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Updated: June 9, 2025
"Another cloud of dust," said Gahra, pointing to the north-west. So there was, and moving rapidly. Had our attention been less taken up with the guerillas this new portent would not so long have escaped us. "Mejia! I'll wager ten thousand piasters that behind that cloud are Mejia and his braves," exclaimed Carmen, excitedly. Hijo de Dios! Won't they make mince-meat of the Spaniard?
Only give me the chance, and you shall see," answered the negro in a voice of intense hate. "Come with us, and you shall have many chances. Mount one of those horses and lead the other." Gahra mounted, and we moved on. We were now at the beginning of a stiff ascent.
None of us suffer so much from the cold as poor Gahra. His ebon skin has turned ashen gray, he shivers continually, can hardly speak, and sits on his mule with difficulty. The country we are in is uninhabited and the trail we are following known only to a few Indians. I am the first white man, says Gondocori, by whom it has been trodden.
Guido, recognizing his master's voice, galloped forward and greeted us warmly, for though he acted as Carmen's servant he was a free llanero, and expected to be treated as a gentleman and a friend. "Gracias a Dios!" he said; "I was beginning to fear that we had passed you. Gahra and I have been looking for you all day!"
"Somebody comes!" said Gahra, who was always on the lookout. "How many?" exclaimed Carmen, springing to his feet. "Only one." "Keep out of sight till he draws near, else he may sheer off; and I should like to have a speech of him. He may be able to tell us something."
"Here is a chance for us; let us charge these fellows!" shouted Carmen, as eight or nine of the enemy rode past us in full retreat; and without pausing for a reply he went off at a gallop, followed by Gahra and myself; for although I had no particular desire to attack men who were flying for their lives and to whom I knew no quarter would be given, it was impossible to hold back when my comrades were rushing into danger.
You heard how she treated your predecessor." Early next morning I sent Gahra secretly up to the lake on the bastion for a jar of chalybeate water, which, after being colored with red earth and flavored with wild garlic, was nauseous enough to satisfy the most exacting of physic swallowers.
The night was clear, the sky studded with stars, and, except where trees overhung the road, we could see some little distance ahead, the only direction in which we had reason to apprehend danger. Carmen and I rode in front; Gahra and Guido a few yards in the rear. We had not been under way more than a few minutes when Gahra uttered an exclamation. "Hist, señores! Look behind!" he said.
My men turned out quite as ill as I had been led to expect. Several deserted at the outset, two or three died of fever, two were eaten by alligators, and when we first caught sight of the Andes, Gahra was my sole companion. We were in a pitiful plight. I was weak from the effects of a fever, Gahra lame from the effects of an accident.
In the event as we hoped, the improbable event of our being overtaken or intercepted, Gahra and I were resolved not to be taken alive; but we had, unfortunately, no firearms; they were all lost in the snow-storm. Our only weapons were bows and arrows and machetes.
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