At the Point of the Sword Part 23

By degrees, however, her manner changed: the ill-humour wore off, and she became quite a Patriot, saying she would willingly lose her mules if the Royalists were hunted down.

However, about nine o'clock in the morning I left the good lady to pour her grievances into more sympathetic ears, being ordered to push on with a small detachment of cavalry, guided by Castro. Jose was lucky enough to stay with the main body. Captain Plaza was in command of our party, and he rode with the guide and me. Our course to Ica, the first village on our route, lay over a burning desert of very loose sand, dotted at great intervals by clumps of stunted palms. It was a horrible ride, and when we reached Ica, about four in the afternoon, neither men nor animals could go a step further.

The people received us kindly, provided food and drink, and fresh horses in place of our wearied animals. Then we slept for an hour, and, thus refreshed, resumed the pursuit. I have often wondered since how any of us survived the hardships of the next few days.

Now and again we obtained an hour's rest, but our leader halted only when our animals showed signs of exhaustion. The Spaniards must have suffered as much as, if not more than, ourselves, as occasionally we came upon a dead horse or a dead man, killed by sheer fatigue.

On the third night after leaving lea we had ample proof of their desperate straits. We had left the sandy deserts behind, and were toiling along painfully, sustained only by Castro's a.s.surance that he knew of a capital camping-ground.

"A fine wooded place," said he, "with gra.s.s for the horses, and a clear stream of water. You will be tempted to stay there all night, captain."

"Three hours," replied Plaza, "not a moment more. We must be close on their heels now, and I don't mean Santalla to escape if I can help it."

Santalla was a Royalist colonel of whose cruelty I had heard many times. He was a gigantic fellow, of enormous strength; but, according to all accounts, a pitiful coward in spite of his boasting. Indeed, any leader of average bravery would have turned and struck a blow at the handful of tired riders which now pursued him.

"Here we are!" exclaimed Castro presently, and I saw with satisfaction the trees on our left hand to which he pointed. Every bone in my body was racked with pain, my lips were parched, my eyes ached, and for the last hour I had scarcely been able to keep my seat.

Halting his men, Plaza sent me on with the guide to investigate.

Leaving our horses, we moved forward swiftly but quietly; there was just the possibility of a trap. The place was almost like an enclosure on a large hacienda, but the fence was composed of trees, and we could hear the plashing waters of a stream.

Inside the ring was an open s.p.a.ce, and there, to our astonishment, we beheld some twenty men lying on the gra.s.s in all manner of att.i.tudes.

Not one made the slightest movement, and at first I thought they must be dead.

"Don't be too sure," whispered Castro, and stooping down he glided noiselessly to the nearest man, while I waited with breathless eagerness.

"Poor beggars!" said he pityingly; "we must have pushed them hard. I don't believe they would waken if a cannon were fired at them!"

This was an exaggeration, but indeed they slept so soundly that our men, surrounding them, took away most of their weapons before they understood what was going on. Binding their arms, we pushed and dragged them close together, and then the captain placed his men round them in a circle. Sentries were stationed at various places on the outer ring, and, much to my disgust, I was told off to visit them during the first hour.

"Keep a sharp lookout," said the captain, "and go round regularly.

They are likely to fall asleep if you don't,"--which I did not think at all surprising. However, I had a good drink of water, and dipped my head in the stream, which freshened me somewhat. Then I began what has, perhaps, been the very longest hour in my life. Fortunately I had to walk, and I tried hard to keep my eyes open all the time. As to the captain's "sharp look-out," I concluded he must have been joking.

The hour came to an end at last, and I was free to sleep. I just lay down on the ground, drew my poncho over me, and was sound asleep. I would not have undertaken another hour's duty just then for all the gold ever mined.

The capture of the small Spanish detachment was a benefit to us in one way: it prevented Plaza from moving so early, and gave us all an extra hour's sleep. However, as soon as day broke, he told off half a dozen men to guard the prisoners until the colonel's arrival, and ordered the rest to be ready for starting in ten minutes.

"It's nothing to do with me," remarked Castro, as he and I rode out at the head of the men; "but the captain's overdoing it. He's taking the heart out of his fellows, and just at the last pinch they'll fall to pieces. There's nothing left in them for a dash at the end."

"We shouldn't shine in a cavalry charge," I admitted, laughing and looking at my horse, "unless, indeed, it were under Don Quixote's banner!"

"Well, Crawford," cried the captain, riding up, "something ought to happen soon now. It's a pity we wasted that last hour this morning, though. We must make up for it during the day. One of the prisoners informed me that Santalla cannot be far ahead. I have a good mind to push on with the men on the strongest horses, leaving you to follow.

What do you think?"

"I think that you are going fast enough, captain. Both men and horses are f.a.gged now, and it's useless to catch up with Santalla just as we are all dead beat."

"But if we don't go ahead we shan't catch him at all. The colonel did not send us on in front to sit down by the wayside."

"No, captain; but that's just what we shall be doing soon, whether we want to or not. Most of the horses are nearly done for now."

"Then we'll get fresh ones," cried he (which, by the way, there was no possible means of doing), "or continue the pursuit on foot. Do you think if the colonel were in my place he would lag behind?"

Of course I knew he would not, but then Miller was Miller, who had not, to my thinking, his equal in South America. And Plaza wished to imitate his chief, forgetting he did not possess that marvellous personal influence over men which accounted so much for the English colonel's success.

So we pushed on, till, at the end of the third mile or thereabout, a horse sank through sheer weariness to the ground, and had not sufficient strength to rise again.

"Run on with the rest," said the captain to the rider; "we will ride and tie by turns."

The man saluted and came on, but the last I saw of him he was staggering from side to side of the track, as if he had completely lost control of his limbs. After a time another horse fell, giving us another infantry-man, who in a short time was, I daresay, also left behind on the road.

"'Twill be a plain trail for the main body," remarked the guide; for we ourselves were continually pa.s.sing broken weapons, mules that could not drag their limbs a step further, dead horses, and now and then a Royalist soldier curled up on the track fast asleep.

"Where will Santalla make for?" I asked.

"Arequipa. But I don't think he can reach it. The Indians bar the direct route, and his only way out, as far as I can see, is by taking to the mountains at Copari."

"My horse won't face a hill just now."

Castro smiled, saying, "The pa.s.s near Copari is too rugged for horses at any time; the climbing must all be done on foot," and he smiled again at my gesture of despair.

At ten o'clock Plaza was compelled to halt, three-fourths of the men being tired as dogs, while several horses had foundered on the road.

He was very excited, having heard from the last Spaniard picked up that Santalla, thoroughly worn out, was barely two hours' march in front.

He glanced wrathfully at his tired troopers. There they lay, five minutes after the order to halt, sleeping like dead men, and for the time being certainly of no greater use.

"Caramba!" cried he, "it makes me wild! Two hours, Crawford! Do you hear? And look at them! The prize will slip through our fingers after all!"

"Hardly that, captain," I murmured sleepily, "as it has never been in our hands."

"Santalla will have to rest as well," remarked the guide, "so the scales will balance."

"But I don't want them to balance!" cried Plaza testily.

To give the captain his due, he was greatly in earnest, and willing to do himself all that he required of his men. He showed this plainly two hours after we had resumed the pursuit, when his horse suddenly dropped from exhaustion. A dozen troopers at once made as if to dismount, but he ordered them to keep their seats.

"No, no," he roared; "I take no advantage!" and he ran on, holding by the stirrup to the nearest horseman.

The fellows cheered him, and I think we got on better for the incident, though the halts became more frequent now, and our numbers lessened, as one man after another dropped exhausted to the ground. Still we were gaining on the runaways, as a disagreeable episode presently made clear.

It was about four o'clock in the afternoon, and we were straggling at no great speed through a narrow valley, when half a dozen bullets from the rocky sides dropped into our midst.

"Ah!" exclaimed Castro, "now the Spaniards are playing the proper game.

These fellows have been left to hold us in check while the main body escapes through the Copari Pa.s.s."

"Push on there!" roared the captain, who after a spell of riding had just dismounted. There was, indeed, nothing else to be done. We must run the gauntlet, and trust to luck for some of us getting through.

The Spaniards were well hidden, and could not be dislodged, unless, which was out of the question, we came to hand-grasps with them. So urging our jaded beasts to a spurt, we quickened the pace, while now and again a groan and a thud told that a bullet had found its mark.

Those who were hit lay where they fell; the most of us reached the open country just in time to see a dozen or fifteen hors.e.m.e.n mount and ride off. Evidently they had the pick of Santalla's animals, as they easily kept their distance, though allowing us to advance within range, when, discharging their muskets, they recommenced the retreat.

Plaza fumed like one distracted at the galling fire, which considerably delayed our advance, though we suffered in the loss of horses rather than of men. He was riding again now, and well in front, with Castro and myself behind him. Suddenly, after a scattering volley, I felt my horse slip, and the next instant the poor beast was sprawling on the ground with a bullet-hole in its chest.