"Terrible, indeed. I am afraid there is no doubt that Donna Sarasta has lost her life."
"I reckon," the man said, "that except ourselves and any you may have with you, there ain't a dozen alive in the valley; it is a clean wipe out. I never knew a worse surprise. How about the party by the river?"
Antonio related what had taken place there.
"Well, that is something saved," he said, "and with sixteen of us all well armed we can manage to make a decent fight of it. We must get another horse, but that won't be very difficult; most of the others are sure to have their lassos with them, there are a score of horses running loose on the plains, and they cannot have roped them all in yet."
When they reached the horses he went on: "You had better stop here, Tonio; you are not accustomed, as I am, to them Injuns, and as you don't know much of their lingo, you would not understand much of their talk. I would much rather go alone."
"All right, old man!" the other said.
"Now for my toilet," Sancho went on; and, going up to one of the horses, he pricked it with his knife. "Steady, boy, steady!" he said, as the horse plunged.
"It is for your good as well as mine, for you would not find life in an Indian village as pleasant as the life you have been used to." He dipped his fingers in the blood, drew a broad line across his forehead and round his eyes, placed a patch on his cheek; then he cut off two handfuls of long hair from the animal's tail, tied these together with string and fastened them in his hair, so that the horse-hair fell down on to his shoulder on each side and partially hid his face.
"It is rough," he said, "but it will pass in the darkness. It is lucky you have got a 'Pache blanket; that will help me wonderfully."
"Yes; I bought it from the Indians when they traded here a few weeks since. The man I got it of said that he had traded a good pony for it when he was hunting in the spring on the other side of the river."