ay be sure that he is
all right."

She threw her arms around her husband's neck and kissed him again and
again, saying, "My noble, generous husband! I love you a thousand times
more than ever. Now go, Robert, at once, and release Basilio."

"I can't leave you, dear."

"You must--you shall! I am fully recovered. If you don't go, I will."

"Very well."

No sooner had he left the room than she sprang out of the bed, caught
up a penknife, and noiselessly followed him; he did not suspect her
presence close behind him as he went towards the corral. When they had
gone thus a short distance from the house her alert ear caught a
peculiar sound that sent icicles through her body. They were feeble
cries of human agony, and they came from a direction other than that of
the corral. Heedlessly, and therefore unwisely, she ran towards their
source, without having summoned her husband, and soon she came upon a
fearful spectacle.

McPherson pursued his way to the corral; but when he arrived there he
was surprised not to find Basilio in the enclosure. The gate was
closed--the horse to which he was lashed could not have escaped through
it. Looking about, he read the signs of a commotion that must have
occurred among the horses, caused, undoubtedly, by the strange sight of
a man lashed in some peculiar way to the back of one of their number.
The ground was torn by flying hoofs in all directions; there had been a
wild stampede among the animals. Even when he entered, possibly more
than a half-hour after Basilio was introduced among them, they were
huddled in a corner, and snorted in alarm when he approached them. The
horse to which Nicolas had lashed Basilio was not to be seen. Annoyed
at the stupidity of Nicolas, McPherson looked about until he found the
place in the fence through which Basilio's horse had broken; only two
of the rails had been thrown down. Alarmed and distressed, McPherson
leaped over the fence, took up the trail of the horse, and followed it,
running. Presently he discovered that the horse, in his mad flight, had
broken through the fence enclosing the apiary, and had played havoc
among the twenty or more bee-hives therein. Then McPherson saw a
spectacle that for a little while took all the strength out of his
body.

The senora, guided by a quicker sense than that of her husband, had
gone straight to the apiary. There she saw the horse, with Basilio,
naked to the waist, strapped upon his back, the animal plunging