and hot, so
that their owners were only too glad to discard them in favour of others
much more suited to the climate, and the pair lost no time in effecting
the change.

They had scarcely done so when the sound of horses' hoofs approaching up
the road attracted their attention, and going to the window, they
perceived a dozen horsemen, with two led horses, galloping toward the
guard house. A few minutes later, these having arrived, Acor presented
himself, and by signs invited the two white men to follow him. This
they did, passing out of the guard house just as three servants led
forth the horses of Acor and his two lieutenants, which meanwhile had
been groomed and fed. Then, as the two white men stepped forth into the
open, each of the newly-arrived horsemen flung up his right hand in
salute and shouted a word that sounded remarkably like "Hail!" The two
led horses were then brought forward, and with a gesture of deference,
Acor invited his two guests--or were they prisoners?--to mount.

The horses were beautiful animals, full of mettle and fire,
notwithstanding the journey which they had just performed, and they were
most sumptuously caparisoned, the saddles, though differently shaped
from the European or American article, being made of soft leather,
thickly padded, with a handsome saddle cloth beneath, under which again
was a fine net made of thin silk cord, reaching from the animal's
withers to his tail, the edges of the net being fringed with small
tassels.

Earle was of course an accomplished horseman, riding indeed like a
cowboy, and therefore, out of a feeling of compassion for his companion,
he chose what appeared to be the most mettlesome of the two proffered
horses; but Dick, although a sailor, had also learned how to keep his
seat upon a horse's back, and the manner in which the pair lightly swung
themselves up into the saddle, and the easy grace with which they
retained their seats, despite the curvetting and prancing of their
steeds, evoked a low murmur of admiration from the beholders as the
latter formed up round the white men.

Then, just as Adoni and Camma were bidding their strange guests a
respectful farewell, Earle noticed that his Indian followers and all his
goods had disappeared.

"Say!" he exclaimed, seizing Acor by the arm and pointing to the spot
where the Indians had been camped a couple of hours earlier--"where are
my Indians? Surely, you haven't turned them out, have you?"

The