CHAPTER XIII.
ON THE LLANOS.
Only a moment ago the land had been folded in the mantle of darkness.

Now, a flaming eye rises from the ground at some immeasurable distance, like an outburst of volcanic fire.

It grows apace, chasing away the night and casting a ruddy glow on, as it seems, a vast and waveless sea, as still as the painted ocean of the poem, as silent as death, a sea without ships and without life, mournful and illimitable, and as awe-inspiring and impressive as the Andes or the Alps.
So complete is the illusion that did I not know we were on the verge of the llanos I should be tempted to believe that supernatural agency had transported us while we slept to the coasts of the Caribbean Sea or the yet more distant shores of the Pacific Ocean.
Six days are gone by since we left our bivouac by the mountain-tarn: three we have wandered in the woods under the guidance of Gahra, three sought Mejia and his guerillas, who, being always on the move, are hard to find.
Last night we reached the range of hills which form, as it were, the northern coast-line of the vast series of savannas which stretch from the tropics to the Straits of Magellan; and it is now a question whether we shall descend to the llanos or continue our search in the sierra.
"It was there I left him," said Carmen, pointing to a _quebrada_ some ten miles away.
"Where we were yesterday ?" "Yes; and he said he would be either there or hereabout when I returned, and I am quite up to time.

But Mejia takes sudden resolves sometimes.

He may have gone to beat up Griselli's quarters at San Felipe, or be making a dash across the llanos in the hope of surprising the fortified post of Tres Cruces." "What shall we do then; wait here until he comes back ?" "Or ride out on the llanos in the direction of Tres Cruces.