I've heard say that Naraguana, just
before his death, in his last words, left a command we should all stand
by the palefaced stranger, her father, and protect him and his against
every enemy, as long as they remained in the Chaco. Strange protection
we've given him! Instead, help to the man who has been his murderer!
And now returning home, with his daughter a captive! What will our
people think of all this? Some of them, I know, were as much the white
man's friend almost as Naraguana himself. Besides, they won't like the
old cacique's dying injunction having been thus disregarded. I tell
you, there'll be trouble when we get back."

"No fear. Our young chief is too popular and powerful. He'll not find
any one to oppose his will; which, as I take it, is to make this little
paleface his wife, and our queen. Well, I can't help envying him; she's
such a sweet thing. But won't the Tovas maidens go mad with jealousy!
I know one--that's Nacena--"

The dialogue is interrupted by a shout heard from one who rides near the
front of the troop. It is a cry as of alarm, and is so understood by
all; at the same time all comprehending that the cause is something seen
afar off.

In an instant every individual of the party springs up from his sitting
posture, and stands erect upon the back of his horse, gazing out over
the plain. The corpse alone lies still; the captive girl also keeping
her seat, to all seeming heedless of what has startled them, and caring
not what new misfortune may be in store for her. Her cup of sorrow is
already full, and she recks not if it run over.

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.

CAUGHT IN A DUST-STORM.

At the crisis described, the Indian party is no longer travelling upon
the Pilcomayo's bank, nor near it. They have parted from it at a point
where the river makes one of its grand curves, and are now crossing the
neck of the peninsula embraced within its windings. This isthmus is in
width at least twenty miles, and of a character altogether different
from the land lying along the river's edge. In short, a sterile,
treeless expanse, or "travesia"--for such there are in the Chaco--not
barren because of infertility in the soil, but from the want of water to
fertilise it. Withal, it is inundated at certain periods of the year by
the river's overflow, but in the dry season parched by the rays of a
tropical sun. Its surface is then covered with a white efflorescence,
which resembles a heavy hoar f