that made us think that our labour
was all in vain, and we were about to give up, the loud harsh cry would
come echoing from amongst the trees, and always seeming so near that I
thought I must get a shot at the bird in a moment or two, and I bent
down and crept on as quietly as I could, till the tree from which the
sound seemed to come was reached.

Then I would stand ready to fire, watching carefully for a shot, peering
amongst the boughs, and fancying a dozen times over that I could catch
glimpses of the bird amongst the leaves, when, as if laughing at me for
my pains, the cry would come again from a couple of hundred yards away,
and the chase went on.

I did not shout to Uncle Dick, for by stopping to listen now and then I
could hear the rustling of the leaves and twigs as he went on, besides
every now and then catching through the dim light a glimpse of his face.

Once or twice, when a beautiful bird sprang up between us, my heart
began to beat more quickly, for I thought that if uncle was tempted to
shoot at it he might hit me; but by degrees I grew more confident and
walked boldly on, feeling that I had nothing to fear.

That bird must have led us for miles. Every time we were ready to give
up, the hoarse cry rang out again, and we followed once more, feeling
sure that sooner or later we must get a shot at it, or at one of the
others which kept answering from a distance; but at last I heard a
peculiar whistle from where my uncle would be, and I forced my way
through the undergrowth and joined him.

"Nat," he said, wiping the perspiration from his face, "that must have
been a wild-goose instead of a bird of paradise. Have you heard it
lately?"

"No, uncle; not for quite a quarter of an hour. I think it must have
taken a longer flight this time."

"_Yawk, yawk--wok, wok, wok, wok, wok_," rang out close behind us, and
we both fired simultaneously at a faint gleam of what seemed to be
yellow light as it flitted through the glade, running forward to get
beyond the smoke in the hope that we might have hit it.

But even if we had we should not have been able to find it, for in the
eagerness of our pursuit we had come now into one of the densest parts
of the forest that we had found, and after wandering on through a faint
warm glow caused by the setting sun shining through the tree trunks, a
sudden dull greyness had come upon us, followed almost at once by
darkness, and we knew that we were lost.

"I ought