He took a barrel and unheaded it; the count and Leo Carral did the same.
"Now," he said, addressing the peons, who were startled by these sinister preparations; "back, you fellows, but still continue to fire, and keep them on the alarm."
The three men remained alone with the count's two servants, who refused to abandon their master. In a few words Dominique explained his plan to his companions. They raised the barrels, and gliding silently behind the trees, approached the grotto. The besiegers, occupied in destroying the wall inside, and not daring to venture in front of the breach, could not see what was going on outside. It was therefore an easy task for the five men to reach the very foot of the wall the guerilleros were demolishing, without being discovered. Dominique placed the three powder barrels so as to touch the wall, and on these barrels, he, aided by his companions, piled all the stones he could find. Then he took his mechero, drew out the tinder match, from which he cut off about six inches, lit it, and planted it on one of the barrels.
"Back! Back!" he said, in a low voice; "The wall no longer holds! See how it is bulging. It will fall in a moment."
And, setting the example, he ran off at full speed. Nearly all the defenders of the hacienda, about forty in number, with don Andrés at their head, were assembled at the entrance of the huerta.
"Why are you running so hard?" the hacendero asked the young men; "Are the brigands after you?"
"No, no," Dominique replied; "not yet; but you will soon have news of them."
"Where is doña Dolores?" the count asked.
"In my apartments with her women, and perfectly safe."
"Fire, you fellows!" Dominique shouted to the peons.