tell who
these merry riders are; and, even after they have advanced into the open
moonlight, it would be difficult to identify them. Seeing their plumed
heads with their parti-coloured complexions, a stranger would set them
down as Indians; while a Texan might particularise their tribe, calling
them Comanches. But one who is no stranger to them--the reader--knows
they are not Indians of any kind, but savages who would show skins of a
tripe colour, were the pigment sponged off. For it is the band of
Borlasse.

They have brought their booty thus far, _en route_ for their rendezvous.

Gleeful they are, one and all. Before them on their saddle-bows, or
behind on the croups, are the boxes of silver coin; enough, as they
know, to give them a grand spree in the town of San Antonio, whither
they intend proceeding in due time.

But first for their lair, where the spoil is to be partitioned, and a
change made in their toilet; there to cast off the costume of the
savage, and resume the garb of civilisation.

Riding in twos across the river, on reaching its bank they make halt.
There is barely room for all on the bit of open ground by the embouchure
of the ford road; and they get clumped into a dense crowd--in its midst
their chief, Borlasse, conspicuous from his great bulk of body.

"Boys!" he says, soon as all have gained the summit of the slope, and
gathered around him, "it ain't no use for all o' us going to where I
told Quantrell an' Bosley to wait. The approach to the oak air a bit
awkward; therefore, me an' Luke Chisholm 'll slip up thar, whiles the
rest o' ye stay hyar till we come back. You needn't get out of your
saddles. We won't be many minutes, for we mustn't. They'll be a
stirrin' at the Mission, though not like to come after us so quick,
seeing the traces we've left behind. That'll be a caution to them, I
take it. And from what our friend here says," Borlasse nods to the
half-blood, Fernand, who is seen seated on horseback beside him, "the
settlers can't muster over forty fightin' men. Calculatin' there's a
whole tribe o' us Comanches, they'll be too scared to start out all of a
suddint. Besides, they'll not find that back trail by the bluff so
easy. I don't think they can before mornin'. Still 'twont do to hang
about hyar long. Once we get across the upper plain we're safe.
They'll never set eyes on these Indyins after. Come, Luke! let you an'
me go on to the oak, and pick up the stragglers. An