the _saguan_, or covered entrance below, with a sentinel stationed
outside the gate in front, indicated this.

There was no family inside, wife, woman, or child; for the colonel,
still a young man, was a bachelor. Only _peons_ in the field, grooms
and other servants around the stables, with domestics in the dwelling--
all, male and female, being Indians of the race known as "Indios
mansos"--brown-skinned and obedient.

But though at this time there was no living lady to make her soft
footsteps heard within the walls of the commandant's dwelling, the
portrait of a lovely girl hung against the side of the main _sola_, and
on this his American guest had more than once gazed in silent
admiration. It showed signs of having been recently painted, which was
not strange, since it was the likeness of Colonel Miranda's sister, a
few years younger than himself--at the time on a visit to some relatives
in a distant part of the Republic. Frank Hamersley's eyes never rested
on it without his wishing the original at home.

The two gentlemen upon the housetop were leisuring away the time in the
indulgence of a cigar, watching the water-fowl that swam and plunged on
the bosom of the broad shallow stream, listening to the hoarse croakings
of pelicans and the shriller screams of the _guaya_ cranes. It was the
hour of evening, when these birds become especially stridulent.

"And so you must go to-morrow, Senor Francisco?" said his host, taking
the cigaritto from between his teeth, and looking inquiringly into the
face of the Kentuckian.

"There is no help for it, colonel. The caravan with which I came out
will be leaving Santa Fe the day after to-morrow, and there's just time
for me to get there. Unless I go along with it, there may be no other
opportunity for months to come, and one cannot cross the plains alone."

"Well, I suppose I must lose you. I am sorry, and selfishly, too, for,
as you see, I am somewhat lonely here. There's not one of my officers,
with the exception of our old _medico_, exactly of the sort to be
companionable. True, I have enough occupation, as you may have by this
time discovered, in looking after our neighbours, the _Indios bravos_,
who, knowing the skeleton of a regiment I've got, are growing saucier
every day. I only wish I had a score or two of your stalwart trappers,
who now and then pay a visit to Albuquerque. Well, my sister will soon
be here, and she, brave girl, has plenty of life in her,