Crawling on his belly, the Quiteño patiently worked his way towards the nearest horse, and no sooner did the animal turn his back on him, than he sprang up, and the noose had secured him. So far, so good; but did Diego expect the animal to follow him like a pup on the lead, or a donkey in the shafts? thought the Consul. The horse gave a wild spring, and, for a second, the Indian was almost dragged off his feet; then he began to "play" his capture. Diego was a fine-looking man, over six feet high, and with limbs as hard as a stone, though they were so slender; and he had no hesitation in pitting his own strength against the horse's. With infinite patience he stood, the centre of a circle, while the frightened creature ran off his first fit of energy, round and round his captor; then, having spied a clump of trees not far away, the Quiteño let himself be dragged towards these; and, before the horse had realised that he was running to his doom, the lasso had taken a turn round the nearest trunk and was soon hitched there immovable. By morning the prisoner was in a humbler frame of mind, and, under pressure, submitted to be loose-hobbled; Diego vaulted on to his back without thought of saddle or bridle, and, holding his mane, buffeted him so mercilessly over the face and withers, that Hutchinson was tempted to serve him the same. Less than half an hour of this management made the animal sufficiently tractable to submit to being saddled; and, with the skid-pan stirrups, the rest was perfectly easy--and disgusting. CHAPTER XXVII BUSINESS AND PLEASURE ON THE LLANOS South America is the land of revolution and civil war, and Venezuela has not been far behind the other republics in its indulgence in such pastimes. In 1864, five out of seven provinces that had been enrolled the previous year seceded, and the Commander-in-Chief, General Paez, was kept busy between subduing seceders and warding off Colombian invasion. It is common enough to find an English gentleman filling any imaginable capacity, from highest to lowest, in America; but one is scarcely prepared to meet, on the Llanos, a young Venezuelan speaking or writing the language of an educated Englishman, and carrying into his fighting, his hunting and his dealings with the Indians all the best traditions of manliness and fair play characteristic of our public schools. Yet such a man "might have been seen" (as Ainsworth or G. P. R. James would say) riding beside the Republican General as his secretary and aide-de-camp. This was young Ramon Paez, the General's nephew, who, on account of his father's exile, was brought up mainly in England, and educated at Stonyhurst; and who, after taking an Arts degree at London University, returned to his own country and joined his uncle in the north-west of Venezuela, in 1866.