they jog alongside of you all the way, halting
with you when you lie down at noon, and taking share of the spring from
which your parched lips are refreshed. Like an underbred acquaintance,
they will not be denied; they are always "going _your_ way;" and in
their cruel civility they insist on bearing you company.

At a little cabaret of the very humblest order, I obtained some
breakfast and made purchase of a stock of bread and a gourd of wine, as
I learned that nothing was to be had before I reached "Sanchez," the hut
of an old miner, which was reckoned halfway to Guajuaqualla. This done,
again I set forth on my journey.

The scenery was wild, without being grand. There was bareness and
desolation, but no sublimity. It was evidently a tract of such inferior
fertility that few in a land so rich as this would select it for a
resting-place; and, accordingly, I came upon no signs of habitation
other than the shealings the shepherds raise at certain seasons when
migrating with their flocks among the mountains.

It was exactly the character of landscape likely to increase and thicken
the gloom of sad thoughts; and, indeed, mine wanted little assistance.
This last exploit left a weight like lead upon my heart. All my
sophistry about self-defence and wounded honor, necessity, and the like
could not cover the fact that I had taken away a man's life in a foolish
brawl, from the very outset of which the whole fault lay on _my_ side.

"So much," said I, "for trying to be a 'gentleman'. Every step in this
disastrous pursuit would seem to have a penalty attached to it; and,
after all, I am just as far from the goal as when I set out."

That day seemed a year in length; and were I to attempt to chronicle it,
the reader would confess himself convinced before I had half finished;
so that, for both our sakes, I 'll not "file my bill of particulars," as
my respected father would have said, but at once come to the hour
when the sun approached the horizon, and yet not anything like a human
dwelling came in sight; and I still plodded along, sad and weary, and
anxious for rest. If the events which I am about to record have little
in them of extraordinary interest, they at least were the turning-points
in my humble destiny, and therefore, kind reader, with your permission,
we 'll give them a chapter to themselves.

CHAPTER XXVI. THE DISCOVERY

I had walked now for nearly twelve hours without discovering any
appearance of Sanchez's