shillalah, which he had brought with him from his native land, and
with the end of which he occasionally poked the ribs of the oxen,
with many Irish ejaculations, which no doubt alarmed the animals
not a little. The Yankee rode sometimes near one, sometimes by
another, seldom exchanging a word with any one. He wore a fur cap
made of fox's skin; a faded blanket, with a hole cut in the middle
for the head to go through, fell from his shoulders to his knees.
He and Lopez each led a couple of spare horses. The mastiffs
trotted along by the horses, and the two fine retrievers, Dash and
Flirt, galloped about over the plains. The plain across which they
were traveling was a flat, broken only by slight swells, and a tree
here and there; and the young Hardys wondered not a little how
Lopez, who acted as guide, knew the direction he was to take.

After three hours' riding Lopez pointed to a rather larger clump of
trees than usual in the distance, and said, "That is the camp."

"Hurrah," shouted the boys. "May we ride on, papa?"

"Yes, boys, I will ride on with you." And off they set, leaving
their party to follow quietly.

"Mind how you gallop, boys; the ground is honeycombed with
armadillo holes, and if your horse treads in one you will go over
his head."

"I don't think that I should do that," Charley, who had a more than
sufficiently good opinion of himself, said; "I can stick on pretty
tightly, and--" he had not time to finish his sentence, for his
horse suddenly seemed to go down on his head, and Charley was sent