"They laugh at us, do our friends in the city," said Don Carlos; "they say that such sportsmen as we are a disgrace to them, let us show them we can do something besides talk of sporting, I think we have been sportsmen long enough to know how to shoot straight."
Then the same thought came to them all, their empty bags might well have excited suspicion that it was not for simple sport that these excursions were arranged, especially as they never took any servants with them; the new Viceroy might well be suspected of special vigilance, after the caution he had shown in taking possession of his post; it would be well, therefore, that they should do something to merit the name of sportsmen.
No man made any further observation, but each one went to his post as directed, and spent the entire day wading through swamps, scrambling across water-courses, crawling on hands and knees through the long grass to get within shot of their game. Of them all none was more indefatigable than Don Carlos Evaña. He had kept Marcelino with him, and rejected all his attempts to converse on any other subject than the sport on which they were engaged.
An hour before sundown the whole party met again at the place which had been fixed upon for concentration, with their clothes wet and covered with mud, their powder-horns and shot-belts empty, but their bags and pockets full of duck, teal, and snipe, and also with a few wood-pigeons, which Evaña had gone out of his way to shoot in a small plantation. Fatigued as they were, they yet found spirits to laugh at each other's draggled appearance, and to recount the misfortunes which had befallen them by falling into water-holes and so forth.
"But," said Marcelino, "there is yet an hour of sunshine, we have yet time to learn the opinions——"
"For my part, Señores," said Evaña, interrupting him, "I have but one opinion, which is not washed out of me by that last bañado, I never thought it was so deep or I would have gone round it; my opinion is, that the sooner I reach home and change my clothes the better I shall feel to-morrow, and I think it is an opinion that you all share with me."
"At least it is also mine," said Don Miguel Yrigoyen.
"They can laugh at us no longer," said Don Manuel Belgrano. "We have earned our laurels to-day, let us be content with that, for the rest there is no great hurry. We have a new Viceroy, and it appears to me we shall have some years yet in which we may discuss his qualities. As for the Princess Carlota, I wash my hands of her."
"She has let the opportunity pass, and it will never return," said Marcelino.
Without further ado the horses were saddled, each draggled sportsman bestowing as best he could the unwonted trophies of his skill, and away they went for town, discussing among themselves no more serious subject than the weight of their respective bags.