, we should have
had a most enjoyable walk. Late in the afternoon we passed a hut and a
maize-field, the first sign of cultivation we had seen since leaving the
_azuferales_, and ascertained our bearings from an old peon who was
swinging in a grass hammock and smoking a cigar. San Felipe was about two
leagues away, and he strongly advised us not to follow a certain trail,
which he described, lest haply we might fall in with Mejia's caballeros,
some of whom he had himself seen within the hour a little lower down the
valley.

This was good news, and we went on in high spirits.

"Didn't I tell you so?" said Carmen, complacently. "I knew Mejia would not
be far off. He is like one of your English bull-dogs. He never knows when
he is beaten."

After a while the country became more open, with here and there patches of
cultivation; huts were more frequent and we met several groups of peons
who, however, eyed us so suspiciously that we thought it inexpedient to
ask them any questions.

About an hour before sunset we perceived in the near distance a solitary
horseman; but as his face was turned the other way he did not see us.

"He looks like one of our fellows," observed Carmen, after scanning him
closely. "All the same, he may not be. Let us slip behind this acacia-bush
and watch his movements."

The man himself seemed to be watching. After a short halt, he rode away
and returned, but whether halting or moving he was always on the lookout,
and as might appear, keenly expectant.

At length he came our way.

"I do believe--_Por Dios_ it is--Guido Pasto, my own man!" and Carmen,
greatly excited, rushed from his hiding-place shouting, "Guido!" at the
top of his voice.

I followed him, equally excited but less boisterous.

Guido, recognizing his master's voice, galloped forward and greeted us
warmly, for though he acted as Carmen's servant he was a free _llanero_,
and expected to be treated as a gentleman and a friend.

"_Gracias a Dios!_" he said; "I was beginning to fear that we had passed
you. Gahra and I have been looking for you all day!"

"That was very good of you; and Senor Fortescue and I owe you a thousand
thanks. But where are General Mejia and the army?"

"Near the old place. In a better position, though. But you must not go
there--neither of you."

"We must not go there! But why?"

"Because if you do the general will hang you."

"Hang us! Hang Senor Fortescue, who has come all the way from England to