rider of the black.
"Let there be no disputes between us; for you know, Roblez, we can't
afford to quarrel. You shall have a liberal percentage on this lucky
venture; I promise it. By the bye, how much do you think the plunder
ought to realise?"

"Well," responded Roblez, restored to a cheerful humour, "if properly
disposed of in El Paso or Chihuahua, the lot ought to fetch from fifteen
to twenty thousand dollars. I see some silk-velvet among the stuff that
would sell high, if you could get it shown to the rich damsels of
Durango or Zacatecas. One thing sure, you've got a good third of the
caravan stock."

"Ha! ha! More than half of it in value. The Horned lizard went in for
bulk. I let him have it to his heart's content. He thinks more of
those cheap cotton prints, with their red and green and yellow flowers,
than all the silk ever spun since the days of Mother Eve. Ha! ha! ha!"

The laugh, in which Roblez heartily joined, was still echoing on the air
as the two horsemen entered a pass leading through the mountains. It
was the depression in the sierra, seen shortly after parting with the
Horned Lizard and his band. It was a pass rugged with rock, and almost
trackless, here and there winding about, and sometimes continued through
canons or clefts barely wide enough to give way to the mules with the
loads upon their backs.

For all this the animals of the travellers seemed to journey along it
without difficulty, only the American horse showing signs of
awkwardness. All the others went as if they had trodden it before.

For several hours they kept on through this series of canons and
gorges--here and there crossing a transverse ridge that, cutting off a
bend, shortened the distance.

Just before sunset the party came to a halt; not in the defile itself,
but in one of still more rugged aspect, that led laterally into the side
of the mountain. In this there was no trace or sign of travel--no
appearance of its having been entered by man or animal.

Yet the horse ridden by Roblez, and the pack-mules coming after, entered
with as free a step as if going into a well-known enclosure. True, the
chief of the party, mounted on the Kentucky steed, had gone in before
them; though this scarce accounted for their confidence.

Up this unknown gorge they rode until they had reached its end. There
was no outlet, for it was a _cul-de-sac_--a natural court--such as are
often found among the amygdaloidal mountains of