ir usual
occupations without any suspicion. No doubt Roblado would be there in
the morning, but not likely before. It was natural to suppose he would
first endeavour to follow the route they had taken, and it led almost in
the opposite direction from the house of Don Juan. To track them along
all the windings of that route would be the work of one day at least.
Then their pursuers would be no wiser as to where they had betaken
themselves, for Carlos, from the point of halting, intended to adopt a
plan that would be certain to throw the troopers off the trail.

It was decided, in fine, that Don Juan and his people should return
home--that the peons of Carlos should also go back to the rancho; roof
it on the following day--for it only wanted that; and remain by it as if
nothing had occurred. They could not be made answerable for the deeds
of their master.

As for the cibolero himself, his residence must remain unknown, except
to one or two of his tried friends. He knew where he should find a
shelter. To him the open plain or the mountain cave was alike a home.
He needed no roof. The starry canopy was as welcome as the gilded
ceiling of a palace.

The Tagnos were enjoined to secrecy. They were not sworn. A Tagno is
not the man to talk; besides, they all knew that their own safety,
perhaps their lives, depended on their silence.

All these matters were at length arranged, but the party remained where
they had halted till near sunset. They then mounted, and continued on
down the channel.

When they had gone a mile or so, one of them climbed out of the ravine,
and, heading southward, rode off across the plain. This direction would
bring him back to the valley, by a pass near the lower end of the
settlement. It would be night by the time he could reach this pass, and
he was not likely to encounter any one on the route--now that the "wild"
Indians were abroad!

Shortly after, a second Tagno left the ravine, and rode off in a line
nearly parallel to that taken by the first. Soon another imitated the
example, and another, and another, until all had forsaken the ravine
except Don Juan, Antonio, and the cibolero himself. The Tagnos had been
instructed to reach home by different passes, and some of them, more
sagacious, were sent by the most circuitous paths. There was no trooper
belonging to the Presidio likely to follow that trail.

Carlos and his two companions, after riding to the farthest end of the
ravi