Chiquita crossed over to where the Captain still stood leaning against the tree and, pausing before him, looked up into his face and said: "What are you thinking of, Sweetheart?" He flung his arms about her and kissed her.
"I am still wondering," he answered, "how it all happened. It seems so strange, and yet so natural."
"Just what I, too, have been thinking," she returned. "And yet it is no more remarkable than what our entire lives have been. It could not be otherwise."
"No," he replied. "I would not have it different for worlds. It's just as it should be—just as it has been decreed."
"Come!" she said, leading him over to where her pack lay on the ground. "I've got something for you," and kneeling on the ground, she began unrolling her blankets, out of which she took a small package which, on being opened, contained two pairs of beautifully beaded moccasins; one pair of which she handed to him.
"It's just like you, Chiquita mia!" he exclaimed. "I always wear them in camp, but in the hurry to get away, I forgot mine. I'm glad I forgot them though," he added, holding up the moccasins and admiring them. "How did you come to think of them?"
"I can't say," she answered. "One afternoon about a month ago while at the Posada, I noticed your footprint in the gravel path in the garden where you had been talking to the girls but a few moments before. Things, as you know, were rather uncertain then, nevertheless, something impelled me to take the measure and make them; thinking that possibly you might want them some day. Besides, it was such sweet work, you know," she added with a little laugh.
"Chiquita—you're a wonderful woman! You not only seem to be able to do everything, but you think of everything as well," and kneeling on the ground before her, he drew off her riding boots and slipped her moccasins on her feet.
"It is the bridal gift of an Indian girl to her husband," she said caressingly. "And signifies that they shall tread the same path together through life."
"What could be more beautiful!" he returned, pulling off his boots and drawing on his own. "Ah!" he continued, "it was worth waiting for you Chiquita mia! The long years of uncertainty and suffering seem as nothing, now that I look back upon them and you have come into my life."