The Lone Ranch | Page 7

find the arm that could
protect her?"
Again the breast of Hamersley heaved in a convulsive manner. Strange
as it might appear, the words of his newly-made friend seemed like an
appeal to him. And it is just possible some such thought was in the
mind of the Mexican colonel. In the strong man by his side he saw the
type of a race who can protect; just such an oak as he would wish to see
his sister extend her arms tendril-like around, and cling on to for life.
Hamersley could not help having vague and varied misgivings; yet
among them was one purpose he had already spoken of--a
determination to return to Albuquerque.
"I am sure to be back here," he said, as if the promise was meant to
tranquillise the apprehensions of the colonel. Then, changing to a more
careless tone, he added,--
"I cannot come by the spring caravans; there would not be time enough
to make my arrangements. But there is a more southern route, lately
discovered, that can be travelled at any season. Perhaps I may try that.
In any case, I shall write you by the trains leaving the States in the
spring, so that you may know when to expect me. And if, Colonel
Miranda," he added, after a short reflective pause, in which his
countenance assumed a new and graver form of expression, "if any
political trouble, such as you speak of, should occur, and you may find
it necessary to flee from your own land, I need not tell you that in mine
you will find a friend and a home. After what has happened here, you
may depend upon the first being true, and the second hospitable,
however humble."
On that subject there was no further exchange of speech. The two

individuals, so oddly as accidentally introduced, flung aside the stumps
of their cigars; and, clasping hands, stood regarding one another with
the gaze of a sincere, unspeakable friendship.
Next morning saw the Kentuckian riding away from Albuquerque
towards the capital of New Mexico, an escort of dragoons
accompanying him, sent by the Mexican colonel as a protection against
marauding Indians.
But all along the road, and for months after, he was haunted with the
memory of that sweet face seen upon the sola wall; and instead of
laughing at himself for having fallen in love with a portrait, he but
longed to return, and look upon its original--chafing under an
apprehension, with which the parting words of his New Mexican host
had painfully inspired him.
CHAPTER FOUR.
A PRONUNCIAMENTO.
A little less than a quarter of a century ago the Navajo Indians were the
terror of the New Mexican settlements. It was no uncommon thing for
them to charge into the streets of a town, shoot down or spear the
citizens, plunder the shops, and seize upon such women as they wanted,
carrying these captives to their far-off fastnesses in the land of Navajoa.
In the canon de Chelley these savages had their headquarters, with the
temple and estufa, where the sacred fire of Moctezuma was never
permitted to go out; and there, in times past, when Mexico was
misruled by the tyrant Santa Anna, might have been seen scores of
white women, captives to the Navajo nation, women well born and
tenderly brought up, torn from their homes on the Rio del Norte, and
forced to become the wives of their red-skinned captors--oftener their
concubines and slaves. White children, too, in like manner, growing up
among the children of their despoilers; on reaching manhood to forget
all the ties of kindred, with the liens of civilised life--in short, to be as
much savages as those who had adopted them.

At no period was this despoliation more rife than in the time of which
we write. It had reached its climax of horrors, day after day recurring,
when Colonel Miranda became military commandant of the district of
Albuquerque; until not only this town, but Santa Fe, the capital of the
province itself, was menaced with destruction by the red marauders.
Not alone the Navajoes on the west, but the Apaches on the south, and
the Comanches who peopled the plains to the east, made intermittent
and frequent forays upon the towns and villages lying along the
renowned Rio del Norte. There were no longer any outlying settlements
or isolated plantations. The grand haciendas, as the humble ranchos,
were alike lain in ruins. In the walled town alone was there safety for
the white inhabitants of Nuevo Mexico, or for those Indians, termed
mansos, converted to Christianity, and leagued with them in the
pursuits of civilisation. And, indeed, not much safety either within
towns--even in Albuquerque itself.
Imbued with a spirit of patriotism, Colonel Miranda, in taking charge
of the district--his