’Things are going to hum to-day. You’d have been wiser to stay on board. You’re too like your brother.’ You can guess that this only made it more jolly exciting. Every now and then we met long trains of mules or donkeys, with huge bundles on their backs, pacing wearily down the road. ’They’re carrying rubber or cocoa down to Los Angelos,’ Mr. Macdonald said. ’The President makes them bring all their rubber through Los Angelos; that’s one of the grievances they have against him.’ Jolly interesting everything was, and once the men with one long mule train took off their big hats, bowing and saying, ’_buenos_.’ ’They’re doing it to you, not to me,’ Mr. Macdonald said. ’They’re from Paquintos, close to your brother’s estate, and think you are he.’ It was a jolly funny feeling to land at this out-of-the-way spot and find so many people appear to know me; don’t you think it was? By this time we had left the shade of the tropical trees below us, and the road and the side of the mountain were simply bare rock—the heat terrific. At half-past ten we were at the top, and got our first glimpse of Santa Cruz spread out in a hollow beneath us, with mountain ridges all round it. Our mules roused themselves into a trot, and we slung along at a good rate, kicking up a cloud of dust. The _Hercules_ mids. had been gradually drawing closer, and now they came along at a gallop, and would have passed us, singing out rude remarks, but the Angel seized the whip and beat our poor brutes into a gallop too, and the teams simply tore along, side by side, the drivers having all they could do to keep on the road. The two carriages bounced along close together, I thought the wheels would lock every other second, and the mids. were hitting at each other with their sticks and shouting. Luckily we didn’t meet anything, but I saw that, just ahead, the road narrowed, and that we couldn’t possibly get through there side by side. ’Let them go ahead,’ I shouted, and leant over to help the driver pull in the team, but then one of the _Hercules_ mids. sang out, ’Who upset the coal lighter?’ the others shouted, ’The rotten _Hectors_!’—and that made me as mad as a hatter. I didn’t care whether we all went to glory or not so long as we beat them—after that. ’Pull up, you fools!’ Mr. Macdonald shouted, but the mules were quite out of hand. We came to the narrow part, the leading mules bumped into each other, then the others, till the wheelers were touching; our axles bumped once or twice, there was a lurch and a crash, the other carriage toppled over on to the bank, the wheeler mules were on their backs, and the mids. shot out head over heels as we flew past, the Angel and Bob cheering wildly. Before we were out of sight we saw the four mids. and the driver on their feet again, trying to right the carriage, so I knew they weren’t hurt. Mr. Macdonald simply wagged his head from side to side. ’It was my weight brought us through—you’d have upset but for me.’