Several hours passed in laughing, talking, and singing. When the moment for departure at length arrived, Mariano went to the corral to fetch the young lady's horse, saddled it with the utmost care, and led it to the door of the rancho, after saddling his own horse, so that he might start so soon as Doña Marianna was out of sight of the rancho.
"You remained a long time in the corral, tocayo," she said with a laugh; "pray, have you discovered any suspicious sign?"
"No, Niña; but as I am also going to leave the rancho, after saddling your horse, I saddled mine."
"Of course you are going to hunt your strange jaguars again?"
"Oh, of course," he answered.
"Well," she said, with feigned terror, "if you do meet them, pray do not miss them."
"I will do all in my power to avoid that, because I desire to make you a present of their skins, in order to prove to you that they really existed."
"I thank you for your gallantry, Tocayo," she replied with a laugh; "but you know the proverb—'A hunter must not sell the skin of a—jaguar, before—'"
"Well, well, we shall soon know who is right, and who wrong," he interrupted her.
The maiden, still laughing, embraced the ranchero and his wife, lightly bounded into the saddle, and bending down gracefully offered her hand to Mariano.