Part 28 (2/2)

'Well, yes, if you choose to call it so, and is covered with oes on, and I'm sure it will form a perfect protection'

He then inserted his head into the wondrous muslin bladder, and the appearance he now presented was comical in the extre, nothing hue leather gloves, dangled from his shoulders like an immense pair of flippers

We three brothers looked at him just for a mohter Sandie Donaldson, ith the _capataz_ occupied the next tent, cas The latter bolted barking when they saw the apparition, but the rest joined the laughing chorus

And the hed, till the very sand dunes near us must have been shaken to their foundations by the h away, boys,' said our cousin 'Laugh and grow fat I don't care how I look, so long as my dress and my cream keep the creepies away'

[13] Peer = poor

[Illustration: Comical in the Extreme]

CHAPTER XIX

IN THE WILDERNESS

So the randeur and se precipices, with the stillness that reigned everywhere around, i even to subliuide, our fore; but close beside hiald

We had already seen puuar of the plains; we had killed more than one rhea--the Aald had secured about fifty skins of the -birds, with many beetles, whose elytra, painted and adorned by Nature, looked like radiant jewels All these little skins and beetles were destined to be sent home to Flora As yet, however, we had not coh some had been seen at a distance

But to-day ere in the very country of the guanaco, and pressing onwards and ever upwards, in the hopes of soon being able to draw trigger on soe inhabitants of the wilderness

Only thiseach other as to who should shoot the first

'I ald had said

'And Ithe corner of a cliff we suddenly caht of a whole herd of the creatures, but they were in full retreat up the glen, while out against the sky stood in bold relief a tall buck It was the tru out plaintively but musically on the still mountain air that had warned the herd of our approach

Another long ride of nearly two hours And noe must have been many thousands of feet above the sea level, or even the level of the distant plains

It is long pastfro of water as clear as crystal and deliciously cool What a treat for our horses and dogs! What a treat even for ourselves!

I notice that Dugald see to-day than any of us, and uanaco which he has hitherto failed to find

A kind of brotherly rivalry takes possession of uanaco would fall towater for the _ to her up the glen The hill gets very steep, and I have al so past me or raises head and body from behind a stone, and hisses defiance and hate almost in my face But I reach the sue of a precipice

Oh, joy! On a little peak down beneath, and not a hundred yards away, stands one of the noblest guanacos I have ever seen He has heard so, for he stands there as still as a statue, with head and neck in the air sniffing the breeze

How my heart beats! How my hand trembles! I cannot understand er I could hardly be hts seem to cross my mind with a rush, but upper fired, I shall miss