d sees that neither have the others, nor
yet made any noise to account for the behaviour of the birds.

"What can have frightened them?" is the question he would ask, when
casting his eyes upward he perceives what has done it--their smoke of
their camp-fire! The blue stream ascending over the tops of the trees,
as if out of a chimney, had just then, for the first time, been caught
sight of by the ostriches, sending them off in quick scare. Nor strange
it should, being a spectacle to which the wild denizens of the Chaco are
not accustomed, or only familiar with as denoting an enemy near--their
greatest enemy, man.

"_Maldita sea_!" exclaims the gaucho, as the birds show their backs to
him, an exclamation morally the reverse of that he uttered on seeing
them with heads turned the opposite way. "That confounded fire! what a
pity we kindled it! the thing's done us out of our breakfast. Stay!
no."

The negative ejaculation comes from his perceiving that the ostriches,
instead of rushing onwards in long rapid strides, as they had started,
are gradually shortening step and slackening the pace. And while he
continues looking after them, they again come to a stop, and stand
gazing back at the dark blue pillar of smoke rising spirally against the
lighter blue background of sky. But now they appear to regard it less
with alarm than curiosity; and even this after a time wearing off, they
once more lower their beaks, and return to browsing, just as a couple of
common geese, or rather a goose and gander. For all, they do not yet
seem quite tranquillised, every now and then their heads going up with a
suddenness, which tells that their former feeling of security is not
restored; instead, replaced by uneasy suspicions that things are not as
they ought to be.

"Our guns will be of no use now," says Gaspar, laying his own aside. "I
know the nature of _avestruz_ well enough to say for certain, that,
after the scare they've had they'll stay shy for several hours, and
'twill be impossible to approach them; that is, near enough for the
longest-range gun we've got. And to run them down with our horses would
be to lose a day's journey at least. We can't afford that, for the sake
of a bit of breakfast. No, 'twould never do. We'll have to go without,
or else, after all, break our fast upon these beans."

Saying which, he glances up to the _algarobias_, from which the long
siliques droop down in profusion, more plentiful than tem