For about an hour he devoted himself to an active search, walking cautiously round the hill. He then stopped, uttering a cry of joy. He had at last found what he wanted. Before him rose a group of the Amyris elemifera, or balsam tree, commonly called by the Indians "candle wood." The Indians cut the branches, and sometimes the shrub itself, making use of it as a kind of torch. The light given by these torches is brilliant and strong, and the torch itself lasts a considerable time.
Zeno Cabral felled with his sabre several of these branches, stripped them of their leaves, made a bundle of them, which he placed on his shoulder, and again ascended to the summit of the hill.
Meanwhile the sun had disappeared, and the day had been almost without any transition replaced by night.
Darkness soon blinded all objects, drowned all the features of the landscape, and the desert was covered as with a funeral winding sheet.
The Montonero, seated before the fire, with his back leaning on the trunk of the tree, in the position the most comfortable he could secure, warmed his feet carelessly, smoking his cigarette.
At the same moment Zeno Cabral started up as if moved by a spring.
Rekindling the half-extinguished embers of the fire, on which he threw an armful of dead wood, he picked up a branch of balsam tree, lighted it, walked to the commencement or the slope of the hill, and then, having rapidly waved it above his head, he threw it in the air, where it traced a long streak of fire.
Almost immediately a second whistle, but nearer, was heard.
Zeno Cabral took a second torch, and lighting it, he waved it above his head, and darted it into the air, like the first.
This signal given, the partisan returned to his fire, passed his pistols in his girdle, took his gun, on which he leaned, and waited.
He did not wait long. In about five minutes the sound of steps and a trembling of the grass indicated that several persons were approaching.
"Has the moon of wild oats already so far advanced that the darkness is so thick?" said a voice.
"It is easy to procure light," answered Zeno Cabral, lighting a torch, and raising it above his head.
"The night is cold; here is fire; warm yourselves."
"Thank you," answered one of the men: "fire is good at this hour of the night."