All this was gratifying to young Wells, and like a congenial fellow,
he produced and showed the old hunter a new gun, the very latest model
in the market, explaining its good qualities through his interpreter.
Tiburcio handled it as if it were a rare bit of millinery, but managed
to ask its price and a few other questions. Through his companion,
Wells then engaged the old hunter's services for the following day;
not that he expected to hunt, but he wanted to acquaint himself with
the boundaries of the land and to become familiar with the surrounding
country. Naming an hour for starting in the morning, the two men shook
hands and bade each other good-night, each using his own language to
express the parting, though neither one knew a word the other said.
The first link in a friendship not soon to be broken had been forged.

Tiburcio was on hand at the appointed hour in the morning, and being
joined by the two Americans they rode off up the stream. It was
October, and the pecans, they noticed, were already falling, as
they passed through splendid groves of this timber, several times
dismounting to fill their pockets with nuts. Tiburcio frequently
called attention to fresh deer tracks near the creek bottom, and
shortly afterward the first game of the day was sighted. Five or six
does and grown fawns broke cover and ran a short distance, stopped,
looked at the horsemen, and then capered away.

Riding to the highest ground in the vicinity, they obtained a splendid
view of the stream, outlined by the foliage of the pecan groves that
lined its banks as far as the eye could follow either way. Tiburcio
pointed out one particular grove lying three or four miles farther up
the creek. Here he said was a cabin which had been built by a white
man who had left it several years ago, and which he had often used as