nly he
parted the peons around him, like grain before a mad bull--and behold!
he was on the pinto's back and away. And, alas! there is no horse that
can keep up with the pinto. God grant he may not get in the way of the
r-r-railroad, that, in his very madness, he will even despise."

"My own horse is in the thicket," whispered Guest, hurriedly, in
Maruja's ear. "I have measured him with the pinto before now. Give me
your blessing, and I will bring him back if he be alive."

She pressed his hand and said, "Go." Before the astonished servants
could identify the strange escort of their mistress, he was gone.

It was already quite dark. To any but Guest, who had made the
topography of La Mision Perdida a practical study, and who had known
the habitual circuit of the mayordomo in his efforts to avoid him, the
search would have been hopeless. But, rightly conjecturing that he
would in his demented condition follow the force of habit, he spurred
his horse along the high-road until he reached the lane leading to the
grassy amphitheatre already described, which was once his favorite
resort. Since then it had participated in the terrible transformation
already wrought in the valley by the railroad. A deep cutting through
one of the grassy hills had been made for the line that now crossed the
lower arc of the amphitheatre.

His conjecture was justified on entering it by the appearance of a
shadowy horseman in full career round the circle, and he had no
difficulty in recognizing Pereo. As there was no other exit than the
one by which he came, the other being inaccessible by reason of the
railroad track, he calmly watched him twice make the circuit of the
arena, ready to ride towards him when he showed symptoms of slackening
his speed.

Suddenly he became aware of some strange exercise on the part of the
mysterious rider; and, as he swept by on the nearer side of the circle,
he saw that he was throwing a lasso! A horrible thought that he was
witnessing an insane rehearsal of the murder of his father flashed
across his mind.

A far-off whistle from the distant woods recalled him to his calmer
senses at the same moment that it seemed also to check the evolutions
of the furious rider. Guest felt confident that the wretched man could
not escape him now. It was the approaching train, whose appearance
would undoubtedly frighten Pereo toward the entrance of the little
valley guarded by him. The hill-side was already ali