olding their horses to windward. And all the while there is lightning
and thunder, the last loud and rolling continuously. At length the
wind, still keenly cold, is accompanied by a sleety rain, which pours
upon them in torrents, chill as if coming direct from the snowy slopes
of the Cordilleras--as in all likelihood it does.

They know that this is a sign of the _tormenta_ approaching its end,
which soon after arrives; terminating almost as abruptly as it had
begun. The dust disappears from the sky, that which has settled on the
ground now covering its surface with a thick coating of mud--converted
into this by the rain--while the sun again shines forth in all its
glory, in a sky bright and serene as if cloud had never crossed it!

The _tormenta_ is over, or has passed on to another part of the great
Chaco plain.

And now the Tovas youths, their naked skins well washed by the shower,
and glistening like bronze fresh from the furnace--some of them,
however, bleeding from the scratches they have received--spring upon
their feet, re-adjust the _jergas_ on the backs of their horses, and
once more remount.

Then their young chief, by the side of the captive girl, having returned
to his place at their head, they forsake that spot of painful
experience, and continue their journey so unexpectedly interrupted.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

A RUSH FOR SHELTER.

It is scarce necessary to say, that the storm that over took the Indian
party was the same of which the barometer-tree had given warning to
Gaspar and his young companions. But although many a long league
separated the Indians from those following upon their trail, and it
would take the latter at least another day to reach the spot where the
former had met the _tormenta_, both were beset by it within less than
half-an-hour of the same time. The Indians first, of course, since it
came from the quarter towards which all were travelling, and therefore
in the teeth of pursuers as pursued.

But the trackers were not called upon to sustain its shock, as those
they were tracking up. Instead of its coming upon them in an exposed
situation, before its first puffs became felt they were safe out of
harm's way, having found shelter within the interior of a cavern. It
was this Gaspar alluded to when saying, he knew of a place that would
give them an asylum. For the gaucho had been twice over this ground
before--once on a hunting excursion in the company of his late maste