The comandante surveyed him for a moment, as though still
disturbed by the interruption, and then shook his head
impatiently. ``You can hire a mule from one Pulido Paul, at the
corner of the plaza,'' he said. And as MacWilliams still
stood uncertainly, he added, ``You say you have come from
Los Bocos. Did you meet any one on your way?''

The two younger men looked up at him anxiously, but before he
could answer, the instrument began to tick out the signal, and
they turned their eyes to it again, and one of them began to take
its message down on paper.

The instrument spoke to MacWilliams also, for he was used to
sending telegrams daily from the office to the mines, and could
make it talk for him in either English or Spanish. So, in his
effort to hear what it might say, he stammered and glanced at it
involuntarily, and the comandante, without suspecting his
reason for doing so, turned also and peered over the shoulder of
the man who was receiving the message. Except for the clicking
of the instrument, the room was absolutely still; the three men
bent silently over the table, while MacWilliams stood gazing at
the ceiling and turning his hat in his hands. The message
MacWilliams read from the instrument was this: ``They are
reported to have left the city by the south, so they are going to
Para, or San Pedro, or to Los Bocos. She must be stopped--take
an armed force and guard the roads. If necessary, kill her. She
has in the carriage or hidden on her person, drafts for five
million sols. You will be held responsible for every one of
them. Repeat this message to show you understand, and relay it