ocating, instead of entering one of the huts,
he unsaddled his horse, permitted the animal to go at will, and by the
trunk of one of the tamarinds climbed up into the hammock. There,
stretching himself, he lay a good while listening attentively, in hopes
of hearing some sound that might announce the approach of the promised
succour.

It was now dark night. All nature had gone to sleep; and the profound
silence was unbroken by any sound that resembled the tramp of a horse.
Nothing was heard to indicate the approach of the expected relief.

As the student continued to listen, however, he became sensible of
sounds, of a singular and mysterious character. There was a continuous
noise, like the rumbling of distant thunder, or the roaring of the ocean
during a storm. Although the air was calm around him, he fancied he
could hear a strong wind blowing at a distance, mingled with hoarse
bellowings of unearthly voices!

Affrighted by these inexplicable noises--which seemed the warning voices
of an approaching tempest--he lay for a while awake; but fatigue
overcoming him, he sunk at length into a profound sleep.

CHAPTER FIVE.

BLACK AND RED.

On that same evening, and about an hour before sunset, two men made
their appearance on the banks of a small river that traversed the
country not far from the group of huts where the traveller had halted--
at a point about halfway between them and the hacienda Las Palmas.

At the place where the two men appeared upon its banks, the river in
question ran through the middle of a narrow valley; flowing so gently
along, that its unrippled surface mirrored the blue sky. At this place
the water filled its channel up to the level of the banks, that were
treeless, and covered with a sward of grass. Farther down trees grew
along the edge of the stream--tall oaks and cotton woods, whose branches
were interlaced by flowering llianas. Still farther down, the river
entered between high banks of wilder appearance, and covered with yet
more luxuriant vegetation. From the grassy meadow, in which the two men
were standing, the noise of a cataract, like the breaking of the sea
upon a rocky beach, was distinctly audible.

The complexion and costume of one of the men pronounced him an Indian.
The former was a copper-brown, the well-known colour of the American
aboriginal. His dress consisted of a coarse shirt of greyish woollen
stuff, rayed with black stripes. Its short sleeves, scarce r