tains; but the Andes are composed of a great number of
salient peaks, so that inaccessible precipices were constantly rising
before them.

Nevertheless they soon found the trees of inferior levels; the llamas,
the vigonias, which feed on the thin grass, announced the neighborhood
of men. Sometimes they met _gauchos_ conducting their _arias_ of mules;
and more than one _capataz_ (leader of a convoy) exchanged fresh animals
for their exhausted ones.

In this manner they reached the immense virgin forests which cover the
plains situated between Peru and Brazil; they began thenceforth to
recover traces of the captors; and it was in the midst of these
inextricable woods that Martin Paz recovered all his Indian sagacity.

Courage returned to the Spaniard, strength returned to Liberta, when a
half-extinct fire and prints of footsteps proved the proximity of their
enemies. Martin Paz noted all and studied all, the breaking of the
little branches, the nature of the vestiges.

Don Vegal feared lest his unfortunate daughter should have been dragged
on foot through the stones and thorns; but the Indian showed him some
pebbles strongly imbedded in the earth, which indicated the pressure of
an animal's foot; above, branches had been pushed aside in the same
direction, which could have been reached only by a person on horseback.
The poor father comforted himself and recovered life and hope, and then
Martin Paz was so confident, so skillful, so strong, that there were for
him neither impassable obstacles nor insurmountable perils.

Nevertheless immense forests contracted the horizon around them, and
trees multiplied incessantly before their fatigued eyes.

One evening, while the darkness was gathering beneath the opaque
foliage, Martin Paz, Liberta and Don Vegal were compelled by fatigue to
stop. They had reached the banks of a river; it was the river Madeira,
which the Indian recognized perfectly; immense mangrove trees bent
above the sleeping wave and were united to the trees on the opposite
shore by capricious _lianes_ (vines), on which were balancing the
_titipaying_ and the _concoulies_.

Had the captors ascended the banks? had they descended the course of the
river? had they crossed it in a direct line? Such were the questions
with which Martin Paz puzzled himself. He stepped a little aside from
his companions, following with infinite difficulty some fugitive tracks;
these brought him to a clearing a little less gloomy. So