oined me, and together
we left the room.

"What is it?" I asked anxiously; "anything of importance?"

"Rather, unless the Indian has made a mistake. La Hera is hiding with
a few wounded men in the mountains, not a dozen miles away."

This was the Spanish leader whom we had defeated at Mirabe. He was a
bold, dashing soldier, and a firm Loyalist, whose capture would deal
the enemy a heavy blow.

"Get the horses ready," said Jose, "while I pick out a few men. We
mustn't make a mess of this affair, or the colonel won't trust us
again. And don't mention where we are going, up at the house. I
daresay the folks are all right, but what they don't know they can't
tell."

"Where shall I meet you?"

"Outside the colonel's quarters. Now, off with you, we've no time to
waste."

The horses had benefited by their unusually long rest, and having
saddled them with the help of one of our host's servants, I led them
into the street. Jose soon appeared with a dozen mounted men, wild,
fierce-looking fellows, and all natives.

Presently the guide came out, and directly afterwards the colonel, who
spoke a few words, telling us that we were bound on an important
errand, which he trusted we should accomplish successfully. Then the
guide placed himself, on foot, beside Jose's horse, and we moved off.

He led us at first, purposely, in a wrong direction, in case of prying
eyes, turning back at the end of a mile or so, and then steering across
a wild and lonely desert track. Having covered nearly a dozen miles,
we came to a tiny hamlet at the foot of the mountains. Halting here,
we left our horses in charge of two men and pressed forward on foot.

Fortunately, in one way though not in another, it was a moonlight
night, and we could see where to step. All around us towered huge
mountains, grim and forbidding. We marched in single file by the edge
of steep precipices, so close sometimes that we seemed to hang over the
awful abyss. Further and further we penetrated into the dreary
recesses. We seemed to be a body of ghosts traversing a dreary world.
No man spoke; we heard the cry neither of bird nor of animal. The only
sound to break the eerie silence was the occasional clatter of a stone,
which, loosened by our passage, rolled over into the unknown depths.

I looked neither to right nor to left, but kept my gaze fixed on Jose,
who walked before me. The track narrowed down so that it hardly
afforded footing for one, and