rable than such company.

The vaquero crawled back into the hut, and in a few minutes returned,
but so metamorphosed, that had the party not seen him come out of the
doorway they would have mistaken him for a llama! He was completely
disguised in the skin of one of these animals. His face only was partly
visible, and his eyes looked out of the breast. The head and neck of the
skin, stuffed with some light substance, stood up and forward, after the
manner of the living animal, and although the legs were a little clumsy,
yet it would have required a more intelligent creature than the vicuna
to have observed this defect.

All hands, even the saturnine Guapo, laughed loudly at the counterfeit,
and the vaquero himself was heard to chuckle through the long wool upon
the breast. He did not lose time, however, but instantly prepared to set
off. He needed no other preparation than to get hold of his
_bolas_,--that was his favourite weapon. Before going farther, I shall
tell you what sort of weapon it is.

The bolas consist of three balls--hence the name--of lead or stone, two
of them heavier than the third. Each ball is fastened to the end of a
stout thong made of twisted sinews of the vicuna itself, and the other
ends of the three thongs are joined together. In using them the hunter
holds the lightest ball in his hand, and twirls the other two in circles
around his head, until they have attained the proper velocity, when he
takes aim and launches them forth.

Through the air fly the thongs and balls, and all whirling round in
circles, until they strike some object; and if that object be the legs
of an animal, the thongs become immediately warped around them, until
the animal is regularly hoppled, and in attempting to escape comes at
once to the ground. Of course great practice is required before such an
instrument can be used skilfully; and to the novice there is some danger
of one of the balls hitting him a crack on the head, and knocking over
himself instead of the game. But there was no danger of Guapo's friend
the vaquero committing this blunder. He had been swinging the bolas
around his head for more than forty years!

Without more ado, then, he seized the weapon, and, having gathered it
with his _fore-feet_ into a portable shape, he proceeded in the
direction of the vicunas.

The travellers remained by the hut, watching him with interest, but his
movements were particularly interesting to Leon, who, like all boys, w