‘Hark! hark!’ hastily interrupted our heroine; ‘those sounds—do listen;—those words—those words—my heart will burst!’ They listened with breathless attention, and Monteagle supported the form of Inez, in a state of agony too powerful for description. In low and plaintive tones, sufficient to draw tears from the eyes of the most insensible individual, the unfortunate de Castro was singing, apparently in his sleep, the words of a song Inez had so often sung to please him, and which brought to the memory many powerful and agonizing recollections. ‘God! God! support me!’ gasped forth Inez, clinging to the arm of her lover, and her whole frame convulsed with anguish. ‘Father! father! dear, dear father! I can bear no more,’ cried Inez; and tearing herself from the hold of Monteagle, she rushed into the chamber, and darted to the side of the bed. Senor de Castro was sitting up in the bed when Inez entered the room, and was staring vacantly around him. His countenance had undergone little or no perceptible change; the ruddy glow of health was on his cheeks, and so calm and serene was its expression, that it seemed almost impossible that his mind could be in the deplorable condition in which it was. On beholding Inez and the others enter, he exhibited emotion, but when his eyes rested upon the former, a sweet smile irradiated his features, and laughing with all the joyousness of a child, he exclaimed:— ‘Beautiful!—oh, how beautiful!—what a bright and lovely vision!—Her very self!—So like her!—But ’tis only fancy—only fancy—ha! ha! ha!—How beautiful!’ ‘Father! father!—dear, dear father! Do you not know me? Oh, God! what a bitter trial is this!’ frantically sobbed forth the distracted Inez, as she threw her arms around the poor old man’s neck, and pressed warm and delirious kisses upon his lips. In a few moments Senor de Castro began to regain his scattered senses, and gazed round him like one slowly awaking from a fearful dream. He at length fully recognized his child. Then followed a scene too affecting for pen or pencil to describe. But one subject remained to cloud their happiness. It was the absence of Alice Hewlett, of whose abduction, by Blodget, they learned from the old woman at the ranch. Bitterly did Inez deplore the sad fate which had befallen the lovely ‘Squatter’s Daughter.’ Brown fled upon hearing of the arrest of the gang. Monteagle was of course cleared of all complicity in the robbery of the store, by this confession, and Mr. Vandewater gave him a share in his business as some recompense for his unjust dismissal. The little church at the Mission was soon after gaily decorated, and before its humble altar the hands of Inez and Monteagle were united. Their hearts had been so from the day our hero bore the fainting maiden in safety from the flames. THE END. ------------------------------------------------------------------------