After them galloped the twenty picked troopers without any attempt at military array, driving before them some two score spare horses.
[CHAPTER VIII]
HOW GENERAL LINIERS LOST AN IMPORTANT ALLY
It was an hour past midday when Don Carlos Evaña galloped from the scene of the skirmish. Judging that Don Roderigo would proceed by the high road for Cordova, he cut straight across camp for the town of Pergamino, where he halted for half an hour to make cautious enquiries. His uniform and his announcement that he was on government service, procured him every attention from the townspeople, who were eager in their offers of assistance, and he soon learned, without exciting suspicion, that the galera had arrived there late on the preceding night, and had started again at sunrise.
Onwards he galloped, and soon after sundown reached an estancia near to the Arroyo del Medio, which divides the province of Buenos Aires from the province of Santa Fè. Here he found it was useless for him to attempt to go any further, as, though a good horseman, he was quite knocked up, not having galloped for any distance for several months. The estanciero pressed him to remain, and at once sent some peons to slaughter a cow for his men.
"I am dead beat," he said to Venceslao, taking him to one side; "I must trust to you to catch this galera for me and bring it back."
"Pues! that is not strange, Señor Don Carlos," said Venceslao; "but you know you have only to tell me what to do and I will do it."
"The gentleman who is in this galera is Don Roderigo Ponce de Leon. He is on his way to Cordova to join Don Santiago Liniers in raising an insurrection against the Junta. All who joins this insurrection will be shot, so we must stop Don Roderigo at any cost."