can that he was able to
empty into the main tanks. He washed out innumerable small oil pipes
with gasoline, and flushed out the crankcase itself, and had at the
end of his working as many small scraps of metal as would half fill a
thimble. He showed then to Paula.

"And the stars in their courses fought against Sisera," he quoted
dryly. "Any one of these, caught in just the right place, would have
let us down into the jungle last night."

She smiled up at him.

"But they didn't."

"No.... God loves the Irish," said Bell. "What's that thing?"

Paula was fishing, sitting on a fallen tree in the cloud of smoke from
a smudge fire Bell had built for her. She was wearing the oily flying
suit he had found in the shed with the plane, and had torn strips from
her discarded dress to make a fishing line. The hook was made out of
the stiff wire handle of one of the extra gasoline tins. "Hook and
leader in one," Bell had observed when he made it.

* * * * *

He was pointing to a flat bodied fish with incredible jaws that lay on
the grass, emitting strange sounds even in the air. It flapped about
madly. Its jaws closed upon a stick nearly half an inch thick, and cut
it through.

"It is a _piranha_," said Paula. "The same fish that bit your hand. It
can bite through a copper wire fastened to a hook, but this hook is so
long...."

"Pleasant," said Bell. Something large and red passed before his eyes.
He struck at it instinctively.

"Don't!" said Paula sharply.

"Why?"

"It's a _maribundi_ wasp," she told him "And its sting.... Children
have died of it. A strong man will be ill for days from one single
sting."

"Still more pleasant," said Bell. "The jungle is a charming place,
isn't it?" He wiped the sweat off his face. "Any more little pets
about?"

She looked about seriously.

"There." She pointed to a sapling not far distant. "The _palo santo_
yonder has a hollow trunk, and in it there are usually ants, which are
called fire-ants. They bite horribly. It feels like a drop of molten
metal on your flesh. And it festers afterwards. And there is a fly,
the _berni_ fly, which lays its eggs in living flesh. The maggot eats
its way within. I do not know much about the jungle, but my father
has--had a _fazenda_ in Matto Grosso and I was there as a child. The
_camaradas_ told me much about the jungle, then."

Bell winced, and sat down beside her. She had Ribiera's pearl handled
automatic