irring. Ha! the furniture gone!"

We passed into the porch in the rear, and approached the stairway.

"Let us go below--can you see any light?"

I stooped and looked down. I could neither hear nor see any signs of
life. I turned, and was gazing up at my friend in wonderment, when my
eye was attracted by a strange movement upon the low branches of the
olive-trees. The next moment a dozen forms dropped to the ground; and,
before we could draw sword or pistol, myself and comrade were bound hand
and foot and flung upon our backs.

At the same instant we heard a scuffle down by the pond. Two or three
shots were fired; and a few minutes after a crowd of men came up,
bringing with them Chane, Lincoln, and Raoul as prisoners.

We were all dragged out into the open ground in front of the rancho,
where our horses were also brought and picketed.

Here we lay upon our backs, a dozen guerilleros remaining to guard us.
The others went back among the olives, where we could hear them
laughing, talking, and yelling. We could see nothing of their
movements, as we were tightly bound, and as helpless as if under the
influence of nightmare.

As we lay, Lincoln was a little in front of me. I could perceive that
they had doubly bound him in consequence of the fierce resistance he had
made. He had killed one of the guerilleros. He was banded and strapped
all over, like a mummy, and he lay gnashing his teeth and foaming with
fury. Raoul and the Irishman appeared to take things more easily, or
rather more recklessly.

"I wonder if they are going to hang us to-night, or keep us till
morning? What do you think, Chane?" asked the Frenchman, laughing as he
spoke.

"Be the crass! they'll lose no time--ye may depind on that same.
There's not an ounce av tinder mercy in their black hearts; yez may
swear till that, from the way this eel-skin cuts."

"I wonder, Murt," said Raoul, speaking from sheer recklessness, "if
Saint Patrick couldn't help us a bit. You have him round your neck,
haven't you?"

"Be the powers, Rowl! though ye be only jokin', I've a good mind to thry
his holiness upon thim. I've got both him and the mother undher me
jacket, av I could only rache thim."

"Good!" cried the other. "Do!"

"It's aisy for ye to say `Do', when I can't budge so much as my little
finger."

"Never mind. I'll arrange that," answered Raoul. "_Hola, Senor_!"
shouted he to one of the guerilleros.

"_Quien_?" (Who?) said the man,