ttered a
shout and, raising his hand, pointed. I looked in the direction
indicated, and there, sure enough, I beheld a party of negroes marching
confidently toward the house. How many there were I could not tell--for
they were just then winding their way through thick detached masses of
scrub beyond the boundaries of the estate--but the confident manner of
their approach led me to suppose that they believed they were quite
strong enough to achieve an easy conquest of the place.

Raising a whistle to my lips, I blew a shrill call, not only as a
warning to those in the house to be on the _qui vive_, but also as a
signal for the pickets to fall back; then, when I had made sure that the
latter were all on the run toward the house, I brought my telescope to
bear upon the approaching party, with the view of learning a little more
concerning their equipment and, if possible, their numbers.

The first thing that impressed me with regard to them was that they were
a remarkably fine, stalwart-looking set of men, hard, wiry, and full of
endurance, as indeed might be expected from the history of them which I
had gathered by snatches from Don Luis during our preparations that
morning. It appeared that they were practically all runaway slaves, or
the descendants of such, who had made good their escape from the various
plantations on the island before slavery was abolished a few years prior
to the date of this story. These men had established themselves in
mountain fastnesses, so difficult of approach and so easy to defend
that, although the attempt had often been made, it had been found
impossible to dislodge them. In those mountain fastnesses they had
increased and multiplied prodigiously, raising their own cattle, growing
their own corn, and supporting themselves generally in a state of
comfort, if not of actual luxury, that to those who had not seen it,
seemed incredible. To them fled every criminal, for every desperate
character in the island found welcome and a safe sanctuary among them.
Of course, they were all outlaws; their hand against every man, and
every man's hand against them; and of late--that is to say, within a
year or so of the time of which I am now writing--they had adopted a
policy of sallying forth from their mountain retreats at irregular
intervals, attacking isolated plantations, looting and destroying the
buildings, and either murdering or carrying off captive the whites;
their avowed intention being to