Page:Vagabond life in Mexico.djvu/223

Rh searching for, and flying from, the bravo, that his horse had broken down entirely after we re-entered Mexico, and I had ordered him to replace it by another. As for my own steed, one of those I had brought with me from the hacienda of Noria, he nobly justified the name of Storm which I had given him; the strength and vigor which his free life in the desert had produced rendered him fit to endure the hardest fatigues.

Cecilio went about the business immediately. I told him that economy was to be considered in the purchase, but the fellow did not conform too scrupulously to my instructions. A few hours afterward he came to tell me that a picador, one of his friends, had a horse to dispose of which seemed to come up to my standard. In a few minutes, a sorry hack, of a dun color, with hanging head and tottering legs, that apparently had escaped from the bull-ring, came slowly into the court. I almost screamed when the picador, with matchless effrontery, asked ten piastres for the miserable brute; but, considering that the only time on which we needed to travel rapidly would be in joining the convoy, and that afterward short stages would be the rule, I consented to the purchase. The picador and Cecilio, seeing my impatience, began to expatiate on the noble qualities that lay hidden beneath the miserable skin of the wretched beast, and I paid the knave the sum he demanded, knowing well that my honest valet would partake in the plunder with the picador.

All my preparations being made, I determined to set out next morning; but a series of unforeseen events retarded my departure for several days. The time for sending this rich convoy of silver to Vera Cruz appeared to have been ill chosen. A dull, vague