The man obeyed; but Uncle Richard was not more than half-way over when we saw a party of soldiers on the height above the river, and I clearly made out that they were Spanish soldiers. Should they reach the end of the rope before Uncle Richard was safe, they might, by threatening to cut it, compel us all to come back; so we hastened to seize hold of the tackle, in order to assist the Indian in dragging the basket over more quickly.
“Take care, señores; you will break it, if you pull too hard,” he observed.
We were not aware whether he had seen the Spaniards coming.
“Haul away,” shouted Uncle Richard.
We obeyed him, and he was soon able to spring on to the ground. His first action on doing so was to grasp Antonio’s sword, and to hack away at the rope, to the great astonishment of the old Indian, who loudly expostulated, and attempted to stop him. But Antonio and I seized the bridge-keeper and held him fast while Uncle Richard finished the operation, and soon the rope swung across to the opposite cliff.
“Now,” said Uncle Richard, “we shall have to make the best use of our legs, or we may chance to have some bullets whistling about our ears.”
We hurried on, hoping to get beyond the range of the firearms of our enemies before they had reached the bank; and we had completely lost sight of them when we heard a volley fired. We only hoped that the poor old Indian had hidden himself in time, and that it was not aimed at him. Whether there was any ford, or other means of crossing the river, further down, we could not tell; it was therefore important to make as rapid progress as possible. A moon was in the sky, about half full, which, in that atmosphere, allowed us to see our way for some distance, so we took great care to profit by it.
At length we saw a light ahead of us. It proceeded from an Indian’s hut, in the centre of which a large fire was blazing. We made our way towards it, hoping to obtain a guide; besides, we required rest, and it was necessary to obtain it at all risks.
The owner of the hut was seated before the fire boiling a pot of cocoa, and he did not appear to be surprised on seeing us.
“Travellers are constantly coming this way, and I was getting some cocoa ready lest any should come in,” he observed.