“Well, old fellow,” said Fred at length, “it didn’t take you long to raise a row after you got here, did it. Uncle Reginald little dreamed, when he was working so hard to find you in order to further his own ends, how completely you would kick over his kettle of fish in less than twenty-four hours after your arrival. We’ll keep those white horses as long as we live, won’t we? They are the best friends we’ve ever had.”
“I believe that now,” replied Julian; “but I didn’t think so when they were roaming about among the mountains with me and carrying me to robber dens. But, Fred, you are not a horse-thief?”
“I never stole a horse, or anything else, if that is what you mean; but I have been a member of the band for more than a year. I’ve had charge of a good many dollars’ worth of stolen property first and last, and if I had happened to fall into the hands of the settlers while I had it in my possession, I’d have been gone up sure.”
“I had an object in view—one that justified even worse things than that. It will not retard our speed in the least if we talk as we go along, so I will tell my story first—I know you are dying to hear it—and then I will listen to yours. Where shall I begin?”
“At the beginning, of course. Tell me who I am, how I came to be an inmate of Jack Bowles’ cabin, and all about it. I have lived among mysteries for the last few weeks, and I want every one of them explained.”
“And yet there isn’t a single mystery connected with your history, or mine, either,” replied White-horse Fred. “I can make everything plain to you in ten minutes. In the first place, that old rancho back there is our home. It was built by Grandfather Cordova, our mother’s father, who came out here in early times. When I tell you that it was intended as a fort as well as a dwelling, you will know how those secret passage-ways came to be there. Such a building was necessary in those days, for it was hardly safe for white men about——”
“Safe!” interrupted Julian. “It isn’t safe now.”
“Oh, things have changed wonderfully since that house was built, and even during my recollection. We call ourselves a quiet, orderly, well-disposed set of people; but when grandfather first came out here he saw some excitements, I tell you. He was a native of Mexico, and brought with him a small colony of his own people. The Indians were so troublesome that the government was obliged to keep a strong body of troops here, and father was one of their officers. He commanded the fort; and Silas, who was in more than one battle with him, says he was a fighter worth looking at. He had not been out here very long before he fell in love with and married our mother, Inez Cordova, threw up his commission, and went to digging gold and raising cattle. Everything went on smoothly until grandfather and mother died, and then the trouble began. In one night our family was completely broken up by a couple of adventurers, who ought certainly to have had some mercy on us if they had no affection for us, for they were our mother’s brother and cousin.