JOURNEY TO LAKE ARGENTINO 195 



lady fled yet deeper into the interior. For a space they covered 

 their tracks and escaped the brother. 



In the course of time the lady left her lover, as ladies vi'ill, and 

 he, his brain turned by some strange passion, went mad. 



When we strike his trail again he was known as the "Wild 

 Man of Santa Cruz." 



He began to steal horses, found the sport to his liking, and 

 stole more. Unable to use or keep them, he merely drove them 

 to some sleepy hollow, where he killed them in hundreds. (We 

 once counted eighty-three of these skeletons in one place.) He 

 dressed in the skins of pumas from head to foot. His saddle was 

 of puma-skin, and armed only with boleadores he ranged the land 

 stealing. His career was a long one, and he became such a Gaucho 

 as has never been known. To-day he might be heard of as lifting 

 a dozen horses on the Santa Cruz River ; a week later he was 

 spiriting away tropillas in Chubut. 



He had the run of 300,000 square miles, the whole of Patagonia 

 was his farm, his stock what he could steal. 



You may remember that I described a meeting with Indians, 

 a tribe who lived in tents of guanaco-skins on the River Mayo. 

 The Wild Man paid them a visit, and stole a hundred mares ; and 

 they, discovering it, rode down his trail and caught him. They 

 took him alive and haled him as a prisoner to the nearest settle- 

 ment, where he was put in gaol. 



He escaped, made straight back, and lifted another big batch 

 of the Mayo Indians' horses. 



Again they pursued him, but he was fain to escape, being 

 mounted on a very good horse. At last, only one Indian continued 

 to hold on his trail, and he, when he neared the wild figure clad in 

 puma-skins, grew afraid and turned back. 



The Wild Man rode on, and also out of our story and all human 

 ken. That was four years ago. He has not been heard of since. 

 But I daresay that the Mayo Indians could finish off the story 

 with a different ending. 



