“Oh, it’s just glorious!” declared Hal, turning his sparkling eyes upon his comrade. “Two recruits, with six horses and sixty rifles!” “Our comrades--that is, our comrades-to-be--will embrace us!” uttered Juan. Click-clack! Hoofs rang out sharply on the stony bed of the ravine. “Even if they turn to follow, we are leaving the Spaniards behind,” cried Juan. “Very likely; but what if we were to encounter a second body of the enemy here in this ravine? Our turn to laugh would be over.” That thought urged them to greater speed. When the ravine narrowed, Hal, with two of the led horses in tow, took the lead, Ramirez following closely. “Juan, my comrade!” “Si, mi amigo!” “We are coming out of the ravine. There is a plain ahead.” Three minutes more of hard trotting brought them out into open country, dotted here and there with small groves of palms. “Better halt,” advised Hal, reining up. Ramirez did the same, without questioning. “Rope the horses abreast,” directed Maynard. “You can ride on one side of the line, I on the other. In that way we can keep the brutes at a gallop, if needed.” Dismounting, they quickly accomplished this task. Within two minutes they were once more in saddle. “You must be our guide,” suggested Maynard, as he settled down in saddle. “Where shall we find the nearest Cuban camp?” “I do not know,” replied the Cuban. “I know where Major Alvaredo was the day before yesterday, but--diablo!--the Cubans are not likely to camp for two hours in the same spot. All I can say, mi amigo, is that we had better ride eastward, trusting that we shall meet some pacifico who can tell us the way more particularly.” “Forward, then!” From a trot they broke into a gallop, urging the pack horses on by liberal lashing with ropes. In two minutes more our friends had covered over half a mile. “I heard yells,” muttered Hal, looking backward over his shoulder. Ramirez looked, too, then broke into a hearty laugh. Back on a hill, near the mouth of the ravine, they saw a sight calculated to inspire mirth. Spanish soldiers, some of them nude and many half-dressed, dotted the hill. In the first fright of surprise, these men had fled. Then, finding that none of their number were killed, and that no foe pursued, they had halted, turned about. They had probably found their four dead comrades, and must have divined, from the absence of such footmarks as a battalion would have made, that they had been tricked. So they had pursued until now they had reached a spot whence they were able to see the exact strength of the attacking force. Frantic shouts now rent the air, reaching our young friends even at that distance. In the lead of all the Spaniards, Hal could make out the uniform of the Spanish colonel. “He seems mad,” observed Hal, quizzically. “If those soldiers were close at hand, unarmed though they are, they would make things hot for us.” Ramirez nodded, his face darkening.