"Hang it, and I love her too, the little darling! Well, if you like, after we have killed the jaguar, we will go to the Potrero--does that suit you?" "It is a long way from here." "Nonsense! three hours' ride at the most. By the bye, Tranquil, do you know that it is cold? And I am getting literally frozen; cursed animal! I wonder what it is doing at this moment; I daresay it is amusing itself with wandering about instead of coming straight here." "To be killed, eh?" Tranquil said, with a smile. "Hang it all! Perhaps it suspects what we have in store for it." "That is possible, for those confounded animals are so cunning. Hilloah! the colt is quivering--it has certainly scented something." The Canadian turned his head. "No, not yet," he said. "We shall have a night of it," the Negro muttered, with an ill-tempered look. "You will ever be the same, Quoniam--impatient and headstrong. Whatever I may tell you, you obstinately refuse to understand me; how many times have I repeated to you that the jaguar is one of the most cunning animals in existence? Although we are to windward, I feel convinced it has scented us. It is prowling cunningly around us, and afraid to come too near us; as you say, it is wandering about without any apparent object." "Hum! Do you think it will carry on that game much longer?" "No, because it must be beginning to grow thirsty; three feelings are struggling in it at this moment--hunger, thirst, and fear; fear will prove the weakest, you may be assured; and it is only a question of time." "I can see it; for nearly four hours we have been on the watch." "Patience; the worst is over, and we shall soon have some news, I feel assured." "May Heaven hear you, for I am dying of cold; is it a large animal?" "Yes, its prints are wide, but, if I am not greatly mistaken, it has paired." "Do you think so?" "I could almost bet it, it is impossible for a single jaguar to do so much mischief in less than a week; from what Don Hilario told me, it seems that ten head of the Ganada have disappeared." "In that case," Quoniam said, rubbing his hands gleefully, "we shall have a fine hunt." "That is what I suppose; and it must have whelps to come so near the hacienda." At this moment a hoarse bellowing, bearing some slight resemblance to the miauling of a cat, troubled the profound silence of the desert. "There is its first cry," said Quoniam. "It is still a long way off." "Oh, it will soon come nearer." "Not yet; it is not after us at this moment." "Who else, then?" "Listen." A similar cry to the first, but coming from the opposite side, burst forth at this moment. "Did I not tell you," the Canadian continued, quietly, "that it had paired?" "I did not doubt it. If you do not know the habits of tigers, who should?" The poor colt had risen; it was trembling all over, half dead with terror, and with its head buried between its front legs, it was standing up and uttering little plaintive cries.