your willingness to do what you can for us, just as you did for Senor
Barnett."




CHAPTER IV

A STREET FRAY


"Now, senor," Dias said, "as we have settled the main point, let us talk
over the arrangements. What is the weight of your baggage?"

"Not more than a mule could carry. Of course we shall sling our rifles
over our shoulders. We have a good stock of ammunition for them and for
our pistols. We shall each take two suits of clothes besides those we
wear, and a case of spirits in the event of accident or illness. We shall
each have three flannel shirts, stockings, and so on, but certainly
everything belonging to us personally would not mount up to more than a
hundred and fifty pounds. We should, of course, require a few cooking
utensils, tin plates, mugs, and cups. What should we need besides these?"

"A tent and bedding, senor. We should only have, at the start, to carry
such provisions as we could not buy. When we are beyond the range of
villages in the forests we might often be weeks without being able to buy
anything; still, we should probably be able to shoot game for food. We
should find fruits, but flour we shall have to take with us from the last
town we pass through before we strike into the mountains, and dried meat
for an emergency; and it would be well to have a bag of grain, so that we