"Oh! true, there have been many. We will hope for the best." "Once in her home the objects that surrounded her in her younger days may strike a chord in her recollection. She may yet remember all. May she not?" "Hope! Hope!" "At all events, the companionship of her mother and sister will soon win her from the thoughts of savage life. Fear not! She will be your daughter again." I urged these ideas for the purpose of giving consolation. Seguin made no reply; but I saw that the painful and anxious expression still remained clouding his features. My own heart was not without its heaviness. A dark foreboding began to creep into it from some undefined cause. Were his thoughts in communion with mine? "How long," I asked, "before we can reach your house on the Del Norte?" I scarce knew why I was prompted to put this question. Some fear that we were still in peril from the pursuing foe? "The day after to-morrow," he replied, "by the evening. Heaven grant we may find them safe!" I started as the words issued from his lips. They had brought pain in an instant. This was the true cause of my undefined forebodings. "You have fears?" I inquired, hastily. "I have." "Of what? of whom?" "The Navajoes." "The Navajoes!" "Yes. My mind has not been easy since I saw them go eastward from the Pinon. I cannot understand why they did so, unless they meditated an attack on some settlements that lie on the old Llanos' trail. If not that, my fears are that they have made a descent on the valley of El Paso, perhaps on the town itself. One thing may have prevented them from attacking the town: the separation of Dacoma's party, which would leave them too weak for that; but still the more danger to the small settlements both north and south of it." The uneasiness I had hitherto felt arose from an expression which Seguin had dropped at the Pinon spring. My mind had dwelt upon it, from time to time, during our desert journeyings; but as he did not speak of it afterwards, I thought that he had not attached so much importance to it. I had reasoned wrongly. "It is just probable," continued the chief, "that the Passenos may defend themselves. They have done so heretofore with more spirit than any of the other settlements, and hence their long exemption from being plundered. Partly that, and partly because our band has protected their neighbourhood for a length of time, which the savages well know. It is to be hoped that the fear of meeting with us will prevent them from coming into the Jornada north of the town. If so, ours have escaped." "God grant," I faltered, "that it may be thus!" "Let us sleep," added Seguin. "Perhaps our apprehensions are idle, and they can benefit nothing. To-morrow we shall march forward without halt, if our animals can bear it. Go to rest, my friend; you have not much time."