The Sympathy of Smoke 



though we were tied so tight, for fear some one might pass 

 along the road, and, hearing our cries, come to the rescue. It 

 was ten o'clock in the morning when we were attacked, and 

 all through that long sultry summer day, they sat and watched 

 us. Several times we heard passers-by within twenty yards 

 of us ; but our guard would have stabbed us at once if we 

 had cried out. The cords cut my wrists painfully, and I 

 was dying of thirst. 



"I begged and prayed one of the robbers to loosen my 

 wrists a little, but he refused. I entreated him, in the name 

 of Christ, to get me a drink of water, for the river was 

 not fifty yards off. He said, if I was not quiet he would 

 make an end of me. 



" ' At any rate, for the sake of the blessed Virgin, let me 

 smoke something ! ' On this last piteous request the 

 robber's heart relented, and he said, 



" ' Quiere Vmd. puro u papel ? ' (will you have a cigar, or 

 a cigarillo ?) 



" ' Tan a seca boca puro no se puede fumar ' (with so dry 

 a mouth cigars are not smokeable), I replied, and he set 

 about making me a few papeles. Soon after sunset they left 

 us. The servant at last got one hand loose, but his navaja was 

 in the other pocket of his calzones^ so that he could not get 

 at it. I told him to roll towards me if he could, and he 

 would be able to get at mine, which he accordingly did, 

 and opening it with his teeth, cut us all clear of our 

 bonds. 



"The old factor was the worst off; he had hurt his face 

 on some root or stump, when they threw him down ; his head 

 had got in a hole, and his legs were lying uphill, so that 

 when we took him up he was speechless, and we thought he 

 would have died. The robbers, doubtless, had private infor- 

 mation. They got six hundred dollars by the day's work, 



337 



