ere specific and plain.

One expression alone puzzled me--

"_You have made captive what was once as wild and free_." What? I
asked myself. I scarce dared to give credence to the answer that leaped
like an exulting echo from out my heart!

There was a postscript, of course: but this contained only "business."
It gave minuter details as to when, how, and where the white horse had
been seen, and stated that the bearer of the note--the vaquero who had
seen him--would act as my guide.

I pondered not long upon the strange request. Its fulfilment promised
to recover me the position, which, but a moment before, I had looked
upon as lost for ever. I at once resolved upon the undertaking.

"Yes, lovely Isolina! if horse and man can do it, ere another sun sets,
you shall be mistress of the _white steed of the prairies_!"

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

THE MANADA.

In half-an-hour after, with the vaquero for my guide, I rode quietly out
of the rancheria. A dozen rangers followed close behind; and, having
crossed the river at a ford nearly opposite the village, we struck off
into the _chapparal_ on the opposite side.

The men whom I had chosen to accompany me were most of them old hunters,
fellows who could "trail" and "crease" with accurate aim. I had
confidence in their skill, and, aided by them, I had great hopes we
should find the game we were in search of.

My hopes, however, would not have been so sanguine but for another
circumstance. It was this: Our guide had informed me, that when he saw
the white steed, the latter was in company with a large drove of mares--
a _manada_--doubtless his harem. He would not be likely to separate
from them, and even if these had since left the ground, they could be
the more easily "trailed" in consequence of their numbers. Indeed, but
for this prospect, our wild-horse hunt would have partaken largely of
the character of a "wild-goose chase." The steed, by all accounts of
him, might have been seen upon one arroyo to-day, and by the banks of
some other stream, a hundred miles off, on the morrow. The presence of
his manada offered some guarantee, that he might still be near the
ground where the vaquero had marked him. Once found, I trusted to the
swiftness of my horse, and my own skill in the use of the lazo.

As we rode along, I revealed to my following the purpose of the
expedition. All of them knew the white steed by fame; one or two
averred they had seen him in their prai