fire soon as you can. You
get a shower then as brings 'em down without damaging your bird."

"Let's look at the jaguar skin," said Rob; and stepping aside to where
the boatmen stood in the broad sunshine, instead of gazing upon the
tawny fur, with its rich spots of dark brown along back and flanks,
shading off into soft white, he found, stretched out tightly by pegs, a
sheet of unpleasant-looking fleshy skin, hardening in the ardent
sunshine, which drove out its moisture at a rapid rate.

"Do it no end of good to stop like that till to-morrow," said Shaddy.
"It would be pretty nigh stiff and hard by then."

"But I don't want it stiff and hard," cried Rob. "I want it soft, like
a leather rug."

"Yes, sir, I know," replied the guide. "Let's get it dry first; I can
soon make it soft afterwards."

Brazier was looking round the open patch of slightly sloping ground,
about half an acre in extent, forming quite a nook in the forest through
which the river ran.

"There is plenty of work here for a day or two," he said; "and it is a
suitable place for our halt."

"Couldn't be better, sir. We shan't find another so good."

"Then we'll stop for one day, certain."

"'Cording to that, then," said Shaddy thoughtfully, "we'd better take
the carkidge somewhere else."

"Of course--get rid of it or bury it. Before long in this sun it will
be offensive. Why not throw it in the river?"

"That's what I meant to do, sir; but I was a bit scared about drawing
the 'gators about us. Don't want their company. If they see that came
from here they'll be waiting about for more. I dunno, though; perhaps
the stream'll carry it down half a mile before they pull it under or it
sinks."

He made a sign to the boatmen, who seized the carcass of the jaguar,
bore it just below where the boat was moored, and the two lads followed
to see it consigned to the swift river.

Here the men stood close to the edge, and acting in concert under
Shaddy's direction, they swung the carcass to and fro two or three
times, gathering impetus at every sway, and then with one tremendous
effort and a loud expiration of the breath they sent it flying several
yards, for it to fall with a tremendous splash and sink slowly, the
lighter-coloured portions being quite plain in the clear water as it
settled down, sending great rings to each shore. Then the carcass rose
slowly to the surface and began to float down-stream.

"Look," cried Rob the next instant,