him for about a mile, they could not overtake him. Directly I
saw what it was, I caught up the gun and fired, and Ethel ran up the
flag. That's all I saw.'

Ethel confirmed her sister's account, merely adding that, seeing the two
bodies in the distance, one going very fast towards the other, she
suspected that something was wrong, and so called at once to Maud.

The animals were now quite out of sight, and the whole party went down
to meet Lopez, who was just riding up to the enclosure. He was very
pale, and his horse was covered with foam.

'Are the peons killed, Lopez?' was Mrs. Hardy's first question.

'I do not know, signora; but I should think so. The Indians caught them;
I heard a scream,' and the man shuddered. 'Santa Virgine'--and he
crossed himself piously--'what an escape! I will burn twenty pounds of
candles upon your altar.'

'How was it that you were surprised, Lopez?' Charley asked. 'You were so
particularly ordered to keep a good lookout.'

'Well, Signor Charles, I was keeping a good lookout, and it is lucky
that I was. I was farther away than I ought to have been,--I know that,
for the signor told me not to go far; but I knew that the rise that I
took them to was the highest in that direction, and that I could see for
miles away into the Indian country. So I got out there, and Pedro and
Gomez had got the sheep and cattle all well together, and there was no
fear of them straying, for the grass there is very good. So the men lay
down for their siesta, and I was standing by my horse looking over the
campo. Some of the beasts seemed uneasy, and I thought that there must
be a lion somewhere about. So I got on my horse, and just as I did so I
heard a noise; and looking behind, where I had never dreamt of them, I
saw a lot of Indians coming up at full gallop from the hollow. The
cattle went off at the same instant; and I gave a shout to the men, and
stuck my spurs into Carlos. It was a near touch of it, and they gave me
a hard chase for the first mile; but my horse was fresher than theirs,
and they gave it up.'

'How many Indians were there?' Charley asked.

'I don't know, Signor Charles. It was only those in front that I caught
sight of, and I never looked round after I started. Some of them had
firearms, for eight or ten of them fired after me as I made off, and the
arrows fell all round me.'

'What do you think, girls, about the number?'

The girls were silent, and then Ethel said: 'They were all