co!" cried the soldiers.

"Could not be better," said Perrico.

"You are making a jolly guard of it," said Paco. "Wine seems as common
as ditch-water amongst you. Who pays the shot?"

"I!" cried the sergeant, clapping his hand on his pocket, which gave
forth a sound most harmoniously metallic. "I have inherited, friend
Paco; and, if you like to sit down with us, you shall drink yourself
blind without its costing on an _ochavo_."

"'Twould hardly suit my broken head," returned the muleteer. "But from
whom have you inherited? From the dead or the living?"

"The living to be sure," replied the sergeant, laughing. "From a fat
Christino alcalde, with whom I fell in the other morning upon the
Salvatierra road. His saddle-bags were worth the rummaging."

"I can't drink myself," said Paco; "but let me take out a glass to poor
Blas, who is walking up and down, listening to the jingle of the
bottles, as tantalized as a mule at the door of a corn-store."

"Against the regulations," said the sergeant. "Wait till he comes off
sentry, and he shall have a skin-full."

"Pooh!" said Paco, "cup of wine will break no bones, on sentry or off."

And taking advantage of the excellent humour in which his potations had
put the non-commissioned officer, he filled a large earthen mug with
wine, and left the room.

The sentinel was leaning against the house-wall, his coat-skirt wrapped
round the lock of his musket to protect it from the drizzling rain, and
looking as if he would gladly have exchanged his solitary guard for a
share in the revels of his comrades, when Paco came out, the cup of wine
in his hand, and whistling in a loud key a popular Basque melody. The
soldier took the welcome beverage from the muleteer, unsuspicious of any
other than a friendly motive on the part of Paco, raised it to his lips,
and drank it slowly off, as if to make the pleasure of the draught as
long as possible. Thus engaged, he did not observe a man lurking in the
shadow of an opposite barn, and who, taking advantage of the sentinel's
momentary inattention, and of the position of Paco, who stood so as to
mask his movements from the soldier, glided across the street, darted
into the house, and, passing unseen and unheard before the open door of
the guard-room, nimbly and noiselessly ascended the stairs.

The sentinel drained the cup to the last drop, returned it to Paco, gave
a deep sigh of satisfaction, and began marching briskly up and down.
Paco re-