told,
but this included ten Gauchos. Nevertheless, behind trenches, with plenty
of guns, revolvers, and ammunition, they were powerful enough to defend
the position against hundreds of badly-armed Indians. Not far off was a
patch of wood which stretched downwards into a rocky ravine. Luckily it
lay on the north side of the road, and hither, as soon as it was dark
enough, every horse and mule was led and secured to the trees. Nor even in
this extremity of danger were their wants forgotten, for grass mixed with
grains was placed in front of each.

My horse was now led round. Each hoof was encased in a new and strong
_potro_ boot, secured by thongs around the legs.

'You must neither be heard nor seen,' said Moncrieff, as he pointed to
these. 'Now, good-night, boy; God be wi' ye, and with us all!'

'Amen!' I responded, earnestly.

Then away I rode in silence, through the starlight; but as I looked back
to the camp my heart gave an uneasy throb. Should I ever see them alive
again?

-----

[4] Cland, a kind of hawk.

CHAPTER XII.

ATTACK BY PAMPA INDIANS.

So lonesome a ride in the darkness of night, through a country wild and
bleak, with danger lurking perhaps on either side of me, might easily have
daunted a bolder heart than mine.

Something of the unspeakable feeling of dread I had experienced in the
_fonda_ while surrounded by those awful corpses came back to me now. I
tried to banish it, but failed. My nervousness became extreme, and
appeared to increase rather than diminish as I left the camp farther and
farther behind me. It was almost a superstitious fear that had gotten
possession of my soul. It was fear of the unseen; and even at this
distance of time I can only say I would willingly face death in open day a
hundred times over rather than endure for an hour the terrors I suffered
that night. Every bush I saw I took for a figure lurking by the roadside,
while solitary trees I had to pass assumed the form and shape and even
movement of an enemy on horseback riding silently down to meet me. Again
and again I clutched my revolver, and even now I cannot tell what power
prevented me from firing at my phantom foes. Over and over again I reined
up to listen, and at such times the wind whispering through the tall grass
sounded to me like human voices, while the cry of birds that now and then
rose startlingly close to me, made my heart beat with a violence that in
itself was painful.

Sometimes I c