By the light of the fire Don Estevan could be seen walking in the
direction whence proceeded the cries of the jaguar that was approaching
on the right. He appeared calm as if going out in search of a deer.
Tiburcio, at the aspect of the Spanish chief, felt within him that
exultation of spirit which danger produces in certain energetic natures;
but his dagger was the only weapon he possessed.
He cast a glance at the double-barrelled gun which the Senator held in
his hand, and of which the latter was likely to make a use more fatal to
his companions than to the jaguar.
On his part the Senator cast an envious look upon the safe position
which Tiburcio occupied--in the centre of the group formed by Benito and
his companions. Tiburcio read the meaning of this look.
"Senor Senator," said he, "it is not proper that you should expose your
life thus--a life valuable to the state. You have relatives--a noble
family; as for me, if I should be killed, there is no one to care for
me."
"The fact is," said the Senator, "if others set upon my life one half
the value I put upon it myself, my death would cause a great deal of
unhappiness."
"Well, senor, suppose we change places? You give me your gun, and
permit me to place my body in front of you as a rampart against the
claws of the jaguars."
This proposal was made at the moment when the two cavernous voices of
the ferocious beasts were heard loudly answering to one another. Under
the impression produced by the terrible dialogue, Tiburcio's offer was
hastily accepted. The Senator took his place; while the young man, with
sparkling eyes and firm step, advanced several paces in the direction of
the forest whence came theories of the jaguar. There he halted to
receive the attack that appeared inevitable.
Don Estevan and he appeared motionless as a pair of statues. The
unequal reflection of the fire gleamed upon these two men--whom chance
had thus strangely united--neither of whom might yield to the other in
pride or courage.
The moment was becoming critical. The two jaguars were about to find
enemies worthy of them.
The fire, now burnt down, threw out only a pale light, scarce strong
enough to illumine the group that stood near its edge.
At this moment an incident occurred which was likely to cause a change
in the situation of affairs. In the midst of an interval of silence--in
which the very stillness itself increased the apprehension of the
travellers--was heard the long lugubrious whine of a prairie wolf.
Melancholy as was this sound, it was sweet in comparison with the cries
of the more formidable animals, the jaguars.
"The prairie wolf to howl in the presence of the tiger!" muttered the
ex-herdsman. "Carramba! there's something strange about that."
"But I have heard it said," rejoined Tiburcio, "that it is the habit of
the prairie wolf to follow the jaguar when the latter is in search of
prey?"
"That is true enough," replied Benito, "but the wolf never howls so near
the tiger, till after the tiger has taken his prey and is busy devouring
it. Then his howl is a humble prayer for the other to leave him
something.
"This is strange," continued the vaquero, as the prairie wolf was heard
to utter another long whine. "Hark! another!--yes--another prairie wolf
and on the opposite side too!"
In fact, another plaintive whine, exactly resembling the first, both in
strength and cadence, was heard from a point directly opposite.
"I repeat it," said Benito, "prairie wolves would never dare to betray
themselves thus. I am greatly mistaken if it be not creatures of a
different species that make this howling, and who don't care a straw for
the jaguars."
"What creatures?" demanded Tiburcio.
"Human creatures!" answered the ex-herdsman. "American hunters from the
north."
"Trappers do you mean?"
"Precisely. There are no people in these parts likely to be so fearless
of the jaguar, and I am pretty sure that what appears to be the call of
the prairie wolf is nothing else than a signal uttered by a brace of
trappers. They are in pursuit of the jaguars; they have separated, and
by these signals they acquaint one another of their whereabouts."
Meanwhile the trappers, if such they were, appeared to advance with
considerable precaution; for although the party by the fire listened
attentively, not the slightest noise could be heard--neither the
cracking of a branch, nor the rustling of a leaf.
"Hilloa! you by the fire there!" all at once broke out from the midst of
the darkness a loud rough voice, "we are approaching you. Don't be
afraid; and don't fire your guns!"
The voice had a foreign accent, which partly confirmed the truth of the
vaquero's conjecture, and the appearance of the speaker himself proved
it to a certainty.
We shall not stay to describe the singular aspect of the new arrival--
further than to say that he was a man of herculean stature, and
accoutred in the most _bizarre_ fashion. He appeared a sort of giant
armed with a rifle--proportioned to his size--that is, having a barrel
of thick heavy metal nearly six feet in length.
As he approached the group his sharp eye soon took in the different
individuals that composed it, and rested with a satisfied look on the
form of Tiburcio.
"The devil take that fire of yours!" he said abruptly, but in a tone of
good-humour. "It has frightened away from us two of the most beautiful
jaguars that ever roamed about these deserts."
"Frightened them away!" exclaimed Baraja. "_Carramba_! I hope that may
be true!"
"Will you allow me to put the fire out?" inquired the new-comer.
"Put out the fire--our only safeguard!" cried the astonished Senator.
"Your only safeguard!" repeated the trapper, equally astonished, as he
pointed with his finger around him. "What! eight men wanting a fire for
a safeguard against two poor tigers! You are surely making game of me!"
"Who are you, sir?" demanded Don Estevan, in a haughty tone.
"A hunter--as you see."
"Hunter, of what?"
"My comrade and I trap the beaver, hunt the wolf, the tiger--or an
Indian, if need be."
"Heaven has sent you then to deliver us from these fierce animals," said
Cuchillo, showing himself in front.
"Not very likely," replied the trapper, whose first impression of the
outlaw was evidently an unfavourable one. "Heaven I fancy had nothing
to do with it. My comrade and I at about two leagues from here chanced
upon a panther and two jaguars, quarrelling over the body of a dead
horse."
"I re was mine," interrupted Tiburcio.
"Yours, young man!" continued the trapper, in a tone of rude cordiality.
"Well, I am glad to see you here, for we thought that the owner of the
horse might be no longer among the living. The panther we killed, but
the two jaguars made off, and we tracked them hither to the spring,
which your fire now hinders them from approaching. Therefore, if you
wish to be rid of these beasts, the sooner you put out the fire the
better; and you will see how soon we shall disembarrass you of their
presence."
"And your comrade?" asked Don Estevan, struck with the idea of making a
brace of valuable recruits. "Where is he?"
"He'll be here presently; but to the work, else we must leave you to get
out of your scrape as you best can."
There was a certain authority in the tone and words of the trapper--a
cool assurance that produced conviction--and upon his drawing near to
put out the fire, Don Estevan did not offer to hinder him, but tacitly
permitted him to have his way.
In a few seconds the burnt fagots were scattered about over the grass,
and the cinders quenched by a few buckets of water drawn from the
trough. This done the trapper uttered an imitation of the voice of the
coyote; and before its echoes had died away, his companion stepped
forward upon the ground.
Although the second trapper was by no means a man of low stature,
alongside his companion he appeared only a pigmy. He was not less
strangely accoutred, but in the absence of the firelight his costume was
not sufficiently visible for its style to be distinguished. Of him and
his dress we shall hereafter speak more particularly.
"At last your devilish fire is out," said he, as he came up, "for the
want of wood, no doubt, which none of you dared to go fetch."
"No, that is not the reason," hastily replied the first trapper; "I got
leave from these gentlemen to put it out--so that we may have an
opportunity to rid them of the presence of the tigers."
"Hum!" murmured the Senator; "I fear we have done wrong in letting the
fire be put out. Suppose you miss them?"
"Miss them! _Por Dios_! how?" cried the second trapper. "_Caspita_!
If I had not been afraid to frighten off one of the beasts, I could have
killed the other long ago. Several times I had him at the muzzle of my
carbine, when the signal of my comrade hindered me from firing. Miss
them indeed!"
"Never mind!" interrupted the great trapper; "we shall end the matter, I
have no doubt, by convincing this gentleman."
"You already knew, then, that we were here?" said Baraja.
"Of course. We have been two hours involuntarily playing the spy upon
you. Ah! I know a part of the country where travellers that take no
more precautions than you would soon find their heads stripped of the
skin. But come, Dormilon! to our work!"
"What if the jaguars come our way?" suggested the Senator,
apprehensively.
"No fear of that," replied the trapper. "Their first care will be to
satisfy their thirst, which your fire has hindered them from doing. You
will hear them howling with joy, as soon as they perceive that the fire
is gone out. It was the light shining upon the water that frightened
them more than the presence of men. All they want now is to get a
drink."
"But how do you intend to act?" inquired Don Estevan.
"How do we intend to act?" repeated the second trapper. "That is simple
enough. We shall place ourselves in the cistern--the jaguars will come
forward to its brink; and then, if we are only favoured by a blink of
the moon, I'll answer for it that in the twinkling of an eye the brutes
will neither feel hunger nor thirst."
"Ah, this appears very simple!" cried Cuchillo, who was in reality
astonished at the simplicity of the plan.
"Simple as bidding `good-bye' to you," humorously responded one of the
trappers. "Listen there!--what did I tell you?"
Two loud roars, as if from a brazen trumpet, were heard at the moment.
They appeared to proceed from the same point, proving that the jaguars
had joined company; and, moreover, proclaimed the joy which the fierce
creatures felt at the darkness being restored. This was further evident
from their repeated sniffing of the air, like horses who afar off scent
with delight the fresh emanations of the water.
At this the two trappers, leaving the party by the fire, betook
themselves to the cistern. The moon, for a moment shining out, glanced
upon the barrels of their long rifles; but the next moment they had
disappeared behind the ridge that surrounded the spring.
No doubt it is a grand pleasure to witness the spectacle of a
bull-fight, as the huge bull dashes into the ring, and, pierced by the
tormenting _bandrilleros_, with a crest erect, and eyes flashing fire,
bounds over the arena. But, if the spectators were not separated from
the actors by an impassable barrier, the sight would have in it less of
enjoyment than of terror. The combats between men and tigers--which the
Romans used to enjoy--must have been a still more exciting spectacle;
but who can doubt that, if the iron railing which separated the audience
from the combatants had been removed, scarce one of the former would
have remained in the circus to witness the sanguinary struggle?
Only a short space--not wider than a jaguar could have passed over in a
single leap--here separated the spectators from the actors in the drama
about to be enacted. Supposing, then, that one of the actors should
fail in performing his part, and the spectators have to take his place?
Here was a situation, exceptional, and fertile in emotions, which most
of the travellers felt keenly at the moment.
Meanwhile the trappers had descended into the little crater-like valley
of the spring, and there placed themselves in readiness, rifle in hand,
to await the approach of their terrible adversaries. They were both
upon their knees, back to back, in order that they could keep at the
same time under view the whole circumference of the circle. Both had
placed their knives in readiness, in case that, by any chance, they
should either miss their aim, or--what would be almost as unlucky--only
wound the enemy; for they well knew that a wounded jaguar is a more
dangerous adversary than one that escapes altogether from the touch of
the bullet.
Fortunately the moon had again appeared; but being yet low down in the
sky, her beams were not thrown into the bottom of the valley--and
therefore the trappers themselves were still under the shadow. This
circumstance was in their favour.
Notwithstanding the perilous position in which they had thus voluntarily
placed themselves, neither made the slightest movement; and the long
barrels of their rifles stood forth in front of them, as motionless as
bronze cannon set in battery.
They well knew, in case either should miss with their firearms, that a
hand-to-hand struggle with the ferocious tigers would be the result; a
combat of knives and claws--a combat to the death. Yes; at the bottom
of that little valley it would be necessary for them to conquer or die.
They knew this without exhibiting the slightest show of fear.