who attempted to lay
hands on them.

By the time our preparations were completed, and the frightened and
weeping girls shut up in an inner room, the wild Indians were at the upper
end of the big, straggling village, and presently entered a wide, open
space between the ramshackle old church and Ignacio's house. The party
consisted of fifteen or sixteen warriors mounted on small horses. All rode
bare-back, were naked to the waist, and armed with bows and arrows and the
longest spears I had yet seen.

The tame Indians looked stolidly on. Nothing short of an earthquake would
have disturbed their self-possession. Rather to my surprise, for he had
not so far shown a super-abundance of courage, Fray Ignacio seemed equal
to the occasion. He was tall, portly, and white-haired, and as he stood at
the church door, clad in his priestly robes, he looked venerable and
dignified.

One of the _misterios_, whom from his remarkable head-dress--a helmet made
of a condor's skull--I took to be a cacique, after greeting the priest,
entered into conversation with him, the purport of which I had no
difficulty in guessing, for the Indian, laughing loudly, turned to his
companions and said something that appeared greatly to amuse them. Neither
he nor they believed Fray Ignacio's story of the great pale-face chief and
his death-dealing powers.

The cacique, followed by a few of his men, then rode leisurely toward the
house. He was a fine-looking fellow, with cigar-colored skin and features
unmistakably more Spanish than Indian.

My original idea was to shoot the first two of them, and so strike terror
into the rest. But the cacique bore himself so bravely that I felt
reluctant to kill him in cold blood; and, thinking that killing his horse
might do as well, I waited until they were well within range, and, taking
careful aim, shot it through the head. As the horse went down, the cacique
sprang nimbly to his feet; he seemed neither surprised nor dismayed, took
a long look at the house, then waved his men back, and followed them
leisurely to the other side of the square.

"What think you, Gahra? Will they go away and leave us in peace, or shall
we have to shoot some of them?" I said as I reloaded my musket.

"I think we shall, senor. That tall man whose horse you shot did not seem
much frightened."

"Anything but that, and--what are they about now?"

The wild Indians, directed by their chief, were driving the tame Indians
together, pretty