ced there to keep the road inland against the invading Spaniard.

'Twas a fine post of defence, verily; for, looking round, I perceived
that the hills on every hand seemed to close in and stand like the walls
of a basin, with no outlet save the crest on which I stood on the one
hand, and a gap where he stood on the other; while betwixt us stretched
the moist plain, across which the Captain was even now spurring.

So intent had I been on the solitary sentinel, and the strange form of
this wild hollow, that I had forgot for a moment my quest. But I
remembered it as the sun suddenly fell on the form of my enemy labouring
heavily through the swamp below.

A sudden fierceness seized me as I flung myself forward in pursuit; I
shouted to him with all my might to stand and face me where he stood.

I can remember seeing the form of the soldier in the gap turn quickly
and look my way. Next moment there rose, below me, a yell; and I stood
where I was, like a man petrified.

For the Captain, having spurred his jaded steed some way into the bog,
reined up suddenly, and tried to turn back. The horse's legs were
already sunk to the knees, and in his struggle to get clear plunged yet
a yard or two farther towards the middle. Then he sank miserably on his
side, throwing his rider to the ground. The man, with a wild effort,
managed to fling himself on the flank of the fast sinking beast; but
'twas a short-lived support. With a yell that rings in my ears as I
write, he struggled again to his feet and tried to run. But the bog
held him and pulled him down inch by inch--so quickly that, before I
could understand what was passing, he was struggling waist-deep like a
man swimming for his life. Next moment I saw his hands cast wildly
upwards. After that, the bog lay mirky and silent, with no record of
the dead man that lay in its grip.

Before I could fling off the awful spell that held me and rush to the
place, the man on the other side of the valley had uttered a cry and
dashed in the same direction.

And, as we stood thus, parted by the fathomless depth of the dead man's
grave, we looked up and knew one another.

For this was Ludar.

CHAPTER THIRTY.

HOW THE SUN WENT DOWN BEHIND MALIN.

I think it was the sudden shock of this great discovery, and naught
else, that arrested our feet in time and saved us from madly rushing on
the doom of our lost enemy.

At such a time how could we think even of him?

Of all my lo