"Hang it all! You ought to know that a good general never lets himself be besieged without having the means to break the blockade when he thinks proper." "Ah, ah!" the hunter said with a smile, "I suspected it; but no matter. Go on, Excellency." "Does it interest you?" "Enormously." "Ah!" he said, giving him an inquiring glance. "Oh, simply from an artistic point of view." "Very good; well, I wish to prove to you what value I set on you, and what faith I have in your honour." "You were wrong to doubt it, Excellency." "I believe so. Then I will show you what no living being has ever yet seen." "By Jove, Excellency, permit me to remark to you that what you are doing is most imprudent." "With anyone else it would certainly be so; but are you not my friend?" "I hope so, Excellency." "In that case, it is no longer imprudent, but merely a mark of confidence. Diego López," he added, turning to the peon, "go to the right." "Excellency," the latter said respectfully, "if we go to the right after passing that clump of larches, sumachs, and floripondios, we shall come to an impassable belt of rocks which border the river on that side." "Nonsense," the count continued with a smile; "never mind; go on." Diego López bowed, and at once went in the direction ordered. The road had to be cut with the axe, and they only advanced step by step. After about an hour of extremely fatiguing toil, the band reached, as Diego López had predicted, the foot of an enormous and irregular mass of rocks heaped on each other to a great height. They were forced to halt, owing to the material impossibility of going any further. "You see, Excellency," Diego López said, with the satisfaction of a servant who believes he has got the best of his master. "Yes, yes, I see," the count replied, as he attentively examined the rocks; "be kind enough, Señor Clary, to hold my horse for a moment." He dismounted, threw the bridle to the Canadian, and said to the peon-- "Come hither, Diego." The latter followed him without a word, vainly torturing his brain to guess what his master intended to do. The count walked straight up to the rocks; on reaching a certain spot he stooped, and after a moment's reflection, said-- "Thrust your gun barrel into that crack, and press." The peon obeyed with the passive resignation of a good servant, and after a few efforts a rather large block started and fell to the ground. "Very good," the count said; "go on; now this one." A second stone, larger than the first, fell, and revealed the entrance of a cave. "Now," the count continued, "enlarge the passage." "By heavens!" the Canadian exclaimed, "That is prodigious, and we can pass through, horses and all."