of the whole story. It was
told me by Don Jose himself, while we were _companeros_ on a trapping
expedition--just after he had saved the girl. _Carrambo_!--a strange
tale!"

"Have you any objection to tell it to me? I feel a singular interest in
this young girl."

"_Sin duda_! Of many a mountain-man, the same might be said; and many
an Indian too. Hum! _cavallero_! you would not be flesh and blood, if
you didn't."

"Not _that_, I assure you. My interest in her springs from a different
source. I have other reasons for inquiring into her history."

"You shall have it, then, _cavallero_--at least so much as I know of it
myself: for it is reasonable to suppose that Don Jose did not tell me
all he knew. This much: the _nina_ was with a caravan that had come
from one of your western states. It was a caravan of Mormons. You have
heard of the Mormons, I suppose--those _hereticos_ who have made
settlements here beyond?"

"I have."

"Well--one of these Mormons was the husband of the girl, or rather
_ought_ to have been--since they were married just at starting. It
appears that the young woman was against the marriage--for she loved
some one more to her choice--but her father had forced her to it; and
some quarrel happening just at the time with the favourite lover, she
had consented--from pique, _sin duda_--to accept the Mormon."

"She did accept him?"

"Yes--but now comes the strange part of the story. All I have told you
is but a common tale, and the like occurs every day in the year."

"Go on!"

"When she married the Mormon, she did not know he _was_ a Mormon; and it
appears that these _hereticos_ have a name among your people worse than
the very _Judios_. It was only after the caravan had got out into the
plains, that the girl made this discovery. Another circumstance equally
unpleasant soon came to her knowledge; and that was: that the man who
pretended to be her husband was after all no husband--that he did not
act to her as a husband should do--in short, that the marriage had been
a sham--the ceremony having been performed by some Mormon brother, in
the disguise of a _clerico_!"

"Was the girl's father aware of this deception!"

"Don Jose could not tell. He may have known that the man was a Mormon;
but Don Jose was of opinion that the father himself was betrayed by the
false marriage--though he was present at it, and actually bestowed the
bride!"

"Strange!"

"Perhaps, _cavallero_! the s