re present yesterday, with two
of your men, when we discovered that large portions of the stores
were mere dummies filled with earth. Whether or not the governor
was a party to the fraud I cannot say, but this morning he had all
the storekeepers who were arrested shot, and Colonel Mendez, who
was present at the investigation, was murdered during the night.
It is evident, therefore, that many people are interested in
preventing the discovery we made from getting known. Of course,
the soldiers who assisted would be aware of it, but they would not
venture to speak, and it is only I and your men and my servant who
have still to be silenced.

"I tell you this, in order that you may impress upon the men the
necessity for the greatest vigilance, such as they would use if
travelling through an enemy's country. Messengers were, I hear,
sent off yesterday evening in various directions, and I have no
doubt that these were to the various contractors concerned in the
plot, urging upon them the necessity of preventing the news from
reaching Madrid; and perhaps to some of the robber bands in the
sierra. Therefore, instead of keeping the main road up the valley,
we will ride by country tracks and avoid all large towns. We will
not put up anywhere, but will bivouac in the open. In this way I
hope that we shall yet avoid any parties of men who may be lying
in wait for us.

"The most dangerous part of the journey will, of course, be the
passage of the mountains. We must there travel by one or other of
the roads through the defiles, and it is possible all these may be
watched. If we are attacked, we must endeavour to ride through
them. If this is impossible, we will sell our lives as dearly as
we can."

"You may trust us for that, Major," the sergeant said. "I have no
love for these Spaniards, and we are all discontented at being
kept down here to fight the King of Spain's battles, instead of
being up in the north, where every man is wanted to prevent the
enemy marching to Paris."

They struck off from the road when nearing Merida, and followed a
country track until they came upon the road between that town and
Torre Mocha. Avoiding the latter place, they took the road to
Truxillo, and, late in the afternoon, approached that town and
halted in a wood two miles distant from it.

Here Desmond consulted his map. There were two roads from
Truxillo. Crossing the sierra, the main and shorter road came down
upon the Tagus at Almarez. The