you would mistake us for enemies, so we hid ourselves."

"If that is the case," said an officer, stepping forward, "come down, we
will not hurt you."

"What shall we do?" said I to Pedro. "We are safe where we are for the
present, for their bullets cannot reach us; and I am certain no Spanish
soldier will be able to climb up in the way we did to this spot."

"We shall get very hungry though, if they try to starve us out," he
answered; "besides, it will look as if we were guilty of some crime if
we appear afraid of coming down."

"There is no help for it, I see," was my reply. "We must put a good
face upon the matter. Senor officer," I shouted, "your men have already
shown that they can aim very correctly, and we would rather not run the
risk of another peppering; may I beg that you will take care that they
do not fire at us by mistake. If we have your word for it, we will
descend, as you desire."

"I pledge you the word of a Castilian that they shall not fire at you,"
answered the officer.

"That satisfies us; we will descend," I shouted back. "Come, Pedro, we
must take care not to break our necks though, which we shall do if we
slip," I said, as I swung myself on to a bough of the nearest tree below
the rock.

It is nearly always more difficult to descend a cliff than to climb up;
as in the former case one cannot see where one's feet are to rest; and
one may chance to find one's self on a jutting ledge, from whence the
height is too great to leap off to the next standing-place below, and
one has to climb up again to search for another way down. We had the
advantage of knowing the rocks on which we were to rest; yet our descent
took much more time than had our ascent. At one place Pedro had to hold
fast by a tree while he let me down; and I, in return, had to grasp
firmly a jutting rock, and to catch him as he dropped down to me. At
length, with no slight exertion and risk, we reached the bottom, where
we found the Spanish officer and several of his men, who had been
watching us with some admiration, and wondering, as they told us, how we
had contrived not to break our necks. They would scarcely believe that
we had got up by the same way.

"I thought none but monkeys could climb such a place," observed the
officer.

"We English have a way of doing extraordinary things when we try," I
replied, trying to look as unconcerned as possible.

"English, are you indeed? I thought you must be so."

"Yes,