"Well, I don't know as to ever having
passed through that remarkable experience,"
I replied. ,
"Draw your chair up here and I will tell
you a strange story," he continued.
It had now become dusk, and lighting fresh
cigars, we drew our chairs up around the grate
of the open fire-place, stretched out our legs
in a comfortable position, and with the flick
ering light from the coals casting weird
shadows here and there and all about us, I
bade him " fire ahead."
" You know," he began, " that after going
West I did some preliminary hunting in
Kansas and Eastern Colorado, and then struck
directly for the Rockies, my main objective
point. I found the shooting there very fine
from the very first, and filled with all a hunts
man's ardor pursued the game to my heart's
content for about a month, following the
mountains in a general course down towards
New Mexico, where they merge into the
Sierra Madres. Finally my guide was taken
sick and showing no tendency toward a
speedy recovery, and being unable to at once
procure another one, I was obliged to leave
him at a mining camp, and foolishly struck
off into the mountains on a lone pilgrimage,
trusting to my rifle and to luck for food and
shelter, and intending to eventually come
around in a circuit and again find my guide
recovered. On the third clay after leaving I
had the good fortune to shoot a doe, but in
trying to reach the carcass in leaping over a
small cleft, fell and sprained my ankle badly.
I bandaged it up as best I could, but for two.
days I wandered over the mountain, little
more than crawling, with scarcely any suste
nance and no shelter from the elements. At
last when all but famished I descried a small
cabin in the distance, and making my weary
way up to it, knocked for, admission. A man
with a countenance made up of a mixture of
Spanish and Mexican, opened it, to whom I
made known my wants. " Si, Senor, you are
THE FREE LANCE.
welcome to the little we have," he replied ;
and all too gladly I accepted the proffered
hospitality. For days I was unable to stir
from the house by reason of my swollen and
bruised foot, and meanwhile busied myself in
studying the character of my opportune hosts.
" The man, who, as I said, first admitted
me, was evidently a Mexican half-breed and
possessed one of the most depraved, hardened
countenances, I ever saw. His small oblong
shaped head was set on a pair of square, sturdy
shoulders, surmounting a short, chunky body,
and his thin, cruel mouth, stunted nose and
small, black, eyes continually glancing in my
direction with the inmost meanings of wicked
ness, did not in any wise relieve his general
villainous aspect. His wife was evidently a
Mexican, and the visible effects of depravity
and vice did not altogether efface the traces
of former great beauty. But strangest of all
was a beautiful Spanish girl, who from her
graceful, well-poised head, adorned with its
wealth of flowing dark hair, rich liquid eyes,
and soft brown complexion, to her tiny, well
shaped foot, offered the strongest possible
contrast to the appearance of the other two.
Hour after hour did I sit wondering how this
strange incogruity came to exist. Kinship
she could have none. Whence came she
then, and as if seeking an answer to my
question I would glance up into her face,
catching her eyes fixed upon me and causing
the rich blood to mantle her cheeks, and in
confusion I would turn towards the man
finding his piercing little eyes furtively
watching me, and causing me instinctively
to shudder and to feel that my revolver was
in a handy position.
"Things went on then from clay to day. I
was loth to remain, yet what else could I do
in my helpless state. I. did not dare sleep by
night, but kept strict watch and ward, and
managed to secure some little rest by dozing
in the day-time. The man had frequent dis
putes with his wife, which I have no doubt