The Lone Ranch | Page 5

road
leading to Santa Fe, by El Paso del Norte. Colonel Miranda, his
ranchero dress changed for the fatigue uniform of a cavalry officer, was
at its head, and by his side the stranger, whose cause he had so
generously and gallantly espoused.
CHAPTER THREE.

THE COLONEL COMMANDANT.
Six weeks have elapsed since the day of the duel at Chihuahua. Two
men are standing on the azotea of a large mansion-like house close to
the town of Albuquerque, whose church spire is just visible through the
foliage of trees that shade and surround the dwelling. They are Colonel
Miranda and the young Kentuckian, who has been for some time his
guest; for the hospitality of the generous Mexican had not terminated
with the journey from Chihuahua. After three weeks of toilsome travel,
including the traverse of the famed "Dead Man's Journey," he was
continuing to extend it in his own house and his own district, of which
last he was the military commandant, Albuquerque being at the time
occupied by a body of troops, stationed there for defence against Indian
incursions.
The house on whose roof the two men stood was that in which Colonel
Miranda had been born--the patrimonial mansion of a large estate that
extended along the Rio del Norte, and back towards the Sierra Blanca,
into territories almost unknown.
Besides being an officer in the Mexican army, the colonel was one of
the ricos of the country. The house, as already said, was a large,
massive structure, having, like all Mexican dwellings of its class, a
terraced roof, or azotea. What is also common enough in that country,
it was surmounted by a mirador, or "belvedere." Standing less than half
a mile distant from the soldier's cuartel, the commandant found it
convenient to make use of it as his headquarters. A small guard in the
saguan, or covered entrance below, with a sentinel stationed outside the
gate in front, indicated this.
There was no family inside, wife, woman, or child; for the colonel, still
a young man, was a bachelor. Only peons in the field, grooms and other
servants around the stables, with domestics in the dwelling-- all, male
and female, being Indians of the race known as "Indios
mansos"--brown-skinned and obedient.
But though at this time there was no living lady to make her soft
footsteps heard within the walls of the commandant's dwelling, the

portrait of a lovely girl hung against the side of the main sola, and on
this his American guest had more than once gazed in silent admiration.
It showed signs of having been recently painted, which was not strange,
since it was the likeness of Colonel Miranda's sister, a few years
younger than himself--at the time on a visit to some relatives in a
distant part of the Republic. Frank Hamersley's eyes never rested on it
without his wishing the original at home.
The two gentlemen upon the housetop were leisuring away the time in
the indulgence of a cigar, watching the water-fowl that swam and
plunged on the bosom of the broad shallow stream, listening to the
hoarse croakings of pelicans and the shriller screams of the guaya
cranes. It was the hour of evening, when these birds become especially
stridulent.
"And so you must go to-morrow, Senor Francisco?" said his host,
taking the cigaritto from between his teeth, and looking inquiringly into
the face of the Kentuckian.
"There is no help for it, colonel. The caravan with which I came out
will be leaving Santa Fe the day after to-morrow, and there's just time
for me to get there. Unless I go along with it, there may be no other
opportunity for months to come, and one cannot cross the plains alone."
"Well, I suppose I must lose you. I am sorry, and selfishly, too, for, as
you see, I am somewhat lonely here. There's not one of my officers,
with the exception of our old medico, exactly of the sort to be
companionable. True, I have enough occupation, as you may have by
this time discovered, in looking after our neighbours, the Indios bravos,
who, knowing the skeleton of a regiment I've got, are growing saucier
every day. I only wish I had a score or two of your stalwart trappers,
who now and then pay a visit to Albuquerque. Well, my sister will soon
be here, and she, brave girl, has plenty of life in her, though she be but
young. What a joyous creature she is, wild as a mustang filly fresh
caught. I wish, Don Francisco, you could have stayed to make her
acquaintance. I am sure you would be delighted with her."
If the portrait on the wall was anything of a faithful likeness,

Hamersley could not have been otherwise. This was his reflection,
though, for certain