instant later ten or a dozen more brigands came out from amongst them,
and the two parties greeted each other. The new-comers surrounded my
friend of the brad-awl with cries of grief and sympathy, and then,
turning upon me, they brandished their knives and howled at me like the
gang of assassins that they were. So frantic were their gestures that I
was convinced that my end had come, and was just bracing myself to meet
it in a manner which should be worthy of my past reputation, when one of
them gave an order and I was dragged roughly across the little glade to
the brambles from which this new band had emerged.

A narrow pathway led through them to a deep grotto in the side of the
cliff. The sun was already setting outside, and in the cave itself it
would have been quite dark but for a pair of torches which blazed from a
socket on either side. Between them there was sitting at a rude table a
very singular-looking person, whom I saw instantly, from the respect
with which the others addressed him, could be none other than the
brigand chief who had received, on account of his dreadful character,
the sinister name of El Cuchillo.

The man whom I had injured had been carried in and placed upon the top
of a barrel, his helpless legs dangling about in front of him, and his
cat's eyes still darting glances of hatred at me. I understood, from the
snatches of talk which I could follow between the chief and him, that he
was the lieutenant of the band, and that part of his duties was to lie
in wait with his smooth tongue and his peaceful garb for travellers like
myself. When I thought of how many gallant officers may have been lured
to their death by this monster of hypocrisy, it gave me a glow of
pleasure to think that I had brought his villainies to an end--though I
feared it would be at the price of a life which neither the Emperor nor
the army could well spare.