. `Yet if I could have come up with them, I would
have died for her.'

"I was long ill after that. A good while, they say, I was out of my
mind, but old Ignacio nursed me through. He also buried Mariquita where
she now lies."

The guide paused.

"And the child?" asked Lawrence, anxiously.

"I have sought her far and wide, year after year, over mountain and
plain. She may be dead--she may be alive--but I have never seen her nor
heard of her from that day to this."

"Your story is a very, very sad one," said Lawrence, his face expressing
the genuine sympathy which he felt. "May I ask--are your wanderings
mere haphazard? Have you no idea who they were that stole your little
one, or where they went to?"

"None whatever. The broken leg, you know, prevented my commencing the
search at once, and when I was able to go about I found that all trace
of the band was gone. No wonder, for the country was at war at the
time, and many marauding parties had traversed the land since then."

"I--I shrink," said Lawrence, with some hesitation, "from even the
appearance of unkindness, but I cannot help expressing the fear that
this vague, undirected wandering will be useless."

"It would be so," returned Pedro, "if God did not direct all human
affairs. If it be His will, I shall yet find my child on earth. If
not, I shall find her above--with her mother. In our intercourse,
senhor, I have observed in you a respect for God's Word. Is it not
written, `Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him, and He will
bring it to pass?'"

"Most true," replied Lawrence, feeling the reproof, "yet God works by
means. If we do not take the right means, we cannot expect to attain
our end, however much we may trust."

"Right, senhor, and I have taken the _only_ means open to me. Since I
cannot give direction to my search, I search _everywhere_. Fortunately
my business permits of this, and also of doing a little service to my
fellow-men as I go on my way. Periodically I return here to rest,"--(he
pointed to the little mound,)--"and when my powers begin to wane, either
through disease or age, it is my purpose, if God permit, to return and
die beside Mariquita's grave."

CHAPTER EIGHT.

A NEW ACQUAINTANCE AND A CHANGE OF SCENE.

On their way back to the cottage they heard dogs barking, and a man
talking to them. Next moment these came in sight.

"The old hunter!" exclaimed Pedro, hastening forward with evident
pleasure