k there! See that swirl? That means something big--an
alligator, or a big fish of some sort, which is as likely as not to be
dangerous. No; no swimming for me--or for you, either, thank you. But
it wouldn't be at all a bad idea to have our portable bath-tubs set up
on the sand, and have a good dip in them."

CHAPTER EIGHT.

A NIGHT ADVENTURE IN THE GREAT SWAMP.

With the setting of the sun, the gentle zephyr of a breeze that had been
blowing all day dropped, and the night fell, close and suffocatingly
hot. A young moon hung low over the western horizon, but the bank of
thunder cloud was rising fast, and by the time that the two friends had
finished their evening meal, the silver sickle of the moon had become
effaced, as had the stars, by the thickening of the veil of haze which
had been gradually over-spreading the heavens.

So close and breathless was the atmosphere that the two friends declared
the interior of the tent to be insupportable, they therefore walked down
to near the inner margin of the beach and flung themselves down upon the
curious moss-like turf, to indulge in their usual after-dinner chat and
watch the gathering of the storm that now seemed inevitable, while Earle
smoked. For a wonder, there were neither flies, mosquitoes, nor midges
on this little peninsula; there was therefore nothing but the excessive
heat and the closeness of the atmosphere to interfere with their
comfort. The Indians were camped on the summit of the mound, grouped as
usual round a small fire, the materials for which they had collected
during the day's march, and were conversing in low tones, while they,
too, smoked. King Cole, who had dined luxuriously and to repletion upon
a big bustard-like bird which Earle had shot an hour or two earlier,
crouched at the feet of his two masters, purring contentedly.

The conversation between the two friends, which was of a desultory and
discursive character, ebbed and flowed in unison with the interest of
the speakers, and was punctuated with many spells of silence while the
two gazed dreamily out across the glass-like surface of the lagoon,
indistinguishable now in the velvet blackness, save when a faint flicker
of sheet lightning momentarily illuminated it. At the beginning the
night was intensely still and silent; there was not even the customary
hum of insects or rolling clatter of frogs to accentuate the silence,
under the influence of which the white men first, and finall