wer, but the taking of it
would, most probably, have forfeited my own, and I had objects for which
to live. I may yet find a reckoning day for him.

"I have said that my band melted away. Sick at heart, and conscious of
danger in New Mexico, I left the province, and crossed the Jornada to El
Paso. Here for a while I lived, grieving for my lost child.

"I was not long inactive. The frequent forays made by the Apaches into
Sonora and Chihuahua had rendered the government more energetic in the
defence of the frontier. The presidios were repaired and garrisoned
with more efficient troops, and a band of rangers organised, whose pay
was proportioned to the number of scalps they might send back to the
settlements.

"I was offered the command of this strange guerilla; and in the hope
that I might yet recover my child, I accepted it--I became a
scalp-hunter.

"It was a terrible commission; and had revenge alone been my object, it
would long since have been gratified. Many a deed of blood have we
enacted; many a scene of retaliatory vengeance have we passed through.

"I knew that my captive daughter was in the hands of the Navajoes. I
had heard so at various times from prisoners whom I had taken; but I was
always crippled for want of strength in men and means. Revolution after
revolution kept the states in poverty and civil warfare, and our
interests were neglected or forgotten. With all my exertions, I could
never raise a force sufficient to penetrate that desert country north of
the Gila, in which lie the towns of the savage Navajoes."

"And you think--"

"Patience! I shall soon finish. My band is now stronger than ever. I
have received certain information, by one just escaped from a captivity
among the Navajoes, that the warriors of both tribes are about to
proceed southward. They are mustering all their strength, with the
intention of making a grand foray; even, as we have heard, to the gates
of Durango. It is my design, then, to enter their country while they
are absent, and search for my daughter."

"And you think she still lives?"

"I know it. The same man who brought me this news, and who, poor
fellow, has left his scalp and ears behind him, saw her often. She is
grown up, and is, he says, a sort of queen among them, possessed of
strange powers and privileges. Yes, she still lives; and if it be my
fortune to recover her, then will this tragic scene be at an end. I
will go far hence."

I had