I roared out, ’San Fernando! San Fernando!’ but they were too startled to obey; and Don Pedro and his four men, too frightened to stay where they were any longer, bolted for the nearest wagon, the officers bursting out after them, and plunging into the forest among their own men. ’San Fernando!’ I shouted, pointing down the road, and some of the little forest-men seemed to want to obey, but I saw those contemptible officers going in among them and dragging them back. My aunt! I was in a jolly awkward fix. If they only made a rush, my chaps would simply be eaten up. I dare not get them down from the wagons to stir up the mules, for I felt absolutely certain that that would only be the signal for a massacre. We couldn’t move the wagons till the guns went on—the road was not broad enough to pass them—and the leading one was at least a couple of hundred yards away. I saw a lot of the _machetos_ dart across the road ahead of us, and my heart went thump, for I thought they were making ready for a rush, but the little brutes simply unhitched the leading gun’s mule teams and led them into the forest. Well, that was checkmate with a vengeance. One of the officers now came up to the wagon on which Navarro was sitting and spoke to him. He sang out to me, and I went across. ’He say, "No go San Fernando till night; if soldiers no give up rifles, _machetos_ kill them. Officers tell _machetos_, soldiers take guns to Zorilla."’ He was in a funk himself; the trees on both sides of us were simply swarming with the fierce little men, and I didn’t know what to do, my brain seemed all woolly, but I dare not let the regulars throw their rifles down. ’Oh! that I knew Spanish and could talk to the little chaps and explain things,’ I was thinking, when there was the sound of a horse galloping along the road, behind us, and the ’Gnome’ dashed up. I was glad to see him, if you like. He looked at the regulars on top of the wagons, timidly pointing their rifles across the road, and at the crowds of _machetos_ in the woods, and didn’t know what to think of it. Before he’d caught sight of me, I saw one of the officers running to him. I knew he’d tell him lies, so I cantered up to him too. He looked startled to see me, but quite pleased, and I made him come to the wagon where Navarro sat. ’Tell him—ex-plain,’ I sang out. They seemed to know each other very well.