A point-blank discharge from the Mexicans, who had reserved their fire, laid many of the enemy low, and spread disorder through the ranks of the assailants, who began falling back involuntarily.

"Forward!" the Jaguar howled.

The bandits returned to the charge more eagerly than before.

"Keep firm, we must die," the Captain said.

"We will," the soldiers repeated unanimously.

The fight then began, body to body, foot to foot, chest against chest; the assailants and assailed were mixed up and fought more like wild beasts than men.

The arrieros, though decimated by the bullets fired at them, did not the less eagerly continue their task; the crowbar scarce fell from the hand of one shot down, ere another seized the heavy iron mass, and the chests of money toppled uninterruptedly over the precipice, in spite of the yells of fury, and gigantic efforts of the enemy, who exhausted themselves in vain to breach the human wall that barred their passage.

'Twas a fearfully grand sight, this obstinate struggle, this implacable combat which these men carried on, by the brilliant light of a burning forest.

The cries had ceased, the butchery went on silently and terribly, and at times the Captain could be heard sharply repeating —

"Close up there, close up!"

And the ranks closed, and the men fell without a murmur, having sacrificed their lives, and only fighting now to gain the few moments indispensable to prevent their sacrifice being sterile.

In vain did the border rifles, excited by the desire of gain, try to crush this energetic resistance offered them by a handful of men; the heroic soldiers, supporting one another, with their feet pressed against the corpses of those who had preceded them to death, seemed to multiply themselves in order to bar the gorge on all sides at once.

The fight, however, could not possibly last much longer; ten men only were left of the Captain's detachment; the others had fallen, but every man with his face to the foe.

All the arrieros were dead; two chests still remained on the edge of the precipice; the Captain looked hurriedly around.

"One more effort, lads!" he shouted, "We only want five minutes to finish our task."

"Dios y libertad!" the soldiers shouted; and, although exhausted with fatigue, they threw themselves resolutely into the thickest part of the crowd that surrounded them.

For a few minutes, these men accomplished prodigies; but at length numbers gained the mastery: they all fell!

The Captain alone was still alive.

He had taken advantage of the devotion of his soldiers to seize a crowbar, and hurl one chest over the precipice; the second, raised with great difficulty, only required a final effort to disappear in its turn, when suddenly a terrible hurrah caused the officer to raise his head.

The border rifles were rushing up, terrible, and panting like tigers thirsting for carnage.

"Ah!" Gregorio Felpa, the traitor-guide, shouted gladly, as he rushed forward; "at any rate we shall have this one."

"You lie, villain!" the Captain answered.

And raising with both hands the terrible bar of iron, he cleft the skull of the soldier, who fell like a stunned ox, not uttering a cry, or giving vent to a sigh.

"Whose turn is it next?" the Captain said as he raised the crowbar.

A yell of horror burst from the crowd, which hesitated for a moment.

The Captain quickly lowered his crowbar, and the chest hung over the brink of the abyss.

This movement restored the borderers all their rage and fury.

"Down with him, down with him!" they shouted, as they rushed on the officer.

"Halt!" the Jaguar said as he bounded forward, and overthrew all in his way; "Not one of you must stir; this man belongs to me."

On hearing this well-known voice, all the men stopped.

The Captain threw away his crowbar, for the last chest had fallen in its turn over the precipice.

"Surrender, Captain Melendez," the Jaguar said, as he advanced toward the officer.

The latter had taken up his sabre again.

"It is not worth while now," he replied, "I prefer to die."

"Defend yourself then."

The two men crossed swords, and for some minutes a furious clashing of steel could be heard. All at once, the Captain, by a sharp movement, made his adversary's weapon fly ten paces off, and ere the latter recovered from his surprise, the officer rushed on him and writhed round him like a serpent.

The two men rolled on the ground.

Two yards behind them was the precipice.

All the Captain's efforts were intended to drag the Jaguar to the verge of the abyss; the latter, on the contrary, strove to free himself from his opponent's terrible grasp, for he had doubtless guessed his desperate resolve.

At last, after a struggle of some minutes, the arms that held the Jaguar round the body gradually loosed their hold, the officer's clenched hands opened, and the young man, by the outlay of his whole strength, succeeded in throwing off his enemy and rising.

But he was hardly on his feet, ere the Captain, who appeared exhausted and almost fainting, bounded like a tiger, seized his adversary round the body, and gave him a fearful shock.

The Jaguar, still confused by the struggle he had gone through, and not suspecting this sudden attack, tottered, and lost his balance with a loud cry.

"At length!" the Captain shouted with ferocious joy.

The borderers uttered an exclamation of horror and despair.

The two enemies had disappeared in the abyss.

[What became of them will be found fully recorded in the next volume of this series, called "THE FREE-BOOTERS."]