ad overheard me.

"You might not understand my reasons, Major."

I was thinking upon the disgrace of being trapped as I was, and on my
first scout, too.

"Who will volunteer to ride an express to camp?" I inquired, addressing
the men.

Twenty of them leaped out simultaneously.

"Which of you remembers the course, that you could follow it in a
gallop?" I asked.

The Frenchman, Raoul, stood forth, touching his cap.

"I know a shorter one, Captain, by Mata Cordera."

"Ha! Raoul, you know the country. You are the man."

I now remembered that this man joined us at Sacrificios, just after the
landing of the expedition. He had been living in the country previous
to our arrival, and was well acquainted with it.

"Are you a good horseman?" I inquired.

"I have seen five years of cavalry service."

"True. Do you think you can pass them? They are nearly in your track."

"As we entered the prairie, Captain; but my route will lie past this
motte to the left."

"That will give you several points. Do not stop a moment after you have
mounted, or they will take the hint and intercept you."

"With the red horse there will be no danger, Captain."

"Leave your gun; take these pistols. Ha! you have a pair in the
holsters. See if they are loaded. These spurs--so--cut loose that
heavy piece from the saddle: the cloak, too; you must have nothing to
encumber you. When you come near the camp, leave your horse in the
chaparral. Give this to Colonel C."

I wrote the following words on a scrap of paper:--

"Dear Colonel,

"Two hundred will be enough. Could they be stolen out after night? If
so, all will be well--if it gets abroad...

"Yours,

"H.H."

As I handed the paper to Raoul, I whispered in his ear--

"To Colonel C's own hand. Privately, Raoul--privately, do you hear?"

Colonel C. was my friend, and I knew that he would send a _private_
party to my rescue.

"I understand, Captain," was the answer of Raoul.

"Ready, then! now mount and be off."

The Frenchman sprang nimbly to the saddle, and, driving his spurs into
the flanks of his horse, shot out from the pen like a bolt of lightning.

For the first three hundred yards or so he galloped directly towards the
guerilleros. These stood leaning upon their saddles, or lay stretched
along the green-sward. Seeing a single horseman riding towards them,
few of them moved, believing him to be some messenger sent to treat for
our surrender.

Sudd