Page:Adrift in the Pacific, Sampson Low, 1889.djvu/154

 take him over in the boat to the other side of Zealand River.

They pushed off and in ten minutes had slipped in among the vegetation on the bank. At once the birds took to flight, protesting by their screams at being disturbed at their meal.

There lay the body of a young guanaco that had evidently been dead for only a few hours, inasmuch as it was not quite cold.

Donagan and Moko not caring to burden their larder with the remains of the birds' dinner, were about to leave it when it occurred to them to ask why the guanaco had come to die on the skirt of the marsh, so far from the eastern forest which its fellows so seldom left.

Donagan examined the body. There was a wound in the flank, a wound which could not have been given by the tooth of a jaguar, or any other beast of prey.

"This guanaco was shot!" said Donagan.

"And here is the proof!" said the cabin-boy, picking out a bullet from the wound with the point of his knife. The bullet was more of the size carried by a ship's rifle than by such a gun as sportsmen use. It must therefore have been fired by Walston or one of his companions.

Donagan and Moko, leaving the carcase to the birds, returned to French Den to consult with their companions.

That the guanaco had been shot by one of the Severn men was evident, for neither Donagan nor any one else had fired a gun for more than a month. But it was important to know when and whore the guanaco had received the bullet.

Taking everything into consideration, it appeared the wound must have been given not more than five or six hours before— that being the lapse of time necessary for the animal to cross the Down Lands so as to reach the river. Consequently, one of Walston's men must that morning have been at the south point of Family Lake, and the party must have crossed East