'It is so dark to-night that I wonder how you will find your way to the hut,' said Etta.
'I have been making a store of candles from the Bois-de-Chandel. Andreas showed me how the Indians prepare it. Truly, how my parents would laugh to see me in an Indian hut! But I have to be careful of shading my light, for Andreas says we must not trust the negroes, and they often wander at night when the fancy seizes them.'
With this Harry slipped away; and Etta went with him so as to close the window and secure it when he had let himself down from the balcony.
CHAPTER XVII.
DISCOVERED.
At last, after what seemed to him a long, weary time, Carlo began to feel stronger, so that the difficulty to conceal him became much greater, the high-spirited boy finding confinement quite unbearable. His aunt and Catalina now suffered much anxiety on account of his rashness, and as contact with danger soon makes people forget it Carlo would often slip out even before sunset and go off to the woods to find Harry. He used to get over at the old spot, which was not now guarded, and then, following the Indian trail, he and Harry managed to amuse themselves in the woods. True, he would slip back again, looking more rosy and more cheerful; but Catalina was always saying that some day the rash boy would repent of his want of prudence. As it was, if it had not been for the vigilance of Andreas even the lazy guards must have had their suspicions aroused. One day Andreas arrived at the Indian hut just as the two, who were now fast friends, were preparing their arrows to go hunting for pigeons, which Carlo took home to Catalina to cook so as to make a change in their bill of fare.
'There you are, Andreas! You are just in time to go with us,' exclaimed Carlo.
'No, Señor, I must be back at the compound in half an hour; but I have just heard much news, and I came to tell you. The Frenchman Simon has just landed, and brings tidings from Chagres, where men have arrived telling of the taking of Panama. The Frenchman has brought several officers with him who were wounded, but are now better; and I fear these guards will have their eyes opened wider than the men now in charge.'
'Have they really taken Panama?' exclaimed Harry and Carlo; and the latter added, 'That is indeed a feat I had not expected--though you did, Harry. But did you hear any particulars, Andreas?'
'They are very full of all sorts of stories, but I fancy they are not all true--how in one place they boiled leathern bags to eat and were at death's door for want of food. After ten days of incredible hardships they came in sight of the city, and there they engaged in very severe fighting. But the terror of their name did more for them than even their valour, for they were but a handful compared with the Spaniards.'