stolid and obdurate; they were unaccustomed to hurry and flurry,
and they refused to do anything to help him; and the old man came out
to us again, wringing his bony hands, and using language that was
plaintive and powerful alternately.

Meanwhile Haigh had shown unwonted activity. The populace of La Puebla,
roused by our furious passage through the town, had followed hot-foot
after us to stare at the ragged vehicle, and to throw ten score of
questions at the driver, who, from a casual acquaintance of most of
them, had sprung into a public character. So hurried had the summons
been that many of them--of both sexes, save the mark--had apparently
run out of doors in the apparel which served them under the bedclothes.
Through this crowd Haigh shouldered his way, with a leery grin which
seemed to win every heart (more especially the female ones), and went
over to a double-muled carriage that was drawn up in front of the
little _casa_ across the way. It was a private carriage, and the
coachman naturally did not own the animals; but Haigh flourished under
his nose three hundred-peseta notes, and before that mine of wealth the
man's honesty fell. With his own hands he started untracing his cattle.

Seeing what was in the wind, I stepped down and with ready help from
the crowd set free the jaded animals that had brought us so far; and
before our frock-coated companion had well emerged from the station
again, we had picked him up and were off once more as hard as we could
pelt. He was a goodish man at plotting and planning beforehand, that
same Taltavull; but when it came to brisk action, he wasn't always
prompt enough. A bit of a reverse seemed to daze him.

"It's money that makes the world go round," remarked Haigh after we had
got beyond the cheerful howls of the crowd, and our two fine mules had
settled down to a steady hand-gallop. "If you look, you'll just see the
tail end of the train swinging out of sight round that curve. If we
have any luck, and the engine yonder doesn't forget its dignity and
exceed the orthodox Spanish crawl, we should overhaul 'em before they
make the next station. Our present pace is distinctly good. It's a
clinking fine pair this I've requisitioned, and from the condition
they're in, it's plain to see they haven't been rattled along like this
for a longish time. I guess somebody'll be wrath when he sees the two
screws his coachy has swapped for them. However, the resultant ructions
are for _man