t the other
has observed the troubled look.

"What is it?" the youth goes on to ask, in a tone of eager anxiety, all
the more from seeing that the other hesitates to give the explanation.
"You've discovered something--a new danger threatens us? Come, Gaspar,
you may as well tell me of it at once."

"I intend telling you, _hijo mio_. I was only waiting till we were all
three together. For now, I think, we'll have to rouse Master Ludwig.
You've conjectured aright, as I'm sorry to say. I _have_ seen something
that's not as we would wish it. Still, it may not be so bad as I've
been making it."

Notwithstanding this hopeful proviso, Cypriano is himself now really
alarmed; and, impatient to learn what the new danger is, he stoops down
over his cousin, takes hold of his arm, and shakes him out of his
slumbers.

Ludwig, starting to his feet, confusedly inquires why he has been
disturbed. Then Gaspar, coming close to them, so that he need not speak
in a loud voice, gives an account of what he has discovered, with his
own views relating to it.

As he himself did, both the boys at once comprehend the changed
situation, with a like keen sense of the heightened danger to result
from it. Naraguana's death has extinguished all hope of help from him.
It may be both the cause and forecast of their own!

Their prospects are now gloomy indeed; but they do not idly dwell on
them, or give way to utter despondency. That would be unavailing;
besides, there is no time for it. Something must be done to meet the
altered circumstances. But what? A question to which none of them
makes an immediate answer, since none can.

For awhile all three stand silent, considering. Only a short while,
when Gaspar is again stirred to activity, by reflecting that even now
they are not safe. One of their horses, frightened by an owl that has
flapped its wings close to its face, has snorted, striking the hard
ground with his hoof, and making a noise that reverberates throughout
the cemetery, echoing among the scaffolds. What if he should set to
neighing, in answer to that which now and then comes up from the town
below? The thing is too probable, and the result manifest. A single
neigh might betray them; for what would horses be doing up there upon
the sacred hill? So would any Indian ask who should chance to hear it.

"We must muffle our animals," says Caspar. "And what's more, take them
back to the other side, where we came up. There