strange guide, club
in hand, going hopping on before. It did really seem all like a scene of
enchantment.

We gave Archie the peaches, and he looked delighted.

'Good-bye, old man,' said Dugald, as he presented him with his.

'Speak a word or two of Gaelic to him,' said our Archie.

Sandie Donaldson was indeed astonished at all we told him.

'I suppose it's all right,' he said, 'but dear me, that was an
uncanny-looking creature you had hirpling on in front of you!'

In the evening, just as we had returned from a most successful guanaco
hunt, we found Donaldson's uncanny creature coming along the path.

'I suppose he means us to dine with him,' I remarked.

'Ah, ah, ah! Yah, ah, yah!' cried the baboon.

'Well, will you come, Sandie?'

Sandie shook his head.

'Not to-night,' said Sandie. 'Take care of yourselves, boys. Mind what the
old proverb says: "They need a lang spoon wha sup wi' the deil."'

We found the hermit at his gate, and glad he seemed to see us.

'I've been at home all the afternoon,' he said, 'cooking your dinner. Most
enjoyable work, I can assure you. All the vegetables are fresh, and even
the curry has been grown on the premises. I hope you are fond of
armadillo; that is a favourite dish of mine. But here we have roast ducks,
partridges, and something that perhaps you have never tasted before,
roast or boiled. For bread we have biscuit; for wine we have _mate_ and
milk. My goats come every night to be milked. Archie does the milking as
well as any man could. Ah, here come my dogs.'

Two deerhounds trotted up and made friends with us.

'I bought them from a roving Scot two years ago while on a visit to
Chili.'

'How about the pumas? Don't they--'

'No, they come from the trees to sleep with Rob and Rory. Even the jaguars
do not attempt to touch them. Sit down; you see I dine early. We will have
time before dusk to visit some of my pets. I hope they did not keep you
awake.'

'No, but the noise would have done so, had we not known what they were.'

Conversation never once flagged all the time we sat at table. The hermit
himself had put most of the dishes down, but Archie duly waited behind his
master's chair, and brought both the _mate_ and the milk, as well as the
fruit. This dessert was of the most tempting description; and not even at
our own _estancia_ had I tasted more delicious grapes. But there were many
kinds of fruit here we had never even seen before. As soon as we were done