olonel should
escape, and also the messenger, adieu to all my fine combinations!
Well!" he continued, after the wife of Arroyo had gone out of the tent
to hasten the departure of the pursuers. "Well, Senor Arroyo! if he
should get away from us it will be a great pity sure enough. Still we
shall find consolation at the hacienda San Carlos."

"True," replied the other, "and I have need of some distraction just
now. This evening I mean to amuse myself. To-morrow we shall storm the
fortress of Del Valle with all our force; and may the devil scorch me,
if I leave one stone of it standing upon another!"

"Yes; to-morrow let us set seriously about it," said Bocardo, gleefully
rubbing his hands together. "But see!" he continued, glancing out of
the tent, "our fellows are ready to start. If you take my advice,
instead of twenty men, you'll send only ten. That will be quite
sufficient to capture those two droll devils who have escaped from us.
After you have sent the reinforcement to Del Valle we'll have no great
number of men to remain at head-quarters here."

The guerillero chief yielded to the counsel of his associate; and
choosing from the horsemen that were ready ten of the best mounted, he
directed them to enter upon the pursuit. The others were at the same
time ordered to proceed to the hacienda Del Valle to reinforce the party
already besieging the place.

CHAPTER FIFTY EIGHT.

AN UNEXPECTED RECEPTION.

From that portion of Gaspacho's report which related to Don Rafael
Tres-Villas, the reader will easily guess the purpose of the eight
horsemen assembled in the glade of the forest of Ostuta: they were no
other than the soldiers who from the besieging party had gone in pursuit
of the Royalist Colonel. It will be remembered, however, that ten was
the number mentioned by Gaspacho, while only eight now composed the
group that occupied the clearing.

We shall presently learn how their number became thus reduced: but first
let us recount the adventures of Don Rafael himself--from the time of
his quitting the camp of Huajapam, to the moment when we find him asleep
upon his arboreal couch.

As soon as the song of triumph raised by the soldiers of Trujano had
ceased to echo in his ears, Don Rafael proceeded to reflect upon his own
situation. He perceived at once that, in order to traverse with safety
some thirty leagues of a country almost entirely in the hands of the
insurgents, certain precautions would be