tening.

Don Mariano was still ignorant of the fact that the hacienda of San
Carlos had been captured and pillaged by the band of Arroyo. Had he
known of this, and other events of a yet more horrid nature, his soul
might have been harrowed by a far more agonising emotion than that of
mere uncertainty; and perhaps he might have become an actor instead of
spectator in the strife that was accruing.

As for Dona Gertrudis, she had easily distinguished that strange sound
that issued from the nostrils of the well-known steed; and with her ear
eagerly bent, she listened with mortal anguish to every breath that was
borne back from the scene of the struggle.

Costal, who was impatient to return with Clara towards the spot where he
had been so near capturing the white-robed Matlacuezc, was the first to
break the prolonged silence.

"Whatever may be the result," said he, in hopes of inducing Don Mariano
and his party to move away from the place, "the path is now clear for
you, Senor Don Mariano. If it is to the hacienda of Las Palmas you are
going, you will find the road both open and safe."

"We are not going to Las Palmas," answered Don Mariano, with an air of
abstraction, at the same time advancing a few paces in order to have a
better view of what was passing.

"If I were in your place," persisted Costal, in a significant tone, "I
should go there. It is the safest route you can take, and let me assure
you the moments are precious--_Carrambo_!" continued he, in an angry
tone, and suddenly facing round, as the crackling of branches announced
that some one was passing near through the thicket. "By all the
serpents in the hair of Tlaloc, there are some more people in the woods.
In the name of--"

The invoked deity was not mentioned, as just at that moment voices were
heard where the bushes were in motion, and Costal interrupted his speech
to listen. The words were--

"This way, _compadre_--this way! I hear over yonder the voice of the
man we are in search of. Listen! that's the Colonel's voice to a
certainty. Quick, by all the devils! Let us run at full speed, or we
shall miss him, again."

The voice of this speaker was not known to any of those who had heard
it, and he who was addressed as "_compadre_" appeared not to have made
any reply. But the sound of their footsteps, and the swish of the
recoiling branches, each moment became more indistinct, till at length
the noises were lost in the distance.

It is