Well, if your honour should have the bad fortune to be hit, I shall either carry you off, though there's not a breath in your body, or else go down with you." As there was no doubt that Mike meant what he said, Desmond did not press the matter further.
The next day they set out at daybreak, and, in two hours, were mounting the slope of the sierra.

There were no signs of any men being about, until they reached a point where the road ran between steep hills.
"There they are," Desmond exclaimed, reining in his horse.

"There are some thirty or forty of them on the road.
"Now, my men, we will ride forward to those boulders you see, a hundred yards this side of them, and then we will dismount and give them a volley.

If you keep that up, it will soon be too hot for them to remain on the road; while we, sheltered behind the rocks, will be safe from their shot.

It is certain that your guns will carry farther and shoot straighter than theirs, as the Spanish powder is so much inferior to the French." Accordingly, they rode forward at a canter to the heap of boulders, then suddenly left the road, dismounted, and took cover among the rocks.
"Take steady aim, men," Desmond said, "then you can hardly miss hitting some of them, standing close together as they do." The bandits had waited, undecided, at the sudden disappearance of those whom they had regarded as a certain prey; and before they could form any plans, five muskets flashed out, and four of their number fell.