“I did not care to ride at first, but I do now,” said Julian. “I will be ready as soon as I get my rifle and revolver. But I must have some ammunition.”
“Pedro will supply you,” replied Uncle Reginald. “Go to him for everything you want.”
It was but the work of a few minutes to run to his room, throw his rifle and accouterments over his shoulder, buckle his revolver about his waist and return to Pedro for the powder and lead. He was out again almost as soon as he went in, and vaulting into the saddle he bade his uncle good-by and rode at a full gallop out of the gate.
CHAPTER XX.
JULIAN GETS INTO BUSINESS.
IF THERE is anything better calculated than another to put one at peace with himself and all the world, it is a brisk gallop on a good horse of a fine summer’s morning. It is a specific for melancholy. When Julian was safe outside the gloomy walls of the rancho, and felt himself being borne through the air with the speed of a bird on the wing, his spirits rose wonderfully, and in the exuberance of his glee he swung his sombrero about his head, and gave utterance to a yell almost as loud and unearthly as any he had heard uttered by the savages the night before. The spirited mare responded to the yell with a fresh burst of speed, and her rider, giving her a free rein, was carried at a rapid rate through the valley in which his uncle’s rancho was located, through the willows that skirted the base of the mountain, and finally found himself in a rocky defile which wound about among the cliffs. Here the mare voluntarily slackened her pace to a walk, and Julian wiped his flushed face with his handkerchief and looked about him. He could see nothing but rocks. They hemmed him in on all sides, and towered above his head until their tops seemed to pierce the clouds.
“I don’t know why I ever allowed myself to be brought in here,” thought the boy, “or why the horse should leave a level path to follow so miserable a road as this. Perhaps Uncle Reginald purchased her of some miner or settler up here in the mountains, and she thinks she is on her way home. At any rate she seems to know where she is going, and so long as she doesn’t lose me I don’t care where she carries me. I hope I shall find some one to talk to. Since uncle will not tell me anything about myself, I must learn what I want to know from other sources. Halloo!”