I had a painful suspicion why this hope was expressed; and anxiously enquired the reason.

"Because," answered the guide, "if it hez been Carrasco, I shed say a pity o' them two young critters. Kewrious thar showin' so little skeeart!

"Maybe they didn't more'n half know thar danger. As the robbers don't allers ill-treat the weemen--'ceptin' to strip 'em of thar gimcracks and the like--the Mexican sheemales ain't so much 'fraid o' 'em as ye might suppose they'd be."

"Arter all," continued he, "it may be that I war mistaken. They were so quick bore off into the bushes, I hadn't much time to take notice o'

'em--the more so as I had enough to do in keepin' my hosses from goin'

over the edge o' a precipice--by the side o' which we were brought to the stand."

"In any case," pursued Sam Brown, riding a little closer to me, and speaking so as not to be overheard by my followers, "It air time ye made up your mind what to do, cap'n. We're now come to the place, whar we must take leave o' the main road. The rendezvoos gin me by the robbers lies up one o' these side gullies, whar there's nothin' but a bridle path. Another half-hour's ridin' 'll fetch us to the place o'

appointment."

"Have you thought of any other plan than that already spoken of?"

I put the question, fancying from his manner that something else had suggested itself to him.

"I hev, cap'n. There's jest a chance that I know whar them c.r.a.ped gentlemen air at this very minute--jest a chance of thar bein' thar."

The last words were spoken slowly, and in a sort of meditative soliloquy.

"Where? Of what place are you speaking?"

"A queery place; and ye wouldn't know whar it is if I war to tell ye.

To understan the lie o' that shanty, ye'd hev to see it for yourself; which not many ever do, ceptin' them as have got bizness thar--an' they ain't sech as air honest."

"A shanty--there's a house? Some solitary dwelling, I suppose?"

"Ye may well call it that, cap'n. It sartinly are the most solitariest dwellin' I ever seed; an' what any man ked iver a built it for, beats my recknin'--as I b'lieve it do that o' most others as hev specklated upon it. Lies up thar."

I looked in the direction indicated by his gesture. Several dark lists seamed the side of the mountain--at the foot of which we had come to a halt. One of them looked deeper and more cavernous than the rest; though all seemed to trend towards the summit of the slope.

The mountain itself went up with a gradual acclivity; its sides forest-covered--except here and there, where the naked porphyry peeped out through the dark green drapery of the pines.

Though the sky was moonless, there were stars. By their light I could distinguish something white above and beyond the pine-covered track. It looked like a patch of fleecy cloud.

"That ere's the buzzum o' the White Woman," remarked the guide, seeing what my eyes were fixed upon. "She lies jest beyont the big black mountain. There's only a sort o' a ridge atween 'em."

"_Ixticihuatl_!" I said, now recognising the snowy summit. "You don't mean that the robbers are gone up there?"

"Not so fur as that. If they war, we _shed_ have a climb for it. The place I'm speakin' o' is in that dark gulley ye see straight afore you.

It's this side the lower end o' it whar I'm to meet thar messenger, and deliver up the dollars. That's jest why I think we might find them at the shanty I've told ye about."

"There can be no harm in our going there?"

"I reckon not," answered the guide, reflectingly. "If we don't find 'em thar, we kin get back to the bottom afore daylight, an' then carry out the other plan. Thar's one thing we've got to do, afore we reach that ere shanty. We've got to hev a climb for it; and the last quarter o' a mile 'll hev to be made upon Shanks's mare."

"No matter for that," I said, impatient to proceed. "You lead the way.

I'll answer for myself and men being able to follow you."

"I ain't afeerd beout that," rejoined Don Samuel Bruno. "But mind, cap'n!" added he, in the exercise of his Yankee caution, "I haint said we'll find them thar--only thet it air likely. All events it air worth while tryin'--considerin' sech a sweet gurl as she air in the hands o'

sech ruffins. She oughter be tuk from 'em anyhow--an' at any price!"

I needed not to ask him which was meant by the "sweet gurl." Too well did I divine that it was Dolores.

"Lead on!" I exclaimed, giving the spur to my horse, and the "Forward"

to my followers.

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.

DEMONTE.

It had not yet reached the hour of midnight, as we left the Great National Road, and commenced moving up the mountain,--in a lateral though somewhat parallel course to that we had been following.

For a mile we marched along a path, where wheels might have pa.s.sed at a pinch.

We could see by the starlight that there were some small settlements on each side, and one more conspicuous above, which we knew to be the hacienda of Buena Vista--famed as the spot where the best view can be had of the valley of Mexico. From this circ.u.mstance does the dwelling derive its name; and he who from its _azotea_ can look downward, without having his soul stirred within him, must be incapable of romantic emotion.

On approaching from the coast--I mean Vera Cruz--it is here the traveller first obtains a good view (_buena vista_) of the world-renowned "Valle of Tenocht.i.tlan;" here that he first comes within sight of the City of the Moctezumas.

Story-telling tourists can see it from the summit of the Sierra--looking through the long-leaved pines! Almost every one who has written a book about Mexico has made this plausible a.s.sertion.

But it must be remembered that these books have been mostly compiled after the travellers had returned home; and, in some instances to my knowledge, before they started out--not having started at all!

One and all have followed the first teller of the fict.i.tious talc; who must have been sharper sighted than I. With tolerably good eyes-- strengthened by a capital field gla.s.s--I could see no city of Mexico from the summit of the Sierra, nor from any part of its sloping declivity, through the dearest break the pine-forest afforded.

Considering the distance, it is not likely that I should. What I saw was the "Valle" itself--not a valley in our sense, but a wide plain; inclosing within its limits several isolated hills, that might almost be termed mountains; mottled with broad expanses of swamp, and sheets of clear water--the largest of these being Lakes Tezcoco and Chalco; here and there a white dot, showing the lime-washed walls of a hacienda, the keener sparkle of a church spire, or the glistening of an enamelled dome amidst the scattered huts of a _pueblita_.

All this you may see from the summit of the Cordillera; but not the towers of Tenocht.i.tlan. Before you can distinguish these, you must descend--nearer and lower. You must look from the terrace where stands Buena Vista; or the plateau occupied by the "Venta" of Cordova.

When nearly abreast of the latter place, the road we were pursuing ran out, or rather into a bridle path; and my little troop had to stretch out into "twos."

A mile farther on, and even this slender formation had to be changed to one still more extended. The path was only possible for "single file;"

and into this we fell.

Another mile of marching, and it was not possible for cavalry, or hors.e.m.e.n of any kind. Only a pedestrian could pursue it, and he, too, one accustomed to climbing.

I muttered the command to halt, which had become indispensable. It was earned in _sotto voce_ to the rear; and the horses, strung out for a hundred yards, came to a stand--one behind the other.

"There is no road beyond?" I said, interrogating the guide, who had squeezed up alongside of me.

"For horses, no. Only a footpath; an' scace that eyther. Thar air a horse track further up; but it comes in from t'other side o' the ridge-- on the left. It strikes off o' the National Road, close to the place whar the coach got stopped. Thet's why I hev the suspicion the fellurs may be found at the house as lies up hyar."

"But why have we not gone along the main road, and then taken that you speak of? We could have ridden on to the house?"