er. She will be restored
to her home, to her mother."

"Ah! if she should remain thus it will break the heart of my poor
Adele."

"Fear not, my friend. Time will restore her memory. I think I have
heard of a parallel circumstance among the frontier settlements of the
Mississippi."

"Oh! true, there have been many. We will hope for the best."

"Once in her home the objects that surrounded her in her younger days
may strike a chord in her recollection. She may yet remember all. May
she not?"

"Hope! Hope!"

"At all events, the companionship of her mother and sister will soon win
her from the thoughts of savage life. Fear not! She will be your
daughter again."

I urged these ideas for the purpose of giving consolation. Seguin made
no reply; but I saw that the painful and anxious expression still
remained clouding his features.

My own heart was not without its heaviness. A dark foreboding began to
creep into it from some undefined cause. Were his thoughts in communion
with mine?

"How long," I asked, "before we can reach your house on the Del Norte?"

I scarce knew why I was prompted to put this question. Some fear that
we were still in peril from the pursuing foe?

"The day after to-morrow," he replied, "by the evening. Heaven grant we
may find them safe!"

I started as the words issued from his lips. They had brought pain in
an instant. This was the true cause of my undefined forebodings.

"You have fears?" I inquired, hastily.

"I have."

"Of what? of whom?"

"The Navajoes."

"The Navajoes!"

"Yes. My mind has not been easy since I saw them go eastward from the
Pinon. I cannot understand why they did so, unless they meditated an
attack on some settlements that lie on the old Llanos' trail. If not
that, my fears are that they have made a descent on the valley of El
Paso, perhaps on the town itself. One thing may have prevented them
from attacking the town: the separation of Dacoma's party, which would
leave them too weak for that; but still the more danger to the small
settlements both north and south of it."

The uneasiness I had hitherto felt arose from an expression which Seguin
had dropped at the Pinon spring. My mind had dwelt upon it, from time
to time, during our desert journeyings; but as he did not speak of it
afterwards, I thought that he had not attached so much importance to it.
I had reasoned wrongly.

"It is just probable," continued the chief, "that the Pa