Part 50 (2/2)
”What! A _rastreador_ among these _Judios_! Who, _cavallero_?”
”Their father!” I whispered the reply, so that neither of the girls should overhear it.
”Oh! true,” muttered the Mexican--”the father of the huntress--a hunter himself? _Carrai_! that's like enough. But no matter. I can take you up the gorge in such fas.h.i.+on, that the most skilled _rastreador_ of the prairies would never suspect we had pa.s.sed through. Fortunately, the ground is favourable. The bottom of the little canon is covered with cut rocks. The hoof will leave no mark upon these.”
”Remember that some of our horses are shod: the iron will betray us?”
”No, senor, we shall m.u.f.fle them: _nos vamos con los pies en medias_!”
(Let us travel in stockings!)
The idea was not new to me; and without further hesitation, we proceeded to carry it into execution. With pieces of blanket, and strips cut from our buckskin garments, we m.u.f.fled the hoofs of our shod horses; and after following the waggon-trail, till we found a proper place for parting from it, we diverged in an oblique direction, towards the bluff that formed the northern boundary of the pa.s.s. Along this bluff we followed the guide in silence; and, after going for a quarter of a mile further, we had the satisfaction to see him turn to the left, and suddenly disappear from our sight--as if he had ridden into the face of the solid rock! We might have felt astonishment; but a dark chasm at the same instant came under our eyes, and we knew it was the ravine of which our guide had spoken. Without exchanging a word, we turned our horses' heads, and rode up into the cleft. There was water running among the s.h.i.+ngle, over which our steeds trampled; but it was shallow, and did not hinder their advance. It would further aid in concealing their tracks--should our pursuers succeed in tracing us from the main route. But we had little apprehension of their doing this: so carefully had we concealed our trail on separating from that of the waggons.
On reaching the little _vallon_, we no longer thought of danger; but, riding on to its upper end, dismounted, and made the best arrangements that circ.u.mstances would admit of for pa.s.sing the remainder of the night. Wrapped in buffalo-robes, and a little apart from the rest of our party, the sisters reclined side by side under the canopy of a cotton-wood tree. Long while had it been since these beautiful forms had reposed so near each other; and the soft low murmur of their voices--heard above the sighing of the breeze, and the rippling sound of the mountain rills--admonished us that each was confiding to the other the sweet secret of her bosom!
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FOUR.
UN PARAISO.
We come to the closing act of our drama. To understand it fully, it is necessary that the setting of the stage--the _mise-en-scene_--be described with a certain degree of minuteness. The little valley-plain, or _vallon_, in which we had _cached_ ourselves, was not over three hundred yards in length, and of an elliptical form. But for this form, it might have resembled some ancient crater scooped out of the mountain, that on all sides swept upward around it. The sides of this mountain, trending up from the level of the plain, rose not with a gentle acclivity, but with precipitous abruptness. At no point, however, did it a.s.sume the character of a cliff. It might have been scaled with difficulty by a man on foot, especially should he avail himself of the a.s.sistance of the trees--pines and trailing junipers--that grew over the steep so thickly as to conceal the greater portion of its rocky _facade_. Here and there only, a bare spot might be observed--a little b.u.t.tress of white laminated gypsum, mingled with sparkling selenite; while at other places a miniature torrent, leaping over the rocks, and dancing among the dark cedars, presented a very similar appearance.
These little torrents, plas.h.i.+ng down to the plain, formed numerous crystal rills that traversed the _vallon_. Like the branches of a silver candelabrum, all united near its centre, and there formed a pellucid stream, that, sweeping onward, discharged itself through the ravine into Robideau's Pa.s.s. The effect of this abundance of water had been to produce within the _vallon_ a proportionate luxuriance of vegetation, though it had not a.s.sumed the form of a forest. A few handsome cotton-woods, standing thinly over it, were the only trees; but the surface exhibited a verdure of emerald brightness enamelled by many a gay corolla--born to blush unseen within this sweet secluded glen.
Along the edge of the rivulet, large water-plants projected their broad leaves languidly over the stream; and where the little cascades came down from the rocks, the flowers of beautiful orchids, and other rare epiphytes, were seen sparkling under the spray--many of them clinging to the _coniferae_, and thus uniting almost the extreme types of the botanical world!
Such lovely landscape was presented to our eyes in the ”bolson” into which our trapper-guide had conducted us. It appeared lovely as we first beheld it--under the blue light of dawn; but lovelier far, when the sun began to tinge the summits of the Mojada Mountains that encircled it, and scatter his empurpled roses on the snowy peaks of the Wa-to-yah--just visible through the gorge.
”_Esta un Paraiso_!” (It is a Paradise!) exclaimed the Mexican, warming with the poetry of his race. ”_En verdad un Paraiso_! Even better peopled than the Paradise of old. _Mira! cavalleros_!” continued he.
”Behold! not one Eve, but two! each, I daresay, as beautiful as the mother of mankind!”
As the trapper spoke, he pointed to the young girls, who, hand-in-hand, were returning from the stream--where they had been performing their ablutions. The spots of _allegria_ had disappeared from the cheeks of Marian, that now gleamed in all their crimson picturesqueness. It was for Wingrove to admire these. My own eyes were riveted upon the roseate blonde; and, gazing upon her face, I could not help echoing the sentiment of the enthusiastic speaker: ”Beautiful as the mother of mankind!” Wingrove and I had been to the _lavatory_ before them; and had succeeded to a certain extent in scouring our skins clear of the vermilion bedaubment. In the antic.i.p.ation of this pleasant interview, it was natural we should seek to rescue ourselves from a disguise, that the eye of woman could not look upon otherwise than with _degout_. It was natural, too, we should desire those clasped hands to come asunder-- those maiden forms to be separated from one another?
Fortune was pleased to respond to our wishes. A flower hanging from the branch of a tree at that moment caught the eye of Lilian; and, dropping her sister's hand, she hastened to gather it. Marian, who cared less for flowers, did not follow her. Perhaps her inclination tempted her the other way?
But one did follow the fair Lilian--unable to resist the opportunity for free converse--the only one that had offered since that first sweet interview. How my heart bounded, when I beheld the blossom of the bignonia; for it was that which hung drooping from the branch of the cotton-wood, round which its bright leaves were amorously entwining!
How it swelled with a triumphant joy, when I saw those tiny fingers, extend towards the _Sower, gently_ pluck it from its stem, and place it upon my bosom! Talk not of bliss, if it be not this! We strayed on through the straggling trees, along the banks of the stream, by the edges of the little rills. We wandered around the vallon, and stood by the torrents that fell foaming from the rocks. We mingled our voices with the waters, that in low murmurings appeared to repeat the sentiment so endeared to us, ”I think of thee!”
”And you will, Lilian--you will always thus think of me?”
”Yes, Edward!--for ever and ever!”
Was the kiss unhallowed that could seal such promise? No--it was sacred--
Down to Earth's profound, And up to Heaven!
Thus benighted with the sweet hallucination of love, how could we dream that on earth there existed an alloy? How suspect that into that smiling garden the dread serpent could ever intrude himself? Alas! he was at that moment approaching it--he was already near!
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