"Let us hear it," said I.
"Well, of course, it loses in the telling, but I'll do my best. First of all, we caught a peasant and shut him up where he could hear all and see nothing. The poor fellow imagined we were going to shoot him as a spy. About every half-hour or so one of us would go to the colonel to report the arrival of fresh troops, and ask where they were to camp. Then we spread our few men about the valley and kindled dozens of blazing fires. As soon as it was dark enough, the colonel ordered the man to be brought out."
"His face was a study," interrupted Cordova. "He certainly expected to be shot."
"The colonel read him a lecture," continued Plaza, "and wound up by offering to spare his life on his promising to take a letter to the governor of Arequipa. 'But,' said the colonel sternly, 'you are not to tell what you have seen here. I want him to think we are very few in number. Do you understand?' The fellow promised readily enough, placed the letter in his hat, mounted his horse, and rode down the valley, counting the fires as he went. Of course he told every Royalist officer the truth as he believed it, and they cleared out of the district in double-quick time. Then we forced the governor to supply us with forage for five hundred horses."
"But you didn't have five hundred!"
"That was the joke. We carted the stuff to some sandhills, where a part of the force was supposed to lie in ambush. When the Royalists returned with large reinforcements, they wasted days, being afraid of falling into a trap. It was very funny watching their manoeuvres."
"Then there was the officer with the flag of truce near Chala," said Cordova. "He carried back a pretty report to his chief!"
"Yes," said Plaza, laughing; "he believed we were just the advance-guard of a large force. He stayed with us the night, but I'm afraid his slumbers were troubled ones. The bustle was tremendous—soldiers coming and going every few minutes. The colonel was giving all kinds of impossible orders; in fact, you would have thought we had quite a big army there. Next morning I escorted the Royalist a mile or so on the road. All our men were spread out, some in fatigue dress, to make him believe there were at least two regiments."
"That was a good trick," laughed Alzura.
"And the officers galloped about, shouting to the men to go to their camps in the rear. Turning to me, the fellow exclaimed seriously, 'It is all very well for Miller to have a couple of battalions; but we have a couple as well as he!'