to one. Let us follow as
closely as we can, Pepe, to protect once more my lately recovered
child."

Bois-Rose threw his rifle over his shoulder, and was already taking
gigantic strides after Fabian.

"The horse is difficult to manage," cried he; "I am certain that he will
not go straight! we shall perhaps arrive as soon as he. Ah! Don
Estevan, your evil star has guided you to these outlaws."

Fabian, like those legendary cavaliers whom nothing appals, passed with
fearful rapidity over hillocks, ravines, and fallen trunks of trees.
Pepe was not wrong; in spite of the start that the pursued had of him,
Fabian would soon have overtaken them, could he have guided his horse;
but luckily, or unluckily for him, the intractable animal deviated
constantly from the track; and it was only after prodigious efforts that
he could bring him back to the road, which wound through the wood, and
on which the traces of the five fugitives were visible, and thus the
pursuer constantly lost ground.

However, after an hour of this struggle, the horse began to find that he
had met with his master, and that his strength was becoming exhausted;
the curb, held by a vigorous hand, compressed his jaws, his speed
gradually relaxed, his bounds became less violent, and he ended by
obeying the hand which guided him. As if by common consent, man and
horse stopped to take breath. Fabian profited by this rest to look
around him; his heart began to beat less rapidly and he could both hear
and see. Trampled leaves, newly broken branches and the prints of
horses' feet, were clear indications of the passage of those who fled
before him.

Suddenly the sound of falling water struck upon his ear. In another
moment the fugitives would have gained the rustic bridge which crossed
the wide and deep bed of the torrent; their united efforts might destroy
it, and then all pursuit would be useless. While he was seeking for a
ford Don Estevan would escape through the vast plains which extended to
Tubac. This thought aroused anew the young man's passion; and, pressing
his horse's side he galloped along the path, the windings of which still
hid his enemies from view. This time his horse had grown docile and
flew along the road.

The noise of the torrent soon drowned that of the horse's feet, but
before long human voices mingled with it. This sound produced upon
Fabian as powerful an effect as his repeated blows did upon his horse; a
few minutes more and h