Part 15 (2/2)
”Yes, that would be better than standing still If you are strong, the best thing you can do is to show your strength”
He laughed ”Richard, you were made for an Oriental,” he said, ”only nature at your birth dropped you down in the wrong country You are brave to rashness, abhor restraint, love woravity you have recently assu hly complimentary and fill me with pride,” I answered, ”but I scarcely see their connection with the subject of our conversation”
”There is a connection, nevertheless,” he returned pleasantly ”Though you refuse a commission from me, I am so convinced that you are in heart one of us that I will take you intoknown to only half a dozen trusted individuals here You rightly say that if we have strength we must show it to the country That is e are now about to do A cavalry force has been sent against us and we shall engage it before two days are over As far as I know, the forces will be pretty evenly balanced, though our enemies will, of course, be better arround; and, should they attack us tired with a long st them, the victory will be ours, and after that every Blanco sword in the Banda will be unsheathed in our cause I need not repeat to you that in the hour of et my debt to you; my wish is to bind you, body and heart, to this Oriental country
It is, however, possible that I may suffer defeat, and if in two days'
time we are all scattered to the winds, let me advise you what to do
Do not atteerous Make your way by Minas to the southern coast; and when you reach the department of Rocha, inquire for the little settleues west of the lake You will find there a storekeeper, one Florentino Blanco--a Blanco in heart as well
Tell hilish passport from the capital; after which it will be safe for you to travel to Montevideo Should you ever be identified as a follower of mine, you can invent some story to account for your presence in my force When I remember that botanical lecture you once delivered, also some other ination”
After giving so ely unpleasant conviction in ed characters for the nonce, and that I had bungled as much in my new part as I had formerly done inup the discarded mask, had tied it on, probably upside down, for itour interview To make matters worse, I was also sure that it had quite failed to hide my countenance, and that he kneell as I knew e he had noticed in reeable reflections did not trouble an to feel considerable exciteovernht; still, next , when the trumpet sounded its shrill reveille close at hand, I rose quickly, and in a an to feel that I was getting the better of that insane passion for Dolores which had made us both so unhappy, and ere once ravity,” to which the General had satirically alluded, had pretty well vanished
No expeditions were sent out that day; after we had marched about twelve or thirteen e of the Cuchilla Grande, we encamped, and after the midday meal spent the afternoon in cavalry exercises
On the next day happened the great event for which we had been preparing, and I am positive that, with the wretched material he coh, alas!
all his efforts ended in disaster Alas, I say, not because I took, even then, any very serious interest in Oriental politics, but because it would have been greatly to s had turned out differently Besides, a great many poor devils who had been an unconscionable time out in the cold would have come into power, and the rascally Colorados sent away in their turn to eat the ”bitter bread”
of proscription The fable of the fox and the flies ht here possibly occur to the reader; I, however, preferred to remember Lucero's fable of the tree called Montevideo, with the chattering colony in its branches, and to look upon e the hty behaviour
Quite early in thewe had breakfast, then every man was ordered to saddle his best horse; for every one of us was the owner of three or four steeds I, of course, saddled the horse the General had given me, which had been reserved for ientle pace through a very wild and broken country, still in the direction of the Cuchilla Aboutin and reported that the eneain proceeded at the saentle pace till about two o'clock, e crossed the Canada de San Paulo, a deep valley beyond which the plain rose to a height of about one hundred and fifty feet In the _canada_ we stopped to water our horses, and there heard that the ene to cut off our supposed retreat towards the Cuchilla Crossing the little strea plain on the farther side till the highest point was gained; then, turning,the ene about seven hundred th Up from the valley they came towards us at a brisk trot We were then rapidly disposed in three colu about two hundred and fifty men, the others about two hundred men each I was in one of the outside columns, within about four men from the front My fellow-soldiers, who had hitherto been very light-hearted and chatty, had suddenly beco pale and scared On one side of hteen years old, a dark little felloith a monkey face and a feeble, falsetto voice like a very old woman I watched hi down draw it across the upper part of his surcingle three or four times; but this he did evidently only for practice, as he did not cut into the hide Seeing n with head and shoulders thrust forward in i away at full speed, after which he restored his knife to its sheath
”You intend cutting your surcingle and running away, little coward?” I said
”And what are you going to do?” he returned
”Fight,” I said
”It is the best thing you can do, Sir Frenchrin
”Listen,” I said, ”when the fight is over, I will look you up to thrash you for your iht!” he exclairimace ”Do you mean next year? Before that distant time arrives some Colorado will fall in love with you, and--and--and----”
Here he explained hie of his hand briskly across his throat, then closing his eyes andsounds, supposed to be uttered by a person undergoing the painful operation of having his throat cut
Our colloquy was carried on in whispers, but his pantohbours, and now he looked round to infor the victory I was determined not to be put down by him, however, and tapped my revolver with my hand to call his attention to it
”Look at this, you young miscreant,” I said ”Do you not know that I and many others in this column have received orders from the General to shoot down every man who attempts to run away?”
This speech effectually silenced him He turned as pale as his dark skin would let him, and looked round like a hunted animal in search of a hole to hide in