Page:A La California.djvu/139

Rh indulge in considerable speculation and conjecture as to who had made them. Remembering all this, my curiosity was excited; and, after a few moments' hesitation, seeing that the object, whatever it was, had stopped and crouched down, having apparently noticed me just then for the first time, I rode cautiously up the road toward it. I had reached within ten or fifteen rods of the object, when it sprang up and darted into the chaparral, and, as it did so, I saw what appeared to be a young Indian, dressed in Mexican costume—loose shirt and wide pants of cotton goods, and a broad sombrero. All was quiet for a moment, and then I called out, in English, 'Who is there?' There came no response. I then repeated the question in Spanish. A little, weak, frightened voice replied, in the same language, this time,—

"'Only a poor Christiano, señor! And you are not an Apache?'

"'No; I am a friend,' I replied. "'Thanks be to God; I am saved!' was the devout response; and the little fellow ran out from his hiding-place, and, coming directly up to me, seized my hand and covered it with kisses, praying and uttering thanks, and crying hysterically, all at once.

"He was a boy of apparently twelve or thirteen years of age, small and slender, and dressed in clothes much too large for him. It took me some minutes to get anything like a connected account of his troubles from him; but I finally gathered that he had been on his way from Hermosillo, in Sonora,