14 MEXICO. 
Cigars would not avail us this time ! His men were tired and he could 
give no escort. 
Night soon fell dark and coldly around us. In these elevated regions 
the air is cold and nipping ; but we dared not put down our coach cur- 
tains for fear of an attack. We therefore donned our cloaks and over- 
coats, and laid our guns and pistols on the window-frames. John, the old 
gray hero, was on the look-out, with his blunderbuss, from the box, and 
the driver promised to have an eye to windward. 
ThuskWe jolted on again, at times almost stalled, and, in sudden smooth 
descents, swinging along with a rapidity in the dark and moonless night, 
that seemed to threaten our destruction among the rocks. Six, seven, 
eight, and half-past eight o'clock passed, and no robbers appeared, though 
there had been several false alarms. The road became worse and worse, 
the coach heaving over the stones like a ship in a head sea, and the dri- 
ver being obliged to descend from his seat and feel for the track. We 
saw lights passing over the heath in many places, and it was surmised 
they might be the signal lights of robbers. After due consultation, it 
was determined that they were ! As we approached them they proved to 
be fire-flies ! We felt for our percussion-caps and found them all right, 
and, at that moment, the coach was brought to a dead halt in the blackest 
looking ravine imaginable. 
" A mighty bad road, sir," said John, from the box, cocking his blun- 
derbuss. Its click was ominous, and we were at once on the alert. 
" There is something Mack — on horseback — ^^just ahead of us," added he. 
A whistle among the bushes. Crack went the whip unmercifully over 
the mules, and at ten paces in advance', up rose " the something hlack" 
and away ti'otted three cows ! 
I confess to a little anxiety as I cocked my gun after John spoke of 
the " something black.'' It is enough to make one a little nervous, boxed 
up with nine in a coach, on a dark night, on a bad road, to be shot at by 
" something black.'' But when the danger turns out to be a peaceful cow, 
one feels quite as ridiculous as he had before felt nervous. As we had 
indulged in enough of that sort of excitement, I uncocked my gun, put 
the muzzle out of the window, and, keeping a finger on the trigger, re- 
signed myself to a nap in the corner. 
Jolts, pitches, tosses, nothing, woke me, until a rough voice bellowed 
in my ear : " There they are !" I was aroused in a moment, and moving 
my thumb to cock my gun, I found myself disarmed. The coach was 
at a halt, and strange voices and lights were around it. 
It was a minute before I could shake off" the oppression of my deep 
slumber and found that my neighbor had quietly pilfered my gun during 
my sleep, and that we were waiting while the guard at the garita of Xa- 
lapa examined our way-bill ! 
In a few moments we were again en route, and at half-past nine rolled into 
the court-yard of an excellent inn at Xalapa, where a good meal that served 
both for dinner and supper, seasoned the joke of my dextrous robbery. 
