Part 40 (2/2)

Yonder is a tall _cacique_ hurrying out into the bright ht from under the verandah He bears in his arms the inanimate form of my dear sister Flora Is it really _I_ myself who rush up to e to reel and fall? Is it I who lift poor Flora and lay her in the shade of a overned by instinct; I aical study It is as ifaside, ruling everyio_-incorporate There is a crowd, nay, a cloud even it seeh them at last: they have fallen before me, fallen at my side--fallen or fled I step over bodies, I enter the rooht is struck and a la beside the table, calh the smoke My mother is near her--my own brave mother Both have revolvers in their hands; and I knohy bodies are stretched on the floor One glance showsin a chair, and beside her, s her hands, Moncrieff's marvellous mother

But in this life the huic or sad, for lo! as I hurry away to join the fight that is still going on near the verandah I al else Not a body this ti out from under the sofa I could swear to those striped silk socks anywhere, and the boots are the boots of Bombazo I administer a kick to those shi+ns, and they speedily disappear

I aood brave Ya borne backwards, fierce hands at his throat, a short knife at his chest The would-be assassin falls; Yaether we rush on further down to where, on a terrace, Donaldson has just been overpowered But see, a new combatant has come upon the scene; several revolver shots are fired in quick succession A tall dark figure in seood broadsword And nohy, now it is all over, and Townley stands beside us panting

Well ht he pant--he had done brave work But he had coh on the grass His shi+rt is stained with blood, and it is his own blood this time

Townley bends over and quietly feels his arm No pulse there Then he breathes a half audible prayer and reverently closes the eyes

I a back now to the room with Flora

'All is safe, : she knows us all Oh, Heaven be praised, she is safe!'

We leave Townley there, and hurry back to the ramparts

The stillness alone would have told us that the fight was finished and the victory won

A few h up on the ra his people One name after another is called Alas!

there are many who do not answer, many ill never answer ht

Four of our Scottish settlers were found dead in the trench; over a dozen Gauchos had been killed Moncrieff and his partner were both wounded, though neither severely Archie and Dugald were also badly cut, and answered but faintly and feebly to the roll-call Sandie we know is dead, and Boht; but listen

'Captain Rodrigo de Boeneral, here,' says a bold voice close behind me, and Bombazo himself presses further to the front

I can hardly believe my eyes and ears Could those have been Bombazo's boots? Had I really kicked the shi+ns of Boht had turned my brain Bombazo's boots indeed! Bombazo skulk and hide beneath a sofa! Impossible Look at him now His hair is dishevelled; there is blood on his brow He is dressed only in shi+rt and trousers, and these are ht arm, which is bared over the elbow, and the sword he carries in his hand Bold Boed hiet over that

Barely a month before the events just narrated took place at the _estancias_ of Moncrieff there landed fro shi+p at the port of Buenos Ayres a ht have been represented by any nurey hairs on his te in a le with Fortune and Fate The individual in question, whoh and wiry He had shohat he was and what he could do in less than a week froer, and had lived away aft somewhere, no one could tell exactly where, for he did not dine in the saloon with the other passengers, and he looked above ether it was supposed that Dalston made use of the first officer's cabin The shi+p had encountered dirty weather from the very outset; head winds and choppy seas all the way down Channel, so that she was still 'kicking about off the coast'--this is how the sea the Bay or stretching away out into the broad Atlantic She fared worse by far when she reached the Bay, having ale of wind that blew most of her cloth to ribbons, carried away her bowsprit, and made hurdles of her bulwarks both forward and amidshi+ps Worse than all, twoa squall of more than hurricane violence I say blown from aloft, and I say so advisedly, for the squall caone up, a squall that even the ainst, a squall that levelled the very waves, and made the sea away to leeward--no one could see to ard--look like boiling o down immediately after the squall, and next day the weather was fine enough to make sail, and mend sail But the shi+p was short-handed, for the skipper had lad then when the ood as any two men on board

'Send hi Ahe to assist in the working of the shi+p May I ask on what ter out to the Argentine, to buy a bit of land; well, naturally, money is some object to me You see?'

'I understand'

'Well, e money and civility'