THE JAGUAR DISTURBED AT BREAKFAST. [[p. 408.]
After taking the animal's skin, I rode back to camp, and bore Lasar the sad news, which painfully affected him, as this mule was a favourite of the whole family, and its loss the more grieved him, because it belonged to his wife, and was always ridden by her. It was not to be helped, however, and so when John and the Indian returned with the horse, we started for the silver mine. Lasar saddled the Indian's horse and rode it, while the latter walked ahead of us.
In about two hours we really arrived at an old deserted shaft, into which we were able to go about fifty paces; then, however, it was blocked up, and any farther advance was impossible. In it we saw a number of scattered pieces of ore, and also found several of them under the turf at the entrance of the shaft, which proved that a long time must have elapsed since any works had gone on here. We took a good deal of the ore with us, and after carefully noticing the bearings of the place, we rode back to the valley, from time to time making a sketch of the localities, so that we might find them again hereafter. On our homeward road the Indian guided us on foot, so that we did not progress so rapidly: but for all that we got back without any misadventure, and produced great grief in Lasar's family by the announcement of the death of the faithful mule. The old gentleman was determined to take the requisite steps next year with the Mexican Government to buy the land on which the silver mine was, and then set to work on it.
A few days after my return to the Fort, I was surprised by an unexpected visit from my old acquaintance Warden, whom I had not seen for a long time, and who declared that he could no longer resist the desire of seeing me again. He had been living principally on the western side of the Cordilleras, and during his perilous hunting expeditions on the Gela and the Rio Colorado had got as far as the Gulf of California. His powerful horse had been killed there in a skirmish with the Apaches, and he had saved his own life under the greatest dangers, after the savages had incessantly pursued him for several weeks. We again sat till far into the night, and listened to the interesting stories of this daring man who had gained nothing by all his privations, fatigue, and frightful perils, except the recollection of them, but had thus perfectly carried out his sole object. As before, he remained some weeks with us; but then he felt compelled to leave this quiet life, which he could not endure. He saddled his horse, in order to continue his solitary life. On parting I made him a present of a brace of pistols, for which he was most grateful, and he galloped over the prairie and disappeared from my sight on the horizon. It was the last time I saw or heard of him. I often asked western hunters about him, but none could give me any news of him, and in all probability he at last met the fate, which he seemed to desire and seek, a solitary death in the desert.
