A Short Cut 



mistake, in case they attempted such a thing, they seemed 

 cordially to commiserate. I fired the six barrels in 

 rapid succession, saying, " Un ladron — dos ladrones — tres 

 ladrones — cuatro ladrones — cinco ladrones — seis ladrones — 

 y el capitan,"i finally discharging the large-muzzled, single- 

 barrelled pistol of Harry's, which I also carried in my faja^ 

 his three others being as much as he could conveniently do 

 with. 



We now rode on, and coming to another venta^ found our 

 friend Vigil finishing his dinner. He came along with us, 

 limping a little, for he was getting foot-sore. Our ponies 

 were rather tired, and we got off and led them. I felt that 

 to the poor, weary, foot-sore man it must seem unreasonable 

 that ponies should go with empty backs ; however, I could 

 not afford to make the Moor, with his still doubtful remains 

 of a sore shoulder, do more work than I myself required, 

 and so I compromised the matter with my conscience, by 

 offering to carry his cloak, which relieved him considerably, 

 without sensibly affecting the Moor. 



Towards the end of our day's work, when we were all 

 very weary, with the advice and sanction of Vigil — who had 

 been this road before, though long ago — we took one of 

 those short cuts which profess to slice something off across 

 an angle of the road, but which generally more than balance 

 the account by steepness and roughness. This one fully 

 came up to the usual short-cut character; and after climbing 

 up a ladder of rocks, we found that our wretched bad road 

 was diverging away over the hill from the right direction, 

 and never likely to meet the camino real more. At right 

 angles to our present direction appeared a large square 

 white building in the valley below ; and as no part of the 

 hill-side was, or could well be, more rocky than this by-path, 



' One robber — two robbers, &c., and the captain. 



240 



