"I tell you," replied MacNabb, "that Noah was right in abandoning them to their fate, admitting that they lived in his time."
"I tell you that Noah was wrong," retorted Paganel, "and deserves the malediction of scholars to the end of time."
The listeners to this argument could not help laughing at seeing the two friends dispute about what Noah ought to have done or left undone. The major, who had never argued with any one in his life, contrary to all his principles, was every day at war with Paganel, who must have particularly excited him.
Glenarvan, according to his custom, interrupted the debate, and said,—
WANTED, A JAGUAR!
"However much it is to be regretted, in a scientific or human point of view, that we are deprived of ferocious animals, we must be resigned to-day to their absence. Paganel could not hope to encounter any in this aerial forest."
"No," replied the geographer, "although we beat the bush. It is a pity, for it would have been a glorious hunt. A ferocious man-eater like the jaguar! With one blow of his paw he can twist the neck of a horse. When he has tasted human flesh, however, he returns to it ravenously. What he likes best is the Indian, then the negro, then the mulatto, and then the white man."
"However that may be, my good Paganel," said Glenarvan, "so long as there are no Indians, mulattoes, or negroes among us, I rejoice in the absence of your dear jaguars. Our situation is not, of course, so agreeable——"
"What!" cried Paganel, "you complain of your lot?"
"Certainly," replied Glenarvan. "Are you at your ease in these uncomfortable and uncushioned branches?"