s face might be, they
revealed his feelings; they were altogether too pathetic to be in the head
of a man and an officer.

"But you will overtake us," Clara replied, out of a charming faith that
with men all things are possible.

"Yes," he said, almost fiercely.

"Besides, Coronado knows," she added, still trusting in the male being.
"He says this is the surest road."

Thurstane did not believe it, but he did not want to alarm her when alarm
was useless, and he made no comment.

"I have a great mind to resign," he presently broke out.

Clara colored; she did not fully understand him, but she guessed that all
this emotion was somehow on her account; and a surprised, warm Spanish
heart beat at once its alarm.

"It would be of no use," he immediately added. "I couldn't get away until
my resignation had been accepted. I must bear this as well as I can."

The young lady began to like him better than ever before, and yet she
began to draw gently away from him, frightened by a consciousness of her
liking.

"I beg your pardon, Miss Van Diemen," said Thurstane, in an inexplicable
confusion.

"There is no need," replied Clara, equally confused.

"Well," he resumed, after a struggle to regain his self-control, "I will
do my utmost to overtake you."

"We shall be very glad," returned Clara, with a singular mixture of
consciousness and artlessness.

There was an exquisite innocence and almost childish simplicity in this
girl of eighteen. It was, so to speak, not quite civilized; it was not in
the style of American young ladies; our officer had never, at home,
observed anything like it; and, of course--O yes, of course, it fascinated
him. The truth is, he was so far gone in loving her that he would have
been charmed by her ways no matter what they might have been.

On the very morning after the above dialogue Garcia's train started for
Rio Arriba, taking with it a girl who had been singled out for a marriage
which she did not guess, or for a death whose horrors were beyond her
wildest fears.

The train consisted of six long and heavy covered vehicles, not dissimilar
in size, strength, and build to army wagons. Garcia had thought that two
would suffice; six wagons, with their mules, etc., were a small fortune:
what if the Apaches should take them? But Coronado had replied: "Nobody
sends a train of two wagons; do you want to rouse suspicion?"

So there were six; and each had a driver and a muleteer, making twelve
h