Part 17 (1/2)
CHAPTER XIX.
THE SCOUT IN THE JUNGLE.
Riding at a leisurely pace, the five scouts started upon their dangerous quest, Ronie and one of the Venezuelans riding side by side, with Jack and another behind them, leaving the single man to follow.
The young sergeant was pleased to find that the trio selected to accompany him by Colonel Marchand were very prepossessing men, one of them a man with gray hair, while the others were but a little over twenty years of age. The oldest, whose name was Riva Baez, claimed he knew the country well, so it was he who rode beside our hero to show the way.
”About ten kilometers to the west we shall strike the main road to Truxillo,” he remarked. ”But it may be well for us to avoid that. El Capitan and his followers are believed to be hovering around the foothills between here and Barquisimete. It is a country just suited to ambuscade and concealment.”
”How far is it to the nearest town?”
”Less than five kilometers. It is a small town called Caro.”
”Is it held by the insurgents?”
”No, though it bears the marks of one of their raids. The people have been left too poor to be either feared or sought for.”
”We need not go there?”
”About a kilometer this side we can strike a mountain road leading into the wild country.”
”Where we are likely to find El Capitan and his insurgents?”
”_Si_, Sergeant Rand.”
”Then that is our course, senor. Show us the way.”
Nothing further was said until possibly three miles had been pa.s.sed, when Riva Baez drew rein. The road they had taken soon after leaving the encampment of the troops, by this time had sort of ”dwindled away,”
as Jack put it, until it was now little more than a cattle path. The country ahead was thinly populated, if settled at all. The guide of the little party was the first to speak:
”If we follow this course half a kilometer farther we shall come out upon the road leading to Caro, which winds down from the mountains.
Beyond, the country is infested with the insurgents, and we are likely to run upon them at every turn. If we keep on through Caro we shall soon come into the lower country, where we shall find a string of towns along the way, but the people, as a rule, unfriendly to us. If we bend to the left here we shall be able to make a short cut over the spur of the ridge and reach the region of Maracaibo without much risk of stirring up El Capitan's hornets. Which way shall we go, sergeant?”
”Our purpose is to learn all we can of the enemy,” replied Ronie.
”According to your account, we shall learn very little of them by keeping to the left. Neither are we especially anxious just at present to seek towns in the lower country. But we will go to Caro first.”
”_Si_, Sergeant Rand,” and without longer delay Riva Baez led the march forward again. Owing to the unfavorable conditions of the route, they had advanced slowly, and it was now past midnight. The moonbeams tipped the treetops with a silvery halo, but underneath this foliage it was so dark that our riders had to pick their way with constant caution, lest they should run into some trap of nature or set by the hand of an enemy that claimed this country as his own.
Nothing to cause them actual alarm, however, took place, and after a while Riva declared they were close down to Caro, which he described as lying in a narrow valley through which wound one of the numerous mountain streams watering the country. Upon receiving this intelligence, Ronie called a halt, and after a short consultation with his guide and Jack, he decided to enter the town alone with the former, leaving the others to await their return, unless called by a signal agreed upon. With this understanding he and the guide rode cautiously forward, the road overhung with the dense vegetation springing from a rich soil under most favoring conditions of the atmosphere.
A ride of less than five minutes, even at a slow pace, brought the two scouts in sight of the little hamlet made tip of coffee planters'
homes. At that time the silence of sleep lay upon the place, no sound of night breaking the gentle murmur of the river flowing parallel with the road. Near the edge of the first plantation Ronie motioned for his companion to stop, when he slipped from the saddle to the ground.
”I am going to make a little exploration alone,” he whispered. ”Do you remain here with the horses. I will not be gone over ten minutes. If I am, you may understand that I am in trouble, and act at your own discretion.”
”Look sharp, senors,” warned Riva Baez. ”No one seems to be astir, but, for all that, one of El Capitan's sharpshooters may be lying in wait to shoot you down like a jaguar.”