[CHAPTER XV.]
THE GAUCHOS.
The gauchos, like knowing men, aware that it would not be long before they wanted their horses, were careful not to unsaddle them. They had contented themselves with removing the bridle to enable them to feed on the fresh and short grass of the bank, and, for fear of accident, they had attached them by lassos to the trunks of trees.
After the interview which we have related, they returned quickly to find their horses, apparently being in great haste to get away.
But at the moment of putting his foot in the stirrup, Mataseis, whom, as the reader has observed, was the cleverer of the two, stopped suddenly, and turning towards his friend, already in the saddle:
"Eh, companion," said he, "what are you doing?"
"I am going off, you see," answered the other in a sulky air.
"You are going off like that?"
"Why, how do you wish that I should go off?"