e animals, the jaguars.

"The prairie wolf to howl in the presence of the tiger!" muttered the
ex-herdsman. "Carramba! there's something strange about that."

"But I have heard it said," rejoined Tiburcio, "that it is the habit of
the prairie wolf to follow the jaguar when the latter is in search of
prey?"

"That is true enough," replied Benito, "but the wolf never howls so near
the tiger, till after the tiger has taken his prey and is busy devouring
it. Then his howl is a humble prayer for the other to leave him
something.

"This is strange," continued the vaquero, as the prairie wolf was heard
to utter another long whine. "Hark! another!--yes--another prairie wolf
and on the opposite side too!"

In fact, another plaintive whine, exactly resembling the first, both in
strength and cadence, was heard from a point directly opposite.

"I repeat it," said Benito, "prairie wolves would never dare to betray
themselves thus. I am greatly mistaken if it be not creatures of a
different species that make this howling, and who don't care a straw for
the jaguars."

"What creatures?" demanded Tiburcio.

"Human creatures!" answered the ex-herdsman. "American hunters from the
north."

"Trappers do you mean?"

"Precisely. There are no people in these parts likely to be so fearless
of the jaguar, and I am pretty sure that what appears to be the call of
the prairie wolf is nothing else than a signal uttered by a brace of
trappers. They are in pursuit of the jaguars; they have separated, and
by these signals they acquaint one another of their whereabouts."

Meanwhile the trappers, if such they were, appeared to advance with
considerable precaution; for although the party by the fire listened
attentively, not the slightest noise could be heard--neither the
cracking of a branch, nor the rustling of a leaf.

"Hilloa! you by the fire there!" all at once broke out from the midst of
the darkness a loud rough voice, "we are approaching you. Don't be
afraid; and don't fire your guns!"

The voice had a foreign accent, which partly confirmed the truth of the
vaquero's conjecture, and the appearance of the speaker himself proved
it to a certainty.

We shall not stay to describe the singular aspect of the new arrival--
further than to say that he was a man of herculean stature, and
accoutred in the most _bizarre_ fashion. He appeared a sort of giant
armed with a rifle--proportioned to his size--that is, having a barrel
of