.'

"This thought made us feel quite unhappy."

"You certainly did lose your chance," observed Jack, "for a steamer
which I spoke came down about that time, and you might probably have got
on board her."

"I told you so, Gerald," exclaimed Tom, "I was--"

"But it does not matter now," answered Gerald, "all's well that ends
well."

"You are right, but it might not have been so had we been shot by those
fellows as we were swimming off to the _Supplejack's_ boat," observed
Tom. "Well, I suppose you want me to cut my yarn short. As soon as it
was dark we lighted our fire, which we should have been puzzled to do,
had not Gerald had some fusees in his pocket, which he carries, you will
understand, to give a light to any one who wants to smoke a cigar."

"I understand," observed Jack, laughing. "You, of course, Mr Desmond,
never dream of smoking one yourself?"

"Only occasionally, sir, and Tom and I had finished all I had when we
were captured by the gauchos."

"Our fires burned well," continued Tom, "and we roasted our young
capybara to perfection; we only wanted salt and pepper, and an onion or
two to make it delicious. As it was, with the addition of a little
brown bread we had remaining, we made a good meal, and slept like tops
till daylight. One of us, you will understand, regularly kept watch on
the river while the other searched for provisions, except when we wanted
to catch another young capybara, when we had to assist each other. We
captured the second in the same way we had the first, with our long
wands and nooses; we also caught several birds after dark, roosting on
the branches of the trees; we were afraid, however, to venture out as
far as the plain above to look for partridges, lest we might have been
seen by any of the country people or soldiers who might have been on
their way to the cliff I spoke of; we found, indeed, that men were
constantly on the watch for passing vessels, and we should to a
certainty have been discovered.

"Our chief exploit was catching the big capybara, which we attempted
when we had eaten nearly all her young ones. We were afraid if we took
the last, that she might suspect that something was wrong and make off.
We accordingly got up at night, when we thought that she would be
asleep, and placed a couple of nooses at the mouth of her hole, securing
the end to a part of the root of the tree which rose above the ground.
We then went back to our cave, and roasted the last