discovered secreted in a vineyard outside the town.

This little incident, of so trifling import at the time, was remembered
in after years as an early indication of the ferocious and uncontrollable
_caudillo's_ character. But it was soon eclipsed by the reckless deeds
that followed each other in quick succession between his fifteenth and
twentieth years. He speedily became notorious in the little town for his
wild moroseness, for his savage ferocity when excited, for his inordinate
love of cards. Gaming, a passion with many, was a necessary of life to
him; it was the only pursuit to which he was ever constant; it gave rise
to the quarrel in which, while yet a schoolboy, he for the first time
spilt blood.

By and by we lose sight of the student of San Juan. He has absolutely
_sunk_ out of sight. Yet, if we peer into filthy _pulperías_ here and
there between San Luis and San Juan, we may catch a glimpse of a shaggy,
swarthy savage, gambling, gambling as if for life; and we may also hear of
more than one affray in which his dagger has "come home richer than it
went." A little later, the son of wealthy Don Prudencio has become--not a
common laborer--but a comrade of common laborers. He chooses the most
toilsome, the most unintellectual, but, at the same time, the most
remunerative handicraft,--that of the _tapiador_, or builder of mud
walls. At San Juan, in the orchard of the Godoys,--at Fiambalá, in La
Rioja, in the city of Mendoza,--they will show you walls which the hands
of General Facundo Quiroga, _Comandante de Campaña_, etc., etc., put
together. Wherever he works, he is noted for the ascendency which he
maintains over the other peons. They are entirely subject to his will;
they do nothing without his advice; he is worth, say his employers, a
dozen overseers. Ah, he is yet to rule on a larger scale!