The audacious
Hernandez, leaving his usual haunts, had crossed the Campo of Sulaco,
and was known to be lurking in the ravines of the coast range.
Yesterday, when distant only a few hours from Sulaco, the hide merchant
and his servants had seen three men on the road arrested suspiciously,
with their horses' heads together. Two of these rode off at once and
disappeared in a shallow quebrada to the left. "We stopped," continued
the man from Esmeralda, "and I tried to hide behind a small bush. But
none of my mozos would go forward to find out what it meant, and the
third horseman seemed to be waiting for us to come up. It was no use. We
had been seen. So we rode slowly on, trembling. He let us pass--a man on
a grey horse with his hat down on his eyes--without a word of greeting;
but by-and-by we heard him galloping after us. We faced about, but that
did not seem to intimidate him. He rode up at speed, and touching
my foot with the toe of his boot, asked me for a cigar, with a
blood-curdling laugh. He did not seem armed, but when he put his hand
back to reach for the matches I saw an enormous revolver strapped to his
waist.
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