.

"Oh, nonsense!" Hawtry said indignantly. "You don't suppose we're such
fools as to give you a pound apiece for two or three hours' ride on
those mules of yours. Come on, Jack. We won't put up with being
swindled like that."

So saying the two lads turned away, and started on their walk.

While they were speaking to the Spaniard, he had been joined by one of
his countrymen, and when they turned away, these entered into a rapid
conversation together. The result was, that before the boys had gone
thirty yards, the Spaniard with the mules called them back again, and
intimated that he accepted their terms.

They were about to jump up at once, but the man signed to them to
stop, and his companion in a minute or two had brought out two rough
rugs which were secured with some cords over the wooden saddles.

"That's an improvement," Jack said. "I was just wondering how we were
going to sit on those things, which are not saddles at all, but only
things for boxes and barrels to be fastened to."

"I wonder which way we'd better go," Hawtry said, as he climbed up
with some difficulty, aided by the Spaniard, on to one of the mules.
"My goodness, Jack, this is horribly uncomfortable. I never can stand
this. Hi, there! help me down. It would be better a hundred times to
ride barebacked."

Accordingly the saddles were taken off, the rugs folded and secured on
the animals' backs by a rope passed round them, and then the boys
again took their seats.

"I hope the brutes are quiet," Jack said, "for I am nothing of a rider
at the best of times, and one feels an awful height at the top of
these great mules, with one's legs dangling without stirrups."

"If you find yourself going, Jack," Hawtry said, "the best thing is to
catch hold of his ears. Come on, let's get out of this. All the
village is staring at us."

The mules, upon the reins being jerked, and boys' heels briskly
applied to their ribs, moved on at a fast walk.

"We shall have to stop under a tree and cut a stick presently," Hawtry
said. "It will not do to get down, for I should never be able to climb
up again. Mind, we must take our bearings carefully, else we shall
never get back again. We have neither chart nor compass. Hallo! here
comes the mules' master."

They had by this time gone two or three hundred yards from the
village, and, behind them, at a brisk trot, seated on a diminutive
donkey, was the Spaniard.

"Perhaps it's best he should come," Jack said. "