Part 6 (2/2)

”I do nothing without a reason,” he said, with a strange smile ”The water you see over there is the Rio de las Canas [River of Grey Hairs], and those who go down into its valley grow old before their tied on till about three o'clock in the afternoon, when suddenly, as ere skirting a patch of scraggy woodland, a troop of six ar about, cah to tell us that they were soldiers orthe country in search of recruits, or, in other words, of deserters, skulking cri to fear froe escapedto him, I perceived that his face was of the whiteness of ashes

I laughed, for revenge is sweet, and I still smarted a little at his contemptuous treatreat?” I said

”You do not knohat you say, boy!” he returned fiercely ”When you have passed through as much hell-fire as I have and have rested as sweetly with a corpse for a pillow, you will learn to curb your iry retort was onit--it was, in its expression, the face of a wild anis

In another moment the men had cantered up to us, and one, their co me, asked to see my passport

”I carry no passport,” I replied ”My nationality is a sufficient protection, for I alishman as you can see”

”We have only your word for that,” said the lish consul in the capital, who provides English subjects with passports for their protection, in this country If you have not got one you must suffer for it, and no one but yourself is to bla man complete in all his members, and of such the republic is in need Your speech is also like that of one who cao with us”

”I shall do nothing of the sort,” I returned

”Do not say such a thing,e in his tone and o that it was imprudent to leave Montevideo without our passports

This officer is only obeying the orders he has received; still, he ht see that we are only e represent ourselves to be”

”Oh!” exclailishht at least have supplied yourself with a couple of blue crockery eyes and a yellow beard for your greater safety”

”I am only a poor son of the soil,” said Marcosfor an _estancia_ to buy, and I came as his attendant froet our passports before starting”

”Then, of course, this young man has plenty of money in his pocket?”

said the officer

I did not relish the lies Marcos had taken upon himself to tell about me, but did not quite knohat the consequences of contradicting theht be I therefore replied that I was not so foolish as to travel in a country like the Banda Oriental with money on my person ”To pay for bread and cheese till I reach my destination is about as overnenerous one,” said the officer sarcastically, ”and will pay for all the bread and cheese you will require It will also provide you with beef You ado de las Cuevas, both of you”

Seeing no help for it, we accoh, undulating country, and in about an hour and a half reached Las Cuevas, a dirty, e, coroeeds On one side stood the church, on the other a square stone building with a flagstaff before it This was the official building of the Juez de Paz, or rural n of life about it except an old dead-and-alive-looking any-coloured legs stretched out in the hot sunshi+ne

”This is a very fine thing!” exclaimed the officer, with a curse ”I feel veryby doing so, except, perhaps, a headache,” said Marcos

”Hold your tongue till your advice is asked!” retorted the officer, thoroughly out of temper

”Lock them up in the _calaboso_ till the Juez coested the old h a bushy white beard and a cloud of tobacco-smoke

”Do you not know that the door is broken, old fool?” said the officer

”Lock the my own affairs to serve the State, and this is how I am treated We must now take them to the Juez at his own house and let him look after them Come on, boys”

We were then conducted out of Las Cuevas to a distance of about two miles, where the Senor Juez resided in the bosolected-looking _estancia_ house, with a great s, fowls, and children about We dise rooreat nuoodness knohat they were about The Juez was a little hatchet-facedout like a cat's ry eye, for over the other a cotton handkerchief was tied No sooner had we all entered than a hen, leading a brood of a dozen half-grown chickens, rushed into the roo themselves about the floor in quest of crumbs, while thethe papers right and left with the wind she created

”A thousand de up in a fury ”Man, go and bring your mistress here this instant I command her to come”

This order was obeyed by the person who had ushered us in, a greasy-looking, swarthy-faced individual, in threadbare military clothes; and in two or three minutes he returned, followed by a very fat, slatternly woood-tempered, however, who immediately subsided, quite exhausted, into a chair