od-tracks, and obliterate them.

All this while Halberger and his child are within twenty paces of the
spot, and seated in their saddles, as when they first drew up side by
side. Screened by the trees, they see the Indians, themselves
unobserved, while they can distinctly hear every word said. Only two of
the party speak aloud, the young cacique and his paleface companion;
their speech, of course, relating to the newly-discovered "sign."

After dismounting, and for a few seconds examining it, Valdez leaps back
into his saddle with a show of haste, as if he would at once start off
upon the trail of horse and pony.

"There have been only the two here--that's plain," he says. "Father and
daughter, you think? What a pity we didn't get up in time to bid
`good-day' to them! 'Twould have simplified matters much. You'd then
have had your young chick to carry to the cage you intend for it,
without the mother bird to make any bother or fluttering in your face;
while I might have executed my commission sooner than expected."

"_Carramba_!" he continues after a short while spent in considering.
"They can't have gone very far as yet. You say it's quite twenty miles
to the place where the _gringo_ has his headquarters. If so, and
they've not been in a great hurry to get home--which like enough the
girl would, since her dear Cypriano don't appear to be along--we may
come up with them by putting on speed. Let us after them at once! What
say you?"

The young Indian, passive in the hands of the older and more hardened
sinner, makes neither objection nor protest. Instead, stung by the
allusion to "dear Cypriano," he is anxious as the other to come up with
the pony and its rider. So, without another word, he springs back upon
his horse, declaring his readiness to ride on.

With eyes directed downward, they keep along the return tracks; having
already observed that these come no farther than the ford, and turn back
by the water's edge--

"Aha!" exclaims the _vaqueano_, pulling up again ere he has proceeded
three lengths of his horse; "they've left the trail here, and turned off
up stream! That wouldn't be their route home, would it?"

"No," answers Aguara. "Their nearest way's along the river, down as far
as our old _tolderia_. After that--"

"Sh!" interrupts the Paraguayan, leaning over, and speaking in a
cautious whisper, "Did you not hear something? Like the chinking of a
bitt curb? I shouldn't wonder if they'r