For a considerable distance it ran between a double row of magnificent mimosa-trees which met overhead at a height of fully one hundred and fifty feet, making a glorious canopy of green leaves and rustling branches.

The rain had cooled the air and laid the dust, and but for the danger we were in (greater than we suspected) and the necessity we were under of being continually on the alert, we should have had a most enjoyable walk.

Late in the afternoon we passed a hut and a maize-field, the first sign of cultivation we had seen since leaving the _azuferales_, and ascertained our bearings from an old peon who was swinging in a grass hammock and smoking a cigar.

San Felipe was about two leagues away, and he strongly advised us not to follow a certain trail, which he described, lest haply we might fall in with Mejia's caballeros, some of whom he had himself seen within the hour a little lower down the valley.
This was good news, and we went on in high spirits.
"Didn't I tell you so ?" said Carmen, complacently.

"I knew Mejia would not be far off.