But since then a whole day had intervened; and hunger had forced them back to their despoiled homes at the same time inspiring them with courage to stay there, or at all events with a repugnance to return to the starving shelter of the chapparal.
We found the Corral Falsenians at home of both sexes and of all ages all alike trembling at our approach, and evidently gratified to find that we did not eat them up!
I have
given this prominence to the pretty paraje Corral Falso, not out of any consideration for the place itself but on account of an incident that transpired there, which resulted in my losing two of my men; and which was of far more importance to me was very nearly ending in the loss of myself!
We had halted to bait our animals from their own nosebags of course: for there was not as much corn in Corral Falso as would have filled the crop of a chicken.
While thus occupied, it was reported to me that one of the horses would not eat; but on the contrary, was more likely to die.
He had been stricken by the sun, or had got the staggers from some other unexplained cause; which ended by his tumbling over upon the road, and stretching out his limbs in their last tremulous struggle.
The horse belonged to the lieutenant of my troop; who was now, of course, démonté .
Slight as the contretemps may appear, or might have been under other circumstances, it placed us at the time in somewhat of a dilemma. One of the men would have to be dismounted, in order that the officer might ride; but how was the man to be taken along? I had been ordered to report speedily at head-quarters in Jalapa; and to have marched at such a pace as would allow one on foot to keep up with the troop, was entirely out of the question.
It is true that the dismounted trooper might be carried on the croup of one of his comrades horses; but all of these were greatly fatigued by a long-continued spell of duty; and it was just doubtful enough whether there was a horse in the cavallada capable of carrying double.
While my lieutenant and I were debating this question between us, fate or fortune seemed to have determined on deciding it in our favour.
I have said that the chapparal stretched in to the very confines of the rancheria holding the little village, as it were, in its thorny embrace.
But the country around was not all of this character. The thicket was far from being continuous. On the contrary, the eye rested upon broad tracts of open pasture-ground, covered with a growth of tufted grass, here and there matted, with clumps of cactus, and plants of the wild agave bristling under their tall flower-stalks, and cymes of strong-scented blossoms.
It was not these curious forms of the botanical world that attracted our attention we had seen and admired them before but the hoof-strokes of a galloping horse, ringing, not upon the road that bisected the village, but upon the hard turf, that covered the surface of the soil in the open spaces extending between the copses of the chapparal.
We had scarcely bent our ears to listen to the sounds, when we saw the animal that was causing them a horse galloping down the slope of a hill in the direction of the rancheria.
He was saddled; but without bridle, and without a rider!
The animal appeared to be a splendid musténo , of a steel-grey colour; and the gleam of silver upon the mountings of the saddle bespoke him as belonging, or having belonged, to an owner of some consideration perhaps an officer of rank.
The sight of a saddled but riderless steed, thus scampering across country, was by no means strange at least to us then and there . More than one had we observed upon our march enjoying a like liberty whose riders were perhaps, at that moment, coldly asleep upon the field of battle, never more to remount them.
We should scarcely have taken notice of the circumstance, but for the want which just then was making itself so unpleasantly felt. We wanted a horse to remount the lieutenant. Here was one about to offer himself ready saddled, and as if saying, Come and bestride me!
It was not so certain, however, that the mustang was thus generously disposed; and it became still less so, when the animal, after approaching within twenty paces of the troop, suddenly stopped, threw his nostrils into a horizontal position; loudly inhaled the air; and then with a terrific neigh turned in his tracks and galloped back up the acclivity of the hill.
In the cavallada of tall, scraggy steeds that stood in the street of the village with their noses buried eye-deep in canvas bags he seemed not to have recognised his own species; or, if so, it was only to identify them as enemies.
The horses of the troop had taken no heed of the shy stranger. They were not in the humour for a stampede. They did not even think it necessary to neigh, but remained tranquilly crunching their corn, as if aware that they were making only a temporary halt, and that their time was too precious to be spent in any other occupation.