216 



JOURNEY ACROSS 



track, the jerk threw my pistol out of its belt. 

 I stopt to pick it up ; but the next day I missed 

 a small powder horn, a cigar-case, and a silver 

 pencil-case, all of which had taken leave of my 

 pocket at the same time, for the benefit of some 

 future traveller. 



We were not far from Morro, where we were 

 to take up our quarters for the night, and had 

 got into a smoother road, in which we were able 

 to quicken our pace, — when I perceived some 

 twenty or thirty men on horseback, charging 

 down the slope of a hill on our left, as if to in- 

 tercept our party. Don Joachim was in advance 

 about twenty yards, but instantly halted. The 

 horsemen halted also, and hailed. There was 

 light enough to observe that they carried 

 long lances, but it was too dark to distin- 

 guish their dresses or complexions. I hardly 

 knew whether to gallop on, or to return, 



