e suddenly stooped down to listen.

[Illustration: "An animal came tumbling down about ten paces from us."]

"It is a _quimichpatlan_," said he to me, in a low voice.

"A flying squirrel," I repeated to Sumichrast.

Lucien was about to speak; but I pointed to the Indian, who, half-hidden
behind a dead trunk, was carefully examining the top of an ebony-tree.
At this moment l'Encuerado placed his gun to his shoulder and fired. He
had taken good aim--an animal came tumbling down about ten paces from
us, spreading out, in its convulsive movements, the membrane which
joined its legs together and covered it almost like a cloak.

Lucien took possession of the "flying squirrel," and, as they always go
in pairs, my two companions went in pursuit of the other, which they
soon succeeded in killing.

"Are we going to eat these animals?" asked Lucien.

"Why shouldn't we?" I rejoined. "They are squirrels; and, even supposing
that they were rats, as the Indians assert, their flesh should be none
the less savory."

"Can these animals fly for any length of time?" asked Lucien.

"As a matter of fact, they do not fly at all; but the membrane which
unites their limbs acts like a parachute in keeping them up in the air,
and materially assists them in some of their prodigious leaps."

"Can they run as fast as squirrels?"

"Nothing like it; they do not, indeed, often come down to the ground;
but their activity on trees renders them not unworthy of their family."

"I thought," observed Lucien, "that bats were the only mammals that
could fly."

"There is also the flying _phalanger_," observed my friend; "an animal
of the marsupial order, which is a native of Australia, and somewhat
resembles the opossum. It is said that, when it catches sight of a man,
it hangs itself up by the tail, and does not dare to move; but I think
this story will do to go along with l'Encuerado's about the
glass-spider."

The Indian started off straight to the bivouac, and I led my companions
by the side of the stream, admiring as we passed some magnificent trees.
One of these was covered with brown fruit, with whitish insides, which
had a rather nice acidulated taste. I hastened to pick half a dozen of
them, knowing what a treat they would be to my servant.

As we went on, the banks of the stream gradually became lower, and ere
long a lake, deliciously shaded by cypresses, poplars, oaks, and
ebony-trees, opened to our view.

I sat down upon a rock, w