Since then nothing has been heard of him, or of Curumilla. All my endeavours to join them, or even obtain news of them, was vain.
Are they still living?—no one can say. Darkness has settled down over these two magnificent men, and time itself will, in all probability, never remove the veil that conceals their fate; for all, unhappily, leads me to suppose that they perished in that gloomy expedition from which Valentine hoped, alas! never to return.
END OF RED TRACK.
A BUFFALO HUNT [1]
A STUDY OF THE AMERICAN WILD BULL.
Certain reasons, unnecessary to state here, had somewhat accidentally led me to a Sonorian hacienda, called the Hacienda del Milagro, situated a few leagues from Hermosillo, close to the Indian border, and belonging to Don Rafael Garillas de Saavedra, one of the richest landowners in the province.
Don Rafael had spent what is called in Europe a wild life, and for many years had traversed the deserts of Apacheria in company of a Canadian adventurer of the name of Belhumeur. Although enormously rich, married to a woman he adored, and surrounded by a delightful family, Don Rafael had now and then moments of gloom, in which he regretted the time when, unhappy and disinherited, he wandered, under the name of Loyal-heart, from Arkansas to Apacheria, leading the precarious existence of wood rangers, living from hand to mouth, forgetful of a past which only summoned up bitter griefs, and careless about a future which he believed would never realize the dreams of his poetical imagination.
Like all men who have suffered and passed through a hard apprenticeship of life, Don Rafael was kind and indulgent to others, and ever ready to excuse a fault when it only emanated from a forgetfulness of propriety or an error of judgment.
Two days after my arrival at the Hacienda del Milagro, thanks to the cordial reception given me, I was regarded as forming part of the family, and was as much at my ease as if I had lived for years with these new friends, who soon grew so old in my heart, and whose memory will be ever dear to me.