d Vizcarra showed that it
was their first meeting for that day. In fact, neither had been long
up; for the hour was not yet too late for fashionable sleepers. Roblado
had just breakfasted, and come out on the azotea to enjoy his Havannah.

"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed he, as he lighted the cigar, "what a droll
masquerade it has been! 'Pon my soul! I can scarce get the paint off;
and my voice, after such yelling, won't recover for a week! Ha! ha!
Never was maiden wooed and won in such a romantic, roundabout way.
Shepherds attacked--sheep driven off and scattered to the winds--cattle
carried away and killed in regular _battue_--old woman knocked over, and
rancho given to the flames--besides three days of marching and
countermarching, travestying Indian, and whooping till one is hoarse;
and all this trouble for a poor _paisana_--daughter of a reputed witch!
Ha! ha! ha! It would read like a chapter in some Eastern romance--
Aladdin, for instance--only that the maiden was not rescued by some
process of magic or knight-errantry. Ha! ha ha!"

This speech of Roblado will disclose what is, perhaps, guessed at
already--that the late incursion of "los barbaros" was neither more nor
less than an affair got up by Vizcarra and himself to cover the
abduction of the cibolero's sister. The Indians who had harried the
sheep and cattle--who had attacked the hacienda of Don Juan--who had
fired the rancho and carried off Rosita--were Colonel Vizcarra, his
officer Captain Roblado, his sergeant Gomez, and a soldier named Jose--
another minion of his confidence and will.

There were but the four, as that number was deemed sufficient for the
accomplishment of the atrocious deed; and rumour, backed by fear, gave
them the strength of four hundred. Besides, the fewer in the secret the
better. This was the prudence or cunning of Roblado.

Most cunningly, too, had they taken their measures. The game, from
beginning to end, was played with design and execution worthy of a
better cause. The shepherds were first attacked on the upper plain, to
give certainty to the report that hostile Indians were near. The
scouting-parties were sent out from the Presidio, and proclamations
issued to the inhabitants to be on their guard--all for effect; and the
further swoop upon the cattle was clear proof of the presence of "los
barbaros" in the valley. In this foray the fiendish masquers took an
opportunity of "killing two birds with one stone;" for, in add