e vengeance on all and
sundry, and killed one of the runaway troopers with his own hand. I
narrowly escaped sharing the same fate. Happening to catch sight of me
when his passion was at the height he swore that he would shoot at least
one rebel, and drawing a pistol from his holster pointed it at my head. I
owed my life to Captain Guzman, who was one of the best and bravest of his
officers.

"Pray don't do that, general," he said. "It would be an ill requital for
Senor Fortescue's faithful observance of his parole. And you promised to
let him go."

"Promised to let him go! So I did, and I will be as good as my word,"
returned Griscelli, grimly, as he uncocked his pistol. "Yes, he shall go."

"Now?"

"No. To-night. Meet me, both of you, near the old sugar-mill on the
savanna when the moon rises; and give him a good supper, Guzman; he will
need it."

CHAPTER XVI.

THE AZUFERALES.

"What is General Griscelli's game? Does he really mean to let me go, or is
he merely playing with me as a cat plays with a mouse?" I asked Guzman, as
we sat at supper.

"That is just the question I have been asking myself. I never knew him let
a prisoner go before, and I know of no reason why he should treat you more
leniently than he treats others. Do you?"

"No. He is more likely to bear me a grudge," and then I told Guzman what
had befallen at Salamanca.

"That makes it still less probable that he will let you go away quietly.
Griscelli never forgives, and to-day's fiasco has put him in a devil of a
temper. He is malicious, too. We have all to be careful not to offend him,
even in trifles, or he would make life very unpleasant for us, and I fear
he has something very unpleasant in store for you. You may depend upon it
that he is meditating some trick. He is quite capable of letting you go as
far as the bridge, and then bringing you back and hanging you or fastening
you to the tail of a wild mustang or the horns of a wild bull. That also
would be letting you go."

"So it would, in a fashion! and I should prefer it to being hanged."

"I don't think I would. The hanging would be sooner over and far less
painful. And there are many other ways--he might have your hands tied
behind your back and cannon-balls fastened to your feet, and then leave
you to your own devices."

"That would not be so bad. We should find some good soul to release us,
and I think I could contrive to untie Carmen's bonds with my teeth."

"Or he mig