Page:Our Neighbor-Mexico.djvu/224

214 the fire, and the gentlemen occasionally on mattresses; for the chieftain is out most of the night patroling the walks, and his associates frequently creep around behind him. Every sound is caught by exceedingly erect ears, and many never made are distinctly heard, the spirit within hearing in the outward ear:

This desert wilderness is profuse in such vocalizations. A couple of charcoal-burners, perhaps from the mountains, grazed our gate, and came near being grazed by our balls. A whispering breeze in the tree-tops seemed to be the low orders of the assailing forces. A horse, if such there be, wandering loose on these hillsides, if not a ghostly horse, sounded like the tramp of steeds rushing down upon us. The very breathing of the dog, who murmured in his sleep, was taken as an omen of alarm. So, with fits of feeble slumber and interludes of long waking, with wanderings about the ruins by moonlight, stealthily seeking a stealthy foe, we managed to get through the night; and the morning finds us, oh, so courageous! Who's afraid? Who cares for the beggars of Santa Rosa, or Guajimalpa, and other unpronounceable towns about us? Let them come by the legion. Our four revolvers and one carbine are equal to them all.

Yet we had reason to fear, for the master of the first village below had warned us of the danger, and the administrador of the place declared it not improbable that we should be visited. These villages harbor hordes of robbers, and we were well studied by their sidewalk committees as we passed through them. The two men who passed our gate at ten of the night, and even tried it, were perhaps a part of a gang, rather than charcoal-burners, who, seeing through two eyelet-holes one of the party with his carbine, gave such a report as dissuaded others from returning with them to receive our hospitality. Others reported, after we got back, that the country round considered the deed most perilous, and wondered at our escape. Perhaps our audacity or indifference was,