s; being
an Indian as the others, and, like them, quite a youth, to all
appearance the youngest of the party. Yet also their chief, by reason
of his richer and grander dress; his attire being of the most
picturesque and costly kind worn by the Chaco savages. Covering his
body, from the breast to half-way down his thighs, is a sort of
loosely-fitting tunic of white cotton stuff. Sleeveless, it leaves his
arm bare from nigh the shoulder to the wrist, around which glistens a
bracelet with the sheen of solid gold. His limbs also are bare, save a
sort of gartering below the knee, of shell and bead embroidery. On his
head is a fillet band ornamented in like manner, with bright plumes, set
vertically around it--the tail-feathers of the _guacamaya_, one of the
most superb of South American parrots. But the most distinctive article
of his apparel is his _manta_, a sort of cloak of the _poncho_ kind,
hanging loosely behind his back, but altogether different from the
well-known garment of the gauchos, which is usually woven from wool.
That on the shoulders of the young Indian is of no textile fabric, but
the skin of a fawn, tanned and bleached to the softness and whiteness of
a dress kid glove, the outward side being elaborately feather-worked in
flowers and patterns, the feathers obtained from many a bird of gay
plumage.

Of form perfectly symmetrical, the young Indian, save for his
complexion, would seem a sort of Apollo, or Hyperion on horseback; while
he who rides alongside him, withal that his skin is white, or once was,
might well be likened to the Satyr. A man over thirty years of age,
tall, and of tough, sinewy frame, with a countenance of the most
sinister cast, dressed gaucho fashion, with the wide petticoat breeches
lying loose about his limbs, a striped _poncho_ over his shoulders, and
a gaudy silken kerchief tied turban-like around his temples. But no
gaucho he, nor individual of any honest calling: instead, a criminal of
deepest dye, experienced in every sort of villainy. For this man is
Rufino Valdez, well-known in Assuncion as one of Francia's familiars,
and more than suspected of being one of his most dexterous _assassins_.

CHAPTER SIX.

AN OLD ENEMY IN A NEW PLACE.

Could the hunter-naturalist but know what has really occurred in the
Tovas tribe, and the nature of the party now approaching, he would not
stay an instant longer on the banks of that branch stream; instead,
hasten back home with hi