y, anyway."

Hal accepted the gauntlet thus thrown down by Jerry, and was about to
reply in no very polite language, when I changed the conversation, by
requesting him to finish the narrative of his visit to the Apaches; and,
after a little hesitation, he resumed his story as follows:--

"The Indian told me, that, if I spoke to Juanita again, he'd send a
bullet through my head; so Anastacio said, for the Indian spoke in
Spanish.

"I didn't talk to her any more for several hours, but rode all the
afternoon by her side. When we got to the top of the bluff from which we
could see the Rio Grande, Juanita cried, and said that her home was
there, and Anastacio felt so bad for her that he led her horse all the
way after that.

"When we got to the river, instead of crossing, the Indians rode into it;
and they made us all wade through the water for three or four miles,
though the whole party came out on the same side. From here we struck
into the prairie again; and, after riding for two or three hours, we
camped.

"Juanita was so tired, she dropped to sleep as soon as we stopped; but
Anastacio and I kept awake, and saw the Indians cast a mule, and open his
veins and suck the warm blood from them. After this, they cut off
portions of the flesh and roasted it over the coals, and made motions to
us, that, if we wanted any, we must cook for ourselves.

"We were both hungry, but we couldn't eat mule meat, then, although we
had to come to it in a little time.

"We started by daybreak the next morning; and Juanita became so
exhausted, that, before night, she asked me two or three times to kill
her. Finally, she appealed to Anastacio; and I heard him promise her, on
a little cross she wore around her neck, that, if worse came to worse, he
would do it.

"That day one of the Indians killed an antelope, and we all ate heartily
of it, but Anastacio. He took the meat they gave to him, and saved it for
Juanita. He carried it in his hand all day, and walked beside her horse,
telling her stories in Spanish, and trying to cheer her. He was as kind
to her as he could be, during the whole seventeen days we were together.

"One night we slept in a great cave in a mountain,[Probably the Waco
Mountain, thirty miles east of El Paso.] where there were four or five
deep pools, of nice, clear water. Juanita was so delighted at the sight
of them that she sat on the brink of one and put her feet in it, to 'rest
them,' she said. When the Indians