ly invaded by a village belle--a
Western young lady somewhat older than myself, and of flirtatious
reputation. As she persistently and--as I now have reason to
believe--mischievously lingered, I had only a passing glimpse of
Consuelo riding past at an unaccustomed speed which surprised me at
the moment. But as I reasoned later that she was only trying to avoid
a merely formal meeting, I thought no more about it. It was not until I
called at the house to fetch Chu Chu at the usual hour, and found that
Consuelo had not yet returned, that a recollection of Chu Chu's furious
pace again troubled me. An hour passed--it was getting towards sunset,
but there were no signs of Chu Chu nor her mistress. I became seriously
alarmed. I did not care to reveal my fears to the family, for I felt
myself responsible for Chu Chu. At last I desperately saddled my horse,
and galloped off in the direction she had taken. It was the road to
Rosario and the hacienda of one of her relations, where she sometimes
halted.

The road was a very unfrequented one, twisting like a mountain river;
indeed, it was the bed of an old watercourse, between brown hills of
wild oats, and debouching at last into a broad blue lake-like expanse of
alfalfa meadows. In vain I strained my eyes over the monotonous level;
nothing appeared to rise above or move across it. In the faint hope that
she might have lingered at the hacienda, I was spurring on again when I
heard a slight splashing on my left. I looked around. A broad patch
of fresher-colored herbage and a cluster of dwarfed alders indicated
a hidden spring. I cautiously approached its quaggy edges, when I was
shocked by what appeared to be a sudden vision! Mid-leg deep in the
centre of a greenish pool stood Chu Chu! But without a strap or buckle
of harness upon her--as naked as when she was foaled!

For a moment I could only stare at her in bewildered terror. Far from
recognizing me, she seemed to be absorbed in a nymph-like contemplation
of her own graces in the pool. Then I called "Consuelo!" and galloped
frantically around the spring. But there was no response, nor was there
anything to be seen but the all-unconscious Chu Chu. The pool, thank
Heaven! was not deep enough to have drowned any one; there were no signs
of a struggle on its quaggy edges. The horse might have come from a
distance! I galloped on, still calling. A few hundred yards further
I detected the vivid glow of Chu Chu's scarlet saddle-blanket,