aguar squarely through the heart. Then he went back to his
place in the grass, but he did not doze or dream. The Mexicans might
come, drawn by his shot, and even if they did not, a member of the
unpleasant jaguar tribe might take a notion to stalk the only available
human being in that grassy little valley.

But no Mexicans appeared, nor did he observe any other jaguar. When the
sun set, he began to feel a little uneasy about Obed. His uneasiness
increased with the darkness, but he was finally reassured by a whistle
from the head of the valley. Then he saw Obed's tall figure striding
down the slope in the dusk, and he went forward to meet him.

"I suppose you've spent the afternoon sleeping," said Obed.

"I might have done so, but we had a visitor."

"A visitor? What kind of a visitor?"

"A jaguar. He wanted to eat our horse and as the horse could not get
away, being tethered strongly, I had to shoot his jaguarship."

He showed Obed the body, and his comrade approved highly of the shot.

"And now for the history of my own life and adventures during the
afternoon," said Obed. "The country to the eastward is not rough, and I
made good time through it. Sure enough the army of Cos is there, about
five miles away, camped in a plain. It was beaten about a good deal by
the storm, and it keeps poor guard, because it is in its own country far
from any expected foe, and because the Mexicans are Mexicans. I think,
Ned, that we can lift a horse without great trouble or excessive danger.
We'll go over there about midnight."

"And we'd better take our present horse with us," said Ned, "or other
jaguars may come."

They remained in their own valley until the appointed time, and then set
out on a fairly dark night, each taking his turn at riding the horse.
They halted at the crest of a low hill, from which they saw the flash of
camp fires.

"That's Cos and his army," said Obed. "They're down there, sprawled all
about the valley, and I imagine that by this time they're all asleep,
including a majority of the sentinels, and that's our opportunity."

They tethered their own horse and crept down the slope. Soon they came
to the edge of the woods and saw the camp fires more plainly. All had
burned low, but they made out the shapes of tents, and, nearer by, a
dark mass which they concluded to be the horses belonging to the lancers
and other cavalry. They approached within a hundred yards, and saw no
sentinels by the horses, altho