u notice nothing else
strange during the stampede?"

"No," answered Carlos; "I was so annoyed--so put out by the loss--I
scarce noticed anything. What else, Antonio?"

"Why, in the midst of these yellings, did you not hear a shrill whoop
now and then--a _whistle_?"

"Ha! did you hear that?"

"More than once--distinctly."

"Where were my ears?" asked the cibolero of himself. "You are sure,
Antonio?"

"Quite sure, master."

Carlos remained for a moment silent, evidently engaged in busy
reflection. After a pause, he broke out in a half-soliloquy:--

"It may have been--it must have been--by Heavens! it must--"

"What, master?"

"The Pane whistle!"

"Just what I was thinking, master. The Comanches never whoop so--the
Kiawa never. I have not heard that the Wacoes give such a signal. Why
not Pane? Besides, their being afoot--that's like Pane!"

A sudden revulsion had taken place in the mind of the cibolero. There
was every probability that Antonio's conjecture was correct. The
"whistle" is a peculiar signal of the Pane tribes. Moreover, the fact
of so many of the marauders being on foot--that was another peculiarity.
Carlos knew that among the Southern Indians such a tactic is never
resorted to. The Panes are _Horse_-Indians too, but on their marauding
expeditions to the South they often go afoot, trusting to return
mounted--which they almost invariably do.

"After all," thought Carlos, "I have been wronging the Wacoes--the
robbers are Panes!"

But now a new suspicion entered his mind. It was still the Wacoes that
had done it. They had adopted the Pane whistle to deceive him! A party
of them might easily be afoot--it was not such a distance to their
camp,--besides, after the estampeda they had gone in that very
direction!

No doubt, should he go there on the morrow, they would tell him that
Panes were in the neighbourhood, that it was they who had stolen his
mules--the mules of course he would not see, as these would be safely
concealed among the hills.

"No, Antonio," he said, after making these reflections, "our enemies are
the Wacoes themselves."

"Master," replied Antonio, "I hope not."

"I hope not, too, camarado. I had taken a fancy to our friends of but
yesterday: I should be sorry to find them our foes--but I fear it is
even so."

With all, Carlos was not confident; and now that he reflected, another
circumstance came to his mind in favour of the Wacoes. His companions
had al