nds in the agonies of death. Then he calmly
rose.

"Now," said he, with a look of contempt, "if he no understan' dat, it's
'cause he hain't got no brains."

At first the Indian had gazed at this little scene with a look of
intense astonishment. When it was finished he burst into a fit of
hearty laughter. Evidently it was the best piece of acting he had seen
since he was born, and if he had been other than a savage, he must
certainly have shouted "bravo!" perhaps "encore!" and clapped his hands.

"Boh! he's a born idjit!" cried Quashy, turning away in disgust, but a
new idea seemed to flash into his fertile brain.

"Stop a bit!" he suddenly exclaimed, seizing a piece of flat bark that
lay at his feet. On this, with the point of a charred stick, he drew a
triangular form, with three dots in it for two eyes and a nose. An oval
attached to this represented a body; at the other end a long waving line
served for a tail; four short lines below indicated legs. This creature
he covered all over with spots.

"There," he cried, sticking it into a bush, and glaring at the Indian,
"jaguar!--jaguar!"

Catching up the pole which Lawrence had thrown down, he rushed at this
jaguar, and pierced it through the heart. Thereafter, in hot haste, he
picked up Tiger's bow and arrows, ran down to the river, put them into a
small canoe, and thrust it into the water. Holding on with one hand, he
waved with the other.

"Ho! hi! come along, you stuppid idjit!"

The "stuppid idjit" was enlightened at last. With a dignified smile,
which would probably have been a frown if he had understood Quashy's
words, he went up to his hut, and selected a lance and a bow, with
which, and a quiver of arrows, he returned to the little hunting canoe.

Seeing that they were now understood, Lawrence took his shot-gun and
pistols; the negro also armed himself, and in a few minutes more they
found themselves paddling gently down the sluggish current of the river.

The scenery through which those curiously assorted hunters passed that
day in their light canoe was singularly beautiful; and when, turning up
one of the narrow streams that fed the main river, they came into a
region of sweet, mellow twilight, caused by the over-arching trees,
where the very aspect of nature suggested, though it could not create,
coolness, Lawrence felt as if he had been at last transported into those
famous regions of fairyland which, if they really existed, and we were