The watchers had not very long to wait, for suddenly the leader of the Trauco party arose, and clapping his hands gave the signal for departure. With prompt discipline all the others sprang up, and began trooping towards the raft, and then the Indian girl saw her child lifted up by a big Trauco, who kissed it gently, and carried it down to the water’s edge. Here it was made pleased and comfortable once more on its jaguar skin, and its tiny comrades restored to it, whereat Aniwee could hear it laughing and crowing with delight. And a smile parted the girl’s lips as she watched her darling play, and a great load was lifted off her mind, for she knew that at least it was happy, well, and well cared for.
Having divided themselves into two companies, the Traucos took their places on the rafts, their Albino brethren, with staves uplifted, superintending their departure. In a short time both crafts were under weigh, and La Guardia Chica passed out of the sight of its yearning mother’s gaze, as it floated up stream with its hairy companions, still laughing, and crowing, and clapping its tiny hands, altogether oblivious that close by, its father and mother watched it with hungry eyes.
As soon as the rafts had disappeared, the reconnoitring party stole quietly forth from their place of observation, and made their way back towards those awaiting them down stream. There was nothing to keep them any longer, as the white Traucos had retired to their huts as soon as their brown brethren had taken their departure. Piñone, too, was all eagerness to report the result of the expedition to Sir Francis, and to take counsel with the great white Cacique, as he called him, and in whom he placed the highest confidence.
“Aunt Ruby, Aunt Ruby, we have had such luck,” cried Harry excitedly, as he and his companions rejoined the others on the river’s banks.
“How, dear boy?” inquired Lady Vane, as she laid her hand on the eager young midshipman’s shoulder, while his cousins crowded round to hear the news.
“We’ve sighted the lost lamb, Aunt Ruby; we saw the Guardia Chica amongst the Traucos. She looked awfully well and happy, and not a bit like a prisoner, I can tell you.”
“Then they treat her properly, Harry, you think?” again inquired his aunt.
“Rather, Aunt Ruby, and the picaninny was clapping her hands, and playing all sorts of high jinks with two dear little Traucolings, about her own age, and who looked just like wee balls of fur. I never saw such ducks as they were.”
Here Piñone claimed Sir Francis’s ear, and a council was at once held. It was decided to try and snatch a few hours’ sleep until sundown, and to start as the shades of evening fell. In this way they would escape observation by the Albinos, as they punted past that small, queer station on the river’s banks. Thence he proposed to make way for some fifteen miles or so, and as that would bring them into territory frequented by Traucos, to lay concealed during the daytime, proceeding on again next night. His object was to pass the head-quarters of the hairy people unnoticed, take the raft some miles up stream, where it could be concealed in a small side affluent of the river, and which he had frequently taken notice of during his up country expeditions with the Trauco queen. From this point of vantage reconnoitring would have to be resorted to, observations carefully taken of the whereabouts of the baby Cacique, and a well-organised rescue raid undertaken, if no other suitable plan could be decided upon.
Thus, after an interval for rest, the rescue party set forth once more in the track of the tiny prisoner. A lovely moon lit them on their way, and the stars gleamed through the dark forest with curious gaze, scrutinising the unwonted sight, which presented itself in the picture of this small band of pioneers, passing through the old primeval strongholds, which had until then resisted the presence of civilised man, tolerating only the human species in the shape of the strange, hairy, large-eyed beings, to whom the Araucanians gave the name of Trauco.