r and hunters were rolling over one another. A
second report now struck upon the ear, followed as before by the
expiring yell of the tiger, and then succeeded a profound silence, which
told that the wild scene was at an end.

The great trapper was now perceived scrambling up to the ridge--towards
which the whole of the travellers had advanced to meet him.

"See!" he said, addressing himself to his admiring auditory, "see what a
brace of Kentucky rifles and a good knife can do in the hands of those
who know how to manage them!"

The darkness, however, hindered the spectators from making out the
tableau which was exhibited at the bottom of the little valley.

A few minutes afterwards the moon lighted up the scene, and then could
be observed the dead bodies of the two tigers, stretched along the
ground by the water's edge, while the other trapper upon his knees was
engaged in bathing with cold water a long scar, which he had received
from the claws of the last killed jaguar, and which extended from behind
his ear nearly down to his waist. Fortunately this ugly-looking wound
was no more than skin-deep, and therefore not very dangerous.

"What signify the sharpest claws compared with the scratch of a knife!"
cried he, pointing to the nearest of the jaguars, whose upturned belly
exhibited a huge cut of more than a foot in length, and through which
the entrails of the animal protruded.

"Can any of you tell us," continued he, without thinking further about
his wound, "if there is a hacienda in this neighbourhood where one might
sell these two beautiful jaguar skins, as well as the hide of a panther
we've got?"

"Certainly," replied Benito, "there is the Hacienda del Venado, where we
are going. There you may get not only five dollars apiece for the
skins, but also the bounty of ten dollars more."

"What say you, Canadian?" inquired the trapper, addressing his great
comrade. "Will that do?"

"Certainly," replied the Canadian, "forty-five dollars is not to be
sneezed at; and when we have had a short nap we shall make tracks for
the hacienda. We shall be likely to get there before these gentlemen,
whose horses have taken a fancy to have a bit of a gallop, and I guess
it will be some time before they lay hands on them again."

"Don't be uneasy about us!" rejoined the ex-herdsman. "It's not the
first time I've seen a horse drove _stampedoed_, nor the first time I've
collected them again. I've not quite forgotten my