"I left him when we met those insane volunteers." "But, Senor General, they said that a young man--it must be Don David--went with you." "Ah, caramba! Then they know nothing?" "That is all, Senor." "Then he is lost, that little fellow. He is not with me, he is not with those canaille--unless they hide him, or kill him. No one has seen him; he is lost--or dead." Having reached this decision, there was nothing further to do except march to Bogota and telegraph from there the news of David's disappearance to his friends in Honda. X AN OLD MYSTERY The vanishing of David Meudon in broad daylight while traveling on one of the main thoroughfares of the Republic became the sensation of the hour in Bogota. It excited more interest even than the return of General Herran and his party from Panama. The tale of David's disappearance three years before was revived, and gossip found plenty of material from which to weave wild romance as to what had happened on both occasions. But you can't build up a durable romance without some solid fact to base it on, and since this whole affair was wrapped in mystery, lacking anything tangible, public interest gradually and inevitably died out. Among government leaders, however, owing to the strained relations existing between the United States and Colombia, there was some anxiety over the incident. General Herran, who was related to the President of the Republic, and who was proved to have had nothing to do--consciously, that is--with the loss of Panama, declared that the government was responsible for David's disappearance. He argued that, as the country was not in a state of war, the marching of volunteer regiments on the public roads was a menace to foreigners having business in Colombia, and that therefore these regiments should either be disbanded or else ample protection be given to all travelers who might encounter them. As it was too late to look after David--so said the General--his friends, who were about to set out for Bogota, should at least be guarded from a like fate on the way thither. Accordingly, as this view of the case was approved, a company of soldiers was sent to Honda--and thus it happened that Doctor Miranda, Leighton and his niece, Mrs. Quayle and the schoolmaster--recovered from his fever and the Doctor's pills--made the journey under military escort, arriving in the capital quite like official personages.