be able to do."

This conversation caused me much anxiety, though I resolved at all
hazards not to betray my friends. I could not also but regret that I
had been so incautious as to have allowed myself to confess that I had
seen the army of the Inca. I should have been more on my guard; and,
without departing from the truth, I might have declined answering any
questions which could draw the information from me. The frankness and
kind manner of the officer threw me off it, however; and I found myself
placed in a position I had not at all contemplated. I received a lesson
which I hope may be useful to any of my readers who may be placed in
similar circumstances. The officer, whose name I found was Don Eduardo
da Vila, and a captain of the regiment with which he was serving, was
only doing his duty in cross-questioning me; and I believe that he was
very sorry that the information he had obtained was likely to prove
injurious to me.

We soon reached the spot he had spoken of, where we were to wait for his
colonel. It was a rocky height with precipitous sides, of which a
portion of only one was accessible, so that it was a complete natural
fortress. It commanded the entrance to the ravine; and had the Indians
possessed any knowledge of warfare, they would have taken another route,
however circuitous, rather than have attempted to pass so formidable a
position without first ascertaining that it was not occupied by an
enemy. It was nearly dusk, and the chief body of the Spanish troops had
not yet returned from their work of bloodshed. Don Eduardo began to be
uneasy.

"Can the rebels have rallied and attacked them?" I heard him say to one
of his inferiors. "I thought I heard the bugles sounding as we left the
ravine."

"There can be no doubt about it. If they had been attacked, the sound
of the firing would have reached us," was the answer.

"They have probably pursued the enemy further than they intended," said
Don Eduardo, walking a short distance off from where we stood. He was
evidently becoming anxious on the subject.

"What do you think about it?" I asked Pedro, who had overheard what had
been said.

"It is possible that the Indians may have rallied and cut off the
Spaniards," he answered. "Yet I do not think that they will have had
the courage to do so. At first I was almost hoping it, as I thought we
might have a better chance of escaping, but then I remembered that
though many of the Indians m