y after reaching the sacred town he
breathed his last; his body being carried up and deposited upon that
aerial tomb where reposed the bleaching bones of many other caciques--
his predecessors.

His sudden seizure, with the abrupt departure following, accounts for
Halberger having had no notice of all this--Naraguana having been
delirious in his dying moments, and indeed for some time before. And
his death has caused changes in the internal affairs of the Tovas tribe,
attended with much excitement. For the form of government among these
Chaco savages is more republican than monarchical; each new cacique
having to receive his authority not from hereditary right, but by
election. His son, Aguara, however, popular with the younger warriors
of the tribe, carried the day, and has become Naraguana's successor.

Even had the hunter-naturalist been aware of these events, he might not
have seen in them any danger to himself. For surely the death of
Naraguana would not affect his relations with the Tovas tribe; at least
so far as to losing their friendship, or bringing about an estrangement.
Not likely would such have arisen, but for certain other events of more
sinister bearing, transpiring at the same period; to recount which it is
necessary for us to return still further upon time, and again go back to
Paraguay and its Dictator.

Foiled in his wicked intent, and failing to discover whither his
intended victims had fled, Francia employed for the finding of them one
of his minions--this man of most ill repute, Rufino Valdez. It did not
need the reward offered to secure the latter's zeal; for, as stated, he
too had his own old grudge against the German, brought about by a still
older and more bitter hostility to Halberger's right hand man--Gaspar,
the gaucho. With this double stimulus to action, Valdez entered upon
the prosecution of his search, after that of the soldiers had failed.
At first with confident expectation of a speedy success; for it had not
yet occurred to either him or his employer that the fugitives could have
escaped clear out of the country; a thing seemingly impossible with its
frontiers so guarded. It was only after Valdez had explored every nook
and corner of Paraguayan territory in search of them, all to no purpose,
that Francia was forced to the conclusion, they were no longer within
his dominions. But, confiding in his own interpretation of
international law, and the rights of extradition, he com