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The Panes are Horse-Indians too, but on their marauding expeditions to the South they often go afoot, trusting to return mounted which they almost invariably do. "After all," thought Carlos, "I have been wronging the Wacoes the robbers are Panes!" But now a new suspicion entered his mind. It was still the Wacoes that had done it. They had adopted the Pane whistle to deceive him!
The guard, but half awake, perish before they can lay hand upon their weapons! And now the war-cry of the Wacoes peals out in earnest, and the hundreds of dark warriors rush like a torrent through the zaguan. They enter the patio. The doors of the cuartos are besieged soldiers, terrified to confusion, come forth in their shirts, and fall under the spears of their dusky assailants.
They are lodges of the Wacoes, who, it is true, are allies of the Comanches." Such was in reality the fact. The poles, though bent so as to approach each other at the top, did not quite meet, and an open hole remained for the passage of smoke. The lodge, therefore, was not a perfect cone, but the frustum of one; and in this it differed from the lodge of the Comanches.
The Wacoes were all this time hunting to the south of the cibolero's camp! This would seem to indicate that some other Indians were upon the north. What more likely than a band of Panes? Again Carlos reproached himself for his too hasty suspicions of his new friends. His mind was filled with doubts. Perhaps these would be resolved by the light of the morning.
As already stated, the Wacoes and Panes were sworn foes; and as soon as the former should hear that the latter were in the neighbourhood, Carlos felt sure they would go in pursuit of them. He would share in this pursuit with his little band, and, in the event of the Panes being defeated, might get back his mulada.
In the very hour of triumph, when his strong right hand had hewn down his enemy on the field in that moment has he fallen! "The hearts of his warriors are sad, the hearts of his people will long be sad! "Wacoes! our chief has not fallen unrevenged. His slayer lies at his feet pierced with the deadly dart, and weltering in his blood. Who of you hath done this?"
The Panes, in full war-costume, were easily recognised by their tufted scalp-locks; while the Wacoes, who had, no doubt, been taken by surprise, were many of them in hunting-shirts and leggings. Some, however, were nearly as naked as their adversaries; but easily distinguished from them by their full flowing hair.
The Wacoes, Panes, Osages, and bands from the Cherokee, Kickapoo, and other nations to the east, occasionally hunted there, and sanguinary conflicts occurred among them; so that one party or another often lost their season's hunt by the necessity of keeping out of each other's range; and the game was thus left undisturbed.
"Brother warriors!" he continued, raising his voice and speaking in an earnest tone, "I have said that the Wacoes will be grateful for this deed. I have a proposal to make. Hear me!" All signified assent by gestures. "It is our custom," continued the speaker, "to elect our chief from the braves of our tribe.
Now and then no made hunting excursions into the country of his old friends the Wacoes who were over glad to see him again, and still hailed him as their chief. Of San Ildefonso there is no more heard since that time. No settlement was ever after made in that beautiful valley.
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