ving discharged
what you conceive to be your duty on this point, you will say and do
nothing more."

"Your will would be law in this matter, even if I were not under such a
deep debt of gratitude to you," returned Pedro, "and it is all the more
easy to obey you now that I have handed you over to your father and am
no longer responsible. Are you aware that we start immediately in
pursuit of the Indians who have attacked and murdered the poor people of
Rolland's Ranch?"

"Yes, my father has told me all about it."

"Has he told you that you and Mariquita are to accompany the force so
far on the road, and that when we get beyond the disturbed district I am
to carry you on with a small party to Buenos Ayres, while the main body
pursues the savages?"

"Yes, he told me that too," replied Manuela; "but," she added, with a
little hesitation, "he did not say who was to go with our small
detachment."

The slightest possible twinkle in Pedro's eye indicated suppressed
feeling as he replied that he also was ignorant on that point--the only
things which he was quite sure of being, that Senhor Armstrong and
Quashy were to go with the main body.

"Indeed!" exclaimed the maiden in surprise. "I had thought Senhor
Armstrong objected to fighting."

Pedro laughed. "So he does, senhorina; but when the rescue of captive
women and children is in the case, he holds fighting to be a duty, as
you are aware. But I must go now," continued Pedro, becoming grave and
earnest as he took the girl's hand. "Words can never express my
feelings towards you and your father, dear Manuela. Indeed I have never
been in the habit of saying much--least of all when I have felt much.
Mariquita and I will bless you both to the latest hour of our lives.
Adieu. We meet in the morning at the house in which you are staying--
Lawrence has named it the house with the rustic porch--and we start from
there. You are all ready, I suppose?"

"Yes. You know I have little luggage to look after," said Manuela, with
a laugh, "and I shall continue to travel as an Indian girl--as an Inca
princess!"

"Indeed. Why so?"

"That, Senhor Pedro, is a matter with which you have nothing whatever to
do!"

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

COLONEL MARCHBANKS PROVES TO BE NOT SO GOOD A GENERAL AS HE GETS CREDIT
FOR, AND LAWRENCE STANDS SELF-CONVICTED.

It has been stated that our hero had agreed to join Colonel Marchbanks
in the pursuit of the Indians, not because the troops