e latter. "Put it by now, and keep it
carefully. I have acted for the best, and you will acknowledge that
when you come to notice the contents."

Saying this, he pressed Arthur's hand, and assisting Ellen into the
canoe, waved an adieu, and turning hastily round, with long hasty
strides hurried back towards his abode. The Indians stood up and
saluted him with signs of respect, and then, at the command of Domingos,
began to ply their paddles, and we once more recommenced our voyage.
Arthur watched the recluse till he disappeared among the trees.

"It is very, very strange," I heard him say to himself; "I cannot
understand it." Several times he pulled out the packet and looked at it
wistfully. "I must not disobey him," he added aloud, "and yet I long to
know what he meant by giving me this."

"So do I," said Ellen; "but I am sure you ought to obey him."

Arthur started; he seemed not to be aware that he had been speaking
aloud.

John looked at Ellen. "Sister," he said rather gravely, "do not utter
your ideas; whatever they may be, you are likely to be wrong."

Ellen was silent. Arthur replaced the packet in his wallet, and the
subject was not again alluded to. For several hours we glided down the
stream without interruption. In the middle of the day we landed to give
our crew rest and to cook our dinner. While the men were resting, we
rambled through the forest with Duppo. We took Duppo that we might not
run the risk of losing our way. We had gone on for some distance, when
he exclaimed, "_Jacare tinga_!" I called True close to me, knowing that
the words meant alligator. Duppo crept cautiously on. Every moment we
expected to come up with the monster, though on dry ground we knew we
had little cause to fear it. "What is that?" exclaimed John, and he
fired his rifle at a creature which went bounding through the forest.
For a moment I caught sight of a jaguar, and directly afterwards we came
on an alligator which had evidently just been killed by the jaguar. I
should have liked to have seen the combat in which the fierce mammal had
come off victorious. What mighty strength it must have put forth to
kill the huge reptile which lay mangled before us, a considerable
portion of the interior devoured. Duppo, on seeing it, began to search
about in the neighbourhood, and came before long on a conical pile of
dead leaves, from among which he dug out upwards of twenty eggs. They
were nearly twice the size of