g how perilous the moment was,
pushed forward his uncle to say good-by to Clara. The old scoundrel kissed
her hand; he did not dare to lift his one eye to her face; he kissed her
hand and bowed himself out of reach.

"Farewell, Mr. Garcia," called Aunt Maria. "Poor, excellent old creature!
What a pity he can't understand English! I should so like to say something
nice to him. Farewell, Mr. Garcia."

Garcia kissed his fat fingers to her, took off his sombrero, waved it,
bowed a dozen times, and smiled like a scared devil. Then, with other
good-bys, delivered right and left from everybody to everybody, the train
rumbled away. Thurstane was about to accompany it out of the town when his
clerk came to tell him that the board of survey required his immediate
presence. Cursing his hard fate, and wishing himself anything but an
officer in the army, he waved a last farewell to Clara, and turned his
back on her, perhaps forever.

Santa Fe is situated on the great central plateau of North America, seven
thousand feet above the level of the sea. Around it spreads an arid plain,
sloping slightly where it approaches the Rio Grande, and bordered by
mountains which toward the south are of moderate height, while toward the
north they rise into fine peaks, glorious with eternal snow. Although the
city is in the latitude of Albemarle Sound, North Carolina, its elevation
and its neighborhood to Alpine ranges give it a climate which is in the
main cool, equable, and healthy.

The expedition moved across the plain in a southwesterly direction.
Coronado's intention was to cross the Rio Grande at Pena Blanca, skirt the
southern edge of the Jemez Mountains, reach San Isidoro, and then march
northward toward the San Juan region. The wagons were well fitted out with
mules, and as Garcia had not chosen to send much merchandise by this risky
route, they were light, so that the rate of progress was unusually rapid.
We cannot trouble ourselves with the minor incidents of the journey.
Taking it for granted that the Rio Grande was passed, that halts were
made, meals cooked and eaten, nights passed in sleep, days in pleasant and
picturesque travelling, we will leap into the desert land beyond San
Isidoro.

The train was now seventy-five miles from Santa Fe. Coronado had so pushed
the pace that he had made this distance in the rather remarkable time of
three days. Of course his object in thus hurrying was to get so far ahead
of Thurstane that the l