IO4 Idle Days in Patagonia. 



had not hitherto made any display of this kind of 

 talent. The Indians took him by the hands and 

 drew him out of the water, then, surrounding him, 

 walked him awa} 7 " to the corral, and from that 

 moment Damian disappeared from the valley ; for 

 on a search being made afterwards, not even his 

 bones, picked clean by vultures and foxes, could be 

 found. 



After seeing the last of their comrade, and keep- 

 ing themselves afloat with the least possible exertion, 

 Marcos and Ventura were carried down the stream 

 by the swift current till they gained a small island 

 in the middle of the river. With the drift-wood 

 found on it they constructed a raft, binding the 

 sticks together with long grass and rushes, and on 

 it they floated down stream to the inhabited portion 

 of the valley, and so eventually made their escape. 



The reason why my host told me this story 

 instead of one of his usual love intrigues or gambling 

 adventures was because that very day he had seen 

 Damian once more, just returned to the settlement 

 where he had so long been forgotten by everyone. 

 Thirty years of exposure to the sun and wind of the 

 desert had made him so brown, while in manner 

 and speech he had grown so like an Indian, that 

 the poor amateur savage found it hard at first to 

 establish his identity. His relations had, however, 

 been poor, and had long passed away, leaving 

 nothing for him to inherit, so that there was no 

 reason to discredit his strange story. He related 

 that when the Indians drew him from the water and 



