getting the bird. It
was a bird of paradise different to any I have seen. We must come
again. I never had a chance at it."

"But I did, uncle," I said dolefully, "and missed it."

"Where was it when you fired?"

"Down among those trees, uncle. I let it go too far."

"Why, you hit it, Nat! There's Ebo."

I looked, and to my intense delight there was our black companion
holding up the bird in triumph. He had seen it fall when I shot, marked
it down, and found it amongst the dense undergrowth, placing it before
us with hardly a feather disarranged.

It was a splendid bird, the last we shot in New Guinea, and over three
feet long, its tail being two and of a lovely bluish tint. If looked at
from one side it was bronze, from the other green, just as the light
fell, while from its sides sprung magnificent plumes of rich blue and
green. They were not long, filmy plumes like those of the great bird of
paradise, but short, each widening towards the end, and standing up like
a couple of fans above the wings.

It was a feast to gaze upon so lovely an object of creation, and I felt
more proud of having secured that specimen than of any bird I had shot
before.

"Well, Nat the Naturalist," cried my uncle, when he had carefully hung
the bird by its beak from a stick, "I think I did right in bringing you
with me."

"I am glad you think so, uncle," I said.

"I mean it, my boy, for you have been invaluable to me. It was worth
all the risk of coming to this savage place to get such a bird as that."

"There must be plenty more wonderful birds here, uncle," I said, "if we
could stop in safety."

"I am sure there are, Nat, and there is nothing I should like better
than to stay here. It is a regular naturalist's hunting-ground and full
of treasures, if we dared thoroughly explore it."

"Just now, uncle," I said, "I feel as if I want to do nothing else but
sit down and rest by a good dinner. Oh! I am so fagged!"

"Come along, then," he said smiling, "and we will make straight for
camp, and I dare say we can manage a good repast for your lordship.
Home, Ebo. Eat--drink--sleep."

"Eat--drink--sleep," said Ebo nodding, for he knew what those three
words meant, and carefully carrying the treasures we had shot, tied at
regular distances along a stick, he trudged on in advance towards our
hut upon the shore.

CHAPTER FORTY ONE.

OUR TERRIBLE LOSSES.

We had only about three miles to go if we could have flown