"Jump up! jump up!" I cried; for a dull barking moved the air. Suddenly I fired my last barrel; then, with eyes shut, mouth open, and nostrils dilated, I listened intently, almost forgetting to breathe. Minutes--they seemed ages--elapsed without any thing more interrupting the silence. Lucien looked at me with a scared face; I pressed my weapon to me in despair at having expended my last charge, when a gunshot was heard ringing out clear and close. "It is l'Encuerado!" cried Lucien. "Yes, my boy," I said, almost frantic. "Reply to your friend!" I exclaimed; "one of the barrels of your gun is still loaded." Lucien fired, and was answered almost immediately. "Call out, so as to guide them," said I to the boy; "for we have no more powder left." "Ohe, ohe, ohe!" called Lucien. "Hiou, hiou, hiou!" replied a still distant voice. At the same moment Gringalet rushed to us as swiftly as an arrow, and jumped upon his young master. After having overwhelmed us with caresses, the dog made off again, and ten minutes later the Indian made his appearance, and, running to the boy, clasped him in his arms, and rolled with him on the ground in the excess of his wild emotion. I, too, heartily greeted Sumichrast, but was almost too affected to speak. All my companion's efforts to discover our trail had been ineffectual; and Gringalet himself, when put to the task, had hunted in vain round the thickets. The fact was, they looked for us on the right, while we had gone to the left; for Sumichrast could not bring his mind to the idea that we had turned our backs to the stream. L'Encuerado, after cooking, spread out on the spot his stock of provisions, to which every one did justice. Master Job was lodged safely under the shelter of a large branch, and deep sleep took possession of the whole party. [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER XXX. WE BUILD A RAFT.--THE HORNED SERPENT.--GOOD-BYE TO "PALM-TREE VILLA."--MOSQUITOES AND HORSE-FLIES.--THE RATTLESNAKE.--AN OCELOT. The next day found us at work building our raft, and l'Encuerado went off with Lucien in quest of some flexible creepers, to be used for binding together the various portions of it. When our companions joined us, Sumichrast was squaring out the last trunks. Lucien, laden with creepers wound all round his body, carried besides, at the end of his stick, the carcass of a horned snake--_Atropos Mexicanus_--which has scales standing erect behind its eyebrows, like little horns, which have obtained for it its Indian name of _mazacoatl_. The reptile was nearly two feet long, and of a grayish color, and gaped with formidable jaws, more than usually dilated by the blows, I suppose, which l'Encuerado had given it. Sumichrast, with infinite precaution, showed to his pupil the tubular fangs, by means of which serpents inoculate the terrible venom with which some of them have been endowed by nature.