ss during which you might have gained a safe
distance from the always-guarded coast? Did you not allow yourself to
be betrayed by your horse, and captured without resistance? Did you
not lose your despatches at the outset, and almost your life as well?
Are you not at this moment densely ignorant of the route you are to
travel, and of how to meet the enemies you will encounter on every hand?

"Yes, my friend, brave and resolute as you may be, you are also but a
babe in your undertaking. Your only forethought lay in securing the
countersign of the Junta, which has for the moment saved your life,
since I should certainly have caused you to be shot but for it. Also,
if I had not discovered you, the Spanish hawks who patrol the coast
would have had you in their clutches a few minutes later. Nor do you
at this moment know how to find your way to Holguin, much less to
Santiago."

"But," argued Ridge, whose self-conceit and confidence in his own
ability to carry out the mission he had so bravely undertaken were
rapidly oozing away, "I have a good map of the country, a good horse,
plenty of money with which to hire guides, am well armed, and could
make a good fight if necessary. I speak Spanish perfectly, am dark of
complexion, possess the countersign of the Junta for Cubans, and
letters from the chief of the Spanish secret service for Spaniards.
Why, then, may I not succeed as well as another?"

"You _had_ those things; but, with the exception of your ability to
speak Spanish, your darkness of skin, and the countersign, all of them
have been taken from you."

"But you will restore them?"

"And if I should, would they serve you? Do you imagine that any true
Cuban would disclose to an utter stranger the military secrets of his
country for money? If you do, you are sadly mistaken. Could you fight
an enemy who would lie in ambush and shoot you in the back, reserving
the examination of your despatches until you were dead? Even should
you succeed in presenting those same despatches to a Spanish general,
do you not know that he would hold you prisoner, or at least delay your
departure until he had transmitted them to Havana for verification?
Yet you hope to gain a complete knowledge of the military situation in
this great province, and rejoin your friends more than a hundred miles
away within a week. Amigo, you are very ignorant."

"Possibly I am," admitted Ridge, "but I have learned much from you
within a short time