t, tells of another discovery.
In like manner explained, by his speech close following,--

"An' hyar's the track o' the mare--the yeller mustang as war rid by the
saynorita. An', durn me, that's the hoof-mark o' the mule as carried my
Concheter. Capting Haynes! Kumrades! No use botherin' 'bout hyar any
longer. Them we want to kum up wi' are goed north 'long this trail as
leads by the river bank."

Not another word is needed. The Rangers, keen of apprehension and quick
to arrive at conclusions, at once perceive the justness of those come to
by their old comrade. They make no opposition to his proposal to
proceed after the smaller party.

Instead, all signify assent; and in ten seconds after they are strung
out into a long line, going at a gallop, their horses' heads turned
northward up the right bank of the Rio Pecos.

CHAPTER SIXTY FOUR.

A SYLVAN SCENE.

Perhaps no river on all the North American continent is marked with
interest more romantic than that which attaches to the Rio Grande of
Mexico. On its banks has been enacted many a tragic scene--many an
episode of Indian and border war--from the day when the companions of
Cortez first unfurled Spain's _pabellon_ till the Lone Star flag of
Texas, and later still the banner of the Stars and Stripes, became
mirrored on its waves.

Heading in the far-famed "parks" of the Rocky Mountains, under the name
of Rio Bravo del Norte, it runs in a due southerly direction between the
two main ranges of the Mexican "Sierre Madre;" then, breaking through
the Eastern Cordillera, it bends abruptly, continuing on in a
south-easterly course till it espouses ocean in the great Mexican Gulf.

Only its lower portion is known as the "Rio Grande;" above it is the
"Bravo del Norte."

The Pecos is its principal tributary, which, after running through
several degrees of latitude parallel to the main stream, at length
unites with it below the great bend.

In many respects the Pecos is itself a peculiar river. For many hundred
miles it courses through a wilderness rarely traversed by man, more
rarely by men claiming to be civilised. Its banks are only trodden by
the savage, and by him but when going to or returning from a raid. For
this turbid stream is a true river of the desert, having on its left
side the sterile tract of the Llano Estacado, on its right dry table
plains that lead up to the Sierras, forming the "divide" between its
waters and those of the Bravo del N