n bed. For days she lay in a delirium, the result of the terrible
privations she had evidently endured. She raved and talked incoherently
in a language which neither he nor Manuela understood.

The doctors whom he summoned at the outset, only shook their heads, and
after a lengthy consultation informed him with the stoicism
characteristic of the profession that, the patient would either die or
recover. But Padre Antonio did not despair. In his extremity he turned
to heaven, nor did his petition pass unheeded. At length, after many
days of anxious watching, the fever left her and she sank into a deep,
refreshing sleep from which she did not awaken for many hours.

It was toward the dawn of a Sabbath, and as the calm and peace of sleep
settled upon her, her wasted and emaciated features began gradually to
assume their normal outline. Nature asserted herself, and when the large
dark eyes finally opened once more, it was into the face of a beautiful
girl that Padre Antonio found himself gazing as he knelt by her bedside
in prayer.

"Be quiet, my daughter," he involuntarily murmured as her eyes rested
upon his, without considering whether she understood him. But the faint
semblance of a smile that lit up her countenance in response to his
words told him she comprehended. Then, during the long days of
convalescence that ensued, she imparted her history to him in broken
Spanish.

She was a Tewana; the daughter of their War Chief, the Whirlwind, who
had been killed recently in battle with another Indian tribe, the
Ispali. Just previous to this, her people who had long been at war with
the Government, had been defeated by the Mexican troops. After the
battle the entire tribe with the exception of the Whirlwind's band made
peace with the Government; the remnant of the latter with which she
remained, escaping into the mountains. But fate had doomed the little
fleeing band to extermination. It was surprised and annihilated by the
Ispali Chieftain, the White Wolf, and his followers whose territory they
had invaded; she being the only one spared--the White Wolf signifying
his intention of making her one of his wives. But that same night when
the Chieftain entered the lodge he had set apart for her and began to
make advances to her, she suddenly snatched a brand from the fire which
burned in the center of the lodge and struck him over the head, knocking
him senseless.

Then, stealing forth from the lodge, she mounted the Chieftai