nticleer--to tell that another day is dawning upon the Chaco.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

THE "LOST BALL."

Travellers on such an errand as that which is carrying the gaucho and
his youthful companions across the Chaco, do not lie abed late; and they
are up and stirring as the first streak of blue-grey light shows itself
above the horizon.

Again a tiny fire is kindled; the kettle hung over it; and the _mates_,
with the _bombillas_, called into requisition.

The breakfast is just as was their supper--cold mutton, corn bread, and
_yerba_ tea.

By the time they have despatched it, which they do in all haste, it is
clear enough to permit of their taking up the trail they have been
following. So, saddling their horses, they return to, and proceed along
it.

As hitherto, it continues up the bank of the Pilcomayo, and at intervals
they observe the tracks of Francesca's pony, where they have not been
trampled out by the other horses behind. And, as on the preceding day,
they see the hoof-marks of the shod animal, both going and returning--
the return track evidently the more recently made. They notice them,
however, only up to a certain point--about twenty miles beyond the
crossing-place of that tributary stream, now so full of sad interest to
them. Here, in a grove of _algarobias_, they come upon the spot where
those they are in pursuit of must have made their night bivouac; this
told by some fragments of food lying scattered around, and the grass
burnt in two places--large circular discs where their camp-fires had
been kindled. The fires are out, and the ashes cold now; for that must
have been two nights before.

Dismounting, they too make halt by the _algarobia_ grove--partly to
breathe their horses, which have been all the morning kept at top speed,
through their anxiety to overtake the Indians--but more for the sake of
giving examination to the abandoned camp, in the hope that something
left there may lead to further elucidation of the crime and its causes;
possibly enable them to determine, beyond doubt, who have been its
perpetrators.

At first nothing is found to give them the slightest clue; only the
ashes and half-burned faggots of the fires, with some bits of _sipos_--
which have been cut from creeping plants entwining the trees overhead--
the corresponding pieces, in all likelihood, having been used as rope
tackle for some purpose the gaucho cannot guess. These, and the
fragments of food already refer