interest, for everybody present, like myself, was uncertain and curious as to whether Bill's indignant and abrupt course had been the result of sheer simplicitymistaking the sense of the expression “madness,”—of a sagacious intuition of the treatment proper in such a case, or confidence in his own resources. For a minute or so the figures of the two men were tossed to and fro in the uncertain light, linked and writhing in a stern, silent, and desperate struggle. It seemed to me that Bill's object was to quell and overbear the madman by the weight of physical superiority without hurting him. I shuddered, when, as they whirled by close to me, I perceived the cause of the ominous silence of the madman. His teeth were clenched in the shoulder of the Trapper, whose pale face as it gleamed past was rigid and calm as ever. A sudden change came over the aspect of the combat. The two figures were perfectly still for a moment-then that of Black gradually sank towards the ground. I stepped close to them and saw that Bill, by the tremendous power of his hug, had paralyzed him by pressure on the spine. With his back bending in; the grip of his teeth loosened as he sank upon his knees. At that moment, while Bill stooped over him, their eyes met. The two figures seemed at once to be frozen into a deathlike pause, while their eyes were riveted upon each other. It seemed to me that those of Bill were emitting a keen and palpable flame that steadily searched the depths of the brain beneath him. There was something terrible and ghost-like in his white stony face, lit with that calm weird light, heightened by a broad fleck of the moon's rays that fell upon it through an opening in the trees. I could scarcely breathe with the excitementhalf of awe-which fell upon me as I looked on this intense scene. The glare of animal ferocity rapidly faded from the fascinated gaze of the madman-the spasmodic contraction of his features subsided-his muscles were unstrung from their tension. Bill, yet gazing steadily into his eyes, gently shook off his grasp as he loosened his own hold, and then straitening himself, lifted him slowly up with him to his feet. Black's spell-led eyes still followed the face of his conqueror for an instant-he then drew the back of his rough and gore-encrusted hand quickly across them, and, bursting into tears, with a convulsive sob that seemed to be tearing up the very founda

tions of his life, reeled to one side and fell heavily to the earth. Not a few long breaths were drawn by those around methe majority of whom were as much terrified as astonished at this extraordinary dénouement of a most remarkable scene. All had observed the mastery Bill's eyes had exhibited over this, to them, mysterious distemper, and some regarded it as a supernatural display; particularly Castro and his Indians who looked upon the Trapper with expressions, ludicrously mingled, of awe, humility, and affright. Bill had ordered water to be brought from the river, of which Black, who had fallen from excessive weakness-the collapse of his long excitement-drank with inconceivable eagerness. He seemed so subdued, I hoped for a moment that the spell had passed from off his soul; but there was the same incoherence and wandering evident as soon as he was able to speak; and when any of us came very near him, the same disposition to injure us. Bill alone could control him—at a single glance from whose eye he became humble again. I should not have been particularly astonished at the simple fact that Bill's eyes, or the eyes of any other man of great firmness, should have exerted this absolute power over a madman-for that such a power had long been known to exist and been used by occasional individuals in the treatment and management of lunatics, I was perfectly aware-but what did surprise me was, that this uncultivated Trapper, who had probably never seen or heard of a medical book in his life, and as probably never saw a madman before, should have seemed so securely conscious of possessing this unusual power as to have trusted to it calmly through a scene of so much peril. How, and where could he have picked up this knowledge, was a question I determined in my own mind to have settled on the first opportunity. In the mean time arrangements were made to return to the Colonel's Rancho. The body of Davis was thrown into the river; Black was mounted upon the horse of a Lipan, the lariat of which Bill held as he led off the party on the return. Hays, Fitz, and several others of the Rangers who had joined us, were discussing and accounting for the late scene with great earnestness, in their own way, as we walked on, some vowing it was one thing, others another; but most inclined to regard it with superstition. Finding that no light was to be gained from them,

I determined to join Bill, who was moodily striding on alone, and try whether I could draw him into a communicative humor. It had occurred to me that the effect had been purely accidental. But this view I was almost disposed to discard on remembering Bill's steady and methodical management from the time he caught the madman's eye. I had observed a trait of superstition in his own character, and was not surprised when I found him very mysterious and difficult of approach on the subject. I soon perceived that he himself did not understand the origin of the power, and it was only after a great deal of cross-questioning and urging, that I could get a hint of the source from which he had originally received the suggestion. It appeared from what he let fall, that years ago in one of his trapping expeditions towards the head waters of the Platte, he had met with three men-two Americans and a halfbreed Indian-whose sole occupation seemed to be that of catching mustangs. These, after being captured, the Halfbreed would render perfectly tame in a few hours so much so that they would follow him about the Prairie, and come to him at his call. A wolf was captured and tamed in as short a time, and as effectually. The Half-breed had been very mysterious as to his mode of proceeding, and announced that he bewitched them but added, also, that he could, for a "compensation" commensurate with the value of the important secret, impart it to others. Bill had collected a very valuable pack of beaver pelts, and so deeply had he been interested and impressed, that without any hesitation he had offered them in exchange for the secret. This, after some demur, the cunning Half-breed had agreed to-first binding Bill over to secresy by the most fantastic rites and solemn oaths. Under these injunctions the secret had been communicated, and of course was beyond my reach. Bill said he had often tried the "spell," as he called it, upon the wildest and most ferocious animals with perfect success when he could get them "cornered" long enough for it to work. That he had been equally successful with men who had the " tremblers" (delirium tremens) upon them after a spree. I had often heard of these "wild horse tamers," as they are called, and felt great curiosity with regard to them. It added not a little to the interest I already felt in the character of my long-sided friend, the Trapper, to find that he be

longed to this mysterious fraternity. Without having witnessed, as yet, any of their feats, I had, under a theory of my own, been disposed to classify them among the unexplained phenomena of Mesmerism; which last designation would, indeed, include all the apparent facts of the embryo science. Bill had never heard of mesmerism, though, and the suspicion that he had stumbled unawares upon the existence of a physical law, of the nature of which, he, in common with its more learned advocates, was profoundly ignorant, had crossed my mind more than once. It was interesting to have thus traced it back to a seeming connection, heretofore unsuspected, with influences producing inexplicable effects in two classes of well-known facts-the taming of madmen and wild beasts. I had afterwards the opportunity of examining this curious subject with greater minuteness, and satisfying myself more definitely as to the plausibility of my new theory.

We met the Colonel with the Bravo and his party near the Rancho, returning bootless from their search pushed in another direction.

The Colonel's sagacity had also discovered the trail of the strange horseman which had so much puzzled us, though the recollection of it had been for the time overcome by the late incidents. Without waiting to hear more of the details we had to give than the simple intelligence that Davis had been hung by Black-which he seemed to consider a matter-of-course incident-he insisted upon Bill's report about Agatone, and explanation, if he had any to give, of the tracks. Bill proceeded in his quaint vernacular to inform us that he had proceeded with Castro and the Indians to the place in Big Bend Bottom, where he had first seen the three men, of whom, the person supposed to be Agatone was riding behind one of the others--the Lieutenant, probably-whom he shot. That here he and Castro had taken their trail again and followed it with the most minute care, examining every tree near the trunk of which it passed, to see whether he had been pushed up into it to hide among the long moss. The Indians were spread out on every side to look for the traces of his footsteps, so that every square yard of the ground for some distance on both sides of the trai! had been carefully examined up to the point where he, by cutting across, had intercepted the horsemen, and seen, to

his astonishment, that the man riding behind had disappeared. Here Castro had taken Davis' trail, which he followed in to the Rancho, as we have detailed. His Indians he had sent back to beat the woods in every direction again, with no better success than before.

"Arter the red-skins war gone," said Bill," I squats upon er old log—for, boys, I tell you Bill Johnson war clean dumbfoundered! This Agatone's gittin' away so cute tuck the shine out er anything I know'd. Thinks I, whar is the little weasel got to? He cant've flewed, sure enough. Then I thunk of that half-an'half skunk an' wildcat Davis!-what could er brought him out here? He come fer sumphin, sure! I ups upon my pegs an made er bee-line for the place whar his trail come in to jine Agatone's. I tuck on it and follered it backwards er long time round-er-boutin' an' twistifyin' as if he war lookin' for sumphin. It brung me at last,'way 'round the Bottom to a chaparal, jest in the direction they were makin' for when Agatone sloped so surprisin'. What der ye think, boys! 1 found a place tramped whar a horse had been standin' hitched since daybreak, maybe, till jest er little before. If I'd er only been a leetle sooner, I'd er had him! I found his fresh tracks on the ground, an' whar the horse had dunged when he started. It war warm. Maybe I did'nt tare my wool and cuss a little! He war off'twarnt worth while ter sweat. I tuck the back track of his little boots that war plain enough, and may I be catawampussed, boys, but he'd been hid in the moss up one er them live oaks I'd looked up inter twenty times ter-day."

"But how the duce did he get thar, Bill; you said you looked up all the trees?" said Fitz, breathlessly.

"Ah! that war the cuninnest trick that ever er yaller-belly war up ter yet. Them fellers war up ter trailin'-they know'd they had a trailer arter 'em too. I told yer we did look up all the trees whar the trail led close ter. Thar war a grape vine, the bigness er my wrist, hangin' down er little way frum er limb twenty feet out frum ther body of the tree. It war pretty high up, too; a man sittin' on er horse could'nt a reached it. The little monkey must er stood up on ther horse's back behind the feller I shot, and while ther horse war goin' at a gallopfor the tracks warn't broke, I look'd out sharp for that he grab'd the grape vine

and swung off, then eased himself up on the limb and hid in the moss!"

"Hurrah! by jingo, that beats Davy Crockett!" "Good? Agatone will do!" "He's a keener!" were the exclamations which here interrupted Bill's narrative.

The Rangers were too much of woodsmen themselves not to appreciate and admire heartily so dexterous a game as this, though played by an enemy to their own discomfiture.

Then he must have laid close up there, that you nor the Indians could see him, Bill?"

"Yes, thar war a heap er moss on ther tree-ye might er walked under a bar all day and not seed him!"

"He must have staid there all day, too, until the Indians came away, or they would have found his track ?”

"The cunnin' little rascal laid low an' kept dark 'till they were all gone; then he come down and skooted for ther horse.”

Yes, the infernal old bag sent Davis out thar with a fresh horse for him, and the news that we were coming out to look for him, that's how it was," muttered the Colonel.

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But how," suggested 1, “could she have got the news that his horse had been wounded by your shot that night?"

"He must have had some fellows with him, and left them outside the Rancho; one of them, you know, shot at me on the log. The others, I expect, were waiting for him out, and he sent one of them back to tell her that night. Davis was to leave the horse at the chaparal, but having the news about us, the traitor went to look for him in the Bend, and that's what made his trail so round-abouting, as Bill says!"

"That war ther way it come." "But, Bill, you followed the trail of Agatone's horse up, did'nt you ?"

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For sartain I did! I went back ter the chaparal, tuck it, and war nosein' it up close when I hern the rifle Captain here fired. Then I cum'd jam agin Castro's three red-skins, who war follerin' it backwards."

"So he's housed, Colonel, you see, snug enough for to-night," said Hays.

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Yes," growled he, "snug enough if 1 don't burn him out before morning. He slipped in just before Davis got away, 1 expect, and that in the broad daylight too. He won't get out again so easy, or I'm mistaken."

"But where was Black all this time?" asked I of Bill as he was turning off.

"He tuck off through ther woods soon as we left yer at the ford; did'nt see him any more 'till I com'd whar these green younkers had been insultin' his arms with ther dirty strings!"

Nobody who heard the last speech of the Colonel's suspected him, even remotely, of joking in the threats he let fall. He had appeared so moodily absorbed since it had been made evident that his enemy was near him-almost within his reach -with only wooden walls interposed between them that it was hard for those who knew him best to conjecture what his surly and desperate hate might not do before morning. That he was fiercely determined this night should settle the long account between Agatone and himself at whatever risk, soon became clear enough. He went aside with Bill and Hays and held a long consultation. We, in the mean time, despatched a hasty meal. They then came forward and joined us After all were through, the Colonel picked up six-shooter and seemed to be examining it attentively, then raised his head suddenly as if a new thought had struck him.

"Boys," said he, grinning hideously, "What do you say to a whole-hog out and-out frolic to-night?"

"I'm for it," said one.

"I'm thar!" said Texas. "What is it, Colonel ?"

"Fellers, we must have Agatone any how!"

"In course-but how ""

“Well, we can stampede the sheeppen-you know that's outside the gate; maybe they'll be fools enough to come out; we can make a rush at the gate then."

"She's too sharp for that, Colonel !" With a rasping chuckle and vicious significant leer he merely said, as he turned off, "I smell something burningmaybe she will!"

"Ha! that's the game! She'll burn blue? won't she Colonel ?" was said by some one as they all rose to get their weapons, without another syllable of comment, upon this monstrous proposition, being considered as called for by these matter-of-fact personages. The idea of setting fire to the houses of three or four hundred unoffending human beings, that the insane hate of three or four men might be gratified with the prospect of any amount of indiscriminate slaughter was

too infernally rich not to be reveled in by these chivalric pioneers of the bles sings of civilization and free institutions! What were Mexican women and children born for but to afford them the amusement of seeing them roast. This cool diabolicism, though it could not fail, under any circumstances, to shock me, yet had at least the merit of novelty-it was anomalous in my experience of life, and, so far as curiosity went, attractive. Opposition I knew would avail nothing, and merely subject me to suspicion and personal danger; besides, the companionship of peril which I had voluntarily offered to share with them left me no choice but to see them through. My probable compunc tions and whatever of humanity I had left on hand ought to have been looked to before I had placed myself in such relations. As it was, I made the most of a bad move, and endeavored to look forward to the anticipated "barbecue of Yellow Bellies" as some one jocosely called it, with as vividly pleasurable sensations as I could summon. The fact unquestionably was, that this Rancho had long been the greatest nuisance of this frontier. Pretending to be friendly to the Texans, the old Senora Cavillo had secretly aided and encouraged the worst of the border depredators, and the storm of vengeance for several years had been muttering upon her horizon. The Texans had been too few in this region for some time to attempt her destruction, and now that a number-possibly sufficient— had been brought together, and that under circumstances of so much immediate exasperation against her, there was no telling what might be the result of this night's work. I had, unconsciously perhaps, assimilated very much, in my feelings towards the Mexicans, with the tone of those around me, and that was characterized by the most deadly and unutterable scorn. The two races in this country have no sympathy in common but that of hatred on the one side the malignant assassin hate of coward and conscious inferiority-on the other, the contemptuous exterminating hate of domineering brutality-secure in superior energies, and as destitute of magnanimity as it is grasping. This scorn is a very convenient sentiment, by the way, too often assumed by natures having in them generous susceptibilities, as the readiest mitigation, and higher name for any harsh outbreak of licentious passion upon inferiors. It is hard for warlike men to display chivalry

towards an ignoble foe-ordinarily courtesy calls forth courtesy, and so with its opposite. It is thus on this frontier, that where true bravery exists still, it has most frequently degenerated into a fierce relentlessness, while mere cut-throat ferocity is as frequently mistaken for the nobler virtue. There is little call for the higher traits of the civilized soldier, and they are as little known as valued. From the observation of such facts, I, as well, strongly incline to doubt, whether-with all the parade that has been so popular with regard to the prodigies of Texan valor-that population would prove equal to our "corn-stalk militia" upon an equal field against an equal foe. They may very well afford to fight Mexicans five to one as the boast is-when not more than one in that five can fire his gun with out shutting his eyes; besides, the yet more important fact is, that the social virtues of which the Texans have no over-plus to boast, are the truest and most certain incentives of heroism. The best soldiers are the best sons, and fathers, and citizens. They have desperadoes enough, such as these men were, who feared neither God nor man, it would seem; but desperadoes are not always the surest soldiers-they are ever liable to being panic-stricken when attacked on the blind side, or when called upon to meet danger in any unsuspected or unusual way. These are general observations which apply to a population in which too many of the extremes meet for anything very consistent to be looked for. The truth is, I was gradually becoming Texan myself, under the rapid process of "casehardening" to which these men around me had been in turn subjected; and that the incrustation of habit was insensibly forming over the moral sense, I became occasionally aware at such times as this, when I found myself so readily sophisticating so easily reconciled-though conditions absolutely horrifying in themselves were presented. This consciousness would make me extremely restless then, and even the recollection of it now makes me perhaps so splenetically uncharitable towards these men. The hate engendered through years of mutual wrongs had not yet in my case been kindled into a fierce devouring flame which made a hell at the heart and madness in the brain; yet this had been so with them, and with consequences such as I have described, and shall proceed to show, occurring within a

few days! judge what the years of such a life must have been!

Black, who might have been a serious and unmanageable incumbrance to a design requiring great secrecy, had fortunately fallen asleep, after devouring, like a famished wild beast, an enormous meal. We set off in silence for the Rancho, accompanied by Castro and his warriors on foot. They were sent ahead with orders to seize, without noise, any straggler they might find, to prevent the alarm being given. The moon was out very bright, but her rays penetrated feebly beneath the dense umbrage of the forest as we approached the log-bridge of which 1 have spoken. We had nearly reached this difficult passage, when a sudden commotion among the Indians announced that something had happened. There was a scattering crashing and scrambling through the thickets for a moment-a stifled cry-and they came out dragging among them a prisoner. Who should it be, trembling in a mortal panic, but Master Antone, whose unaccountable disappearance after the capture of Davis had since been frequently commented upon in no mincing terms. Indeed, every one suspected him of too warm a sympathy for the traitor, and friendship for the old Senora; and threats had been let fall which now, it appeared, were to be executed. I saw there would be little chance for him when Castro reported that he had heard him or some one else run from a thicket close to the Colonel's Rancho, when we came out and, suspecting he would make for the log, had intercepted him. This placed Sir Braggadocio under the unpleasant imputation of having added the character of spy to his many salient qualities. The proposition was made instanter to swing him up to the nearest limb. The Indians, first binding his mouth to keep him quiet, proceeded to halter him. I had seen enough of such murders for one day, and was unwilling to see this harmless wretch lose his life so unceremoniously; though I saw as well that the men were too fiercely roused to be entirely diverted from their purpose of vengeance. I proposed that we should throw him off the log into the river, tighten and secure the rope just sufficiently to keep his head above water, and leave him there to drown at his leisure-intending myself to come back and release him so soon as I could get away from the party. The novelty of this proposition won for it