r forgotten. But come! let us have done with idle regrets
and finish our supper--such souvenirs always spoil my appetite."

"The same with me," agreed Pepe, as he seized hold of a large
mutton-bone, and commenced an attack upon it in a fashion that proved
that his appetite was not yet quite gone.

After a while Pepe again broke the silence.

"If I had the pleasure," said he, "of a personal acquaintance with this
Don Augustin Pena, who appears to be the proprietor here, I would
compliment him upon the fine quality of his mutton; and if I thought his
horses were of as good a sort, I think I should be tempted to borrow
one--one horse would never be missed out of the great herds we have seen
galloping about, no more than a sheep out of his vast flocks; and to me
a good horse would be a treasure."

"Very well," said the Canadian. "If you feel inclined for a horse, you
had better have one; it will be no great loss to the owner, and may be
useful to us. If you go in search of one, I can keep watch over this
young fellow, who sleeps as if he hadn't had a wink for the last month."

"Most probably no one will come after him; nevertheless, Bois-Rose, keep
your eye open till I return. If anything happens, three howls of the
coyote will put me on my guard."

As he said this, Pepe took up a lazo that lay near, and turning his face
in the direction in which he was most likely to find a drove of horses,
he walked off into the woods.

Bois-Rose was left alone. Having thrown some dry branches upon the
fire, in order to produce a more vivid light, he commenced regarding
anew the young man who was asleep; but after a while spent in this way
he stretched himself alongside the prostrate body, and appeared also to
slumber.

The night-breeze caused the foliage to rustle over the heads of these
two men, as they lay side by side. Neither had the least suspicion that
they were here re-united by strange and providential circumstances--that
twenty years before, they had lain side by side--then lulled to sleep by
the sound of the ocean, just as now by the whispering murmurs of the
forest.

CHAPTER THIRTY.

BOIS-ROSE AND FABIAN.

For twenty years the murderer of the Countess de Mediana had gone
unpunished. For twenty years the justice of heaven had remained
suspended; but the time of its accomplishment was not far off. Soon was
it to open its solemn assizes; soon would it call together accuser and
criminal, witness and judge