Thus at the close of a few minutes all constraint had vanished, and the noise had again grown as deafening, and the uproar as stunning, as it had been when the federals arrived.
Meanwhile the corporal had diligently carried out the orders he had received from his superior; but, as we said above, the muleteers and wagoners, having accidentally stopped in front of the rancho, and then entered the room of their own accord, had materially lightened his task. But that worthy officer, zealous in the performance of his duty, had taken half a dozen soldiers with him, and scoured the several encampments, passing the blades of their swords between the bales, looking into the insides of the galeras,—in a word, ferreting about everywhere, with the sagacity of an old bloodhound which it is impossible to baffle.
Persuaded at last, after the most minute search, that all those whom he thus looked after had entered the rancho, he determined to follow them. But the uproar he heard inside convincing him that all was going right, for the time at least, he changed his mind, and dismissing the soldiers who were with him, and who desired nothing better than to join the merriment, remained outside.
As soon as he found himself alone, the corporal's whole demeanour changed. He first satisfied himself that no indiscreet eye observed his motions; he then rolled a cigarette between his fingers, lit it, and, walking backwards and forwards with the air of an idler enjoying his leisure, gradually increased his distance from the porch.
After some ten minutes of this manoeuvring, which bore no bad resemblance to a ship tacking against a contrary breeze in her endeavours to get away from her port, he found he had passed beyond the wagoners' camps, and was so far from the rancho, that, thanks to the obscurity of the night, it was impossible to see him from thence. He immediately stopped, looked once more round him, and threw the lighted cigar in the air.
The light pajillo described a brilliant parabola against the sky, and then fell to the ground, when the corporal extinguished it with his foot.
At the same moment a slender line of fire sparkled in the obscurity a little way off.
"Good," growled the corporal; "see what it is to be prudent."
A second time he scanned the neighbourhood narrowly; then, reassured by the obscurity which reigned around, he resolutely turned aside into the darkness, humming under his breath these three verses of a song well known in the Pampas:
"O Libertad preciosa No comparado al oro Ni al bien mayor de la espaciosa tierra."[3]