not only seem to be able to do
everything, but you think of everything as well," and kneeling on the
ground before her, he drew off her riding boots and slipped her
moccasins on her feet.

"It is the bridal gift of an Indian girl to her husband," she said
caressingly. "And signifies that they shall tread the same path together
through life."

"What could be more beautiful!" he returned, pulling off his boots and
drawing on his own. "Ah!" he continued, "it was worth waiting for you
Chiquita _mia_! The long years of uncertainty and suffering seem as
nothing, now that I look back upon them and you have come into my life."

Just then Jose returned from the work of picketing the horses and the
three sat down to supper.

XXXVIII

"Isn't it strange how easily one can return to the natural life if one
has known it before?" said Chiquita later in the evening, as the three
lay stretched on their blankets around the small fire which Jose had
kindled in the center of the grove, and watched the flickering flames
and dancing shadows against the dark pine boughs surrounding them.

"The life of yesterday has fallen from me," she continued, gazing
pensively into the fire whose red glare illumined her beautiful bronze
features.

"Yes, you are an Indian once more, Chiquita _mia_," said the Captain.

"Ah! you are as much of an Indian as Jose or myself!" she retorted
gayly. "What a pity you didn't know the life before the land was
conquered and tamed by the White man! Verily, a glory has passed from
this earth!" A peculiar light shone in Jose's eyes as he listened to her
words. He seemed on the point of speaking, but did not. He smiled and
rolled a fresh _cigarillo_, lighting it with a pine twig which he took
from the fire.

"Tell me why you insisted on our coming this way, Chiquita?" asked the
Captain, disposing himself comfortably on his blanket.

"Because I want to see my people again. They are the strongest and most
advanced people in Mexico, and we will be safe with them until things
have quieted down. Because I wanted you to see where I came from and how
I lived before Padre Antonio introduced me to a new world and made of me
a woman that you could love. Besides, we can start from their country on
our camping trip as well as from any other place. My people are not
quite the savages you probably think them. But there is something else,"
she continued after a pause. "I was impelled, drawn this way. Why, I can
not s