The boys were only too glad to comply, and Andreas took out of a hiding-place in the hut a curious blow-pipe, which was a reed from ten to eleven feet in length. ’You will take my bow, Señor, and we shall see who will shoot the farthest.’ Harry examined this new kind of weapon with great curiosity. There was no appearance of knot or joint in it; only the end which was to be applied to the mouth was tied round with small silk grass cord. The arrows which Andreas next produced for his blow-pipe were nine or ten inches long, made out of the leaf of a palm-tree, and as sharp as a needle. ’An inch of the pointed end is poisoned, whilst the opposite end is burned to make it hard,’ said Andreas, exhibiting these beautifully made arrows; ’and this white stuff is the wild cotton. See, this quiver will hold five hundred such. Now come, but you must tread softly as a cat.’ He led through an intricate path in the midst of the dense forest. Harry would never have expected to find any human being able to thread through such a tangled mass; but Carlo knew what were the powers of Andreas in this respect. Then suddenly the Indian stopped; he looked up into the tall branches above him, and, putting his blow-pipe to his mouth, he collected his breath for the fatal puff. Two feet from the end of the tube two teeth of the acouri were fastened, and these served Andreas for a sight. As Andreas lifted the pipe the boys waited in breathless silence; then, suddenly and swiftly, the arrow flew unerringly upwards. Had it missed? Harry thought so at first; but no: there was a flutter, and then a pajui, an excellent game-bird, came falling heavily to the ground. ’Capital!’ cried Harry; ’I don’t believe I could do that.’ He was going to pick up the bird, but Andreas stopped him, and Carlo cried out: ’Take care, Harry. Andreas will know how to handle the bird; you might touch the poisoned point. This wourali is such a strange thing, though it does not hurt the flesh of the bird in the least.’ Andreas smiled to see Harry’s astonishment, and, handing him the blow-pipe, told him to try what he could do, as he himself had to return to the compound; but, as can be easily imagined, Harry’s breath was not equal to sending an arrow three hundred feet into the air; he would require many years of practice before he could rival the Indian’s dexterity. After much excitement the two returned to the hut, Carlo thinking it safer to stay some time in the wood after nightfall to make sure the coast would be clear before his return to Santa Teresa.