CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
FALLEN AMONG FRIENDS.
If, before losing consciousness, Hamersley had a thought that he had fallen into the hands of enemies, never in all his life could he have been more mistaken, for those now around him, by their words and gestures, prove the very reverse.

Six personages compose the group-- four men and a girl; the sixth, she, the huntress, who has conducted him to the house.

The girl is a brown-skinned Indian, evidently a domestic; and so also two of the four men.

The other two are white, and of pronouncedly Spanish features.

One is an oldish man, greyheaded, thin-faced, and wearing spectacles.