d. The trees
cover the sides of a little mound, or hillock; none growing upon its
summit, which is a grassy glade. And as the dust has either not settled
on it, or been washed off by the rain, the herbage is clean and green,
so too the foliage of the trees overshadowing it.

"The very place for a comfortable camp," says Gaspar, after inspecting
it--the others agreeing with him to the echo.

Having returned to the ford for their horses, and led them up to the
chosen ground, they are proceeding to strip the animals of their
respective caparisons, when, lo! the _alparejas_, and other things,
which were attached to the croup of Ludwig's saddle, and should still be
on it, are not there! All are gone--shaken off, no doubt, while the
animal was plunging about in the stream--and with as little uncertainty
now lying amidst the mud at its bottom.

As in these very saddle-bags was carried their commissariat--_yerba,
charqui_, maize-bread, onions, and everything, and as over the
cantle-peak hung their kettle, skillet, _mates_ and _bombillas_, the
loss is a lamentable one; in short, leaving them without a morsel to
eat, or a vessel to cook with, had they comestibles ever so abundant!

At first they talk of going back to the ford, and making search for the
lost chattels. But it ends only in talk; they have had enough of that
crossing-place, so dangerously beset by those _demonios_, as Gaspar in
his anger dubs the electric eels. For though his courage is as that of
a lion, he does not desire to make further acquaintance with the
mysterious monsters. Besides, there is no knowing in what particular
spot the things were dropped; this also deterring them from any attempt
to enter upon a search. The stream at its crossing-place is quite a
hundred yards in width, and by this time the articles of metal, as the
heavily-weighted saddle-bags, will have settled down below the surface,
perhaps trampled into its slimy bed by the horse himself in his
convulsive struggles. To seek them now would be like looking for a
needle in a stack of straw. So the idea is abandoned; and for this
night they must resign themselves to going supperless.

Fortunately, none of the three feels a-hungered; their dinner being as
yet undigested. Besides, Gaspar is not without hope that something may
turn up to reprovision them, ere the sun goes down. Just possible, the
soldier-cranes may come back to the ford, and their fishing, so that
another, with full