It was too evidently true. At a distance of six miles the boys could see a dark mass rapidly retreating, and numerous single specks could be seen hovering round them. Two miles from the house a single horseman was galloping wildly. The girls had already made him out to be Lopez. The boys and Terence stood speechless with dismay. The Irishman was the first to find his tongue. 'Och, the thundering villains!' he exclaimed; 'the hathen thieves! And to think that not one of us was there to give them a bating.' 'What will papa say?' Hubert ejaculated. Charley said nothing, but looked frowningly, with tightly closed lips, after the distant mass, while his hands closed upon his carbine. 'How was it, Maud?' he asked at length. 'I was down-stairs,' Maud said, 'when Ethel, who had just gone up, called down, "Come up, Maud, quickly; I think that something's the matter." I ran up the steps, and I saw our animals a long way off, nearly four miles, and I saw a black mass of something going along fast towards them from the left. They were rather nearer to us than the cattle were, and were in one of the slopes of the ground, so that they would not have been seen by any one with the cattle; then, as they got quite near the animals, I saw a sudden stir. The beasts began to gallop away, and three black specks--who, I suppose, were the men--separated themselves from them and went off sideways. One seemed to get a start of the other two. These were cut off by the black mass, and I did not see anything more of them. Lopez got away; and though some of the others rode after him for about a mile, they could not overtake him. Directly I saw what it was, I caught up the gun and fired, and Ethel ran up the flag. That's all I saw.' Ethel confirmed her sister's account, merely adding that, seeing the two bodies in the distance, one going very fast towards the other, she suspected that something was wrong, and so called at once to Maud. The animals were now quite out of sight, and the whole party went down to meet Lopez, who was just riding up to the enclosure. He was very pale, and his horse was covered with foam. 'Are the peons killed, Lopez?' was Mrs. Hardy's first question. 'I do not know, signora; but I should think so. The Indians caught them; I heard a scream,' and the man shuddered. 'Santa Virgine'--and he crossed himself piously--'what an escape! I will burn twenty pounds of candles upon your altar.' 'How was it that you were surprised, Lopez?' Charley asked. 'You were so particularly ordered to keep a good lookout.'