ssenos may
defend themselves. They have done so heretofore with more spirit than
any of the other settlements, and hence their long exemption from being
plundered. Partly that, and partly because our band has protected their
neighbourhood for a length of time, which the savages well know. It is
to be hoped that the fear of meeting with us will prevent them from
coming into the Jornada north of the town. If so, ours have escaped."

"God grant," I faltered, "that it may be thus!"

"Let us sleep," added Seguin. "Perhaps our apprehensions are idle, and
they can benefit nothing. To-morrow we shall march forward without
halt, if our animals can bear it. Go to rest, my friend; you have not
much time."

So saying, he laid his head in his saddle, and composed himself to
sleep. In a short while, as if by an act of volition, he appeared to be
in a profound slumber.

With me it was different. Sleep was banished from my eyes, and I tossed
about, with a throbbing pulse and a brain filled with fearful fancies.
The very reaction from the bright dreams in which I had just been
indulging rendered my apprehensions painfully active. I began to
imagine scenes that might be enacting at that very moment: my betrothed
struggling in the arms of some savage; for these southern Indians, I
knew, possessed none of the chivalrous delicacy that characterise the
red men of the "forest."

I fancied her carried into a rude captivity; becoming the squaw of some
brutal brave; and with the agony of the thought I rose to my feet and
rushed out upon the prairie.

Half-frantic, I wandered, not heeding whither I went. I must have
walked for hours, but I took no note of the time.

I strayed back upon the edge of the barranca. The moon was shining
brightly, but the grim chasm, yawning away into the earth at my feet,
lay buried in silence and darkness. My eye could not pierce its
fathomless gloom.

I saw the camp and the caballada far above me on the bank; but my
strength was exhausted, and, giving way to my weariness, I sank down
upon the very brink of the abyss. The keen torture that had hitherto
sustained me was followed by a feeling of utter lassitude. Sleep
conquered agony, and I slept.

CHAPTER FORTY TWO.

THE FOE.

I must have slept an hour or more. Had my dreams been realities, they
would have filled the measure of an age.

At length the raw air of the morning chilled and awoke me. The moon had
gone down, for I rememb