"Keep your eyes open for our friends, Manuel," were the parting words of Ronie.
"Trust me for that, señor, and may you live to come back with the welcome word that Caracas is once more safe from the spoils of the mercenary knaves that flock to the mountain savage."
Murmuring an unintelligible reply to this, the couple then urged their ponies forward, and a moment later were starting side by side upon the first stage of a ride through a country overrun with hostile armies and dangers which they had not stopped to contemplate.
CHAPTER XII.
A LONELY RIDE.
Ronie and Jack were crossing the vast plain which extends westward and southward along the shore of Lake Maracaibo, upon the border of which stands that beautiful city by the same name, and which is the capital of the State of Zulia. The climate of this region is warm, but cooled by the lake breezes, as well as by the breath of old ocean, it becomes very enjoyable. Thus they rode on under conditions that must have been pleasant had it not been for the shadows of war which overhung every step of their journey.
The road, if the trampled path at places overgrown with rank vegetation, and at others smooth and bare as an open floor, deserved the dignity of the name, soon after leaving the sand belt of the coast, wound across broad fields of sugar cane, indigo and tobacco, or through great plantations given over to the cultivation of cacao trees, which yield those luscious beans that have been described as affording food for gods. These trees to flourish well have to be protected by some taller species of tree, and for this purpose the tall, over-arching Erithynas is raised, giving the scene the appearance at a distance of being a huge forest, rather than a cultivated field.
Frequently the progress of our heroes was checked, if not quite stopped, by growths of weeds which had sprung up on deserted plantations. In Venezuela land is so cheap that it is more advantageous to abandon a tract of land when it becomes worn out by cultivation, and clear a new territory, than it is to reclaim the old. The latter thus soon becomes a forest of weeds, which, insignificant at first, soon develop into trees with branches, so that by the second season these overtop the head of a man on horseback. These huge tree-weeds afford support for dense masses of creepers, among which Ronie noticed the convolvulus, begonias and passion flowers. These at places hung their flowering heads so as to form graceful festoons, or anon lifted them proudly to the breeze, forming picturesque bowers and floral archways.
If displaying beauty and magnificence in their bountiful offerings, these jungles were anything but pleasant paths to follow, and it required skillful management on the part of the rider to save himself from being pulled from his seat, or escape that fate he might expect at the hands of the hangman. The native riders show wonderful ability to run these gantlets, which the newcomer must naturally lack. Now hanging by one leg down the side of his horse, or stretching himself along its back, he would escape the blows a novice would be sure to receive while continuing his flight with speed scarcely abated.