as enough; he ran along the road harder than ever,
and never paused till he was safe in his own room.

With the earliest rays of dawn he went back to the forest to see
whether he could find any traces of the Yara, but though he searched
every clump of bushes, and looked up every tree, everything was empty,
and the only voices he heard were those of parrots, which are so ugly
that they only drive people away.

'I think I must be mad,' he said to himself, 'and have dreamt all that
folly'; and going back to the city he began his daily work. But either
that was harder than usual, or he must be ill, for he could not fix
his mind upon it, and everybody he came across during the day inquired
if anything had happened to give him that white, frightened look.

'I must be feverish,' he said to himself; 'after all, it is rather
dangerous to take a cold bath when one is feeling so hot.' Yet he
knew, while he said it, that he was counting the hours for night to
come, that he might return to the forest.

In the evening he went as usual to the creeper-covered house. But he
had better have stayed away, as his face was so pale and his manner so
strange, that the poor girl saw that something terrible had occurred.
Alonzo, however, refused to answer any of her questions, and all
she could get was a promise to hear everything next day.

[Illustration: THE YARA DEFEATED]

On pretence of a violent headache, he left Julia much earlier than
usual and hurried quickly home. Taking down a pistol, he loaded it and
put it in his belt, and a little before midnight he stole out on the
tips of his toes, so as to disturb nobody. Once outside he hastened
down the road which led to the forest.

He did not stop till he had reached the river pool, when, holding the
pistol in his hand, he looked about him. At every little noise--the
falling of a leaf, the rustle of an animal in the bushes, the cry of a
night-bird--he sprang up and cocked his pistol in the direction of the
sound. But though the moon still shone he saw nothing, and by and by a
kind of dreamy state seemed to steal over him as he leant against a
tree.

How long he remained in this condition he could not have told, but
suddenly he awoke with a start, on hearing his name uttered softly.

'Who is that?' he cried, standing upright instantly; but only an echo
answered him. Then his eyes grew fascinated with the dark waters of
the pool close to his feet, and he looked at it as if he could