ture," continued Plaza, "and wound up by
offering to spare his life on his promising to take a letter to the
governor of Arequipa. 'But,' said the colonel sternly, 'you are not to
tell what you have seen here. I want him to think we are very few in
number. Do you understand?' The fellow promised readily enough,
placed the letter in his hat, mounted his horse, and rode down the
valley, counting the fires as he went. Of course he told every
Royalist officer the truth as he believed it, and they cleared out of
the district in double-quick time. Then we forced the governor to
supply us with forage for five hundred horses."

"But you didn't have five hundred!"

"That was the joke. We carted the stuff to some sandhills, where a
part of the force was supposed to lie in ambush. When the Royalists
returned with large reinforcements, they wasted days, being afraid of
falling into a trap. It was very funny watching their manoeuvres."

"Then there was the officer with the flag of truce near Chala," said
Cordova. "He carried back a pretty report to his chief!"

"Yes," said Plaza, laughing; "he believed we were just the
advance-guard of a large force. He stayed with us the night, but I'm
afraid his slumbers were troubled ones. The bustle was
tremendous--soldiers coming and going every few minutes. The colonel
was giving all kinds of impossible orders; in fact, you would have
thought we had quite a big army there. Next morning I escorted the
Royalist a mile or so on the road. All our men were spread out, some
in fatigue dress, to make him believe there were at least two
regiments."

"That was a good trick," laughed Alzura.

"And the officers galloped about, shouting to the men to go to their
camps in the rear. Turning to me, the fellow exclaimed seriously, 'It
is all very well for Miller to have a couple of battalions; but we have
a couple as well as he!'

"'Ah,' said I, trying to keep a straight face, 'you keep your eyes
open, I see. I warned the colonel not to let you see so much.'"

"Did you really fool him?" asked half a dozen men in a breath.

"Yes, and kept our position till the colonel was ready to move. If I
had my way, Miller should be commander-in-chief. He is now the best
man in the country for the post."

"Bravo!" cried Cordova. "As it is, I suppose we shall all be under
Bolivar's thumb soon."

"I don't much care who leads," said Alzura, "as long as we win; and
it's about time something wa