millions of years ago, and had to take
to the water to escape being eaten up by bigger and fiercer animals than
himself. I'm a Maine man and so I know about whales."

They came now and then to little clearings, in which the peons raised
many kinds of tropical and semitropical plants, bananas, pineapples,
plantains, oranges, cocoa-nuts, mangoes, olives and numerous others. In
some places the fruit grew wild, and they helped themselves to it. Twice
they asked at huts for the customary food made of Indian corn, and on
both occasions it was given to them. The peons were stolid, but they
seemed kind and Ned was quite sure they did not care whether the two
were Gringos or not. Two or three times, heavy tropical rains gushed
down in swift showers, and they were soaked through and through, despite
their serapes, but the hot sun, coming quickly afterward, soon dried
them out again. They were very much afraid of chills and fever, but
their constitutions, naturally so strong, held them safe.

Deeper and deeper they went into the great tropical wilderness of the
tierra caliente. Often the heat under the vast canopy of interlacing
vines and boughs was heavy and intense. Then they would lie down and
rest, first threshing up grass and bushes to drive away snakes,
scorpions and lizards. Sometimes they would sleep, and sometimes they
would watch the monkeys and parrots darting about and chattering
overhead. Twice they saw fierce ocelots stealing among the tree trunks,
stalking prey hidden from the man and boy. The first ocelot was a tawny
yellow and the second was a reddish gray. Both were marked with black
spots in streaks and in lengthened rings. The second was rather the
larger of the two. He seemed to be slightly over four feet in length,
of which the body was three feet and the tail about a foot.

Ned and Obed were lying flat upon the ground, when the second ocelot
appeared, and, as the wind was blowing from him toward them, he did not
detect their presence. At the distance the figure of the great cat was
enlarged. He looked to them almost like a tiger and certainly he was a
ferocious creature, as he stalked his prey. Neither would have cared to
meet him even with weapons in hand. Suddenly he darted forward, ran up
the trunk of a great tree and disappeared in the dense foliage. As he
did not come down again they inferred that he had caught what he was
pursuing and was now devouring it.

Ned shivered a little and put his hand on