nterest. They were very anxious to witness the result. They were not
kept long in suspense. I have already stated that many ants were
crawling about. There were dozens of them "quartering" the ground in
every direction in search of their own prey; and they left not an inch
of it unsearched. At last one was seen to approach the trap of the
ant-lion. Curiosity brings it to the very edge of that terrible
pit-fall. It protrudes its head and part of its body over the brink--it
is not such a terrible gulf to look into--if it should slip down, it
could easily crawl out again. Ha! it little knows the enemy that is
ambushed there. It perceives something singular--an odd something--
perhaps it might be something good to eat. It is half-resolved to slide
down and make a closer examination of this something. It is balancing
on the brink, and would, no doubt, have gone down voluntarily, but that
is no longer left to its own choice. The mysterious object at the
bottom of the funnel suddenly springs up and shows itself--it is the
ant-lion in all its hideous proportions; and before the little ant can
draw itself away, the other has flung around it a shower of sand that
brings it rolling down the side of the pit. Then the sharp callipers
are closed upon the victim--all the moisture in his body is sucked out--
and his remains, now a dry and shapeless mass, are rested for a moment
upon the head of the destroyer, and then jerked far outside the pit!

The ant-lion now dresses his trap, and, again burying himself in the
sand, awaits another victim.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

THE TATOU-POYOU AND THE DEER CARCASS.

Dona Isidora and Leona had watched all the manoeuvres of the ant-lion
with great interest, and Leona, after the bite she had had, was not in
any mood to sympathise with the ants. Indeed, she felt rather grateful
to the ant-lion, ugly as he was, for killing them.

Presently Leon returned from the woods, and was shown the trap in full
operation; but Leon, upon this day, was full of adventures that had
occurred upon the hills to himself, Guapo, and Don Pablo. In fact, he
had hastened home before the others to tell his mamma of the odd
incidents to which he had been a witness.

That morning they had discovered a new _mancha_ of cinchona-trees. When
proceeding towards them they came upon the dead carcass of a deer. It
was a large species, the _Cervus antisensis_, but, as it had evidently
been dead several days, it