is more to my present purpose, he is--or _was_, but two hours ago--
within ten miles of where I am writing this note! One of our vaqueros
saw him near the banks of a beautiful arroyo, which I know to be his
favourite ground. For reasons known to me, the vaquero did not either
chase or molest him; but in breathless haste brought me the news.

"Now, capitan, gallant and grand! there is but one who can capture this
famed horse, and that is your puissant self. Ah! _you have made captive
what was once at wild and free_. Yes! _you_ can do it--you and Moro!

"Bring me the white steed of the prairies! I shall cease to grieve for
poor Lola. I shall forgive you that _contratiempo_. I shall forgive
all--even your rudeness to my double mask. Ha, ha, ha! Bring me the
white steed! the white steed!

"Isolina."

As I finished reading this singular epistle, a thrill of pleasure ran
through my veins. I dwelt not on the oddness of its contents,
thoroughly characteristic of the writer. Its meaning was clear enough.

I _had_ heard of the white horse of the prairies--what hunter or
trapper, trader or traveller, throughout all the wide borders of
prairie-land, has not? Many a romantic story of him had I listened to
around the blazing campfire--many a tale of German-like _diablerie_, in
which the white horse played hero. For nearly a century has he figured
in the legends of the prairie "mariner"--a counterpart of the Flying
Dutchman--the "phantom-ship" of the forecastle. Like this, too,
ubiquitous--seen today scouring the sandy plains of the Platte,
to-morrow bounding over the broad llanos of Texas, a thousand miles to
the southward!

That there existed a white stallion of great speed and splendid
proportions--that there were twenty, perhaps a hundred such--among the
countless herds of wild-horses that roam over the great plains, I did
not for a moment doubt. I myself had seen and chased more than one that
might have been termed "a magnificent animal," and that no ordinary
horse could overtake; but the one known as the "white steed of the
prairies" had a peculiar marking, that distinguished him from all the
rest--_his ears were black_!--only his ears, and these were of the deep
colour of ebony. The rest of his body, mane, and tail, was white as
fresh-fallen snow.

It was to this singular and mysterious animal that the letter pointed;
it was the black-eared steed I was called upon to capture. The contents
of the note w