fflorescence has been turned up, and scattered about by the
hoofs of the Indian horses.

They can tell by the trail that over this portion of their route the
party they are in pursuit of has not ridden in any compact or regular
order, but straggled over a wide space; so that, here and there, the
tracks of single horses show separate and apart. In the neighbourhood
of an enemy the Indians of the Chaco usually march under some sort of
formation; and Gaspar, knowing this, draws the deduction that those who
have latest passed over the _salitral_ must have been confident that no
enemy was near--either in front or following them. Possibly, also,
their experience of the _tormenta_, which must have been something
terrible on that exposed plain, had rendered them careless as to their
mode of marching.

Whatever the cause, they now, taking up their trail, do not pause to
speculate upon it, nor make any delay. On the contrary, as hounds that
have several times lost the scent, hitherto faint, but once more
recovered, and now fresher and stronger than ever, they press on with
ardour not only renewed, but heightened.

All at once, however, a shout from Cypriano interrupts the rapidity of
their progress--in short, bringing them to a halt--he himself suddenly
reigning up as he gives utterance to it. Gaspar and Ludwig turn
simultaneously towards him for an explanation. While their glances
hitherto have been straying far forward, he has been giving his
habitually to the ground more immediately under his horse's head, and to
both sides of the broad trail; his object being to ascertain if among
the many tracks of the Indians' horses, those of Francesca's pony are
still to be seen.

And sure enough he sees the diminutive hoof-marks plainly imprinted--not
at one particular place, but every here and there as they go galloping
along. It is not this, however, which elicited his cry, and caused him
to come so abruptly to a stop. Instead, something which equally
interests, while more surely proclaiming the late presence of the girl,
in that place, with the certainty of her being carried along a captive.
He has caught sight of an object which lies glistening among the white
powder of the _salitre_--whitish itself, but of a more lustrous sheen.
Pearls--a string of them, as it proves upon closer inspection! At a
glance he recognises an ornament well-known to him, as worn by his
girlish cousin; Ludwig also, soon as he sees it, crying out: