The two gripped hands in the darkness of the forest, and lay there a moment or two without saying a word. Then Dudley turned to Pepito.
"Carry out the orders," he said softly, "and when I am gone look to my comrade here for all commands. Let the men stick to him whatever happens."
The tall and handsome gaucho would have liked to shake his leader's hand, and even to detain him, but Pepito was at heart a soldier, trained to obedience, and always ready to carry out his instructions. For one second he waited, and then, turning to the men, whispered that the time had come to open fire, and for one of their number to creep some few yards into the forest. Presently a hail of bullets was sweeping through the trees, now in this direction and now in that, searching every part, but hurtling in particular along the path which Dudley would take. The shots died down for a while, and the rascals, stretched in a wide circle around, heard the sounds made by a man creeping through the trees. A stick snapped, a rifle struck a tree and repeated the clumsy blow. Leaves were disturbed, and every whisper told that the tiny garrison was sending someone to seek for help.
"Good! We will teach them," muttered Antonio. "Send a dozen men in that direction, amico."
"Time to move," whispered Dudley. "I think our comrade has attracted their attention. Give them a few more shots as I go."
He wriggled out of the fort, listened for a moment, and then dived into the forest, his fingers searching in every direction for the body of the man whom Pepito had slain. Not a sound did he make. Those he left behind strained their ears in vain. Their leader was gone on a quest which was full of danger, but which might yet preserve the life of the man who employed them and save those whom Dudley had left behind.
CHAPTER XVIII
A DASH FOR THE PAMPAS
Down under the brushwood and the brambles which thickly covered the ground between the trunks of the forest trees the darkness was intense. So black and forbidding that Dudley imagined that he could almost feel it and grip it in his hands. Not an inch could he see in front of his face, for it happened that a bank of clouds had blown across the face of the tiny crescent of the moon, which had hitherto sent a few rays straggling here and there in between the trees, and now not a leaf shimmered under the pale rays, not a trunk was visible, there was no light but the occasional flare, some yards behind him, as one of his own men opened fire.
"Just the time for me to succeed," he thought to himself when he had crawled a few yards on hands and knees. "I must be near the body of the man Pepito killed, and once I reach it I shall lie still and try to get the bearings of the enemy. Harold knows what I want. He is to give me ten minutes to reach this man and get some cover, and then he will open fire again in this direction."