs by the schuner load, found out the hull thing. Every stun in
+this place was whittled out 'f the ruff-scuff at the bottom of the
+mounting, 'n' fetched up here in blankets on men's shoulders. All the mud,
+too, to make their bricks, was backed up in the same way. Feller off with
+his blanket 'n' showed me how they did it. Beats all. Wust of it was,
+couldn't find out how long it took 'em, nor how the job was lotted out to
+each one."
+
+"I suppose they made their women do it," said Aunt Maria grimly. "Men
+usually put all the hard work on women."
+
+"Wal, women folks do a heap," admitted Glover, who never contradicted
+anybody. "But there's reason to entertain a hope that they didn't take the
+brunt of it here. I looked over into the gardens down b'low the town, 'n'
+see men plantin' corn, 'n' tendin' peach trees, but didn't see no women at
+it. The women was all in the houses, spinnin', weavin', sewin', 'n' fixin'
+up ginerally."
+
+"Remarkable people!" exclaimed Aunt Maria. "They are at least as civilized
+as we. Very probably more so. Of course they are. I must learn whether the
+women vote, or in any way take part in the government. If so, these
+Indians are vastly our superiors, and we must sit humbly at their feet."
+
+During this talk the worn and wounded Thurstane had been lying asleep. He
+now appeared from his dormitory, nodded a hasty good-morning, and pushed
+for the door.
+
+"Train's all right," said Glover. "Jest took a squint at it. Peaceful's a
+ship becalmed. Not a darned Apache in sight."
+
+"You are sure?" demanded the young officer.
+
+"Better get some more peach-leaf pain-killer on your arm 'n' set straight
+down to breakfast."
+
+"If the Apaches have vamosed, Coronado might join us," suggested
+Thurstane.
+
+"Never!" answered Mrs. Stanley with solemnity. "His ancestor stormed
+Cibola and ravaged this whole country. If these people should hear his
+name pronounced, and suspect his relationship to their oppressor, they
+might massacre him."
+
+"That was three hundred years ago," smiled the wretch of a lieutenant.
+
+"It doesn't matter," decided Mrs. Stanley.
+
+And so Coronado, thanks to one of his splendid inventions, was not invited
+up to the pueblo.
+
+The travellers spent the day in resting, in receiving a succession of
+pleasant, tidy visitors, and in watching the ways of the little community.
+The weather was perfect, for while the season was the middle of May, and
+the latitude that of Algeria and Tunis, they were nearly six thousand feet
+above the level of the sea, and the isolated butte was wreathed with
+breezes. It was delightful to sit or stroll on the landings of the
+ramparts, and overlook the flourishing landscape near at hand, and the
+peaceful industry which caused it to bloom.
+
+Along the hillside, amid the terraced gardens of corn, pumpkins, guavas,
+and peaches, many men and children were at work, with here and there a
+woman.
+
+The scene had not only its charms, but its marvels. Besides the grand
+environment of plateaus and mountains in the distance, there were near at
+hand freaks of nature such as one might look for in the moon. Nowhere
+perhaps has the great water erosion of bygone aeons wrought more
+grotesquely and fantastically than in the Moqui basin. To the west rose a
+series of detached buttes, presenting forms of castles, towers, and
+minarets, which looked more like the handiwork of man than the pueblo
+itself. There were piles of variegated sandstone, some of them four
+hundred feet in height, crowned by a hundred feet of sombre trap. Internal
+fire had found vent here; its outflowings had crystallized into columnar
+trap; the trap had protected the underlying sandstone from cycles of
+water-flow; thus had been fashioned these sublime donjons and pinnacles.
+
+They were not only sublime but beautiful. The sandstone, reduced by ages
+to a crumbling marl, was of all colors. There were layers of green,
+reddish-brown, drab, purple, red, yellow, pinkish, slate, light-brown,
+orange, white, and banded. Nature, not contented with building enchanted
+palaces, had frescoed them. At this distance, indeed, the separate tints
+of the strata could not be discerned, but their general effect of
+variegation was distinctly visible, and the result was a landscape of the
+Thousand and One Nights.
+
+To the south were groups of crested mounds, some of them resembling the
+spreading stumps of trees, and others broad-mouthed bells, all of vast
+magnitude. These were of sandstone marl, the caps consisting of hard red
+and green shales, while the swelling boles, colored by gypsum, were as
+white as loaf-sugar. It was another specimen of the handiwork of deluges
+which no man can number.
+
+Far away to the southwest, and yet faintly seen through the crystalline
+atmosphere, were the many-colored knolls and rolls and cliffs of the
+Painted Desert. Marls, shales, and sandstones, of all tints, were strewn
+and piled into a variegated vista of sterile splendor. Here surely
+enchantment and glamour had made undisputed abode.
+
+All day the wounded and the women reposed, gazing a good deal, but
+sleeping more. During the afternoon, however, our wonder-loving Mrs.
+Stanley roused herself from her lethargy and rushed into an adventure such
+as only she knew how to find. In the morning she had noticed, at the other
+end of the pueblo from her quarters, a large room which was frequented by
+men alone. It might be a temple; it might be a hall for the transaction of
+public business; such were the diverse guesses of the travellers. Into the
+mysteries of this apartment Aunt Maria resolved to poke.
+
+She reached it; nobody was in it; suspicious circumstance! Aunt Maria put
+an end to this state of questionable solitude by entering. A dark room; no
+light except from a trap door; a very proper place for improper doings. At
+one end rose a large, square block of red sandstone, on which was carved a
+round face environed by rays, probably representing the sun. Aunt Maria
+remembered the sacrificial altars of the Aztecs, and judged that the old
+sanguinary religion of Tenochtitlan was not yet extinct. She became more
+convinced of this terrific fact when she discovered that the red tint of
+the stone was deepened in various places by stains which resembled blood.
+
+Three or four horrible suggestions arose in succession to jerk at her
+heartstrings. Were these Moquis still in the habit of offering human
+sacrifices? Would a woman answer their purpose, and particularly a white
+woman? If they should catch her there, in the presence of their deity,
+would they consider it a leading of Providence? Aunt Maria,
+notwithstanding her curiosity and courage, began to feel a desire to
+retreat.
+
+Her reflections were interrupted and her emotions accelerated by darkness.
+Evidently the door had been shut; then she heard a rustling of approaching
+feet and an awful whispering; then projected hands impeded her gropings
+toward safety. While she stood still, too completely blinded to fly and
+too frightened to scream, a light gleamed from behind the altar and
+presently rose into a flame. The sacred fire!--she knew it as soon as she
+saw it; she remembered Prescott, and recognized it at a glance.
+
+By its flickering rays she perceived that the apartment was full of men,
+all robed in blankets of ebony blackness, and all gazing at her in solemn
+silence. Two of them, venerable elders with long white hair, stood in
+front of the others, making genuflexions and signs of adoration toward the
+carved face on the altar. Presently they advanced to her, one of them
+suddenly seizing her by the shoulders and pinioning her arms behind her,
+while the other drew from beneath his robe a long sharp knife of the
+glassy flint known as obsidian.
+
+At this point the horrified Aunt Maria found her voice, and uttered a
+piercing scream.
+
+At the close of her scream she by a supreme effort turned on her side,
+raised her hands to her face, rubbed her eyes open, stared at Clara, who
+was lying near her, and mumbled, "I've had an awful nightmare."
+
+That was it. There was no altar, nor holy fire, nor high priest, nor flint
+lancet. She hadn't been anywhere, and she hadn't even screamed, except in
+imagination. She was on her blanket, alongside of her niece, in the house
+of the Moqui chief, and as safe as need be.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+But the visionary terror had scarcely gone when a real one came. Coronado
+appeared--Coronado, the descendant of the great Vasquez--Coronado, whom
+the Moquis would destroy if they heard his name--of whom they would not
+leave two limbs or two fingers together. From her dormitory she saw him
+walk into the main room of the house in his airiest and cheeriest manner,
+bowing and smiling to right, bowing and smiling to left, winning Moqui
+hearts in a moment, a charmer of a Coronado. He shook hands with the
+chief; he shook hands with all the head men; next a hand to Thurstane and
+another to Glover. Mrs. Stanley heard him addressed as Coronado; she
+looked to see him scattered in rags on the floor; she tried to muster
+courage to rush to his rescue.
+
+There was no outcry of rage at the sound of the fatal name, and she could
+not perceive that a Moqui countenance smiled the less for it.
+
+Coronado produced a pipe, filled it, lighted it, and handed it to the
+chief. That dignitary took it, bowed gravely to each of the four points of
+the compass, exhaled a few whiffs, and passed it to his next blanketed
+neighbor, who likewise saluted the four cardinal points, smoked a little,
+and sent it on. Mrs. Stanley drew a sigh of relief; the pipe of peace had
+been used, and there would be no bloodshed; she saw the whole bearing of
+her favorite's audacious manoeuvre at a glance.
+
+Coronado now glided into the obscure room where she and Clara were sitting
+on their blankets and skins. He kissed his hand to the one and the other,
+and rolled out some melodious congratulations.
+
+"You reckless creature!" whispered Aunt Maria. "How dared you come up
+here?"
+
+"Why so?" asked the Mexican, for once puzzled.
+
+"Your name! Your ancestor!"
+
+"Ah!!" and Coronado smiled mysteriously. "There is no danger. We are under
+the protection of the American eagle. Moreover, hospitalities have been
+interchanged."
+
+Next the experiences of the last twenty-four hours, first Mrs. Stanley's
+version and then Coronado's, were related. He had little to tell: there
+had been a quiet night and much slumber; the Moquis had stood guard and
+been every way friendly; the Apaches had left the valley and gone to parts
+unknown.
+
+The truth is that he had slept more than half of the time. Journeying,
+fighting, watching, and anxiety had exhausted him as well as every one
+else, and enabled him to plunge into slumber with a delicious
+consciousness of it as a restorative and a luxury.
+
+Now that he was himself again, he wondered at what he had been. For two
+days he had faced death, fighting like a legionary or a knight-errant, and
+in short playing the hero. What was there in his nature, or what had there
+been in his selfish and lazy life, that was akin to such fine frenzies? As
+he remembered it all, he hardly knew himself for the same old Coronado.
+
+Well, being safe again, he was a devoted lover again, and he must get on
+with his courtship. Considering that Clara and Thurstane, if left much
+together here in the pueblo, might lead each other into the temptation of
+a betrothal, he decided that he must be at hand to prevent such a
+catastrophe, and so here he was. Presently he began to talk to the girl in
+Spanish; then he begged the aunt's pardon for speaking what was to her an
+unknown tongue; but he had, he said, some family matters for his cousin's
+ear; would Mrs. Stanley be so good as to excuse him?
+
+"Certainly," returned that far-sighted woman, guessing what the family
+matters might be, and approving them. "By the way, I have something to
+do," she added. "I must attend to it immediately."
+
+By this time she remembered all about her nightmare, and she was in a
+state of inflammation as to the Moqui religion. If the dream were true, if
+the Moquis were in the habit of sacrificing strong-minded women or any
+kind of women, she must know it and put a stop to it. Stepping into the
+central room, where Thurstane and Glover were smoking with a number of
+Indians, she said in her prompt, positive way, "I must look into these
+people's religion. Does anybody know whether they have any?"
+
+The Lieutenant had a spark or two of information on the subject. Through
+the medium of a Navajo who had strolled into the pueblo, and who spoke a
+little Spanish and a good deal of Moqui, he had been catechising the chief
+as to manners, customs, etc.
+
+"I understand," he said, "that they have a sacred fire which they never
+suffer to go out. They are believed to worship the sun, like the ancient
+Aztecs. The sacred fire seems to confirm the suspicion."
+
+"Sacred fire! vestal virgins, too, I suppose! can they be Romans?"
+reasoned Aunt Maria, beginning to doubt Prince Madoc.
+
+"The vestal virgins here are old men," replied Ralph, wickedly pleased to
+get a joke on the lady.
+
+"Oh! The Moquis are not Romans," decided Mrs Stanley. "Well, what do these
+old men do?"
+
+"Keep the fire burning."
+
+"What if it should go out? What would happen?"
+
+"I don't know," responded the sub-acid Thurstane.
+
+"I didn't suppose you did," said Aunt Maria pettishly. "Captain Glover, I
+want you to come with me."
+
+Followed by the subservient skipper, she marched to the other end of the
+pueblo. There was the mysterious apartment; it was not really a temple,
+but a sort of public hall and general lounging place; such rooms exist in
+the Spanish-speaking pueblos of Zuni and Laguna, and are there called
+_estufas_. The explorers soon discovered that the only entrance into the
+estufa was by a trapdoor and a ladder. Now Aunt Maria hated ladders: they
+were awkward for skirts, and moreover they made her giddy; so she simply
+got on her knees and peeped through the trap-door. But there was a fire
+directly below, and there was also a pretty strong smell of pipes of
+tobacco, so that she saw nothing and was stifled and disgusted. She sent
+Glover down, as people lower a dog into a mine where gases are suspected.
+After a brief absence the skipper returned and reported.
+
+"Pooty sizable room. Dark's a pocket 'n' hot's a footstove. Three or four
+Injuns talkin' 'n' smokin'. Scrap 'f a fire smoulder'in a kind 'f standee
+fireplace without any top."
+
+"That's the sacred fire," said Aunt Maria. "How many old men were watching
+it?"
+
+"Didn't see _any_."
+
+"They must have been there. Did you put the fire out?"
+
+"No water handy," explained the prudent Glover.
+
+"You might have--expectorated on it."
+
+"Reckon I didn't miss it," said the skipper, who was a chewer of tobacco
+and a dead shot with his juice.
+
+"Of course nothing happened."
+
+"Nary."
+
+"I knew there wouldn't," declared the lady triumphantly. "Well, now let us
+go back. We know something about the religion of these people. It is
+certainly a very interesting study."
+
+"Didn't appear to me much l'k a temple," ventured Glover. "Sh'd say t'was
+a kind 'f gineral smokin' room 'n' jawin' place. Git together there 'n'
+talk crops 'n' 'lections 'n' the like."
+
+"You must be mistaken," decided Aunt Maria. "There was the sacred fire."
+
+She now led the willing captain (for he was as inquisitive as a monkey) on
+a round of visits to the houses of the Moquis. She poked smiling through
+their kitchens and bedrooms, and gained more information than might have
+been expected concerning their spinning and weaving, cheerfully spending
+ten minutes in signs to obtain a single idea.
+
+"Never shear their sheep till they are dead!" she exclaimed when that fact
+had been gestured into her understanding. "Absurd! There's another
+specimen of masculine stupidity. I'll warrant you, if the women had the
+management of things, the good-for-nothing brutes would be sheared every
+day."
+
+"Jest as they be to hum," slily suggested Glover, who knew better.
+
+"Certainly," said Aunt Maria, aware that cows were milked daily.
+
+The Moquis were very hospitable; they absolutely petted the strangers. At
+nearly every house presents were offered, such as gourds full of corn,
+strings of dried peaches, guavas as big as pomegranates, or bundles of the
+edible wrapping paper, all of which Aunt Maria declined with magnanimous
+waves of the hand and copious smiles. Curious and amiable faces peeped at
+the visitors from the landings and doorways.
+
+"How mild and good they all look!" said Aunt Maria. "They put me in mind
+somehow of Shenstone's pastorals. How humanizing a pastoral life is, to be
+sure! On the whole, I admire their way of not shearing their sheep alive.
+It isn't stupidity, but goodness of heart. A most amiable people!"
+
+"Jest so," assented Glover. "How it must go ag'in the grain with 'em to
+take a skelp when it comes in the way of dooty! A man oughter feel willin'
+to be skelped by sech tender-hearted critters."
+
+"Pshaw!" said Aunt Maria. "I don't believe they ever scalp anybody--unless
+it is in self-defence."
+
+"Dessay. Them fellers that went down to fight the Apaches was painted up's
+savage's meat-axes. Probably though 'twas to use up some 'f their paint
+that was a wastin'. Equinomical, I sh'd say."
+
+Mrs. Stanley did not see her way clear to comment either upon the fact or
+the inference. There were times when she did not understand Glover, and
+this was one of the times. He had queer twistical ways of reasoning which
+often proved the contrary of what he seemed to want to prove; and she had
+concluded that he was a dark-minded man who did not always know what he
+was driving at; at all events, a man not invariably comprehensible by
+clear intellects.
+
+Her attention was presently engaged by a stir in the pueblo. Great things
+were evidently at hand; some spectacle was on the point of presentation;
+what was it? Aunt Maria guessed marriage, and Captain Glover guessed a
+war-dance; but they had no argument, for the skipper gave in. Meantime the
+Moquis, men, women, and children, all dressed in their gayest raiment,
+were gathering in groups on the landings and in the square. Presently
+there was a crowd, a thousand or fifteen hundred strong; at last appeared
+the victims, the performers, or whatever they were.
+
+"Dear me!" murmured Aunt Maria. "Twenty weddings at once! I hope divorce
+is frequent."
+
+Twenty men and twenty women advanced to the centre of the plaza in double
+file and faced each other.
+
+The dance began; the performers furnished their own music; each rolled out
+a deep _aw aw aw_ under his visor.
+
+"Sounds like a swarm of the biggest kind of blue-bottle flies inside the
+biggest kind 'f a sugar hogset," was Glover's description.
+
+The movement was as monotonous as the melody. The men and women faced each
+other without changing positions; there was an alternate lifting of the
+feet, in time with the _aw aw_ and the rattling of the gourds; now and
+then there was a simultaneous about face.
+
+After a while, open ranks; then rugs and blankets were brought; the
+maidens sat down and the men danced at them; trot trot, aw aw, and rattle
+rattle.
+
+Every third girl now received a large empty gourd, a grooved board, and
+the dry shoulder-bone of a sheep. Laying the board on the gourd, she drew
+the bone sharply across the edges of the wood, thus producing a sound like
+a watchman's rattle.
+
+They danced once on each side of the square; then retired to a house and
+rested fifteen minutes; then recommenced their trot. Meanwhile maidens
+with large baskets ran about among the spectators, distributing meat,
+roasted ears of corn, sheets of bread, and guavas.
+
+So the gayety went on until the sun and the visitors alike withdrew.
+
+"After all, I think it is more interesting than our marriages," declared
+Aunt Maria. "I wonder if we ought to make presents to the wedded couples.
+There are a good many of them."
+
+She was quite amazed when she learned that this was not a wedding, but a
+rain-dance, and that the maidens whom she had admired were boys dressed up
+in female raiment, the customs of the Moquis not allowing women to take
+part in public spectacles.
+
+"What exquisite delicacy!" was her consolatory comment. "Well, well, this
+is the golden age, truly."
+
+When further informed that in marriage among the Moquis it is woman who
+takes the initiative, the girl pointing out the young man of her heart and
+the girl's father making the offer, which is never refused, Mrs. Stanley
+almost shed tears of gratification. Here was something like woman's
+rights; here was a flash of the glorious dawn of equality between the
+sexes; for when she talked of equality she meant female preëminence.
+
+"And divorces?" she eagerly asked.
+
+"They are at the pleasure of the parties," explained Thurstane, who had
+been catechising the chief at great length through his Navajo.
+
+"And who, in case of a divorce, cares for the children?"
+
+"The grandparents."
+
+Aunt Maria came near clapping her hands. This was better than Connecticut
+or Indiana. A woman here might successively marry all the men whom she
+might successively fancy, and thus enjoy a perpetual gush of the
+affections and an unruffled current of happiness.
+
+To such extreme views had this excellent creature been led by brooding
+over what she called the wrongs of her sex and the legal tyranny of the
+other.
+
+But we must return to Coronado and Clara. The man had come up to the
+pueblo on purpose to have a plain talk with the girl and learn exactly
+what she meant to do with him. It was now more than a week since he had
+offered himself, and in that time she had made no sign which indicated her
+purpose. He had looked at her and sighed at her without getting a response
+of any sort. This could not go on; he must know how she felt towards him;
+he must know how much, she cared for Thurstane. How else could he decide
+what to do with her and with _him_?
+
+Thus, while the other members of the party were watching the Moqui dances,
+Coronado and Clara were talking matters of the heart, and were deciding,
+unawares to her, questions of life and death.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+It must be remembered that when Mrs. Stanley carried off skipper Glover to
+help her investigate the religion of the Moquis, she left Coronado alone
+with Clara in one of the interior rooms of the chief's house.
+
+Thurstane, to be sure, was in the next room and in sight; but he had with
+him the chief, two other leading Moquis, and his chance Navajo
+interpreter; they were making a map of the San Juan country by scratching
+with an arrow-point on the clay floor; everybody was interested in the
+matter, and there was a pretty smart jabbering. Thus Coronado could say
+his say without being overheard or interrupted.
+
+For a little while he babbled commonplaces. The truth is that the sight of
+the girl had unsettled his resolutions a little. While he was away from
+her, he could figure to himself how he would push her into taking him at
+once, or how, if she refused him, he would let loose upon her the dogs of
+fate. But once face to face with her, he found that his resolutions had
+dispersed like a globule of mercury under a hammer, and that he needed a
+few moments to scrape them together again. So he prattled nothings while
+he meditated; and you would have thought that he cared for the nothings.
+He had that faculty; he could mentally ride two horses at once; he would
+have made a good diplomatist.
+
+His mind glanced at the past while it peered into the future. What a
+sinuous underground plot the superficial incidents of this journey
+covered! To his fellow-travellers it was a straight line; to him it was a
+complicated and endless labyrinth. How much more he had to think of than
+they! Only he knew that Pedro Muñoz was dead, that Clara Van Diemen was an
+heiress, that she was in danger of being abandoned to the desert, that
+Thurstane was in danger of assassination. Nothing that he had set out to
+do was yet done, and some of it he must absolutely accomplish, and that
+shortly. How much? That depended upon this girl. If she accepted him, his
+course would be simple, and he would be spared the perils of crime.
+
+Meantime, he looked at Clara even more frankly and calmly than she looked
+at him. He showed no guilt or remorse in his face, because he felt none in
+his heart. It must be understood distinctly that the man was almost as
+destitute of a conscience as it is possible for a member of civilized
+society to be. He knew what the world called right and wrong; but the mere
+opinion of the world had no weight with him; that is, none as against his
+own opinion. His rule of life was to do what he wanted to do, providing he
+could accomplish it without receiving a damage. You can hardly imagine a
+being whose interior existence was more devoid of complexity and of mixed
+motives than was Coronado's. Thus he was quite able to contemplate the
+possible death of Clara, and still look her calmly in the face and tell
+her that he loved her.
+
+The girl returned his gaze tranquilly, because she had no suspicions of
+his profound wickedness. By nature confiding and reverential, she trusted
+those who professed friendship, and respected those who were her elders,
+especially if they belonged in any manner to her own family. Considering
+herself under obligations to Coronado, and not guessing that he was
+capable of doing her a harm, she was truly grateful to him and wished him
+well with all her heart. If her eye now and then dropped under his, it was
+because she feared a repetition of his offer of marriage, and hated to
+pain him with a refusal.
+
+The commonplaces lasted longer than the man had meant, for he could not
+bring himself promptly to take the leap of fate. But at last came the
+dance; the chief and his comrades led Thurstane away to look at it; now
+was the time to talk of this fateful betrothal.
+
+"Something is passing outside," observed Clara. "Shall we go to see?"
+
+"I am entirely at your command," replied Coronado, with his charming air
+of gentle respect. "But if you can give me a few minutes of your time, I
+shall be very grateful."
+
+Clara's heart beat violently, and her cheeks and neck flushed with spots
+of red, as she sank back upon her seat. She guessed what was coming; she
+had been a good deal afraid of it all the time; it was her only cause of
+dreading Coronado.
+
+"I venture to hope that you have been good enough to think of what I said
+to you a week ago," he went on. "Yes, it was a week ago. It seems to me a
+year."
+
+"It seems a long time," stammered Clara. So it did, for the days since had
+been crammed with emotions and events, and they gave her young mind an
+impression of a long period passed.
+
+"I have been so full of anxiety!" continued Coronado. "Not about our
+dangers," he asserted with a little bravado. "Or, rather, not about mine.
+For you I have been fearful. The possibility that you might fall into the
+hands of the Apaches was a horror to me. But, after all, my chief anxiety
+was to know what would be your final answer to me. Yes, my beautiful and
+very dear cousin, strange as it may seem under our circumstances, this
+thought has always outweighed with me all our dangers."
+
+Coronado, as we have already declared, was really in love with Clara. It
+seems incredible, at first glance, that a man who had no conscience could
+have a heart. But the assertion is not a fairy story; it is founded in
+solid philosophy. It is true that Coronado's moral education had been
+neglected or misdirected; that he was either born indifferent to the idea
+of duty, or had become indifferent to it; and that he was an egotist of
+the first water, bent solely upon favoring and gratifying himself. But
+while his nature was somewhat chilled by these things, he had the hottest
+of blood in his veins, he possessed a keen perception of the beautiful,
+and so he could desire with fury. His love could not be otherwise than
+selfish; but it was none the less capable of ruling him tyrannically.
+
+Just at this moment his intensity of feeling made him physically imposing
+and almost fascinating. It seemed to remove a veil from his usually filmy
+black eyes, and give him power for once to throw out all of truth that
+there was in his soul. It communicated to his voice a tremor which made it
+eloquent. He exhaled, as it were, an aroma of puissant emotion which was
+intoxicating, and which could hardly fail to act upon the sensitive nature
+of woman. Clara was so agitated by this influence, that for the moment she
+seemed to herself to know no man in the world but Coronado. Even while she
+tried to remember Thurstane, he vanished as if expelled by some
+enchantment, and left her alone in life with her tempter. Still she could
+not or would not answer; though she trembled, she remained speechless.
+
+"I have asked you to be my wife," resumed Coronado, seeing that he must
+urge her. "I venture now to ask you again. I implore you not to refuse me.
+I cannot be refused. It would make me utterly wretched. It might perhaps
+bring wretchedness upon you. I hope not. I could not wish you a pain,
+though you should give me many. My very dear Clara, I offer you the only
+love of my life, and the only love that I shall ever offer to any one.
+Will you take it?"
+
+Clara was greatly moved. She could not doubt his sincerity; no one who
+heard him could have doubted it; he _was_ sincere. To her, young,
+tender-hearted, capable of loving earnestly, beginning already to know
+what love is, it seemed a horrible thing to spurn affection. If it had not
+been for Thurstane, she would have taken Coronado for pity.
+
+"Oh, my cousin!" she sighed, and stopped there.
+
+Coronado drew courage from the kindly title of relationship, and, leaning
+gently towards her, attempted to take her hand. It was a mistake; she was
+strangely shocked by his touch; she perceived that she did not like him,
+and she drew away from him.
+
+"Thank you for that word," he whispered. "Is it the kindest that you can
+give me? Is there--?"
+
+"Coronado!" she interrupted. "This is all an error. See here. I am not an
+independent creature. I am a young girl. I owe some duty somewhere. My
+father and mother are gone, but I have a grandfather. Coronado, he is the
+head of my family, and I ought not to marry without his permission. Why
+can you not wait until we are with Muñoz?"
+
+There she suddenly dropped her head between the palms of her hands. It
+struck her that she was hypocritical; that even with the consent of Muñoz
+she would not marry Coronado; that it was her duty to tell him so.
+
+"My cousin, I have not told the whole truth," she added, after a terrible
+struggle. "I would not marry any one without first laying the case before
+my grandfather. But that is not all. Coronado, I cannot--no, I cannot
+marry you."
+
+The man without a conscience, the man who was capable of planning and
+ordering murder, turned pale under this announcement.
+
+Notwithstanding its commonness, notwithstanding that it has been described
+until the subject is hackneyed, notwithstanding that it has become a
+laughing-stock for many, even including poets and novelists, there is
+probably no heart-pain keener than disappointment in love. The shock of it
+is like a deep stab; it not merely tortures, but it instantly sickens; the
+anguish is much, but the sense of helplessness is more; the lover who is
+refused feels not unlike the soldier who is wounded to death.
+
+This sorrow compares in dignity and terror with the most sublime sorrows
+of which humanity is capable. The death of a parent or child, though
+rendered more imposing to the spectator by the ceremonies of the
+sepulchre, does not chill the heart more deeply than the death of love. It
+lasts also; many a human being has carried the marks of it for life; and
+surely duration of effect is proof of power. We are serious in making
+these declarations, strange as they may seem to a satirical age. What we
+have said is strictly true, notwithstanding the mockery of those who have
+never loved, or the incredulity of those who, having loved, have never
+lost. But probably only the wretchedly initiated will believe.
+
+Coronado, though selfish, infamous, and atrocious, was so far susceptible
+of affection that he was susceptible of suffering. The simple fact of
+pallor in that hardened face was sufficient proof of torture.
+
+However, it stood him in hand to recover his self-possession and plead his
+suit. There was too much at stake in this cause for him to let it go
+without a struggle and a vehement one. Although he had seen at once that
+the girl was in earnest, he tried to believe that she was not so, and that
+he could move her.
+
+"My dear cousin!" he implored in a voice that was mellow with agitation,
+"don't decide against me at once and forever. I must have some hope. Pity
+me."
+
+"Ah, Coronado! Why will you?" urged Clara, in great trouble.
+
+"I must! You must not stop me!" he persisted eagerly. "My life is in it. I
+love you so that I don't know how I shall end if you will not hearken to
+me. I shall be driven to desperation. Why do you turn away from me? Is it
+my fault that I care for you? It is your own. You are _so_ beautiful!"
+
+"Coronado, I wish I were very ugly," murmured Clara, for the moment
+sincere in so wishing.
+
+"Is there anything you dislike in me? I have been as kind as I knew how to
+be."
+
+"It is true, Coronado. You have overwhelmed me with your goodness. I could
+go on my knees to thank you."
+
+"Then--why?"
+
+"Ah! why will you force me to say hard things? Don't you see that it
+tortures me to refuse you?"
+
+"Then why refuse me? Why torture us both?"
+
+"Better a little pain now than much through life."
+
+"Do you mean to say that you never can--?" He could not finish the
+question.
+
+"It is so, Coronado. I never could have said it myself. But you have said
+it. I never shall love you."
+
+Once more the man felt a cutting and sickening wound, as of a bullet
+penetrating a vital part. Unable for the moment to say another word, he
+rose and walked the room in silence.
+
+"Coronado, you don't know how sorry I am to grieve you so," cried the
+girl, almost sobbing. "It seems, too, as if I were ungrateful. I can only
+beg your pardon for it, and pray that Heaven will reward you."
+
+"Heaven!" he returned impatiently. "You are my heaven. You are the only
+heaven that I know."
+
+"Oh, Coronado! Don't say that. I am a poor, sinful, unworthy creature.
+Perhaps I could not make any one happy long. Believe me, Coronado, I am
+not worthy to be loved as you love me."
+
+"You are!" he said, turning on her passionately and advancing close to
+her. "You are worthy of my life-long love, and you shall have it. You
+shall have it, whether you wish it or not. You shall not escape it. I will
+pursue you with it wherever you go and as long as you live."
+
+"Oh! You frighten me. Coronado, I beg of you not to talk to me in that
+way. I am afraid of you."
+
+"What is the cause of this?" he demanded, hoping to daunt her into
+submission. "There is something in my way. What is it? Who is it?"
+
+Clara's paleness turned in an instant to scarlet.
+
+"Who is it?" he went on, his voice suddenly becoming hoarse with
+excitement. "It is some one. Is it this American? This boy of a
+lieutenant?"
+
+Clara, trembling with an agitation which was only in part dismay, remained
+speechless.
+
+"Is it?" he persisted, attempting to seize her hands and looking her
+fiercely in the eyes. "Is it?"
+
+"Coronado, stand back!" said Clara. "Don't you try to take my hands!"
+
+She was erect, her eyes flashing, her cheeks spotted with crimson, her
+expression strangely imposing.
+
+The man's courage drooped the moment he saw that she had turned at bay. He
+walked to the other side of the room, pressed his temples between his
+palms to quiet their throbbing, and made an effort to recover his
+self-possession. When he returned to her, after nearly a minute of
+silence, he spoke quite in his natural manner.
+
+"This must pass for the present," he said. "I see that it is useless to
+talk to you of it now."
+
+"I hope you are not angry with me, Coronado."
+
+"Let it go," he replied, waving his hand. "I can't speak more of it now."
+
+She wanted to say, "Try never to speak of it again;" but she did not dare
+to anger him further, and she remained silent.
+
+"Shall we go to see the dance?" he asked.
+
+"I will, if you wish it."
+
+"But you would rather stay alone?"
+
+"If you please, Coronado."
+
+Bowing with an air of profound respect, he went his way alone, glanced at
+the games of the Moquis, and hurried back to camp, meditating as he went.
+
+What now should be done? He was in a state of fury, full of plottings of
+desperation, swearing to himself that he would show no mercy. Thurstane
+must die at the first opportunity, no matter if his death should kill
+Clara. And she? There he hesitated; he could not yet decide what to do
+with her; could not resolve to abandon her to the wilderness.
+
+But to bring about any part of his projects he must plunge still deeper
+into the untraversed. To him, by the way, as to many others who have had
+murder at heart, it seemed as if the proper time and place for it would
+never be found. Not now, but by and by; not here, but further on. Yes, it
+must be further on; they must set out as soon as possible for the San Juan
+country; they must get into wilds never traversed by civilized man.
+
+To go thither in wagons he had already learned was impossible. The region
+was a mass of mountains and rocky plateaux, almost entirely destitute of
+water and forage, and probably forever impassable by wheels. The vehicles
+must be left here; the whole party must take saddle for the northern
+desert; and then must come death--or deaths.
+
+But while Coronado was thus planning destruction for others, a noiseless,
+patient, and ferocious enmity was setting its ambush for him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+Shortly after the safe arrival of the train at the base of the Moqui
+bluff, and while the repulsed and retreating warriors of Delgadito were
+still in sight two strange Indians cantered up to the park of wagons.
+
+They were fine-looking fellows, with high aquiline features, the prominent
+cheek-bones and copper complexion of the red race, and a bold, martial,
+trooper-like expression, which was not without its wild good-humor and
+gayety. One was dressed in a white woollen hunting-shirt belted around the
+waist, white woollen trousers or drawers reaching to the knee, and
+deerskin leggins and moccasins. The other had the same costume, except
+that his drawers were brown and his hunting-shirt blue, while a blanket of
+red and black stripes drooped from his shoulders to his heels. Their
+coarse black hair was done up behind in thick braids, and kept out of
+their faces by a broad band around the temples. Each had a lance eight or
+ten feet long in his hand, and a bow and quiver slung at his waist-belt.
+These men were Navajos (Na-va-hos).
+
+Two jolly and impudent braves were these visitors. They ate, smoked,
+lounged about, cracked jokes, and asked for liquor as independently as if
+the camp were a tavern. Rebuffs only made them grin, and favors only led
+to further demands. It was hard to say whether they were most wonderful
+for good-nature or impertinence.
+
+Coronado was civil to them. The Navajos abide or migrate on the south, the
+north, and the west of the Moqui pueblas. He was in a manner within their
+country, and it was still necessary for him to traverse a broad stretch of
+it, especially if he should attempt to reach the San Juan. Besides, he
+wanted them to warn the Apaches out of the neighborhood and thus avert
+from his head the vengeance of Manga Colorada. Accordingly he gave this
+pair of roystering troopers a plentiful dinner and a taste of aguardiente.
+Toward sunset they departed in high good-humor, promising to turn back the
+hoofs of the Apache horses; and when in the morning Coronado saw no
+Indians on the plain, he joyously trusted that his visitors had fulfilled
+their agreement.
+
+Somewhere or other, within the next day or two, there was a grand council
+of the two tribes. We know little of it; we can guess that Manga Colorada
+must have made great concessions or splendid promises to the Navajos; but
+it is only certain that he obtained leave to traverse their country.
+Having secured this privilege, he posted himself fifteen or twenty miles
+to the southwest of Tegua, behind a butte which was extensive enough to
+conceal his wild cavalry, even in its grazings. He undoubtedly supposed
+that, when the train should quit its shelter, it would go to the west or
+to the south. In either case he was in a position to fall upon it.
+
+Did the savage know anything about Coronado? Had he attacked his wagons
+without being aware that they belonged to the man who had paid him five
+hundred dollars and sent him to harry Bernalillo? Or had he attacked in
+full knowledge of this fact, because he had been beaten off the southern
+trail, and believed that he had been lured thither to be beaten? Had he
+learned, either from Apaches or Navajos, whose hand it was that slew his
+boy? We can only ask these questions.
+
+One thing alone is positive: there was a debt of blood to be paid. An
+Indian war is often the result of a private vendetta. The brave is bound,
+not only by natural affection and family pride, but still more powerfully
+by sense of honor and by public opinion, to avenge the slaughter of a
+relative. Whether he wishes it or not, and frequently no doubt when he
+does not wish it, he must black his face, sing his death-song, set out
+alone if need be, encounter labors, hardships, and dangers, and never rest
+until his sanguinary account is settled. The tyranny of Mrs. Grundy in
+civilized cities and villages is nothing to the despotism which she
+exercises among those slaves of custom, the red men of the American
+wildernesses. Manga Colorada, bereaved and with blackened face, lay in
+wait for the first step of the emigrants outside of their city of refuge.
+
+We must return to Coronado. Although Clara's rejection of his suit left
+him vindictively and desperately eager for a catastrophe of some sort, a
+week elapsed before he dared take his mad plunge into the northern desert.
+It was a hundred miles to the San Juan; the intervening country was a
+waste of rocks, almost entirely destitute of grass and water; the mules
+and horses must recruit their full strength before they could undertake
+such a journey. They must not only be strong enough to go, but they must
+have vital force left to return.
+
+It is astonishing what labors and dangers the man was willing to face in
+his vain search for a spot where he might commit a crime in safety. Such a
+spot is as difficult to discover as the Fountain of Youth or the
+Terrestrial Paradise. More than once Coronado sickened of his seemingly
+hopeless and ever lengthening pilgrimage of sin. Not because it was
+sinful--he had little or no conscience, remember--only because it was
+perplexing and perilous.
+
+It was in vain that Thurstane protested against the crazy trip northward.
+Coronado sometimes argued for his plan; said the route improved as it
+approached the river; hoped the party would not be broken up in this
+manner; declared that he could not spare his dear friend the lieutenant.
+Another time he calmly smoked his cigarito, looked at Thurstane with
+filmy, expressionless eyes, and said, "Of course you are not obliged to
+accompany us."
+
+"I have not the least intention of quitting you," was the rather indignant
+reply of the young fellow.
+
+At this declaration Coronado's long black eyebrows twitched, and his lips
+curled with the smile of a puma, showing his teeth disagreeably.
+
+"My dear lieutenant, that is so like you!" he said. "I own that I expected
+it. Many thanks."
+
+Thurstane's blue-black eyes studied this enigmatic being steadily and
+almost angrily. He could not at all comprehend the fellow's bland
+obstinacy and recklessness.
+
+"Very well," he said sullenly. "Let us start on our wild-goose chase. What
+I object to is taking the women with us. As for myself, I am anxious to
+reach the San Juan and get something to report about it."
+
+"The ladies will have a day or two of discomfort," returned Coronado; "but
+you and I will see that they run no danger."
+
+Nine days after the arrival of the emigrants at Tegua they set out for the
+San Juan. The wagons were left parked at the base of the butte under the
+care of the Moquis. The expedition was reorganized as follows: On
+horseback, Clara, Coronado, Thurstane, Texas Smith, and four Mexicans; on
+mules, Mrs. Stanley, Glover, the three Indian women, the four soldiers,
+and the ten drivers and muleteers. There were besides eighteen burden
+mules loaded with provisions and other baggage. In all, five women,
+twenty-two men, and forty-five animals.
+
+The Moquis, to whom some stores and small presents were distributed,
+overflowed with hospitable offices. The chief had a couple of sheep
+slaughtered for the travellers, and scores of women brought little baskets
+of meal, corn, guavas, etc. As the strangers left the pueblo both sexes
+and all ages gathered on the landings, grouped about the stairways and
+ladders which led down the rampart, and followed for some distance along
+the declivity of the butte, holding out their simple offerings and urging
+acceptance. Aunt Maria was more than ever in raptures with Moquis and
+women.
+
+The chief and several others accompanied the cavalcade for eight or ten
+miles in order to set it on the right trail for the river. But not one
+would volunteer as a guide; all shook their heads at the suggestion.
+"Navajos! Apaches! Comanches!"
+
+They had from the first advised against the expedition, and they now
+renewed their expostulations. Scarcely any grass; no water except at long
+distances; a barren, difficult, dangerous country: such was the meaning of
+their dumb show. On the summit of a lofty bluff which commanded a vast
+view toward the north, they took their leave of the party, struck off in a
+rapid trot toward the pueblo, and never relaxed their speed until they
+were out of sight.
+
+The adventurers now had under their eyes a large part of the region which
+they were about to traverse. For several miles the landscape was rolling;
+then came elevated plateaux rising in successive steps, the most remote
+being apparently sixty miles away; and the colossal scene was bounded by
+isolated peaks, at a distance which could not be estimated with anything
+like accuracy. Ranges, buttes, pinnacles, monumental crags, gullies,
+shadowy chasms, the beds of perished rivers, the stony wrecks left by
+unrecorded deluges, diversified this monstrous, sublime, and savage
+picture. Only here and there, separated by vast intervals of barrenness,
+could be seen minute streaks of verdure. In general the landscape was one
+of inhospitable sterility. It could not be imagined by men accustomed only
+to fertile regions. It seemed to have been taken from some planet not yet
+prepared for human, nor even for beastly habitation. The emotion which it
+aroused was not that which usually springs from the contemplation of the
+larger aspects of nature. It was not enthusiasm; it was aversion and
+despair.
+
+Clara gave one look, and then drew her hat over her eyes with a shudder,
+not wishing to see more. Aunt Maria, heroic and constant as she was or
+tried to be, almost lost faith in Coronado and glanced at him
+suspiciously. Thurstane, sitting bolt upright in his saddle, stared
+straight before him with a grim frown, meanwhile thinking of Clara.
+Coronado's eyes were filmy and incomprehensible; he was planning,
+querying, fearing, almost trembling; when he gave the word to advance, it
+was without looking up. There was a general feeling that here before them
+lay a fate which could only be met blindfold.
+
+Now came a long descent, avoiding precipices and impracticable slopes,
+winding from one stony foot-hill to another, until the party reached what
+had seemed a plain. It was a plain because it was amid mountains; a plain
+consisting of rolls, ridges, ravines, and gullies; a plain with hardly an
+acre of level land. All day they journeyed through its savage interstices
+and struggled with its monstrosities of trap and sandstone. Twice they
+halted in narrow valleys, where a little loam had collected and a little
+moisture had been retained, affording meagre sustenance to some thin grass
+and scattered bushes. The animals browsed, but there was nothing for them
+to drink, and all began to suffer with thirst.
+
+It was seven in the evening, and the sun had already gone down behind the
+sullen barrier of a gigantic plateau, when they reached the mouth of the
+cañon which had once contained a river, and discovered by the merest
+accident that it still treasured a shallow pool of stagnant water. The
+fevered mules plunged in headlong and drank greedily; the riders were
+perforce obliged to slake their thirst after them. There was a hastily
+eaten supper, and then came the only luxury or even comfort of the day,
+the sound and delicious sleep of great weariness.
+
+Repose, however, was not for all, inasmuch as Thurstane had reorganized
+his system of guard duty, and seven of the party had to stand sentry. It
+was Coronado's _tour_; he had chosen to take his watch at the start; there
+would be three nights on this stretch, and the first would be the easiest.
+He was tired, for he had been fourteen hours in the saddle, although the
+distance covered was only forty miles. But much as he craved rest, he kept
+awake until midnight, now walking up and down, and now smoking his eternal
+cigarito.
+
+There was a vast deal to remember, to plan, to hope for, to dread, and to
+hate. Once he sat down beside the unconscious Thurstane, and meditated
+shooting him through the head as he lay, and so making an end of that
+obstacle. But he immediately put this idea aside as a frenzy, generated by
+the fever of fatigue and sleeplessness. A dozen times he was assaulted by
+a lazy or cowardly temptation to give up the chances of the desert, push
+back to the Bernalillo route, leave everything to fortune, and take
+disappointment meekly if it should come. When the noon of night arrived,
+he had decided upon nothing but to blunder ahead by sheer force of
+momentum, as if he had been a rolling bowlder instead of a clever,
+resolute Garcia Coronado.
+
+The truth is, that his circumstances were too mighty for him. He had
+launched them, but he could not steer them as he would, and they were
+carrying him he knew not whither. At one o'clock he awoke Texas Smith, who
+was now his sergeant of the guard; but instead of enjoining some instant
+atrocity upon him, as he had more than once that night purposed, he merely
+passed the ordinary instructions of the watch; then, rolling himself in
+his blankets, he fell asleep as quickly and calmly as an infant.
+
+At daybreak commenced another struggle with the desert. It was still sixty
+miles to the San Juan, over a series of savage sandstone plateaux, said to
+be entirely destitute of water. If the animals could not accomplish the
+distance in two days, it seemed as if the party must perish. Coronado went
+at his work, so to speak, head foremost and with his hat over his eyes.
+Nevertheless, when it came to the details of his mad enterprise, he
+managed them admirably. He was energetic, indefatigable, courageous,
+cheerful. All day he was hurrying the cavalcade, and yet watching its
+ability to endure. His "Forward, forward," alternated with his "Carefully,
+carefully." Now "_Adelante_" and now "_Con juicio_"
+
+About two in the afternoon they reached a little nook of sparse grass,
+which the beasts gnawed perfectly bare in half an hour. No water; the
+horses were uselessly jaded in searching for it; beds of trap and gullies
+of ancient rivers were explored in vain; the horrible rocky wilderness was
+as dry as a bone. Meanwhile, the fatigue of scrambling and stumbling thus
+far had been enormous. It had been necessary to ascend plateau after
+plateau by sinuous and crumbling ledges, which at a distance looked
+impracticable to goats. More than once, in face of some beetling
+precipice, or on the brink of some gaping chasm, it seemed as if the
+journey had come to an end. Long detours had to be made in order to
+connect points which were only separated by slight intervals. The whole
+region was seamed by the jagged zigzags of cañons worn by rivers which had
+flowed for thousands of years, and then for thousands of years more had
+been non-existent. If, at the commencement of one of these mighty grooves,
+you took the wrong side, you could not regain the trail without returning
+to the point of error, for crossing was impossible.
+
+A trail there was. It is by this route that the Utes and Payoches of the
+Colorado come to trade with the Moquis or to plunder them. But, as may be
+supposed, it is a journey which is not often made even by savages; and the
+cavalcade, throughout the whole of its desperate push, did not meet a
+human being. Amid the monstrous expanse of uninhabited rock it seemed lost
+beyond assistance, forsaken and cast out by mankind, doomed to a death
+which was to have no spectator. Could you have seen it, you would have
+thought of a train of ants endeavoring to cross a quarry; and you would
+have judged that the struggle could only end in starvation, or in some
+swifter destruction.
+
+The most desperate venture of the travellers was amid the wrecks of an
+extinct volcano. It seemed here as if the genius of fire had striven to
+outdo the grotesque extravagances of the genii of the waters. Crags,
+towers, and pinnacles of porphyry were mingled with huge convoluted masses
+of light brown trachyte, of tufa either pure white or white veined with
+crimson, of black and gray columnar basalts, of red, orange, green, and
+black scoria, with adornments of obsidian, amygdaloids, rosettes of quartz
+crystal and opalescent chalcedony. A thousand stony needles lifted their
+ragged points as if to defy the lightning. The only vegetation was a spiny
+cactus, clinging closely to the rocks, wearing their grayish and yellowish
+colors, lending no verdure to the scene, and harmonizing with its thorny
+inhospitality.
+
+As the travellers gazed on this wilderness of scorched summits, glittering
+in the blazing sunlight, and yet drawing from it no life--as stark, still,
+unsympathizing, and cruel as death--they seemed to themselves to be out of
+the sweet world of God, and to be in the power of malignant genii and
+demons. The imagination cannot realize the feeling of depression which
+comes upon one who finds himself imprisoned in such a landscape. Like
+uttermost pain, or like the extremity of despair, it must be felt in order
+to be known.
+
+"It seems as if Satan had chosen this land for himself," was the perfectly
+serious and natural remark of Thurstane.
+
+Clara shuddered; the same impression was upon her mind; only she felt it
+more deeply than he. Gentle, somewhat timorous, and very impressionable,
+she was almost overwhelmed by the terrific revelations of a nature which
+seemed to have no pity, or rather seemed full of malignity. Many times
+that day she had prayed in her heart that God would help them. Apparently
+detached from earth, she was seeking nearness to heaven. Her look at this
+moment was so awe-struck and piteous, that the soul of the man who loved
+her yearned to give her courage.
+
+"Miss Van Diemen, it shall all turn out well," he said, striking his fist
+on the pommel of his saddle.
+
+"Oh! why did we come here?" she groaned.
+
+"I ought to have prevented it," he replied, angry with himself. "But never
+mind. Don't be troubled. It shall all be right. I pledge my life to bring
+it all to a good end."
+
+She gave him a look of gratitude which would have repaid him for immediate
+death. This is not extravagant; in his love for her he did not value
+himself; he had the sublime devotion of immense adoration.
+
+That night another loamy nook was found, clothed with a little thin grass,
+but waterless. Some of the animals suffered so with thirst that they could
+not graze, and uttered doleful whinneys of distress. As it was the
+Lieutenant's tour on guard, he had plenty of time to study the chances of
+the morrow.
+
+"Kelly, what do you think of the beasts?" he said to the old soldier who
+acted as his sergeant.
+
+"One more day will finish them, Leftenant."
+
+"We have been fifteen hours in the saddle. We have made about thirty-five
+miles. There are twenty-five miles more to the river. Do you think we can
+crawl through?"
+
+"I should say, Leftenant, we could just do it."
+
+At daybreak the wretched animals resumed their hideous struggle. There was
+a plateau for them to climb at the start, and by the time this labor was
+accomplished they were staggering with weakness, so that a halt had to be
+ordered on the windy brink of the acclivity. Thurstane, according to his
+custom, scanned the landscape with his field-glass, and jotted down
+topographical notes in his journal. Suddenly he beckoned to Coronado,
+quietly put the glass in his hands, nodded toward the desert which lay to
+the rear, and whispered, "Look."
+
+Coronado looked, turned slightly more yellow than his wont, and murmured
+"Apaches!"
+
+"How far off are they?"
+
+"About ten miles," judged Coronado, still gazing intently.
+
+"So I should say. How do you know they are Apaches?"
+
+"Who else would follow us?" asked the Mexican, remembering the son of
+Manga Colorada.
+
+"It is another race for life," calmly pronounced Thurstane, facing about
+toward the caravan and making a signal to mount.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+Yes, it was a life and death race between the emigrants and the Apaches
+for the San Juan. Positions of defence were all along the road, but not
+one of them could be held for a day, all being destitute of grass and
+water.
+
+"There is no need of telling the ladies at once," said Thurstane to
+Coronado, as they rode side by side in rear of the caravan. "Let them be
+quiet as long as they can be. Their trouble will come soon enough."
+
+"How many were there, do you think?" was the reply of a man who was much
+occupied with his own chances. "Were there a hundred?"
+
+"It's hard to estimate a mere black line like that. Yes, there must be a
+hundred, besides stragglers. Their beasts have suffered, of course, as
+well as ours. They have come fast, and there must be a lot in the rear.
+Probably both bands are along."
+
+"The devils!" muttered Coronado. "I hope to God they will all perish of
+thirst and hunger. The stubborn, stupid devils! Why should they follow us
+_here_?" he demanded, looking furiously around upon the accursed
+landscape.
+
+"Indian revenge. We killed too many of them."
+
+"Yes," said Coronado, remembering anew the son of the chief. "Damn them! I
+wish we could have killed them all."
+
+"That is just what we must try to do," returned Thurstane deliberately.
+
+"The question is," he resumed after a moment of business-like calculation
+of chances--"the question is mainly this, whether we can go twenty-five
+miles quicker than they can go thirty-five. We must be the first to reach
+the river."
+
+"We can spare a few beasts," said Coronado. "We must leave the weakest
+behind."
+
+"We must not give up provisions."
+
+"We can eat mules."
+
+"Not till the last moment. We shall need them to take us back."
+
+Coronado inwardly cursed himself for venturing into this inferno, the
+haunting place of devils in human shape. Then his mind wandered to
+Saratoga, New York, Newport, and the other earthly heavens that were known
+to him. He hummed an air; it was the _brindisi_ of Lucrezia Borgia; it
+reminded him of pleasures which now seemed lost forever; he stopped in the
+middle of it. Between the associations which it excited--the images of
+gayety and splendor, real or feigned--a commingling of kid gloves,
+bouquets, velvet cloaks, and noble names--between these glories which so
+attracted his hungry soul and the present environment of hideous deserts
+and savage pursuers, what a contrast there was! There, far away, was the
+success for which he longed; here, close at hand, was the peril which must
+purchase it. At that moment he was willing to deny his bargain with Garcia
+and the devil. His boldest desire was, "Oh that I were in Santa Fé!"
+
+By Coronado's side rode a man who had not a thought for himself. A person
+who has not passed years in the army can hardly imagine the sense of
+_responsibility_ which is ground into the character of an officer. He is a
+despot, but a despot who is constantly accountable for the welfare of his
+subjects, and who never passes a day without many grave thoughts of the
+despots above him. Superior officers are in a manner his deities, and the
+Army Regulations have for him the weight of Scripture. He never forgets by
+what solemn rules of duty and honor he will be judged if he falls short of
+his obligations. This professional conscience becomes a destiny to him,
+and guides his life to an extent inconceivable by most civilians. He
+acquires a habit of watching and caring for others; he cannot help
+assuming a charge which falls in his way. When he is not governed by the
+rule of obedience, he is governed by the rule of responsibility. The two
+make up his duty, and to do his duty is his existence.
+
+At this moment our young West Pointer, only twenty-three or four years
+old, was gravely and grimly anxious for his four soldiers, for all these
+people whom circumstance had placed under his protection, and even for his
+army mules, provisions, and ammunition. His only other sentiment was a
+passionate desire to prevent harm or even fear from approaching Clara Van
+Diemen. These two sentiments might be said to make up for the present his
+entire character. As we have already observed, he had not a thought for
+himself.
+
+Presently it occurred to the youngster that he ought to cheer on his
+fellow-travellers.
+
+Trotting up with a smile to Mrs. Stanley and Clara, he asked, "How do you
+bear it?"
+
+"Oh, I am almost dead," groaned Aunt Maria. "I shall have to be tied on
+before long."
+
+The poor woman, no longer youthful, it must be remembered, was indeed
+badly jaded. Her face was haggard; her general get-up was in something
+like scarecrow disorder; she didn't even care how she looked. So fagged
+was she that she had once or twice dozed in the saddle and come near
+falling.
+
+"It was outrageous to bring us here," she went on pettishly. "Ladies
+shouldn't be dragged into such hardships."
+
+Thurstane wanted to say that he was not responsible for the journey; but
+he would not, because it did not seem manly to shift all the blame upon
+Coronado.
+
+"I am very, very sorry," was his reply. "It is a frightful journey."
+
+"Oh, frightful, frightful!" sighed Aunt Maria, twisting her aching back.
+
+"But it will soon be over," added the officer. "Only twenty miles more to
+the river."
+
+"The river! It seems to me that I could live if I could see a river. Oh,
+this desert! These perpetual rocks! Not a green thing to cool one's eyes.
+Not a drop of water. I seem to be drying up, like a worm in the sunshine."
+
+"Is there no water in the flasks?" asked Thurstane.
+
+"Yes," said Clara. "But my aunt is feverish with fatigue."
+
+"What I want is the sight of it--and rest," almost whimpered the elder
+lady.
+
+"Will our horses last?" asked Clara. "Mine seems to suffer a great deal."
+
+"They _must_ last," replied Thurstane, grinding his teeth quite privately.
+"Oh, yes, they will last," he immediately added. "Even if they don't, we
+have mules enough."
+
+"But how they moan! It makes me cringe to hear them."
+
+"Twenty miles more," said Thurstane. "Only six hours at the longest. Only
+half a day."
+
+"It takes less than half a day for a woman to die," muttered the nearly
+desperate Aunt Maria.
+
+"Yes, when she sets about it," returned the officer. "But we haven't set
+about it, Mrs. Stanley. And we are not going to."
+
+The weary lady had no response ready for words of cheer; she leaned
+heavily over the pommel of her saddle and rode on in silence.
+
+"Ain't the same man she was," slyly observed Phineas Glover with a twist
+of his queer physiognomy.
+
+Thurstane, though not fond of Mrs. Stanley, would not now laugh at her
+expense, and took no notice of the sarcasm. Glover, fearful lest he had
+offended, doubled the gravity of his expression and tacked over to a fresh
+subject.
+
+"Shouldn't know whether to feel proud 'f myself or not, 'f I'd made this
+country, Capm. Depends on what 'twas meant for. If 'twas meant to live in,
+it's the poorest outfit I ever did see. If 'twas meant to scare folks,
+it's jest up to the mark. 'Nuff to frighten a crow into fits. Capm, it
+fairly seems more than airthly; puts me in mind 'f things in the Pilgrim's
+Progress--only worse. Sh'd say it was like five thousin' Valleys 'f the
+Shadow 'f Death tangled together. Tell ye, believe Christian 'd 'a' backed
+out 'f he'd had to travel through here. Think Mr. Coronado 's all right in
+his top hamper, Capm? Do, hey? Wal, then I'm all wrong; guess I'm 's
+crazy's a bedbug. Wouldn't 'a'ketched me steerin' this course of my own
+free will 'n' foreknowledge. Jest look at the land now. Don't it look like
+the bottomless pit blowed up 'n' gone to smash? Tell ye, 'f the Old Boy
+himself sh'd ride up alongside, shouldn't be a mite s'prised to see him.
+Sh'd reckon he had a much bigger right to be s'prised to ketch me here."
+
+After some further riding, shaking his sandy head, staring about him and
+whistling, he broke out again.
+
+"Tell ye, Capm, this beats my imagination. Used to think I c'd yarn it
+pooty consid'able. But never can tell this. Never can do no manner 'f
+jestice to it. Look a there now. There's a nateral bridge, or 'n unnateral
+one. There's a hole blowed through a forty foot rock 's clean 's though
+'twas done with Satan's own field-piece, sech 's Milton tells about. An'
+there's a steeple higher 'n our big one in Fair Haven. An' there's a
+church, 'n' a haystack. If the devil hain't done his biggest celebratin'
+'n' carpenterin' 'n' farmin' round here, d'no 's I know where he has done
+it. Beats _me_, Capm; cleans me out. Can't do no jestice to it. Can't talk
+about it. Seems to me 's though I was a fool."
+
+Yes, even Phineas Glover's small and sinewy soul (a psyche of the size,
+muscular force, and agility of a flea) had been seized, oppressed, and in
+a manner smashed by the hideous sublimity of this wilderness of sandstone,
+basalt, and granite.
+
+Two hours passed, during which, from the nature of the ground, the
+travellers could neither see nor be seen by their pursuers. Then came a
+breathless ascent up another of the monstrous sandstone terraces.
+Thurstane ordered every man to dismount, so as to spare the beasts as much
+as possible. He walked by the side of Clara, patting, coaxing, and
+cheering her suffering horse, and occasionally giving a heave of his solid
+shoulder against the trembling haunches.
+
+"Let me walk," the girl presently said. "I can't bear to see the poor
+beast so worried."
+
+"It would be better, if you can do it," he replied, remembering that she
+might soon have to call upon the animal for speed.
+
+She dismounted, clasped her hands over his arm, and clambered thus. From
+time to time, when some rocky step was to be surmounted, he lifted her
+bodily up it.
+
+"How can you be so strong?" she said, looking at him wonderingly and
+gratefully.
+
+"Miss Van Diemen, you give me strength," he could not help responding.
+
+At last they were at the summit of the rugged slope. The animals were
+trembling and covered with sweat; some of them uttered piteous whinnyings,
+or rather bleatings, like distressed sheep; five or six lay down with
+hollow moans and rumblings. It was absolutely necessary to take a short
+rest.
+
+Looking ahead, Thurstane saw that they had reached the top of the
+tableland which lies south of the San Juan, and that nothing was before
+them for the rest of the day but a rolling plateau seamed with meandering
+fissures of undiscoverable depth. Traversable as the country was, however,
+there was one reason for extreme anxiety. If they should lose the trail,
+if they should get on the wrong side of one of those profound and endless
+chasms, they might reach the river at a point where descent to it would be
+impossible, and might die of thirst within sight of water. For undoubtedly
+the San Juan flowed at the bottom of one of those amazing cañons which
+gully this Mer de Glace in stone.
+
+An error of direction once committed, the enemy would not give them time
+to retrieve it, and they would be slaughtered like mad dogs with the foam
+on their mouths.
+
+Thurstane remembered that it would be his terrible duty in the last
+extremity to send a bullet through the heart of the woman he worshipped,
+rather than let her fall into the hands of brutes who would only grant her
+a death of torture and dishonor. Even his steady soul failed for a moment,
+and tears of desperation gathered in his eyes. For the first time in years
+he looked up to heaven and prayed fervently.
+
+From the unknown destiny ahead he turned to look for the fate which
+pursued. Walking with Coronado to the brink of the colossal terrace, and
+sheltering himself from the view of the rest of the party, he scanned the
+trail with his glass. The dark line had now become a series of dark
+specks, more than a hundred and fifty in number, creeping along the arid
+floor of the lower plateau, and reminding him of venomous insects.
+
+"They are not five miles from us," shuddered the Mexican. "Cursed beasts!
+Devils of hell!"
+
+"They have this hill to climb," said Thurstane, "and, if I am not
+mistaken, they will have to halt here, as we have done. Their ponies must
+be pretty well fagged by this time."
+
+"They will get a last canter out of them," murmured Coronado. His soul was
+giving way under his hardships, and it would have been a solace to him to
+weep aloud. As it was, he relieved himself with a storm of blasphemies.
+Oaths often serve to a man as tears do to a woman.
+
+"We must trot now," he said presently.
+
+"Not yet. Not till they are within half a mile of us. We must spare our
+wind up to the last minute."
+
+They were interrupted by a cry of surprise and alarm. Several of the
+muleteers had strayed to the edge of the declivity, and had discovered
+with their unaided eyesight the little cloud of death in the distance.
+Texas Smith approached, looked from under his shading hand, muttered a
+single curse, walked back to his horse, inspected his girths, and recapped
+his rifle. In a minute it was known throughout the train that Apaches were
+in the rear. Without a word of direction, and in a gloomy silence which
+showed the general despair, the march was resumed. There was a disposition
+to force a trot, which was promptly and sternly checked by Thurstane. His
+voice was loud and firm; he had instinctively assumed responsibility and
+command; no one disputed him or thought of it.
+
+Three mules which could not rise were left where they lay, feebly
+struggling to regain their feet and follow their comrades, but falling
+back with hollow groanings and a kind of human despair in their faces.
+Mile after mile the retreat continued, always at a walk, but without
+halting. It was long before the Apaches were seen again, for the ascent of
+the plateau lost them a considerable space, and after that they were
+hidden for a time by its undulations. But about four in the afternoon,
+while the emigrants were still at least five miles from the river, a group
+of savage horsemen rose on a knoll not more than three miles behind, and
+uttered a yell of triumph. There was a brief panic, and another attempt to
+push the animals, which Thurstane checked with levelled pistol.
+
+The train had already entered a gully. As this gully advanced it rapidly
+broadened and deepened into a cañon. It was the track of an extinct river
+which had once flowed into the San Juan on its way to the distant Pacific.
+Its windings hid the desired goal; the fugitives must plunge into it
+blindfold; whatever fate it brought them, they must accept it. They were
+like men who should enter the cavern of unknown goblins to escape from
+demons who were following visibly on their footsteps.
+
+From time to time they heard ferocious yells in their rear, and beheld
+their fiendish pursuers, now also in the cañon. It was like Christian
+tracking the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and listening to the screams
+and curses of devils. At every reappearance of the Apaches they had
+diminished the distance between themselves and their expected prey, and at
+last they were evidently not more than a mile behind. But there in sight
+was the river; there, enclosed in one of its bends, was an alluvial plain;
+rising from the extreme verge of the plain, and overhanging the stream,
+was a bluff; and on this bluff was what seemed to be a fortress.
+
+Thurstane sent all the horsemen to the rear of the train, took post
+himself as the rearmost man, measured once more with his eye the space
+between his charge and the enemy, cast an anxious glance at the reeling
+beast which bore Clara, and in a firm ringing voice commanded a trot.
+
+The order and the movement which followed it were answered by the Indians
+with a yell. The monstrous and precipitous walls of the cañon clamored
+back a fiendish mockery of echoes which seemed to call for the prowlers of
+the air to arrive quickly and devour their carrion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+The scene was like one of Doré's most extravagant designs of abysses and
+shadows. The gorge through which swept this silent flight and screaming
+chase was not more than two hundred feet wide, while it was at least
+fifteen hundred feet deep, with walls that were mainly sheer precipices.
+
+As the fugitives broke into a trot, the pursuers quickened their pace to a
+slow canter. No faster; they were too wise to rush within range of
+riflemen who could neither be headed off nor flanked; and their hardy
+mustangs were nearly at the last gasp with thirst and with the fatigue of
+this tremendous journey. Four hundred yards apart the two parties emerged
+from the sublime portal of the cañon and entered upon the little alluvial
+plain.
+
+To the left glittered the river; but the trail did not turn in that
+direction; it led straight at the bluff in the elbow of the current. The
+mules and horses followed it in a pack, guided by their acute scent toward
+the nearest water, a still invisible brooklet which ran at the base of the
+butte. Presently, while yet a mile from the stream, they were seized by a
+mania. With a loud beastly cry they broke simultaneously into a run,
+nostrils distended and quivering, eyes bloodshot and protruding, heads
+thrust forward with fierce eagerness, ungovernably mad after water. There
+was no checking the frantic stampede which from this moment thundered with
+constantly increasing speed across the plain. No order; the stronger
+jostled the weaker; loads were flung to the ground and scattered; the
+riders could scarcely keep their seats. Spun out over a line of twenty
+rods, the cavalcade was the image of senseless rout.
+
+Of course Thurstane was furious at this seemingly fatal dispersion; and he
+trumpeted forth angry shouts of "Steady there in front! Close up in the
+rear!"
+
+But before long he guessed the truth--water! "They will rally at the
+drinking place," he thought. "Forward the mules!" he yelled. "Steady, you
+men here! Hold in your horses. Keep in rear of the women. I'll shoot the
+man who takes the lead."
+
+But even Spanish bits could do no more than detain the horses a rod or two
+behind the beasts of burden, and the whole panting, snorting mob continued
+to rush over the loamy level with astonishing swiftness.
+
+Meanwhile the leading Apaches, not now more than fifty in number, were
+swept along by the same whirlwind of brute instinct. They diverged a
+little from the trail; their object apparently was to overlap the train
+and either head it off or divide it; but their beasts were too frantic to
+be governed fully. Before long there were two lines of straggling flight,
+running parallel with each other at a distance of perhaps one hundred
+yards, and both storming toward the still unseen rivulet. A few arrows
+were thrown; four or five unavailing shots were fired in return; the hiss
+of shaft and _ping_ of ball crossed each other in air; but no serious and
+effective fight commenced or could commence. Both parties, guided and
+mastered by their lolling beasts, almost without conflict and almost
+without looking at each other, converged helplessly toward a verdant,
+shallow depression, through the centre of which loitered a clear streamlet
+scarcely less calm than the heaven above. Next they were all together,
+panting, plunging, splashing, drinking, mules and horses, white men and
+red men, all with no other thought than to quench their thirst.
+
+The Apaches, who had probably made their cruel journey without flasks,
+seemed for the moment insatiable and utterly reckless. Many of them rolled
+off their tottering ponies into the rivulet, and plunging down their heads
+drank like beasts. There were a few minutes of the strangest peace that
+ever was seen. It was in vain that two or three of the hardier or fiercer
+Chiefs and braves shouted and gestured to their comrades, as if urging
+them to commence the attack. Manga Colorada, absorbed by a thirst which
+was more burning than revenge, did not at first see the slayer of his boy,
+and when he did could not move toward him because of fevered mustangs, who
+would not budge from their drinking, or who were staggering blind with
+hunger. Thurstane, keeping his horse beside Clara's, watched the lean
+figure and restless, irritable face of Delgadito, not ten yards distant.
+Mrs. Stanley had halted helplessly so near an Apache boy that he might
+have thrust her through with his lance had he not been solely intent upon
+water.
+
+It was fortunate for the emigrants that they had reached the stream a few
+seconds the sooner. Their thirst was first satiated; and then men and
+animals began to draw away from their enemies; for even the mules of white
+men instinctively dread and detest the red warriors. This movement was
+accelerated by Thurstane, Coronado, Texas Smith, and Sergeant Meyer
+calling to one and another in English and Spanish, "This way! this way!"
+There seemed to be a chance of massing the party and getting it to some
+distance before the Indians could turn their thoughts to blood.
+
+But the manoeuvre was only in part accomplished when battle commenced.
+Little Sweeny, finding that his mule was being crowded by an Apache's
+horse, uttered some indignant yelps. "Och, ye bloody naygur! Get away wid
+yerself. Get over there where ye b'long."
+
+This request not being heeded, he made a clumsy punch with his bayonet and
+brought the blood. The warrior uttered a grunt of pain, cast a surprised
+angry stare at the shaveling of a Paddy, and thrust with his lance. But he
+was probably weak and faint; the weapon merely tore the uniform. Sweeny
+instantly fired, and brought down another Apache, quite accidentally.
+Then, banging his mule with his heels, he splashed up to Thurstane with
+the explanation, "Liftinant, they're the same bloody naygurs. Wan av um
+made a poke at me, Liftinant."
+
+"Load your beece!" ordered Sergeant Meyer sternly, "und face the enemy."
+
+By this time there was a fierce confusion of plungings and outcries. Then
+came a hiss of arrows, followed instantaneously by the scream of a wounded
+man, the report of several muskets, a pinging of balls, more yells of
+wounded, and the splash of an Apache in the water. The little streamlet,
+lately all crystal and sunshine, was now turbid and bloody. The giant
+portals of the cañon, although more than a mile distant, sent back echoes
+of the musketry. Another battle rendered more horrible the stark, eternal
+horror of the desert.
+
+"This way!" Thurstane continued to shout. "Forward, you women; up the hill
+with you. Steady, men. Face the enemy. Don't throw away a shot. Steady
+with the firing. Steady!"
+
+The hostile parties were already thirty or forty yards apart; and the
+emigrants, drawing loosely up the slope, were increasing the distance.
+Manga Colorada spurred to the front of his people, shaking his lance and
+yelling for a charge. Only half a dozen followed him; his horse fell
+almost immediately under a rifle ball; one of the braves picked up the
+chief and bore him away; the rest dispersed, prancing and curveting. The
+opportunity for mingling with the emigrants and destroying them in a
+series of single combats was lost.
+
+Evidently the Apaches, and their mustangs still more, were unfit for
+fight. The forty-eight hours of hunger and thirst, and the prodigious
+burst of one hundred and twenty miles up and down rugged terraces, had
+nearly exhausted their spirits as well as their strength, and left them
+incapable of the furious activity necessary in a cavalry battle. The most
+remarkable proof of their physical and moral debilitation was that in all
+this mêlée not more than a dozen of them had discharged an arrow.
+
+If they would not attack they must retreat, and that speedily. At fifty
+yards' range, armed only with bows and spears, they were at the mercy of
+riflemen and could stand only to be slaughtered. There was a hasty flight,
+scurrying zigzag, right and left, rearing and plunging, spurring the last
+caper out of their mustangs, the whole troop spreading widely, a hundred
+marks and no good one. Nevertheless Texas Smith's miraculous aim brought
+down first a warrior and then a horse.
+
+By the time the Apaches were out of range the emigrants were well up the
+slope of the hill which occupied the extreme elbow of the bend in the
+river. It was a bluff or butte of limestone which innumerable years had
+converted into marl, and for the most part into earth. A thin turf covered
+it; here and there were thickets; more rarely trees. Presently some one
+remarked that the sides were terraced. It was true; there were the narrow
+flats of soil which had once been gardens; there too were the supporting
+walls, more or less ruinous. Curious eyes now turned toward the seeming
+mound on the summit, querying whether it might not be the remains of an
+antique pueblo.
+
+At this instant Clara uttered a cry of anxiety, "Where is Pepita?"
+
+The girl was gone; a hasty looking about showed that; but whither? Alas!
+the only solution to this enigma must be the horrible word, "Apaches." It
+seemed the strangest thing conceivable; one moment with the party, and the
+next vanished; one moment safe, and the next dead or doomed. Of course the
+kidnapping must have been accomplished during the frenzied riot in the
+stream, when the two bands were disentangling amid an uproar of plungings,
+yells, and musket shots. The girl had probably been stunned by a blow, and
+then either left to float down the brook or dragged off by some muscular
+warrior.
+
+There was a halt, an eager and prolonged lookout over the plain, a
+scanning of the now distant Indians through field glasses. Then slowly and
+sadly the train resumed its march and mounted to the summit of the butte.
+
+Here, in this land of marvels, there was a new marvel. Incredible as the
+thing seemed, so incredible that they had not at first believed their
+eyes, they were at the base of the walls of a fortress. A confused,
+general murmur broke forth of "Ruins! Pueblos! Casas Grandes! Casas de
+Montezuma!"
+
+The architecture, unlike that of Tegua, but similar to that of the ruins
+of the Gila, was of adobes. Large cakes of mud, four or five feet long and
+two feet thick, had been moulded in cases, dried in the sun, and laid in
+regular courses to the height of twenty feet. Centuries (perhaps) of
+exposure to weather had so cracked, guttered, and gnawed this destructible
+material, that at a distance the pile looked not unlike the natural
+monuments which fire and water have builded in this enchanted land, and
+had therefore not been recognized by the travellers as human handiwork.
+
+What they now saw was a rampart which ran along the brow of the bluff for
+several hundred yards. Originally twenty feet high, it had been so
+fissured by the rains and crumbled by the winds, that it resembled a
+series of peaks united here and there in a plane surface. Some of the gaps
+reached nearly to the ground, and through these it could be seen that the
+wall was five feet across, a single adobe forming the entire thickness.
+All along the base the dampness of the earth had eaten away the clay, so
+that in many places the structure was tottering to its fall.
+
+Filing to the left a few yards, the emigrants found a deep fissure through
+which the animals stumbled one by one over mounds of crumbled adobes.
+Thurstane, entering last, looked around him in wonder. He was inside a
+quadrilateral enclosure, apparently four hundred yards in length by two
+hundred and fifty in breadth, the walls throughout being the same mass of
+adobe work, fissured, jagged, gray, solemn, and in their utter
+solitariness sublime.
+
+But this was not the whole ruin; the fortress had a citadel. In one corner
+of the enclosure stood a tower-like structure, forty-five or fifty feet
+square and thirty in altitude, surmounted on its outer angle by a smaller
+tower, also four-sided, which rose some twelve or fourteen feet higher. It
+was not isolated, but built into an angle of the outer rampart, so as to
+form with it one solid mass of fortification. The material was adobe; but,
+unlike the other ruins, it was in good condition; some species of roofing
+had preserved the walls from guttering; not a crevice deformed their gray,
+blank, dreary faces.
+
+Instinctively and without need of command the emigrants had pushed on
+toward this edifice. It was to be their fortress; in it and around it they
+must fight for life against the Apaches; here, where a nameless people had
+perished, they must conquer or perish also. Thurstane posted Kelly and one
+of the Mexicans on the exterior wall to watch the movements of the savage
+horde in the plain below. Then he followed the others to the deserted
+citadel.
+
+Two doorways, one on each of the faces which looked into the enclosure,
+offered ingress. They were similar in size and shape, seven feet and a
+half in height by four in breadth, and tapering toward the summit like the
+portals of the temple-builders of Central America. Inside were solid mud
+floors, strewn with gray dust and showing here and there a gleam of broken
+pottery, the whole brooded over by obscurity. It was discoverable,
+however, that the room within was of considerable height and size.
+
+There was a hesitation about entering. It seemed as if the ghosts of the
+nameless people forbade it. This had been the abode of men who perhaps
+inhabited America before the coming of Columbus. Here possibly the
+ancestors of Montezuma had stayed their migrations from the mounds of the
+Ohio to the pyramids of Cholula and Tenochtitlan. Or here had lived the
+Moquis, or the Zunians, or the Lagunas, before they sought refuge from the
+red tribes of the north upon the buttes south of the Sierra del Carrizo.
+Here at all events had once palpitated a civilization which was now a
+ghost.
+
+"This is to be our home for a little while," said Thurstane to Clara.
+"Will you dismount? I will run in and turn out the snakes, if there are
+any. Sergeant, keep your men and a few others ready to repel an attack.
+Now, fellows, off with the packs."
+
+Producing a couple of wax tapers, he lighted them, handed one to Coronado,
+and led the way into the silent Casa de Montezuma. They were in a hall
+about ten feet high, fifteen feet broad, and forty feet long, which
+evidently ran across the whole front of the building. The walls were
+hard-finished and adorned with etchings in vermilion of animals,
+geometrical figures, and nondescript grotesques, all of the rudest design
+and disposed without regard to order. A doorway led into a small central
+room, and from that doorways opened into three more rooms, one on each
+side.
+
+The ceilings of all the rooms were supported by unhewn beams, five or six
+inches thick, deeply inserted into the adobe walls. In the ceiling of the
+rearmost hall (the one which had no direct outlet upon the enclosure) was
+a trapdoor which offered the only access to the stories above. A rude but
+solid ladder, consisting of two beams with steps chopped into them, was
+still standing here. With a vague sense of intrusion, half expecting that
+the old inhabitants would appear and order them away, Thurstane and
+Coronado ascended. The second story resembled the first, and above was
+another of the same pattern. Then came a nearly flat roof; and here they
+found something remarkable. It was a solid sheathing or tiling, made of
+slates of baked and glazed pottery, laid with great exactness, admirably
+cemented and projecting well over the eaves. This it was which had enabled
+the adobes beneath to endure for years, and perhaps for centuries, in
+spite of the lapping of rains and the gnawing of winds.
+
+On the outermost corner of the structure, overlooking the eddying, foaming
+bend of the San Juan, rose the isolated tower. It contained a single room,
+walled with hard-finish and profusely etched with figures in vermilion. No
+furniture anywhere, nor utensils, nor relics, excepting bits of pottery,
+precisely such as is made now by the Moquis, various in color, red, white,
+grayish, and black, much of it painted inside as well as out, and all
+adorned with diamond patterns and other geometrical outlines.
+
+"I have seen Casas Grandes in other places," said Coronado, "but nothing
+like this. This is the only one that I ever found entire. The others are
+in ruins, the roofs fallen in, the beams charred, etc."
+
+"This was not taken," decided the Lieutenant, after a tactical meditation.
+"This must have been abandoned by its inhabitants. Pestilence, or
+starvation, or migration."
+
+"We can beat off all the Apaches in New Mexico," observed Coronado, with
+something like cheerfulness.
+
+"We can whip everything but our own stomachs," replied Thurstane.
+
+"We have as much food as those devils."
+
+"But water?" suggested the forethoughted West Pointer.
+
+It was a horrible doubt, for if there was no water in the enclosure, they
+were doomed to speedy and cruel death, unless they could beat the Indians
+in the field and drive them away from the rivulet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+When Thurstane came out of the Casa Grande he would have given some years
+of his life to know that there was water in the enclosure.
+
+Yet so well disciplined was the soul of this veteran of twenty-three, and
+so thoroughly had he acquired the wise soldierly habit of wearing a mask
+of cheer over trouble, that he met Clara and Mrs. Stanley with a smile and
+a bit of small talk.
+
+"Ladies, can you keep house?" he said. "There are sixteen rooms ready for
+you. The people who moved out haven't left any trumpery. Nothing wanted
+but a little sweeping and dusting and a stair carpet."
+
+"We will keep house," replied Clara with a laugh, the girlish gayety of
+which delighted him.
+
+Assuming a woman's rightful empire over household matters, she began to
+direct concerning storage, lodgment, cooking, etc. Sharp as the climbing
+was, she went through all the stories and inspected every room, selecting
+the chamber in the tower for herself and Mrs. Stanley.
+
+"I never can get up in this world," declared Aunt Maria, staring in dismay
+at the rude ladder. "So this is what Mr. Thurstane meant by talking about
+a stair carpet! It was just like him to joke on such a matter. I tell you
+I never can go up."
+
+"Av coorse ye can get up," broke in little Sweeny impatiently. "All ye've
+got to do is to put wan fut above another an' howld on wid yer ten
+fingers."
+
+"I should like to see _you_ do it," returned Aunt Maria, looking
+indignantly at the interfering Paddy.
+
+Sweeny immediately shinned up the stepped beam, uttered a neigh of
+triumphant laughter from the top, and then skylarked down again.
+
+"Well, _you_ are a man," observed the strong-minded lady, somewhat
+discomfited. "Av coorse I'm a man," yelped Sweeny. "Who said I wasn't?
+He's a lying informer. Ha ha, hoo hoo, ho ho!"
+
+Thus incited, pulled at moreover from above and boosted from below, Aunt
+Maria mounted ladder after ladder until she stood on the roof of the Casa
+Grande.
+
+"If I ever go down again, I shall have to drop," she gasped. "I never
+expected when I came on this journey to be a sailor and climb maintops."
+
+"Lieutenant Thurstane is waving his hand to us," said Clara, with a smile
+like sunlight.
+
+"Let him wave," returned Mrs. Stanley, weary, disconsolate, and out of
+patience with everything. "I must say it's a poor place to be waving
+hands."
+
+Meantime Thurstane had beckoned a couple of muleteers to follow him, and
+set off to beat the enclosure for a spring, or for a spot where it would
+be possible to sink a well with good result. Although the search seemed
+absurd on such an isolated hill, he had some hopes; for in the first
+place, the old inhabitants must have had a large supply of water, and they
+could not have brought it up a steep slope of two hundred feet without
+great difficulty; in the second place, the butte was of limestone, and in
+a limestone region water makes for itself strange reservoirs and outlets.
+
+His trust was well-grounded. In a sharply indented hollow, twenty feet
+below the general surface of the enclosure, and not more than thirty yards
+from the Casa Grande, he found a copious spring. About it were traces of
+stone work, forming a sort of ruinous semicircle, as though a well had
+been dug, the neighboring earth scooped out, and the sides of the opening
+fenced up with masonry. By the way, he was not the first to discover the
+treasure, for the acute senses of the mules had been beforehand with him,
+and a number of them were already there drinking.
+
+Calling Meyer, he said, "Sergeant, get a fatigue party to work here. I
+want a transverse trench cut below the spring for the animals, and a guard
+at the spring itself to keep it clear for the people."
+
+Next he hurried away to the spot where he had posted Kelly to watch the
+Apaches.
+
+Climbing the wall, he looked about for the Apaches, and discovered them
+about half a mile distant, bivouacked on the bank of the rivulet.
+
+"They have been reinforced, sir," said Kelly. "Stragglers are coming up
+every few minutes."
+
+"So I perceive. Have you seen anything of the girl Pepita?"
+
+"There's a figure there, sir, against that sapling, that hasn't moved for
+half an hour. I've an idea it's the girl, sir, tied to the sapling."
+
+Thurstane adjusted his glass, took a long steady look, and said sombrely,
+"It's the girl. Keep an eye on her. If they start to do anything with her,
+let me know. Signal with your cap."
+
+As he hurried back to the Casa Grande he tried to devise some method of
+saving this unfortunate. A rescue was impossible, for the savages were
+numerous, watchful, and merciless, and in case they were likely to lose
+her they would brain her. But she might be ransomed: blankets, clothing,
+and perhaps a beast or two could be spared for that purpose; the gold
+pieces that he had in his waist-belt should all go of course. The great
+fear was lest the brutes should find all bribes poor compared with the
+joys of a torture dance. Querying how he could hide this horrible affair
+from Clara, and shuddering at the thought that but for favoring chances
+she might have shared the fate of Pepita he ran on toward the Casa, waving
+his hand cheerfully to the two women on the roof Meantime Clara had been
+attending to her housekeeping and Mrs. Stanley had been attending to her
+feelings. The elder lady (we dare not yet call her an old lady) was in the
+lowest spirits. She tried to brace herself; she crossed her hands behind
+her back, man-fashion; she marched up and down the roof man-fashion. All
+useless; the transformation didn't work; or, if she was a man, she was a
+scared one.
+
+She could not help feeling like one of the spirits in prison as she
+glanced at the awful solitude around her. Notwithstanding the river, there
+still was the desert. The little plain was but an oasis. Two miles to the
+east the San Juan burst out of a defile of sandstone, and a mile to the
+west it disappeared in a similar chasm. The walls of these gorges rose
+abruptly two thousand feet above the hurrying waters. All around were the
+monstrous, arid, herbless, savage, cruel ramparts of the plateau. No
+outlook anywhere; the longest reach of the eye was not five miles; then
+came towering precipices. The travellers were like ants gathered on an
+inch of earth at the bottom of a fissure in a quarry. The horizon was
+elevated and limited, resting everywhere on harsh lines of rock which were
+at once near the spectator and far above him. The overhanging plateaux
+strove to shut him out from the sight of heaven.
+
+What variety there was in the grim monotony appeared in shapes that were
+horrible to the weary and sorrowful. On the other side of the San Juan
+towered an assemblage of pinnacles which looked like statues; but these
+statues were a thousand feet above the stream, and the smallest of them
+was at least four hundred feet high. To a lost wanderer, and especially to
+a dispirited woman, such magnitude was not sublime, but terrifying. It
+seemed as if these shapes were gods who had no mercy, or demons who were
+full of malevolence. Still higher, on a jutting crag which overhung the
+black river, was a castle a hundred fold huger than man ever built, with
+ramparts that were dizzy precipices and towers such as no daring could
+scale. It faced the horrible group of stony deities as if it were their
+pandemonium.
+
+The whole landscape was a hideous Walhalla, a fit abode for the savage
+giant gods of the old Scandinavians. Thor and Woden would have been at
+home in it. The Cyclops and Titans would have been too little for it. The
+Olympian deities could not be conceived of as able or willing to exist in
+such a hideous chaos. No creature of the Greek imagination would have been
+a suitable inhabitant for it except Prometheus alone. Here his eternal
+agony and boundless despair might not have been out of place.
+
+There was no comfort in the river. It came out of unknown and inhospitable
+mystery, and went into a mystery equally unknown and inhospitable. To what
+fate it might lead was as uncertain as whence it arrived. A sombre flood,
+reddish brown in certain lights, studded with rocks which raised ghosts of
+unmoving foam, flowing with a speed which perpetually boiled and eddied,
+promising nothing to the voyager but thousand-fold shipwreck, a breathless
+messenger from the mountains to the ocean, it wheeled incessantly from
+stony portal to stony portal, a brief gleam of power and cruelty. The
+impression which it produced was in unison with the sublime malignity and
+horror of the landscape.
+
+Depressed by fatigue, the desperate situation of the party, and the menace
+of the frightful scene around her, Mrs. Stanley could not and would not
+speak to Thurstane when he mounted the roof, and turned away to hide the
+tears in her eyes.
+
+"You see I am housekeeping," said Clara with a smile. "Look how clean the
+room in the tower has been swept. I had some brooms made of tufted grass.
+There are our beds in the corners. These hard-finished walls are really
+handsome."
+
+She stopped, hesitated a moment, looked at him anxiously, and then added,
+"Have you seen Pepita?"
+
+"Yes," he replied, deciding to be frank. "I think I have discovered her
+tied to a tree."
+
+"Oh! to be tortured!" exclaimed Clara, wringing her hands and beginning to
+cry.
+
+"We will ransom her," he hurried on. "I am going down to hold a parley
+with the Apaches."
+
+"_You_!" exclaimed the girl, catching his arm. "Oh no! Oh, why did we come
+here!"
+
+Fearing lest he should be persuaded to evade what he considered his duty,
+he pressed her hand fervently and hurried away. Yes, he repeated, it was
+_his_ duty; to parley with the Apaches was a most dangerous enterprise; he
+did not feel at liberty to order any other to undertake it.
+
+Finding Coronado, he said to him, "I am going down to ransom Pepita. You
+know the Indians better than I do. How many people shall I take?"
+
+A gleam of satisfaction shot across the dark face of the Mexican as he
+replied, "Go alone."
+
+"Certainly," he insisted, in response to the officer's stare of surprise.
+"If you take a party, they'll doubt you. If you go alone, they'll parley.
+But, my dear Lieutenant, you are magnificent. This is the finest moment of
+your life. Ah! only you Americans are capable of such impulses. We
+Spaniards haven't the nerve."
+
+"I don't know their scoundrelly language."
+
+"Manga Colorada speaks Spanish. I dare say you'll easily come to an
+understanding with him. As for ransom, anything that we have, of course,
+excepting food, arms, and ammunition. I can furnish a hundred dollars or
+so. Go, my dear Lieutenant; go on your noble mission. God be with you."
+
+"You will see that I am covered, if I have to run for it."
+
+"I'll see to everything. I'll line the wall with sharpshooters."
+
+"Post your men. Good-by."
+
+"Good-by, my dear Lieutenant."
+
+Coronado did post his men, and among them was Texas Smith. Into the ear of
+this brute, whom he placed quite apart from the other watchers, he
+whispered a few significant words.
+
+"I told ye, to begin with, I didn't want to shute at brass buttons,"
+growled Texas. "The army's a big thing. I never wanted to draw a bead on
+that man, and I don't want to now more 'n ever. Them army fellers hunt
+together. You hit one, an' you've got the rest after ye; an' four to one's
+a mighty slim chance."
+
+"Five hundred dollars down," was Coronado's only reply.
+
+After a moment of sullen reflection the desperado said, "Five hundred
+dollars! Wal, stranger, I'll take yer bet."
+
+Coronado turned away trembling and walked to another part of the wall. His
+emotions were disordered and disagreeable; his heart throbbed, his head
+was a little light, and he felt that he was pale; he could not well bear
+any more excitement, and he did not want to see the deed done. Rifle in
+hand, he was pretending to keep watch through a fissure, when he observed
+Clara following the line of the wall with the obvious purpose of finding a
+spot whence she could see the plain. It seemed to him that he ought to
+stop her, and then it seemed to him that he had better not. With such a
+horrible drumming in his ears how could he think clearly and decide
+wisely?
+
+Clara disappeared; he did not notice where she went; did not think of
+looking. Once he thrust his head through his crevice to watch the course
+of Thurstane, but drew it back again on discovering that the brave lad had
+not yet reached the Apaches, and after that looked no more. His whole
+strength seemed to be absorbed in merely listening and waiting. We must
+remember that, although Coronado had almost no conscience, he had nerves.
+
+Let us see what happened on the plain through the anxious eyes of Clara.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+In the time-eaten wall Clara had found a fissure through which she could
+watch the parley between Thurstane and the Apaches. She climbed into it
+from a mound of disintegrated adobes, and stood there, pale, tremulous,
+and breathless, her whole soul in her eyes.
+
+Thurstane, walking his horse and making signs of amity with his cap, had
+by this time reached the low bank of the rivulet, and halted within four
+hundred yards of the savages. There had been a stir immediately on his
+appearance: first one warrior and then another had mounted his pony; a
+score of them were now prancing hither and thither. They had left their
+lances stuck in the earth, but they still carried their bows and quivers.
+
+When Clara first caught sight of Thurstane he was beckoning for one of the
+Indians to approach. They responded by pointing to the summit of the hill,
+as if signifying that they feared to expose themselves to rifle shot from
+the ruins. He resumed his march, forded the shallow stream, and pushed on
+two hundred yards.
+
+"O Madre de Dios!" groaned Clara, falling into the language of her
+childhood. "He is going clear up to them."
+
+She was on the point of shrieking to him, but she saw that he was too far
+off to hear her, and she remained silent, just staring and trembling.
+
+Thurstane was now about two hundred yards from the Apaches. Except the
+twenty who had first mounted, they were sitting on the ground or standing
+by their ponies, every face set towards the solitary white man and every
+figure as motionless as a statue. Those on horseback, moving slowly in
+circles, were spreading out gradually on either side of the main body, but
+not advancing. Presently a warrior in full Mexican costume, easily
+recognizable as Manga Colorada himself, rode straight towards Thurstane
+for a hundred yards, threw his bow and quiver ten feet from him,
+dismounted and lifted both hands. The officer likewise lifted his hands,
+to show that he too was without arms, moved forward to within thirty feet
+of the Indian, and thence advanced on foot, leading his horse by the
+bridle.
+
+Clara perceived that the two men were conversing, and she began to hope
+that all might go well, although her heart still beat suffocatingly. The
+next moment she was almost paralyzed with horror. She saw Manga Colorada
+spring at Thurstane; she saw his dark arms around him, the two interlaced
+and reeling; she heard the triumphant yell of the Indian, and the response
+of his fellows; she saw the officer's startled horse break loose and
+prance away. In the same instant the mounted Apaches, sending forth their
+war-whoop and unslinging their bows, charged at full speed toward the
+combatants.
+
+Thurstane had but five seconds in which to save his life. Had he been a
+man of slight or even moderate physical and moral force, there would not
+have been the slightest chance for him. But he was six feet high, broad in
+the shoulders, limbed like a gladiator, solidified by hardships and
+marches, accustomed to danger, never losing his head in it, and blessed
+with lots of pugnacity. He was pinioned; but with one gigantic effort he
+loosened the Indian's lean sinewy arms, and in the next breath he laid him
+out with a blow worthy of Heenan.
+
+Thurstane was free; now for his horse. The animal was frightened and
+capering wildly; but he caught him and flung himself into the saddle
+without minding stirrups; then he was riding for life. Before he had got
+fairly under headway the foremost Apaches were within fifty paces of him,
+yelling like demons and letting fly their arrows. But every weapon is
+uncertain on horseback, and especially every missile weapon, the bow as
+well as the rifle. Thus, although a score of shafts hissed by the
+fugitive, he still kept his seat; and as his powerful beast soon began to
+draw ahead of the Indian ponies, escape seemed probable.
+
+He had, however, to run the gauntlet of another and even a greater peril.
+In a crevice of the ruined wall which crested the hill crouched a pitiless
+assassin and an almost unerring shot, waiting the right moment to send a
+bullet through his head. Texas Smith did not like the job; but he had said
+"You bet," and had thus pledged his honor to do the murder; and moreover,
+he sadly wanted the five hundred dollars. If he could have managed it, he
+would have preferred to get the officer and some "Injun" in a line, so as
+to bring them down together. But that was hopeless; the fugitive was
+increasing his lead; now was the time to fire--now or never.
+
+When Clara beheld Manga Colorada seize Thurstane, she had turned
+instinctively and leaped into the enclosure, with a feeling that, if she
+did not see the tragedy, it would not be. In the next breath she was wild
+to know what was passing, and to be as near to the officer and his perils
+as possible. A little further along the wall was a fissure which was lower
+and broader than the one she had just quitted. She had noticed it a minute
+before, but had not gone to it because a man was there. Towards this man
+she now rushed, calling out, "Oh, do save him!"
+
+Her voice and the sound of her footsteps were alike drowned by a rattle of
+musketry from other parts of the ruin. She reached the man and stood
+behind him; it was Texas Smith, a being from whom she had hitherto shrunk
+with instinctive aversion; but now he seemed to her a friend in extremity.
+He was aiming; she glanced over his shoulder along the levelled rifle; in
+one breath she saw Thurstane and saw that the weapon was pointed at _him_.
+With a shriek she sprang forward against the kneeling assassin, and flung
+him clean through the crevice upon the earth outside the wall, the rifle
+exploding as he fell and sending its ball at random.
+
+Texas Smith was stupefied and even profoundly disturbed. After rolling
+over twice, he picked himself up, picked up his gun also, and while
+hastily reloading it clambered back into his lair, more than ever
+confounded at seeing no one. Clara, her exploit accomplished, had
+instantly turned and fled along the course of the wall, not at all with
+the idea of escaping from the bushwhacker, but merely to meet Thurstane.
+She passed a dozen men, but not one of them saw her, they were all so busy
+in popping away at the Apaches. Just as she reached the large gap in the
+rampart, her hero cantered through it, erect, unhurt, rosy, handsome,
+magnificent. The impassioned gesture of joy with which she welcomed him
+was a something, a revelation perhaps, which the youngster saw and
+understood afterwards better than he did then. For the present he merely
+waved her towards the Casa, and then turned to take a hand in the
+fighting.
+
+But the fighting was over. Indeed the Apaches had stopped their pursuit as
+soon as they found that the fugitive was beyond arrow shot, and were now
+prancing slowly back to their bivouac. After one angry look at them from
+the wall, Thurstane leaped down and ran after Clara.
+
+"Oh!" she gasped, out of breath and almost faint. "Oh, how it has
+frightened me!"
+
+"And it was all of no use," he answered, passing her arm into his and
+supporting her.
+
+"No. Poor Pepita! Poor little Pepita! But oh, what an escape you had!"
+
+"We can only hope that they will adopt her into the tribe," he said in
+answer to the first phrase, while he timidly pressed her arm to thank her
+for the second.
+
+Coronado now came up, ignorant of Texas Smith's misadventure, and puzzled
+at the escape of Thurstane, but as fluent and complimentary as usual.
+
+"My dear Lieutenant! Language is below my feelings. I want to kneel down
+and worship you. You ought to have a statue--yes, and an altar. If your
+humanity has not been successful, it has been all the same glorious."
+
+"Nonsense," answered Thurstane. "Every one of us has done well in his
+turn! It was my tour of duty to-day. Don't praise me. I haven't
+accomplished anything."
+
+"Ah, the scoundrels!" declaimed Coronado. "How could they violate a truce!
+It is unknown, unheard of. The miserable traitors! I wish you could have
+killed Manga Colorada."
+
+From this dialogue he hurried away to find and catechise Texas Smith. The
+desperado told his story: "Jest got a bead on him--had him sure pop--never
+see a squarer mark--when somebody mounted me--pitched me clean out of my
+hole."
+
+"Who?" demanded Coronado, a rim of white showing clear around his black
+pupils.
+
+"Dunno. Didn't see nobody. 'Fore I could reload and git in it was gone."
+
+"What the devil did you stop to reload for?"
+
+"Stranger, I _allays_ reload."
+
+Coronado flinched under the word _stranger_ and the stare which
+accompanied it.
+
+"It was a woman's yell," continued Texas.
+
+Coronado felt suddenly so weak that he sat down on a mouldering heap of
+adobes. He thought of Clara; was it Clara? Jealous and terrified, he for
+an instant, only for an instant, wished she were dead.
+
+"See here," he said, when he had restrung his nerves a little. "We must
+separate. If there is any trouble, call on me. I'll stand by you."
+
+"I reckon you'd better," muttered Smith, looking at Coronado as if he were
+already drawing a bead on him.
+
+Without further talk they parted. The Texan went off to rub down his
+horse, mend his accoutrements, squat around the cooking fires, and gamble
+with the drivers. Perhaps he was just a bit more fastidious than usual
+about having his weapons in perfect order and constantly handy; and
+perhaps too he looked over his shoulder a little oftener than common while
+at his work or his games; but on the whole he was a masterpiece of strong,
+serene, ferocious self-possession. Coronado also, as unquiet at heart as
+the devil, was outwardly as calm as Greek art. They were certainly a
+couple of almost sublime scoundrels.
+
+It was now nightfall; the day closed with extraordinary abruptness; the
+sun went down as though he had been struck dead; it was like the fall of
+an ox under the axe of the butcher. One minute he was shining with an
+intolerable, feverish fervor, and the next he had vanished behind the
+lofty ramparts of the plateau.
+
+It was Sergeant Meyer's tour as officer of the day, and he had prepared
+for the night with the thoroughness of an old soldier. The animals were
+picketed in the innermost rooms of the Casa Grande, while the spare
+baggage was neatly piled along the walls of the central apartment.
+Thurstane's squad was quartered in one of the two outer rooms, and
+Coronado's squad in the other, each man having his musket loaded and lying
+beside him, with the butt at his feet and the muzzle pointing toward the
+wall. One sentry was posted on the roof of the building, and one on the
+ground twenty yards or so from its salient angle, while further away were
+two fires which partially lighted up the great enclosure. The sergeant and
+such of his men as were not on post slept or watched in the open air at
+the corner of the Casa.
+
+The night passed without attack or alarm. Apache scouts undoubtedly
+prowled around the enclosure, and through its more distant shadows, noting
+avenues and chances for forlorn hopes. But they were not ready as yet to
+do any nocturnal spearing, and if ever Indians wanted a night's rest they
+wanted it. The garrison was equally quiet. Texas Smith, too familiar with
+ugly situations to lie awake when no good was to be got by it, chose his
+corner, curled up in his blanket and slept the sleep of the just.
+Overwhelming fatigue soon sent Coronado off in like manner. Clara, too;
+she was querying how much she should tell Thurstane; all of a sudden she
+was dreaming.
+
+When broad daylight opened her eyes she was still lethargic and did not
+know where she was. A stretch; a long wondering stare about her; then she
+sprang up, ran to the edge of the roof, and looked over. There was
+Thurstane, alive, taking off his hat to her and waving her back from the
+brink. It was a second and more splendid sun-rising; and for a moment she
+was full of happiness.
+
+At dawn Meyer had turned out his squad, patrolled the enclosure, made sure
+that no Indians were in or around it, and posted a single sentry on the
+southeastern angle of the ruins, which commanded the whole of the little
+plain. He discovered that the Apaches, fearful like all cavalry of a night
+attack, had withdrawn to a spot more than a mile distant, and had taken
+the precaution of securing their retreat by garrisoning the mouth of the
+cañon. Having made his dispositions and his reconnoissance, the sergeant
+reported to Thurstane.
+
+"Turn out the animals and let them pasture," said the officer, waking up
+promptly to the situation, as a soldier learns to do. "How long will the
+grass in the enclosure last them?"
+
+"Not three days, Leftenant."
+
+"To-morrow we will begin to pasture them on the slope. How about fishing?"
+
+"I cannot zay, Leftenant."
+
+"Take a look at the Buchanan boat and see if it can be put together. We
+may find a chance to use it."
+
+"Yes, Leftenant."
+
+The Buchanan boat, invented by a United States officer whose name it
+bears, is a sack of canvas with a frame of light sticks; when put together
+it is about twelve feet long by five broad and three deep, and is capable
+of sustaining a weight of two tons. Thurstane, thinking that he might have
+rivers to cross in his explorations, had brought one of these coracles. At
+present it was a bundle, weighing one hundred and fifty pounds, and
+forming the load of a single mule. Meyer got it out, bent it on to its
+frame, and found it in good condition.
+
+"Very good," said Thurstane. "Roll it up again and store it safely. We may
+want it to-morrow."
+
+Meantime Clara had thought out her problem. In her indignation at Texas
+Smith she had contemplated denouncing him before the whole party, and had
+found that she had not the courage. She had wanted to make a confidant of
+her relative, and had decided that nothing could be more unwise. Aunt
+Maria was good, but she lacked practical sense; even Clara, girl as she
+was, could see the one fact as well as the other. Her final and sagacious
+resolve was to tell the tale to Thurstane alone.
+
+Mrs. Stanley, still jaded through with her forced march, fell asleep
+immediately after breakfast. Clara went to the brink of the roof, caught
+the officer's eye, and beckoned him to come to her.
+
+"We must not be seen," she whispered when he was by her side. "Come inside
+the tower. There has been something dreadful. I must tell you."
+
+Then she narrated how she had surprised and interrupted Texas Smith in his
+attempt at murder; for the time she was all Spanish in feeling, and told
+the story with fervor, with passion; and the moment she had ended it she
+began to cry. Thurstane was so overwhelmed by her emotion that he no more
+thought of the danger which he had escaped than if it had been the buzzing
+of a mosquito. He longed to comfort her; he dared to put his hand upon her
+waist; rather, we should say, he could not help it. If she noticed it she
+had no objection to it, for she did not move; but the strong and innocent
+probability is that she really did not notice it.
+
+"Oh, what can it mean?" she sobbed. "Why did he do it? What will you do?"
+
+"Never mind," he said, his voice tender, his blue-black eyes full of love,
+his whole face angelic with affection. "Don't be troubled. Don't be
+anxious. I will do what is right. I will put him under arrest and try him,
+if it seems best. But I don't want you to be troubled. It shall all come
+out right. I mean to live till you are safe."
+
+After a time he succeeded in soothing her, and then there came a moment in
+which she seemed to perceive that his arm was around her waist, for she
+drew a little away from him, coloring splendidly. But he had held her too
+long to be able to let her go thus; he took her hands and looked in her
+face with the solemnity of a love which pleads for life.
+
+"Will you forgive me?" he murmured. "I must say it. I cannot help it. I
+love you with all my soul. I dare not ask you to be my wife. I am not fit
+for you. But have pity on me. I couldn't help telling you."
+
+He just saw that she was not angry; yes, he was so shy and humble that he
+could not see more; but that little glimpse of kindliness was enough to
+lure him forward. On he went, hastily and stammeringly, like a man who has
+but a moment in which to speak, only a moment before some everlasting
+farewell.
+
+"Oh, Miss Van Diemen! Is there--can there ever be--any hope for me?"
+
+It was one of the questions which arise out of great abysses from men who
+in their hopelessness still long for heaven. No prisoner at the bar,
+faintly trusting that in the eyes of his judge he might find mercy, could
+be more anxious than was Thurstane at that moment. The lover who does not
+yet know that he will be loved is a figure of tragedy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+Although Thurstane did not perceive it, his question was answered the
+instant it was asked. The answer started like lightning from Clara's
+heart, trembled through all her veins, flamed in her cheeks, and sparkled
+in her eyes.
+
+Such a moment of agitation and happiness she had never before known, and
+had never supposed that she could know. It was altogether beyond her
+control. She could have stopped her breathing ten times easier than she
+could have quelled her terror and her joy. She was no more master of the
+power and direction of her feelings, than the river below was master of
+its speed and course. One of the mightiest of the instincts which rule the
+human race had made her entirely its own. She was not herself; she was
+Thurstane; she was love. The love incarnate is itself, and not the person
+in whom it is embodied.
+
+There was but one answer possible to Clara. Somehow, either by look or
+word, she must say to Thurstane, "Yes." Prudential considerations might
+come afterward--might come too late to be of use; no matter. The only
+thing now to be done, the only thing which first or last must be done, the
+only thing which fate insisted should be done, was to say "Yes."
+
+It was said. Never mind how. Thurstane heard it and understood it. Clara
+also heard it, as if it were not she who uttered it, but some overruling
+power, or some inward possession, which spoke for her. She heard it and
+she acquiesced in it. The matter was settled. Her destiny had been
+pronounced. The man to whom her heart belonged had his due.
+
+Clara passed through a minute which was in some respects like a lifetime,
+and in some respects like a single second. It was crowded and encumbered
+with emotions sufficient for years; it was the scholastic needle-point on
+which stood a multitude of angels. It lasted, she could not say how long;
+and then of a sudden she could hardly remember it. Hours afterwards she
+had not fully disentangled from this minute and yet monstrous labyrinth a
+clear recollection of what he had said and what she had answered. Only the
+splendid exit of it was clear to her, and that was that she was his
+affianced wife.
+
+"But oh, my friend--one thing!" she whispered, when she had a little
+regained her self-possession. "I must ask Muñoz."
+
+"Your grandfather? Yes."
+
+"But what if he refuses?" she added, looking anxiously in his eyes. She
+was beginning to lay her troubles on his shoulders, as if he were already
+her husband.
+
+"I will try to please him," replied the young fellow, gazing with almost
+equal anxiety at her. It was the beautiful union of the man-soul and
+woman-soul, asking courage and consolation the one of the other, and not
+only asking but receiving.
+
+"Oh! I think you must please him," said Clara, forgetting how Muñoz had
+driven out his daughter for marrying an American. "He can't help but like
+you."
+
+"God bless you, my darling!" whispered Thurstane, worshipping her for
+worshipping him.
+
+After a while Clara thought of Texas Smith, and shuddered out, "But oh,
+how many dangers! Oh, my friend, how will you be safe?"
+
+"Leave that to me," he replied, comprehending her at once. "I will take
+care of that man."
+
+"Do be prudent."
+
+"I will. For _your_ sake, my dear child, I promise it. Well, now we must
+part. I must rouse no suspicions."
+
+"Yes. We must be prudent."
+
+He was about to leave her when a new and terrible thought struck him, and
+made him look at her as though they were about to part forever.
+
+"If Muñoz leaves you his fortune," he said firmly, "you shall be free."
+
+She stared; after a moment she burst into a little laugh; then she shook
+her finger in his face and said, blushing, "Yes, free to be--your wife."
+
+He caught the finger, bent his head over it and kissed it, ready to cry
+upon it. It was the only kiss that he had given her; and what a world-wide
+event it was to both! Ah, these lovers! They find a universe where others
+see only trifles; they are gifted with the second-sight and live amid
+miracles.
+
+"Do be careful, oh my dear friend!" was the last whisper of Clara as
+Thurstane quitted the tower. Then she passed the day in ascending and
+descending between heights of happiness and abysses of anxiety. Her
+existence henceforward was a Jacob's ladder, which had its foot on a world
+of crime and sorrow, and its top in heavens passing description.
+
+As for Thurstane, he had to think and act, for something must be done with
+Texas Smith. He queried whether the fellow might not have seen Clara when
+she pushed him out of the crevice, and would not seize the first
+opportunity to kill her. Angered by this supposition, he at first resolved
+to seize him, charge him with his crime, and turn him loose in the desert
+to take his chance among the Apaches. Then it occurred to him that it
+might be possible to change this enemy into a partisan. While he was
+pondering these matters his eye fell upon the man. His army habit of
+authority and of butting straight at the face of danger immediately got
+the better of his wish to manage the matter delicately, and made him
+forget his promises to be prudent. Beckoning Texas to follow him, he
+marched out of the plaza through the nearest gap, faced about upon his foe
+with an imperious stare, and said abruptly, "My man, do you want to be
+shot?"
+
+Texas Smith had his revolver and long hunting-knife in his waist-belt. He
+thought of drawing both at once and going at Thurstane, who was certainly
+in no better state for battle, having only revolver and sabre. But the
+chance of combat was even; the certainty of being slaughtered after it by
+the soldiers was depressing; and, what was more immediately to the point,
+he was cowed by that stare of habitual authority.
+
+"Capm--I don't," he said, watching the officer with the eye of a lynx,
+for, however unwilling to fight as things were, he meant to defend
+himself.
+
+"Because I could have you set up by my sergeant and executed by my
+privates," continued Thurstane.
+
+"Capm, I reckon you're sound there," admitted Texas, with a slight flinch
+in his manner.
+
+"Now, then, do you want to fight a duel?" broke out the angry youngster,
+his pugnacity thoroughly getting the better of his wisdom. "We both have
+pistols."
+
+"Capm," said the bravo, and then came to a pause--"Capm, I ain't a
+gentleman," he resumed, with the sulky humility of a bulldog who is beaten
+by his master. "I own up to it, Capm. I ain't a gentleman."
+
+He was a "poor white" by birth; he remembered still the "high-toned
+gentlemen" who used to overawe his childhood; he recognized in Thurstane
+that unforgotten air of domination, and he was thoroughly daunted by it.
+Moreover, there was his acquired and very rational fear of the army--a
+fear which had considerably increased upon him since he had joined this
+expedition, for he had noted carefully the disciplined obedience of the
+little squad of regulars, and had been much struck with its obvious
+potency for offence and defence.
+
+"You won't fight?" said the officer. "Well, then, will you stop hunting
+me?"
+
+"Capm, I'll go that much."
+
+"Will you pledge yourself not to harm any one in this party, man or
+woman?"
+
+"I'll go that much, too."
+
+"I don't want to get any tales out of you. You can keep your secrets. Damn
+your secrets!"
+
+"Capm, you're jest the whitest man I ever see."
+
+"Will you pledge yourself to keep dark about this talk that we've had?"
+
+"You bet!" replied Texas Smith, with an indescribable air of humiliation.
+"I'm outbragged. I shan't tell of it."
+
+"I shall give orders to my men. If anything queer happens, you won't live
+the day out."
+
+"The keerds is stocked agin me, Capm. I pass. You kin play it alone."
+
+"Now, then, walk back to the Casa, and keep quiet during the rest of this
+journey."
+
+The most humbled bushwhacker and cutthroat between the two oceans, Texas
+Smith stepped out in front of Thurstane and returned to the cooking-fire,
+not quite certain as he marched that he would not get a pistol-ball in the
+back of his head, but showing no emotion in his swarthy, sallow, haggard
+countenance.
+
+Although Thurstane trusted that danger from that quarter was over, he
+nevertheless called Meyer aside and muttered to him, "Sergeant, I have
+some confidential orders for you. If murder happens to me, or to any other
+person in this party, have that Texan shot immediately."
+
+"I will addend to it, Leftenant," replied Meyer with perfect calmness and
+with his mechanical salute.
+
+"You may give Kelly the same instructions, confidentially."
+
+"Yes, Leftenant."
+
+Texas Smith, fifteen or twenty yards away, watched this dialogue with an
+interest which even his Indian-like stoicism could hardly conceal. When
+the sergeant returned to the cooking-fire, he gave him a glance which was
+at once watchful and deprecatory, made place for him to sit down on a junk
+of adobe, and offered him a corn-shuck cigarito. Meyer took it, saying,
+"Thank you, Schmidt," and the two smoked in apparently amicable silence.
+
+Nevertheless, Texas knew that his doom was sealed if murder should occur
+in the expedition; for, as to the protection of Coronado, he did not
+believe that that could avail against the uniform; and as to finding
+safety in flight, the cards there were evidently "stocked agin him."
+Indeed, what had quelled him more than anything else was the fear lest he
+should be driven out to take his luck among the Apaches. Suppose that
+Thurstane had taken a fancy to swap him for that girl Pepita? What a
+bright and cheerful fire there would have been for him before sundown! How
+thoroughly the skin would have been peeled off his muscles! What neat
+carving at his finger joints and toe joints! Coarse, unimaginative,
+hardened, and beastly as Texas Smith was, his flesh crawled a little at
+the thought of it. Presently it struck him that he had better do something
+to propitiate a man who could send him to encounter such a fate.
+
+"Sergeant," he said in his harsh, hollow croak of a voice.
+
+"Well, Schmidt?"
+
+"Them creeturs oughter browse outside."
+
+"So. You are right, Schmidt."
+
+"If the Capm'll let me have three good men, I'll take 'em out."
+
+Meyer's light-blue eyes, twinkling from under his sandy eyelashes, studied
+the face of the outlaw.
+
+"I should zay it was a goot blan, Schmidt," he decided. "I'll mention it
+to the leftenant."
+
+Thurstane, on being consulted, gave his consent. Meyer detailed Shubert
+and two of the Mexican cattle-drivers to report to Smith for duty. The
+Texan mounted his men on horses, separated one-third of the mules from the
+others, drove them out of the enclosure, and left them on the green
+hillside, while he pushed on a quarter of a mile into the plain and formed
+his line of four skirmishers. When a few of the Apaches approached to see
+what was going on, he levelled his rifle, knocked over one of the horses,
+and sent the rest off capering. After four or five hours he drove in his
+mules and took out another set. The Indians could only interrupt his
+pastoral labors by making a general charge; and that would expose them to
+a fire from the ruin, against which they could not retaliate. They thought
+it wise to make no trouble, and all day the foraging went on in peace.
+
+Peace everywhere. Inside the fortress sleeping, cooking, mending of
+equipments, and cleaning of arms. Over the plain mustangs filling
+themselves with grass and warriors searching for roots. Not a movement
+worth heeding was made by the Apaches until the herders drove in their
+first relay of mules, when a dozen hungry braves lassoed the horse which
+Smith had shot, dragged him away to a safe distance, and proceeded to cut
+him up into steaks. On seeing this, the Texan cursed himself to all the
+hells that were known to him.
+
+"It's the last time they'll catch me butcherin' for 'em," he growled. "If
+I can't hit a man, I won't shute."
+
+One more night in the Casa de Montezuma, with Thurstane for officer of the
+guard. His arrangements were like Meyer's: the animals in the rear rooms
+of the Casa; Coronado's squad in one of the outer rooms, and Meyer's in
+the other; a sentry on the roof, and another in the plaza. The only change
+was that, owing to scarcity of fuel, no watch-fires were built. As
+Thurstane expected an attack, and as Indian assaults usually take place
+just before daybreak, he chose the first half of the night for his tour of
+sleep. At one he was awakened by Sweeny, who was sergeant of his squad,
+Kelly being with Meyer and Shubert with Coronado.
+
+"Well, Sweeny, anything stirring?" he asked.
+
+"Divil a stir, Liftinant."
+
+"Did nothing happen during your guard?"
+
+"Liftinant," replied Sweeny, searching his memory for an incident which
+should prove his watchfulness--"the moon went down."
+
+"I hope you didn't interfere."
+
+"Liftinant, I thought it was none o' my bizniss."
+
+"Send a man to relieve the sentry on the roof, and let him come down
+here."
+
+"I done it, Liftinant, before I throubled ye. Where shall we slape? Jist
+by the corner here?"
+
+"No. I'll change that. Two just inside of one doorway and two inside the
+other. I'll stay at the angle myself."
+
+Three hours passed as quietly as the wool-clad footsteps of the Grecian
+Fate. Then, stealing through the profound darkness, came the faintest
+rustle imaginable. It was not the noise of feet, but rather that of bodies
+slowly dragging through herbage, as if men were crawling or rolling toward
+the Casa. Thurstane, not quite sure of his hearing, and unwilling to
+disturb the garrison without cause, cocked his revolver and listened
+intently.
+
+Suddenly the sentry in the plaza fired, and, rushing in upon him, fell
+motionless at his feet, while the air was filled in an instant with the
+whistling of arrows, the trampling of running men, and the horrible
+quavering of the war-whoop.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+At the noise of the Apache charge Thurstane sprang in two bounds to
+Coronado's entrance, and threw himself inside of it with a shout of
+"Indians!"
+
+It must be remembered that, while a doorway of the Casa was five feet in
+depth, it was only four feet wide at the base and less than thirty inches
+at the top, so that it was something in the way of a defile and easily
+defensible. The moment Thurstane was inside, he placed himself behind one
+of the solid jambs of the opening, and presented both sabre and revolver.
+
+Immediately after him a dozen running Indians reached the portal, some of
+them plunging into it and the others pushing and howling close around it.
+Three successive shots and as many quick thrusts, all delivered in the
+darkness, but telling at close quarters on naked chests and faces, cleared
+the passage in half a minute. By this time Texas Smith, Coronado, and
+Shubert had leaped up, got their senses about them, and commenced a fire
+of rifle shot, pistol shot, and buck-and-ball. In another half minute
+nothing remained in the doorway but two or three corpses, while outside
+there were howls as of wounded. The attack here was repulsed, at least for
+the present.
+
+But at the other door matters had gone differently, and, as it seemed,
+fatally ill. There had been no one fully awakened to keep the assailants
+at bay until the other defenders could rouse themselves and use their
+weapons. Half a dozen Apaches, holding their lances before them like
+pikes, rushed over the sleeping Sweeny and burst clean into the room
+before Meyer and his men were fairly on their feet. In the profound
+darkness not a figure could be distinguished; and there was a brief
+trampling and yelling, during which no one was hurt. Lances and bows were
+useless in a room fifteen feet by ten, without a ray of light. The Indians
+threw down their long weapons, drew their knives, groped hither and
+thither, struck out at random, and cut each other. Nevertheless, they were
+masters of the ground. Meyer and his people, crouching in corners, could
+not see and dared not fire. Sweeny, awakened by a kneading of Apache
+boots, was so scared that he lay perfectly still, and either was not
+noticed or was neglected as dead. His Mexican comrade had rushed along
+with the assailants, got ahead of them, gained the inner rooms, and
+hastened up to the roof. In short, it was a completely paralyzed defence.
+
+Had the mass of the Apaches promptly followed their daring leaders, the
+garrison would have been destroyed. But, as so often happens in night
+attacks, there was a pause of caution and investigation. Fifty warriors
+halted around the doorway, some whooping or calling, and others listening,
+while the five or six within, probably fearful of being hit if they spoke,
+made no answer. The sentinel on the roof fired down without seeing any
+one, and had arrows sent back at him by men who were as blinded as
+himself. The darkness and mystery crippled the attack almost as completely
+as the defence.
+
+Sweeny was the first to break the charm. A warrior who attempted to enter
+the doorway struck his boot against a pair of legs, and stooped down to
+feel if they were alive. By a lucky intuition of scared self-defence, the
+little Paddy made a furious kick into the air with both his solid army
+shoes, and sent the invader reeling into the outer darkness. Then he fired
+his gun just as it lay, and brought down one of the braves inside with a
+broken ankle. The blaze of the discharge faintly lighted up the room, and
+Meyer let fly instantly, killing another of the intruders. But the Indians
+also had been able to see. Those who survived uttered their yell and
+plunged into the corners, stabbing with their knives. There was a wild,
+blind, eager scuffling, mixed with another shot or two, oaths, whooping,
+screams, tramplings, and aimless blows with musket-butts.
+
+Reinforcements arrived for both parties, four or five more Apaches
+stealing into the room, while Thurstane and Shubert came through from
+Coronado's side. Hitherto, it did not seem that the garrison had lost any
+killed except the sentry who had fallen outside; but presently the
+lieutenant heard Shubert cry out in that tone of surprise, pain, and
+anger, which announces a severe wound.
+
+The scream was followed by a fall, a short scuffle, repeated stabbings,
+and violent breathing mixed with low groans. Thurstane groped to the scene
+of combat, put out his left hand, felt a naked back, and drove his sabre
+strongly and cleanly into it. There was a hideous yell, another fall, and
+then silence.
+
+After that he stood still, not knowing whither to move. The trampling of
+feet, the hasty breathing of struggling men, the dull sound of blows upon
+living bodies, the yells and exclamations and calls, had all ceased at
+once. It seemed to him as if everybody in the room had been killed except
+himself. He could not hear a sound in the darkness besides the beating of
+his own heart, and an occasional feeble moan rising from the floor. In all
+his soldierly life he had never known a moment that was anything like so
+horrible.
+
+At last, after what seemed minutes, remembering that it was his duty as an
+officer to be a rallying point, he staked his life on his very next breath
+and called out firmly, "Meyer!"
+
+"Here!" answered the sergeant, as if he were at roll-call.
+
+"Where are you?"
+
+"I am near the toorway, Leftenant. Sweeny is with me."
+
+"'Yis I be," interjected Sweeny.
+
+Thurstane, feeling his way cautiously, advanced to the entrance and found
+the two men standing on one side of it.
+
+"Where are the Indians?" he whispered.
+
+"I think they are all out, except the tead ones, Leftenant."
+
+Thurstane gave an order: "All forward to the door."
+
+Steps of men stealing from the inner room responded to this command.
+
+"Call the roll, Sergeant," said Thurstane.
+
+In a low voice Meyer recited the names of the six men who belonged to his
+squad, and of Shubert. All responded except the last.
+
+"I am avraid Shupert is gone, Leftenant," muttered the sergeant; and the
+officer replied, "I am afraid so."
+
+All this time there had been perfect silence outside, as if the Indians
+also were in a state of suspense and anxiety. But immediately after the
+roll-call had ceased, a few arrows whistled through the entrance and
+struck with short sharp spats into the hard-finished partition within.
+
+"Yes, they are all out," said Thurstane. "But we must keep quiet till
+daybreak."
+
+There followed a half hour which seemed like a month. Once Thurstane stole
+softly through the Casa to Coronado's room, found all safe there, and
+returned, stumbling over bodies both going and coming. At last the slow
+dawn came and sent a faint, faint radiance through the door, enabling the
+benighted eyes within to discover one dolorous object after another. In
+the centre of the room lay the boy Shubert, perfectly motionless and no
+doubt dead. Here and there, slowly revealing themselves through the
+diminishing darkness, like horrible waifs left uncovered by a falling
+river, appeared the bodies of four Apaches, naked to the breechcloth and
+painted black, all quiet except one which twitched convulsively. The clay
+floor was marked by black pools and stains which were undoubtedly blood.
+Other fearful blotches were scattered along the entrance, as if grievously
+wounded men had tottered through it, or slain warriors had been dragged
+out by their comrades.
+
+While the battle is still in suspense a soldier looks with but faint
+emotion, and almost without pity, upon the dead and wounded. They are
+natural; they belong to the scene; what else should he see? Moreover, the
+essential sentiments of the time and place are, first, a hard egoism which
+thinks mainly of self-preservation, and second, a stern sense of duty
+which regulates it. In the fiercer moments of the conflict even these
+feelings are drowned in a wild excitement which may lie either exultation
+or terror. Thus it is that the ordinary sympathies of humanity for the
+suffering and for the dead are suspended.
+
+Looking at Shubert, our lieutenant simply said to himself, "I have lost a
+man. My command is weakened by so much." Then his mind turned with
+promptness to the still living and urgent incidents of the situation.
+Could he peep out of the doorway without getting an arrow through the
+head? Was the roof of the Casa safe from escalade? Were any of his people
+wounded?
+
+This last question he at once put in English and Spanish. Kelly replied,
+"Slightly, sir," and pointed to his left shoulder, pretty smartly laid
+open by the thrust of a knife. One of the Indian muleteers, who was
+sitting propped up in a corner, faintly raised his head and showed a
+horrible gash in his thigh. At a sign from Thurstane another muleteer
+bound up the wound with the sleeve of Shubert's shirt, which he slashed
+off for the purpose. Kelly said, "Never mind me, sir; it's no great
+affair, sir."
+
+"Two killed and two wounded," thought the lieutenant. "We are losing more
+than our proportion."
+
+As soon as it was light enough to distinguish objects clearly, a lively
+fire opened from the roof of the Casa. Judging that the attention of the
+assailants would be distracted by this, Thurstane cautiously edged his
+head forward and peeped through the doorway. The Apaches were still in the
+plaza; he discovered something like fifty of them; they were jumping about
+and firing arrows at the roof. He inferred that this could not last long;
+that they would soon be driven away by the musketry from above; that, in
+short, things were going well.
+
+After a time, becoming anxious lest Clara should expose herself to the
+missiles, he went to Coronado's room, sent one of the Mexicans to
+reinforce Meyer, and then climbed rapidly to the tower, taking along
+sabre, rifle, and revolver. He was ascending the last of the stepped
+sticks, and had the trap-door of the isolated room just above him, when he
+heard a shout, "Come up here, somebody!"
+
+It was the snuffling utterance of Phineas Glover, who slept on the roof as
+permanent guard of the ladies. Tumbling into the room, Thurstane found the
+skipper and two muleteers defending the doorway against five Apaches, who
+had reached the roof, three of them already on their feet and plying their
+arrows, while the two others were clambering over the ledge. Clara and
+Mrs. Stanley were crouched on their beds behind the shelter of the wall.
+
+The young man's first desperate impulse was to rush out and fight hand to
+hand. But remembering the dexterity of Indians in single combat, he halted
+just in time to escape a flight of missiles, placed himself behind the
+jamb of the doorway, and fired his rifle. At that short distance Sweeny
+would hardly have missed; and the nearest Apache, leaning forward with
+outspread arms, fell dead. Then the revolver came into play, and another
+warrior dropped his bow, his shoulder shattered. Glover and the muleteers,
+steadied by this opportune reinforcement, reloaded and resumed their
+file-firing. Guns were too much for archery; three Indians were soon
+stretched on the roof; the others slung themselves over the eaves and
+vanished.
+
+"Darned if they didn't reeve a tackle to git up," exclaimed Glover in
+amazement.
+
+It appeared that the savages had twisted lariats into long cords, fastened
+rude grapples to the end of them, flung them from the wall below the Casa,
+and so made their daring escalade.
+
+"Look out!" called Thurstane to the investigating Yankee. But the warning
+came too late; Glover uttered a yell of surprise, pain, and rage; this
+time it was not his nose, but his left ear.
+
+"Reckon they'll jest chip off all my feeturs 'fore they git done with me,"
+he grinned, feeling of the wounded part. "Git my figgerhead smooth all
+round."
+
+To favor the escalade, the Apaches in the plaza had renewed their
+war-whoop, sent flights of arrows at the Casa, and made a spirited but
+useless charge on the doorways. Its repulse was the signal for a general
+and hasty flight. Just as the rising sun spread his haze of ruddy gold
+over the east, there was a despairing yell which marked the termination of
+the conflict, and then a rush for the gaps in the wall of the enclosure.
+In one minute from the signal for retreat the top of the hill did not
+contain a single painted combatant. No vigorous pursuit; the garrison had
+had enough of fighting; besides, ammunition was becoming precious. Texas
+Smith alone, insatiably bloodthirsty and an independent fighter, skulked
+hastily across the plaza, ambushed himself in a crevice of the ruin, and
+took a couple of shots at the savages as they mounted their ponies at the
+foot of the hill and skedaddled loosely across the plain.
+
+When he returned he croaked out, with an unusual air of excitement, "Big
+thing!"
+
+"What is a pig ding?" inquired Sergeant Meyer.
+
+"Never see Injuns make such a fight afore."
+
+"Nor I," assented Meyer.
+
+"Stranger, they fowt first-rate," affirmed Smith, half admiring the
+Apaches. "How many did we save?"
+
+"Here are vour in our room, und the leftenant says there are three on the
+roof, und berhabs we killed vour or vive outside."
+
+"A dozen!" chuckled Texas, "besides the wounded. Let's hev a look at the
+dead uns."
+
+Going into Meyer's room, he found one of the Apaches still twitching, and
+immediately cut his throat. Then he climbed to the roof, gloated over the
+three bodies there, dragged them one by one to the ledge, and pitched them
+into the plaza.
+
+"That'll settle 'em," he remarked with a sigh of intense satisfaction,
+like that of a baby when it has broken its rattle. Coming down again, he
+looked all the corpses over again, and said with an air of disappointment
+which was almost sentimental, "On'y a dozen!"
+
+"I kin keer for the Injuns," he volunteered when the question came up of
+burying the dead. "I'd rather keer for 'em than not."
+
+Before Thurstane knew what was going on, Texas had finished his labor of
+love. A crevice in the northern wall of the enclosure looked out upon a
+steep slope of marl, almost a precipice, which slanted sheer into the
+boiling flood of the San Juan. To this crevice Texas dragged one naked
+carcass after another, bundled it through, launched it with a vigorous
+shove, and then watched it with a pantherish grin, licking his chops as it
+were, as it rolled down the steep, splashed into the river, and set out on
+its swift voyage toward the Pacific.
+
+"I s'pose you'll want to dig a hole for _him_" he said, coming into the
+Casa and looking wistfully at the body of poor young Shubert.
+
+Sergeant Meyer motioned him to go away. Thurstane was entering in his
+journal an inventory of the deceased soldier's effects having already made
+a minute of the date and cause of his death. These with other facts, such
+as name, age, physical description, birthplace, time of service, amount of
+pay due, balance of clothing-account and stoppages, must be more or less
+repeated on various records, such as the descriptive book of the company,
+the daily return, the monthly return, the quarterly return, the
+muster-roll from which the name would be dropped, and the final statements
+which were to go to the Adjutant-General and the Paymaster-General. Even
+in the desert the monstrous accountability system of the army lived and
+burgeoned.
+
+Nothing of importance happened until about noon, when the sentinel on the
+outer wall announced that the Apaches were approaching in force, and
+Thurstane gave orders to barricade one of the doors of the Casa with some
+large blocks of adobe, saying to himself, "I ought to have done it
+before."
+
+This work well under way, he hastened to the brow of the hill and
+reconnoitred the enemy.
+
+"They are not going to attack," said Coronado. "They are going to torture
+the girl Pepita."
+
+Thurstane turned away sick at heart, observing, "I must keep the women in
+the Casa."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+When Thurstane, turning his back on the torture scene, had ascended to the
+roof of the Casa, he found the ladies excited and anxious.
+
+"What is the matter?" asked Clara at once, taking hold of his sleeve with
+the tips of her fingers, in a caressing, appealing way, which was common
+with her when talking to those she liked.
+
+Ordinarily our officer was a truth-teller; indeed, there was nothing which
+came more awkwardly to him than deception; he hated and despised it as if
+it were a personage, a criminal, an Indian. But here was a case where he
+must stoop to falsification, or at least to concealment.
+
+"The Apaches are just below," he mumbled. "Not one of you women must
+venture out. I will see to everything. Be good now."
+
+She gave his sleeve a little twitch, smiled confidingly in his face, and
+sat down to do some much-needed mending.
+
+Having posted Sweeny at the foot of the ladders, with instructions to let
+none of the women descend, Thurstane hastened back to the exterior wall,
+drawn by a horrible fascination. With his field-glass he could distinguish
+every action of the tragedy which was being enacted on the plain. Pepita,
+entirely stripped of her clothing, was already bound to the sapling which
+stood by the side of the rivulet, and twenty or thirty of the Apaches were
+dancing around her in a circle, each one approaching her in turn, howling
+in her ears and spitting in her face. The young man had read and heard
+much of the horrors of that torture-dance, which stamps the American
+Indian as the most ferocious of savages; but be had not understood at all
+how large a part insult plays in this ceremony of deliberate cruelty; and,
+insulting a woman! he had not once dream'ed it. Now, when he saw it done,
+his blood rushed into his head and he burst forth in choked incoherent
+curses.
+
+"I can't stand this," he shouted, advancing upon Coronado with clenched
+fists. "We must charge."
+
+The Mexican shook his head in a sickly, scared way, and pointed to the
+left. There was a covering party of fifty or sixty warriors; it was not
+more than a quarter of a mile from the eastern end of the enclosure; it
+was in position to charge either upon that, or upon the flank of any
+rescuing sally.
+
+"We can do it," insisted the lieutenant, who felt as if he could fight
+twenty men.
+
+"We can't," replied Coronado. "I won't go, and my men shan't go."
+
+Thurstane thought of Clara, covered his face with his hands, and sobbed
+aloud. Texas Smith stared at him with a kind of contemptuous pity, and
+offered such consolation as it was in his nature to give.
+
+"Capm, when they've got through this job they'll travel."
+
+The hideous prelude continued for half an hour. The Apaches in the dance
+were relieved by their comrades in the covering party, who came one by one
+to take their turns in the round of prancing, hooting, and spitting. Then
+came a few minutes of rest; then insult was followed by outrage.
+
+The girl was loosed from the sapling and lifted until her head was even
+with the lower branches, three warriors holding her while two others
+extended her arms and fixed them to two stout limbs. What the fastenings
+were Thurstane could guess from the fact that he saw blows given, and
+heard the long shrill scream of a woman in uttermost agony. Then there was
+more hammering around the sufferer's feet, and more shrill wailing. She
+was spiked through the palms and the ankles to the tree. It was a
+crucifixion.
+
+"By ----!" groaned Thurstane, "I never will spare an Indian as long as I
+live."
+
+"Capm, I'm with you," said Texas Smith. "I seen my mother fixed like that.
+I seen it from the bush whar I was a hidin'. I was a boy then. I've killed
+every Injun I could sence."
+
+Now the dance was resumed. The Apaches pranced about their victim to the
+music of her screams. The movement quickened; at last they ran around the
+tree in a maddened crowd; at every shriek they stamped, gestured, and
+yelled demoniacally. Now and then one of them climbed the girl's body and
+appeared to stuff something into her mouth. Then the lamentable outcries
+sank to a gasping and sobbing which could only be imagined by the
+spectators on the hill.
+
+"Can't you hit some of them?" Thurstane asked Texas Smith.
+
+"Better let 'em finish," muttered the borderer. "The gal can't be helped.
+She's as good as dead, Capm."
+
+After another rest came a fresh scene of horror. Several of the Apaches,
+no doubt chiefs or leading braves, caught up their bows and renewed the
+dance. Running in a circle at full speed about the tree, each one in turn
+let fly an arrow at the victim, the object being to send the missile clear
+through her.
+
+"That's the wind-up," muttered Texas Smith. "It's my turn now."
+
+He leaped from the wall to the ground, ran sixty or eighty yards down the
+hill, halted, aimed, and fired. One of the warriors, a fellow in a red
+shirt who had been conspicuous in the torture scene, rolled over and lay
+quiet. The Apaches, who had been completely absorbed by their frantic
+ceremony, and who had not looked for an attack at the moment, nor expected
+death at such a distance, uttered a cry of surprise and dismay. There was
+a scramble of ten or fifteen screaming horsemen after the audacious
+borderer. But immediately on firing he had commenced a rapid retreat, at
+the same time reloading. He turned and presented his rifle; just then,
+too, a protecting volley burst from the rampart; another Apache fell, and
+the rest retreated.
+
+"Capm, it's all right," said Texas, as he reascended the ruin. "We're
+squar with 'em."
+
+"We might have broken it up," returned Thurstane sullenly.
+
+"No, Capm. You don't know 'em. They'd got thar noses p'inted to torture
+that gal. If they didn't do it thar, they'd a done it a little furder off.
+They was bound to do it. Now it's done, they'll travel."
+
+Warned by their last misadventure, the Indians presently retired to their
+usual camping ground, leaving their victim attached to the sapling.
+
+"I'll fotch her up," volunteered Texas, who had a hyena's hankering after
+dead bodies. "Reckon you'd like to bury her."
+
+He mounted, rode slowly, and with prudent glances to right and left, down
+the hill, halted under the tree, stood up in his saddle and worked there
+for some minutes. The Apaches looked on from a distance, uttering yells of
+exultation and making opprobrious gestures. Presently Texas resumed his
+seat and cantered gently back to the ruins, bearing across his saddle-bow
+a fearful burden, the naked body of a girl of eighteen, pierced with more
+than fifty arrows, stained and streaked all over with blood, the limbs
+shockingly mangled, and the mouth stuffed with rags.
+
+While nearly every other spectator turned away in horror, he glared
+steadily and calmly at the corpse, repeating, "That's Injin fun, that is.
+That's what they brag on, that is."
+
+"Bury her outside the wall," ordered Thurstane with averted face. "And
+listen, all you people, not a word of this to the women."
+
+"We shall be catechised," said Coronado.
+
+"You must do the lying," replied the officer. He was so shaken by what he
+had witnessed that he did not dare to face Clara for an hour afterward,
+lest his discomposure should arouse her suspicions. When he did at last
+visit the tower, she was quiet and smiling, for Coronado had done his
+lying, and done it well.
+
+"So there was no attack," she said. "I am so glad!"
+
+"Only a little skirmish. You heard the firing, of course."
+
+"Yes. Coronado told us about it. What a horrible howling the Indians made!
+There were some screams that were really frightful."
+
+"It was their last demonstration. They will probably be gone in the
+morning."
+
+"Poor Pepita! She will be carried off," said Clara, a tear or two stealing
+down her cheek.
+
+"Yes, poor Pepita!" sighed Thurstane.
+
+The muleteer who had been killed in the assault was already buried. At
+sundown came the funeral of the soldier Shubert. The body, wrapped in a
+blanket, was borne by four Mexicans to the grave which had been prepared
+for it, followed by his three comrades with loaded muskets, and then
+by all the other members of the party, except Mrs. Stanley, who looked
+down from her roof upon the spectacle. Thurstane acted as chaplain, and
+read the funeral service from Clara's prayer-book, amidst the weeping
+of women and the silence of men. The dead young hero was lowered into
+his last resting-place. Sergeant Meyer gave the order: "Shoulder
+arms--ready--present--aim--fire!" The ceremony was ended; the muleteers
+filled the grave; a stone was placed to mark it; so slept a good soldier.
+
+Now came another night of anxiety, but also of quiet. In the morning, when
+eager eyes looked through the yellow haze of dawn over the plain, not an
+Apache was to be seen.
+
+"They are gone," said Coronado to Thurstane, after the two had made the
+tour of the ruins and scrutinized every feature of the landscape. "What
+next?"
+
+Thurstane swept his field-glass around once more, searching for some
+outlet besides the horrible cañon, and searching in vain.
+
+"We must wait a day or so for our wounded," he said. "Then we must start
+back on our old trail. I don't see anything else before us."
+
+"It is a gloomy prospect," muttered Coronado, thinking of the hundred
+miles of rocky desert, and of the possibility that Apaches might be
+ambushed at the end of it.
+
+He had been so anxious about himself for a few days that he had cared for
+little else. He had been humble, submissive to Thurstane, and almost
+entirely indifferent about Clara.
+
+"We ought at least to try something in the way of explorations," continued
+the lieutenant. "To begin with, I shall sound the river. I shall be
+thought a devil of a failure if I don't carry back some information about
+the topography of this region."
+
+"Can you paddle your boat against the current?" asked Coronado.
+
+"I doubt it. But we can make a towing cord of lariats and let it out from
+the shore; perhaps swing it clear across the river in that way--with some
+paddling, you know."
+
+"It is an excellent plan," said Coronado.
+
+The day passed without movement, excepting that Texas Smith and two
+Mexicans explored the cañon for several miles, returning with a couple of
+lame ponies and a report that the Apaches had undoubtedly gone southward.
+At night, however, the animals were housed and sentries posted as usual,
+for Thurstane feared lest the enemy might yet return and attempt a
+surprise.
+
+The next morning, all being quiet, the Buchanan boat was launched. A
+couple of fairish paddles were chipped out of bits of driftwood, and a
+towline a hundred feet long was made of lariats. Thurstane further
+provisioned the cockle-shell with fishing tackle, a sounding line, his own
+rifle, Shubert's musket and accoutrements, a bag of hard bread, and a few
+pounds of jerked beef.
+
+"You are not going to make a voyage!" stared Coronado.
+
+"I am preparing for accidents. We may get carried down the river."
+
+"I thought you proposed to keep fast to the shore."
+
+"I do. But the lariats may break."
+
+Coronado said no more. He lighted a cigarito and looked on with an air of
+dreamy indifference. He had hit upon a plan for getting rid of Thurstane.
+
+The next question was, who could handle a boat? The lieutenant wanted two
+men to keep it out in the current while he used the sounding line and
+recorded results.
+
+"Guess I'll do 's well 's the nex' hand," volunteered Captain Glover. "Got
+a sore ear, 'n' a hole in my nose, but reckon I'm 'n able-bodied seaman
+for all that. _Hev_ rowed some in my time. Rowed forty mile after a whale
+onct, 'n' caught the critter--fairly rowed him down. Current's putty
+lively. Sh'd say 't was tearin' off 'bout five knots an hour. But guess
+I'll try it. Sh'd kinder like to feel water under me agin."
+
+"Captain, you shall handle the ship," smiled Thurstane. "I'll mention you
+by name in my report. Who next?"
+
+"Me," yelped Sweeny.
+
+"Can you row, Sweeny?"
+
+"I can, Liftinant."
+
+"You may try it."
+
+"Can I take me gun, Liftinant?" demanded Sweeny, who was extravagantly
+fond and proud of his piece, all the more perhaps because he held it in
+awe.
+
+"Yes, you can take it, and Glover can have Shubert's. Though, 'pon my
+honor, I don't know why we should carry firearms. It's old habit, I
+suppose. It's a way we have in the army."
+
+The lieutenant had no sort of anxiety on the score of his enterprise. His
+plan was to swing out into the current, and, if the boat proved perfectly
+manageable, to cut loose from the towline and paddle across, sounding the
+whole breadth of the channel. It seemed easy enough and safe enough. When
+he left the Casa Grande after breakfast he contrived to kiss Clara's hand,
+but it did not once occur to him that it would be proper to bid her
+farewell. He was very far indeed from guessing that in the knot of the
+lariat which was fast to the bow of his coracle there was a fatal gash. It
+was not suspicion of evil, but merely a habit of precaution, a prudential
+tone of mind which he had acquired in service, that led him at the last
+moment to say (making Coronado tremble in his boots), "Mr. Glover, have
+you thoroughly overhauled the cord?"
+
+"Give her a look jest before we went up to breakfast," replied the
+skipper. "She'll hold."
+
+Coronado, who stood three feet distant, blew a quiet little whiff of smoke
+through his thin purple lips, meanwhile dreamily contemplating the
+speaker.
+
+"Git in, you paddywhack," said Glover to Sweeny. "Grab yer paddle. T'other
+end; that's the talk. Now then. All aboard that's goin'. Shove off."
+
+In a few seconds, impelled from the shore by the paddles, the boat was at
+the full length of the towline and in the middle of the boiling current.
+
+"Will it never break?" thought Coronado, smoking a little faster than
+usual, but not moving a muscle.
+
+Yes. It had already broken. At the first pause in the paddling the mangled
+lariat had given way.
+
+In spite of the renewed efforts of the oarsmen, the boat was flying down
+the San Juan.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+When Thurstane perceived that the towline had parted and that the boat was
+gliding down the San Juan, he called sharply, "Paddle!"
+
+He was in no alarm as yet. The line, although of rawhide, was switching on
+the surface of the rapid current; it seemed easy enough to recover it and
+make a new fastening. Passing from the stern to the bow, he knelt down and
+dipped one hand in the water, ready to clutch the end of the lariat.
+
+But a boat five feet long and twelve feet broad, especially when made of
+canvas on a frame of light sticks, is not handily paddled against swift
+water; and the Buchanan (as the voyagers afterward named it) not only
+sagged awkwardly, but showed a strong tendency to whirl around like an
+egg-shell as it was. Moreover, the loose line almost instantly took the
+direction of the stream, and swept so rapidly shoreward that by the time
+Thurstane was in position to seize it, it was rods away.
+
+"Row for the bank," he ordered. But just as he spoke there came a little
+noise which was to these three men the crack of doom. The paddle of that
+most unskilful navigator, Sweeny, snapped in two, and the broad blade of
+it was instantly out of reach. Next the cockle-shell of a boat was
+spinning on its keel-less bottom, and whirling broadside on, bow foremost,
+stern foremost, any way, down the San Juan.
+
+"Paddle away!" shouted Thurstane to Glover. "Drive her in shore! Pitch her
+in!"
+
+The old coaster sent a quick, anxious look down the river, and saw at once
+that there was no chance of reaching the bank. Below them, not three
+hundred yards distant, was an archipelago of rocks, the _débris_ of fallen
+precipices and pinnacles, through which, for half a mile or more, the
+water flew in whirlpools and foam. They were drifting at great speed
+toward this frightful rapid, and, if they entered it, destruction was sure
+and instant. Only the middle of the stream showed a smooth current; and
+there was less than half a minute in which to reach it. Without a word
+Glover commenced paddling as well as he could away from the bank.
+
+"What are you about?" yelled Thurstane, who saw Clara on the roof of the
+Casa Grande, and was crazed at the thought of leaving her there. She would
+suspect that he had abandoned her; she would be massacred by the Apaches;
+she would starve in the desert, etc.
+
+Glover made no reply. His whole being was engaged in the struggle of
+evading immediate death.
+
+One more glance, one moment of manly, soldierly reflection, enabled
+Thurstane to comprehend the fate which was upon him, and to bow to it with
+resignation. Turning his back upon the foaming reefs which might the next
+instant be his executioners, he stood up in the boat, took off his cap,
+and waved a farewell to Clara. He was so unconscious of anything but her
+and his parting from her that for some time he did not notice that the
+slight craft had narrowly shaved the rocks, that it had barely crawled
+into the middle current, and that he was temporarily safe. He kept his
+eyes fixed upon the Casa and upon the girl's motionless figure until a
+monstrous, sullen precipice slid in between. He was like one who breathes
+his last with straining gaze settled on some loved face, parting from
+which is worse than death. When he could see her no longer, nor the ruin
+which sheltered her, and which suddenly seemed to him a paradise, he
+dropped his head between his hands, utterly unmanned.
+
+"'Twon't dew to give it up while we float, Major," said Glover, breveting
+the lieutenant by way of cheering him.
+
+"I don't give it up," replied Thurstane; "but I had a duty to do there,
+and now I can't do it."
+
+"There's dooties to be 'tended to here, I reckon," suggested Glover.
+
+"They will be done," said the officer, raising his head and settling his
+face. "How can we help you?"
+
+"Don't seem to need much help. The river doos the paddlin'; wish it
+didn't. No 'casion to send anybody aloft. I'll take a seat in the stern
+'n' mind the hellum. Guess that's all they is to be done."
+
+"You dum paddywhack," he presently reopened, "what d'ye break yer paddle
+for?"
+
+"I didn't break it," yapped Sweeny indignantly. "It broke itself."
+
+"Well, what d'ye say y' could paddle for, when y' couldn't?"
+
+"I can paddle. I paddled as long as I had anythin' but a sthick."
+
+"Oh, you dum landlubber!" smirked Glover. "What if I should order ye to
+the masthead?"
+
+"I wouldn't go," asseverated Sweeny. "I'll moind no man who isn't me
+suparior officer. I've moindin' enough to do in the arrmy. I wouldn't go,
+onless the liftinint towld me. Thin I'd go."
+
+"Guess y' wouldn't now."
+
+"Yis I wud."
+
+"But they an't no mast."
+
+"I mane if there was one."
+
+This kind of babble Glover kept up for some minutes, with the sole object
+of amusing and cheering Thurstane, whose extreme depression surprised and
+alarmed him. He knew that the situation was bad, and that it would take
+lots of pluck to bring them through it.
+
+"Capm, where d'ye think we're bound?" he presently inquired. "Whereabouts
+doos this river come out?"
+
+"It runs into the Colorado of the West, and that runs into the head of the
+Gulf of California."
+
+"Californy! Reckon I'll git to the diggins quicker 'n I expected. Goin' at
+this rate, we'll make about a hundred 'n' twenty knots a day. What's the
+distance to Californy?"
+
+"By the bends of the river it can't be less than twelve hundred miles to
+the gulf."
+
+"Whew!" went Glover. "Ten days' sailin'. Wal, smooth water all the way?"
+
+"The San Juan has never been navigated. So far as I know, we are the first
+persons who ever launched a boat on it."
+
+"Whew! Why, it's like discoverin' Ameriky. Wal, what d'ye guess about the
+water? Any chance 'f its bein' smooth clear through?"
+
+"The descent to the gulf must be two or three thousand feet, perhaps more.
+We can hardly fail to find rapids. I shouldn't be astonished by a
+cataract."
+
+Glover gave a long whistle and fell into grave meditation. His conclusion
+was: "Can't navigate nights, that's a fact. Have to come to anchor. That
+makes twenty days on't. Wal, Capm, fust thing is to fish up a bit 'f
+driftwood 'n' whittle out 'nother paddle. Want a boat-pole, too, like
+thunder. We're awful short 'f spars for a long voyage."
+
+His lively mind had hardly dismissed this subject before he remarked: "Dum
+cur'ous that towline breaking. I overhauled every foot on't. I'd a bet my
+bottom fo'pence on its drawin' ten ton. Haul in the slack end 'n' let's
+hev a peek at it."
+
+The tip of the lariat, which was still attached to the boat, being handed
+to him, he examined it minutely, closed his eyes, whistled, and
+ejaculated, "Sawed!"
+
+"What?" asked Thurstane.
+
+"Sawed," repeated Glover. "That leather was haggled in tew with a jagged
+knife or a sharp flint or suthin 'f that sort. Done a purpose, 's sure 's
+I'm a sinner."
+
+Thurstane took the lariat, inspected the breakage carefully, and scowled
+with helpless rage.
+
+"That infernal Texan!" he muttered.
+
+"Sho!" said Glover. "That feller? Anythin' agin ye? Wal, Capm, then all
+I've got to say is, you come off easy. That feller 'd cut a sleepin' man's
+throat. I sh'd say thank God for the riddance. Tell ye I've watched that
+cuss. Been blastedly afeard 'f him. Hev so, by George! The further I git
+from him the safer I feel."
+
+"Not a nice man to leave _there_" muttered Thurstane, whose anxiety was
+precisely not for himself, but for Clara. The young fellow could not be
+got to talk much; he was a good deal upset by his calamity. The parting
+from Clara was an awful blow; the thought of her dangers made him feel as
+if he could jump overboard; and, lurking deep in his soul, there was an
+ugly fear that Coronado might now win her. He was furious moreover at
+having been tricked, and meditated bedlamite plans of vengeance. For a
+time he stared more at the mangled lariat than at the amazing scenery
+through which he was gliding.
+
+And yet that scenery, although only a prelude, only an overture to the
+transcendent oratorios of landscape which were to follow, was in itself a
+horribly sublime creation. Not twenty minutes after the snapping of the
+towline the boat had entered one of those stupendous cañons which form the
+distinguishing characteristic of the great American table-land, and make
+it a region unlike any other in the world.
+
+Remember that the cañon is a groove chiselled out of rock by a river.
+Although a groove, it is never straight for long distances. The river at
+its birth was necessarily guided by the hollows of the primal plateau;
+moreover, it was tempted to labor along the softest surfaces. Thus the
+cañon is a sinuous gully, cut down from the hollows of rocky valleys, and
+following their courses of descent from mountain-chain toward ocean.
+
+In these channels the waters have chafed, ground, abraded, eroded for
+centuries which man cannot number. Like the Afreets of the Arabian Nights,
+they have been mighty slaves, subject to a far mightier master. That
+potent magician whose lair is in the centre of the earth, and whom men
+have vaguely styled the attraction of gravitation, has summoned them
+incessantly toward himself. In their struggle to render him obedience,
+they have accomplished results which make all the works of man
+insignificant by comparison.
+
+To begin with, vast lakes, which once swept westward from the bases of the
+Rocky Mountains, were emptied into the Pacific. Next the draining currents
+transformed into rivers, cut their way through the soil which formerly
+covered the table-lands and commenced their attrition upon the underlying
+continent of sandstone. It was a grinding which never ceased; every pebble
+and every bowlder which lay in the way was pressed into the endless labor;
+mountains were used up in channelling mountains.
+
+The central magician was insatiable and pitiless; he demanded not only the
+waters, but whatever they could bring; he hungered after the earth and all
+that covered it. His obedient Afreets toiled on, denuding the plateaux of
+their soil, washing it away from every slope and peak, pouring it year by
+year into the cañons, and whirling it on to the ocean. The rivers, the
+brooklets, the springs, and the rains all joined in this eternal robbery.
+Little by little an eighth of a continent was stripped of its loam, its
+forests, its grasses, its flowers, its vegetation of every species. What
+had been a land of fertility became an arid and rocky desert.
+
+Then the minor Afreets perished of the results of their own obedience.
+There being no soil, the fountains disappeared; there being no
+evaporation, the rains diminished. Deprived of sustenance, nearly all the
+shorter streams dried up, and the channels which they had hewn became arid
+gullies. Only those rivers continued to exist which drew their waters from
+the snowy slopes of the Rocky Mountains or from the spurs and ranges which
+intersect the plateaux. The ages may come when these also will cease to
+flow, and throughout all this portion of the continent the central
+magician will call for his Afreets in vain.
+
+For some time we must attend much to the scenery of the desert thus
+created. It has become one of the individuals of our story, and interferes
+with the fate of the merely human personages. Thurstane could not long
+ignore its magnificent, oppressive, and potent presence. Forgetting
+somewhat his anxieties about the loved one whom he had left behind, he
+looked about him with some such amazement as if he had been translated
+from earth into regions of supernature.
+
+The cañon through which he was flying was a groove cut in solid sandstone,
+less than two hundred feet wide, with precipitous walls of fifteen hundred
+feet, from the summit of which the rock sloped away into buttes and peaks
+a thousand feet higher. On every side the horizon was half a mile above
+his head. He was in a chasm, twenty-five hundred feet below the average
+surface of the earth, the floor of which was a swift river.
+
+He seemed to himself to be traversing the abodes of the Genii. Although he
+had only heard of "Vathek," he thought of the Hall of Eblis. It was such
+an abyss as no artist has ever hinted, excepting Doré in his picturings of
+Dante's "Inferno." Could Dante himself have looked into it, he would have
+peopled it with the most hopeless of his lost spirits. The shadow, the
+aridity, the barrenness, the solemnity, the pitilessness, the horrid
+cruelty of the scene, were more than might be received into the soul. It
+was something which could not be imagined, and which when seen could not
+be fully remembered. To gaze on it was like beholding the mysterious,
+wicked countenance of the father of all evil. It was a landscape which was
+a fiend.
+
+The precipices were not bare and plain faces of rock, destitute of minor
+finish and of color. They had their horrible decorations; they showed the
+ingenuity and the artistic force of the Afreets who had fashioned them;
+they were wrought and tinted with a demoniac splendor suited to their
+magnitude. It seemed as if some goblin Michel Angelo had here done his
+carving and frescoing at the command of the lords of hell. Layers of
+brown, gray, and orange sandstone, alternated from base to summit; and
+these tints were laid on with a breadth of effect which was prodigious: a
+hundred feet in height and miles in length at a stroke of the brush.
+
+The architectural and sculptural results were equally monstrous. There
+were lateral shelves twenty feet in width, and thousands of yards in
+length. There were towers, pilasters, and formless caryatides, a quarter
+of a mile in height. Great bulks projected, capped by gigantic mitres or
+diadems, and flanked by cavernous indentations. In consequence of the
+varying solidity of the stone, the river had wrought the precipices into a
+series of innumerable monuments, more or less enormous, commemorative of
+combats. There had been interminable strife here between the demons of
+earth and the demons of water, and each side had set up its trophies. It
+was the Vatican and the Catacombs of the Genii; it was the museum and the
+mausoleum of the forces of nature.
+
+At various points tributary gorges, the graves of fluvial gods who had
+perished long ago, opened into the main cañon. In passing these the
+voyagers had momentary glimpses of sublimities and horrors which seemed
+like the handiwork of that "anarch old," who wrought before the shaping of
+the universe. One of these sarcophagi was a narrow cleft, not more than
+eighty feet broad, cut from surface to base of a bed of sandstone
+one-third of a mile in depth. It was inhabited by an eternal gloom which
+was like the shadow of the blackness of darkness. The stillness, the
+absence of all life whether animal or vegetable, the dungeon-like
+closeness of the monstrous walls, were beyond language.
+
+Another gorge was a ruin. The rock here being of various degrees of
+density, the waters had essayed a thousand channels. All the softer veins
+had been scooped out and washed away, leaving the harder blocks and masses
+piled in a colossal grotesque confusion. Along the sloping sides of the
+gap stood bowlders, pillars, needles, and strange shapes of stone, peering
+over each other's heads into the gulf below. It was as if an army of
+misshapen monsters and giants had been petrified with horror, while
+staring at some inconceivable desolation and ruin. There was no hope for
+this concrete despair; no imaginable voice could utter for it a word of
+consolation; the gazer, like Dante amid the tormented, could only "look
+and pass on."
+
+At one point two lateral cañons opened side by side upon the San Juan. The
+partition was a stupendous pile of rock fifteen hundred feet in altitude,
+but so narrow that it seemed to the voyagers below like the single
+standing wall of some ruined edifice. Although the space on its summit was
+broad enough for a cathedral, it did not appear to them that it would
+afford footing to a man, while the enclosing fissures looked narrow enough
+to be crossed at a bound. On either side of this isolated bar of sandstone
+a plumb-line might have been dropped straight to the level of the river.
+The two chasms were tombs of shadow, where nothing ever stirred but winds.
+
+The solitude of this continuous panorama of precipices was remarkable. It
+was a region without man, or beast, or bird, or insect. The endless rocks,
+not only denuded, but eroded and scraped by the action of bygone waters,
+could furnish no support for animal life. A beast of prey, or even a
+mountain goat, would have starved here. Could a condor of the Andes have
+visited it, he would have spread his wings at once to leave it.
+
+Yet horrible as the scene was, it was so sublime that it fascinated. For
+hours, gazing at lofty masses, vast outlines, prodigious assemblages of
+rocky imagery, endless strokes of natural frescoing, the three adventurers
+either exchanged rare words of astonishment, or lay in reveries which
+transported them beyond earth. What Thurstane felt he could only express
+by recalling random lines of the "Paradise Lost." It seemed to him as if
+they might at any moment emerge upon the lake of burning marl, and float
+into the shadow of the walls of Pandemonium. He would not have felt
+himself carried much beyond his present circumstances, had he suddenly
+beheld Satan,
+
+    High on a throne of royal state, which far
+    Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind.
+
+He was roused from his dreams by the quick, dry, grasshopper-like voice of
+Phineas Glover, asking, "What's that?"
+
+A deep whisper came up the chasm. They could hardly distinguish it when
+they stretched their hearing to the utmost. It seemed to steal with
+difficulty against the rushing flood, and then to be swept down again. It
+sighed threateningly for a moment, and instantaneously became silence. One
+might liken it to a ghost trying to advance through some castle hall, only
+to be borne backward by the fitful night-breeze, or by some mysterious
+ban. Was the desert inhabited, and by disembodied demons?
+
+After a further flight of half a mile, this variable sigh changed to a
+continuous murmur. There was now before the voyagers a straight course of
+nearly two miles, at the end of which lay hid the unseen power which gave
+forth this solemn menace. The river, perfectly clear of rocks, was a sheet
+of liquid porphyry, an arrow of dark-red water slightly flecked with foam.
+The walls of the cañon, scarcely fifty yards apart and more stupendous
+than ever, rose in precipices without a landing-place or a foothold. So
+far as eye could pierce into the twilight of the sublime chasm, there was
+not a spot where the boat could be arrested in its flight, or where a
+swimmer could find a shelf of safety.
+
+"It is a rapid," said Thurstane. "You did well, Captain Glover, to get
+another paddle."
+
+"Lord bless ye!" returned the skipper impatiently, "it's lucky I was
+whittlin' while you was thinkin'. If we on'y had a boat-hook!"
+
+From moment to moment the murmur came nearer and grew louder. It was
+smothered and then redoubled by the reverberations of the cañon, so that
+sometimes it seemed the tigerish snarl of a rapid, and sometimes the
+leonine roar of a cataract. A bend of the chasm at last brought the
+voyagers in sight of the monster, which was frothing and howling to devour
+them. It was a terrific spectacle. It was like Apollyon "straddling quite
+across the way," to intercept Christian in the Valley of the Shadow of
+Death. From one dizzy rampart to the other, and as far down the echoing
+cavern as eye could reach, the river was white with an arrowy rapid
+storming though a labyrinth of rocks.
+
+Sweeny, evidently praying, moved his lips in silence. Glover's face had
+the keen, anxious, watchful look of the sailor affronting shipwreck; and
+Thurstane's the set, enduring rigidity of the soldier who is tried to his
+utmost by cannonade.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+The three adventurers were entering the gorge of an impassable rapid.
+
+Here had once been the barrier of a cataract; the waters had ground
+through it, tumbled it down, and gnawed it to tatters; the scattered
+bowlders which showed through the foam were the remnants of the Cyclopean
+feast.
+
+There appeared to be no escape from death. Any one of those stones would
+rend the canvas boat from end to end, or double it into a wet rug; and if
+a swimmer should perchance reach the bank, he would drown there, looking
+up at precipices; or, if he should find a footing, it would only be to
+starve.
+
+"There is our chance," said Thurstane, pointing to a bowlder as large as a
+house which stood under the northern wall of the cañon, about a quarter of
+a mile above the first yeast of the rapid.
+
+He and Glover each took a paddle. They had but one object: it was to get
+under the lee of the bowlder, and so stop their descent; after that they
+would see what more could be done. Danger and safety were alike swift
+here; it was a hurry as of battle or tempest Almost before they began to
+hope for success, they were circling in the narrow eddy, very nearly a
+whirlpool, which wheeled just below the isolated rock. Even here the
+utmost caution was necessary, for while the Buchanan was as light as a
+bubble, it was also as fragile.
+
+Sounding the muddy water with their paddles, they slowly glided into the
+angle between the bowlder and the precipice, and jammed the fragment of
+the towline in a crevice. For the first time in six hours, and in a run of
+thirty miles, they were at rest. Wiping the sweat of labor and anxiety
+from their brows, they looked about them, at first in silence, querying
+what next?
+
+"I wish I was on an iceberg," said Glover in his despair.
+
+"An' I wish I was in Oirland," added Sweeny. "But if the divil himself was
+to want to desart here, he couldn't."
+
+Thurstane believed that he had seen Clara for the last time, even should
+she escape her own perils. Through his field-glass he surveyed the whole
+gloomy scene with microscopic attention, searching for an exit out of this
+monstrous man-trap, and searching in vain. It was as impossible to descend
+the rapid as it was to scale the walls of the cañon. He had just heard
+Sweeny say, "I wish I was bein' murthered by thim naygurs," and had smiled
+at the utterance of desperation with a grim sympathy, when a faint hope
+dawned upon him.
+
+Not more than a yard above the water was a ledge or shelf in the face of
+the precipice. The layer of sandstone immediately over this shelf was
+evidently softer than the general mass; and in other days (centuries ago),
+when it had formed one level with the bed of the river, it had been deeply
+eroded. This erosion had been carried along the cañon on an even line of
+altitude as far as the softer layer extended. Thurstane could trace it
+with his glass for what seemed to him a mile, and there was of course a
+possibility that it reached below the foot of the rapid. The groove was
+everywhere about twenty feet high, while its breadth varied from a yard or
+so to nearly a rod.
+
+Here, then, was a road by which they might perhaps turn the obstacle. The
+only difficulty was that while the bed of the river descended rapidly, the
+shelf kept on at the same elevation, so that eventually the travellers
+would come to a jumping-off place. How high would it be? Could they get
+down it so as to regain the stream and resume their navigation? Well, they
+must try it; there was no other road. With one eloquent wave of his hand
+Thurstane pointed out this slender chance of escape to his comrades.
+
+"Hurray!" shouted Glover, after a long stare, in which the emotions
+succeeded each other like colors in a dolphin.
+
+"Can we make the jump at the other end?" asked the lieutenant.
+
+"Reckon so," chirruped Glover. "Look a here."
+
+He exhibited a pile of unpleasant-looking matter which proved to be a mass
+of strips of fresh hide.
+
+"Hoss skin," he explained. "Peeled off a mustang. Borrowed it from that
+Texan cuss. Thought likely we might want to splice our towline. 'Bout ten
+fathom, I reckon; 'n' there's the lariat, two fathom more. All we've got
+to de is to pack up, stick our backs under, 'n' travel."
+
+It was three o'clock in the afternoon when they commenced their
+preparations for making this extraordinary portage. Sunk as they were
+twenty-five hundred feet in the bowels of the earth, the sun had already
+set for them; but they were still favored with a sort of twilight
+radiance, and they could count upon it for a couple of hours longer.
+Carefully the guns, paddles, and stores were landed on the marvellous
+causeway; and then, with still greater caution, the boat was lifted to the
+same support and taken to pieces. The whole mass of material, some two
+hundred pounds in weight, was divided into three portions. Each shouldered
+his pack, and the strange journey commenced.
+
+"Sweeny, don't you fall off," said Glover. "We can't spare them sticks."
+
+"If I fall off, ye may shute me where I stand," returned Sweeny. "I know
+better'n to get drowned and starved to death in wan. I can take care av
+meself. I've sailed this a way many a time in th' ould counthry."
+
+The road was a smooth and easy one, barring a few cumbering bowlders. To
+the left and below was the river, roaring, hissing, and foaming through
+its _chevaux-de-frise_ of rocks. In front the cañon stretched on and on
+until its walls grew dim with shadow and distance. Above were overhanging
+precipices and a blue streak of sunlit sky.
+
+It was quite dusk with the wanderers before they reached a point where the
+San Juan once more flowed with an undisturbed current.
+
+"We can't launch by this light," said Thurstane. "We will sleep here."
+
+"It'll be a longish night," commented Glover. "But don't see's we can
+shorten it by growlin'. When fellahs travel in the bowels 'f th' earth,
+they've got to follow the customs 'f th' country. Puts me in mind of Jonah
+in the whale's belly. Putty short tacks, Capm. Nine hours a day won't git
+us along; any too fast. But can't help it. Night travellin' ain't suited
+to our boat. Suthin' like a bladder football: one pin-prick 'd cowallapse
+it. Wal, so we'll settle. Lucky we wanted our blankets to set on. 'Pears
+to me this rock's a leetle harder'n a common deck plank. Unroll the boat,
+Capm? Wal, guess we'd better. Needs dryin'a speck. Too much soakin' an't
+good for canvas. Better dry it out, 'n' fold it up, 'n' sleep on't. This
+passageway that we're in, sh'd say at might git up a smart draught. What
+d'ye say to this spot for campin'? Twenty foot breadth of beam here. Kind
+of a stateroom, or bridal chamber. No need of fallin' out. Ever walk in
+yer sleep, Sweeny? Better cut it right square off to-night. Five fathom
+down to the river, sh'd say. Splash ye awfully, Sweeny."
+
+Thus did Captain Glover prattle in his cheerful way while the party made
+its preparations for the night.
+
+They were like ants lodged in some transverse crack of a lofty wall. They
+were in a deep cut of the shelf, with fifteen hundred or two thousand feet
+of sandstone above, and the porphyry-colored river thirty feet below. The
+narrow strip of sky far above their heads was darkening rapidly with the
+approach of night, and with an accumulation of clouds. All of a sudden
+there was a descent of muddy water, charged with particles of red earth
+and powdered sandstone, pouring by them down the overhanging precipice.
+
+"Liftinant!" exclaimed Sweeny, "thim naygurs up there is washin' their
+dirty hides an' pourin' the suds down on us."
+
+"It's the rain, Sweeny. There's a shower on the plateau above."
+
+"The rain, is it? Thin all nate people in that counthry must stand in
+great nade of ombrellys."
+
+The scene was more marvellous than ever. Not a drop of rain fell in the
+river; the immense façade opposite them was as dry as a skull; yet here
+was this muddy cataract. It fell for half an hour, scarcely so much as
+spattering them in their recess, but plunging over them into the torrent
+beneath. By the time it ceased they had eaten their supper of hard bread
+and harder beef, and lighted their pipes to allay their thirst. There was
+a laying of plans to regain the river to-morrow, a grave calculation as to
+how long their provisions would last, and in general much talk about their
+chances.
+
+"Not a shine of a lookout for gittin' back to the Casa?" queried Captain
+Glover. "Knowed it," he added, when the lieutenant sadly shook his head.
+"Fool for talkin' 'bout it. How 'bout reachin' the trail to the Moqui
+country?"
+
+"I have been thinking of it all day," said Thurstane. "We must give it up.
+Every one of the branch cañons on the other bank trends wrong. We couldn't
+cross them; we should have to follow them; it's an impassable hell of a
+country. We might by bare chance reach the Moqui pueblos; but the
+probability is that we should die in the desert of thirst. We shall have
+to run the river. Perhaps we shall have to run the Colorado too. If so, we
+had better keep on to Diamond creek, and from there push by land to Cactus
+Pass. Cactus Pass is on the trail, and we may meet emigrants there. I
+don't know what better to suggest."
+
+"Dessay it's a tiptop idee," assented Glover cheeringly. "Anyhow, if we
+take on down the river, it seems like follyin' the guidings of
+Providence."
+
+In spite of their strange situation and doubtful prospects, the three
+adventurers slept early and soundly. When they awoke it was daybreak, and
+after chewing the hardest, dryest, and rawest of breakfasts, they began
+their preparations to reach the river. To effect this, it was necessary to
+find a cleft in the ledge where they could fasten a cord securely, and
+below it a footing at the water's edge where they could put their boat
+together and launch it. It would not do to go far down the cañon, for the
+bed of the stream descended while the shelf retained its level, and the
+distance between them was already sufficiently alarming. After an anxious
+search they discovered a bowlder lying in the river beneath the shelf,
+with a flat surface perfectly suited to their purpose. There, too, was a
+cleft, but a miserably small one.
+
+"We can't jam a cord in that," said Glover; "nor the handle of a paddle
+nuther."
+
+"It'll howld me bagonet," suggested Sweeny.
+
+"It can be made to hold it," decided Thurstane. "We must drill away till
+it does hold it."
+
+An hour's labor enabled them to insert the bayonet to the handle and wedge
+it with spikes split off from the precious wood of the paddles. When it
+seemed firm enough to support a strong lateral pressure, Glover knotted on
+to it, in his deft sailor fashion, a strip of the horse hide, and added
+others to that until he had a cord of some forty feet. After testing every
+inch and every knot, he said: "Who starts first?"
+
+"I will try it," answered Thurstane.
+
+"Lightest first, I reckon," observed Glover.
+
+Sweeny looked at the precipice, skipped about the shelf uneasily, made a
+struggle with his fears, and asked, "Will ye let me down aisy?"
+
+"Jest 's easy 's rollin' off a log."
+
+"That's aisy enough. It's the lightin' that's har-rd. If it comes to
+rowlin' down, I'll let ye have the first rowl. I've no moind to git ahead
+of me betthers."
+
+"Try it, my lad," said Thurstane. "The real danger comes with the last
+man. He will have to trust to the bayonet alone."
+
+"An' what'll I do whirl I get down there?"
+
+"Take the traps off the cord as we send them down, and pile them on the
+rock."
+
+"I'm off," said Sweeny, after one more look into the chasm. While the
+others held the cord to keep the strain from coming on the bayonet, he
+gripped it with both hands, edged stern foremost over the precipice, and
+slipped rapidly to the bowlder, whence he sent up a hoot of exultation.
+The cord was drawn back; the boat was made up in two bundles, which were
+lowered in succession; then the provisions, paddles, arms, etc. Now came
+the question whether Thurstane or Glover should remain last on the ledge.
+
+"Lightest last," said the lean skipper. "Stands to reason."
+
+"It's my duty to take the hot end of the poker," replied the officer.
+"Loser goes first," said Glover, producing a copper. "Heads or tails?"
+
+"Heads," guessed Thurstane.
+
+"It's a tail. Catch hold, Capm. Slow 'n' easy till you get over."
+
+The cord holding firm, Thurstane reached the bowlder, and was presently
+joined by Glover.
+
+"Liftinant, I want me bagonet," cried Sweeny. "Will I go up afther it?"
+
+"How the dickens 'd you git down again?" asked Glover. "Guess you'll have
+to leave your bayonet where it sticks. But, Capm, we want that line. Can't
+you shute it away, clost by th' edge?"
+
+The third shot was a lucky one, and brought down the precious cord. Then
+came the work of putting the boat into shape, launching it, getting in the
+stores, and lastly the voyagers.
+
+"Tight's a drum yit," observed Glover, surveying the coracle admiringly.
+"Fust time I ever sailed _on_ canvas. Great notion. Don't draw more'n
+three inches. Might sail acrost country with it. Capm, it's the only boat
+ever invented that could git down this blasted river."
+
+Glover and Sweeny, two of the most talkative creatures on earth, chattered
+much to each other. Thurstane sometimes listened to them, sometimes lost
+himself in reveries about Clara, sometimes surveyed the scenery of the
+cañon.
+
+The abyss was always the same, yet with colossal variety: here and there
+yawnings of veined precipices, followed by cavernous closings of the awful
+sides; breakings in of subsidiary cañons, some narrow clefts, and others
+gaping shattered mouths; the walls now presenting long lines of rampart,
+and now a succession of peaks. But still, although they had now traversed
+the chasm for seventy or eighty miles, they found no close and no
+declension to its solemn grandeur.
+
+At last came another menace, a murmur deeper and hoarser than that of the
+rapid, steadily swelling as they advanced until it was a continuous
+thunder. This time there could be no doubt that they were entering upon a
+scene of yet undecided battle between the eternal assault of the river and
+the immemorial resistance of the mountains.
+
+The quickening speed of the waters, and the ceaseless bellow of their
+charging trumpets as they tore into some yet unseen abyss, announced one
+of those struggles of nature in which man must be a spectator or a victim.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+As Thurstane approached the cataract of the San Juan he thought of the
+rapids above Niagara, and of the men who had been whirled down them,
+foreseeing their fate and struggling against it, but unable to escape it.
+
+"We must keep near one wall or the other," he said. "The middle of the
+river is sure death."
+
+Paddling toward the northern bank, simply because it had saved them in
+their former peril, they floated like a leaf in the shadows of the
+precipices, watching for some footway by which to turn the lair of the
+monster ahead.
+
+The scenery here did not consist exclusively of two lofty ramparts
+fronting each other. Before the river had established its present channel
+it had tried the strength of the plateau in various directions, slashing
+the upper strata into a succession of cañons, which were now lofty and
+arid gullies, divided from each other by every conceivable form of rocky
+ruin. Rotundas, amphitheatres, castellated walls, cathedrals of
+unparalleled immensity, facades of palaces huge enough to be the abodes of
+the principalities and powers of the air, far-stretching semblances of
+cities tottering to destruction, all fashions of domes, towers, minarets,
+spires, and obelisks, with a population of misshapen demons and monsters,
+looked down from sublime heights upon the voyagers. At every turn in the
+river the panorama changed, and they beheld new marvels of this Titanic
+architecture. There was no end to the gigantic and grotesque variety of
+the commingling outlines. The vastness, the loneliness, the stillness, the
+twilight sombreness, were awful. And through all reverberated incessantly
+the defiant clarion of the cataract.
+
+The day was drawing to that early death which it has always had and must
+always have in these abysses. Knowing how suddenly darkness would fall,
+and not daring to attempt the unknown without light, the travellers looked
+for a mooring spot. There was a grim abutment at least eighteen hundred
+feet high; at its base two rocks, which had tumbled ages ago from the
+summit, formed a rude breakwater; and on this barrier had collected a bed
+of coarse pebbles, strewn with driftwood. Here they stopped their flight,
+unloaded the boat and beached it. The drift-wood furnished them a softer
+bed than usual, and materials for a fire.
+
+Night supervened with the suddenness of a death which has been looked for,
+but which is at last a surprise. Shadow after shadow crept down the walls
+of the chasm, blurred its projections, darkened its faces, and crowded its
+recesses. The line of sky, seen through the jagged and sinuous opening
+above, changed slowly to gloom and then to blackness. There was no light
+in this rocky intestine of the earth except the red flicker of the
+camp-fire. It fought feebly with the powers of darkness; it sent tremulous
+despairing flashes athwart the swift ebony river; it reached out with
+momentary gleams to the nearer facades of precipice; it reeled, drooped,
+and shuddered as if in hopeless horror. Probably, since the world began,
+no other fire lighted by man had struggled against the gloom of this
+tremendous amphitheatre. The darknesses were astonished at it, but they
+were also uncomprehending and hostile. They refused to be dissipated, and
+they were victorious.
+
+After two hours a change came upon the scene. The moon rose, filled the
+upper air with its radiance, and bathed in silver the slopes of the
+mountains. The narrow belt of visible sky resembled a milky way. The light
+continued to descend and work miracles. Isolated turrets, domes, and
+pinnacles came out in gleaming relief against the dark-blue background of
+the heavens. The opposite crest of the cañon shone with a broad
+illumination. All the uncouth demons and monsters of the rocks awoke,
+glaring and blinking, to menace the voyagers in the depths below. The
+contrast between this supereminent brilliancy and the sullen obscurity of
+the subterranean river made the latter seem more than ever like Styx or
+Acheron.
+
+The travellers were awakened in the morning by the trumpetings of the
+cataract. They embarked and dropped down the stream, hugging the northern
+rampart and watching anxiously. Presently there was a clear sweep of a
+mile; the clamor now came straight up to them with redoubled vehemence; a
+ghost of spray arose and waved threateningly, as if forbidding further
+passage. It was the roar and smoke of an artillery which had thundered for
+ages, and would thunder for ages to come. It was a voice and signal which
+summoned reinforcements of waters, and in obedience to which the waters
+charged eternally.
+
+The boat had shudders. Every spasm jerked it onward a little faster. It
+flew with a tremulous speed which was terrible. Thurstane, a good soldier,
+able to obey as well as to direct, knowing that if Glover could not steer
+wisely no one could, sat, paddle in hand, awaiting orders. Sweeny
+fidgeted, looked from one to another, looked at the mist ahead, cringed,
+wanted to speak, and said nothing. Glover, working hard with his paddle,
+and just barely keeping the coracle bows on, peered and grinned as if he
+were facing a hurricane. There was no time to have a care for sunken
+bowlders, reaching up to rend the thin bottom. The one giant danger of the
+cataract was enough to fill the mind and bar out every minor terror. Its
+deafening threats demanded the whole of the imagination. Compared with the
+probability of plunging down an unknown depth into a boiling hell of
+waters, all other peril seemed too trifling to attract notice. Such a fate
+is an enhancement of the horrors of death.
+
+"Liftinant, let's go over with a whoop," called Sweeny. "It's much
+aisier."
+
+"Keep quiet, my lad," replied the officer. "We must hear orders."
+
+"All right, Liftinant," said Sweeny, relieved by having spoken.
+
+At this moment Glover shouted cheerfully, "We ain't dead yit There's a
+ledge."
+
+"I see it," nodded Thurstane.
+
+"Where there's a ledge there's an eddy," screamed Glover, raising his
+voice to pierce the hiss of the rapid and the roar of the cascade.
+
+Below them, jutting out from the precipitous northern bank, was a low bar
+of rock over which the river did not sweep. It was the remnant of a once
+lofty barrier; the waters had, as it were, gnawed it to the bone, but they
+had not destroyed it. In two minutes the voyagers were beside it, paddling
+with all their strength against the eddy which whirled along its edge
+toward the cataract, and tossing over the short, spiteful ripples raised
+by the sudden turn of the current. With a "Hooroo!" Sweeny tumbled ashore,
+lariat in hand, and struck his army shoes into the crevices of the
+shattered sandstone. In five minutes more the boat was unloaded and lifted
+upon the ledge.
+
+The travellers did not go to look at the cataract; their immediate and
+urgent need was to get by it. Making up their bundles as usual, they
+commenced a struggle with the intricacies and obstacles of the portage.
+The eroded, disintegrated plateau descended to the river in a huge
+confusion of ruin, and they had to pick their way for miles through a
+labyrinth of cliffs, needles, towers, and bowlders. Reaching the river
+once more, they found themselves upon a little plain of moderately fertile
+earth, the first plain and the first earth which they had seen since
+entering the cañon. The cataract was invisible; a rock cathedral several
+hundred feet high hid it; they could scarcely discern its lofty ghost of
+spray.
+
+Two miles away, in the middle of the plain, appeared a ruin of adobe
+walls, guttered and fissured by the weather. It was undoubtedly a monument
+of that partially civilized race, Aztec, Toltec, or Moqui, which centuries
+ago dotted the American desert with cities, and passed away without
+leaving other record. With his field-glass Thurstane discovered what he
+judged to be another similar structure crowning a distant butte. They had
+no time to visit these remains, and they resumed their voyage.
+
+After skirting the plain for several miles, they reëntered the cañon,
+drifted two hours or more between its solemn walls, and then came out upon
+a wide sweep of open country. The great cañon of the San Juan had been
+traversed nearly from end to end in safety. When the adventurers realized
+their triumph they rose to their feet and gave nine hurrahs.
+
+"It's loike a rich man comin' through the oye av a needle," observed
+Sweeny.
+
+"Only this haint much the air 'f the New Jerusalem," returned Glover,
+glancing at the arid waste of buttes and ranges in the distance.
+
+"We oughter look up some huntin'," he continued. "Locker'll begin to show
+bottom b'fore long. Sweeny, wouldn't you like to kill suthin?"
+
+"I'd like to kill a pig," said Sweeny.
+
+"Wal, guess we'll probably come acrost one. They's a kind of pigs in these
+deestricks putty nigh's long 's this boat."
+
+"There ain't," returned Sweeny.
+
+"Call 'em grizzlies when they call 'em at all," pursued the sly Glover.
+
+"They may call 'em what they plaze if they won't call 'em as long as this
+boat."
+
+Fortune so managed things, by way of carrying out Glover's joke, that a
+huge grizzly just then snowed himself on the bank, some two hundred yards
+below the boat.
+
+After easily slaughtering one bear, the travellers had a far more
+interesting season with another, who was allured to the scene by the smell
+of jerking meat, and who gave them a very lively half hour of it, it being
+hard to say which was the most hunted, the bruin or the humans.
+
+"Look a' that now!" groaned Sweeny, when the victory had been secured.
+"The baste has chawed up me gun barrl loike it was a plug o' tobacky."
+
+"Throw it away," ordered Thurstane, after inspecting the twisted and
+lacerated musket.
+
+Tenderly and tearfully Sweeny laid aside the first gun that he had ever
+carried, went again and again to look at its mangled form as if it were a
+dead relative, and in the end raised a little mausoleum of cobble-stones
+over it.
+
+"If there was any whiskey, I'd give um a wake," he sighed. "I'm a pratty
+soldier now, without a gun to me back."
+
+"I'll let ye carry mine when we come to foot it," suggested Glover.
+
+"Yis, an' ye may carry me part av the boat," retorted Sweeny.
+
+The bear meat was tough and musky, but it could be eaten, must be eaten,
+ind was eaten. During the time required for jerking a quantity of it,
+Glover made a boat out of the two hides, scraping them with a hunting
+knife, sewing them with a sailor's needle and strands of the
+sounding-line, and stretching them on a frame of green saplings, the
+result being a craft six feet long by nearly four broad, and about the
+shape of a half walnut-shell. The long hair was left on, as a protection
+against the rocks of the river, and the seams were filled and plastered
+with bear's grease.
+
+"It's a mighty bad-smellin' thing," remarked Sweeny. "An who's goin' to
+back it over the portages?"
+
+"Robinson Crusoe!" exclaimed Glover. "I never thought of that. Wal, let's
+see. Oh, we kin tow her astarn in plain sailin', 'n' when we come to a
+cataract we can put Sweeny in an' let her slide."
+
+"No ye can't," said Sweeny. "It's big enough, an' yet it won't howld um,
+no more'n a tayspoon'll howld a flay."
+
+"Wal, we kin let her slide without a crew, 'n' pick her up arterwards,"
+decided Glover.
+
+We must hasten over the minor events of this remarkable journey. The
+travellers, towing the bearskin boat behind the Buchanan, passed the mouth
+of Cañon Bonito, and soon afterward beheld the San Juan swallowed up in
+the Grand River, a far larger stream which rises in the Rocky Mountains
+east of Utah. They swept by the horrible country of the Utes and Payoches,
+without holding intercourse with its squalid and savage inhabitants. Here
+and there, at the foot of some monstrous precipice, in a profound recess
+surrounded by a frenzy of rocks, they saw hamlets of a few miserable
+wigwams, with patches of starveling corn and beans. Sharp wild cries, like
+the calls of malicious brownies, or the shrieks of condemned spirits, were
+sent after them, without obtaining response.
+
+"They bees only naygurs," observed Sweeny. "Niver moind their blaggard
+ways."
+
+After the confluence with the Grand River came solitude. The land had been
+swept and garnished: swept by the waters and garnished with horrors; a
+land of cañons, plateaux, and ranges, all arid; a land of desolation and
+the shadow of death. There was nothing on which man or beast could support
+life; nature's power of renovation was for the time suspended, and seemed
+extinct. It was a desert which nothing could restore to fruitfulness
+except the slow mysterious forces of a geologic revolution.
+
+Beyond the Sierra de Lanterna the Grand River was joined by the Green
+River, streaming down through gullied plateaux from the deserts of Utah
+and the mountains which tower between Oregon and Nebraska. Henceforward,
+still locked in Titanic defiles or flanked by Cyclopean _débris_, they
+were on the Colorado of the West.
+
+Thurstane meditated as to what course he should follow. Should he strike
+southward by land for the Bernalillo trail, risking a march through a
+wide, rocky, lifeless, and perhaps waterless wilderness? Or should he
+attempt to descend a river even more terrible to navigate than the San
+Juan? It seemed to him that the hardships and dangers of either plan were
+about the same.
+
+But the Colorado route would be the swiftest; the Colorado would take him
+quickest to Clara. For he trusted that she had long before this got back
+to the Moqui country and resumed her journey across the continent. He
+could not really fear that any deadly harm would befall her. He had the
+firmness of a soldier and the faith of a lover.
+
+At last, silently and solemnly, through a portal thousands of feet in
+height, the voyagers glided into the perilous mystery of the Great Cañon
+of the Colorado, the most sublime and terrible waterway of this planet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+Thurstane had strange emotions as he swept into the "caverns measureless
+to man" of the Great Cañon of the Colorado.
+
+It seemed like a push of destiny rather than a step of volition. An angel
+or a demon impelled him into the unknown; a supernatural portal had opened
+to give him passage; then it had closed behind him forever.
+
+The cañon, with all its two hundred and forty miles of marvels and perils,
+presented itself to his imagination as a unity. The first step within it
+placed him under an enchantment from which there was no escape until the
+whole circuit of the spell should be completed. He was like Orlando in the
+magic garden, when the gate vanished immediately upon his entrance,
+leaving him no choice but to press on from trial to trial. He was no more
+free to pause or turn back than Grecian ghosts sailing down Acheron toward
+the throne of Radamanthus.
+
+Direct statement, and even the higher speech of simile, fail to describe
+the Great Cañon and the emotion which it produces. Were its fronting
+precipices organs, with their mountainous columns and pilasters for
+organ-pipes, they might produce a _de profundis_ worthy of the scene and
+of its sentiments, its inspiration. This is not bombast; so far from
+exaggerating it does not even attain to the subject; no words can so much
+as outline the effects of eighty leagues of mountain sculptured by a great
+river.
+
+Let us venture one comparison. Imagine a groove a foot broad and twenty
+feet deep, with a runnel of water trickling at the bottom of it and a
+fleck of dust floating down the rivulet. Now increase the dimensions until
+the groove is two hundred and fifty feet in breadth by five thousand feet
+in depth, and the speck a boat with three voyagers. You have the Great
+Cañon of the Colorado and Thurstane and his comrades seeking its issue.
+
+"Do you call this a counthry?" asked Sweeny, after an awe-stricken
+silence. "I'm thinkin' we're gittin' outside av the worrld like."
+
+"An' I'm thinkin' we're gittin' too fur inside on't," muttered Glover.
+"Look's 's though we might slip clean under afore long. Most low-spirited
+hole I ever rolled into. 'Minds me 'f that last ditch people talk of dyin'
+in. Must say I'd rather be in the trough 'f the sea."
+
+"An' what kind av a trough is that?" inquired Sweeny, inquisitive even in
+his dumps.
+
+"It's the trough where they feed the niggers out to the sharks."
+
+"Faix, an' I'd loike to see it at feedin' time," answered Sweeny with a
+feeble chuckle.
+
+Nature as it is is one image; nature as it appears is a thousand; or
+rather it is infinite. Every soul is a mirror, reflecting what faces it;
+but the reflections differ as do the souls that give them. To the three
+men who now gazed on the Great Cañon it was far from being the same
+object.
+
+Sweeny surveyed it as an old Greek or Roman might, with simple distaste
+and horror. Glover, ignorant and limited as he was, received far more of
+its inspiration. Even while "chirking up" his companions with trivial talk
+and jests he was in his secret soul thinking of Bunyan's Dark Valley and
+Milton's Hell, the two sublimest landscapes that had ever been presented
+to his imagination. Thurstane, gifted with much of the sympathy of the
+great Teutonic race for nature, was far more profoundly affected. The
+overshadowing altitudes and majesties of the chasm moved him as might
+oratorios or other solemn music. Frequently he forgot hardships, dangers,
+isolation, the hard luck of the past, the ugly prospects of the future in
+reveries which were a succession of such emotions as wonder, worship, and
+love.
+
+No doubt the scenery had the more power over him because, by gazing at it
+day after day while his heart was full of Clara, he got into a way of
+animating it with her. Far away as she was, and divided from him perhaps
+forever, she haunted the cañon, transformed it and gave it grace. He could
+see her face everywhere; he could see it even without shutting his eyes;
+it made the arrogant and malignant cliffs seraphic. By the way, the
+vividness of his memory with regard to that fair, sweet, girlish
+countenance was wonderful, only that such a memory, the memory of the
+heart, is common. There was not one of her expressions which was not his
+property. Each and all, he could call them-up at will, making them pass
+before him in heavenly procession, surrounding himself with angels. It was
+the power of the ring which is given to the slaves of love.
+
+He had some vagaries (the vagaries of those who are subjugated by a strong
+and permanent emotion) which approached insanity. For instance, he
+selected a gigantic column of sandstone as bearing some resemblance to
+Clara, and so identified it with her that presently he could see her face
+crowning it, though concealed by the similitude of a rocky veil. This
+image took such possession of him that he watched it with fascination, and
+when a monstrous cliff slid between it and him he felt as if here were a
+new parting; as if he were once more bidding her a speechless, hopeless
+farewell.
+
+During the greater part of this voyage he was a very uninteresting
+companion. He sat quiet and silent; sometimes he slightly moved his lips;
+he was whispering a name. Glover and Sweeny, who had only known him for a
+month, and supposed that he had always been what they saw him, considered
+him an eccentric.
+
+"Naterally not quite himself," judged the skipper. "Some folks is born
+knocked on the head."
+
+"May be officers is always that a way," was one of Sweeny's suggestions.
+"It must be mighty dull bein' an officer."
+
+We must not forget the Great Cañon. The voyagers were amid magnitudes and
+sublimities of nature which oppressed as if they were powers and
+principalities of supernature. They were borne through an architecture of
+aqueous and plutonic agencies whose smallest fantasies would be belittled
+by comparisons with coliseums, labyrinths, cathedrals, pyramids, and
+stonehenges.
+
+For example, they circled a bend of which the extreme delicate angle was a
+jutting pilaster five hundred feet broad and a mile high, its head
+towering in a sharp tiara far above the brow of the plateau, and its sides
+curved into extravagances of dizzy horror. It seemed as if it might be a
+pillar of confinement and punishment for some Afreet who had defied
+Heaven. On either side of this monster fissures a thousand feet deep
+wrinkled the forehead of the precipice. Armies might have been buried in
+their abysses; yet they scarcely deformed the line of the summits. They
+ran back for many miles; they had once been the channels of streams which
+helped to drain the plateau; yet they were merely superficial cracks in
+the huge mass of sandstone and limestone; they were scarcely noticeable
+features of the Titanic landscape. From this bend forward the beauty of
+the cañon was sublime, horrible, satanic. Constantly varying, its
+transformations were like those of the chief among demons, in that they
+were always indescribably magnificent and always indescribably terrible.
+Now it was a straight, clean chasm between even hedges of cliff which left
+open only a narrow line of the beauty and mercy of the heavens. Again,
+where it was entered by minor cañons, it became a breach through crowded
+pandemoniums of ruined architectures and forsaken, frowning imageries.
+Then it led between enormous pilasters, columns, and caryatides, mitred
+with conical peaks which had once been ranges of mountains. Juttings and
+elevations, which would have been monstrous in other landscapes, were here
+but minor decorations.
+
+Something like half of the strata with which earth is sheathed has been
+cut through by the Colorado, beginning at the top of the groove with
+hundreds of feet of limestone, and closing at the bottom with a thousand
+feet of granite. Here, too, as in many other wonder-spots of the American
+desert, nature's sculpture is rivalled by her painting. Bluish-gray
+limestone, containing corals; mottled limestone, charged with slates,
+flint, and chalcedony; red, brown, and blue limestone, mixed with red,
+green, and yellow shales; sandstone of all tints, white, brown, ochry,
+dark red, speckled and foliated; coarse silicious sandstone, and red
+quartzose sandstone beautifully veined with purple; layers of
+conglomerate, of many colored shales, argillaceous iron, and black oxide
+manganese; massive black and white granite, traversed by streaks of quartz
+and of red sienite; coarse red felspathic granite, mixed with large plates
+of silver mica; such is the masonry and such the frescoing.
+
+Through this marvellous museum our three spectators wandered in hourly
+peril of death. The Afreets of the waters and the Afreets of the rocks,
+guarding the gateway which they had jointly builded, waged incessant
+warfare with the intruders. Although the current ran five miles an hour,
+it was a lucky day when the boat made forty miles. Every evening the
+travellers must find a beach or shelf where they could haul up for the
+night. Darkness covered destruction, and light exposed dangers. The
+bubble-like nature of the boat afforded at once a possibility of easy
+advance and of instantaneous foundering. Every hour that it floated was a
+miracle, and so they grimly and patiently understood it.
+
+A few days in the cañon changed the countenances of these men. They looked
+like veterans of many battles. There was no bravado in their faces. The
+expression which lived there was a resigned, suffering, stubborn courage.
+It was the "silent berserker rage" which Carlyle praises. It was the
+speechless endurance which you see in portraits of the Great Frederick,
+Wellington, and Grant.
+
+They relieved each other. The bow was guard duty; the steering was light
+duty; the midships off duty. It must be understood that, the great danger
+being sunken rocks, one man always crouched in the bow, with a paddle
+plunged below the surface, feeling for ambushes of the stony bushwhackers.
+Occasionally all three had to labor, jumping into shallows, lifting the
+boat over beds of pebbles, perhaps lightening it of arms and provisions,
+perhaps carrying all ashore to seek a portage.
+
+"It's the best canew 'n' the wust canew I ever see for sech a voyage,"
+observed Glover. "Navigatin' in it puts me in mind 'f angels settin' on a
+cloud. The cloud can go anywhere; but what if ye should slump through?"
+
+"Och! ye're a heretic, 'n' don't belave angels can fly," put in Sweeny.
+
+"Can't ye talk without takin' out yer paddle?" called Glover. "Mind yer
+soundings."
+
+Glover was at the helm just then, while Sweeny was at the bow. Thurstane,
+sitting cross-legged on the light wooden flooring of the boat, was
+entering topographical observations in his journal. Hearing the skipper's
+warning, he looked up sharply; but both the call and the glance came too
+late to prevent a catastrophe. Just in that instant the boat caught
+against some obstacle, turned slowly around before the push of the
+current, swung loose with a jerk and floated on, the water bubbling
+through the flooring. A hole had been torn in the canvas, and the
+cockle-shell was foundering.
+
+"Sound!" shouted Thurstane to Sweeny; then, turning to Glover, "Haul up
+the Grizzly!"
+
+The tub-boat of bearskin was dragged alongside, and Thurstane instantly
+threw the provisions and arms into it.
+
+"Three foot," squealed Sweeny.
+
+"Jump overboard," ordered the lieutenant.
+
+By the time they were on their feet in the water the Buchanan was half
+full, and the swift current was pulling at it like a giant, while the
+Grizzly, floating deep, was almost equally unmanageable. The situation had
+in one minute changed from tranquil voyaging to deadly peril. Sweeny,
+unable to swim, and staggering in the rapid, made a plunge at the bearskin
+boat, probably with an idea of getting into it. But Thurstane, all himself
+from the first, shouted in that brazen voice of military command which is
+so secure of obedience, "Steady, man! Don't climb in. Cut the lariat close
+up to the Buchanan, and then hold on to the Grizzly."
+
+Restored to his self-possession, Sweeny laboriously wound the straining
+lariat around his left arm and sawed it in two with his jagged
+pocket-knife. Then came a doubtful fight between him and the Colorado for
+the possession of the heavy and clumsy tub.
+
+Meantime Thurstane and Glover, the former at the bow and the latter at the
+stern of the Buchanan, were engaged in a similar tussle, just barely
+holding on and no more.
+
+"We can't stand this," said the officer. "We must empty her."
+
+"Jest so," panted Glover. "You're up stream. Can you raise your eend? We
+mustn't capsize her; we might lose the flooring."
+
+Thurstane stooped slowly and cautiously until he had got his shoulder
+under the bow.
+
+"Easy!" called Glover. "Awful easy! Don't break her back. Don't upset
+_me_."
+
+Gently, deliberately, with the utmost care, Thurstane straightened himself
+until he had lifted the bow of the boat clear of the current.
+
+"Now I'll hoist," said the skipper. "You turn her slowly--jest the least
+mite. Don't capsize her."
+
+It was a Herculean struggle. There was still a ponderous weight of water
+in the boat. The slight frame sagged and the flexible siding bulged.
+Glover with difficulty kept his feet, and he could only lift the stern
+very slightly.
+
+"You can't do it," decided Thurstane. "Don't wear yourself out trying it.
+Hold steady where you are, while I let down."
+
+When the boat was restored to its level it floated higher than before, for
+some of the water had drained out.
+
+"Now lift slowly," directed Thurstane. "Slow and sure. She'll clear little
+by little."
+
+A quiet, steady lift, lasting perhaps two or three minutes, brought the
+floor of the boat to the surface of the current.
+
+"It's wearing," said the lieutenant, cheering his worried fellow-laborer
+with a smile. "Stand steady for a minute and try to rest. You, Sweeny,
+move in toward the bank. Hold on to your boat like the devil. If the water
+deepens, sing out."
+
+Sweeny, gripping his lariat desperately, commenced a staggering march over
+the cobble-stone bottom, his anxious nose pointed toward a beach of
+bowlders beneath the southern precipice.
+
+"Now then," said Thurstane to Glover, "we must get her on our heads and
+follow Sweeny. Are you ready? Up with her!"
+
+A long, reeling hoist set the Buchanan on the heads of the two men, one
+standing under the bow and one under the stern, their arms extended and
+their hands clutching the sides. The beach was forty yards away; the
+current was swift and as opaque as chocolate; they could not see what
+depths might gape before them; but they must do the distance without
+falling, or perish.
+
+"Left foot first," shouted the officer. "Forward--march!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+
+When the adventurers commenced their tottering march toward the shore of
+the Colorado, Sweeny, dragging the clumsy bearskin boat, was a few yards
+in advance of Thurstane and Glover, bearing the canvas boat.
+
+Every one of the three had as much as he could handle. The Grizzly, pulled
+at by the furious current, bobbed up and down and hither and thither,
+nearly capsizing Sweeny at every other step. The Buchanan, weighing one
+hundred and fifty pounds when dry, and now somewhat heavier because of its
+thorough wetting, made a heavy load for two men who were hip deep in swift
+water.
+
+"Slow and sure," repeated Thurstane. "It's a five minutes job. Keep your
+courage and your feet for five minutes. Then we'll live a hundred years."
+
+"Liftinant, is this soldierin'?" squealed Sweeny.
+
+"Yes, my man, this is soldiering."
+
+"Thin I'll do me dooty if I pull me arrms off."
+
+But there was not much talking. Pretty nearly all their breath was needed
+for the fight with the river. Glover, a slender and narrow-shouldered
+creature, was particularly distressed; and his only remark during the
+pilgrimage shoreward was, "I'd like to change hosses."
+
+Sweeny, leading the way, got up to his waist once and yelled, "I'll
+drown."
+
+Then he backed a little, took a new direction, found shallower water, and
+tottled onward to victory. The moment he reached the shore he gave a
+shrill hoot of exultation, went at his bearskin craft with both hands,
+dragged it clean out of the water, and gave it a couple of furious kicks.
+
+"Take that!" he yelped. "Ye're wickeder nor both yer fathers. But I've
+bate ye. Oh, ye blathering jerkin', bogglin' baste, ye!"
+
+Then he splashed into the river, joined his hard-pressed comrades, got his
+head under the centre of the Buchanan, and lifted sturdily. In another
+minute the precious burden was safe on a large flat rock, and the three
+men were stretched out panting beside it. Glover was used up; he was
+trembling from head to foot with fatigue; he had reached shore just in
+time to fall on it instead of into the river.
+
+"Ye'd make a purty soldier," scoffed Sweeny, a habitual chaffer, like most
+Irishmen.
+
+"It was the histin' that busted me," gasped the skipper. "I can't handle a
+ton o' water."
+
+"Godamighty made ye already busted, I'm a thinkin'," retorted Sweeny.
+
+As soon as Glover could rise he examined the Buchanan. There was a ragged
+rent in the bottom four inches long, and the canvas in other places had
+been badly rubbed. The voyagers looked at the hole, looked at the horrible
+chasm which locked them in, and thought with a sudden despair of the great
+environment of desert.
+
+The situation could hardly be more gloomy. Having voyaged for five days in
+the Great Cañon, they were entangled in the very centre of the folds of
+that monstrous anaconda. Their footing was a lap of level not more than
+thirty yards in length by ten in breadth, strewn with pebbles and
+bowlders, and showing not one spire of vegetation. Above them rose a
+precipice, the summit of which they could not see, but which was
+undoubtedly a mile in height. Had there been armies or cities over their
+heads, they could not have discovered it by either eye or ear.
+
+At their feet was the Colorado, a broad rush of liquid porphyry, swift and
+pitiless. By its color and its air of stoical cruelty it put one in mind
+of the red race of America, from whose desert mountains it came and
+through whose wildernesses it hurried. On the other side of this grim
+current rose precipices five thousand feet high, stretching to right and
+left as far as the eye could pierce. Certainly never before did
+shipwrecked men gaze upon such imprisoning immensity and inhospitable
+sterility.
+
+Directly opposite them was horrible magnificence. The face of the fronting
+rampart was gashed a mile deep by the gorge of a subsidiary cañon. The
+fissure was not a clean one, with even sides. The strata had been torn,
+ground, and tattered by the river, which had first raged over them and
+then through them. It was a Petra of ruins, painted with all stony colors,
+and sculptured into a million outlines. On one of the boldest abutments of
+the ravine perched an enchanted castle with towers and spires hundreds of
+feet in height. Opposite, but further up the gap, rose a rounded
+mountain-head of solid sandstone and limestone. Still higher and more
+retired, towering as if to look into the distant cañon of the Colorado,
+ran the enormous terrace of one of the loftier plateaus, its broad, bald
+forehead wrinkled with furrows that had once held cataracts. But language
+has no charm which can master these sublimities and horrors. It stammers;
+it repeats the same words over and over; it can only _begin_ to tell the
+monstrous truth.
+
+"Looks like we was in our grave," sighed Glover.
+
+"Liftinant," jerked out Sweeny, "I'm thinkin' we're dead. We ain't livin',
+Liftinant. We've been buried. We've no business trying to _walk_."
+
+Thurstane had the same sense of profound depression; but he called up his
+courage and sought to cheer his comrades.
+
+"We must do our best to come to life," he said. "Mr. Glover, can nothing
+be done with the boat?"
+
+"Can't fix it," replied the skipper, fingering the ragged hole. "Nothin'
+to patch it with."
+
+"There are the bearskins," suggested Thurstane.
+
+Glover slapped his thigh, got up, danced a double-shuffle, and sat down
+again to consider his job. After a full minute Sweeny caught the idea also
+and set up a haw-haw of exultant laughter, which brought back echoes from
+the other side of the cañon, as if a thousand Paddies were holding revel
+there.
+
+"Oh! yees may laugh," retorted Sweeny, "but yees can't laugh us out av
+it."
+
+"I'll sheath the whole bottom with bearskin," said Glover. "Then we can
+let her grind. It'll be an all day's chore, Capm--perhaps two days."
+
+They passed thirty-six hours in this miserable bivouac. Glover worked
+during every moment of daylight. No one else could do anything. A green
+hand might break a needle, and a needle broken was a step toward death.
+From dawn to dusk he planned, cut, punctured, and sewed with the patience
+of an old sailor, until he had covered the rent with a patch of bearskin
+which fitted as if it had grown there. Finally the whole bottom was
+doubled with hide, the long, coarse fur still on it, and the grain running
+from stem to stern so as to aid in sliding over the sand and pebbles of
+the shallows.
+
+While Glover worked the others slept, lounged, cooked, waited. There was
+no food, by the way, but the hard, leathery, tasteless jerked meat of the
+grizzly bears, which had begun to pall upon them so they could hardly
+swallow it. Eating was merely a duty, and a disagreeable one.
+
+When Glover announced that the boat was ready for launching, Sweeny
+uttered a yelp of joy, like a dog who sees a prospect of hunting.
+
+"Ah, you paddywhack!" growled the skipper. "All this work for you. Punch
+another hole, 'n' I'll take yer own hide to patch it."
+
+"I'll give ye lave," returned Sweeny. "Wan bare skin 's good as another.
+Only I might want me own back agin for dress-parade."
+
+Once more on the Colorado. Although the boat floated deeper than before,
+navigation in it was undoubtedly safer, so that they made bolder ventures
+and swifter progress. Such portages, however, as they were still obliged
+to traverse, were very severe, inasmuch as the Buchanan was now much above
+its original weight. Several times they had to carry one half of their
+materials for a mile or more, through a labyrinth of rocks, and then
+trudge back to get the other half.
+
+Meantime their power of endurance was diminishing. The frequent wettings,
+the shivering nights, the great changes of temperature, the stale and
+wretched food, the constant anxiety, were sapping their health and
+strength. On the tenth day of their wanderings in the Great Cañon Glover
+began to complain of rheumatism.
+
+"These cussed draughts!" he groaned. "It's jest like travellin' in a
+bellows nozzle."
+
+"Wid the divil himself at the bellys," added Sweeny. "Faix, an' I wish
+he'd blow us clane out intirely. I'm gittin' tired o' this same, I am. I
+didn't lisht to sarve undher ground."
+
+"Patience, Sweeny," smiled Thurstane. "We must be nearly through the
+cañon."
+
+"An' where will we come out, Liftinant? Is it in Ameriky? Bedad, we ought
+to be close to the Chaynees by this time. Liftinant, what sort o' paple
+lives up atop of us, annyway?"
+
+"I don't suppose anybody lives up there," replied the officer, raising his
+eyes to the dizzy precipices above. "This whole region is said to be a
+desert."
+
+"Be gorry, an' it 'll stay a desert till the ind o' the worrld afore I'll
+poppylate it. It wasn't made for Sweenys. I haven't seen sile enough in
+tin days to raise wan pataty. As for livin' on dried grizzly, I'd like
+betther for the grizzlies to live on me. Liftinant, I niver see sich harrd
+atin'. It tires the top av me head off to chew it."
+
+About noon of the twelfth day in the Great Cañon this perilous and sublime
+navigation came to a close. The walls of the chasm suddenly spread out
+into a considerable opening, which absolutely seemed level ground to the
+voyagers, although it was encumbered with mounds or buttes of granite and
+sandstone. This opening was produced by the entrance into the main channel
+of a subsidiary one, coming from the south. At first they did not observe
+further particulars, for they were in extreme danger of shipwreck, the
+river being studded with rocks and running like a mill-race. But on
+reaching the quieter water below the rapid, they saw that the branch cañon
+contained a rivulet, and that where the two streams united there was a
+triangular basin, offering a safe harbor.
+
+"Paddle!" shouted Thurstane, pointing to the creek. "Don't let her go by.
+This is our place."
+
+A desperate struggle dragged the boat out of the rushing Colorado into the
+tranquillity of the basin. Everything was landed; the boat itself was
+hoisted on to the rocks; the voyage was over.
+
+"Think ye know yer way, Capm?" queried Glover, squinting doubtfully up the
+arid recesses of the smaller cañon.
+
+"Of course I may be mistaken. But even if it is not Diamond Creek, it will
+take us in our direction. We have made westing enough to have the Cactus
+Pass very nearly south of us."
+
+As there was still a chance of returning to the river, the boat was taken
+to pieces, rolled up, and hidden under a pile of stones and driftwood. The
+small remnant of jerked meat was divided into three portions. Glover, on
+account of his inferior muscle and his rheumatism, was relieved of his
+gun, which was given to Sweeny. Canteens were filled, blankets slung,
+ammunition belts buckled, and the march commenced.
+
+Arrived at a rocky knoll which looked up both waterways, the three men
+halted to take a last glance at the Great Cañon, the scene of a pilgrimage
+that had been a poem, though a terrible one. The Colorado here was not
+more than fifty yards wide, and only a few hundred yards of its course
+were visible either way, for the confluence was at the apex of a bend. The
+dark, sullen, hopeless, cruel current rushed out of one mountain-built
+mystery into another. The walls of the abyss rose straight from the water
+into dizzy abutments, conical peaks, and rounded masses, beyond and above
+which gleamed the distant sunlit walls of a higher terrace of the plateau.
+
+"Come along wid ye," said Sweeny to Glover, "It's enough to give ye the
+rheumatiz in the oyes to luk at the nasty black hole. I'm thinkin' it's
+the divil's own place, wid the fires out."
+
+The Diamond Creek Cañon, although far inferior to its giant neighbor, was
+nevertheless a wonderful excavation, striking audaciously into sombre
+mountain recesses, sublime with precipices, peaks, and grotesque masses.
+The footing was of the ruggedest, a _débris_ of confused and eroded rocks,
+the pathway of an extinct river. One thing was beautiful: the creek was a
+perfect contrast to the turbid Colorado; its waters were as clear and
+bright as crystal. Sweeny halted over and over to look at it, his mouth
+open and eyes twinkling like a pleased dog.
+
+"An' there's nothing nagurish about that, now," he chuckled. "A pataty ud
+laugh to be biled in it."
+
+After slowly ascending for a quarter of a mile, they turned a bend and
+came upon a scene which seemed to them like a garden. They were in a broad
+opening, made by the confluence of two cañons. Into this gigantic rocky
+nest had been dropped an oasis of turf and of thickets of green willows.
+Through the centre of the verdure the Diamond Creek flowed dimpling over a
+pebbly bed, or shot in sparkles between barring bowlders, or plunged over
+shelves in toy cascades. The travellers had seen nothing so hospitable in
+nature since leaving the country of the Moquis weeks before.
+
+Sweeny screamed like a delighted child. "Oh! an' that's just like ould
+Oirland. Oh, luk at the turrf! D'ye iver see the loikes o'that, now? The
+blessed turrf! Here ye be, right in the divil's own garden. Liftinant, if
+ye'll let me build a fort here, I'll garrison it. I'll stay here me whole
+term of sarvice."
+
+"Halt," said Thurstane. "We'll eat, refill canteens, and inspect arms. If
+this is Diamond Cañon, and I think there is no doubt of it, we may expect
+to find Indians soon."
+
+"I'll fight 'em," declared Sweeny. "An' if they've got anythin' betther
+nor dried grizzly, I'll have it."
+
+"Wait for orders," cautioned Thurstane. "No firing without orders."
+
+After cleaning their guns and chewing their tough and stale rations, they
+resumed their march, leaving the rivulet and following the cañon, which
+led toward the southwest. As they were now regaining the level of the
+plateau, their advance was a constant and difficult ascent, sometimes
+struggling through labyrinths of detached rocks, and sometimes climbing
+steep shelves which had once been the leaping-places of cataracts. The
+sides of the chasm were two thousand feet high, and it was entered by
+branch ravines of equal grandeur.
+
+The sun had set for them, although he was still high above the horizon of
+upper earth, when Thurstane halted and whispered, "Wigwams!"
+
+Perched among the rocks, some under projecting strata and others in
+shadowy niches between huge buttresses, they discovered at first three or
+four, then a dozen, and finally twenty wretched cabins. They scarcely saw
+before they were seen; a hideous old squaw dropped a bundle of fuel and
+ran off screeching; in a moment the whole den was in an uproar. Startling
+yells burst from lofty nooks in the mountain flanks, and scarecrow figures
+dodged from ambush to ambush of the sombre gully. It was as if they had
+invaded the haunts of the brownies.
+
+The Hualpais, a species of Digger Indians, dwarfish, miserable, and
+degraded, living mostly on roots, lizards, and the like, were nevertheless
+conscious of scalps to save. In five minutes from the discovery of the
+strangers they had formed a straggling line of battle, squatting along a
+ledge which crossed the cañon. There were not twenty warriors, and they
+were no doubt wretchedly armed, but their position was formidable.
+
+Sweeny, looking like an angry rat, his nose twitching and eyes sparkling
+with rage, offered to storm the rampart alone, shouting, "Oh, the nasty,
+lousy nagurs! Let 'em get out of our way."
+
+"Guess we'd better talk to the cusses," observed Glover. "Tain't the
+handiest place I ever see for fightin'; an' I don't keer 'bout havin' my
+ears 'n' nose bored any more at present."
+
+"Stay where you are," said Thurstane. "I'll go forward and parley with
+them."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+
+Thurstane had no great difficulty in making a sort of
+let-me-alone-and-I'll-let-you-alone treaty with the embattled Hualpais.
+
+After some minutes of dumb show they came down from their stronghold and
+dispersed to their dwellings. They seemed to be utterly without curiosity;
+the warriors put aside their bows and lay down to sleep; the old squaw
+hurried off to pick up her bundle of fuel; even the papooses were silent
+and stupid. It was a race lower than the Hottentots or the Australians.
+Short, meagre, badly built, excessively ugly, they were nearly naked, and
+their slight clothing was rags of skins. Thurstane tried to buy food of
+them, but either they had none to spare or his buttons seemed to them of
+no value. Nor could he induce any one to accompany him as a guide.
+
+"Do ye think Godamighty made thim paple?" inquired Sweeny.
+
+"Reckon so," replied Glover.
+
+"I don't belave it," said Sweeny. "He'd be in more rispactable bizniss.
+It's me opinyin the divil made um for a joke on the rest av us. An' it's
+me opinyin he made this whole counthry for the same rayson."
+
+"The priest'll tell ye God made all men, Sweeny."
+
+"They ain't min at all. Thim crachurs ain't min. They're nagurs, an' a
+mighty poor kind at that. I hate um. I wish they was all dead. I've kilt
+some av um, an' I'm goin' to kill slathers more, God willin'. I belave
+it's part av the bizniss av white min to finish off the nagurs."
+
+Profound and potent sentiment of race antipathy! The contempt and hatred
+of white men for yellow, red, brown, and black men has worked all over
+earth, is working yet, and will work for ages. It is a motive of that
+tremendous tragedy which Spencer has entitled "the survival of the
+fittest," and Darwin, "natural selection."
+
+The party continued to ascend the cañon. At short intervals branch cañons
+exhibited arid and precipitous gorges, more and more gloomy with twilight.
+It was impossible to choose between one and another. The travellers could
+never see three hundred yards in advance. To right and left they were
+hemmed in by walls fifteen hundred feet in height. Only one thing was
+certain: these altitudes were gradually diminishing; and hence they knew
+that they were mounting the plateau. At last, four hours after leaving
+Diamond Creek, wearied to the marrow with incessant toil, they halted by a
+little spring, stretched themselves on a scrap of starveling grass, and
+chewed their meagre, musty supper.
+
+The scenery here was unearthly. Barring the bit of turf and a few willows
+which had got lost in the desert, there was not a tint of verdure. To
+right and left rose two huge and steep slopes of eroded and ragged rocks,
+tortured into every conceivable form of jag, spire, pinnacle, and imagery.
+In general the figures were grotesque; it seemed as if the misshapen gods
+of India and of China and of barbarous lands had gathered there; as if
+this were a place of banishment and punishment for the fallen idols of all
+idolatries. Above this coliseum of monstrosities rose a long line of
+sharp, jagged needles, like a vast _chevaux-de-frise_, forbidding escape.
+Still higher, lighted even yet by the setting sun, towered five cones of
+vast proportions. Then came cliffs capped by shatters of tableland, and
+then the long, even, gleaming ledge of the final plateau.
+
+Locked in this bedlam of crazed strata, unable to see or guess a way out
+of it, the wanderers fell asleep. There was no setting of guards; they
+trusted to the desert as a sentinel.
+
+At daylight the blind and wearisome climbing recommenced. Occasionally
+they found patches of thin turf and clumps of dwarf cedars struggling with
+the rocky waste. These bits of greenery were not the harbingers of a new
+empire of vegetation, but the remnants of one whose glory had vanished
+ages ago, swept away by a vandalism of waters. Gradually the cañon
+dwindled to a ravine, narrow, sinuous, walled in by stony steeps or
+slopes, and interlocking continually with other similar chasms. A creek,
+which followed the chasm, appeared and disappeared at intervals of a mile
+or so, as if horrified at the face of nature and anxious to hide from it
+in subterranean recesses.
+
+The travellers stumbled on until the ravine became a gully and the gully a
+fissure. They stepped out of it; they were on the rolling surface of the
+tableland; they were half a mile above the Colorado.
+
+Here they halted, gave three cheers, and then looked back upon the
+northern desert as men look who have escaped an enemy. A gigantic panorama
+of the country which they had traversed was unrolled to their vision. In
+the foreground stretched declining tablelands, intersected by numberless
+ravines, and beyond these a lofty line of bluffs marked the edge of the
+Great Cañon of the Colorado. Through one wide gap in these heights came a
+vision of endless plateaux, their terraces towering one above another
+until they were thousands of feet in the air, the horizontal azure bands
+extending hundreds of miles northward, until the deep blue faded into a
+lighter blue, and that into the sapphire of the heavens.
+
+"It looks a darned sight finer than it is," observed Glover.
+
+"Bedad, ye may say that," added Sweeny. "It's a big hippycrit av a
+counthry. Ye'd think, to luk at it, ye could ate it wid a spoon."
+
+Now came a rolling region, covered with blue grass and dotted with groves
+of cedars, the earth generally hard and smooth and the marching easy.
+Striking southward, they reached a point where the plateau culminated in a
+low ridge, and saw before them a long gentle slope of ten miles, then a
+system of rounded hills, and then mountains.
+
+"Halt here," said Thurstane. "We must study our topography and fix on our
+line of march."
+
+"You'll hev to figger it," replied Glover. "I don't know nothin' in this
+part o' the world."
+
+"Ye ain't called on to know," put in Sweeny. "The liftinant'll tell ye."
+
+"I think," hesitated Thurstane, "that we are about fifty miles north of
+Cactus Pass, where we want to strike the trail."
+
+"And I'm putty nigh played out," groaned Glover.
+
+"Och! _you_ howld up yer crazy head," exhorted Sweeny. "It'll do ye iver
+so much good."
+
+"It's easy talkin'," sighed the jaded and rheumatic skipper.
+
+"It's as aisy talkin' right as talkin' wrong," retorted Sweeny. "Ye've no
+call to grunt the curritch out av yer betthers. Wait till the liftinant
+says die."
+
+Thurstane was studying the landscape. Which of those ranges was the
+Cerbat, which the Aztec, and which the Pinaleva? He knew that, after
+leaving Cactus Pass, the overland trail turns southward and runs toward
+the mouth of the Gila, crossing the Colorado hundreds of miles away. To
+the west of the pass, therefore, he must not strike, under peril of
+starving amid untracked plains and ranges. On the whole, it seemed
+probable that the snow-capped line of summits directly ahead of him was
+the Cerbat range, and that he must follow it southward along the base of
+its eastern slope.
+
+"We will move on," he said. "Mr. Glover, we must reach those broken hills
+before night in order to find water. Can you do it?"
+
+"Reckon I kin jest about do it, 's the feller said when he walked to his
+own hangin'," returned the suffering skipper.
+
+The failing man marched so slowly and needed so many halts that they were
+five hours in reaching the hills. It was now nightfall; they found a
+bright little spring in a grassy ravine; and after a meagre supper, they
+tried to stifle their hunger with sleep. Thurstane and Sweeny took turns
+in watching, for smoke of fires had been seen on the mountains, and, poor
+as they were, they could not afford to be robbed. In the morning Glover
+seemed refreshed, and started out with some vigor.
+
+"Och! ye'll go round the worrld," said Sweeny, encouragingly. "Bones can
+march furder than fat anny day. Yer as tough as me rations. Dried grizzly
+is nothin' to ye."
+
+After threading hills for hours they came out upon a wide, rolling basin
+prettily diversified by low spurs of the encircling mountains and bluish
+green with the long grasses known as _pin_ and _grama_. A few deer and
+antelopes, bounding across the rockier places, were an aggravation to
+starving men who could not follow them.
+
+"Why don't we catch some o' thim flyin' crachurs?" demanded Sweeny.
+
+"We hain't got no salt to put on their tails," explained Glover, grinning
+more with pain than with his joke.
+
+"I'd ate 'em widout salt," said Sweeny. "If the tails was feathers, I'd
+ate 'em."
+
+"We must camp early, and try our luck at hunting," observed Thurstane.
+
+"I go for campin' airly," groaned the limping and tottering Glover.
+
+"Och! yees ud like to shlape an shnore an' grunt and rowl over an' shnore
+agin the whole blissid time," snapped Sweeny, always angered by a word of
+discouragement. "Yees ought to have a dozen o' thim nagurs wid their long
+poles to make a fither bed for yees an' tuck up the blankets an' spat the
+pilly. Why didn't ye shlape all ye wanted to whin yees was in the boat?"
+
+"Quietly, Sweeny," remonstrated Thurstane. "Mr. Glover marches with great
+pain."
+
+"I've no objiction to his marchin' wid great pain or annyway Godamighty
+lets him, if he won't grunt about it."
+
+"But you must be civil, my man."
+
+"I ax yer pardon, Liftinant. I don't mane no harrum by blatherin'. It's a
+way we have in th' ould counthry. Mebbe it's no good in th' arrmy."
+
+"Let him yawp, Capm," interposed Glover. "It's a way they hev, as he says.
+Never see two Paddies together but what they got to fightin' or pokin' fun
+at each other. Me an' Sweeny won't quarrel. I take his clickatyclack for
+what it's worth by the cart-load. 'Twon't hurt me. Dunno but what it's
+good for me."
+
+"Bedad, it's betther for ye nor yer own gruntin'," added the irrepressible
+Irishman.
+
+By two in the afternoon they had made perhaps fifteen miles, and reached
+the foot of the mountain which they proposed to skirt. As Glover was now
+fagged out, Thurstane decided to halt for the night and try deer-stalking.
+A muddy water-hole, surrounded by thickets of willows, indicated their
+camping ground. The sick man was _cached_ in the dense foliage; his
+canteen was filled for him and placed by his side; there could be no other
+nursing.
+
+"If the nagurs kill ye, I'll revenge ye," was Sweeny's parting
+encouragement. "I'll git ye back yer scallup, if I have to cut it out of
+um."
+
+Late in the evening the two hunters returned empty. Sweeny, in spite of
+his hunger and fatigue, boiled over with stories of the hairbreadth
+escapes of the "antyloops" that he had fired at. Thurstane also had seen
+game, but not near enough for a shot.
+
+"I didn't look for such bad luck," said the weary and half-starved young
+fellow, soberly. "No supper for any of us. We must save our last ration to
+make to-morrow's march on."
+
+"It's a poor way of atin' two males in wan," remarked Sweeny. "I niver
+thought I'd come to wish I had me haversack full o' dried bear."
+
+The next day was a terrible one. Already half famished, their only food
+for the twenty-four hours was about four ounces apiece of bear meat,
+tough, ill-scented, and innutritious. Glover was so weak with hunger and
+his ailments that he had to be supported most of the way by his two
+comrades. His temper, and Sweeny's also, gave out, and they snarled at
+each other in good earnest, as men are apt to do under protracted
+hardships. Thurstane stalked on in silence, sustained by his youth and
+health, and not less by his sense of responsibility. These men were here
+through his doing; he must support them and save them if possible; if not,
+he must show them how to die bravely; for it had come to be a problem of
+life and death. They could not expect to travel two days longer without
+food. The time was approaching when they would fall down with faintness,
+not to rise again in this world.
+
+In the morning their only provision was one small bit of meat which
+Thurstane had saved from his ration of the day before. This he handed to
+Glover, saying with a firm eye and a cheerful smile, "My dear fellow, here
+is your breakfast."
+
+The starving invalid looked at it wistfully, and stammered, with a voice
+full of tears, "I can't eat when the rest of ye don't."
+
+Sweeny, who had stared at the morsel with hungry eyes, now broke out, "I
+tell ye, ate it. The liftinant wants ye to."
+
+"Divide it fair," answered Glover, who could hardly restrain himself from
+sobbing.
+
+"I won't touch a bit av it," declared Sweeny. "It's the liftinant's own
+grub."
+
+"We won't divide it," said Thurstane. "I'll put it in your pocket, Glover.
+When you can't take another step without it, you must go at it."
+
+"Bedad, if ye don't, we'll lave yees," added Sweeny, digging his fists
+into his empty stomach to relieve its gnawing.
+
+Very slowly, the well men sustaining the sick one, they marched over
+rolling hills until about noon, accomplishing perhaps ten miles. They were
+now on a slope looking southward; above them the wind sighed through a
+large grove of cedars; a little below was a copious spring of clear, sweet
+water. There they halted, drinking and filling their canteens, but not
+eating. The square inch of bear meat was still in Glover's pocket, but he
+could not be got to taste it unless the others would share.
+
+"Capm, I feel's though Heaven'd strike me if I should eat your victuals,"
+he whispered, his voice having failed him. "I feel a sort o' superstitious
+'bout it. I want to die with a clear conscience."
+
+But when they rose his strength gave out entirely, and he dropped down
+fainting.
+
+"Now ate yer mate," said Sweeny, in a passion of pity and anxiety. "Ate
+yer mate an' stand up to yer marchin'."
+
+Glover, however, could not eat, for the fever of hunger had at last
+produced nausea, and he pushed away the unsavory morsel when it was put to
+his lips.
+
+"Go ahead," he whispered. "No use all dyin'. Go ahead." And then he
+fainted outright.
+
+"I think the trail can't be more than fifteen miles off," said Thurstane,
+when he had found that his comrade still breathed. "One of us must push on
+to it and the other stay with Glover. Sweeny, I can track the country
+best. You must stay."
+
+For the first time in this long and suffering and perilous journey
+Sweeny's courage failed him, and he looked as if he would like to shirk
+his duty.
+
+"My lad, it is necessary," continued the officer. "We can't leave this man
+so. You have your gun. You can try to hunt. When he comes to, you must get
+him along, following the course you see me take. If I find help, I'll save
+you. If not, I'll come back and die with you."
+
+Sitting down by the side of the insensible Glover, Sweeny covered his face
+with two grimy hands which trembled a little. It was not till his officer
+had got some thirty feet away that he raised his head and looked after
+him. Then he called, in his usual quick, sharp, chattering way,
+"Liftinant, is this soldierin'?"
+
+"Yes, my lad," replied Thurstane with a sad, weary smile, thinking
+meantime of hardships past, "this is soldiering."
+
+"Thin I'll do me dooty if I rot jest here," declared the simple hero.
+
+Thurstane came back, grasped Sweeny's hand in silence, turned away to hide
+his shaken face, and commenced his anxious journey.
+
+There were both terrible and beautiful thoughts in his soul as he pushed
+on into the desert. Would he find the trail? Would he encounter the rare
+chance of traders or emigrants? Would there be food and rest for him and
+rescue for his comrades? Would he meet Clara? This last idea gave him
+great courage; he struggled to keep it constantly in his mind; he needed
+to lean upon it.
+
+By the time that he had marched ten miles he found that he was weaker than
+he had supposed. Weeks of wretched food and three days of almost complete
+starvation had taken the strength pretty much out of his stalwart frame.
+His breath was short; he stumbled over the slightest obstacles;
+occasionally he could not see clear. From time to time it struck him that
+he had been dreaming or else that his mind was beginning to wander. Things
+that he remembered and things that he hoped for seemed strangely present.
+He spoke to people who were hundreds of miles away; and, for the most
+part, he spoke to them pettishly or with downright anger; for in the main
+he felt more like a wretched, baited animal than a human being.
+
+It was only when he called Clara to mind that this evil spirit was
+exorcised, and he ceased for a moment to resemble a hungry, jaded wolf.
+Then he would be for a while all sweetness, because he was for the while
+perfectly happy. In the next instant, by some hateful and irresistible
+magic, happiness and sweetness would be gone, and he could not even
+remember them nor remember _her_.
+
+Meantime he struggled to command himself and pay attention to his route.
+He must do this, because his starving comrades lay behind him, and he must
+know how to lead men back to their rescue. Well, here he was; there were
+hills to the left; there was a mountain to the right; he would stop and
+fix it all in his memory.
+
+He sat down beside a rock, leaned his back against it to steady his dizzy
+head, had a sensation of struggling with something invincible, and was
+gone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+
+Leaving Thurstane in the desert, we return to Clara in the desert. It will
+be remembered that she stood on the roof of the Casa Grande when her lover
+was swept oarless down the San Juan.
+
+She was watching him; of course she was watching him; at the moment of the
+catastrophe she saw him; she felt sure also that he was looking at her.
+The boat began to fly down the current; then the two oarsmen fell to
+paddling violently; what did it mean? Far from guessing that the towline
+had snapped, she was not aware that there was one.
+
+On went the boat; presently it whirled around helplessly; it was nearing
+the rocks of the rapid; there was evidently danger. Running to the edge of
+the roof, Clara saw a Mexican cattle-driver standing on the wall of the
+enclosure, and called to him, "What is the matter?"
+
+"The lariats have broken," he replied. "They are drifting."
+
+Clara uttered a little gasp of a shriek, and then did not seem to breathe
+again for a minute. She saw Thurstane led away in captivity by the savage
+torrent; she saw him rise up in the boat and wave her a farewell; she
+could not lift her hand to respond; she could only stand and stare. She
+had a look, and there was within her a sensation, as if her soul were
+starting out of her eyes. The whole calamity revealed itself to her at
+once and without mercy. There was no saving him and no going after him; he
+was being taken out of her sight; he was disappearing; he was gone. She
+leaned forward, trying to look around the bend of the river, and was
+balked by a monstrous, cruel advance of precipices. Then, when she
+realized that he had vanished, there was a long scream ending in
+unconsciousness.
+
+When she came to herself everybody was talking of the calamity. Coronado,
+Aunt Maria, and others overflowed with babblings of regret, astonishment,
+explanations, and consolation. The lariats had broken. How could it have
+happened! How dreadful! etc.
+
+"But he will land," cried Clara, looking eagerly from face to face.
+
+"Oh, certainly," said Coronado. "Landings can be made. There are none
+visible, but doubtless they exist."
+
+"And then he will march back here?" she demanded.
+
+"Not easily. I am afraid, my dear cousin, not very easily. There would be
+cañons to turn, and long ones. Probably he would strike for the Moqui
+country."
+
+"Across the desert? No water!"
+
+Coronado shrugged his shoulders as if to say that he could not help it.
+
+"If we go back to-morrow," she began again, "do you think we shall
+overtake them?"
+
+"I think it very probable," lied Coronado.
+
+"And if we don't overtake them, will they join us at the Moqui pueblos?"
+
+"Yes, yes. I have little doubt of it."
+
+"When do you think we ought to start?"
+
+"To-morrow morning."
+
+"Won't that be too early?"
+
+"Day after to-morrow then."
+
+"Won't that be too late?"
+
+Coronado nearly boiled over with rage. This girl was going to demand
+impossibilities of him, and impossibilities that he would not perform if
+he could. He must be here and he must be there; he must be quick enough
+and not a minute too quick; and all to save his rival from the pit which
+he had just dug for him. Turning his back on Clara, he paced the roof of
+the Casa in an excitement which he could not conceal, muttering, "I will
+do the best I can--the best I can."
+
+Presently the remembrance that he had at least gained one great triumph
+enabled him to recover his self-possession and his foxy cunning.
+
+"My dear cousin," he said gently, "you must not suppose that I am not
+greatly afflicted by this accident. I appreciate the high merit of
+Lieutenant Thurstane, and I grieve sincerely at his misfortune. What can I
+do? I will do the best I can for all. Trusting to your good sense, I will
+do whatever you say. But if you want my advice, here it is. We ought for
+our own sakes to leave here to-morrow; but for his sake we will wait a
+day. In that time he may rejoin us, or he may regain the Moqui trail. So
+we will set out, if you have no objection, on the morning of day after
+to-morrow, and push for the pueblos. When we do start, we must march, as
+you know, at our best speed."
+
+"Thank you, Coronado," said Clara. "It is the best you can do."
+
+There were not five minutes during that day and the next that the girl did
+not look across the plain to the gorge of the dry cañon, in the hope that
+she might see Thurstane approaching. At other times she gazed eagerly down
+the San Juan, although she knew that he could not stem the current. Her
+love and her sorrow were ready to believe in miracles. How is it possible,
+she often thought, that such a brief sweep of water should carry him so
+utterly away? In spite of her fear of vexing Coronado, she questioned him
+over and over as to the course of the stream and the nature of its banks,
+only to find that he knew next to nothing.
+
+"It will be hard for him to return to us," the man finally suggested, with
+an air of being driven unwillingly to admit it. "He may have to go on a
+long way down the river."
+
+The truth is that, not knowing whether the lost men could return easily or
+not, he was anxious to get away from their neighborhood.
+
+Before the second day of this suspense was over, Aunt Maria had begun to
+make herself obnoxious. She hinted that Thurstane knew what he was about;
+that the river was his easiest road to his station; that, in short, he had
+deserted. Clara flamed up indignantly and replied, "I know him better."
+
+"Why, what has he got to do with us?" reasoned Aunt Maria. "He doesn't
+belong to our party."
+
+"He has his men here. He wouldn't leave his soldiers."
+
+"His men! They can take care of themselves. If they can't, I should like
+to know what they are good for. I think it highly probable he went off of
+his own choice."
+
+"I think it highly probable you know nothing about it," snapped Clara.
+"You are incapable of judging him."
+
+The girl was not just now herself. Her whole soul was concentrated in
+justifying, loving, and saving Thurstane; and her manner, instead of being
+serenely and almost lazily gentle, was unpleasantly excited. It was as if
+some charming alluvial valley should suddenly give forth the steam and
+lava of a volcano.
+
+Finding no sympathy in Aunt Maria, and having little confidence in the
+good-will of Coronado, she looked about her for help. There was Sergeant
+Meyer; he had been Thurstane's right-hand man; moreover, he looked
+trustworthy. She seized the first opportunity to beckon him up to her
+eerie on the roof of the Casa.
+
+"Sergeant, I must speak with you privately," she said at once, with the
+frankness of necessity.
+
+The sergeant, a well-bred soldier, respectful to ladies, and especially to
+ladies who were the friends of officers, raised his forefinger to his cap
+and stood at attention.
+
+"How came Lieutenant Thurstane to go down the river?" she asked.
+
+"It was the lariat proke," replied Meyer, in a whispering, flute-like
+voice which he had when addressing his superiors.
+
+"Did it break, or was it cut?"
+
+The sergeant raised his small, narrow, and rather piggish gray eyes to
+hers with a momentary expression of anxiety.
+
+"I must pe gareful what I zay," he answered, sinking his voice still
+lower. "We must poth pe gareful. I examined the lariat. I fear it was
+sawed. But we must not zay this."
+
+"Who sawed it?" demanded Clara with a gasp.
+
+"It was no one in the poat," replied Meyer diplomatically.
+
+"Was it that man--that hunter--Smith?"
+
+Another furtive glance between the sandy eyelashes expressed an uneasy
+astonishment; the sergeant evidently had a secret on his mind which he
+must not run any risk of disclosing.
+
+"I do not zee how it was Schmidt" he fluted almost inaudibly. "He was
+watching the peasts at their basture."
+
+"Then who did saw it?"
+
+"I do not know. I do not feel sure that it was sawed."
+
+Perceiving that, either from ignorance or caution, he would not say more
+on this point, Clara changed the subject and asked, "Can Lieutenant
+Thurstane go down the river safely?"
+
+"I would like noting petter than to make the exbedition myself," replied
+Meyer, once more diplomatic.
+
+Now came a silence, the soldier waiting respectfully, the girl not knowing
+how much she might dare to say. Not that she doubted Meyer; on the
+contrary, she had a perfect confidence in him; how could she fail to trust
+one who had been trusted by Thurstane?
+
+"Sergeant," she at last whispered, "we must find him."
+
+"Yes, miss," touching his cap as if he were taking an oath by it.
+
+"And you," she hesitated, "must protect _me_."
+
+"Yes, miss," and the sergeant repeated his gesture of solemn affirmation.
+
+"Perhaps I will say more some time."
+
+He saluted again, and seeing that she had nothing to add, retired quietly.
+
+For two nights there was little sleep for Clara. She passed them in
+pondering Thurstane's chances, or in listening for his returning
+footsteps. Yet when the train set out for the Moqui pueblos, she seemed as
+vigorous and more vivacious than usual. What supported her now and for
+days afterward was what is called the strength of fever.
+
+The return across the desert was even more terrible than the advance, for
+the two scant water-holes had been nearly exhausted by the Apaches, so
+that both beasts and human beings suffered horribly with thirst. There was
+just this one good thing about the parched and famished wilderness, that
+it relieved the emigrants from all fear of ambushing enemies. Supernatural
+beings alone could have, bushwhacked here. The Apaches had gone.
+
+Meanwhile Sergeant Meyer had a sore conscience. From the moment the boat
+went down the San Juan he had more or less lain awake with the idea that,
+according to the spirit of his instructions from Thurstane, he ought to
+have Texas Smith tied up and shot. Orders were orders; there was no
+question about that, as a general principle; the sergeant had never heard
+the statement disputed. But when he came to consider the case now before
+him, he was out-generalled by a doubt. This, drifting of a boat down a
+strange river, was it murder in the sense intended by Thurstane? And,
+supposing it to be murder, could it be charged in any way upon Smith? In
+the whole course of his military experience Sergeant Meyer had never been
+more perplexed. On the evening of the first day's march he could bear his
+sense of responsibility no longer, and decided to call a council of war.
+Beckoning his sole remaining comrade aside from the bivouac, he entered
+upon business.
+
+"Kelly, we are unter insdructions," he began in his flute-like tone.
+
+"I know it, sergeant," replied Kelly, decorously squirting his
+tobacco-juice out of the corner of his mouth furthest from his superior.
+
+"The question is, Kelly, whether Schmidt should pe shot."
+
+"The responsibility lies upon you, sergeant. I will shoot him if so be
+such is orders."
+
+"Kelly, the insdructions were to shoot him if murder should habben in this
+barty. The instructions were loose."
+
+"They were so, sergeant--not defining murder."
+
+"The question is, Kelly, whether what has habbened to the leftenant is
+murder. If it is murder, then Schmidt must go."
+
+The two men were sitting on a bowlder side by side, their hands on their
+knees and their muskets leaning against their shoulders. They did not look
+at each other at all, but kept their grave eyes on the ground. Kelly
+squirted his tobacco-juice sidelong two or three times before he replied.
+
+"Sergeant," he finally said, "my opinion is we can't set this down for
+murder until we know somebody is dead."
+
+"Shust so, Kelly. That is my obinion myself."
+
+"Consequently it follows, sergeant, if you don't see to the contrary, that
+until we know that to be a fact, it would be uncalled for to shoot Smith."
+
+"What you zay, Kelly, is shust what I zay."
+
+"Furthermore, however, sergeant, it might be right and is the way of duty,
+to call up Smith and make him testify as to what he knows of this
+business, whether it be murder, or meant for murder."
+
+"Cock your beece, Kelly."
+
+Both men cocked their pieces.
+
+"Now I will gall Schmidt out and question him," continued Meyer, "You will
+stand on one side and pe ready to opey my orders."
+
+"Very good, sergeant," said Kelly, and dropped back a little into the
+nearly complete darkness.
+
+Meyer sang out sharply, "Schmidt! Texas Schmidt!"
+
+The desperado heard the summons, hesitated a moment, cocked the revolver
+in his belt, loosened his knife in its sheath, rose from his blanket, and
+walked slowly in the direction of the voice. Passing Kelly without seeing
+him, he confronted Meyer, his hand on his pistol. There was not the
+slightest tremor in the hoarse, low croak with which he asked, "What's the
+game, sergeant?"
+
+"Schmidt, stand berfectly still," said Meyer in his softest fluting.
+"Kelly has his beece aimed at your head. If you stir hant or foot, you are
+a kawn koose."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+
+Texas Smith was too old a borderer to attempt to draw his weapons while
+such a man as Kelly was sighting him at ten feet distance.
+
+"Play yer hand, sergeant," he said; "you've got the keerds."
+
+"You know, Schmidt, that our leftenant has been garried down the river,"
+continued Meyer.
+
+The bushwhacker responded with a grunt which expressed neither pleasure
+nor sorrow, but merely assent.
+
+"You know," went on the sergeant, "that such things cannot habben to
+officers without investigations."
+
+"He war a squar man, an' a white man," said Texas. "I didn't have nothin'
+to do with cuttin' him loose, if he war cut loose."
+
+"You didn't saw the lariat yourself, Schmidt, I know that. But do you know
+who did saw it?"
+
+"I dunno the first thing about it."
+
+"Bray to pe struck tead if you do."
+
+"I dunno how to pray."
+
+"Then holt up your hants and gurse yourself to hell if you do."
+
+Lifting his hands over his head, the ignorant savage blasphemed copiously.
+
+"Do you think you can guess how it was pusted?" persisted the soldier.
+
+"Look a hyer!" remonstrated Smith, "ain't you pannin' me out a leetle too
+fine? It mought 'a' been this way, an' it mought 'a' been that. But I've
+no business to point if I can't find. When a man's got to the bottom of
+his pile, you can't fo'ce him to borrow. 'Sposin' I set you barkin' up the
+wrong tree; what good's that gwine to do?"
+
+"Vell, Schmidt, I don't zay but what you zay right. You mustn't zay
+anyting you don't know someting apout."
+
+After another silence, during which Texas continued to hold his hands
+above his head, Meyer added, "Kelly, you may come to an order. Schmidt,
+you may put down your hants. Will you haf a jew of topacco?"
+
+The three men now approached each other, took alternate bites of the
+sergeant's last plug of pigtail, and masticated amicably.
+
+"You army fellers run me pootty close," said Texas, after a while, in a
+tone of complaint and humiliation. "I don't want to fight brass buttons.
+They're too many for me. The Capm he lassoed me, an' choked me some; an'
+now you're on it."
+
+"When things habben to officers, they must pe looked into," replied Meyer.
+
+"I dunno how in thunder the lariat got busted," repeated Texas. "An' if I
+should go for to guess, I mought guess wrong."
+
+"All right, Schmidt; I pelieve you. If there is no more drubble, you will
+not pe called up again."
+
+"Ask him what he thinks of the leftenant's chances," suggested Kelly to
+his superior.
+
+"Reckon he'll hev to run the river a spell," returned the borderer.
+"Reckon he'll hev to run it a hell of a ways befo' he'll be able to git
+across the dam country."
+
+"Ask him what the chances be of running the river safely," added Kelly.
+
+"Dam slim," answered Texas; and there the talk ended. There was some
+meditative chewing, after which the three returned to the bivouac, and
+either lay down to sleep or took their tours at guard duty.
+
+At dawn the party recommenced its flight toward the Moqui country. There
+were sixty hours more of hard riding, insufficient sleep, short rations,
+thirst, and anxiety. Once the suffering animals stampeded after water, and
+ran for several miles over plateaux of rock, dashing off burdens and
+riders, and only halting when they were plunged knee-deep in the
+water-hole which they had scented. One of the wounded rancheros expired on
+the mule to which he was strapped, and was carried dead for several hours,
+his ashy-brown face swinging to and fro, until Coronado had him thrown
+into a crevice.
+
+Amid these hardships and horrors Clara showed no sign of flagging or
+flinching. She was very thin; bad food, excessive fatigue, and anxiety had
+reduced her; her face was pinched, narrowed, and somewhat lined; her
+expression was painfully set and eager. But she never asked for repose,
+and never complained. Her mind was solely fixed upon finding Thurstane,
+and her feverish bright eyes continually searched the horizon for him. She
+seemed to have lost her power of sympathizing with any other creature. To
+Mrs. Stanley's groanings and murmurings she vouchsafed rare and brief
+condolences. The dead muleteer and the tortured, bellowing animals
+attracted little of her notice. She was not hard-hearted; she was simply
+almost insane. In this state of abnormal exaltation she continued until
+the party reached the quiet and safety of the Moqui pueblos.
+
+Then there was a change; exhausted nature required either apathy or death;
+and for two days she lay in a sort of stupor, sleeping a great deal, and
+crying often when awake. The only person capable of rousing her was
+Sergeant Meyer, who made expeditions to the other pueblos for news of
+Thurstane, and brought her news of his hopes and his failures.
+
+After a three days' rest Coronado decided to resume his journey by moving
+southward toward the Bernalillo trail. Freed from Thurstane, he no longer
+contemplated losing Clara in the desert, but meant to marry her, and
+trusted that he could do it. Two of his wagons he presented to the Moquis,
+who were, of course, delighted with the acquisition, although they had no
+more use for wheeled vehicles than for gunboats. With only four wagons,
+his animals were more than sufficient, and the train made tolerably rapid
+progress, in spite of the roughness of the country.
+
+The land was still a wonder. The water wizards of old had done their
+grotesque utmost here. What with sculpturing and frescoing, they had made
+that most fantastic wilderness the Painted Desert. It looked like a
+mirage. The travellers had an impression that here was some atmospheric
+illusion. It seemed as if it could not last five minutes if the sun should
+shine upon it. There were crowding hills so variegated and gay as to put
+one in mind of masses of soap-bubbles. But the coloring was laid on
+fifteen hundred feet deep. It consisted of sandstone marls, red, blue,
+green, orange, purple, white, brown, lilac, and yellow, interstratified
+with magnesian limestone in bands of purple, bluish-white, and mottled,
+with here and there shining flecks or great glares of gypsum.
+
+Among the more delicate wonders of the scene were the petrified trunks
+which had once been pines and cedars, but which were now flint or jasper.
+The washings of geologic aeons have exposed to view immense quantities of
+these enchanted forests. Fragments of silicified trees are not only strewn
+over the lowlands, but are piled by the hundred cords at the bases of
+slopes, seeming like so much drift-wood from wonder-lands far up the
+stream of time. Generally they are in short bits, broken square across the
+grain, as if sawed. Some are jasper, and look like masses of red
+sealing-wax; others are agate, or opalescent chalcedony, beautifully lined
+and variegated; many retain the graining, layers, knots, and other details
+of their woody structure.
+
+In places where the marls had been washed away gently, the emigrants found
+trunks complete, from root to summit, fifty feet in length and three in
+diameter. All the branches, however, were gone; the tree had been
+uprooted, transported, whirled and worn by deluges; then to commemorate
+the victory of the water sprites, it had been changed into stone. The
+sight of these remnants of antediluvian woodlands made history seem the
+reminiscence of a child. They were already petrifactions when the human
+race was born.
+
+The Painted Desert has other marvels. Throughout vast stretches you pass
+between tinted _mesas_, or tables, which face each other across flat
+valleys like painted palaces across the streets of Genova la Superba. They
+are giant splendors, hundreds of feet in height, built of blood-red
+sandstone capped with variegated marls. The torrents, which scooped out
+the intersecting levels, amused their monstrous leisure with carving the
+points and abutments of the _mesa_ into fantastic forms, so that the
+traveller sees towers, minarets, and spires loftier than the pinnacles of
+cathedrals.
+
+The emigrants were often deceived by these freaks of nature. Beheld from a
+distance, it seemed impossible that they should not be ruins, the
+monuments of some Cyclopean race. Aunt Maria, in particular, discovered
+casas grandes and casas de Montezuma very frequently.
+
+"There is another casa," she would say, staring through her spectacles
+(broken) at a butte three hundred feet high. "What a people it must have
+been which raised such edifices!"
+
+And she would stick to it, too, until she was close up to the solid rock,
+and then would renew the transforming miracle five or ten miles further
+on.
+
+During this long and marvellous journey Coronado renewed his courtship. He
+was cautious, however; he made a confidant of his friend Aunt Maria;
+begged her favorable intercession.
+
+"Clara," said Mrs. Stanley, as the two women jolted along in one of the
+lumbering wagons, "there is one thing in your life which perhaps you don't
+suspect."
+
+The girl, who wanted to hear about Thurstane all the time, and expected to
+hear about him, asked eagerly, "What is it?"
+
+"You have made Mr. Coronado fall in love with you," said Aunt Maria,
+thinking it wise to be clear and straightforward, as men are reputed to
+be.
+
+The young lady, instantly revolting from the subject, made no reply.
+
+"I think, Clara, that if you take a husband--and most women do--he would
+be just the person for you."
+
+Clara, once the gentlest of the gentle, was perfectly angelic no longer.
+She gave her relative a stare which was partly intense misery, but which
+had much the look of pure anger, as indeed it was in a measure.
+
+The expressions of violent emotion are alarming to most people. Aunt
+Maria, beholding this tortured soul glaring at her out of its prison
+windows, recoiled in surprise and awe. There was not another word spoken
+at the time concerning the obnoxious match-making. A single stare of
+Marius had put to flight the executioner.
+
+In one way and another Clara continued to baffle her suitor and her
+advocate. The days dragged on; the expedition steadily traversed the
+desert; the Santa Anna region was crossed, and the Bernalillo trail
+reached; one hundred, two hundred, three hundred miles and more were left
+behind; and still Coronado, though without a rival, was not accepted.
+
+Then came an adventure which partly helped and partly hindered his plans.
+The train was overtaken by a detachment of the Fifth United States
+Cavalry, commanded by Major John Robinson, pushing for California. Of
+course Sergeant Meyer reported himself and Kelly to the Major, and of
+course the Major ordered them to join his party as far as Fort Yuma. This
+deprived Clara of her trusted protectors; but on the other hand, she
+threatened to take advantage of the escort of Robinson for the rest of her
+journey; and the mere mention of this at once brought Coronado on his
+soul's marrow-bones. He swore by the heaven above, by all the saints and
+angels, by the throne of the Virgin Mary, by every sacred object he could
+think of, that not another word of love should pass his lips during the
+journey, that he would live the life of a dead man, etc. Overcome by his
+pleadings, and by the remonstrances of Aunt Maria, who did not want to
+have her favorite driven to commit suicide, Clara agreed to continue with
+the train.
+
+After this scene followed days of hot travelling over hard, gravelly
+plains, thinly coated with grass and dotted with cacti, mezquit trees, the
+leafless palo verde, and the greasewood bush. Here and there towered that
+giant cactus, the saguarra, a fluted shaft, thirty, forty, and even sixty
+feet high, with a coronet of richly-colored flowers, the whole fabric as
+splendid as a Corinthian column. Prickly pears, each one large enough to
+make a thicket, abounded. Through the scorching sunshine ran scorpions and
+lizards, pursued by enormous rattlesnakes. During the days the heat ranged
+from 100 to 115 deg. in the shade, while the nights were swept by winds as
+parching as the breath of an oven. The distant mountains glared at the eye
+like metals brought to a white heat. Not seldom they passed horses, mules,
+cattle, and sheep, which had perished in this terrible transit and been
+turned to mummies by the dry air and baking sun. Some of these carcasses,
+having been set on their legs by passing travellers, stood upright,
+staring with blind eyeballs, grinning through dried lips, mockeries of
+life, statues of death.
+
+In spite of these hardships and horrors, Clara kept up her courage and was
+almost cheerful; for in the first place Coronado had ceased his terrifying
+attentions, and in the second place they were nearing Cactus Pass, where
+she hoped to meet Thurstane. When love has not a foot of certainty to
+stand upon, it can take wing and soar through the incredible. The idea
+that they two, divided hundreds of miles back, should come together at a
+given point by pure accident, was obviously absurd. Yet Clara could trust
+to the chance and live for it.
+
+The scenery changed to mountains. There were barren, sublime, awful peaks
+to the right and left. To the girl's eyes they were beautiful, for she
+trusted that Thurstane beheld them. She was always on horseback now,
+scanning every feature of the landscape, searching of course for him. She
+did not pass a cactus, or a thicket of mezquit, or a bowlder without
+anxious examination. She imagined herself finding him helpless with
+hunger, or passing him unseen and leaving him to die. She was so pale and
+thin with constant anxiety that you might have thought her half starved,
+or recovering from some acute malady.
+
+About five one afternoon, as the train was approaching its halting-place
+at a spring on the western side of the pass, Clara's feverish mind fixed
+on a group of rocks half a mile from the trail as the spot where she would
+find Thurstane. In obedience to similar impressions she had already made
+many expeditions of this nature. Constant failure, and a consciousness
+that all this searching was folly, could not shake her wild hopes. She set
+off at a canter alone; but after going some four hundred yards she heard a
+gallop behind her, and, looking over her shoulder, she saw Coronado. She
+did not want to be away from the train with him; but she must at all
+hazards reach that group of rocks; something within impelled her. Better
+mounted than she, he was soon by her side, and after a while struck out in
+advance, saying, "I will look out for an ambush."
+
+When Coronado reached the rocks he was fifty yards ahead of Clara. He made
+the circuit of them at a slow canter; in so doing he discovered the
+starving and fainted Thurstane lying in the high grass beneath a low shelf
+of stone; he saw him, he recognized him, and in an instant he trembled
+from head to foot. But such was his power of self-control that he did not
+check his horse, nor cast a second look to see whether the man was alive
+or dead. He turned the last stone in the group, met Clara with a forced
+smile, and said gently, "There is nothing."
+
+She reined up, drew a long sigh, thought that here was another foolish
+hope crushed, and turned her horse's head toward the train.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+
+The tread of Coronado's horse passing within fifteen feet of Thurstane
+roused him from the troubled sleep into which he had sunk after his long
+fainting fit.
+
+Slowly he opened his eyes, to see nothing but long grasses close to his
+face, and through them a haze of mountains and sky. His first moments of
+wakening were so far from being a full consciousness that he did not
+comprehend where he was. He felt very, very weak, and he continued to lie
+still.
+
+But presently he became aware of sounds; there was a trampling, and then
+there were words; the voices of life summoned him to live. Instantly he
+remembered two things: the starving comrades whom it was his duty to save,
+and the loved girl whom he longed to find. Slowly and with effort,
+grasping at the rock to aid his trembling knees, he rose to his feet just
+as Clara turned her horse's head toward the plain.
+
+Coronado threw a last anxious glance in the direction of the wretch whom
+he meant to abandon to the desert. To his horror he saw a lean, smirched,
+ghostly face looking at him in a dazed way, as if out of the blinding
+shades of death. The quickness of this villain was so wonderful that one
+is almost tempted to call it praiseworthy. He perceived at once that
+Thurstane would be discovered, and that he, Coronado, must make the
+discovery, or he might be charged with attempting to leave him to die.
+
+"Good heavens!" he exclaimed loudly, "there he is!"
+
+Clara turned: there was a scream of joy: she was on the ground, running:
+she was in Thurstane's arms. During that unearthly moment there was no
+thought in those two of Coronado, or of any being but each other. It is
+impossible fully to describe such a meeting; its exterior signs are beyond
+language; its emotion is a lifetime. If words are feeble in presence of
+the heights and depths of the Colorado, they are impotent in presence of
+the altitudes and abysses of great passion. Human speech has never yet
+completely expressed human intellect, and it certainly never will
+completely express human sentiments. These lovers, who had been wandering
+in chasms impenetrable to hope, were all of a sudden on mountain summits
+dizzy with joy. What could they say for themselves, or what can another
+say for them?
+
+Clara only uttered inarticulate murmurs, while her hands crawled up
+Thurstane's arms, pressing and clutching him to make sure that he was
+alive. There was an indescribable pathos in this eagerness which could not
+trust to sight, but must touch also, as if she were blind. Thurstane held
+her firmly, kissing hair, forehead, and temples, and whispering, "Clara!
+Clara!" Her face, which had turned white at the first glimpse of him, was
+now roseate all over and damp with a sweet dew. It became smirched with
+the dust of his face; but she would only have rejoiced, had she known it;
+his very squalor was precious to her.
+
+At last she fell back from him, held him at arm's length with ease, and
+stared at him. "Oh, how sick!" she gasped. "How thin! You are starving."
+
+She ran to her horse, drew from her saddle-bags some remnants of food, and
+brought them to him. He had sunk down faint upon a stone, and he was too
+weak to speak aloud; but he gave her a smile of encouragement which was at
+once pathetic and sublime. It said, "I can bear all alone; you must not
+suffer for me." But it said this out of such visible exhaustion, that,
+instead of being comforted, she was terrified.
+
+"Oh, you must not die," she whispered with quivering mouth. "If you die, I
+will die."
+
+Then she checked her emotion and added, "There! Don't mind me. I am silly.
+Eat."
+
+Meanwhile Coronado looked on with such a face as Iago might have worn had
+he felt the jealousy of Othello. For the first time he positively knew
+that the woman he loved was violently in love with another. He suffered so
+horribly that we should be bound to pity him, only that he suffered after
+the fashion of devils, his malignity equalling his agony. While he was in
+such pain that his heart ceased beating, his fingers curled like snakes
+around the handle of his revolver. Nothing kept him from shooting that
+man, yes, and that woman also, but the certainty that the deed would make
+him a fugitive for life, subject everywhere to the summons of the hangman.
+
+Once, almost overcome by the temptation, he looked around for the train.
+It was within hearing; he thought he saw Mrs. Stanley watching him; two of
+his Mexicans were approaching at full speed. He dismounted, sat down upon
+a stone, partially covered his face with his hand, and tried to bring
+himself to look at the two lovers. At last, when he perceived that
+Thurstane was eating and Clara merely kneeling by, he walked tremulously
+toward them, scarcely conscious of his feet.
+
+"Welcome to life, lieutenant," he said. "I did not wish to interrupt. Now
+I congratulate."
+
+Thurstane looked at him steadily, seemed to hesitate for a moment, and
+then put out his hand.
+
+"It was I who discovered you," went on Coronado, as he took the lean,
+grimy fingers in his buckskin gauntlet.
+
+"I know it," mumbled the young fellow; then with a visible effort he
+added, "Thanks."
+
+Presently the two Mexicans pulled up with loud exclamations of joy and
+wonder. One of them took out of his haversack a quantity of provisions and
+a flask of aguardiente; and Coronado handed them to Thurstane with a
+smile, hoping that he would surfeit himself and die.
+
+"No," said Clara, seizing the food. "You have eaten enough. You may
+drink."
+
+"Where are the others?" she presently asked.
+
+"In the hills," he answered. "Starving. I must go and find them."
+
+"No, no!" she cried. "You must go to the train. Some one else will look
+for them."
+
+One of the rancheros now dismounted and helped Thurstane into his saddle.
+Then, the Mexican steadying him on one side and Clara riding near him on
+the other, he was conducted to the train, which was at that moment going
+into park near a thicket of willows.
+
+In an amazingly short time he was very like himself. Healthy and plucky,
+he had scarcely swallowed his food and brandy before he began to draw
+strength from them; and he had scarcely begun to breathe freely before he
+began to talk of his duties.
+
+"I must go back," he insisted. "Glover and Sweeny are starving. I must
+look them up."
+
+"Certainly," answered Coronado.
+
+"No!" protested Clara. "You are not strong enough."
+
+"Of course not," chimed in Aunt Maria with real feeling, for she was
+shocked by the youth's haggard and ghastly face.
+
+"Who else can find them?" he argued. "I shall want two spare animals.
+Glover can't march, and I doubt whether Sweeny can."
+
+"You shall have all you need," declared Coronado.
+
+"He mustn't go," cried Clara. Then, seeing in his face that he _would_ go,
+she added, "I will go with him."
+
+"No, no," answered several voices. "You would only be in the way."
+
+"Give me my horse," continued Thurstane. "Where are Meyer and Kelly?"
+
+He was told how they had gone on to Fort Yuma with Major Robinson, taking
+his horse, the government mules, stores, etc.
+
+"Ah! unfortunate," he said. "However, that was right. Well, give me a mule
+for myself, two mounted muleteers, and two spare animals; some provisions
+also, and a flask of brandy. Let me start as soon as the men and beasts
+have eaten. It is forty miles there and back."
+
+"But you can't find your way in the night," persisted Clara.
+
+"There is a moon," answered Thurstane, looking at her gratefully; while
+Coronado added encouragingly, "Twenty miles are easily done."
+
+"Oh yes!" hoped Clara. "You can almost get there before dark. Do start at
+once."
+
+But Coronado did not mean that Thurstane should set out immediately. He
+dropped various obstacles in the way: for instance, the animals and men
+must be thoroughly refreshed; in short, it was dusk before all was ready.
+
+Meantime Clara had found an opportunity of whispering to Thurstane.
+"_Must_ you?" And he had answered, looking at her as the Huguenot looks at
+his wife in Millais's picture, "My dear love, you know that I must."
+
+"You _will_ be careful of yourself?" she begged. "For your sake."
+
+"But remember that man," she whispered, looking about for Texas Smith.
+
+"He is not going. Come, my own darling, don't frighten yourself. Think of
+my poor comrades."
+
+"I will pray for them and for you all the time you are gone. But oh,
+Ralph, there is one thing. I must tell you. I am so afraid. I did wrong to
+let Coronado see how much I care for you. I am afraid--"
+
+He seemed to understand her. "It isn't possible," he murmured. Then, after
+eyeing her gravely for a moment, he asked, "I may be always sure of you?
+Oh yes! I knew it. But Coronado? Well, it isn't possible that he would try
+to commit a treble murder. Nobody abandons starving men in a desert. Well,
+I must go. I must save these men. After that we will think of these other
+things. Good-by, my darling."
+
+The sultry glow of sunset had died out of the west, and the radiance of a
+full moon was climbing up the heavens in the east when Thurstane set off
+on his pilgrimage of mercy. Clara watched him as long as the twilight
+would let her see him, and then sat down with drooped face, like a flower
+which has lost the sun. If any one spoke to her, she answered tardily and
+not always to the purpose. She was fulfilling her promise; she was praying
+for Thurstane and the men whom he had gone to save; that is, she was
+praying when her mind did not wander into reveries of terror. After a time
+she started up with the thought, "Where is Texas Smith?" He was not
+visible, and neither was Coronado. Suspicious of some evil intrigue, she
+set out in search of them, made the circuit of the fires, and then
+wandered into the willow thickets. Amid the underwood, hastening toward
+the wagons, she met Coronado.
+
+"Ah!" he started. "Is that you, my little cousin? You are as terrible in
+the dark as an Apache."
+
+"Coronado, where is your hunter?" she asked with a beating heart.
+
+"I don't know. I have been looking for him. My dear cousin, what do you
+want?"
+
+"Coronado, I will tell you the truth. That man is a murderer. I know it."
+
+Coronado just took the time to draw one long breath, and then replied with
+sublime effrontery, "I fear so. I learn that he has told horrible stories
+about himself. Well, to tell the truth, I have discharged him."
+
+"Oh, Coronado!" gasped Clara, not knowing whether to believe him or not.
+
+"Shall I confess to you," he continued, "that I suspect him of having
+weakened that towline so as to send our friend down the San Juan?"
+
+"He never went near the boat," heroically answered Clara, at the same time
+wishing she could see Coronado's face.
+
+"Of course not. He probably hired some one. I fear our rancheros are none
+too good to be bribed. I will confess to you, my cousin, that ever since
+that day I have been watching Smith."
+
+"Oh, Coronado!" repeated Clara. She was beginning to believe this
+prodigious liar, and to be all the more alarmed because she did believe
+him. "So you have sent him away? I am so glad. Oh, Coronado, I thank you.
+But help me look for him now. I want to know if he is in camp."
+
+It is almost impossible to do Coronado justice. While he was pretending to
+aid Clara in searching for Texas Smith, he knew that the man had gone out
+to murder Thurstane. We must remember that the man was almost as wretched
+as he was wicked; if punishment makes amends for crime, his was in part
+absolved. As he walked about with the girl he thought over and over, Will
+it kill her? He tried to answer, No. Another voice persisted in saying,
+Yes. In his desperation he at last replied, Let it!
+
+We must follow Texas Smith. He had not started on his errand until he had
+received five hundred dollars in gold, and five hundred in a draft on San
+Francisco. Then he had himself proposed, "I mought quit the train, an'
+take my own resk acrost the plains." This being agreed to, he had mounted
+his horse, slipped away through the willows, and ridden into the desert
+after Thurstane.
+
+He knew the trail; he had been from Cactus Pass to Diamond River and back
+again; he knew it at least as well as the man whose life he was tracking.
+He thought he remembered the spring where Glover had broken down, and felt
+pretty sure that it could not be less than twenty miles from the camp.
+Mounted as he was, he could put himself ahead of Thurstane and ambush him
+in some ravine. Of a sudden he laughed. It was not a burst of merriment,
+but a grim wrinkling of his dark, haggard cheeks, followed by a hissing
+chuckle. Texas seldom laughed, and with good reason, for it was enough to
+scare people.
+
+"Mought be done," he muttered. "Mought git the better of 'em all that way.
+Shute, 'an then yell. The greasers'ud think it was Injuns, an' they'd
+travel for camp. Then I'd stop the spare mules an' start for Californy."
+
+For Texas this plan was a stroke of inspiration. He was not an intelligent
+scoundrel. All his acumen, though bent to the one point of roguery, had
+barely sufficed hitherto to commit murders and escape hanging. He had
+never prospered financially, because he lacked financial ability. He was a
+beast, with all a tiger's ferocity, but with hardly more than a tiger's
+intelligence. He was a savage numskull. An Apache Tonto would have been
+more than his match in the arts of murder, and very nearly his match in
+the arts of civilization.
+
+Instead of following Thurstane directly, he made a circuit of several
+miles through a ravine, galloped across a wide grassy plain, and pulled up
+among some rounded hillocks. Here, as he calculated, he was fifteen miles
+from camp, and five from the spot where lay Glover and Sweeny. The moon
+had already gone down and left the desert to the starlight. Posting
+himself behind a thicket, he waited for half an hour or more, listening
+with indefatigable attention.
+
+He had no scruples, but he had some fears. If he should miss, the
+lieutenant would fire back, and he was cool enough to fire with effect.
+Well, he wouldn't miss; what should he miss for? As for the greasers, they
+would run at the first shot. Nevertheless, he did occasionally muddle over
+the idea of going off to California with his gold, and without doing this
+particular job. What kept him to his agreement was the hope of stealing
+the spare mules, and the fear that the draft might not be paid if he
+shirked his work.
+
+"I s'pose I must show his skelp," thought Texas, "or they won't hand over
+the dust."
+
+At last there was a sound; he had set his ambush just right; there were
+voices in the distance; then hoofs in the grass. Next he saw something; it
+was a man on a mule; yes, and it was the right man.
+
+He raised his cocked rifle and aimed, sighting the head, three rods away.
+Suddenly his horse whinnied, and then the mule of the other reared; but
+the bullet had already sped. Down went Thurstane in the darkness, while,
+with an Apache yell, Texas Smith burst from his ambush and charged upon
+the greasers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+
+The chase after the spare mules carried Texas Smith several miles from the
+scene of the ambush, so that when he at last caught the frightened beasts,
+he decided not to go back and cut Thurstane's throat, but to set off at
+once westward and put himself by morning well on the road to California.
+
+Meanwhile, the two muleteers continued their flight at full gallop, and
+eventually plunged into camp with a breathless story to the effect that
+Apaches had attacked them, captured the spare mules, and killed the
+lieutenant. Coronado, no more able to sleep than Satan, was the first to
+hear their tale.
+
+"Apaches!" he said, surprised and incredulous. Then, guessing at what had
+happened, he immediately added, "Those devils again! We must push on, the
+moment we can see."
+
+Apaches! It was a capital idea. He had an excuse now for hurrying away
+from a spot which he had stained with murder. If any one demanded that
+Thurstane's body should be sought for, or that those incumbrances Glover
+and Sweeny should be rescued, he could respond, Apaches! Apaches! He gave
+orders to commence preparations for moving at the first dawn.
+
+He expected and feared that Clara would oppose the advance in some trying
+way. But one of the fugitives relieved him by blurting out the death of
+Thurstane, and sending her into spasms of alternate hysterics and fainting
+which lasted for hours. Lying in a wagon, her head in the lap of Mrs.
+Stanley, a sick, very sick, dangerously sick girl, she was jolted along as
+easily as a corpse.
+
+Coronado rode almost constantly beside her wagon, inquiring about her
+every few minutes, his face changing with contradictory emotions, wishing
+she would die and hoping she would live, loving and hating her in the same
+breath. Whenever she came to herself and recognized him, she put out her
+hands and implored, "Oh, Coronado, take me back there!"
+
+"Apaches!" growled Coronado, and spurred away repeating his lie to
+himself, "Apaches! Apaches!"
+
+Then he checked his horse and rode anew to her side, hoping that he might
+be able to reason with her.
+
+"Oh, take me back!" was all the response he could obtain. "Take me back
+and let me die there."
+
+"Would you have us all die?" he shouted--"like Pepita!"
+
+"Don't scold her," begged Aunt Maria, who was sobbing like a child. "She
+doesn't know what she is asking."
+
+But Clara knew too much; at the word _Pepita_ she guessed the torture
+scene; and then it came into her mind that Thurstane might be even now at
+the stake. She immediately broke into screams, which ended in convulsions
+and a long fit of insensibility.
+
+"It is killing her," wailed Aunt Maria. "Oh, my child! my child!"
+
+Coronado spurred at full speed for a mile, muttering to the desert, "Let
+it kill her! let it!"
+
+At last he halted for the train to overtake him, glanced anxiously at
+Clara's wagon, saw that Mrs. Stanley was still bending over her, guessed
+that she was still alive, drew a sigh of relief, and rode on alone.
+
+"Oh, this love-making!" sighed Aunt Maria scores of times, for she had at
+last learned of the engagement. "When will my sex get over the weakness?
+It kills them, and they like it."
+
+That night Clara could not sleep, and kept Coronado awake with her
+moanings. All the next day she lay in a semi-unconsciousness which was
+partly lethargy and partly fever. It was well; at all events he could bear
+it so--bear it better than when she was crying and praying for death. The
+next night she fell into such a long silence of slumber that he came
+repeatedly to her wagon to hearken if she still breathed. Youth and a
+strong constitution were waging a doubtful battle to rescue her from the
+despair which threatened to rob her of either life or reason.
+
+So the journey continued. Henceforward the trail followed Bill Williams's
+river to the Colorado, tracked that stream northward to the Mohave valley,
+and, crossing there, took the line of the Mohave river toward California.
+It was a prodigious pilgrimage still, and far from being a safe one. The
+Mohaves, one of the tallest and bravest races known, from six feet to six
+and a half in height, fighting hand to hand with short clubs, were not
+perfectly sure to be friendly. Coronado felt that, if ever he got his wife
+and his fortune, he should have earned them. He was resolute, however;
+there was no flinching yet in this versatile, yet obstinate nature; he was
+as wicked and as enduring as a Pizarro.
+
+We will not make the journey; we must suppose it. Weeks after the desert
+had for a second time engulfed Thurstane, a coasting schooner from Santa
+Barbara entered the Bay of San Francisco, having on board Clara, Mrs.
+Stanley, and Coronado.
+
+The latter is on deck now, smoking his eternal cigarito without knowing
+it, and looking at the superb scenery without seeing it. A landscape
+mirrored in the eye of a horse has about as much effect on the brain
+within as a landscape mirrored in the eye of Coronado. He is a Latin; he
+has a fine ear for music, and he would delight in museums of painting and
+sculpture; but he has none of the passion of the sad, grave, imaginative
+Anglican race for nature. Mountains, deserts, seas, and storms are to him
+obstacles and hardships. He has no more taste for them than had Ulysses.
+
+He has agonized with sea-sickness during the voyage, and this is the first
+day that he has found tolerable. Once more he is able to eat and stand up;
+able to think, devise, resolve, and execute; able, in short, to be
+Coronado. Look at the little, sunburnt, sinewy, earnest, enduring man;
+study his diplomatic countenance, serious and yet courteous, full of
+gravity and yet ready for gayety; notice his ready smile and gracious wave
+of the hand as he salutes the skipper. He has been through horrors; he has
+fought a tremendous fight of passion, crime, and peril; yet he scarcely
+shows a sign of it. There is some such lasting stuff in him as goes to
+make the Bolivars, Francias, and Lopez, the restless and indefatigable
+agitators of the Spanish-American communities. You cannot help
+sympathizing with him somewhat, because of his energy and bottom. You are
+tempted to say that he deserves to win.
+
+He has made some progress in his conspiracy to entrap love and a fortune.
+It must be understood that the two muleteers persisted in their story
+concerning Apaches, and that consequently Clara has come to think of
+Thurstane as dead. Meantime Coronado, after the first two days of wild
+excitement, has conducted himself with rare intelligence, never alarming
+her with talk of love, always courteous, kind, and useful. Little by
+little he has worn away her suspicions that he planned murder, and her
+only remaining anger against him is because he did not attempt to search
+for Thurstane; but even for that she is obliged to see some excuse in the
+terrible word "Apaches."
+
+"I have had no thought but for _her_ safety," Coronado often said to Mrs.
+Stanley, who as often repeated the words to Clara. "I have made mistakes,"
+he would go on. "The San Juan journey was one. I will not even plead
+Garcia's instructions to excuse it. But our circumstances have been
+terrible. Who could always take the right step amid such trials? All I ask
+is charity. If humility deserves mercy, I deserve it."
+
+Coronado even schooled himself into expressing sympathy with Clara for the
+loss of Thurstane. He spoke of him as her affianced, eulogized his
+character, admitted that he had not formerly done him justice, hinting
+that this blindness had sprung from jealousy, and so alluded to his own
+affection. These things he said at first to Aunt Maria, and she, his
+steady partisan, repeated them to Clara, until at last the girl could bear
+to hear them from Coronado. Sympathy! the bleeding heart must have it; it
+will accept this balm from almost any hand, and it will pay for it in
+gratitude and trust.
+
+Thus in two months from the disappearance of Thurstane his rival had begun
+to hope that he was supplanting him. Of course he had given up all thought
+of carrying out the horrible plan with which he had started from Santa Fé.
+Indeed, he began to have a horror of Garcia, as a man who had set him on a
+wrong track and nearly brought him into folly and ruin. One might say that
+Satan was in a state of mind to rebuke sin.
+
+Let us now glance at Clara. She is seated beside Aunt Maria on the
+quarter-deck of the schooner. Her troubles have changed her; only eighteen
+years old, she has the air of twenty-four; her once rounded face is thin,
+and her childlike sweetness has become tender gravity. When she entered on
+this journey she resembled the girl faces of Greuze; now she is sometimes
+a _mater amabilis_, and sometimes a _mater dolorosa_; for her grief has
+been to her as a maternity. The great change, so far from diminishing her
+beauty, has made her seem more fascinating and nobler. Her countenance has
+had a new birth, and exhibits a more perfect soul.
+
+We have hitherto had little more than a superficial view of the characters
+of our people. Events, incidents, adventures, and even landscapes have
+been the leading personages of the story, and have been to its human
+individualities what the Olympian gods are to Greek and Trojan heroes in
+the Iliad. Just as Jove or Neptune rules or thwarts Agamemnon and
+Achilles, so the monstrous circumstances of the desert have overborne,
+dwarfed, and blurred these travellers. It is only now, when they have
+escaped from the _dii majores_, and have become for a brief period
+tranquil free agents, that we can see them as they are. Even yet they are
+not altogether untrammelled. Man is never quite himself; he is always
+under some external influence, past or present; he is always being
+governed, if not being created.
+
+Clara, born anew of trouble, is admirable. There is a sweet, sedate, and
+almost solemn womanliness about her, which even overawes Mrs. Stanley,
+conscious of aunthood and strongmindedness, and insisting upon it that her
+niece is "a mere child." It is a great victory to gain over a lady who has
+that sort of self-confidence that if she had been a sunflower and obliged
+to turn toward the sun for life, she would yet have believed that it was
+she who made him shine. When Clara decides a matter Mrs. Stanley, while
+still mentally saying "Young thing," feels nevertheless that her own
+decision has been uttered. And in every successive resistance she is
+overcome the easier, for habit is a conqueror.
+
+They have just had a discussion. Aunt Maria wants Clara to stand on her
+dignity in a hotel until old Muñoz goes down on his marrow-bones, makes
+her a handsome allowance, and agrees to leave her at least half his
+fortune. Clara's reply is substantially, "He is my grandfather and the
+proper head of my family. I think I ought to go straight to him and say,
+Grandfather, here I am."
+
+Beaten by this gentle conscientiousness, Aunt Maria endeavored to appeal
+the matter to Coronado.
+
+"I am so glad to see you enjoying your cigarito once more," she called to
+him with as sweet a smile as if she didn't hate tobacco.
+
+He left his smoking retreat amidships, took off his hat with a sort of
+airy gravity, and approached them.
+
+"Mr. Coronado, where do you propose to take us when we reach land?" asked
+Aunt Maria.
+
+"We will, if you please, go direct to my excellent relative's," was the
+reply.
+
+Aunt Maria held her head straight up, as if stiff-neckedly refusing to go
+there, but made no opposition.
+
+Coronado had meditated everything and decided everything. It would not do
+to go to a hotel, because that might lead to a suspicion that he knew all
+the while about the death of Muñoz. His plan was to drive at once to the
+old man's place, demand him as if he expected to see him, express proper
+surprise and grief over the funereal response, put the estate as soon as
+possible into Clara's hands, become her man of affairs and trusted friend,
+and so climb to be her husband. He was anxious; during all his perils in
+the desert he had never been more so; but he bore the situation
+heroically, as he could bear; his face revealed nothing but its outside--a
+smile.
+
+"My dear cousin," he presently said, "when I once fairly set you down in
+your home, you will owe me, in spite of all my blunders, a word of
+thanks."
+
+"Coronado, I shall owe you more than I ever can repay," she replied
+frankly, without remembering that he wanted to marry her. The next instant
+she remembered it, and her face showed the first blush that had tinted it
+for two months. He saw the significant color, and turned away to conceal a
+joy which might have been perilous had she observed it.
+
+Immediately on landing he proceeded to carry out his programme. He took a
+hack, drove the ladies direct to the house of Muñoz, and there went
+decorously through the form of learning that the old man was dead. Then,
+consoling the sorrowful and anxious Clara, he hurried to the best hotel in
+the city and made arrangements for what he meant should be an impressive
+scene, the announcement of her fortune. He secured fine rooms for the
+ladies, and ordered them a handsome lunch, with wine, etc., all without
+regard to expense. The girl must be perfectly comfortable and under a
+sense of all sorts of obligations to him when she received his _coup de
+théâtre_.
+
+He was not so preoccupied but that he quarelled with his coachman about
+the hack hire and dismissed him with some disagreeable epithets in
+Spanish. Next he took a saddle-horse, as being the cheapest conveyance
+attainable, and cantered off to find the executors of Muñoz, enjoying
+heartily such stares of admiration as he got for his splendid riding. In
+an hour he returned, found the ladies in their freshest dresses, and
+complimented them suitably. At this very moment his anguish of anxiety and
+suspense was terrible. When Clara should learn that she was a millionaire,
+what would she do? Would she throw off the air of friendliness which she
+had lately worn, and scout him as one whom she had long known as a
+scoundrel? Would all his plots, his labors, his perils, and his love prove
+in one moment to have been in vain? As he stood there smiling and
+flattering, he was on the cross.
+
+"But I am talking trifles," he said at last, fairly catching his breath.
+"Can you guess why I do it? I am prolonging a moment of intense pleasure."
+
+Such was his control over himself that he looked really benign and noble
+as he drew from his pocket a copy of the will and held it out toward
+Clara.
+
+"My dear cousin," he murmured, his dark eyes searching her face with
+intense anxiety, "you cannot imagine my joy in announcing to you that you
+are the sole heir of the good Pedro Muñoz."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+
+At the announcement that she was a millionaire Clara turned pale, took the
+proffered paper mechanically with trembling fingers, and then, without
+looking at it, said, "Oh, Coronado!"
+
+It was a tone of astonishment, of perplexity, of regret, of protest; it
+seemed to declare, Here is a terrible injustice, and I will none of it.
+Coronado was delighted; in a breath he recovered all his presence of mind;
+he recovered his voice, too, and spoke out cheerfully:
+
+"Ah, you are surprised, my cousin. Well, it is your grandfather's will.
+You, as well as all others, must submit to it."
+
+Aunt Maria jumped up and walked or rather pranced about the room, saying
+loudly, "He must have been the best man in the whole world." After
+repeating this two or three times, she halted and added with even more
+emphasis, "Except _you_, Mr. Coronado!"
+
+The Mexican bowed in silence; it was almost too much to be praised in that
+way, feeling as he did; he bowed twice and waved his hand, deprecating the
+compliment. The interview was a very painful one to him, although he knew
+that he was gaining admiration with every breath that he drew, and
+admiration just where it was absolutely necessary to him. Turning to Clara
+now, he begged, "Read it, if you please, my cousin."
+
+The girl, by this time flushed from chin to forehead, glanced over the
+paper, and immediately said, "This should not be so. It must not be."
+
+Coronado was overjoyed; she evidently thought that she owed him and Garcia
+a part of this fortune; even if she kept it, she would feel bound to
+consider his interests, and the result of her conscientiousness might be
+marriage.
+
+"Let us have no contest with the dead," he replied grandly. "Their wishes
+are sacred."
+
+"But Garcia and you are wronged, and I cannot have it so," persisted
+Clara.
+
+"How wronged?" demanded Aunt Maria. "I don't see it. Mr. Garcia was only a
+cousin, and he is rich enough already."
+
+Coronado, remembering that he and Garcia were bankrupt, wished he could
+throw the old lady out of a window.
+
+"Wait," said Clara in a tone of vehement resolution. "Give me time. You
+shall see that I am not unjust or ungrateful."
+
+"I beg that you will not bestow a thought upon me," implored the sublime
+hypocrite. "Garcia, it is true, may have had claims. I have none."
+
+Aunt Maria walked up to him, squeezed both his hands, and came near
+hugging him. Once out of this trial, Coronado could bear no more, but
+kissed his fingers to the ladies, hastened to his own room, locked the
+door, and swore all the oaths that there are in Spanish, which is no small
+multitude.
+
+In a few days after this terrible interview things were going swimmingly
+well with him. To keep Clara out of the hands of fortune-hunters, but
+ostensibly to enable her to pass her first mourning in decent retirement,
+he had induced her to settle in one of Muñoz's haciendas, a few miles from
+the city, where he of course had her much to himself. He was her adviser;
+he was closeted frequently with the executors; he foresaw the time when he
+would be the sole manager of the estate; he began to trust that he would
+some day possess it. What woman could help leaning upon and confiding in a
+man who was so useful, so necessary as Coronado, and who had shown such
+unselfish, such magnanimous sentiments?
+
+Meantime the girl was as admirable in reality as the man was in
+appearance. Unexpected inheritance of large wealth is almost sure to
+alter, at least for a time, and generally for the worse, the manner and
+morale of a young person, whether male or female. Conceit or haughtiness
+or extravagance or greediness, or some other vice, pretty surely enters
+into either deportment or conduct. If this girl was changed at all by her
+great good fortune, she was changed for the better. She had never been
+more modest, gentle, affable, and sensible than she was now. The fact
+shows a clearness of mind and a nobleness of heart which place her very
+high among the wise and good. Such behavior under such circumstances is
+equal to heroism. We are conscious that in saying these things of Clara we
+are drawing largely upon the reader's faith. But either her present trial
+of character was peculiarly fitted to her, or she was one of those select
+spirits who are purified by temptation.
+
+She remembered Garcia's claims upon her grandfather, and her own supposed
+obligations to Coronado. She informed the executors that she wished to
+make over half her property to the old man, trusteeing it so that it
+should descend to his nephew. Their reply, translated from roundabout and
+complimentary Spanish into plain English, was this: "You can't do it. The
+estate is not settled, and will not be for a year. Moreover, you have no
+power to part with it until you are of age, which will not be for three
+years. Finally, your proposition defies your grandfather's wishes, and it
+is altogether too generous."
+
+Clara's simple and firm reply was, "Well, I must wait. But it would seem
+better if I could do it now."
+
+There was one reason why Clara should be so calm and unselfish in her
+elevation; her sorrows served her as ballast. Why should she let riches
+turn her head when she found that they could not lighten her heart? There
+was a certain night in her past which gold could not illuminate; there had
+once been a precious life near her, which was gone now beyond the power of
+ransom. Thurstane! How she would have lavished this wealth upon him. He
+would have refused it; but she would have prayed and forced him to accept
+it; she would have been the meeker to him because of it. How noble he had
+been! not now to be brought back! gone forever! And his going had been
+like the going away of the sun, leaving no beautiful color in all nature,
+no guiding light for wandering footsteps. She exaggerated him, as love
+will exaggerate the lost.
+
+Of course she did not always believe that he could be dead, and in her
+hours of hope she wrote letters inquiring about his fate. In other days he
+had told her much of himself, stories of his childhood and his battles,
+the number of his old regiment and his new one, titles of his superiors,
+names of comrades, etc. To which among all these unknown ones should she
+address herself? She fixed on the commander of his present regiment, and
+that awfully mysterious personage the Adjutant-General of the army, a
+title which seemed to represent omniscience and omnipotence. To each of
+these gentlemen she sent an epistle recounting where, when, and how
+Lieutenant Ralph Thurstane had been ambushed by unknown Indians, supposed
+to be Apaches.
+
+These letters she wrote and mailed without the knowledge of Coronado. This
+was not caution, but pity; she did not suspect that he would try to
+intercept them; only that it would pain him to learn how much she yet
+thought of his rival. Indeed, it would have been cruel to show them to
+him, for he would have seen that they were blurred with tears. You
+perceive that she had come to be tender of the feelings of this earnest
+and scoundrelly lover, believing in his sincerity and not in his villainy.
+
+"Surely some of those people will know," thought Clara, with a trust in
+men and dignitaries which makes one say _sancta simplicitas_. "If they do
+not know," she added, with a prayer in her heart, "God will discover it to
+them."
+
+But no answers came for months. The colonel was not with his regiment, but
+on detached service at New York, whither Clara's letter travelled to find
+him, being addressed to his name and not marked "Official business." What
+he did of course was to forward it to the Adjutant-General of the army at
+Washington. The Adjutant-General successively filed both communications,
+and sent a copy of each to headquarters at Santa Fé and San Francisco,
+with an endorsement advising inquiries and suitable search. The mails were
+slow and circuitous, and the official routine was also slow and
+circuitous, so that it was long before headquarters got the papers and
+went to work.
+
+Does any one marvel that Clara did not go directly to the military
+authorities in the city? It must be remembered that man has his own world,
+as woman has hers, and that each sex is very ignorant of the spheres and
+missions of the other, the retired sex being especially limited in its
+information. The girl had never been told that there was such a thing as
+district headquarters, or that soldiers in San Francisco had anything to
+do with soldiers at Fort Yuma. Nor was she in the way of learning such
+facts, being miles away from a uniform, and even from an American.
+
+One day, when she was fuller of hope than usual, she dared to write to
+that ghost, Thurstane. Where should the letter be addressed? It cost her
+much reflection to decide that it ought to go to the station of his
+company, Fort Yuma. This gave her an idea, and she at once penned two
+other letters, one directed "To the Captain of Company I," and one to
+Sergeant Meyer. But unfortunately those three epistles were not sent off
+before it occurred to Coronado that he ought to overlook the packages that
+were sent from the hacienda to the city. By the way, he had from the first
+assumed a secret censorship over the mails which arrived.
+
+Meantime he also had his anxiety and his correspondence. He feared lest
+Garcia should learn how things had been managed, and should hasten to San
+Francisco to act henceforward as his own special providence. In that case
+there would be awkward explanations, there would be complicated and
+perilous plottings, there might be stabbings or poisonings. Already, as
+soon as he reached the Mohave valley, he had written one cajoling letter
+to his uncle. Scattered through six pages on various affairs were
+underscored phrases and words, which, taken in sequence, read as follows:
+
+"Things have gone well and ill. What was most desirable has not been fully
+accomplished. There have been perils and deaths, but not the one required.
+The wisest plans have been foiled by unforeseen circumstances. The future
+rests upon slow poison. A few weeks more will suffice. Do not come here.
+It would rouse suspicion. Trust all to me."
+
+He now sent other letters, reporting the progress of the malady caused by
+the poison, urging Garcia to remain at a distance, assuring him that all
+would be well, etc.
+
+"There will be no will," declared one of these lying messengers. "If there
+is a will, you will be the inheritor. In all events, you will be safe.
+Rely upon my judgment and fidelity."
+
+It is curious, by the way, that such men as Coronado and Garcia, knowing
+themselves and each other to be liars, should nevertheless expect to be
+believed, and should frequently believe each other. One is inclined to
+admit the seeming paradox that rogues are more easily imposed upon than
+honest men.
+
+No responses came from Garcia. But, by way of consolation, Coronado had
+Clara's correspondence to read. One day this hidalgo, securely locked in
+his room, held in his delicate dark fingers a letter addressed to Miss
+Clara Van Diemen, and postmarked in writing "Fort Yuma." Hot as the day
+was, there was a brazier by his side, and a kettle of water bubbling on
+the coals. He held the letter in the steam, softened the wafer to a pulp,
+opened the envelope carefully, threw himself on a sofa, scowled at the
+beating of his heart, and began to read.
+
+Before he had glanced through the first line he uttered an exclamation,
+turned hastily to the signature, and then burst into a stream of whispered
+curses. After he had blasphemed himself into a certain degree of calmness,
+he read the letter twice through carefully, and learned it by heart. Then
+he thrust it deep into the coals of the brazier, watched it steadily until
+its slight flame had flickered away, lighted a cigarito, and meditated.
+
+This epistle was not the only one that troubled him. He already knew that
+Clara was inquiring about this man of whom she never spoke, and conducting
+her inquiries with an intelligence and energy which showed that her heart
+was in the business. If things went on so, there might be trouble some
+day, and there might be punishment. For a time he was so disturbed that he
+felt somewhat as if he had a conscience, and might yet know what it is to
+be haunted by remorse.
+
+As for Clara, he was furious with her, notwithstanding his love for her,
+and indeed because of it. It was outrageous that a woman whom he adored
+should seek to ferret out facts which might send him to State's Prison. It
+was abominable that she would not cease to care for that stupid officer
+after he had been so carefully put out of her way. Coronado felt that he
+was persecuted.
+
+Well, what should be done? He must put a stop to Clara's inquiries, and he
+would do it by inquiring himself. Yes, he would write to people about
+Thurstane, show the letters to the girl (but never send them), and so
+gradually get this sort of correspondence into his own hands, when he
+would drop it. She would be led thereby to trust him the more, to be
+grateful to him, perhaps to love him. It was a hateful mode of carrying on
+a courtship, but it seemed to be the best that he had in his power. Having
+so decided, this master hypocrite, "full of all subtlety and wiles of the
+devil," turned his attention to his siesta.
+
+For twenty minutes he slept the sleep of the just; then he was awakened by
+a timid knock at his door. Guessing from the shyness of the demand for
+entrance that it came from a servant, he called pettishly, "What do you
+want? Go away."
+
+"I must see you," answered a voice which, feeble and indistinct as it was,
+took Coronado to the door in an instant, trembling in every nerve with
+rage and alarm.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+
+Opening the door softly and with tremulous fingers, Coronado looked out
+upon an old gray-headed man, short and paunchy in build, with small,
+tottering, uneasy legs, skin mottled like that of a toad, cheeks drooping
+and shaking, chin retiring, nose bulbous, one eye a black hollow, the
+other filmy and yet shining, expression both dull and cunning, both eager
+and cowardly.
+
+The uncle seemed to be even more agitated at the sight of the nephew than
+the nephew at the sight of the uncle. For an instant each stared at the
+other with a strange expression of anxiety and mistrust. Then Coronado
+spoke. The words which he had in his heart were, What are you here for,
+you scoundrelly old marplot? The words which he actually uttered were, "My
+dear uncle, my benefactor, my more than parent! How delighted I am to see
+you! Welcome, welcome!"
+
+The two men grasped each other's arms, and stuck their heads over each
+other's shoulders in a pretence of embracing. Perhaps there never was
+anything of the kind more curious than the contrast between their
+affectionate attitude and the suspicion and aversion painted on their
+faces.
+
+"Have you been seen?" asked Coronado as soon as he had closed and locked
+the door. "I must contrive to get you away unperceived. Why have you come?
+My dear uncle, it was the height of imprudence. It will expose you to
+suspicion. Did you not get my letters?"
+
+"Only one," answered Garcia, looking both frightened and obstinate, as if
+he were afraid to stay and yet determined not to go. "One from the Mohave
+valley."
+
+"But I urged you in that to remain at a distance, until all had been
+arranged."
+
+"I know, my son, I know. I thought like you at first. But presently I
+became anxious."
+
+"Not suspicious of my good faith!" exclaimed Coronado in a horrified
+whisper. "Oh, _that_ is surely impossible."
+
+"No, no--not suspicious--no, no, my son," chattered Garcia eagerly. "But I
+began to fear that you needed my help. Things seemed to move so slowly.
+Madre de Dios! All across the continent, and nothing done yet."
+
+"Yes, much has been done. I had obstacles. I had people to get rid of.
+There was a person who undertook to be lover and protector."
+
+"Is he gone?" inquired the old man anxiously.
+
+"Ask no questions. The less told, the better. I wish to spare you all
+responsibility."
+
+"Carlos, you are my son and heir. You deserve everything that I can give.
+All shall be yours, my son."
+
+"That Texas Smith of yours is a humbug," broke out Coronado, his mind
+reverting to the letter which he had just burned. "I put work on him which
+he swore to do and did not do. He is a coward and a traitor."
+
+"Oh, the pig! Did you pay him?"
+
+"I had to pay him in advance--and then nothing done right," confessed
+Coronado.
+
+"Oh, the pig, the dog, the toad, the villainous toad, the pig of hell!"
+chattered Garcia in a rage. "How much did you pay him? Five hundred
+dollars! Oh, the pig and the dog and the toad!"
+
+"Well, I have been frank with you," said Coronado. (He had diminished by
+one half the sum paid to Texas Smith.) "I will continue to be frank. You
+must not stay here. The question is how to get you away unseen."
+
+"It is useless; I have been recognized," lied Garcia, who was determined
+not to go.
+
+"All is lost!" exclaimed Coronado. "The presence of us two--both possible
+heirs--will rouse suspicion. Nothing can be done."
+
+But no intimidations could move the old man; he was resolved to stay and
+oversee matters personally; perhaps he suspected Coronado's plan of
+marrying Clara.
+
+"No, my son," he declared. "I know better than you. I am older and know
+the world better. Let me stay and take care of this. What if I am
+suspected and denounced and hung? The property will be yours."
+
+"My more than father!" cried Coronado. "You shall never sacrifice yourself
+for me. God forbid that I should permit such an infamy!"
+
+"Let the old perish for the young!" returned Garcia, in a tone of meek
+obstinacy which settled the controversy.
+
+It was a wonderful scene; it was prodigious acting. Each of these men,
+while endeavoring to circumvent the other, was making believe offer his
+life as a sacrifice for the other's prosperity. It was amazing that
+neither should lose patience; that neither should say, You are trying to
+deceive me, and I know it. We may question whether two men of northern
+race could have carried on such a dialogue without bursting out in open
+anger, or at least glaring with eyes full of suspicion and defiance.
+
+"You will find her changed," continued Coronado, when he had submitted to
+the old man's persistence. "She has grown thinner and sadder. You must not
+notice it, however; you must compliment her on her health."
+
+"What is she taking?" whispered Garcia.
+
+"The less said, the better. My dear uncle, you must know nothing. Do not
+talk of it. The walls have ears."
+
+"I know something that would be both safe and sure," persisted the old man
+in a still lower whisper.
+
+"Leave all with me," answered Coronado, waving his hand authoritatively.
+"Too many cooks spoil the broth. What has begun well will end well."
+
+After a time the two men went down to a shady veranda which half encircled
+the house, and found Mrs. Stanley taking an accidental siesta on a sort of
+lounge or sofa. Being a light sleeper, like many other active-minded
+people, she awoke at their approach and sat up to give reception.
+
+"Mrs. Stanley, this is my uncle Garcia, my more than father," bowed
+Coronado.
+
+"I have not forgotten him," replied Aunt Maria, who indeed was not likely
+to forget that mottled face, dyed blue with nitrate of silver.
+
+Warmly shaking the puffy hand of the old toad, and doing her very best to
+smile upon him, she said, "How do you do, Mr. Garcia? I hope you are well.
+Mr. Coronado, do tell him that, and that I am rejoiced to see him."
+
+Garcia's snaky glance just rose to the honest woman's face, and then
+crawled hurriedly all about the veranda, as if trying to hide in corners.
+Thanks to Coronado's fluency and invention, there was a mutually
+satisfactory conversation between the couple. He amplified the lady's
+compliments and then amplified the Mexican's compliments, until each
+looked upon the other as a person of unusual intelligence and a fast
+friend, Aunt Maria, however, being much the more thoroughly humbugged of
+the two.
+
+"My uncle has come on urgent mercantile business, and he crowds in a few
+days with us," Coronado presently explained. "I have told him of my little
+cousin's good fortune, and he is delighted."
+
+"I am so glad to hear it," said Mrs. Stanley. "What an excellent old man
+he is, to be sure! And you are just like him, Mr. Coronado--just as good
+and unselfish."
+
+"You overestimate me," answered Coronado, with a smile which was almost
+ironical.
+
+Before long Clara appeared. Garcia's eye darted a look at her which was
+like the spring of an adder, dwelling for just a second on the girl's
+face, and then scuttling off in an uncleanly, poisonous way for hiding
+corners. He saw that she was thin, and believed to a certain extent in
+Coronado's hints of poison, so that his glance was more cowardly than
+ordinary.
+
+Liking the man not overmuch, but pleased to see a face which had been
+familiar to her childhood, and believing that she owed him large
+reparation for her grandfather's will, Clara advanced cordially to the old
+sinner.
+
+"Welcome, Señor Garcia," she said, wondering that he did not kiss her
+cheek. "Welcome to your own house. It is all yours. Whatever you choose is
+yours."
+
+"I rejoice in your good fortune," sighed Garcia.
+
+"It is our common fortune," returned Clara, winding her arm in his and
+walking him up and down the veranda.
+
+"May God give you long life to enjoy it," prayed Garcia.
+
+"And you also," said Clara.
+
+Coronado translated this conversation as fast as it was uttered to Mrs.
+Stanley.
+
+"This is the golden age," cried that enthusiastic woman. "You Spaniards
+are the best people I ever saw. Your men absolutely emulate women in
+unselfishness."
+
+"We would do it if it were possible," bowed Coronado.
+
+"You do it," magnanimously insisted Aunt Maria, who felt that the baser
+sex ought to be encouraged.
+
+"Señor Garcia, I ask a favor of you," continued Clara. "You must charge
+all the costs of the journey overland to me."
+
+"It is unjust," replied the old man. "Madre de Dios! I can never permit
+it."
+
+"If you need the money now, I will request my guardians, the executors, to
+advance it," persisted Clara, seeing that he refused with a faint heart.
+
+"I might borrow it," conceded Garcia. "I shall have need of money
+presently. That journey was a great cost--a terribly bad speculation," he
+went on, shaking his mottled, bluish head wofully. "Not a piaster of
+profit."
+
+"We will see to that," said Clara. "And then, when I am of age--but wait."
+
+She shook her rosy forefinger gayly, radiant with the joy of generosity,
+and added, "You shall see. Wait!"
+
+Coronado, in a rapid whisper, translated this conversation phrase by
+phrase to Mrs. Stanley, his object being to make Clara's promises public
+and thus engage her to their fulfilment.
+
+"Of course!" exclaimed the impulsive Aunt Maria, who was amazingly
+generous with other people's money, and with her own when she had any to
+spare. "Of course Clara ought to pay. It is quite a different thing from
+giving up her rights. Certainly she must pay. That train did nothing but
+bring us two women. I really believe Mr. Garcia sent it for that purpose
+alone. Besides, the expense won't be much, I suppose."
+
+"No," said Coronado, and he spoke the exact truth; that is, supposing an
+honest balance. The expedition proper had cost seven or eight thousand
+dollars, and about two thousand more had been sunk in assassination fees
+and other "extras." On the other hand, he had sold his wagons and beasts
+at the high prices of California, making a profit of two thousand dollars.
+In short, even deducting all that Coronado meant to appropriate to
+himself, Garcia would obtain a small profit from the affair.
+
+Now ensued a strange underhanded drama. Garcia stayed week after week,
+riding often to the city on business or pretence of business, but passing
+most of his time at the hacienda, where he wandered about a great deal in
+a ghost-like manner, glancing slyly at Clara a hundred times a day without
+ever looking her in the eyes, and haunting her steps without overtaking or
+addressing her. Every time that she returned from a ride he shambled to
+the door to see if the saddle were empty. During the night he hearkened in
+the passages for outcries of sudden illness. And while he thus watched the
+girl, he was himself incessantly watched by his nephew.
+
+"She gets no worse," the old man at last complained to the younger one. "I
+think she is growing fat."
+
+"It is one of the symptoms," replied Coronado. "By the way, there is one
+thing which we ought to consider. If she gives you half of this estate--?"
+
+"Madre de Dios! I would take it and go. But she cannot give until she is
+of age. And meantime she may marry."
+
+He glanced suspiciously at his nephew, but Coronado kept his bland
+composure, merely saying, "No present danger of that. She sees no one but
+us."
+
+He thought of adding, "Why not marry her yourself, my dear uncle?" But
+Garcia might retort, "And you?" which would be confusing.
+
+"Suppose she should make a will in your favor?" the nephew preferred to
+suggest.
+
+"I cannot wait. I must have money now. Make a will? Madre de Dios! She
+would outlive me. Besides, he who makes a will can break a will."
+
+After a minute of anxious thought, he asked, "How much do you think she
+will give me?"
+
+"I will ask her."
+
+"Not _her_," returned Garcia petulantly. "Are you a pig, an ass, a fool?
+Ask the old one--the duenna. It ought to be a great deal; it ought to be
+half--and more."
+
+To satisfy the old man as well as himself, Coronado sounded Mrs. Stanley
+as to the proposed division.
+
+"Yes, indeed!" said the lady emphatically. "Clara must do something for
+Garcia, who has been such an excellent friend, and who ought to have been
+named in the will. But you know she has her duties toward herself as well
+as toward others. Now the property is not a million; it may be some day or
+other, but it isn't now. The executors say it might bring three hundred
+thousand dollars in ready money."
+
+The executors, by the way, had been sedulously depreciating the value of
+the estate to Clara, in order to bring down her vast notions of
+generosity.
+
+"Well," continued Aunt Maria, "my niece, who is a true woman and
+magnanimous, wanted to give up half. But that is too much, Mr. Coronado.
+You see money" (here she commenced on something which she had
+read)--"money is not the same thing in our hands that it is in yours. When
+a man has a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, he puts it into business
+and doubles it, trebles it, and so on. But a woman can't do that; she is
+trammelled and hampered by the prejudices of this male world; she has to
+leave her money at small interest. If it doubles once in her life, she is
+lucky. So, you see, one half given to Garcia would be, practically
+speaking, much more than half," concluded Aunt Maria, looking triumphantly
+through her argument at Coronado.
+
+The Mexican assented; he always assented to whatever she advanced; he did
+so because he considered her a fool and incapable of reasoning. Moreover,
+he was not anxious to see half of this estate drop into the hands of
+Garcia, believing that whatever Clara kept for herself would shortly be
+his own by right of marriage.
+
+"You are the greatest woman of our times," he said, stepping backward a
+pace or two and surveying her as if she were a cathedral. "I should never
+have thought of those ideas. You ought to be a legislator and reform our
+laws."
+
+"I never had a doubt that you would agree with me, Mr. Coronado," returned
+the gratified Aunt Maria. "Well, so does Clara; at least I trust so," she
+hesitated. "Now as to the sum which our good Garcia should receive. I have
+settled upon thirty thousand dollars. In his hands, you know, it would
+soon be a hundred and fifty thousand; that is to say, practically
+speaking, it would be half the estate."
+
+"Certainly," bowed Coronado, meanwhile thinking, "You old ass!" "And my
+little cousin is of your opinion, I trust?" he added.
+
+"Well--not quite--as yet," candidly admitted Aunt Maria. "But she is
+coming to it. I have no sort of doubt that she will end there."
+
+So Coronado had learned nothing as yet of Clara's opinions. As he
+sauntered away to find Garcia, he queried whether he had best torment him
+with this unauthorized babble of Mrs. Stanley. On the whole, yes; it might
+bring him down to reasonable terms; the rapacious old man was expecting
+too large a slice of the dead Muñoz. So he told his tale, giving it out as
+something which could be depended on, but increasing the thirty thousand
+dollars to fifty thousand, on his own responsibility. To his alarm Garcia
+broke out in a venomous rage, calling everybody pigs, dogs, toads, etc.;
+and crying and cursing alternately.
+
+"Fifty thousand piasters!" he squeaked, tottering about the room on his
+short weak legs and wringing his hands, so that he looked like a fat dog
+walking on his hind feet. "Fifty thousand piasters! O Madre de Dios! It is
+nothing. It is nothing. It will not save me from ruin. It will not cover
+my debts. I shall be sold out. I am ruined. Fifty thousand piasters! O
+Madre de Dios!"
+
+Fifty thousand dollars would have left him more than solvent; but ten
+times that sum would not have satisfied his grasping soul.
+
+Coronado saw that he had made a blunder, and sought to rectify it by lying
+copiously. He averred that he had been merely trying his uncle; he begged
+his pardon for this absurd and ill-timed joke; he admitted that he was a
+pig and a dog and everything else ignoble; he should not have trifled with
+the feelings of his benefactor, his more than father; those feelings were
+to him sacred, and should be held so henceforward and forever.
+
+But he was not believed. He could fool the old man sometimes, but not on
+this occasion. Garcia, greedy and anxious, apt by nature to see the dark
+side of things, judged that the fifty-thousand-dollar story was the true
+one. Although he pretended at last to accept Coronado's explanation for
+fact, he remained at bottom unconvinced, and showed it in his swollen and
+trembling visage.
+
+Thenceforward the nephew watched the uncle incessantly; during his absence
+he stole into his room, opened his baggage, and examined his drawers. And
+if he saw him near Clara at table, or when refreshments were handed
+around, he never took his eyes off him.
+
+But he could not be always at hand. One day the two men rode to the city
+in company. Garcia dodged Coronado, hastened back to the hacienda, asked
+to have some chocolate prepared, poured out a cup for Clara, looked at her
+eagerly while she drank it, and then fell down in a fit.
+
+An hour later Coronado returned at a full run, to find the old man just
+recovering his senses and Clara alarmingly ill.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+
+Clara had been taken ill while waiting on the unconscious Garcia, and the
+attack had been so violent as to drive her at once to her room and bed.
+
+The first person whom Coronado met when he reached the house was Aunt
+Maria, oscillating from one invalid to the other in such fright and
+confusion that she did not know whether she was strong-minded or not; but
+thus far chiefly troubled about Garcia, who seemed to her to be in a dying
+state.
+
+"Your uncle!" she exclaimed, beckoning wildly to Coronado as he rushed in
+at the door.
+
+"I know," he answered hastily. "A servant told me. How is Clara?"
+
+He was as pale as a man of his dark complexion could be. Aunt Maria caught
+his alarm, and, forgetting at once all about Garcia, ran on with him to
+Clara's room. The girl was just then in one of her spasms, her features
+contracted and white, and her forehead covered with a cold sweat.
+
+"What is it?" whispered Mrs. Stanley, clutching Coronado by the arm and
+staring eagerly at his anxious eyes.
+
+"It is--fever," he returned, making a great effort to control his rage and
+terror. "Give her warm water to drink. My God! give her something."
+
+He sent three servants in succession to search for three different
+physicians swearing at them violently while they made their preparations,
+telling them to ride like the devil, to kill their horses, etc. When he
+returned to Clara's room she had come out of her paroxysm, and was feebly
+trying to smile away Aunt Maria's terrors.
+
+"My cousin!" he whispered in unmistakable anguish of spirit.
+
+"I am better," she replied. "Thank you, Coronado. How is Garcia?"
+
+Coronado looked as if he were devoting some one to the infernal furies;
+but he suppressed his emotion and replied in a smothered voice, "I will go
+and see."
+
+Hurrying to his uncle's room, he motioned out the attendants, closed the
+door, locked it, and then, with a scowl of rage and alarm, advanced upon
+the invalid, who by this time was perfectly conscious.
+
+"What have you given her?" demanded Coronado, in a hoarse mutter.
+
+"I don't know what you mean," stammered the old man. He shut his one eye,
+not because he could not keep it open, but to evade the conflict which was
+coming upon him.
+
+Taking quick advantage of the closed eye, Coronado turned to a
+dressing-table, pulled out a drawer, seized a key, and opened Garcia's
+trunk. Before the old man could interfere, the younger one held in his
+hand a paper containing two ounces or so of white powder.
+
+"Did you give her this?" demanded Coronado.
+
+Garcia stared at the paper with such a scared and guilty face, that it was
+equivalent to a confession.
+
+Coronado turned away to hide his face. There was a strange smile upon it;
+at first it was a joy which made him half angelic; then it became
+amusement. He tottered to a chair, threw himself into it with the air of a
+thoroughly wearied man who finds rest delicious, put a grain of the powder
+on his tongue, and then drew a long sigh, a sigh of entire relief.
+
+We must explain. The inner history of this scene is not a tragedy, but a
+farce. For two weeks or more Coronado had been watching his uncle day and
+night, and at last had found in his trunk a paper of powder which he
+suspected to be arsenic. A blunderer would have destroyed or hidden it,
+thereby warning Garcia that he was being looked after, and causing him to
+be more careful about his hiding places. Coronado emptied the paper,
+snapped off every grain of the powder with his finger, wiped it clean with
+his handkerchief, and refilled it with another powder. The selection of
+this second powder was another piece of cleverness. He had at hand both
+flour and finely pulverized sugar; but he wanted to learn whether Garcia
+would really dose the girl, and he wanted a chance to frighten him; so he
+chose a substance which would be harmless, and yet would cause illness.
+
+"You will be hung," said Coronado, staring sternly at his uncle.
+
+"I don't know what you mean," mumbled the old man, trembling all over.
+
+"What a fool you were to use a poison so easily detected as arsenic! I
+have sent for doctors. They will recognize her symptoms. You prepared the
+chocolate. Here is the arsenic in your trunk. You will be hung."
+
+"Give me that paper," whimpered Garcia, rising from his bed and staggering
+toward Coronado. "Give it to me. It is mine."
+
+Coronado put the package behind him with one hand and held off his uncle
+with the other.
+
+"You must go," he persisted. "She won't live two hours. Be off before you
+are arrested. Take horse for San Francisco. If there is a steamer, get
+aboard of it. Never mind where it sails to."
+
+"Give me the paper," implored Garcia, going down on his knees. "O Madre de
+Dios! My head, my head! Oh, what extremities! Give me the paper. Carlos,
+it was all for your sake."
+
+"Are you going?" demanded Coronado.
+
+"Oh yes. Madre de Dios! I am going."
+
+"Come along. By the back way. Do you want to pass _her_ room? Do you want
+to see your work? I will send your trunk to the bankers. Quit California
+at the first chance. Quit it at once, if you go to China."
+
+As Coronado looked after the flying old man he heard himself called by
+Mrs. Stanley, who was by this time in great terror about Clara, trotting
+hither and thither after help and counsel.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Coronado, do come!" she urged. Then, catching sight of the
+galloping Garcia, "But what does that mean? Has he gone mad?"
+
+"Nearly," said Coronado. "I brought him news of pressing business. How is
+my cousin?"
+
+"Oh dear! I am terribly alarmed. Do look at her. Will those doctors never
+come!"
+
+Coronado, who had been a little in advance of Mrs. Stanley as they hurried
+toward Clara's room, suddenly stopped, wheeled about with a smile, seized
+her hands, and shook them heartily.
+
+"I have it," he exclaimed with a fine imitation of joyful astonishment.
+"There is no danger. I can explain the whole trouble. My poor uncle has
+these attacks, and he is extravagantly fond of chocolate. To relieve the
+attacks he always carries a paper of medicine in one of his vest pockets.
+To sweeten his chocolate he carries a paper of sugar in the companion
+pocket. You may be sure that he has made a mistake between the two. He has
+dosed Clara with his physic. There is no danger."
+
+He laughed in the most natural manner conceivable; then he checked himself
+and said: "My poor little cousin! It is no joke for her."
+
+"Certainly not," snapped Aunt Maria, relieved and yet angry. "How
+excessively stupid! Here is Clara as sick as can be, and I frightened out
+of my senses. Men ought not to meddle with cookery. They are such botches,
+even in their own business!"
+
+But presently, after she had given Coronado's explanation to Clara, and
+the girl had laughed heartily over it and declared herself much better,
+Aunt Maria recovered her good humor and began to pity that poor, sick,
+driven Garcia.
+
+"The brave old creature!" she said. "Out of his fits and off on his
+business. I must say he is a wonder. Let us hope he will come out all
+right, and soon return to us. But really he ought to be seen to. He may
+fall off his horse in a fit, or he may dose somebody dreadfully with his
+chocolate and get taken up for poisoning. Mr. Coronado, you ought to ride
+into town to-morrow and look after him."
+
+"Certainly," replied Coronado. He did so, and returned with the news that
+Garcia had sailed to San Diego, having been summoned back to Santa Fé by
+the state of his affairs. That day and the night following he slept
+fourteen hours, making up the arrears of rest which he had lost in
+watching his uncle. Henceforward he was easier; he had a pretty clear
+field before him; there was no one present to poison Clara; no one but
+himself to court her. And the courtship went forward with a better
+prospect of success than is quite agreeable to contemplate.
+
+Coronado and Clara were Adam and Eve; they were the only man and woman in
+this paradise. People thus situated are claimed by a being whom most call
+a goddess, and some a demon. She is protean; she is at once an invariable
+formula and an individual caprice; she is a law governing the universal
+multitude, and a passion swaying the unit. She seems to be under an
+impression that, where a couple are left alone together, they are the last
+relics of the human race, and that if they do not marry the type will
+perish. Indifferent to all considerations but one, she pushes them toward
+each other.
+
+There is comparative safety from her in a crowd. Bachelors and maidens who
+mingle by hundreds may remain bachelors and maidens. But pair them off in
+lonely places and see if the result is not amazingly hymeneal. A fellow
+who has run the gauntlet of seven years of parties in New York will marry
+the first agreeable girl whom he meets in Alaska. There is such a thing as
+leaving the haunts of men and repairing to waste places to find a husband.
+We are told that English girls have reduced this to a system, and that
+fair archers who have failed at Brighton go out to hunt successfully in
+India.
+
+Well, Coronado had the favoring chances of solitude, propinquity, and
+daily opportunity. Seldom away from Clara for a day together, he was in
+condition to take advantage of any of those moods which lay woman open to
+courtship, such as gratitude for attentions, a disgust with loneliness, a
+desire for something to love. It was a great thing for him that there was
+work about the hacienda which no woman could easily do; that there were
+men servants to govern, horses to be herded, valued, and sold, and lands
+to be cultivated. All these male mysteries were soon handed over to
+Coronado, subject to the advice of Aunt Maria and the final judgment of
+Clara. The result was that _he_ and _she_ got into a way of frequently
+discussing many things which threatened to habituate her to the idea of
+being at one with him through life.
+
+Have you ever watched two specks floating in a vessel of water? For a long
+time they approach each other so slowly that the movement is imperceptible
+but at last they are within range of each other's magnetism; there is a
+start, a swift rush, and they are together. Thus it was that Clara was
+gently, very gently, and unconsciously to herself, approaching Coronado. A
+mote on the wave of life, she was subject to attraction, as all of us
+motes are, and this man was the only tractor at hand. Aunt Maria did not
+count, for woman cannot absorb woman. As to Thurstane, he not only was not
+there, but he was not anywhere, as she at last believed.
+
+Not a word from him or about him, except one letter from the
+Adjutant-General, which somehow evaded Coronado's brazier, gave her a
+moment of choking hope and fear, opened its white, official lips,
+acknowledged her "communication," and stopped there. The unseen tragedies
+in which souls suffer are numberless. Here was one. The girl had written
+with tears and heart-beats, and then with tears and heart-beats had
+waited. At last came the words, "I have the honor to acknowledge, etc.,
+very respectfully, etc." It was one of the business-like facts of life
+unknowingly trampling upon a bleeding sentiment.
+
+Imagine Clara's agitations during this long suspense; her plans and hopes
+and despairs would furnish matter for a library. There was not a day, if
+indeed there was an hour, during which her mind was not the theatre of a
+dozen dramas whereof Thurstane was the hero, either triumphant or
+perishing. They were horribly fragmentary; they broke off and pieced on to
+each other like nightmares; one moment he was rescued, and the next
+tomahawked. And this last fancy, despite all her struggles to hope, was
+for the most part victorious. Meantime Coronado, guessing her sufferings,
+and suffering horribly himself with jealousy, talked much and
+sympathetically to her of Thurstane. So much did this man bear, and with
+such outward sweetness did he bear it, that one half longs to consider him
+a martyr and saint. Pity that his goodness should not bear dissection;
+that it should have no more life in it than a stuffed mannikin; that it
+should be just fit to scare crows with.
+
+But hypocrite as Coronado was, he was clever enough to win every day more
+of Clara's confidence; and perhaps she might have walked into this whited
+sepulchre in due time had it not been for an accident. Cantering into San
+Francisco to hold a consultation with her lawyer, she was saluted in the
+street by a United States officer, also on horseback. She instinctively
+drew rein, her pulse throbbing at sight of the uniform, and wild hopes
+beating at her heart.
+
+"Miss Van Diemen, I believe," said the officer, a dark, stout,
+bold-looking trooper. "I am glad to see that you reached here in safety.
+You have forgotten me. I am Major Robinson."
+
+"I remember," said Clara, who had not recollected him at first because she
+was looking solely for Thurstane. "You passed us in the desert."
+
+"Yes, I took your soldiers away from you, and you declined my escort. I
+was anxious about you afterwards. Well, it has ended right in spite of me.
+Of course you have heard of Thurstane's escape."
+
+"Escape!" exclaimed Clara, her face turning scarlet and then pale. "Oh!
+tell me!"
+
+The major stared. He had guessed a love affair between these two; he had
+inferred it in the desert from the girl's anxiety about the young man.
+How came it that she knew nothing of the escape?
+
+"So I have heard," he went on. "I think there can be no mistake about it.
+I learned it from a civilian who left Fort Yuma some weeks ago. I don't
+think he could have been mistaken. He told me that the lieutenant was
+there then. Not well, I am sorry to say; rather broken down by his
+hardships. Oh, nothing serious, you know. But he was a trifle under the
+weather, which may account for his not letting his friends hear from him."
+
+At the story that Thurstane was alive, all Clara's love had arisen as if
+from a grave, and the mightier because of its resurrection. She was full
+of self-reproaches. It seemed to her that she had neglected him; that she
+had cruelly left him to die. Why had she not guessed that he was sick
+there, and flown to nurse him to health? What had he thought of her
+conduct? She must go to him at once.
+
+"I am sorry to say that I can tell you no more," continued the major in
+response to her eager gaze.
+
+"I am so obliged to you!" gasped Clara. "If you hear anything more, will
+you please let me know? Will you please come and see me?"
+
+The major promised and took down her address, but added that he was just
+starting on an inspecting tour, and that for a fortnight to come he should
+be able to give her no further information.
+
+They had scarcely parted ere Clara had resolved to go at once to Fort
+Yuma. The moment was favorable, for she had with her an intelligent and
+trustworthy servant, and Coronado had been summoned to a distance by
+business, so that he could make no opposition. She hastened to her
+lawyer's, finished her affairs there, drew what money she needed for her
+journey, learned that a brig was about to start for the Gulf, and sent her
+man to secure a passage. When he returned with news that the Lolotte would
+sail next day at noon, she decided not to go back to the hacienda, and
+took rooms at a hotel.
+
+What would people say? She did not care; she was going. She had been
+womanish and timorous too long; this was the great crisis which would
+decide her future; she must be worthy of it and of _him_. But remembering
+Aunt Maria, she sent a letter by messenger to the hacienda, explaining
+that pressing business called her to be absent for some weeks, and
+confessing in a postscript that her business referred to Lieutenant
+Thurstane. This letter brought Coronado down upon her next morning.
+Returning home unexpectedly, he learned the news from his friend Mrs.
+Stanley, and was hammering at Clara's door not more than an hour later,
+all in a tremble with anxiety and rage.
+
+"This must not be," he stormed. "Such a journey! Twenty-five hundred
+miles! And for a man who has not deigned to write to you! It is degrading.
+I will not have it. I forbid it."
+
+"Coronado, stop!" ordered Clara; and it is to be feared that she stamped
+her little foot at him; at all events she quelled him instantly.
+
+He sat down, glared like a mad dog, sprang up and rushed to the door,
+halted there to stare at her imploringly, and finally muttered in a hoarse
+voice, "Well--let it be so--since you are crazed. But I shall go with
+you."
+
+"You can go," replied Clara haughtily, after meditating for some seconds,
+during which he looked the picture of despair. "You can go, if you wish
+it."
+
+An hour later she said, in her usually gentle tone, "Coronado, pardon me
+for having spoken to you angrily. You are kinder than I deserve."
+
+The reader can infer from this speech how humble, helpful, and courteous
+the man had been in the mean time. Coronado was no half-way character; if
+he did not like you, he was the fellow to murder you; if he decided to be
+sweet, he was all honey. Perhaps we ought to ask excuse for Clara's
+tartness by explaining that she was in a state of extreme anxiety,
+remembering that Robinson had hesitated when he said Thurstane was not so
+very ill, and fearing lest he knew worse things than he had told.
+
+Meanwhile, let no one suppose that the Mexican meant to let his lady love
+go to Fort Yuma. He had his plan for stopping her, and we may put
+confidence enough in him to believe that it was a good one; only at the
+last moment circumstances turned up which decided him to drop it. Yes, at
+the last moment, just as he was about to pull his leading strings, he saw
+good reason for wishing her far away from San Francisco.
+
+A face appeared to him; at the first glimpse of it Coronado slipped into
+the nearest doorway, and from that moment his chief anxiety was to cause
+the girl to vanish. Yes, he must get her started on her voyage, even at
+the risk of her continuing it.
+
+"What the devil is he here for?" he muttered. "Has he found out that she
+is living?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+
+At noon the Lolotte, a broad-beamed, flat-floored brig of light draught
+and good sailing qualities, hove up her anchor and began beating out of
+the Bay of San Francisco, with Coronado and Clara on her quarter-deck.
+
+"You have no other passengers, I understood you to say, captain," observed
+Coronado, who was anxious on that point, preferring there should be none.
+
+The master, a Dane by birth named Jansen, who had grown up in the American
+mercantile service, was a middle-sized, broad-shouldered man, with a red
+complexion, red whiskers, and a look which was at once grave and fiery. He
+paused in his heavy lurching to and fro, looked at the Mexican with an air
+which was civil but very stiff, and answered in that discouraging tone
+with which skippers are apt to smother conversation when they have
+business on hand, "Yes, sir, one other."
+
+Coronado presently slipped down the companionway, found the colored
+steward, chinked five dollars into his horny palm, and said, "My good
+fellow, you must look out for me; I shall want a good deal of help during
+the passage."
+
+"Yes, sah, very good, sah," was the answer, uttered in a greasy chuckle,
+as though it were the speech of a slab of bacon fat. "Make you up any
+little thing, sah. Have a sup now, sah? Little gruel? Little brof?"
+
+"No, thank you," returned Coronado, turning half sick at the mention of
+those delicacies. "Nothing at present. By the way, one of the staterooms
+is occupied I see. Who is the other passenger?"
+
+"Dunno, sah; keeps hisself shut up, an' says nothin' to nobody. 'Pears
+like he is sailin' under secret orders. Cur'ous' lookin' old gent; got
+only one eye."
+
+One eye! Coronado thought of the face which had frightened him out of San
+Francisco, and wondered whether he were shut up in the Lolotte with it.
+
+"One eye?" he asked. "Short, stout, dark old gentleman? Indeed! I think I
+know him."
+
+Stepping to the door of a stateroom which he had already noticed as being
+kept closed, he tapped lightly. There was a muttering inside, a shuffling
+as of some one getting out of a berth, and then a low inquiry in Spanish,
+"Who is there?"
+
+"Me, sah," returned Coronado, imitating, and imitating perfectly, the
+accent of the steward, who meantime had gone forward, talking and
+sniggering to himself, after an idiotic way that he had.
+
+The door opened a trifle, and Coronado instantly slipped the toe of his
+little boot into the crack, at the same time saying in his natural tone,
+"My dear uncle!"
+
+Seeing that he was discovered, Garcia gave his nephew entrance, closed the
+door after him, locked it, and sat down trembling on the edge of the lower
+berth, groaning and almost whimpering, "Ah, my son! Ah, my dear Carlos!
+Oh, what a life I have to lead! Madre de Dios, what a life! I thought you
+were one of my creditors. I did indeed, my dear Carlos, my son."
+
+"I thought you went back to Santa Fé" was Coronado's reply.
+
+"No, I did not go; I started, but I came back," mumbled Garcia. Then,
+plucking up a little spirit, he turned his one eye for a moment on his
+nephew's face, and added, "Why should I go to Santa Fé? I had no business
+there. My business is here."
+
+"But after your attempt at the hacienda?"
+
+"My attempt! I made no attempt. All that was a mistake. Because I was
+sick, I was frightened and did not know what to do. I ran away because you
+told me to run. I had given her nothing. Yes, I did put something in her
+chocolate, but it was my medicine. I meant to put in sugar, but I made a
+mistake and went to the wrong pocket, the pocket of my medicine. That was
+it, Carlos. I give you my word, word of a hidalgo, word of a Christian."
+
+It was the same explanation which Coronado had invented to forestall
+suspicions at the hacienda. It was surely a wonderful coincidence of
+lying, and shows how great minds work alike. Vexed and angry as the nephew
+was, he could scarcely help smiling.
+
+"My dear uncle!" he exclaimed, grasping Garcia's pudgy hand
+melodramatically. "The very thing that occurred to me! I told them so."
+
+"Did you?" replied the old man, not much believing it. "Then all is well."
+
+He wanted to ask how it was that Clara had survived her dose; but of
+course curiosity on that subject must not find vent; it would be
+equivalent to a confession.
+
+"Where is she going?" were his next words.
+
+"To Fort Yuma."
+
+"To Fort Yuma! What for?"
+
+"I may as well tell it," burst out Coronado angrily. "She is going there
+to nurse that officer. He escaped, but he has been sick, and she _will_
+go."
+
+"She must not go," whispered Garcia. "Oh, the ----." And here he called
+Clara a string of names which cannot be repeated. "She shall not go
+there," he continued. "She will marry him. Then the property is gone, and
+we are ruined. Oh, the ----." And then came another assortment of violent
+and vile epithets, such as are not found in dictionaries.
+
+Coronado was anxious to divert and dissipate a rage which might make
+trouble; and as soon as he could get in a word, he asked, "But what have
+you been doing, my uncle?"
+
+By dint of questioning and guessing he made out the story of the old man's
+adventures since leaving the hacienda. Garcia, in extreme terror of
+hanging, had gone straight to San Francisco and taken passage for San
+Diego, with the intention of not stopping until he should be at least as
+far away as Santa Fé. But after a few hours at sea, he had recovered his
+wits and his courage, and asked himself, why should he fly? If Clara died,
+the property would be his, and if she survived, he ought to be near her;
+while as for Carlos, he would surely never expose and hang a man who could
+cut him off with a shilling. So he landed at Monterey, took the first
+coaster back to San Francisco, lurked about the city until he learned that
+the girl was still living, and was just about to put a bold front on the
+matter by going to see her at the hacienda, when he learned accidentally
+that she was on the point of voyaging southward. Puzzled and alarmed by
+this, he resolved to accompany her in her wanderings, and succeeded in
+getting himself quietly on board the Lolotte.
+
+"Well, let us go on deck," said Coronado, when the old man had regained
+his tranquillity. "But let us be gentle, my uncle. We know how to govern
+ourselves, I hope. You will of course behave like a mother to our little
+cousin. Congratulate her on her recovery; apologize for your awkward
+mistake. It was caused by the coming on of the fit, you remember. A man
+who is about to have an attack of epilepsy can't of course tell one pocket
+from another. But such a man is all the more bound to be unctuous."
+
+Clara received the old man cordially, although she would have preferred
+not to see him there, fearing lest he should oppose her nursing project.
+But as nothing was said on this matter, and as Garcia put his least cloven
+foot foremost, the trio not only got on amicably together, but seemed to
+enjoy one another's society. This was no common feat by the way; each of
+the three had a great load of anxiety; it was wonderful that they should
+not show it. Coronado, for instance, while talking like a bird song, was
+planning how he could get rid of Garcia, and carry Clara back to San
+Francisco. The idea of pushing the old man overboard was inadmissible; but
+could he not scare him ashore at the next port by stories of a leak? As
+for Clara, he could not imagine how to manage her, she was so potent with
+her wealth and with her beauty. He was still thinking of these things, and
+prattling mellifluously of quite other things, when the Lolotte luffed up
+under the lee of the little island of Alcatraz.
+
+"What does this mean?" he asked, looking suspiciously at the
+fortifications, with the American flag waving over them.
+
+"Stop here to take in commissary stores for Fort Yuma," explained the
+thin, sallow, grave, meek-looking, and yet resolute Yankee mate.
+
+The chain cable rattled through the hawse hole, and in no long while the
+loading commenced, lasting until nightfall. During this time Coronado
+chanced to learn that an officer was expected on board who would sail as
+far as San Diego; and, as all uniforms were bugbears to him, he watched
+for the new passenger with a certain amount of anxiety; taking care, by
+the way, to say nothing of him to Clara. About eight in the evening, as
+the girl was playing some trivial game of cards with Garcia in the cabin,
+a splashing of oars alongside called Coronado on deck. It was already
+dark; a sailor was standing by the manropes with a lantern; the captain
+was saying in a grumbling tone, "Very late, sir."
+
+"Had to wait for orders, captain," returned a healthy, ringing young voice
+which struck Coronado like a shot.
+
+"Orders!" muttered the skipper. "Why couldn't they have had them ready?
+Here we are going to have a southeaster."
+
+There was anxiety as well as impatience in his voice; but Coronado just
+now could not think of tempests; his whole soul was in his eyes. The next
+instant he beheld in the ruddy light of the lantern the face of the man
+who was his evil genius, the man whose death he had so long plotted for
+and for a time believed in, the man who, as he feared, would yet punish
+him for his misdeeds. He was so thoroughly beaten and cowed by the sight
+that he made a step or two toward the companionway, with the purpose of
+hiding in the cabin. Then desperation gave him courage, and he walked
+straight up to Thurstane.
+
+"My dear Lieutenant!" he cried, trying to seize the young fellow's hand.
+"Once more welcome to life! What a wonder! Another escape. You are a
+second Orlando--almost a Don Quixote. And where are your two Sancho
+Panzas?"
+
+"You here!" was Thurstane's grim response, and he did not take the
+proffered hand.
+
+"Come!" implored Coronado, stepping toward the waist of the vessel and
+away from the cabin. "This way, if you please," he urged, beckoning
+earnestly. "I have a word to say to you in private."
+
+Not a tone of this conversation had been heard below. Before the boat had
+touched the side the crew were laboring at the noisy windlass with their
+shouts of "Yo heave ho! heave and pawl! heave hearty ho!" while the mate
+was screaming from the knight-heads, "Heave hearty, men--heave hearty.
+Heave and raise the dead. Heave and away."
+
+Amid this uproar Coronado continued: "You won't shake hands with me,
+Lieutenant Thurstane. As a gentleman, speaking to another gentleman, I ask
+an explanation."
+
+Thurstane hesitated; he had ugly suspicions enough, but no proofs; and if
+he could not prove guilt, he must not charge it.
+
+"Is it because we abandoned you?" demanded Coronado. "We had reason. We
+heard that you were dead. The muleteers reported Apaches. I feared for the
+safety of the ladies. I pushed on. You, a gentleman and an officer--what
+else would you have advised?"
+
+"Let it go," growled Thurstane. "Let that pass. I won't talk of it--nor of
+other things. But," and here he seemed to shake with emotion, "I want
+nothing more to do with you--you nor your family. I have had suffering
+enough."
+
+"Ah, it is with _her_ that you quarrel rather than with me," inferred
+Coronado impudently, for he had recovered his self-possession. "Certainly,
+my poor Lieutenant! You have reason. But remember, so has she. She is
+enormously rich and can have any one. That is the way these women
+understand life."
+
+"You will oblige me by saying not another word on that subject," broke in
+Thurstane savagely. "I got her letter dismissing me, and I accepted my
+fate without a word, and I mean never to see her again. I hope that
+satisfies you."
+
+"My dear Lieutenant," protested Coronado, "you seem to intimate that I
+influenced her decision. I beg you to believe, on my word of honor as a
+gentleman, that I never urged her in any way to write that letter."
+
+"Well--no matter--I don't care," replied the young fellow in a voice like
+one long sob. "I don't care whether you did or not. The moment she could
+write it, no matter how or why, that was enough. All I ask is to be left
+alone--to hear no more of her."
+
+"I am obliged to speak to you of her," said Coronado. "She is aboard."
+
+"Aboard!" exclaimed Thurstane, and he made a step as if to reach the shore
+or to plunge into the sea.
+
+"I am sorry for you," said Coronado, with a simplicity which seemed like
+sincerity. "I thought it my duty to warn you."
+
+"I cannot go back," groaned the young fellow. "I must go to San Diego. I
+am under orders."
+
+"You must avoid her. Go to bed late. Get up early. Keep out of her way."
+
+Turning his back, Thurstane walked away from this cruel and hated
+counsellor, not thinking at all of him however, but rather of the deep
+beneath, a refuge from trouble.
+
+We must slip back to his last adventure with Texas Smith, and learn a
+little of what happened to him then and up to the present time.
+
+It will be remembered how the bushwhacker sat in ambush; how, just as he
+was about to fire at his proposed victim, his horse whinnied; and how this
+whinny caused Thurstane's mule to rear suddenly and violently. The rearing
+saved the rider's life, for the bullet which was meant for the man buried
+itself in the forehead of the beast, and in the darkness the assassin did
+not discover his error. But so severe was the fall and so great
+Thurstane's weakness that he lost his senses and did not come to himself
+until daybreak.
+
+There he was, once more abandoned to the desert, but rich in a full
+haversack and a dead mule. Having breakfasted, and thereby given head and
+hand a little strength, he set to work to provide for the future by
+cutting slices from the carcass and spreading them out to dry, well
+knowing that this land of desolation could furnish neither wolf nor bird
+of prey to rob his larder. This work done, he pushed on at his best speed,
+found and fed his companions, and led them back to the mule, their
+storehouse. After a day of rest and feasting came a march to the Cactus
+Pass, where the three were presently picked up by a caravan bound to Santa
+Fé, which carried them on for a number of days until they met a train of
+emigrants going west. Thus it was that Glover reached California, and
+Thurstane and Sweeny Fort Yuma.
+
+Once in quiet, the young fellow broke down, and for weeks was too sick to
+write to Clara, or to any one. As soon as he could sit up he sent off
+letter after letter, but after two months of anxious suspense no answer
+had come, and he began to fear that she had never reached San Francisco.
+At last, when he was half sick again with worrying, arrived a horrible
+epistle in Clara's hand and signed by her name, informing him of her
+monstrous windfall of wealth and terminating the engagement. The crudest
+thing in this cruel forgery was the sentence, "Do you not think that in
+paying courtship to me in the desert you took unfair advantage of my
+loneliness?"
+
+She had trampled on his heart and flouted his honor; and while he writhed
+with grief he writhed also with rage. He could not understand it; so
+different from what she had seemed; so unworthy of what he had believed
+her to be! Well, her head had been turned by riches; it was just like a
+woman; they were all thus. Thus said Thurstane, a fellow as ignorant of
+the female kind as any man in the army, and scarcely less ignorant than
+the average man of the navy. He declared to himself that he would never
+have anything more to do with her, nor with any of her false sex. At
+twenty-three he turned woman-hater, just as Mrs. Stanley at forty-five had
+turned man-hater, and perhaps for much the same sort of reason.
+
+Shortly after Thurstane had received what he called his cashiering, his
+company was ordered from Fort Yuma to San Francisco. It had garrisoned the
+Alcatraz fort only two days, and he had not yet had a chance to visit the
+city, when he was sent on this expedition to San Diego to hunt down a
+deserting quartermaster-sergeant. The result was that he found himself
+shipped for a three days' voyage with the woman who had made him first the
+happiest man in the army and then the most miserable.
+
+How should he endure it? He would not see her; the truth is that he could
+not endure the trial; but what he said to himself was that he _would_ not.
+In the darkness tears forced their way out of his eyes and mingled with
+the spray which the wind was already flinging over the bows. Crying! Three
+months ago, if any man had told him that he was capable of it, he would
+have considered himself insulted and would have felt like fighting. Now he
+was not even ashamed of it, and would hardly have been ashamed if it had
+been daylight. He was so thoroughly and hopelessly miserable that he did
+not care what figure he cut.
+
+But, once more, what should he do? Oh, well, he would follow Coronado's
+advice; yes, damn him! follow the scoundrel's advice; he could think of
+nothing for himself. He would stay out until late; then he would steal
+below and go to bed; after that he would keep his stateroom. However, it
+was unpleasant to remain where he was, for the spray was beginning to
+drench the waist as well as the forecastle; and, the quarter-deck being
+clear of passengers, he staggered thither, dropped under the starboard
+bulwark, rolled himself in his cloak, and lay brooding.
+
+Meanwhile Coronado had amused Clara below until he felt seasick and had to
+take to his berth. Escaping thus from his duennaship, she wanted to see a
+storm, as she called the half-gale which was blowing, and clambered
+bravely alone to the quarter-deck, where the skipper took her in charge,
+showed her the compass, walked her up and down a little, and finally gave
+her a post at the foot of the shrouds. Thurstane had recognized her by the
+light of the binnacle, and once more he thought, as weakly as a scared
+child, "What shall I do?" After hiding his face for a moment he uncovered
+it desperately, resolving to see whether she would speak. She did look at
+him; she even looked steadily and sharply, as if in recognition; but after
+a while she turned tranquilly away to gaze at the sea.
+
+Forgetting that no lamp was shining upon him, and that she probably had no
+cause for expecting to find him here, Thurstane believed that she had
+discovered who he was and that her mute gesture confirmed his rejection.
+Under this throttling of his last hope he made no protest, but silently
+wished himself on the battle-field, falling with his face to the foe. For
+several minutes they remained thus side by side.
+
+The Lolotte was now well at sea, the wind and waves rising rapidly, the
+motion already considerable. Presently there was an order of "Lay aloft
+and furl the skysails," and then short shouts resounded from the darkness,
+showing that the work was being done. But in spite of this easing the
+vessel labored a good deal, and heavy spurts of spray began to fly over
+the quarter-deck rail.
+
+"I think, Miss, you had better go below unless you want to get wet,"
+observed the skipper, coming up to Clara. "We shall have a splashing night
+of it."
+
+Taking the nautical arm, Clara slid and tottered away, leaving Thurstane
+lying on the sloppy deck.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+
+Had Clara recognized Thurstane, she would have thrown herself into his
+arms, and he would hardly have slept that night for joy.
+
+As it was, he could not sleep for misery; festering at heart because of
+that letter of rejection; almost maddened by his supposed discovery that
+she would not speak to him, yet declaring to himself that he never would
+have married her, because of her money; at the same time worshipping and
+desiring her with passion; longing to die, but longing to die for her;
+half enraged, and altogether wretched.
+
+Meantime the southeaster, dead ahead and blowing harder every minute, was
+sending its seas further and further aft. He left his wet berth on the
+deck, reeled, or rather was flung, to the stern of the vessel, lodged
+himself between the little wheel-house and the taffrail, and watched a
+scene in consonance with his feelings. Innumerable twinklings of stars
+faintly illuminated a cloudless, serene heaven, and a foaming, plunging
+ocean. The slender, dark outlines of the sailless upper masts were leaning
+sharply over to leeward, and describing what seemed like mystic circles
+and figures against the lighter sky. The crests of seas showed with
+ghostly whiteness as they howled themselves to death near by, or dashed
+with a jar and a hoarse whistle over the bulwarks, slapping against the
+sails and pounding upon the decks. The waves which struck the bows every
+few seconds gave forth sounds like the strokes of Thor's hammer, and made
+everything tremble from cathead to stempost.
+
+Every now and then there were hoarse orders from the captain on the
+quarter-deck, echoed instantly by sharp yells from the mate in the waist.
+Now it was, "Lay aloft and furl the fore royal;" and ten minutes later,
+"Lay aloft and furl the main royal." Scarcely was this work done before
+the shout came, "Lay aloft and reef the fore-t'gallant-s'l;" followed
+almost immediately by "Lay aloft and reef the main-t'gallant-s'l." Next
+came, "Lay out forrard and furl the flying jib." Each command was
+succeeded by a silent, dark darting of men into the rigging, and presently
+a trampling on deck and a short, sharp singing out at the ropes, with
+cries from aloft of "Haul out to leeward; taut hand; knot away."
+
+Under the reduced sail the brig went easier for a while; but the half gale
+had made up its mind to be a hurricane. It was blowing more savagely every
+second. One after another the topgallant sails were double-reefed,
+close-reefed, and at last furled. The watch on deck had its hands full to
+accomplish this work, so powerfully did the wind drag on the canvas.
+Presently, far away forward--it seemed on board some other craft, so faint
+was the sound--there came a bang, bang, bang! on the scuttle of the
+forecastle, and a hollow shout of "All hands reef tops'ls ahoy!"
+
+Up tumbled the "starbowlines," or starboard watch, and joined the
+"larbowlines" in the struggle with the elements. No more sleep that night
+for man, boy, mate, or master. Reef after reef was taken in the topsails,
+until they were two long, narrow shingles of canvas, and still the wind
+brought the vessel well down on her beam ends, as if it would squeeze her
+by main force under water. The men were scarcely on deck from their last
+reefing job, when boom! went the jib, bursting out as if shot from a
+cannon, and then whipping itself to tatters.
+
+"Lay out forrard!" screamed the mate. "Lay out and furl it."
+
+After a desperate struggle, half the time more or less under water, two
+men dragged in and fastened the fragments of the jib, while others set the
+foretop-mast staysail in its place. But the wind was full of mischief; it
+seemed to be playing with the ship's company; it furnished one piece of
+work after another with dizzying rapidity. Hardly was the jib secured
+before the great mainsail ripped open from top to bottom, and in the same
+puff the close-reefed foretopsail split in two with a bang, from earing to
+earing. Now came the orders fast and loud: "Down yards! Haul out reef
+tackle! Lay out and furl! Lay out and reef!"
+
+It was a perfect mess; a score of ropes flying at once; the men rolling
+about and holding on; the sails slapping like mad, and ends of rigging
+streaming off to leeward. After an exhausting fight the mainsail was
+furled, the upper half of the topsail set close-reefed, and everything
+hauled taut again. Now came an hour or so without accident, but not
+without incessant and fatiguing labor, for the two royal yards were
+successively sent down to relieve the upper masts, and the foretopgallant
+sail, which had begun to blow loose, was frapped with long pieces of
+sinnet.
+
+During this period of comparative quiet Thurstane ventured an attempt to
+reach his stateroom. The little gloomy cabin was going hither and thither
+in a style which reminded him of the tossings of Gulliver's cage after it
+had been dropped into the sea by the Brobdingnag eagle. The steward was
+seizing up mutinous trunks and chairs to the table legs with rope-yarns.
+The lamp was swinging and the captain's compass see-sawing like monkeys
+who had gone crazy in bedlams of tree-tops. From two of the staterooms
+came sounds which plainly confessed that the occupants were having a bad
+night of it.
+
+"How is the lady passenger?" Thurstane could not help whispering.
+
+"Guess she's asleep, sah," returned the negro. "Fus-rate sailor, sah. But
+them greasers is having tough times," he grinned. "Can't abide the sea,
+greasers can't, sah."
+
+Smiling with a grim satisfaction at this last statement, Thurstane gave
+the man a five-dollar piece, muttered, "Call me if anything goes wrong,"
+and slipped into his narrow dormitory. Without undressing, he lay down and
+tried to sleep; but, although it was past midnight, he stayed broad awake
+for an hour or more; he was too full of thoughts and emotions to find easy
+quiet in a pillow. Near him--yes, in the very next stateroom--lay the
+being who had made his life first a heaven and then a hell. The present
+and the past struggled in him, and tossed him with their tormenting
+contest. After a while, too, as the plunging of the brig increased, and he
+heard renewed sounds of disaster on deck, he began to fear for Clara's
+safety. It was a strange feeling, and yet a most natural one. He had not
+ceased to love; he seemed indeed to love her more than ever; to think of
+her struggling in the billows was horrible; he knew even then that he
+would willingly die to save her. But after a time the incessant motion
+affected him, and he dozed gradually into a sound slumber.
+
+Hours later the jerking and pitching became so furious that it awakened
+him, and when he rose on his elbow he was thrown out of his berth by a
+tremendous lurch. Sitting up with his feet braced, he listened for a
+little to the roar of the tempest, the trampling feet on deck, and the
+screaming orders. Evidently things were going hardly above; the storm was
+little less than a tornado. Seriously anxious at last for Clara--or, as he
+tried to call her to himself, Miss Van Diemen--he stole out of his room,
+clambered or fell up the companionway, opened the door after a struggle
+with a sea which had just come inboard, got on to the quarter-deck, and,
+holding by the shrouds, quailed before a spectacle as sublime and more
+terrible than the Great Cañon of the Colorado.
+
+It was daylight. The sun was just rising from behind a waste of waters; it
+revealed nothing but a waste of waters. All around the brig, as far as the
+eye could reach, the Pacific was one vast tumble of huge blue-gray,
+mottled masses, breaking incessantly in long, curling ridges, or lofty,
+tossing steeps of foam. Each wave was composed of scores of ordinary
+waves, just as the greater mountains are composed of ranges and peaks.
+They seemed moving volcanoes, changing form with every minute of their
+agony, and spouting lavas of froth. All over this immense riot of
+tormented deeps rolled beaten and terrified armies of clouds. The wind
+reigned supreme, driving with a relentless spite, a steady and obdurate
+pressure, as if it were a current of water. It pinned the sailors to the
+yards, and nearly blew Thurstane from the deck.
+
+The Lolotte was down to close-reefed topsails, close-reefed spencer and
+spanker, and storm-jib. Even upon this small and stout spread of canvas
+the wind was working destruction, for just as Thurstane reached the deck
+the jib parted and went to leeward in ribbons. Sailors were seen now on
+the bowsprit fighting at once with sea and air, now buried in water, and
+now holding on against the storm, and slowly gathering in the flapping,
+snapping fragments. Next a new jib (a third one) was bent on, hoisted
+half-way, and blown out like a piece of wet paper. Almost at the same
+moment the captain saw threatening mouths grimace in the mainsail, and
+screamed "Never mind there forrard. Lay up on the maintawps'l yard. Lay up
+and furl."
+
+After half an hour's fight, the sail bagging and slatting furiously, it
+was lashed anyway around the yard, and the men crawled slowly down again,
+jammed and bruised against the shrouds by the wind. Every jib and
+forestaysail on board having now been torn out, the brig remained under
+close-reefed foretopsail, spencer, and spanker, and did little but drift
+to leeward. The gale was at its height, blowing as if it were shot out of
+the mouths of cannon, and chasing the ocean before it in mountains of
+foam. One thing after another went; the topgallants shook loose and had to
+be sent down; the chain bobstays parted and the martingale slued out of
+place; one of the anchors broke its fastenings and hammered at the side;
+the galley gave way and went slopping into the lee scuppers. No food that
+morning except dry crackers and cold beef; all hands laboring exhaustingly
+to repair damages and make things taut. For more than half an hour three
+men were out on the guys and backropes endeavoring to reset the
+martingale, deluged over and over by seas, and at last driven in beaten.
+Others were relashing the galley, hauling the loose anchor and all the
+anchors up on the rail, and resetting the loose lee rigging, which
+threatened at every lurch to let the masts go by the board.
+
+Thurstane presently learned that the wind had changed during the night, at
+first dropping away for a couple of hours, then reopening with fresh rage
+from the west, and finally hauling around into the northwest, whence it
+now came in a steady tempest. The vessel too had altered her course; she
+was no longer beating in long tacks toward the southeast; she was heading
+westward and struggling to get away from the land. Thurstane asked few
+questions; he was a soldier and had learned to meet fate in silence; he
+knew too that men weighted with responsibilities do not like to be
+catechised. But he guessed from the frequent anxious looks of the captain
+eastward that the California coast was perilously near, and that the brig
+was more likely to be drifting toward it than making headway from it.
+Surveying through his closed hands the stormy windward horizon, he gave up
+all thoughts of getting away from Clara by reaching San Diego, and turned
+toward the idea of saving her from shipwreck.
+
+None of the other passengers came on deck this morning. Garcia, horribly
+seasick and frightened, held on desperately to his berth, and passed the
+time in screaming for the "stewrt," cursing his evil surroundings, calling
+everybody he could think of pigs, dogs, etc., and praying to saints and
+angels. Coronado, not less sick and blasphemous, had more command over his
+fears, and kept his prayers for the last pinch. Clara, a much better
+sailor, and indeed an uncommonly good one, was so far beaten by the motion
+that she did not get up, but lay as quiet as the brig would let her,
+patiently awaiting results, now and then smiling at Garcia's shouts, but
+more frequently thinking of Thurstane, and sometimes praying that she
+might find him alive at Fort Yuma.
+
+The steward carried cold beef, hard bread, brandy, coffee, and gruel (made
+in his pantry) from stateroom to stateroom. The girl ate heartily,
+inquired about the storm, and asked, "When shall we get there?" Garcia and
+Coronado tried a little of the gruel and a good deal of the brandy and
+water, and found, as people usually do under such circumstances, that
+nothing did them any good. The old man wanted to ask the steward a hundred
+questions, and yelled for his nephew to come and translate for him.
+Coronado, lying on his back, made no answer to these cries of despair,
+except in muttered curses and sniffs of angry laughter. So passed the
+morning in the cabin.
+
+Thurstane remained on deck, eating in soldierly fashion, his pockets full
+of cold beef and crackers, and his canteen (for every infantry officer
+learns to carry one) charged with hot coffee. He was pretty wet, inasmuch
+as the spray showered incessantly athwart ships, while every few minutes
+heavy seas came over the quarter bulwarks, slamming upon the deck like the
+tail of a shark in his agonies. During the morning several great combers
+had surmounted the port bow and rushed aft, carrying along everything
+loose or that could be loosened, and banging against the companion door
+with the force of a runaway horse. And these deluges grew more frequent,
+for the gale was steadily increasing in violence, howling and shrieking
+out of the gilded eastern horizon as if Lucifer and his angels had been
+hurled anew from heaven.
+
+About noon the close-reefed foretopsail burst open from earing to earing,
+and then ripped up to the yard, the corners stretching out before the wind
+and cracking like musket shots. To set it again was impossible; the orders
+came, "Down yard--haul out reef tackle;" then half a dozen men laid out on
+the spar and began furling. Scarcely was this terrible job well under way
+when a whack of the slatting sail struck a Kanaka boy from his hold, and
+he was carried to leeward by the gale as if he had been a bag of old
+clothes, dropping forty feet from the side into the face of a monstrous
+billow. He swam for a moment, but the next wave combed over him and he
+disappeared. Then he was seen further astern, still swimming and with his
+face toward the brig; then another vast breaker rushed upon him with a
+lion-like roar, and he was gone. Nothing could be done; no boat might live
+in such a sea; it would have been perilous to change course. The captain
+glanced at the unfortunate, clenched his fists desperately, and turned to
+his rigging. Another man took the vacant place on the yard, and the hard,
+dizzy, frightful labor there went on unflaggingly, with the usual cries of
+"Haul out, knot away," etc. It was one of the forms of a sailor's funeral.
+
+No time for comments or emotions; the gale filled every mind every minute.
+It was soon found that the spanker, a pretty large sail, well aft and not
+balanced by any canvas at the bow, drew too heavily on the stern and made
+steering almost impossible. A couple of Kanakas were ordered to reef it,
+but could do nothing with it; the skipper cursed them for "sojers" (our
+infantryman smiling at the epithet) and sent two first-class hands to
+replace them; but these also were completely beaten by the hurricane. It
+was not till a whole watch was put at the job that the big, bellying sheet
+could be hauled in and made fast in the reef knots. The brig now had not a
+rag out but her spencer and reduced spanker, both strong, small, and low
+sails, eased a good deal by their slant, shielded by the elevated
+port-rail, and thus likely to hold. But it was not sailing; it was simply
+lying to. The vessel rose and fell on the monstrous waves, but made
+scarcely more headway than would a tub, and drifted fast toward the still
+unseen California coast.
+
+All might still have gone well had the northwester continued as it was.
+But about noon this tempest, which already seemed as furious as it could
+possibly be, suddenly increased to an absolute hurricane, the wind fairly
+shoving the brig sidelong over the water. Bang went the spanker, and then
+bang the spencer, both sails at once flying out to leeward in streamers,
+and flapping to tatters before the men could spring on the booms to secure
+them. The destruction was almost as instant and complete as if it had been
+effected by the broadside of a seventy-four fired at short range.
+
+"Bend on the new spencer," shouted the captain. "Out with it and up with
+it before she rolls the sticks out of her."
+
+But the rolling commenced instantly, giving the sailors no time for their
+work. No longer steadied by the wind, the vessel was entirely at the mercy
+of the sea, and went twice on her beam ends for every billow, first to lee
+and then to windward. Presently a great, white, hissing comber rose above
+her larboard bulwark, hung there for a moment as if gloating on its prey,
+and fell with the force of an avalanche, shaking every spar and timber
+into an ague, deluging the main deck breast high, and swashing knee-deep
+over the quarter-deck. The galley, with the cook in it, was torn from its
+lashings and slung overboard as if it had been a hencoop. The companion
+doors were stove in as if by a battering ram, and the cabin was flooded in
+an instant with two feet of water, slopping and lapping among the baggage,
+and stealing under the doors of the staterooms. The sailors in the waist
+only saved themselves by rushing into the rigging during the moment in
+which the breaker hung suspended.
+
+Nothing could be done; the vessel must lift herself from this state of
+submergence; and so she did, slowly and tremulously, like a sick man
+rising from his bed. But while the ocean within was still running out of
+her scuppers, the ocean without assaulted her anew. Successive billows
+rolled under her, careening her dead weight this way and that, and keeping
+her constantly wallowing. No rigging could bear such jerking long, and
+presently the dreaded catastrophe came.
+
+The larboard stays of the foremast snapped first; then the shrouds on the
+same side doubled in a great bight and parted; next the mast, with a loud,
+shrieking crash, splintered and went by the board. It fell slowly and with
+an air of dignified, solemn resignation, like Caesar under the daggers of
+the conspirators. The cross stays flew apart like cobwebs, but the lee
+shrouds unfortunately held good; and scarcely was the stick overboard
+before there was an ominous thumping at the sides, the drum-beat of death.
+It was like guns turned on their own columns; like Pyrrhus's elephants
+breaking the phalanx of Pyrrhus.
+
+"Axes!" roared the captain at the first crack. "Axes!" yelled the mate as
+the spar reeled into the water. "Lay forward and clear the wreck," were
+the next orders; "cut away with your knives."
+
+Two axes were got up from below; the sailors worked like beavers,
+waist-deep in water; one, who had lost his knife, tore at the ropes with
+his teeth. After some minutes of reeling, splashing, chopping, and
+cutting, the fallen mast, the friend who had become an enemy, the angel
+who had become a demon, was sent drifting through the creamy foam to
+leeward. Meantime the mate had sounded the pumps, and brought out of them
+a clear stream of water, the fresh invasion of ocean.
+
+Directly on this cruel discovery, and as if to heighten its horror to the
+utmost, the captain, clinging high up the mainmast shrouds, shouted,
+"Landa-lee! Get ready the boats."
+
+Without a word Thurstane hurried down into the cabin to save Clara from
+this twofold threatening of death.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+
+When Thurstane got into the cabin, he found it pretty nearly clear of
+water, the steward having opened doors and trap-doors and drawn off the
+deluge into the hold.
+
+The first object that he saw, or could see, was Clara, curled up in a
+chair which was lashed to the mast, and secured in it by a lanyard. As he
+paused at the foot of the stairway to steady himself against a sickening
+lurch, she uttered a cry of joy and astonishment, and held out her hand.
+The cry was not speech; her gladness was far beyond words; it was simply
+the first utterance of nature; it was the primal inarticulate language.
+
+He had expected to stand at a distance and ask her leave to save her life.
+Instead of that, he hurried toward her, caught her in his arms, kissed her
+hand over and over, called her pet names, uttered a pathetic moan of grief
+and affection, and shook with inward sobbing. He did not understand her;
+he still believed that she had rejected him--believed that she only
+reached out to him for help. But he never thought of charging her with
+being false or hard-hearted or selfish. At the mere sight of her asking
+rescue of him he devoted himself to her. He dared to kiss her and call her
+dearest, because it seemed to him that in this awful moment of perhaps
+mortal separation he might show his love. If they were to be torn apart by
+death, and sepulchred possibly in different caves of the ocean, surely his
+last farewell might be a kiss.
+
+If she talked to him, he scarcely heard her words, and did not realize
+their meaning. If it was indeed true that she kissed his cheek, he thought
+it was because she wanted rescue and would thank any one for it. She was,
+as he understood her, like a pet animal, who licks the face of any friend
+in need, though a stranger. Never mind; he loved her just the same as if
+she were not selfish; he would serve her just the same as if she were
+still his. He unloosed her arms from his shoulders, wondering that they
+should be there, and crawling with difficulty to the cabin locker, groped
+in it for life-preservers. There was only one in the vessel; that one he
+buckled around Clara.
+
+"Oh, my darling!" she exclaimed; "what do you mean?"
+
+"My darling!" he echoed, "bear it bravely. There is great danger; but
+don't be afraid--I will save you."
+
+He had no doubts in making this promise; it seemed to him that he could
+overcome the billows for her sake--that he could make himself stronger
+than the powers of nature.
+
+"Where did you come from? from another vessel?" she asked, stretching out
+her arms to him again.
+
+"I was here," he said, taking and kissing her hands; "I was here, watching
+over you. But there is no time to lose. Let me carry you."
+
+"They must be saved," returned Clara, pointing to the staterooms. "Garcia
+and Coronado are there."
+
+Should he try to deliver those enemies from death? He did not hesitate a
+moment about it, but bursting open the doors of the two rooms he shouted,
+"On deck with you! Into the boats! We are sinking!"
+
+Next he set Clara down, passed his left arm around her waist, clung to
+things with his right hand, dragged her up the companionway to the
+quarter-deck, and lashed her to the weather shrouds, with her feet on the
+wooden leader. Not a word was spoken during the five minutes occupied by
+this short journey. Even while Clara was crossing the deck a frothing
+comber deluged her to her waist, and Thurstane had all he could do to keep
+her from being flung into the lee scuppers. But once he had her fast and
+temporarily safe, he made a great effort to smile cheerfully, and said,
+"Never fear; I won't leave you."
+
+"Oh! to meet to die!" she sobbed, for the strength of the water and the
+rage of the surrounding sea had frightened her. "Oh, it is cruel!"
+
+Presently she smothered her crying, and implored, "Come up here and tie
+yourself by my side; I want to hold your hand."
+
+He wondered whether she loved him again, now that she saw him; and in
+spite of the chilling seas and the death at hand, he thrilled warm at the
+thought. He was about to obey her when Coronado and Garcia appeared, pale
+as two ghosts, clinging to each other, tottering and helpless. Thurstane
+went to them, got the old man lashed to one of the backstays, and helped
+Coronado to secure himself to another. Garcia was jabbering prayers and
+crying aloud like a scared child, his jaws shaking as if in a palsy.
+Coronado, although seeming resolved to bear himself like an hidalgo and
+maintain a grim silence, his face was wilted and seamed with anxiety, as
+if he had become an old man in the night. It was rather a fine sight to
+see him looking into the face of the storm with an air of defying death
+and all that it might bring; and perhaps he would have been helpful, and
+would have shown himself one of the bravest of the brave, had he not been
+prostrated by sickness. As it was, he took little interest in the fate of
+others, hardly noticing Thurstane as he resumed his post beside Clara, and
+only addressing the girl with one word: "Patience!"
+
+Clara and Thurstane, side by side and hand in hand, were also for the most
+part silent, now looking around them upon their fate, and then at each
+other for strength to bear it.
+
+Meantime part of the crew had tried the pumps, and been washed away from
+them twice by seas, floating helplessly about the main deck, and clutching
+at rigging to save themselves, but nevertheless discovering that the brig
+was filling but slowly, and would have full time to strike before she
+could founder.
+
+"'Vast there!" called the captain; "'vast the pumps! All hands stand by to
+launch the boats!"
+
+"Long boat's stove!" shouted the mate, putting his hands to his mouth so
+as to be heard through the gale.
+
+"All hands aft!" was the next order. "Stand by to launch the
+quarter-boats!"
+
+So the entire remaining crew--two mates and eight men, including the
+steward--splashed and clambered on to the quarter-deck and took station by
+the boat-falls, hanging on as they could.
+
+"Can I do anything?" asked Thurstane.
+
+"Not yet," answered the captain; "you are doing what's right; take care of
+the lady."
+
+"What are the chances?" the lieutenant ventured now to inquire.
+
+With fate upon him, and seemingly irresistible, the skipper had dropped
+his grim air of conflict and become gentle, almost resigned. His voice was
+friendly, sympathetic, and quite calm, as he stepped up by Thurstane's
+side and said, "We shall have a tough time of it. The land is only about
+ten miles away. At this rate we shall strike it inside of three hours. I
+don't see how it can be helped."
+
+"Where shall we strike?"
+
+"Smack into the Bay of Monterey, between the town and Point Pinos.'
+
+"Can I do anything?"
+
+"Do just what you've got in hand. Take care of the lady. See that she gets
+into the biggest boat--if we try the boats."
+
+Clara overheard, gave the skipper a kind look, and said, "Thank you,
+captain."
+
+"You're fit to be capm of a liner, miss," returned the sailor. "You're one
+of the best sort."
+
+For some time longer, while waiting for the final catastrophe, nothing was
+done but to hold fast and gaze. The voyagers were like condemned men who
+are preceded, followed, accompanied, jostled, and hurried to the place of
+death by a vindictive people. The giants of the sea were coming in
+multitudes to this execution which they had ordained; all the windward
+ocean was full of rising and falling billows, which seemed to trample one
+another down in their savage haste. There was no mercy in the formless
+faces which grimaced around the doomed ones, nor in the tempestuous voices
+which deafened them with threatenings and insult. The breakers seemed to
+signal to each other; they were cruelly eloquent with menacing gestures.
+There was but one sentence among them, and that sentence was a thousand
+times repeated, and it was always DEATH.
+
+To paint the shifting sublimity of the tempest is as difficult as it was
+to paint the steadfast sublimity of the Great Cañon. The waves were in
+furious movement, continual change, and almost incessant death. They
+destroyed themselves and each other by their violence. Scarcely did one
+become eminent before it was torn to pieces by its comrades, or perished
+of its own rage. They were like barbarous hordes, exterminating one
+another or falling into dissolution, while devastating everything in their
+course.
+
+There was a frantic revelry, an indescribable pandemonium of
+transformations. Lofty plumes of foam fell into hoary, flattened sheets;
+curling and howling cataracts became suddenly deep hollows. The indigo
+slopes were marbled with white, but not one of these mottlings retained
+the same shape for an instant; it was broad, deep, and creamy when the eye
+first beheld it; in the next breath it was waving, shallow, and narrow; in
+the next it was gone. A thousand eddies, whirls, and ebullitions of all
+magnitudes appeared only to disappear. Great and little jets of froth
+struggled from the agitated centres toward the surface, and never reached
+it. Every one of the hundred waves which made up each billow rapidly
+tossed and wallowed itself to death.
+
+Yet there was no diminution in the spectacle, no relaxation in the combat.
+In the place of what vanished there was immediately something else. Out of
+the quick grave of one surge rose the white plume of another. Marbling
+followed marbling, and cataract overstrode cataract. Even to their bases
+the oceanic ranges and peaks were full of power, activity, and, as it
+were, explosions. It seemed as if endless multitudes of transformations
+boiled up through them from their abodes in sea-deep caves. There was no
+exhausting this reproductiveness of form and power. At every glance a
+thousand worlds of waters had perished, and a thousand worlds of waters
+had been created. And all these worlds, the new even more than the old,
+were full of malignity toward the wreck, and bent on its destruction.
+
+The wind, though invisible, was not less wonderful. It surpassed the ocean
+in strength, for it chased, gashed, and deformed the ocean. It inflicted
+upon it countless wounds, slashing fresh ones as fast as others healed. It
+not only tore off the hoary scalps of the billows and flung them through
+the air, but it wrenched out and hurled large masses of water, scattering
+them in rain and mist, the blood of the sea. Now and then it made all the
+air dense with spray, causing the Pacific to resemble the Sahara in a
+simoom. At other times it levelled the tops of scores of waves at once,
+crushing and kneading them by the immense force that lay in its swiftness.
+
+It would not be looked in the face; it blinded the eyes that strove to
+search it; it seemed to flap and beat them with harsh, churlish wings; it
+was as full of insult as the billows. Its cry was not multitudinous like
+that of the sea, but one and incessant and invariable, a long scream that
+almost hissed. On reaching the wreck, however, this shriek became hoarse
+with rage, and howled as it shook the rigging. It used the shrouds and
+stays of the still upright mainmast as an aeolian harp from which to draw
+horrible music. It made the tense ropes tremble and thrill, and tortured
+the spars until they wailed a death-song. Its force as felt by the
+shipwrecked ones was astonishing; it beat them about as if it were a sea,
+and bruised them against the shrouds and bulwarks; it asserted its mastery
+over them with the long-drawn cruelty of a tiger.
+
+Just around the wreck the tumult of both wind and sea was of course more
+horrible than anywhere else. These enemies were infuriated by the
+sluggishness of the disabled hulk; they treated it as Indians treat a
+captive who cannot keep up with their march; they belabored it with blows
+and insulted it with howls. The brig, constantly tossed and dropped and
+shoved, was never still for an instant. It rolled heavily and somewhat
+slowly, but with perpetual jerks and jars, shuddering at every concussion.
+Its only regularity of movement lay in this, that the force of the wind
+and direction of the waves kept it larboard side on, drifting steadily
+toward the land.
+
+One moment it was on a lofty crest, seeming as if it would be hurled into
+air. The next it was rolling in the trough of the sea, between a wave
+which hoarsely threatened to engulf it, and another which rushed seething
+and hissing from beneath the keel. The deck stood mostly at a steep angle,
+the weather bulwarks being at a considerable elevation, and the lee ones
+dipping the surges. Against this helpless and partially water-logged mass
+the combers rushed incessantly, hiding it every few seconds with sheets of
+spray, and often sweeping it with deluges. Around the stern and bow the
+rush of bubbling, roaring whirls was uninterrupted.
+
+The motion was sickly and dismaying, like the throes of one who is dying.
+It could not be trusted; it dropped away under the feet traitorously;
+then, by an insolent surprise, it violently stopped or lifted. It was made
+the more uncertain and distressing by the swaying of the water which had
+entered the hull. Sometimes, too, the under boiling of a crushed billow
+caused a great lurch to windward; and after each of these struggles came a
+reel to leeward which threatened to turn the wreck bottom up; the breakers
+meantime leaping aboard with loud stampings as if resolved to beat through
+the deck.
+
+During hours of this tossing and plunging, this tearing of the wind and
+battering of the sea, no one was lost. The sailors were clustered around
+the boats, some clinging to the davits and others lashed to belaying pins,
+exhausted by long labor, want of sleep, and constant soakings, but ready
+to fight for life to the last. Coronado and Garcia were still fast to the
+backstays, the former a good deal wilted by his hardships, and the latter
+whimpering. Thurstane had literally seized up Clara to the outside of the
+weather shrouds, so that, although she was terribly jammed by the wind,
+she could not be carried away by it, while she was above the heaviest
+pounding of the seas. His own position was alongside of her, secured in
+like manner by ends of cordage.
+
+Sometimes he held her hand, and sometimes her waist. She could lean her
+shoulder against his, and she did so nearly all the while. Her eyes were
+fixed as often on his face as on the breakers which threatened her life.
+The few words that she spoke were more likely to be confessions of love
+than of terror. Now and then, when a billow of unusual size had slipped
+harmlessly by, he gratefully and almost joyously drew her close to him,
+uttering a few syllables of cheer. She thanked him by sending all her
+affectionate heart through her eyes into his.
+
+Although there had been no explanations as to the past, they understood
+each other's present feelings. It could not be, he was sure, that she
+clung to him thus and looked at him thus merely because she wanted him to
+save her life. She had been detached from him by others, he said; she had
+been drawn away from thinking of him during his absence; she had been
+brought to judge, perhaps wisely, that she ought not to marry a poor man;
+but now that she saw him again she loved him as of old, and, standing at
+death's door, she felt at liberty to confess it. Thus did he translate to
+himself a past that had no existence. He still believed that she had
+dismissed him, and that she had done it with cruel harshness. But he could
+not resent her conduct; he believed what he did and forgave her; he
+believed it, and loved her.
+
+There were moments when it was delightful for them to be as they were. As
+they held fast to each other, though drenched and exhausted and in mortal
+peril, they had a sensation as if they were warm. The hearts were beating
+hotly clean through the wet frames and the dripping clothing.
+
+"Oh, my love!" was a phrase which Clara repeated many times with an air of
+deep content.
+
+Once she said, "My love, I never thought to die so easily. How horrible it
+would have been without you!"
+
+Again she murmured, "I have prayed many, many times to have you. I did not
+know how the answer would come. But this is it."
+
+"My darling, I have had visions about you," was another of these
+confessions. "When I had been praying for you nearly all one night, there
+was a great light came into the room. It was some promise for you. I knew
+it was then; something told me so. Oh, how happy I was!"
+
+Presently she added, "My dear love, we shall be just as happy as that. We
+shall live in great light together. God will be pleased to see plainly how
+we love each other."
+
+Her only complaints were a patient "Isn't it hard?" when a new billow had
+covered her from head to foot, crushed her pitilessly against the shrouds,
+and nearly smothered her.
+
+The next words would perhaps be, "I am so sorry for you, my darling. I
+wish for your sake that you had not come. But oh, how you help me!"
+
+"I am glad to be here," firmly and honestly and passionately responded the
+young man, raising her wet hand and covering it with kisses. "But you
+shall not die."
+
+He was bearing like a man and she like a woman. He was resolved to fight
+his battle to the last; she was weak, resigned, gentle, and ready for
+heaven.
+
+The land, even to its minor features, was now distinctly visible, not more
+than a mile to leeward. As they rose on the billows they could distinguish
+the long beach, the grassy slopes, and wooded knolls beyond it, the green
+lawn on which stood the village of Monterey, the whitewashed walls and
+red-tiled roofs of the houses, and the groups of people who were watching
+the oncoming tragedy.
+
+"Are you not going to launch the boats?" shouted Thurstane after a glance
+at the awful line of frothing breakers which careered back and forth
+athwart the beach.
+
+"They are both stove," returned the captain calmly. "We must go ashore as
+we are."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+
+When Thurstane heard, or rather guessed from the captain's gestures, that
+the boats were stove, he called, "Are we to do nothing?"
+
+The captain shouted something in reply, but although he put his hands to
+his mouth for a speaking trumpet, his words were inaudible, and he would
+not have been understood had he not pointed aloft.
+
+Thurstane looked upward, and saw for the first time that the main topmast
+had broken off and been cut clear, probably hours ago when he was in the
+cabin searching for Clara. The top still remained, however, and twisted
+through its openings was one end of a hawser, the other end floating off
+to leeward two hundred yards in advance of the wreck. Fastened to the
+hawser by a large loop was a sling of cordage, from which a long halyard
+trailed shoreward, while another connected it with the top. All this had
+been done behind his back and without his knowledge, so deafening and
+absorbing was the tempest. He saw at once what was meant and what he would
+have to do. When the brig struck he must carry Clara into the top, secure
+her in the sling, and send her ashore. Doubtless the crowd on the beach
+would know enough to make the hawser fast and pull on the halyard.
+
+The captain shouted again, and this time he could be understood: "When she
+strikes hold hard."
+
+"Did you hear him?" Thurstane asked, turning to Clara.
+
+"Yes," she nodded, and smiled in his face, though faintly like one dying.
+He passed one arm around the middle stay of the shrouds and around her
+waist, passed the other in front of her, covering her chest; and so, with
+every muscle set, he waited.
+
+Surrounded, pursued, pushed, and hammered by the billows, the wreck
+drifted, rising and falling, starting and wallowing toward the awful line
+where the breakers plunged over the undertow and dashed themselves to
+death on the resounding shore. There was a wide debatable ground between
+land and water. One moment it belonged to earth, the next lofty curling
+surges foamed howling over it; then the undertow was flying back in savage
+torrents. Would the hawser reach across this flux and reflux of death?
+Would the mast hold against the grounding shock? Would the sling work?
+
+They lurched nearer; the shock was close at hand; every one set teeth and
+tightened grip. Lifted on a monstrous billow, which was itself lifted by
+the undertow and the shelving of the beach, the hulk seemed as if it were
+held aloft by some demon in order that it might be dashed to pieces. But
+the wave lost its hold, swept under the keel, staggered wildly up the
+slope, broke in a huge white deafening roll, and rushed backward in
+torrents. The brig was between two forces; it struck once, but not
+heavily; then, raised by the incoming surge, it struck again; there was an
+awful consciousness and uproar of beating and grinding; the next instant
+it was on its beam ends and covered with cataracts.
+
+Every one aboard was submerged. Thurstane and Clara were overwhelmed by
+such a mass of water that they thought themselves at the bottom of the
+sea. Two men who had not mounted the rigging, but tried to cling to the
+boat davits, were hurled adrift and sent to agonize in the undertow. The
+brig trembled as if it were on the point of breaking up and dissolving in
+the horrible, furious yeast of breakers. Even to the people on shore the
+moment and the spectacle were sublime and tremendous beyond description.
+The vessel and the people on board disappeared for a time from their sight
+under jets and cascades of surf. The spray rose in a dense sheet as high
+as the maintopmast would have been had it stood upright.
+
+When Thurstane came out of his state of temporary drowning, he was
+conscious of two sailors clambering by him toward the top, and heard a
+shout in his ears of "Cast loose."
+
+It was the captain. He had sprung alongside of Clara, and was already
+unwinding her lashings. Thrice before the job was done they were buried in
+surf, and during the third trial they had to hold on with their hands, the
+two men clasping the girl desperately and pressing her against the
+rigging. It was a wonder that she and all of them were not disabled, for
+the jamming of the water was enough to break bones.
+
+They got her up a few ratlines; then came another surge, during which they
+gripped hard; then there was a second ascent, and so on. The climbing was
+the easier and the holding on the more difficult, because the mast was
+depressed to a low angle, its summit being hardly ten feet higher than its
+base. Even in the top there was a desperate struggle with the sea, and
+even after Clara was in the sling she was half drowned by the surf.
+
+Meantime the people on shore had made fast the hawser to a tree and manned
+the halyard. Not a word was uttered by Clara or Thurstane when they
+parted, for she was speechless with exhaustion and he with anxiety and
+terror. The moment he let go of her he had to grip a loop of top-hamper
+and hold on with all his might to save himself from being pitched into the
+water by a fresh jerk of the mast and a fresh inundation of flying surge.
+When he could look at her again she was far out on the hawser, rising and
+falling in quick, violent, perilous swings, caught at by the toppling
+breakers and howled at by the undertow. Another deluge blinded him; as
+soon as he could he gazed shoreward again, and shrieked with joy; she was
+being carefully lifted from the sling; she was saved--if she was not dead.
+
+When the apparatus was hauled back to the top the captain said to
+Thurstane, "Your turn now."
+
+The young man hesitated, glanced around for Coronado and Garcia, and
+replied, "Those first."
+
+It was not merely humanity, and not at all good-will toward these two men,
+which held him back from saving his life first; it was mainly that motto
+of nobility, that phrase which has such a mighty influence in the army,
+"_An officer and a gentleman_." He believed that he would disgrace his
+profession and himself if he should quit the wreck while any civilian
+remained upon it.
+
+Coronado, leaving his uncle to the care of a sailor, had already climbed
+the shrouds, and was now crawling through the lubber hole into the top.
+For once his hardihood was beaten; he was pale, tremulous and obviously in
+extreme terror; he clutched at the sling the moment he was pointed to it.
+With the utmost care, and without even a look of reproach, Thurstane
+helped secure him in the loops and launched him on his journey. Next came
+the turn of Garcia. The old man seemed already dead. He was livid, his
+lips blue, his hands helpless, his voice gone, his eyes glazed and set. It
+was necessary to knot him into the sling as tightly as if he were a
+corpse; and when he reached shore it could be seen that he was borne off
+like a dead weight.
+
+"Now then," said the captain to Thurstane. "We can't go till you do.
+Passengers first."
+
+Exhausted by his drenchings, and by a kind of labor to which he was not
+accustomed, the lieutenant obeyed this order, took his place in the sling,
+nodded good-by to the brave sailors, and was hurled out of the top by a
+plunge of surf, as a criminal is pushed from the cart by the hangman.
+
+No idea has been given, and no complete idea can be given, of the
+difficulties, sufferings, and perils of this transit shoreward. Owing to
+the rising and falling of the mast, the hawser now tautened with a jerk
+which flung the voyager up against it or even over it, and now drooped in
+a large bight which let him down into the seethe of water and foam that
+had just rushed over the vessel, forcing it down on its beam ends.
+Thurstane was four or five times tossed and as often submerged. The waves,
+the wind, and the wreck played with him successively or all together. It
+was an outrage and a torment which surpassed some of the tortures of the
+Inquisition. First came a quick and breathless plunge; then he was
+imbedded in the rushing, swirling waters, drumming in his ears and
+stifling his breath; then he was dragged swiftly upward, the sling turning
+him out of it. It seemed to him that the breath would depart from his body
+before the transit was over. When at last he landed and was detached from
+the cordage, he was so bruised, so nearly drowned, so every way exhausted,
+that he could not stand. He lay for quite a while motionless, his head
+swimming, his legs and arms twitching convulsively, every joint and muscle
+sore, catching his breath with painful gasps, almost fainting, and feeling
+much as if he were dying.
+
+He had meant to help save the captain and sailors. But there was no more
+work in him, and he just had strength to walk up to the village, a citizen
+holding him by either arm. As soon as he could speak so as to be
+understood, he asked, first in English and then in Spanish, "How is the
+lady?"
+
+"She is insensible," was the reply--a reply of unmeant cruelty.
+
+Remembering how he had suffered, Thurstane feared lest Clara had received
+her death-stroke in the slings, and he tottered forward eagerly, saying,
+"Take me to her."
+
+Arrived at the house where she lay, he insisted upon seeing her, and had
+his way. He was led into a room; he did not see and could never remember
+what sort of a room it was; but there she was in bed, her face pale and
+her eyes closed; he thought she was dead, and he nearly fell. But a
+pitying womanly voice murmured to him, "She lives," with other words that
+he did not understand, or could not afterward recall. Trusting that this
+unconsciousness was a sleep, he suffered himself to be drawn away by
+helping hands, and presently was himself in a bed, not knowing how he got
+there.
+
+Meantime the tragedy of the wreck was being acted out. The sling broke
+once, the sailor who was in it falling into the undertow, and perishing
+there in spite of a rush of the townspeople. One of the two men who were
+washed overboard at the first shock was also drowned. The rest escaped,
+including the heroic captain, who was the last to come ashore.
+
+When Thurstane was again permitted to see Clara, it was, to his great
+astonishment, the morning of the following day. He had slept like the
+dead; if any one had sought to awaken him, it would have been almost
+impossible; there was no strength left in body or spirt but for sleep.
+Clara's story had been much the same: insensibility, then swoons, then
+slumber; twelve hours of utter unconsciousness. On waking the first words
+of each were to ask for the other. Thurstane put on his scarcely dried
+uniform and hurried to the girl's room. She received him at the door, for
+she had heard his step although it was on tiptoe, and she knew his knock
+although as light as the beating of a bird's wing.
+
+It was another of those interviews which cannot be described, and perhaps
+should not be. They were uninterrupted, for the ladies of the house had
+learned from Clara that this was her betrothed, and they had woman's sense
+of the sacredness of such meetings. Presents came, and were not sent in:
+Coronado called and was not admitted. The two were alone for two hours,
+and the two hours passed like two minutes. Of course all the ugly past was
+explained.
+
+"A letter dismissing you!" exclaimed Clara with tears. "Oh! how could you
+think that I would write such a letter? Never--never! Oh, I never could.
+My hand should drop off first. I should die in trying to write such
+wickedness. What! don't you know me better? Don't you know that I am true
+to you? Oh, how could you believe it of me? My darling, how could you?"
+
+"Forgive me," begged the humbled young fellow, trembling with joy in his
+humility. "It was weak and wicked in me. I deserved to be punished as I
+have been. And, oh, I did not deserve this happiness. But, my little girl,
+how could I help being deceived? There was your handwriting and your
+signature."
+
+"Ah! I know who it was," broke out Clara. "It has been he all through. He
+shall pay for this, and for all," she added, her Spanish blood rising in
+her cheeks, and her soft eyes sparkling angrily for a minute.
+
+"I have saved his life for the last time," returned Thurstane. "I have
+spared it for the last time. Hereafter--"
+
+"My darling, my darling!" begged Clara, alarmed by his blackening brow.
+"Oh, my darling, I don't love to see you angry. Just now, when we have
+just been spared to each other, don't let us be angry. I spoke angrily
+first. Forgive me."
+
+"Let him keep out of my way," muttered Thurstane, only in part pacified.
+
+"Yes," answered Clara, thinking that she would herself send Coronado off,
+so that there might be no duel between him and this dear one.
+
+Presently the lover added one thing which he had felt all the time ought
+to have been said at first.
+
+"The letter--it was right. Although _he_ wrote it, it was right. I have no
+claim to marry a rich woman, and you have no right to marry a poor man."
+
+He uttered this in profound misery, and yet with a firm resolution. Clara
+turned pale and stared at him with anxious eyes, her lips parted as though
+to speak, but saying nothing. Knowing his fastidious sense of honor, she
+guessed the full force with which this scruple weighed upon him, and she
+did not know how to drag it off his soul.
+
+"You are worth a million," he went on, in a broken-hearted sort of voice
+which to us may seem laughable, but which brought the tears into Clara's
+eyes.
+
+The next instant she brightened; she knew, or thought she knew, that she
+was not worth a million; so she smiled like a sunburst and caught him
+gayly by the wrists.
+
+"A million!" she scoffed, laughingly. "Do you believe all Coronado tells
+you?"
+
+"What! isn't it true?" exclaimed Thurstane, reddening with joy. "Then you
+are not heir to your grandfather's fortune? It was one of _his_ lies? Oh,
+my little girl, I am forever happy."
+
+She had not meant all this; but how could she undeceive him? The tempting
+thought came into her mind that she would marry him while he was in this
+ignorance, and so relieve him of his noble scruples about taking an
+heiress. It was one of those white lies which, it seems to us, must fade
+out of themselves from the record book, without even needing to be blotted
+by the tear of an angel.
+
+"Are you glad?" she smiled, though anxious at heart, for deception alarmed
+her. "Really glad to find me poor?"
+
+His only response was to cover her hands, and hair, and forehead with
+kisses.
+
+At last came the question, When? Clara hesitated; her face and neck
+bloomed with blushes as dewy as flowers; she looked at him once piteously,
+and then her gaze fell in beautiful shame.
+
+"When would you like?" she at last found breath to whisper.
+
+"Now--here," was the answer, holding both her hands and begging with his
+blue-black eyes, as soft then as a woman's.
+
+"Yes, at once," he continued to implore. "It is best everyway. It will
+save you from persecutions. My love, is it not best?"
+
+Under the circumstances we cannot wonder that this should be just as she
+desired.
+
+"Yes--it is--best," she murmured, hiding her face against his shoulder.
+"What you say is true. It will save me trouble."
+
+After a short heaven of silence he added, "I will go and see what is
+needed. I must find a priest."
+
+As he was departing she caught him; it seemed to her just then that she
+could not be a wife so soon; but the result was that after another silence
+and a faint sobbing, she let him go.
+
+Meantime Coronado, that persevering and audacious but unlucky conspirator,
+was in treble trouble. He was afraid that he would lose Clara; afraid that
+his plottings had been brought to light, and that he would be punished;
+afraid that his uncle would die and thus deprive him of all chance of
+succeeding to any part of the estate of Muñoz. Garcia had been brought
+ashore apparently at his last gasp, and he had not yet come out of his
+insensibility. For a time Coronado hoped that he was in one of his fits;
+but after eighteen hours he gave up that feeble consolation; he became
+terribly anxious about the old man; he felt as though he loved him. The
+people of Monterey universally admitted that they had never before known
+such an affectionate nephew and tender-hearted Christian as Coronado.
+
+He tried to see Clara, meaning to make the most with her of Garcia's
+condition, and hoping that thus he could divert her a little from
+Thurstane. But somehow all his messages failed; the little house which
+held her repelled him as if it had been a nunnery; nor could he get a word
+or even a note from her. The truth is that Clara, fearing lest Coronado
+should tell more stories about her million to Thurstane, had taken the
+women of the family into her confidence and easily got them to lay a sly
+embargo on callers and correspondents.
+
+On the second day Garcia came to himself for a few minutes, and struggled
+hard to say something to his nephew, but could give forth only a feeble
+jabber, after which he turned blank again. Coronado, in the extreme of
+anxiety, now made another effort to get at Clara. Reaching her house, he
+learned from a bystander that she had gone out to walk with the Americano,
+and then he thought he discovered them entering the distant church.
+
+He set off at once in pursuit, asking himself with an anxiety which almost
+made him faint, "Are they to be married?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+
+In those days the hymeneal laws of California were as easy as old shoes,
+and people could espouse each other about as rapidly as they might want
+to.
+
+The consequence was that, although Ralph Thurstane and Clara Van Diemen
+had only been two days in Monterey and had gone through no forms of
+publication, they were actually being married when Coronado reached the
+village church.
+
+Leaning against the wall, with eyes as fixed and face as livid as if he
+were a corpse from the neighboring cemetery, he silently witnessed a
+ceremony which it would have been useless for him to interrupt, and then,
+stepping softly out of a side door, lurked away.
+
+He walked a quarter of a mile very fast, ran nearly another quarter of a
+mile, turned into a by-road, sought its thickest underbrush, threw himself
+on the ground, and growled. For once he had a heavier burden upon him than
+he could bear in human presence, or bear quietly anywhere. He must be
+alone; also he must weep and curse. He was in a state to tear his hair and
+to beat his head against the earth. Refined as Coronado usually was,
+admirably as he could imitate the tranquil gentleman of modern
+civilization, he still had in him enough of the natural man to rave. For a
+while he was as simple and as violent in his grief as ever was any
+Celtiberian cave-dweller of the stone age.
+
+Jealousy, disappointed love, disappointed greed, plans balked, labor lost,
+perils incurred in vain! All the calamities that he could most dread
+seemed to have fallen upon him together; he was like a man sucked by the
+arms of a polypus, dying in one moment many deaths. We must, however, do
+him the justice to believe that the wound which tore the sharpest was that
+which lacerated his heart. At this time, when he realized that he had
+altogether and forever lost Clara, he found that he loved her as he had
+never yet believed himself capable of loving. Considering the nobility of
+this passion, we must grant some sympathy to Coronado.
+
+Unfortunate as he was, another misfortune awaited him. When he returned to
+the house where Garcia lay, he found that the old man, his sole relative
+and sole friend, had expired. To Coronado this dead body was the carcass
+of all remaining hope. The exciting drama of struggle and expectation
+which had so violently occupied him for the last six months, and which had
+seemed to promise such great success, was over. Even if he could have
+resolved to kill Clara, there was no longer anything to be gained by it,
+for her money would not descend to Coronado. Even if he should kill
+Thurstane, that would be a harm rather than a benefit, for his widow would
+hate Coronado. If he did any evil deed now, it must be from jealousy or
+from vindictiveness. Was murder of any kind worth while? For the time,
+whether it were worth while or not, he was furious enough to do it.
+
+If he did not act, he must go; for as everything had miscarried, so much
+had doubtless been discovered, and he might fairly expect chastisement.
+While he hesitated a glance into the street showed him something which
+decided him, and sent him far from Monterey before sundown. Half a dozen
+armed horsemen, three of them obviously Americans, rode by with a pinioned
+prisoner, in whom Coronado recognized Texas Smith. He did not stop to
+learn that his old bravo had committed a murder in the village, and that a
+vigilance committee had sent a deputation after him to wait upon him into
+the other world. The sight of that haggard, scarred, wicked face, and the
+thought of what confessions the brute might be led to if he should
+recognize his former employer, were enough to make Coronado buy a horse
+and ride to unknown regions.
+
+Under the circumstances it would perhaps be unreasonable to blame him for
+leaving his uncle to be buried by Clara and Thurstane.
+
+These two, we easily understand, were not much astonished and not at all
+grieved by his departure.
+
+"He is gone," said Thurstane, when he learned the fact. "No wonder."
+
+"I am so glad!" replied Clara.
+
+"I suspect him now of being at the bottom of all our troubles."
+
+"Don't let us talk of it, my love. It is too ugly. The present is so
+beautiful!"
+
+"I must hurry back to San Francisco and try to get a leave of absence,"
+said the husband, turning to pleasanter subjects. "I want full leisure to
+be happy."
+
+"And you won't let them send you to San Diego?" begged the wife. "No more
+voyages now. If you do go, I shall go with you."
+
+"Oh no, my child. I can't trust the sea with you again. Not after this,"
+and he waved his hand toward the wreck of the brig.
+
+"Then I will beg myself for your leave of absence."
+
+Thurstane laughed; that would never do; no such condescension in _his_
+wife!
+
+They went by land to San Francisco, and Clara kept the secret of her
+million during the whole journey, letting her husband pay for everything
+out of his shallow pocket, precisely as if she had no money. Arrived in
+the city, he left her in a hotel and hurried to headquarters. Two hours
+later he returned smiling, with the news that a brother officer had
+volunteered to take his detail, and that he had obtained a honeymoon leave
+of absence for thirty days.
+
+"Barclay is a trump," he said. "It is all the prettier in him to go that
+he has a wife of his own. The commandant made no objection to the
+exchange. In fact the old fellow behaved like a father to me, shook hands,
+patted me on the shoulder, congratulated me, and all that sort of thing.
+Old boy, married himself, and very fond of his family. Upon my word, it
+seems to better a man's heart to marry him."
+
+"Of course it does," chimed in Clara. "He is so much happier that of
+course he is better."
+
+"Well, my little princess, where shall we go?"
+
+"Go first to see Aunt Maria. There! don't make a face. She is very good in
+the long run. She will be sweet enough to you in three days."
+
+"Of course I will go. Where is she?"
+
+"Boarding at a hacienda a few miles from town. We can take horses, canter
+out there, and pass the night."
+
+She was full of spirits; laughed and chattered all the way; laughed at
+everything that was said; chattered like a pleased child. Of course she
+was thinking of the surprise that she would give him, and how she had
+circumvented his sense of honor about marrying a rich girl, and how hard
+and fast she had him. Moreover the contrast between her joyous present and
+her anxious past was alone enough to make her run over with gayety. All
+her troubles had vanished in a pack; she had gone at one bound from
+purgatory to paradise.
+
+At the hacienda Thurstane was a little struck by the respect with which
+the servants received Clara; but as she signed to them to be silent, not a
+word was uttered which could give him a suspicion of the situation. Mrs.
+Stanley, moreover, was taking a siesta, and so there was another tell-tale
+mouth shut.
+
+"Nobody seems to be at home," said Clara, bursting into a merry laugh over
+her trick as they entered the house. "Where can the master and mistress
+be?"
+
+They were now in a large and handsomely furnished room, which was the
+parlor of the hacienda.
+
+"Don't sit down," cried Clara, her eyes sparkling with joy. "Stand just
+there as you are. Let me look at you a moment. Wait till I tell you
+something."
+
+She fronted him for a few seconds, watching his wondering face,
+hesitating, blushing, and laughing. Suddenly she bounded forward, threw
+her arms around his shoulders and cried excitedly, hysterically, "My love!
+my husband! all this is yours. Oh, how happy I am!"
+
+The next moment she burst into tears on the shoulder to which she was
+clinging.
+
+"What is the matter?" demanded Thurstane in some alarm; for he did not
+know that women can tremble and weep with gladness, and he thought that
+surely his wife was sick if not deranged.
+
+"What! don't you guess it?" she asked, drawing back with a little more
+calmness, and looking tenderly into his puzzled eyes.
+
+"You don't mean--?"
+
+"Yes, darling."
+
+"It can't be that--?"
+
+"Yes, darling."
+
+He began to comprehend the trick that had been played upon him, although
+as yet he could not fully credit it. What mainly bewildered him was that
+Clara, whom he had always supposed to be as artless as a child--Clara,
+whom he had cared for as an elder and a father--should have been able to
+keep a secret and devise a plot and carry out a mystification.
+
+"Great ---- Scott!" he gasped in his stupefaction, using the name of the
+then commander-in-chief for an oath, as officers sometimes did in those
+days.
+
+"Yes, yes, yes," laughed and chattered Clara. "Great Scott and great
+Thurstane! All yours. Three hundred thousand. Half a million. A million. I
+don't know how much. All I know is that it is all yours. Oh, my darling!
+oh, my darling! How I have fooled you! Are you angry with me? Say, are you
+angry? What will you do to me?"
+
+We must excuse Thurstane for finding no other chastisement than to squeeze
+her in his arms and choke her with kisses. Next he held her from him, set
+her down upon a sofa, fell back a pace and stared at her much as if she
+were a totally new discovery, something in the way of an arrival from the
+moon. He was in a state of profound amazement at the dexterity with which
+she had taken his destiny out of his own hands into hers, without his
+knowledge. He had not supposed that she was a tenth part so clever. For
+the first time he perceived that she was his match, if indeed she were not
+the superior nature; and it is a remarkable fact, though not a dark one if
+one looks well into it, that he respected her the more for being too much
+for him.
+
+"It beats Hannibal," he said at last. "Who would have expected such
+generalship in you? I am as much astonished as if you had turned into a
+knight in armor. Well, how much it has saved me! I should have hesitated
+and been miserable; and I should have married you all the same; and then
+been ashamed of marrying money, and had it rankle in me for years. And
+now--oh, you wise little thing!--all I can say is, I worship you."
+
+"Yes, darling," replied Clara, walking gravely up to him, putting her
+hands on his shoulders, and looking him thoughtfully in the eyes. "It was
+the wisest thing I ever did. Don't be afraid of me. I never shall be so
+clever again. I never shall be so tempted to be clever."
+
+We must pass over a few months. Thurstane soon found that he had the Muñoz
+estate in his hands, and that, for the while at least, it demanded all his
+time and industry. Moreover, there being no war and no chance of martial
+distinction, it seemed absurd to let himself be ordered about from one hot
+and cramped station to another, when he had money enough to build a
+palace, and a wife who could make it a paradise. Finally, he had a taste
+for the natural sciences, and his observations in the Great Cañon and
+among the other marvels of the desert had quickened this inclination to a
+passion, so that he craved leisure for the study of geology, mineralogy,
+and chemistry. He resigned his commission, established himself in San
+Francisco, bought all the scientific books he could hear of, made
+expeditions to the California mountains, collected garrets full of
+specimens, and was as happy as a physicist always is.
+
+Perhaps his happiness was just a little increased when Mrs. Stanley
+announced her intention of returning to New York. The lady had been
+amiable on the whole, as she meant always to be; but she could not help
+daily taking up her parable concerning the tyranny and stupidity of man
+and the superior virtue of woman; and sometimes she felt it her duty to
+put it to Thurstane that he owed everything to his wife; all of which was
+more or less wearing, even to her niece. At the same time she was such a
+disinterested, well-intentioned creature that it was impossible not to
+grant her a certain amount of admiration. For instance, when Clara
+proposed to make her comfortable for life by settling upon her fifty
+thousand dollars, she replied peremptorily that it was far too much for an
+old woman who had decided to turn her back on the frivolities of society,
+and she could with difficulty be brought to accept twenty thousand.
+
+Furthermore, she was capable, that is, in certain favored moments, of
+confessing error. "My dear," she said to Clara, some weeks after the
+marriage, "I have made one great mistake since I came to these countries.
+I believed that Mr. Coronado was the right man and Mr. Thurstane the wrong
+one. Oh, that smooth-tongued, shiny-eyed, meeching, bowing, complimenting
+hypocrite! I see at last what a villain he was. _I_ see it," she
+emphasized, as if nobody else had discovered it. "To think that a person
+who was so right on the main question [female suffrage] could be so wrong
+on everything else! The contradiction adds to his guilt. Well, I have had
+my lesson. Every one must make her mistake. I shall never be so humbugged
+again."
+
+Some little time after Thurstane had received the acceptance of his
+resignation and established himself in his handsome city house, Aunt Maria
+observed abruptly, "My dears, I must go back."
+
+"Go back where? To the desert and turn hermit?" asked Clara, who was
+accustomed to joke her relative about "spheres and missions."
+
+"To New York," replied Mrs. Stanley. "I can accomplish nothing here. This
+miserable Legislature will take no notice of my petitions for female
+suffrage."
+
+"Oh, that is because you sign them alone," laughed the younger lady.
+
+"I can't get anybody else to sign them," said Aunt Maria with some
+asperity. "And what if I do sign them alone? A house full of men ought to
+have gallantry enough to grant one lady's request. California is not ripe
+for any great and noble measure. I can't remain where I find so little
+sympathy and collaboration. I must go where I can be of use. It is my
+duty."
+
+And go she did. But before she shook off her dust against the Pacific
+coast there was an interview with an old acquaintance.
+
+It must be understood that the fatigues and sufferings of that terrible
+pilgrimage through the desert had bothered the constitution of little
+Sweeny, and that, after lying in garrison hospital at San Francisco for
+several months, he had been discharged from the service on "certificate of
+physical disability." Thurstane, who had kept track of him, immediately
+took him to his house, first as an invalid hanger-on, and then as a jack
+of all work.
+
+As the family were sitting at breakfast Sweeny's voice was heard in the
+veranda outside, "colloguing" with another voice which seemed familiar.
+
+"Listen," whispered Clara. "That is Captain Glover. Let us hear what they
+say. They are both so queer!"
+
+"An' what" ("fwat" he pronounced it) "the divil have ye been up to?"
+demanded Sweeny. "Ye're a purty sailor, buttoned up in a long-tail coat,
+wid a white hankerchy round yer neck. Have ye been foolin' paple wid
+makin' 'em think ye're a Protestant praste?"
+
+"I've been blowin' glass, Sweeny," replied the sniffling voice of Phineas
+Glover.
+
+"Blowin' glass! Och, yees was always powerful at blowin'. But I niver
+heerd ye blow glass. It was big lies mostly whin I was a listing."
+
+"Yes, blowin' glass," returned the Fair Havener in a tone of agreeable
+reminiscence, as if it had been a not unprofitable occupation. "Found
+there wasn't a glass-blower in all Californy. Bought 'n old machine, put
+up to the mines with it, blew all sorts 'f jigmarigs 'n' thingumbobs, 'n'
+sold 'em to the miners 'n' Injuns. Them critters is jest like sailors
+ashore; they'll buy anything they set eyes on. Besides, I sounded my horn;
+advertised big, so to speak; got up a sensation. Used to mount a stump 'n'
+make a speech; told 'em I'd blow Yankee Doodle in glass, any color they
+wanted; give 'em that sort 'f gospel, ye know."
+
+"An' could ye do it?" inquired the Paddy, confounded by the idea of
+blowing a glass tune.
+
+"Lord, Sweeny! you're greener 'n the miners. When ye swaller things that
+way, don't laugh 'r ye'll choke yerself to death, like the elephant did
+when he read the comic almanac at breakfast."
+
+"I don't belave that nuther," asseverated Sweeny, anxious to clear himself
+from the charge of credulity.
+
+"Don't believe that!" exclaimed Glover. "He did it twice."
+
+"Och, go way wid ye. He couldn't choke himself afther he was dead. I
+wouldn't belave it, not if I see him turn black in the face. It's
+yerself'll get choked some day if yees don't quit blatherin'. But what did
+ye get for yer blowin'? Any more'n the clothes ye're got to yer back?"
+
+For answer Glover dipped into his pockets, took out two handfuls of gold
+pieces and chinked them under the Irishman's nose.
+
+"Blazes! ye're lousy wid money," commented Sweeny. "Ye want somebody to
+scratch yees."
+
+"Twenty thousan' dollars in bank," added Glover. "All by blowin' 'n'
+tradin'. Goin' hum in the next steamer. Anythin' I can do for ye, old
+messmate? Say how much."
+
+"It's the liftinant is takin' care av me. He's made a betther livin' nor
+yees, a thousand times over, by jist marryin' the right leddy. An' he's
+going to put me in charrge av a farrum that they call the hayshindy, where
+I'll sell the cattle for myself, wid half to him, an' make slathers o'
+money."
+
+"Thunder, Sweeny! You'll end by ridin' in a coach. What'll ye take for yer
+chances? Wal, I'm glad to hear ye're doin' so well. I am so, for old
+times' sake."
+
+"Come in, Captain Glover," at this moment called Clara through the blinds.
+"Come in, Sweeny. Let us all have a talk together about the old times and
+the new ones."
+
+So there was a long talk, miscellaneous and delightful, full of
+reminiscences and congratulations and good wishes.
+
+"Wal, we're a lucky lot," said Glover at last. "Sh'd like to hear 'f some
+good news for the sergeant and Mr. Kelly. Sh'd go back hum easier for it."
+
+"Kelly is first sergeant," stated Thurstane, "and Meyer is
+quartermaster-sergeant, with a good chance of being quartermaster. He is
+capable of it and deserves it. He ought to have been promoted years ago
+for his gallantry and services during the war. I hope every day to hear
+that he has got his commission as lieutenant."
+
+"Wal, God bless 'em, 'n' God bless the hull army!" said Glover, so
+gratified that he felt pious. "An' now, good-by. Got to be movin'."
+
+"Stay over night with us," urged Thurstane. "Stay a week. Stay as long as
+you will."
+
+"Do," begged Clara. "You can go geologizing with my husband. You can start
+Sweeny on his farm."
+
+"Och, he's a thousin' times welkim," put in Sweeny, "though I'm afeard av
+him. He'd tache the cattle to trade their skins wid ache other, an slather
+me wid lies till I wouldn't know which was the baste an' which was
+Sweeny."
+
+Glover grinned with an air of being flattered, but replied, "Like to stay
+first rate, but can't work it. Passage engaged for to-morrow mornin'."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed Aunt Maria, agreeably surprised by an idea.
+
+And the result was that she went to New York under the care of Captain
+Glover.
+
+As for Clara and Thurstane, they are surely in a state which ought to
+satisfy their friends, and we will therefore say no more of them.
+
+
+
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