'Unless what, Sergeant?' I asked.
'Unless, sir,' said he, grimly smiling, 'in the stead of the ardent spirit of youth, which in you burns up such doubt, a man may come by a sufficiency of this most courageous agua ardiente.'
With that I left him, revolving much in my mind whether he or I were the braver man.
It was not long before our espial came back. We gathered eagerly round him for his news, which as eagerly he gave, seeing he was so full of it that he was like to burst had he not got this relief as soon as he did. And no wonder, for he told us he had found the Plaza full of mules, which men were fitting with packs. On questioning these he found that two great recuas, with a little silver and much victuals, were about to start for the fleet that night; but what was better, and what caused his eagerness, was that, besides these, there was preparing to precede them a recua for no less a man than the Treasurer of Lima himself,' who, being bent on returning to Spain by the first adviso that sailed, was starting that very night for Nombre de Dios with all his servants and his daughter, together with one mule load of jewels and eight of gold!
CHAPTER XXIII
It was midnight. Silence and darkness had fallen on that grass-bound highway that joined the oceans. Not a breath stirred the tall herbage. All was still as death, save for the distant mingled voices of the tropic night. Yet on either side the way, some two leagues short of Venta Cruz, that reedy pasture might have been seen to nod from time to time with a strange unaccustomed motion.
Save that, there was nothing to show a traveller that the sea of grass, through which his way led him, held stranger fish than all the rest of the wide expanse on either hand. Yet so it was. Strange fish, both black and white, lay there as still as serpents.
For thither had our captain led us as the most fitting spot for our venture, being, as Pedro showed, the farthest from Spanish relief and most convenient for our retreat with the plunder. So there I lay at Frank's side, and about me half our band, cutting strange figures. For Frank had made us put on our shirts over our other clothes, so that we might know friend from foe in the coming struggle.
Farther on, upon the other side of the way, was Mr. Oxenham, with Harry and the rest, so placed that he might stop the head of the Treasurer's recua while we dealt with the tail. By this order, too, we might use our bows without fear of hurting our friends.