“Ah! that is what I asked the old hunter,” returned Pedro. “He started up, and searched high and low, but could not find her. Then he went out, calling her by name loudly, and searched the bushes. Then he returned with a wild look and said the robbers must have taken her away—he would pursue! I knew it would be useless, for the scoundrels were mounted and the old hunter was on foot; but I let him go, and was not surprised when, two hours later, he returned quite exhausted. ‘It is in vain,’ he said. ‘Yet if I could have come up with them, I would have died for her.’
“I was long ill after that. A good while, they say, I was out of my mind, but old Ignacio nursed me through. He also buried Mariquita where she now lies.”
The guide paused.
“And the child?” asked Lawrence, anxiously.
“I have sought her far and wide, year after year, over mountain and plain. She may be dead—she may be alive—but I have never seen her nor heard of her from that day to this.”
“Your story is a very, very sad one,” said Lawrence, his face expressing the genuine sympathy which he felt. “May I ask—are your wanderings mere haphazard? Have you no idea who they were that stole your little one, or where they went to?”
“None whatever. The broken leg, you know, prevented my commencing the search at once, and when I was able to go about I found that all trace of the band was gone. No wonder, for the country was at war at the time, and many marauding parties had traversed the land since then.”
“I—I shrink,” said Lawrence, with some hesitation, “from even the appearance of unkindness, but I cannot help expressing the fear that this vague, undirected wandering will be useless.”
“It would be so,” returned Pedro, “if God did not direct all human affairs. If it be His will, I shall yet find my child on earth. If not, I shall find her above—with her mother. In our intercourse, senhor, I have observed in you a respect for God’s Word. Is it not written, ‘Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him, and He will bring it to pass?’”
“Most true,” replied Lawrence, feeling the reproof, “yet God works by means. If we do not take the right means, we cannot expect to attain our end, however much we may trust.”