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insignificant object, that looks, por Dios, very much like a piece of
tin?" he remarked, jocularly.

Hernandez, the robber, had been an inoffensive, small ranchero,
kidnapped with circumstances of peculiar atrocity from his home during
one of the civil wars, and forced to serve in the army. There his
conduct as soldier was exemplary, till, watching his chance, he killed
his colonel, and managed to get clear away. With a band of deserters,
who chose him for their chief, he had taken refuge beyond the wild and
waterless Bolson de Tonoro. The haciendas paid him blackmail in cattle
and horses; extraordinary stories were told of his powers and of his
wonderful escapes from capture. He used to ride, single-handed, into the
villages and the little towns on the Campo, driving a pack mule before
him, with two revolvers in his belt, go straight to the shop or store,
select what he wanted, and ride away unopposed because of the terror his
exploits and his audacity inspired. Poor country people he usually left
alone; the upper class were often stopped on the roads and robbed; but
any unlucky official that fell into his hands was sure to get a severe
flogging. The army officers did not like his name to be mentioned in
their presence. His followers, mounted on stolen horses, laughed at the
pursuit of the regular cavalry sent to hunt them down, and whom they
took pleasure to ambush most scientifically in the broken ground of
their own fastness. Expeditions had been fitted out; a price had been
put upon his head; even attempts had been made, treacherously of course,
to open negotiations with him, without in the slightest way affecting
the even tenor of his career. At last, in true Costaguana fashion, the
Fiscal of Tonoro, who was ambitious of the glory of having reduced the
famous Hernandez, offered him a sum of money and a safe conduct out of
the country for the betrayal of his band. But Hernandez evidently was
not of the stuff of which the distinguished military politicians and
conspirators of Costaguana are made. This clever but common device
(which frequently works like a charm in putting down revolutions) failed
with the chief of vulgar Salteadores. It promised well for the Fiscal at
first, but ended very badly for the squadron of lanceros posted (by the
Fiscal's directions) in a fold of the ground into which Hernandez had
promised to lead his unsuspecting followers They came, indeed, at the
appointed time, but creeping on their hands and knees through the bush,
and only let their presence be known by a general discharge of firearms,
which emptied many saddles. The troopers who escaped came riding very
hard into Tonoro. It is said that their commanding officer (who, being
better mounted, rode far ahead of the rest) afterwards got into a state
of despairing intoxication and beat the ambitious Fiscal severely with
the flat of his sabre in the presence of his wife and daughters,
for bringing this disgrace upon the National Army. The highest civil

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