For even when Senora de la Vega was missed nobody would suspect that she had gone with us.
In the event--as we hoped, the improbable event--of our being overtaken or intercepted, Gahra and I were resolved not to be taken alive; but we had, unfortunately, no firearms; they were all lost in the snow-storm.

Our only weapons were bows and arrows and machetes.

I carried the former merely as a make-believe, to keep up my character as a hunter; for the same reason we took with us a brace of dogs.

If it came to fighting I should have to put my trust in my _machete_, a long broad-bladed sword like a knife, formidable as a lethal weapon, yet chiefly used for clearing away brambles and cutting down trees.
All went well at the beginning.

We were up betimes and off with our horses before daylight.