d dry plains and open woods; that he would watch over
her and care for her there as he had cared for her mother at Riolama.

When the substance of this speech had been made known by Rima to the
dying woman, she suddenly rose up from her couch, which she had not
risen from for many days, and stood erect on the floor, her wasted face
shining with joy. Then Nuflo knew that God's angels had come for her,
and put out his arms to save her from falling; and even while he held
her that sudden glory went out from her face, now of a dead white like
burnt-out ashes; and murmuring something soft and melodious, her spirit
passed away.

Once more Nuflo became a wanderer, now with the fragile-looking little
Rima for companion, the sacred child who had inherited the position
of his intercessor from a sacred mother. The priest, who had probably
become infected with Nuflo's superstitions, did not allow them to leave
Voa empty-handed, but gave the old man as much calico as would serve
to buy hospitality and whatsoever he might require from the Indians for
many a day to come.

At Parahuari, where they arrived safely at last, they lived for some
little time at one of the villages. But the child had an instinctive
aversion to all savages, or possibly the feeling was derived from her
mother, for it had shown itself early at Voa, where she had refused to
learn their language; and this eventually led Nuflo to go away and live
apart from them, in the forest by Ytaioa, where he made himself a
house and garden. The Indians, however, continued friendly with him and
visited him with frequency. But when Rima grew up, developing into that
mysterious woodland girl I found her, they became suspicious, and in
the end regarded her with dangerously hostile feeling. She, poor child,
detested them because they were incessantly at war with the wild animals
she loved, her companions; and having no fear of them, for she did not
know that they had it in their minds to turn their little poisonous
arrows against herself, she was constantly in the woods frustrating
them; and the animals, in league with her, seemed to understand her
note of warning and hid themselves or took to flight at the approach of
danger. At length their hatred and fear grew to such a degree that they
determined to make away with her, and one day, having matured a plan,
they went to the wood and spread themselves two and two about it. The
couples did not keep together, but moved about or rem