ting posture.

To breathe her name, clasp her in my arms, and rush for the door, was
the work of an instant, and hastily snatching a robe that was suspended
from the side of the lodge, I enveloped her in it, and rapidly gained
the cover of the mountain. In a few moments our party was in full gallop
down the valley.

Leaving the Indian village, we started with all speed on our return. I
did not anticipate pursuit, and we made no attempt to conceal our trail.

Indeed, my mind was so occupied with the grand fact that I had recovered
my long-lost darling, that I thought of nothing else. As we rode along,
each recounted to the other the story of their toils, trials, and
sufferings; a thousand question were asked and answered; and in the joy
of the present and hope for the future, we were for a time happy.

About the middle of the forenoon we approached a thick chaparral, and
were just entering it, when a party of about sixty Apaches suddenly
rushed out from its leafy coverts, and with the rapidity of thought we
were surrounded and captured. My wife was able, by her influence with
the leader of the party, to save us from indignity, and a lengthy parley
followed. I made known to the chief my desire to recover my wife, and
endeavored to arrange some terms of purchase or barter. In this I was,
after a time, successful, and, after an interminable siege of pipe
smoking and discussion, relative to the price, we came to terms, and in
a few minutes I had _purchased_ my wife at the cost of all my _worldly_
possessions. But I cared not for this; on the contrary, I was only too
glad to recover my wife at any cost, and felt no regret at parting from
the accumulations of two years of toil and hardship.

Resuming our journey, we reached Santa Fe in safety, in a few days, and
commenced making preparations for our return to the East. The
kind-hearted Mexican women overwhelmed my wife with attentions, and she
was soon provided with apparel more suitable than the barbaric, although
beautiful, Indian costume. My principal difficulty was the want of
money, and I was much perplexed to know how to secure a sufficient sum
to enable us to return to our friends. It is probable that had I freely
stated our circumstances and narrated our sad story, generous hearts
might have been found among the many American miners and trappers
sojourning in the town; for many a noble heart beats beneath a rough and
unpromising exterior; but my pride shrank from a