The soldiers, as generally happens in such cases, suffered from their chief's ill temper; for the officer, afraid of adding the darkness to the evil chances he fancied he had against him, and not at all desirous to be surprised by night in the inextricable windings of the forest, cut the halt short much sooner than he would have done under different circumstances. At about two o'clock P.M. he ordered the boot and saddle to be sounded, and gave the word to start. The greatest heat of the day had passed over, the sunbeams being more oblique, had lost a great deal of their power, and the march was continued under conditions comparatively better than those which preceded it. As he had warned him, the Captain intimated to the guide that he was to ride by his side, and, so far as was possible, did not let him out of sight for a second. The latter did not appear at all troubled by this annoying inquisition; he rode along quite as gaily as heretofore, smoking his husk cigarette, and whistling fragments of jarabés between his teeth. The forest began gradually to grow clearer, the openings became more numerous, and the eye embraced a wider horizon; all led to the presumption that they would soon reach the limits of the covert. Still, the ground began rising slightly on both sides, and the path the conducta followed grew more and more hollow, in proportion as it advanced. "Are we already reaching the spurs of the mountains?" the Captain asked. "Oh, no, not yet," the guide answered. "Still we shall soon be between two hills?" "Yes, but of no height." "That is true; still, if I am not mistaken, we shall have to pass through a defile." "Yes, but of no great length." "You should have warned me of it." "Why so?" "That I might have sent some scouts ahead." "That is true, but there is still time to do so if you like; the persons who are waiting for us are at the end of that gorge." "Then we have arrived?" "Very nearly so." "Let us push on in that case." "I am quite ready." They went on; all at once the guide stopped. "Hilloh!" he said, "Look over there, Captain; is not that a musket barrel glistening in the sunbeams?" The Captain sharply turned his eyes in the direction indicated by the soldier. At the same moment a frightful discharge burst forth from either side of the way, and a shower of bullets poured on the conducta. Before the Captain, ferocious at this shameful treachery, could draw a pistol from his belt, he rolled on the ground, dragged down by his horse, which had a ball right through its heart. The guide had disappeared, and it was impossible to discover how he had escaped. CHAPTER XXVIII. JOHN DAVIS. John Davis, the ex-slave dealer, had too powerful nerves for the scenes he had witnessed this day, and in which he had even played a very active and dangerous part, to leave any durable impressions on his mind.