nd then worked
hard at skin making--preserving all our specimens.

The day glided by, but Ebo did not come, and feeling no disposition to
collect more, in fact not caring now to fire, we had a look round to see
which would be the most likely place to cut down a tree and begin
building a boat.

"It is lucky for us, Nat," said my uncle, "that Ebo belongs to a nation
of boat-builders. Perhaps he has gone to search for a suitable place
and the kind of wood he thinks best; but I wish he would come."

Night fell and no Ebo. The next morning he was not there; and as day
after day glided by we set ourselves to work to search for him, feeling
sure that the poor fellow must have fallen from some precipice and be
lying helpless in the forest. But we had no success, and began to think
then of wild beasts, though we had seen nothing large enough to be
dangerous, except that worst wild beast of all, savage man.

Still we searched until we were beginning to conclude that he must have
been seen by a passing canoe whose occupants had landed and carried him
off.

"I don't think they would, uncle," I said, though; "he is too sharp and
cunning. Why, it would be like seeking to catch a wild bird to try and
get hold of Ebo, if he was out in the woods."

"Perhaps you are right, Nat," said my uncle. "There is one way, though,
that we have never tried, I mean over the mountain beyond where you shot
that last bird. To-morrow we will go across there and see if there are
any signs of the poor fellow. If we see none then we must set to work
ourselves to build a canoe or hollow one out of a tree, and I tremble,
Nat, for the result."

"Shall we be able to make one big enough to carry our chests, uncle?"

"No, Nat, I don't expect it. If we can contrive one that will carry us
to some port we must be satisfied. There I can buy a boat, and we must
come back for our stores."

We devoted the next two days to a long expedition, merely using our guns
to procure food, and reluctantly allowing several splendid birds to
escape.

But our expedition only produced weariness; and footsore and worn out we
returned to our hut, fully determined to spend our time in trying what
we could contrive in the shape of a boat, falling fast asleep, sad at
heart indeed, for in Ebo we felt that we had lost a faithful friend.

CHAPTER FORTY TWO.

AN EXPERIMENT IN BOAT-BUILDING.

"It is of no use to be down-hearted, Nat," said my uncle the next
morning