inted, had allowed her head to fall on
her rescuer's shoulder.

Lawrence wished that circumstances might have admitted of his continuing
the journey as they were then situated, but propriety required him to
say--

"Here, Quash,--lend a hand."

The negro vaulted to the ground, and received Manuela into his arms just
as Pedro and the colonel galloped up.

"Thank you, Senhor Armstrong, thank you heartily," said the latter, as
he dismounted, and, sitting down on a mound, drew his child to his side.

"I'm not hurt, not a bit," sighed Manuela, with a slight attempt at a
smile.

"Thank God for that, but you are shaken a little," returned the old
soldier with an anxious look. "Here Pedro, Quashy, fetch me the flask
from my saddle."

By the time a cup of the flask's contents was administered to Manuela,
Mariquita and Susan were kneeling beside her, and the rest were standing
round.

"A splendid leap!--aw--couldn't have been much better done if--aw--it
had been an English hunter," remarked the sportsman in an undertone to
his friend. "But, I say, don't it strike you that the colonel is
uncommonly--aw--sweet on that little Indian girl."

"She's no more an Indian girl than you are," replied his friend, with a
laugh.

"Aw--you don't say so?" returned the sportsman, with a slight elevation
of his eyebrows.

"Let us go," said Manuela, rising; "I am much better, only a little
shaken by such a leap. But--but I should like another--"

"Yes, to be sure, another horse," interrupted the colonel; "who will
exchange?--a quiet one, of course."

"Here you is, kurnel," said Quashy, with a beaming countenance, as he
led forward his horse. "Quiet as a lamb, 'cept when you aggrawates him.
Nebber goes no faster dan you wants him to,--sometimes not so fast! an'
wouldn't run away even if you was to ax him on your knees."

"After such recommendation," said the colonel, turning to Manuela, "I
suppose you will accept of this steed."

The Inca princess accepted it with a beam of gratitude to Quashy, who
thereupon mounted the runaway horse, and in a few minutes the whole
cavalcade was sweeping over the plain as swiftly as ever.

Afternoon brought them to a solitary Gaucho hut. They came first upon
the corral rather suddenly, for it was concealed in a hollow. It was an
enclosure of strong rough posts stuck into the ground, on many of which
were perched a number of gorged vultures and hawks.

The ground around it was covered with