at is, coming down the river and returning up again, for
they might suppose that one of the savages was in possession of a white
man's horse, stolen from some of the settlements, a thing of no uncommon
occurrence. But then they have here likewise observed a third set of
these tracks, of older date, also going up, and a fourth, freshest of
all, returning down again; the last on top of everything else,
continuing on to the old _tolderia_, as they have noticed all the way
since leaving it.

And in their examination of the many hoof-marks by the force of the
tributary stream, up to the _sumac_ thicket--and along the _tapir_ path
to that blood-stained spot which they have just visited--the same tracks
are conspicuous amid all the others, telling that he who rode the shod
horse has had a hand in the murder, and likely a leading one.

It is the gaucho who has made most of these observations, but about the
deductions to be drawn from them, he is, for the time, as much at fault
as either of his younger companions.

They have just arrived at their present halting-place, their first camp
since leaving the _estancia_; from which they parted a little before
mid-day: soon as the sad, funeral rites were over, and the body of the
murdered man laid in its grave. This done at an early hour of the
morning, for the hot climate of the Chaco calls for quick interment.

The sorrowing wife did nought to forbid their departure. She had her
sorrows as a mother, too; and, instead of trying to restrain, she but
urged them to take immediate action in searching for her lost child.

That Francesca is still living they all believe, and so long as there
seemed a hope--even the slightest--of recovering her, the bereaved
mother was willing to be left alone. Her faithful Guanos would be with
her.

It needed no persuasive argument to send the searchers off. In their
own minds they have enough motive for haste; and, though in each it
might be different in kind, as in degree, with all it is sufficiently
strong. Not one of them but is willing to risk his life in the pursuit
they have entered upon; and at least one would lay it down rather than
fail in finding Francesca, and restoring her to her mother.

They have followed thus far on the track of the abductors, but without
any fixed or definite plan as to continuing. Indeed, there has been no
time to think of one, or anything else; all hitherto acting under that
impulse of anxiety for the girl's