t by the side of a mud-walled church to be the
secretary of the dreaded Salteador. They had both bent in the lamplight
of the Gould drawing-room over the document containing the fierce and
yet humble appeal of the man against the blind and stupid barbarity
turning an honest ranchero into a bandit. A postscript of the priest
stated that, but for being deprived of his liberty for ten days, he had
been treated with humanity and the respect due to his sacred calling. He
had been, it appears, confessing and absolving the chief and most of the
band, and he guaranteed the sincerity of their good disposition. He had
distributed heavy penances, no doubt in the way of litanies and fasts;
but he argued shrewdly that it would be difficult for them to make their
peace with God durably till they had made peace with men.

Never before, perhaps, had Hernandez's head been in less jeopardy than
when he petitioned humbly for permission to buy a pardon for himself
and his gang of deserters by armed service. He could range afar from the
waste lands protecting his fastness, unchecked, because there were no
troops left in the whole province. The usual garrison of Sulaco had gone
south to the war, with its brass band playing the Bolivar march on the
bridge of one of the O.S.N. Company's steamers. The great family coaches
drawn up along the shore of the harbour were made to rock on the high
leathern springs by the enthusiasm of the senoras and the senoritas
standing up to wave their lace handkerchiefs, as lighter after lighter
packed full of troops left the end of the jetty.

Nostromo directed the embarkation, under the superintendendence
of Captain Mitchell, red-faced in the sun, conspicuous in a white
waistcoat, representing the allied and anxious goodwill of all the
material interests of civilization. General Barrios, who commanded the
troops, assured Don Jose on parting that in three weeks he would have
Montero in a wooden cage drawn by three pair of oxen ready for a tour
through all the towns of the Republic.

"And then, senora," he continued, baring his curly iron-grey head to
Mrs. Gould in her landau--"and then, senora, we shall convert our swords
into plough-shares and grow rich. Even I, myself, as soon as this little
business is settled, shall open a fundacion on some land I have on the
llanos and try to make a little money in peace and quietness. Senora,
you know, all Costaguana knows--what do I say?--this whole South
American conti