stance, his keen eye espied a small deer, drinking at the water's
edge, but which, scenting the travelers, fled into cover ere Reed
could bring the rifle to his shoulders; and again, when they were upon
a jaguar almost before either they or the astonished animal realized
it.

In the tempered rays of the late afternoon sun the flower-bespangled
walls of the forest became alive with gaily painted birds and insects.
Troops of chattering monkeys awoke from their midday _siesta_ and
scampered noisily through the treetops over the aerial highways
formed by the liana vines, whose great bush-ropes, often a foot and
more in thickness, stretched their winding length long distances
through the forest, and bound the vegetation together in an
intricate, impenetrable network. Yellow and purple blossoms, in a
riot of ineffable splendor, bedecked the lofty trees and tangled
parasitical creepers that wrapped around them, constituting
veritable hanging gardens. Great palms, fattened by the almost
incessant rains in this hot-house of Nature, rose in the spaces
unoccupied by the buttressed roots of the forest giants. Splendidly
tailored kingfishers swooped over the water, scarce a foot above its
surface. Quarreling parrots and nagging macaws screamed their
inarticulate message to the travelers. Tiny forest gems, the
infinitely variegated _colibri_, whirred across the stream and
followed its margins until attracted by the gorgeous pendent flowers.
On the _playas_ in the hazy distance ahead the travelers could often
distinguish tall, solemn cranes, dancing their grotesque measures, or
standing on one leg and dreaming away their little hour of life in
this terrestrial fairy-land.

Darkness fell, almost with the swiftness of a snuffed candle. For an
hour Rosendo had been straining his eyes toward the right bank of the
river, and as he gazed his apprehension increased. But, as night
closed in, a soft murmur floated down to the cramped, toil-worn
travelers, and the old man, with a glad light in his eyes, announced
that they were approaching the _quebrada_ of Caracoli. A half hour
later, by the weird, flickering light of the candles which Reed and
Harris held out on either side, Rosendo turned the canoe into a
brawling stream, and ran its nose into the deep alluvial soil.
Plunging fearlessly through the fringe of delicate ferns which lined
the margin of the creek, he cut a wide swath with his great _machete_
and uncovered a dim trail, which le