“Almeida, then, and Ciudad Rodrigo next.  So far as we are concerned the question is not important.”

“My opinion is that Marmont intends to assault neither.”

“But, my good sir,” I cried, “I have seen and counted the scaling-ladders!”

“And so have I. I spent six hours in Salamanca itself,” said the Captain quietly.

“Well, but doesn’t that prove it?  What other place on earth can he want to assault?  He certainly is not marching south to join Soult.”  I turned to Jose, who had been listening with an impassive face.

“The Captain will be right.  He always is,” said Jose, perceiving that I appealed to him.

“I will wager a month’s pay—­”

“I never bet,” Captain McNeill interrupted, as stiffly as before.  “As you say, Marmont will march upon the Agueda, but in my opinion he will not assault Ciudad Kodrigo.”

“Then he will be a fool.”

“H’m!  As to that I think we are agreed.  But the question just now is how am I to get across the Tormes?  The ford, I suppose, is watched on both sides.”  I nodded.  “And I suppose it will be absolutely fatal to remain here long after daybreak?”

“Huerta swarms with soldiers,” said I, “we have sixteen in the posada and a cavalry picket just behind.  A whole battalion has eaten the village bare, and is foraging in all kinds of unlikely places.  To be sure you might have a chance in the loft above us, under the hay.”

“Even so, you cannot hide our horses.”

“Your horses?”

“Yes, they’re outside at the back.  I didn’t know there was a cavalry picket so close, and Jose must have missed it in the darkness.”

Jose looked handsomely ashamed of himself.

“They are well-behaved horses,” added the Captain.  “Still, if they cannot be stowed somewhere, it is unlikely they can be explained away, and of course it will start a search.”

“Our stable is full.”

“Of course it is.  Therefore you see we have no choice—­apart from our earnest wish—­but to cross the ford before daybreak.  How is it patrolled on the far side?”

“Cavalry,” said I; “two vedettes.”

“Meeting, I suppose, just opposite the ford?  How far do they patrol?”

“Three hundred yards maybe:  certainly not more.”

The Captain pursed up his lips as if whistling.

“Is there good cover on the other side?  My map shows a wood of fair size.”

“About half a mile off; open country between.  Once there, you ought to be all right; I mean that a man clever enough to win there ought to make child’s-play of the rest.”

He mused for half a minute.  “The stream is two wide for me to hear the movements of the patrols opposite.  Jose has a wonderful ear.”

“Yes, Captain, I can hear the water from where we stand,” Jose put in.

“He is right,” said I, “it’s not a question of distance, but of the noise of the water.  The ford itself will not be more than twenty yards across.”