308 In the Upper Sierra 
a certain sierra for some nests, but in reply to my enquiries the 
Guardia Cwrl absolutely forbade me to go into it on account of 
a well-known farteda or gang under a certain José, I forget who. 
Two years later when again in the same district, I received a visit 
from the Guardia Civil and was told that I might go where I 
pleased. ‘ What about José?” I asked. ‘‘Oh!” replied the corporal 
with a smile, “he is all right, I shot him: see here,” with which 
he produced with great delight the small book carried by these 
excellent fellows in which they enter a full description of the folk 
they have to deal with, either as ‘‘ wanted,” “ prisoners” or ‘how 
disposed of.” 
The last occasion when there was any trouble in the Serrania 
was when the already mentioned Monte Cristo was conducting 
operations. After many delays, a determined attempt to capture 
him was made and his gang was broken up. Cristo and one 
comrade took refuge in the wilderness of the Sierra de Libar and 
one morning early was surprised in a goatherds’ cottage or shealing 
in a remote valley near the summit. I chanced to be passing the 
spot some months later and had the tale from a man who had been 
in the Sierra at the time and who pointed me out the various points 
of interest involved. 
Cristo appears to have received warning of the approach of 
the enemy and with his one remaining adherent bolted from the 
cottage and gained cover amid a small mass of broken rocks on the 
open stony hillside a few hundred yards above. Here he turned 
to bay and when the Gwardzas attempted to close on him kept 
them at a distance with his Winchester repeating rifle. Numbers 
however prevailed and the Guardias gradually worked round the 
flanks across the broken ground and brought a fire to bear on 
him from three sides. At last his fire ceased and they rushed in, 
only to find his comrade lying wounded and Cristo himself dead, 
killed apparently by the bursting of his Winchester repeating rifle, 
