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The field was sle was close at hand A moment and the interlopers had vanished into it, all but one, who lay kicking aa-leaves, and over who doith insane fury

This was the first hand-to-hand encounter Esteban's men had had, and their swift victory rendered the into the brush on the trail of their ene out the story of the outrage and quivering at every sound of the chase He was caressing her, and telling her to have no further fears; both of them were fairly hysterical Even before Esteban had heard all, Lorenzo, theextravagant praises of his own bravery Esteban co the elina, thanks to her thick skull, was not dead In the course of tiained her senses, and when the othersick and dazed, but otherwise quite whole

Then, there beside the ruins of the hut, was a strange scene of rejoicing Asensio, recovered now froery, was tearful, coed about their prodigious deeds of valor Over and over they recounted their versions of the encounter, each more fanciful than the other, until it seemed that they must have left the forest filled with corpses

Esteban alone was grave He had heard of Colonel Cobo, and, rearden, he knew that serious consequences would follow The Volunteers were revengeful; their colonel was not the sort of ive a deep humiliation Doubtless he would put a price upon the heads of all of them, and certainly he would never allow the like even terms Then, too, the narrowness of Rosa's escape caused the boy's heart to dissolve with terror

After a conference with Asensio he decided that they ht, and late that afternoon they all set out to seek a safer refuge, Evangelina in tears at leaving her precious garden plot Their led horse, one of those Lorenzo had captured, carried a pitifully light burden--only some tools, some pans and kettles, and a roll of charred bedclothes Johnnie O'Reilly had no difficulty in locating the Residence of Ignacio Alvarado, but to communicate with higed by that persistent shadow froh about conditions here in Puerto Principe to make him extremely cautious, and after their first talk he had once ood care thereafter that nothing in his conduct should awaken suspicion