The guerilleros now halted and dismounted. We were left in our saddles. Our mules were picketed upon long lazos, and commenced browsing. They carried us under the thorny branches of the wild locust. The maguey, with its bill-shaped claws, had torn our uniform overalls to shreds. Our limbs were lacerated, and the cactus had lodged its poisoned prickles in our knees. But these were nothing to the pain of being compelled to keep our saddles, or rather saddle-trees—for we were upon the naked wood. Our hips ached intensely, and our limbs smarted under the chafing thong.

There was a crackling of fires around us. Our captors were cooking their breakfasts, and chattering gaily over their chocolate. Neither food nor drink was offered to us, although we were both thirsty and hungry. We were kept in this place for about an hour.

“They have joined another party here,” said Raoul, “with pack-mules.”

“How know you?” I inquired.

“I can tell by the shouts of the arrieros. Listen!—they are making ready to start.”

There was a mingling of voices—exclamations addressed to their animals by the arrieros, such as:

“Mula! anda! vaya! levantate! carrai! mula—mulita!—anda!—st!—st!”

In the midst of this din I fancied that I heard the voice of a woman.

“Can it be—?”

The thought was too painful.

A bugle at length sounded, and we felt ourselves again moving onward.

Our road appeared to run along the naked ridge. There were no trees, and the heat became intense. Our serapes, that had served us during the night, should have been dispensed with now, had we been consulted in relation to the matter. I did not know, until some time after, why these blankets had been given to us, as they had been hitherto very useful in the cold. It was not from any anxiety in regard to our comfort, as I learned afterwards.

We began to suffer from thirst, and Raoul asked one of the guerilleros for water.

“Carajo!” answered the man, “it’s no use: you’ll be choked by and by with something else than thirst.”

The brutal jest called forth a peal of laughter from his comrades.

About noon we commenced descending a long hill. I could hear the sound of water ahead.

“Where are we, Raoul?” I inquired faintly.

“Going down to a stream—a branch of the Antigua.”

“We are coming to another precipice?” I asked, with some uneasiness, as the roar of the torrent began to be heard more under our feet, and I snuffed the cold air from below.

“There is one, Captain. There is a good road, though, and well paved.”

“Paved! why, the country around is wild—is it not?”

“True; but the road was paved by the priests.”

“By the priests!” I exclaimed with some astonishment.

“Yes, Captain; there’s a convent in the valley, near the crossing; that is, there was one. It is now a ruin.”

We crept slowly down, our mules at times seeming to walk on their heads. The hissing of the torrent grew gradually louder, until our ears were filled with its hoarse rushing.

I heard Raoul below me shouting some words in a warning voice, when suddenly he seemed borne away, as if he had been tumbled over the precipice.

I expected to feel myself next moment launched after him into empty space, when my mule, uttering a loud whinny, sprang forward and downward.

Down—down! the next leap into eternity! No—she keeps her feet! she gallops along a level path! I am safe!

I was swung about until the thongs seemed to cut through my limbs; and with a heavy plunge I felt myself carried thigh-deep into water.

Here the animal suddenly halted.

As soon as I could gain breath I shouted at the top of my voice for the Frenchman.

“Here, Captain!” he answered, close by my side, but, as I fancied, with a strange, gurgling voice.

“Are you hurt, Raoul?” I inquired.

“Hurt? No, Captain.”

“What was it, then?”

“Oh! I wished to warn you, but I was too late. I might have known they would stampede, as the poor brutes have been no better treated than ourselves. Hear how they draw it up!”

“I am choking!” I exclaimed, listening to the water as it filtered through the teeth of my mule.

“Do as I do, Captain,” said Raoul, speaking as if from the bottom of a well.