The times., 1897-03-17

be too late. il you stay. And in the morn
ing Pablo Will be here to tell lies. On,
do make haSter'
Chquita's father caught her by the
shoulders and set her with her face tow ard
the house here the sonora was staying
Go to the sonora go at once. DO not fear
for the rest. II they are above ground the
cattle viii he found. Many are out already,
and now l will 20 myself and send others
as we'll He gave Chiquita a little push
to start her IN the right direction and
hurried away.
Chiquita walked slowly on, thinking
hard as she went She was somewhat
relieved by what her father had said.
She knew that he could succeed in his
search if anyone could. Still, suppose
he did not. No one could tell where
Pablo had driven the cattle To be of
any use they must be on hand in the
morning, and that was not likely. Pablo
must not come, either; that was the
only way out of it she could see, Doubt
less even now he was OH his return journey.
If he could only be found and stopped-if
ChQuita herself could only lind him. How
she would stop him in case size did meet
him on the road, Chiqulta had not the
most distant idea. Clearly tie first thing
to do was to find him; the lest could
he determined afterward She stopped i'll
her journey toward the house. 4 watery
crescent moon had risen over the mountain.
filtering faint gray light over the vii
lage and plain. Tie side Of the mountain
itself was still dark, and the open portals
of the saloon glowed like great eyes set
i'll the darkness From one of these doors
she saw her father quickly come and
enter another Evidently he was gathering
his men.
Near the saloon Chiquita knew that there
was corral a corral where Ramon dc
Ques;,,la kept his horses when he visited
Aqua Caliente.
They were by far the best horses in that
part Of the country. With a horse, such as
one of these, Chiquita might find Pablo.
Frightened at the audacity of her plan, she
turned and ran toward the corral. She
did not want to have time to consider =
she would never, then, dare do such u
thing that which she had in mind
As Chiquita neared the saloon her father
came out of the door, followed by two
other men. They did not see her, and, after
waiting for them to get clear, she passed
quickly across the path of light that
streanied from the door into the darkness
that surrounded the corral. There were
several horses there; she could Just see
them moving about or lying on the soft
sand. Feeling along the cottonwood poles
which inclosed the corral, she found the
heavy, silver mounted saddle of Don
Ramon. Chiquita could not lift the saddle,
for 1t was heavy far beyond her strength,
but the bride hung over its horn, and this
was what Chiquita wanted. She caught
it up, and going to the slip rails, quickly
let them down anG passed inside.
The horses snorted distrustfully and
edged away from the little figure, strange
to them. that intruded at so unseeInly an
hour ChiquitG spoke to them soothngly
in trembling undertone, for fear she
might be heard She called to them by en-
(learing names in her soft Spanish, and
limited of delcs cles that would eventually
be Forthcoming. Finally one horse took
heart and allowed her to approach, and,
with a readiness given by lifelong fanlil-
iarity with his kind, Cbiquita slipped the
bit in his mouth and passed his ears
through the loop that served as throat
latch. She led him after her to theopenng
of the corral, climbed on the fence and
dropped on his back al he passed her and
was away
After a few plunges to express his dis
approval Of this method of mounting, the
animal settled into a long, swinging stride,
such stride as only the horses of Don Ra-
mon could take; stride that precludcd