A Buffalo Hunt in Northern Mexico. 127 



" It is nothing, sir," with an expression of contempt without an 

 equivalent in English. 



Santos touched his hat, indicating a wish to speak. 



" What is it ? " I asked him. 



" There are no Indians there." 



"No?" 



"I stopped one of the men long enough to have him show me 

 where the ambush was, and " he laughed heartily. 



"Well?" I said, impatiently. 



"And the buffaloes had run right over the place." 



We looked at each other curiously. Don Miguel suggested we 

 go see for ourselves, and the colonel supported him with a round 

 declaration that they had taken eight or ten good fat cows, and he 

 didn't like to run away from them to accommodate anybody, much 

 less a thieving Apache. A reconnoissance was determined upon. 



We rode into the hollow and up it, cautiously following the trail 

 of the herd. 



" Hist ! " cried Santos, a little in advance. " Look there ! " 



We looked, and were startled. Not twenty yards away stood a 

 sorrel pony rudely housed in Indian style. At sight of us it raised 

 its head and whinnied piteously. Santos went to it, and stooped to 

 catch the lariat about its neck. 



" Jesu Christo/" he yelled as if shot. I thought he would roll 

 out of his saddle. 



" For love of God, gentlemen, come and see," he next exclaimed. 



We stood not upon the order of going. 



" Caramba / " said Don Miguel, reining back. 



Then the colonel blew a long whistle of disgust, as well he might. 

 An Indian warrior was lying face downward in the grass at the fore- 

 feet of the pony — dead! The stampede of the rancheros was 

 explained. 



A worn knife, butcher's pattern ; a hatchet, such as plasterers 

 use ; a redwood bow, short but broad, and variously painted on the 

 back ; a quiver of arrows ; a lance, of the Mexican sort ; a dirty 

 clay-pipe, in a dirty bag of raw tobacco — were the assets of the dead 

 man. 



In the division of spoils, my friend the colonel took two feathers 

 found in the scalp-lock, indicative, as he was pleased to believe, of 



