Senor, I am an Englishman at your service," I said; for I had
agreed with Pedro that it would be better to give a correct account of
ourselves, than to attempt any deception.

There is an old saying--"Tell the truth and shame the devil." Now,
although there can be no doubt that there are occasions when concealment
is excusable, yet these are very rare exceptions, which occur but seldom
in most men's lives; and as a general rule a strict adherence to the
truth is the only just and safe course, even though it may apparently
lead one into a difficulty. There is something degrading in a falsehood
or prevarication, which must injure the self-respect of a man of proper
feeling. It is a sin! There is no disguising it. People often tell
falsehoods to conceal what they have done wrong, but that does not make
the sin less; it is only adding one sin to another. I say--and I know
that am right--Tell truth, and stand the consequences.

I therefore told the officer my true history. How my father's house had
been taken possession of by the Spanish troops; how the Indians had
attacked and burned it; and how they had carried me off desperately
wounded. Then I described how I had been nursed by an Indian and his
wife among the mountains till I had recovered, when the dreadful report
reached me of the destruction of my family; and how the Indian had
allowed me to set out for the purpose of discovering what had really
been their fate, when, in the course of my search, we had been captured
by Catari and his followers. The officer seemed much interested by the
account I gave him, and to feel real compassion for my loss.

"And the youth with you, who is he?" he asked.

I told him, a Spaniard, who in his childhood had been carried off by the
Indians, and educated by the good priest of their village.

"It is a very strange story you tell me," he remarked. "However, I
believe you, for your face assures me that you speak the truth. You
both must now accompany me to the place where I am ordered to wait with
my men for the return of the rest of the troops. I hear the bugles
sounding the recall, and they probably have by this time completely
dispersed all the Indians who remained together; but their orders were
not to venture beyond the defile, lest the brigands should reassemble
and cut them off. We must march at once, for the colonel commanding our
force will soon be there."

I was very well satisfied with his manner of speaking,