Year: 1877

was lett to himself anu His SlOolny
thoughts until morning should call his
captors to the saddle.


As we gathered around the camp tire
many were the stories told of the daring
and outrageous acts of Mustang Grey
and his numerous escapes from even I'LL
der the rope. Soon one by one fell
asleep, until the Texans were deep in re-
pose, and the camp fire had sunk into
white embers and served rs sentinel to
our quiet camp.


The events of the day had impressed
me strangely, and I pictured to myself
the kneeling figure of the strong, tall
desperate, and the 1.-the, graceful form
of the strange girl, rs she gave him a
cooling draught to wet his parched lips
, and tongue.
The canopy of heaven was studded
with stars. No light from the moon
paled their liquid glcamings, and the
milky way, wherein clustered myriads OF
these unseen celestial torches, bclted the
torrid and frigid zones III its magical
folds.


Could the prisoner, this man of strange
deeds, be asleep? looked toward him,
and as an cmber fell from its living pin
nacle, lighting up momentarily the face
of Grey, | saw that his eyes were not
closed. From that moment | banished
sleep, and my sympathies went with this
strange being, knowing that the Texans,
who were his captors, wonld execute him
without authority Of law.


I was so close to him that by looking
at his reclining form intently for short
space of time, 1 could almost see the out
lines of his face.


The hour of midnight had passed, and
Ursa Major was below the verge of the
northern sky, when I saw something that
resembled a creeping form. Its move
ments were slow, and soon it was almost
at the side of the prisoner There was
momentary pause; another ember fell,
and I recognized the prostrate form of
the girl of the stone mission. She crept
closer, when her head touched the face
of Grey, and there was a sound as if lips
touched in fervent kiss. Then Il knife
cleaned. and I heard the thongs that
bound the captive snap as the hgamcnts
separated.


He was as free as air. Another flash
from the almost dead embers, and I saw
two brawny arms twined round the neck
of the strange girl, whose head was
nestled in the desperado's bosom. Only
a moment, and he stood buckling belt
containing pistol and knife around his
waist. He lifted his saddle and blankets
from the ground, and soon the tall out
law and the strange girl faded i'll the
darkness that envaloped the camp.


Morning, sober and staid, came ON,
and one by one the Texans arose from
their blankets, and as they stretched
their drowsy limbs they mechanically
looked for Grey.


He had fled.


They swore loud and deep, and gal
loped to the mission and aroused its
sleeping inmates; but they could give no
information in relation to the outlaw.
Next they visited the abode of the girl
of the mission. Her room was entered,
but it was found empty.


"We must give up the search, said
Haskell; "the little tigress turned him
loose. Lie lS tIlllttl 'illlt W III l5ilO l1hS q
demon; besides, he is many miles Oh his
way to the Nueces. This is bad work for
u.s." The latter sentence he muttered III
low tones, as if dreading the future.


The rangers left me at the mission, and
one month from the night of Mustang
Grey's escape I was again in Victoria On
the Gaudaloupe, where | learned that the
girl was the daughter Of Grey, and that
she inherited all the fierce traits of her
father.


That eventful night she rode in the
gloom in the direction OF the Rio Grmde,
the route to which wild stream she knew
as well as any frontier scout.


While the conflict waged between the
United States and Mexico, Mustang Grey
proved himself Of service, and at Hit
mantia he received his death wound and
died in Pueblo.


The history of his child is unknown,
as she faded from sight and memory OF
men, as she sunk into the darkness OF
the night when she and her father fled
from the old mission.