e drops down his throat. The
water produced an almost instantaneous reanimation, and the young man
opened his eyes, but soon closed them again.

"That shows he is coming round," muttered Cuchillo.

Twice or thrice he repeated the operation, each time doubling the dose
of water. Finally, at the end of half an hour or so, Tiburcio was
sufficiently recovered to be able to raise himself up, and to answer the
questions put to him by the man who was, in reality, the preserver of
his life.

Tiburcio Arellanos was still but a young man; but the sort of life he
had led--solitary, and dependent on his own resources--had given to his
judgment a precocious maturity. He therefore observed a degree of
prudence in recounting to Cuchillo the death of his adopted mother, to
which subject the outlaw had guided the conversation.

"During the twenty-four hours that I passed by the death-bed of my
mother," said Tiburcio, "I quite forgot to attend to my horse; and after
all was over I closed the door of the cottage, where I never wished to
return, and I set out upon this journey. The poor animal, so long
neglected, became feeble on the second day, and fell dead under me: and,
to my misfortune, my water-bottle was broken in the fall, and the water
spilled upon the sand. I remained on the spot till thirst brought on
fever, and then I strayed away; and after wandering about, I know not
how long, I fell, as my horse had done, expecting never more to rise."

"I comprehend all that," responded Cuchillo. "Well! it is astonishing
how people will regret the death of parents, who do not leave them the
slightest inheritance!"

Tiburcio could have told him, that on her death-bed his adopted mother
had left him a royal, as well as a terrible legacy--the secret of the
Golden Valley, and the vengeance of the murder of Marcos Arellanos.
Both had been, confided to him--the golden secret upon the especial
conditions that Tiburcio would, if necessary, spend the whole of his
life in searching for the assassin.

Tiburcio appeared to take no notice of Cuchillo's last reflection, and
perhaps his discretion proved the saving of his life: for had the outlaw
been made sure that he was in possession of the secret of the Golden
Valley, it is not likely he would have made any further efforts to save
him, but the reverse.

"And is that a fact," continued Cuchillo, interrogatively, "that with
the exception of a hut which you have abandoned, a horse which ha