ffair was over. The fewer of
the troop that should be absent, the less likelihood of our being
missed, and those I had with me I deemed enough for my purpose. Whether
successful or not, we should soon return to camp. It would then be time
to devise some scheme for capturing the leader and prime actor in this
terrible tragedy.

Hardly waiting to hear the story, we lighted the great candles, and
moved once more along the trail.

Fortunately, the breeze was but slight, and only served to make the huge
waxen torches flare more freely. By their brilliant blaze, we were
enabled to take up the tracks, quite as rapidly as by the moonlight. At
this point, the horse had been still going at full gallop; and his
course, as it ran in a direct line, was the more easily followed.

Dark as the night was, we soon perceived we were heading for a point
well known to all of us--the prairie mound; and, under a faint belief
that the steed might have there come to a stop, we pressed forward with
a sort of hopeful anticipation.

After an hour's tracking, the white cliffs loomed within the circle of
our view--the shining selenite glancing back the light of our tapers,
like a wall set with diamonds.

We approached with caution, still keeping on the trail, but also keenly
scrutinising the ground in advance of us--in hopes of perceiving the
object of our search. Neither by the cliff, nor in the gloom around,
was living form to be traced.

Sure enough the steed had halted there, or, at all events, ceased from
his wild gallop. He had approached the mound in a walk, as the tracks
testified; but how, and in what direction, had he gone thence? His
hoof-prints no longer appeared. He had passed over the shingle, that
covered the plain to a distance of many yards from the base of the
cliff, and no track could be found beyond!

Several times we went around the mesa, carrying our candles everywhere.
We saw skeletons of men and horses, with skulls detached, fragments of
dresses, and pieces of broken armour--souvenirs of our late skirmish.
We looked into our little fortress, and gazed upon the rock that had
sheltered us; we glanced up the gorge where we had climbed, and beheld
the rope by which we had descended still hanging in its place: all these
we saw, but no further traces of the steed!

Round and round we went, back and forward, over the stony shingle, and
along its outer edge, but still without coming upon the tracks. Whither
could