Passing out of the house during the excitement, I was in my saddle in an instant, riding like a fiend for Shepherd’s.  The sun was nearly an hour high, and with a good horse under me, I covered the ten miles to the ferry in less than an hour.  Portions of the route were sheltered by timber along the river, but once as I crossed a rise opposite a large bend, I sighted a posse in pursuit several miles to the rear.  On reaching Shepherd’s, fortunately for me a single horse stood at the hitch-rack.  The merchant and owner of the horse came to the door as I dashed up, and never offering a word of explanation, I changed horses.  Luckily the owner of the horse was Red Earnest, a friend of mine, and feeling that they would not have long to wait for explanations, I shook out the reins and gave him the rowel.  I knew the country, and soon left the river road, taking an air-line course for Las Palomas, which I reached within two hours after nightfall.  In few and profane words, I explained the situation to my employer, and asked for a horse that would put the Rio Grande behind me before morning.  A number were on picket near by, and several of the boys ran for the best mounts available.  A purse was forced into my pocket, well filled with gold.  Meanwhile I had in my possession an extra six-shooter, and now that I had a moment’s time to notice it, recognized the gun as belonging to Tony Hunter.  Filling the empty chambers, and waving a farewell to my friends, I passed out by the rear and reached the saddle shed, where a well-known horse was being saddled by dexterous hands.  Once on his back, I soon passed the eighty miles between me and the Rio Grande, which I swam on my horse the next morning within an hour after sunrise.

CHAPTER XXII

SUNSET

Of my exile of over two years in Mexico, little need be said.  By easy stages, I reached the haciendas on the Rio San Juan where we had received the cows in the summer of ’77.  The reception extended me was all one could ask, but cooled when it appeared that my errand was one of refuge and not of business.  I concealed my offense, and was given employment as corporal segundo over a squad of vaqueros.  But while the hacienda to which I was attached was larger than Las Palomas, with greater holdings in live-stock, yet my life there was one of penal servitude.  I strove to blot out past memories in the innocent pleasures of my associates, mingling in all the social festivities, dancing with the dark-eyed senoritas and gambling at every fiesta.  Yet in the midst of the dissipation, there was ever present to my mind the thought of a girl, likewise living a life of loneliness at the mouth of the San Miguel.