horseback. Will Osten,
Larry, and Bunco were left to do as they pleased, so they armed
themselves, procured horses, kept close together, and rode about the
town observing the arrangements. The night passed without alarm, but
early in the morning a horseman arrived with the news that the rebels
were advancing. A few hours afterwards they appeared in full view.
Some were mounted, but the majority were on foot, and a more villainous
set of rascals could not well be imagined. They advanced irregularly,
evidently not expecting opposition from so insignificant a town, but
those who first approached the barricades were received with such a
galling fire that several were killed, many wounded, and the rest driven
back.

Their leader, a tall dark man on a powerful charger, rode to the front
in a towering passion, and endeavoured to rally the men. At that moment
a bold idea flashed upon Will Osten. He suddenly put spurs to his
horse, galloped round to the lowest part of the barricade, leaped over
it, and, drawing his sword, charged the leader of the rebels like a
thunderbolt. The man faced him, and raised his sword, to defend
himself, but Will's first cut was so powerful that it broke down his
guard, cleft his helmet, and tumbled him out of the saddle.

The contending parties had scarce time to realise what was being done
when the deed was completed, and a wild cheer burst from the
townspeople, high above which there sounded a terrific "hooroo!" and
next instant, Larry O'Hale, followed by Bunco, shot from the barricades,
and charged the foe! The consternation caused by the suddenness and the
unexpected nature of this onset made the banditti waver, and, when they
beheld the townsmen pouring out from their defences and rushing at them
with an evident determination to conquer or die, they turned and fled!
The rout was complete, and for some time the people of the town
continued to chase and slay the enemy, until the pursuit was suddenly
stopped by an event as terrible as it was unexpected.

For some weeks previous to the day when the town was assaulted, the
neighbourhood, and, indeed, the whole of the surrounding provinces, had
been visited by a series of slight earthquakes. So common are these
tremblings and heavings of the earth in South America, that unless very
severe, not much notice is taken of them. At the time of which we
write, the slight shocks had been so frequent that the people were
comparatively indifferent