"It is strange that I did not guess that sooner, for it is easy enough."
They galloped for about an hour without exchanging a syllable; at length they perceived a short distance from them a dark mass, whose black outline stood out from the less dense obscurity of the surrounding country.
"Here is the Palo Quemado," don Jaime said.
"Yes," was all that López answered.
They advanced a few paces, and then stopped. All at once a dog began barking furiously.
"¡Demonio!" don Jaime exclaimed; "We must pass, or that accursed animal will betray us."
They spurred their horses, and darted past at full speed. At the end of a few minutes the dog, whose barking had changed into hoarse growls, was quite silent. The horsemen stopped, and don Jaime dismounted.
"Hide the horses somewhere in the vicinity," he said, "and wait for me."
López made no answer, the worthy man was not given to talking, and did not care to lavish his words unnecessarily. The adventurer, after inspecting his weapons with the great care so as to be sure, in the probable event of his being obliged to use them, that they would not fail him, lay down on the ground like an Indian of the savannahs, and by an undulating, slow, and almost insensible movement, approached the rancho of the Palo Quemado.
When he was only a short distance from the rancho he saw what he had not noticed before, that some ten or a dozen horses were tied up in front of the house, and that several men were lying on the ground asleep near them. An individual, armed with a long lance, was standing motionless before the door, a sentinel, doubtless, posted there to watch over the general safety.