176 Unexplored Spain 



a sort of lieutenant to Vivillo, but the partnership was soon 

 renounced by the latter consequent on a cowardly crime 

 perpetrated by Pernales in the Sierra of Algamita. At a lonely 

 farm lived an elderly couple, the husband an industrious, thrifty 

 man, who had the reputation of being rich among his fellows. 

 Their worldly possessions in actual fact consisted of some 2000 

 reales = £20. Pernales was not likely to overlook a hoard so 

 ill-protected, and one night in November 1906 insisted, at the 

 muzzle of his gun, on the savings being handed over to him. A 

 lad of fourteen, however, had witnessed the transaction, and on 

 perceiving him (and fearing he might thus be denounced) Pernales 

 plunged his knife in the boy's breast, killing him on the spot. 

 Vivillo, on hearing of this insensate murder by his second, insisted 

 on the restitution of their money to the aged pair, expelled 

 Pernales from his gang, and threatened him with death should 

 he dare again to cross his path. 



Pernales now formed a fresh partnership with a desperado of 

 similar calibre to himself, a soulless brute, known as the Nino de 

 Arahdl, whose acquaintance he had made at a village of that 

 name. This pair, along with a gang of ruffians who acclaimed 

 them as chiefs, were destined to achieve some of the worst deeds 

 of violence in the whole annals of Spanish Bandolerismo. For 

 two years they held half Andalucia in awe, terrorised by the 

 ferocity of their methods and merciless disregard of life. None 

 dared denounce them or impart to authority a word of information 

 as to their whereabouts, even though it were known for certain 

 — such was the dread of vengeance. 



Innumerable were the skirmishes between the forces of the 

 law and its outragers. An illustrative incident occurred in 

 March 1907. A pair of Civil Guards, riding up the Rio de los 

 Almendros, district of Pruna, suddenly and by mere chance found 

 themselves face to face with the men they "wanted." A 

 challenge to halt and surrender was answered by instant fire, and 

 the outlaws, wheeling about, clapped spurs to their horses and 

 fled. Now for the Civil Guards as brave men and dutiful we 

 have the utmost respect ; but their marksmanship on this occasion 

 proved utterly rotten, and an easy right-and-left was clean missed 

 twice and thrice over ! The fugitives, moreover, outrode pursuit, 

 and the fact illustrates their cool, calculating nonchalance, that 

 so soon as they reckoned on having gained a forty-five minutes' 



