y a
stratagem the bird was to be taken.

The vaquero laid hold of a long rope, and lifting the bull's hide upon
his shoulders, asked Guapo to follow him with the two horses. When he
had got out some four or five hundred yards from the hut, he simply
spread himself flat upon the ground, and drew the skin over him, the
fleshy side turned upward. There was a hollow in the ground about as
big as his body--in fact, a trench he had himself made for a former
occasion--and when lying in this on his back, his breast was about on a
level with the surrounding turf. His object in asking Guapo to
accompany him with the horses was simply a _ruse_ to deceive the
condors, who from their high elevation were all the while looking down
upon the plain. But the vaquero covered himself so adroitly with his
red blanket, that even their keen eyes could scarcely have noticed him;
and as Guapo afterwards left the ground with the led horses, the
vultures supposed that nothing remained but the skin, which from its
sanguinary colour to them appeared to be flesh.

The birds had now nothing to fear from the propinquity of the hut.
There the party were all seated quietly eating their breakfast, and
apparently taking no notice of them. In a few minutes' time, therefore,
they descended lower, and lower,--and then one of the very largest
dropped upon the ground within a few feet of the hide. After surveying
it for a moment, he appeared to see nothing suspicious about it, and
hopped a little closer. Another at this moment came to the ground--
which gave courage to the first--and this at length stalked boldly on
the hide, and began to tear at it with his great beak.

A movement was now perceived on the part of the vaquero--the hide
"lumped" up, and at the same time the wings of the condor were seen to
play and flap about as if he wanted to rise into the air, but could not.
He was evidently held by the legs!

The other bird had flown off at the first alarm, and the whole band were
soon soaring far upward into the blue heavens.

Leon now expected to see the vaquero uncover himself. Not so, however,
as yet. That wily hunter had no such intention, and although he was now
in a sitting posture, grasping the legs of the condor, yet his head and
shoulders were still enveloped in the bull's hide. He knew better than
to show his naked face to the giant vulture, that at a single "peck" of
his powerful beak would have deprived him of an eye, or otherwis