An hour passed with the young man still wrapt in thought.  The truth was, though he was scarcely ready to admit it, he had been hard hit.  In more ways than one the Girl had made a deep impression on him.  Not only had her appearance awakened his interest to the point of enthusiasm, but there was something irresistibly attractive to him in her lack of affectation and audacious frankness.  Over and over again he thought of her happy face, her straightforward way of looking at things and, last but not least, her evident pleasure in meeting him.  And when he reflected on the hopelessness of their ever meeting again, a feeling of depression seized him.  But his nature—­always a buoyant one—­did not permit him to remain downcast very long.

By this time they were nearing the foothills.  A little while longer and the road that they were travelling became nothing more than a bridle path.  Indeed, so dense did the chaparral presently become that it would have been utterly impossible for one unacquainted with the way to keep on it.  Animal life was to be seen everywhere.  At the approach of the riders innumerable rabbits scurried away; quail whirred from bush to bush; and, occasionally, a deer broke from the thickets.

At the end of another hour of hard riding they were forced to slacken their pace.  In front of them the ground could be seen, in the light of a fast disappearing moon, to be gradually rising.  Another mile or two and vertical walls of rock rose on each side of them; while great ravines, holding mountain torrents, necessitated their making a short detour for the purpose of finding a place where the stream could be safely forded.  Even then it was not an easy task on account of the boulder-enclosing whirlpools whose waters were whipped into foam by the wind that swept through the forest.

At a point of the road where there was a break in the chaparral, a voice suddenly cried out in Spanish: 

“Who comes?”

“Follow us!” was the quick answer without drawing rein; and, instantly, on recognition of the young master’s voice, a mounted sentinel spurred his horse out from behind an overhanging rock and closed in behind them.  And as they were challenged thus several times, it happened that presently there was quite a little band of men pushing ahead in the darkness that had fallen.

And so another hour passed.  Then, suddenly, there sprung into view the dark outlines of a low structure which proved to be a corral, and finally they made their way through a gate and came upon a long adobe house, situated in a large clearing and having a kind of courtyard in front of it.