guard!"

"Indios bravos! les Navajoes!" exclaimed Gode, at the same instant.

I looked forth into the street. Half a dozen tall savages, wrapped in
striped serapes, were passing. Their wild, hungry looks, and slow,
proud walk at once distinguished them from "Indios manzos," the
water-drawing, wood-hewing pueblos.

"Are they Navajoes?" I asked.

"Oui, monsieur, oui!" replied Gode, apparently with some excitement.
"Navajoes!"

"There's no mistaking them," added Saint Vrain.

"But the Navajoes are the notorious enemies of the New Mexicans! How
come they to be here? Prisoners?"

"Do they look like prisoners?"

They certainly showed no signs of captivity in either look or gesture.
They strode proudly up the street, occasionally glancing at the passers
with an air of savage and lordly contempt.

"Why, then, are they here? Their country lies far to the west."

"That is one of the secrets of Nuevo Mexico, about which I will
enlighten you some other time. They are now protected by a treaty of
peace, which is only binding upon them so long as it may suit their
convenience to recognise it. At present they are as free here as you or
I; indeed, more so, when it comes to that. I wouldn't wonder it we were
to meet them at the fandango to-night."

"I have heard that the Navajoes are cannibals."

"It is true. Look at them this minute! See how they gloat upon that
chubby little fellow, who seems instinctively to fear them. Lucky for
the urchin it's broad daylight, or he might get chucked under one of
those striped blankets."

"Are you in earnest, Saint Vrain?"

"By my word, I am not jesting! If I mistake not, Gode's experience will
confirm what I have said. Eh, voyageur?"

"C'est vrai, monsieur. I vas prisonnier in le nation; not Navagh, but
l'Apache--moch de same--pour tree mons. I have les sauvages seen
manger--eat--one--deux--tree--tree enfants rotis, like hump rib of de
buffles. C'est vrai, messieurs, c'est vrai."

"It is quite true; both Apaches and Navajoes carry off children from the
valley, here, in their grand forays; and it is said by those who should
know, that most of them are used in that way. Whether as a sacrifice to
the fiery god Quetzalcoatl, or whether from a fondness lor human flesh,
no one has yet been able to determine. In fact, with all their
propinquity to this place, there is little known about them. Few who
have visited their towns have had Gode's luck to get away again. N