temporary camp, with the result that the Apaches, thoroughly cowed
by the attacks of these horsemen, who fought altogether like one man,
continued their flight, and the whole of the horses and cattle, with
many Indian ponies as well, were taken and driven back in triumph to the
corral by the rocks.

This encounter with the Indians proved most effectual, for the portion
of the nation to which they belonged had never before encountered
disciplined troops; and so stern was the lesson they received, that,
though predatory parties were seen from time to time, it was quite a
year before any other serious encounter took place.

In the meantime, the governor had been so impressed with the value of
the Doctor's discovery, that, without interfering in the slightest
degree with his prospects, communications were at once opened up with
Lerisco; more people were invited to come out, smelting furnaces were
erected, the silver purified, and in less than six months a regular
traffic had been established across the plains, over which mules laden
with the precious metal, escorted by troops, were constantly going, and
returning with stores for use in the mining town.

A town began to spring up rapidly, with warehouses and stores; for the
mountain was no longer standing in solitary silence in the middle of the
great plain. The hum of industry was ever to be heard; the picks of the
miners were constantly at work; the great stamps that had been erected
loudly pounded up the ore; and the nights that had been dark and lonely
out there in the plains were now illumined, and watched with wonder by
the roving Apaches, when the great silver furnaces glowed and roared as
the precious metal was heated in the crucibles before being poured into
the ingot-making moulds.

The growth of the place was marvellous, the canyon proving to be so rich
in the finest kinds of silver, that the ore had but to be roughly torn
out of the great rift that was first shown by the chief, and the profits
were so enormous that Doctor Lascelles became as great a man in his way
as the governor, while Bart, as his head officer and superintendent of
the mine, had rule over quite a host.

Houses rose rapidly, many of them being of a most substantial kind, and
in addition a large barrack was built for the accommodation of fifty
men, who worked as miners, but had certain privileges besides for
forming the troop of well-mounted lancers, whose duty it was to protect
the mining