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 Nifio de 
Arahél, 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’ 
