s
true, as I am a gentle--" He had either died, or fallen into a sleep,
the forerunner of his death, before the latter word was finished.

Concealing this fact from the others, Middleton repeated his orders and
departed. The pertinacity of the deceased, and all the circumstances
united, induced him to set on foot some secret enquiries. He found that
a family answering the description which had been given him, had in fact
passed the place the day of his nuptials. They were traced along the
margin of the Mississippi, for some distance, until they took boat and
ascended the river to its confluence with the Missouri. Here they had
disappeared like hundreds of others, in pursuit of the hidden wealth of
the interior.

Furnished with these facts, Middleton detailed a small guard of his most
trusty men, took leave of Don Augustin, without declaring his hopes or
his fears, and having arrived at the indicated point, he pushed into the
wilderness in pursuit. It was not difficult to trace a train like that
of Ishmael, until he was well assured its object lay far beyond the
usual limits of the settlements. This circumstance, in itself, quickened
his suspicions, and gave additional force to his hopes of final success.

After getting beyond the assistance of verbal directions, the anxious
husband had recourse to the usual signs of a trail, in order to follow
the fugitives. This he also found a task of no difficulty, until he
reached the hard and unyielding soil of the rolling prairies. Here,
indeed, he was completely at fault. He found himself, at length,
compelled to divide his followers, appointing a place of rendezvous at a
distant day, and to endeavour to find the lost trail by multiplying, as
much as possible, the number of his eyes. He had been alone a week, when
accident brought him in contact with the trapper and the bee-hunter.
Part of their interview has been related, and the reader can readily
imagine the explanations that succeeded the tale he recounted, and which
led, as has already been seen, to the recovery of his bride.

CHAPTER XVI

These likelihoods confirm her flight from hence,
Therefore, I pray you, stay not to discourse,
But mount you presently.
--Shakspeare.

An hour had slid by, in hasty and nearly incoherent questions and
answers, before Middleton, hanging over his recovered treasure with that
sort of jealous watch