Being, moreover, a stranger, you are a marked man.

It is not everybody who, like the commandant of La Guayra, will believe that you are travelling for your own pleasure.

What man in his senses would choose a time like this for a scientific ramble in Venezuela ?" And then Senor Carera explained that he could arrange for me to leave Caracas almost immediately, under excellent guidance.

The _teniente_ of Colonel Mejia, one of the guerilla leaders, was in the town on a secret errand, and would set out on his return journey in three days.

If I liked I might go with him, and I could not have a better guide or a more trustworthy companion.
It was a chance not to be lost.