ames leap upward and lose themselves in
the thin wreath of white smoke which slowly ascended and floated away
over the tree tops. For some time no one spoke, then Captain Forest
finally broke the silence.

"What you say, Jose, is truly wonderful; but know, that we have no more
desire to rule the Tewana than to rule other men. But should they, like
the rest of the world, fail to heed our example, they shall perish in
their ignorance." He leaned forward and tossed some fresh sticks of wood
on the fire.

"It is time for the first watch, Jose," he continued, rising to his
feet and glancing up at the stars visible above the tree tops. "Call me
when the Great Bear has half circled the Pole Star. I'll keep the second
watch."

XXXIX

Jose brought in the horses and he and the Captain saddled and packed
them; after which they silently broke camp in the light of the stars and
the waning moon. Jose took his place at the head of the little
cavalcade, Chiquita following him and the Captain bringing up the rear;
he and Chiquita casting a last look at their first camp as they rode
away.

No one spoke. Save for the measured tread of the horses and noise of the
rushing stream along which the trail led upwards, no sounds disturbed
the silence of the night. Now and then an occasional spark, struck from
the horses' iron-rimmed hoofs, flashed for an instant in the darkness
along the trail.

The Captain's gaze was riveted upon Chiquita's tall, erect figure in
front of him who ever and anon turned in the saddle and smiled, her
beautiful, lustrous eyes flashing like stars in the moon-fire.

Higher and higher they mounted, pausing occasionally to allow the horses
time to draw breath, until they at length drew rein on the summit of the
Sierra Madres. Here a wonderful sight met their eyes, poised as they
were upon the rim of the earth and gazing off into star-strewn space.
Dawn was just breaking, suffusing the long line of the eastern horizon
with a soft, rosy glow which crept swiftly towards them over the
gray-green, purple plains that swept away from the mountains' base like
vast undulating stretches of ocean; the golden shafts of the on-coming
dawn driving the paling stars before them like a shepherd his flocks to
the hills. North and south, as far as the eye could reach, stretched the
broken and many crested length of the great Sierra Madre range; its
sides clothed with dark forests of cedar and pine and chaparral, its
seclud