d or
stable of small dimensions. Sometimes half-a-dozen mules and double the
number of oxen might be seen in that corral, and in the stable as fine a
horse as ever carried saddle. Both were empty now, for the animals that
usually occupied them were out. Horse, mules, and oxen, as well as
their owner, were far away upon the prairies.

Their owner was Carlos the cibolero. Such was the home of the
buffalo-hunter, the home of his aged mother and fair sister. Such had
been their home since Carlos was a child.

And yet they were not of the people of the valley nor the town. Neither
race--Spanish nor Indian--claimed them. They differed from both as
widely as either did from the other. It was true what the padre had
said. True that they were Americans; that their father and mother had
settled in the valley a long time ago; that no one knew whence they had
come, except that they had crossed the great plains from the eastward;
that they were _hereticos_, and that the padres could never succeed in
bringing them into the fold of the Church; that these would have
expelled, or otherwise punished them, but for the interference of the
military Comandante; and furthermore, that both were always regarded by
the common people of the settlement with a feeling of superstitious
dread. Latterly this feeling, concentrated on the mother of Carlos, had
taken a new shape, and they looked upon her as a _hechicera_--a witch--
and crossed themselves devoutly whenever she met them. This was not
often, for it was rare that she made her appearance among the
inhabitants of the valley. Her presence at the fiesta of San Juan was
the act of Carlos, who had been desirous of giving a day's amusement to
the mother and sister he so much loved.

Their American origin had much to do with the isolation in which they
live. Since a period long preceding that time, bitter jealousy existed
between the Spano-Mexican and Anglo-American races. This feeling had
been planted by national animosity, and nursed and fomented by
priestcraft. Events that have since taken place had already cast their
shadows over the Mexican frontier; and Florida and Louisiana were
regarded as but steps in the ladder of American aggrandisement; but the
understanding of these matters was of course confined to the more
intelligent; but all were imbued with the bad passions of international
hate.

The family of the cibolero suffered under the common prejudice, and on
that accoun