Directly, a voice, low as a whisper, took up the subsequent verses:
"Más rica y más gozosa Que el más precioso tesoro."[4]
At this response, which he doubtless expected, the corporal stopped short. He struck the end of his scabbard on the ground, rested himself on the hilt, and said aloud, as if talking to himself:
"I should like to know why the ñandús (ostriches) have so suddenly taken themselves off into the Pampas?"
"Because," answered the voice which had continued the song, "they smelt the odour of dead bodies."
"That may be true," said the corporal, without seeming astonished at the answer which came so oddly; "but then the condors would come down from the Cordilleras."
"It is already twenty-one days since they passed the Alto de Cumbre."
"The sunset yesterday was red."
"His rays reflected the light of the conflagrations caused by the mashorca," said the voice again.
The corporal hesitated no longer.