300 THE ADVENTURES OF 



" Have you been bitten by a serpent ? " I cried. 



" No, Tatita," he replied, quite out of breath ; " something 

 worse than that ! I have seen it I " 



"What?" I exclaimed. 



" A ghost," said the Indian in a low tone, crossing himself. 



" Pluck up your spirits ! " said I to the Indian ; " if you 

 have, we '11 kill it to-morrow.'' 



" You can't kill it, Tatita." 



" With ordinary bullets, no ; but those which Sumichrast 

 knows how to prepare will soon settle him." 



My curiosity was raised ; for this ghost was an animal, called 

 a tapir, which the Indians believe possessed of supernatural 

 powers, and as I had never met with one, I was anxious that we 

 should come across it. 



" And didn't you aim at it 1 " cried my friend. 



" No ; I ran away," replied the fearless tiger-hunter. 



Thus, I'Encuerado, whom the evening before we had seen 

 braving tigers, crocodiles, and wild cattle, now trembled at the 

 mere idea of facing an inoffensive animal, which was only a rela- 

 tion of the peccaries, with a snout terminated by a non-prehensile 

 proboscis, yet to which his imagination attributed certain 

 demoniac qualities. He that night utterly refused to go to 

 rest ; at the least rustling of the leaves he expected to see the 

 ghost appear. Instead of directly opposing his error — which I 

 knew would be of no use — I endeavoured to convince him that 

 my power far surpassed that of the object of his dread. 



'' If it wasn't for that," I urged on him, '' do you think I would 

 permit Lucien to sleep in so dangerous a neighbourhood ? " 



Sumichrast gave the Indian two bullets, and solemnly told him 

 that with these projectiles he would surely kill the object of his 

 dread if he aimed straight. L'Encuerado gradually recovered his 

 self-possession ; the idea of slaying in one of its most formidable 

 shapes the cause of his superstition excited his self-esteem, and he 

 went to sleep, and no doubt dreamt of his next day's exploit. 



At daybreak we walked down to the confluence of the two 

 rivers ; in front of us stretched a broad prairie covered with thick 

 grass. If the tapir had not quenched its thirst in the night, it 



