Los Batanes 



knobs on a water-wheel, clash back again alternately in two 

 troughs, pounding severely whatever may be put in between 

 the face of the mallet and the end of the trough, into 

 which water runs. I believe they are used for washing 

 cloth. 



They were not working when we arrived, but the gushing 

 of the waters over the dam frightened the Moor so much 

 that I had a struggle to get him past, in order to tether 

 him to a descendant of those tall trees under which the 

 knight and squire waited for the dawn in so great perturba- 

 tion. During this struggle arrived three sturdy knaves in 

 shaggy sheepskin garments, two of them with muskets over 

 their shoulders. 



When I had tethered the Moor, I discovered I had lost 

 a pistol from the loosened folds of vay faja ; and on going 

 back to look for it where I had wrestled with the Moor, it 

 was not to be found. I asked the men, but they had not seen 

 it. While I was still looking, and was growing somewhat 

 disheartened — for the pistol was Harry's, and its loss would 

 break his second pair — the men began to move off. One of 

 them was already fifty yards away. Remembering, in the 

 other case, a day or two ago, we had been sorry not to have 

 searched the muleteer, and Harry being out of the way in 

 the thicket tying up the Cid, so that I had nobody to con- 

 sult, I ventured, on the impulse of the occasion, to suggest 

 to the two men who remained, " that as they had formed 

 part of the premises when I lost my pistol, and were about 

 to convey themselves away, I should not feel satisfied unless 

 I also searched their pockets." They slightly objected, 

 saying they were honourable men, and had not seen my 

 pistol ; however, I did it, and found nothing. 



I now ran after the other man, and overtook him about 

 two hundred yards further on. He was the sturdiest villain 



266 



