But yet--and he cautioned his sister about this--the gun would go off
in spite of him, and probably register a master-stroke in sporting
annals, if within range there should come a _"tamandoa assa,"_ a kind
of large and very curious ant-eater.

Happily the big ant-eater did not show himself, neither did any
panthers, leopards, jaguars, guepars, or cougars, called
indifferently ounces in South America, and to whom it is not
advisable to get too near.

"After all," said Benito, who stopped for an instant, "to walk is
very well, but to walk without an object----"

"Without an object!" replied his sister; "but our object is to see,
to admire, to visit for the last time these forests of Central
America, which we shall not find again in Para, and to bid them a
fast farewell."

"Ah! an idea!"

It was Lina who spoke.

"An idea of Lina's can be no other than a silly one," said Benito,
shaking his head.

"It is unkind, brother," said Minha, "to make fun of Lina when she
has been thinking how to give our walk the object which you have just
regretted it lacks."