"I accept your gift, sir; and with grat.i.tude," responded the young Creole--for the first time prominently proclaiming herself, and stepping freely forth as she spoke. "But I have a fancy," she continued, pointing to the mustang--at the same time that her eye rested inquiringly on the countenance of the mustanger--"a fancy that your captive is not yet _tamed_? She but trembles in fear of the unknown future. She may yet kick against the traces, if she find the harness not to her liking; and then what am I to do--poor I?"

"True, Maurice!" said the major, widely mistaken as to the meaning of the mysterious speech, and addressing the only man on the ground who could possibly have comprehended it; "Miss Poindexter speaks very sensibly. That mustang has not been tamed yet--any one may see it.

Come, my good fellow! give her the lesson.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" continued the major, turning towards the company, "this is something worth your seeing--those of you who have not witnessed the spectacle before. Come, Maurice; mount, and show us a specimen of prairie horsemanship. She looks as though she would put your skill to the test."

"You are right, major: she does!" replied the mustanger, with a quick glance, directed not towards the captive quadruped, but to the young Creole; who, with all her a.s.sumed courage, retired tremblingly behind the circle of spectators.

"No matter, my man," pursued the major, in a tone intended for encouragement. "In spite of that devil sparkling in her eye, I'll lay ten to one you'll take the conceit out of her. Try!"

Without losing credit, the mustanger could not have declined acceding to the major's request. It was a challenge to skill--to equestrian prowess--a thing not lightly esteemed upon the prairies of Texas.

He proclaimed his acceptance of it by leaping lightly out of his saddle, resigning his own steed to Zeb Stump, and exclusively giving his attention to the captive.

The only preliminary called for was the clearing of the ground. This was effected in an instant--the greater part of the company--with all the ladies--returning to the azotea.

With only a piece of raw-hide rope looped around the under jaw, and carried headstall fashion behind the ears--with only one rein in hand-- Maurice sprang to the back of the wild mare.

It was the first time she had ever been mounted by man--the first insult of the kind offered to her.

A shrill spiteful scream spoke plainly her appreciation of and determination to resent it. It proclaimed defiance of the attempt to degrade her to the condition of a slave!

With equine instinct, she reared upon her hind legs, for some seconds balancing her body in an erect position. Her rider, antic.i.p.ating the trick, had thrown his arms around her neck; and, close clasping her throat, appeared part of herself. But for this she might have poised over upon her back, and crushed him beneath her.

The uprearing of the hind quarters was the next "trick" of the mustang-- sure of being tried, and most difficult for the rider to meet without being thrown. From sheer conceit in his skill, he had declined saddle and stirrup, that would now have stood him in stead; but with these he could not have claimed accomplishment of the boasted feat of the prairies--_to tame the naked steed_.

He performed it without them. As the mare raised her hind quarters aloft, he turned quickly upon her back, threw his arms around the barrel of her body, and resting his toes upon the angular points of her fore shoulders, successfully resisted her efforts to unhorse him.

Twice or three times was the endeavour repeated by the mustang, and as often foiled by the skill of the mustanger; and then, as if conscious that such efforts were idle, the enraged animal plunged no longer; but, springing away from the spot, entered upon a gallop that appeared to have no goal this side the ending of the earth.

It must have come to an end somewhere; though not within sight of the spectators, who kept their places, waiting for the horse-tamer's return.

Conjectures that he might be killed, or, at the least, badly "crippled,"

were freely ventured during his absence; and there was one who wished it so. But there was also one upon whom such an event would have produced a painful impression--almost as painful as if her own life depended upon his safe return. Why Louise Poindexter, daughter of the proud Louisiana sugar-planter--a belle--a beauty of more than provincial repute--who could, by simply saying yes, have had for a husband the richest and n.o.blest in the land--why she should have fixed her fancy, or even permitted her thoughts to stray, upon a poor horse-hunter of Texas, was a mystery that even her own intellect--by no means a weak one--was unable to fathom.

Perhaps she had not yet gone so far as to fix her fancy upon him. She did not think so herself. Had she thought so, and reflected upon it, perhaps she would have recoiled from the contemplation of certain consequences, that could not have failed to present themselves to her mind.

She was but conscious of having conceived some strange interest in a strange individual--one who had presented himself in a fashion that favoured fanciful reflections--one who differed essentially from the common-place types introduced to her in the world of social distinctions.

She was conscious, too, that this interest--originating in a word, a glance, a gesture--listened to, or observed, amid the ashes of a burnt prairie--instead of subsiding, had ever since been upon the increase!

It was not diminished when Maurice the mustanger came riding back across the plain, with the wild mare between his legs--no more wild--no longer desiring to destroy him--but with lowered crest and mien submissive, acknowledging to all the world that she had found her master!

Without acknowledging it to the world, or even to herself, the young Creole was inspired with a similar reflection.

"Miss Poindexter!" said the mustanger, gliding to the ground, and without making any acknowledgment to the plaudits that were showered upon him--"may I ask you to step up to her, throw this lazo over her neck, and lead her to the stable? By so doing, she will regard you as her tamer; and ever after submit to your will, if you but exhibit the sign that first deprived her of her liberty."

A prude would have paltered with the proposal--a coquette would have declined it--a timid girl have shrunk back.

Not so Louise Poindexter--a descendant of one of the _filles-a-la-casette_. Without a moment's hesitation--without the slightest show of prudery or fear--she stepped forth from the aristocratic circle; as instructed, took hold of the horsehair rope; whisked it across the neck of the tamed mustang; and led the captive off towards the _caballeriza_ of Casa del Corvo.

As she did so, the mustanger's words were ringing in her ears, and echoing through her heart with a strange foreboding weird signification.

"_She will regard you as her tamer; and ever after submit to your will, if you but exhibit the sign that first deprived her of her liberty_."

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

A PRAIRIE PIC-NIC.

The first rays from a rosy aurora, saluting the flag of Fort Inge, fell with a more subdued light upon an a.s.semblage of objects occupying the parade-ground below--in front of the "officers' quarters."

A small sumpter-waggon stood in the centre of the group; having attached to it a double span of tight little Mexican mules, whose quick impatient "stomping," tails spitefully whisked, and ears at intervals turning awry, told that they had been for some time in harness, and were impatient to move off--warning the bystanders, as well, against a too close approximation to their heels.

Literally speaking, there were no bystanders--if we except a man of colossal size, in blanket coat, and slouch felt hat; who, despite the obscure light straggling around his shoulders, could be identified as Zeb Stump, the hunter.

He was not standing either, but seated astride his "ole maar," that showed less anxiety to be off than either the Mexican mules or her own master.

The other forms around the vehicle were all in motion--quick, hurried, occasionally confused--hither and thither, from the waggon to the door of the quarters, and back again from the house to the vehicle.

There were half a score of them, or thereabouts; varied in costume as in the colour of their skins. Most were soldiers, in fatigue dress, though of different arms of the service. Two would be taken to be mess-cooks; and two or three more, officers' servants, who had been detailed from the ranks.

A more legitimate specimen of this profession appeared in the person of a well-dressed darkie, who moved about the ground in a very authoritative manner; deriving his importance, from his office of _valet de tout_ to the major in command of the cantonment. A sergeant, as shown by his three-barred chevron, was in charge of the mixed party, directing their movements; the object of which was to load the waggon with eatables and drinkables--in short, the paraphernalia of a pic-nic.

That it was intended to be upon a grand scale, was testified by the amplitude and variety of the _impedimenta_. There were hampers and baskets of all shapes and sizes, including the well known parallelopipedon, enclosing its twelve necks of shining silver-lead; while the tin canisters, painted Spanish brown, along with the universal sardine-case, proclaimed the presence of many luxuries not indigenous to Texas.

However delicate and extensive the stock of provisions, there was one in the party of purveyors who did not appear to think it complete. The dissatisfied Lucullus was Zeb Stump.

"Lookee hyur, surgint," said he, addressing himself confidentially to the individual in charge, "I hain't seed neery smell o' corn put inter the veehicle as yit; an', I reck'n, thet out on the purayra, thur'll be some folks ud prefar a leetle corn to any o' thet theer furrin French stuff. Sham-pain, ye call it, I b'lieve."

"Prefer corn to champagne! The horses you mean?"

"Hosses be durned. I ain't talkin' 'bout hoss corn. I mean M'nongaheela."

"Oh--ah--I comprehend. You're right about that, Mr Stump. The whisky mustn't be forgotten, Pomp. I think I saw a jar inside, that's intended to go?"

"Yaw--yaw, sagint," responded the dark-skinned domestic; "dar am dat same wesicle. Hya it is!" he added, lugging a large jar into the light, and swinging it up into the waggon.

Old Zeb appearing to think the packing now complete, showed signs of impatience to be off.

"Ain't ye riddy, surgint?" he inquired, shifting restlessly in his stirrups.

"Not quite, Mr Stump. The cook tells me the chickens want another turn upon the spit, before we can take 'em along."

"Durn the chickens, an the cook too! What air any dung-hill fowl to compare wi' a wild turkey o' the purayra; an how am I to shoot one, arter the sun hev clomb ten mile up the sky? The major sayed I war to git him a gobbler, whativer shed happen. 'Tain't so durnation eezy to kill turkey gobbler arter sun-up, wi' a clamjamferry like this comin'

clost upon a fellur's heels? Ye mustn't surpose, surgint, that thet ere bird air as big a fool as the sodger o' a fort. Of all the cunnin'

critters as ferquents these hyur purayras, a turkey air the cunninest; an to git helf way roun' one o' 'em, ye must be up along wi' the sun; and preehap a leetle urlier."