egin, fight
till they die. The more that are killed the more furious do the others
become. Even in a tree there is no safety. Many a hunter has been
besieged in a tree until, overpowered by thirst, he fell to the ground
and was torn to pieces."

"What do they eat?" Harry asked.

"They will eat anything they kill, but their chief food is roots. They
kill great numbers of snakes. Even the largest python is no match for a
herd of peccaries if they catch him before he can take refuge in a
tree."

"Well, then, it is very lucky that you stopped us before we fired."

"Fortunate indeed, senor. By taking to the trees we might have saved
our lives, but we should certainly have lost our mules. Both pumas and
tigers kill the little beasts when they come across stragglers. And it
is well that they do, for otherwise the woods would be full of them,
though fortunately they do not multiply as fast as our pigs, having
only two or three in a litter. They are good eating, but it is seldom
that a hunter can shoot one, for if he only wounds it, its shrieks will
call together all its companions within a mile round."

"Then we must give up the idea of having pork while we are among the
mountains."

"Now, are you going to keep me here all day, Dias?" Maria called
suddenly. "It seems to me that you have forgotten me altogether."

Harry and Bertie could not help laughing.

Dias had, on returning to the mules, taken his wife and seated her on a
branch six feet from the ground, in order that, should the peccaries
attack them, he might be ready at once to snatch up his rifle and join
in the fight without having first to think of the safety of his wife.
He now lifted her down.

The action did even more than what Dias had said to convince Harry of
the seriousness of the danger to which they had been exposed, for as a
rule Donna Maria had scoffed at any offers of aid, even in the most
difficult places, and with her light springy step had taxed the power
of the others to keep up with her. These offers had not come from Dias,
who showed his confi