as to fly in the face of public
opinion; for were these aware of what has really taken place, it would
go ill with him. But as yet they are not; silence having been enjoined
on the youths who accompanied him in that ill-starred expedition, which
they, for their own sakes, have hitherto been careful to keep.

For all, certain facts have come to light in disjointed, fragmentary
form, with deductions drawn from them, which go hard against the
character of the young _cacique_; and as the hours pass others are
added, until discontent begins to show itself among the older and more
prominent men of the tribe, chiefly those who were the friends of his
father. For these were also friends of her father, now alike
fatherless, though made so by a more cruel fate. Low murmurings are
here and there heard, which speak of an intent to prosecute inquiry on
the subject of Halberger's assassination--even to the carrying it into
Paraguay. Now that they have re-entered into amity with Paraguay's
Dictator, they may go thither, though the purpose be a strange one; to
arraign the commissioner who acted in restoring the treaty!

With much whispering and murmurs around, it is not strange that the
young _cacique_, while dreaming of future pleasures, should also have
fears for that future. His own passion, wild as wicked, has brought him
into danger, and a storm seems brewing that, sooner or later, may
deprive him of his chieftainship.

CHAPTER FORTY FOUR.

AN INDIAN BELLE.

If the Tovas chief be in danger of receiving punishment from his people
for carrying into captivity the daughter of his father's friend, there
is also danger to the captive herself from another and very different
source. Just as the passion of love has been the cause of her being
brought to the Sacred Town of the Tovas, that of jealousy is like to be
the means of her there finding an early grave.

The jealous one is an Indian girl, named Nacena, the daughter of a
sub-chief, who, like Naraguana himself, was an aged man held in high
regard; and, as the deceased _cacique_, now also sleeping his last sleep
in one of their scaffold tombs.

Despite her bronzed skin, Nacena is a beautiful creature; for the brown
is not so deep as to hinder the crimson blush showing its tint upon her
cheeks; and many a South American maiden, boasting the blue blood of
Andalusia, has a complexion less fair than she. As on this same evening
she sits by the shore of the lake, on the tr