“And an answer for the government,” murmured Stark, as they strode off up the dusty street. CHAPTER XII. PLAYING WITH EDGED TOOLS. In their tourist costumes the four “scouts,” for such they now were, walked rapidly through the town, attracting no more attention than that bestowed on them by hordes of beggars and insistent vendors of various worthless native articles. But instead of annoying them, these rather dubious intentions delighted our party, as it was a good earnest of the effectiveness of their disguises. After half an hour or so of walking under a broiling sun, the party began to traverse the outskirts of the city, where pigs roamed at large and naked children rolled delightedly in the gutters. Nobody made the slightest effort to molest them, and presently they reached the rear lines of the government troops entrenched about the city. The soldiers seemed a happy-go-lucky lot. Some of them were smoking yellow paper cigarettes. Here was a group throwing dice on a drum head. There was an eager, interested circle about a cock fight. In one or two places sat a forlorn figure strumming some love song on a guitar. Their tents were ragged and patched, and their arms of the kind bought at government condemnation sales. “But they can fight like wildcats,” Stanley assured his companions. Their road led northward from the city below, along the edge of a steep cliff covered to its summit with tropical growth of vivid, staring green. Here and there little villas set back like colored jewels in a green setting. Below, a turquoise sea dashed itself against the rocks. It was a scene that at any other time would have delighted the Dreadnought Boys, but just then their thoughts were set on other things than scenery. About two miles out they passed through the last outpost of the Costavezan troops, and presently were traversing ground which lay between the lines of the opposing forces. It was blisteringly hot. None of the party noticed this, however, so intently were their minds occupied. The main army of the insurgents lay, as they knew, across the range to the southwest of the town. The forces they were now headed for formed the victorious army of the north. It was by effecting a junction of these two forces at the very walls, so to speak, of Boca del Sierras that General de Guzman hoped to effect the capitulation of that city. What had become of the government forces, which the army before them had scattered, no one knew. It was supposed, however, that their officers were trying to reassemble their demoralized troops somewhere back in the jungles to the north. “It wouldn’t take a large force to defend this road against an army,” observed Ned, as they pursued their way along the thoroughfare, which was in places literally hewn out of the cliff face.