in one of those big trees till he could see a
monkey roosting, and then it was a leap like a cat at a rat, and he
carried him off."

"Ah!" said Fitz, with a sigh. "I thought it was something worse."

"Couldn't have been any worse for the monkey," said Poole, laughing.

"No," continued Fitz thoughtfully; "but I didn't know there were jaguars
here."

"Didn't you, my lad?" said the skipper quietly. "Why, we are just at
the edge of the impenetrable jungle. There is only this strip of land
between it and the sea, and the only way into it is up that little
river. If we were to row up there we should have right and left pretty
well every wild creature that inhabits the South American jungles:
tigers--you have had a taste of the snakes this afternoon--water-hogs,
tapirs, pumas too, I dare say. There goes another of those great
alligators slapping the water with his tail."

"Would there be any of the great serpents?" asked Fitz.

"Any number," replied the skipper, "if we could penetrate to where they
are; the great tree-living ones, and those water-boas that live among
the swamps and pools."

"They grow very big, don't they?" said Fitz, who began to find the
conversation interesting.

"All sizes. Big as you or me round the thickest part, and as long as--"

"A hundred feet?" said Poole.

"Well, I don't know about that, my boy," said the skipper. "I shouldn't
like to meet one that size. I saw the skin of one that was over thirty,
and I have heard tell by people out here that they had seen them
five-and-forty and fifty feet long. They may grow to that size in these
hot, steamy jungles. There is no reason why they shouldn't, when whales
grow to seventy or eighty feet long in the sea; but I believe those
monster anacondas of fifty feet long were only skins, and that either
they or the stories had been very much stretched."

"What time do you think it is, father?"

"Well, by the feel of the night, my lad, I should say it's about three."

"As late as that, father? Time seems to have gone very quickly."

"Quickly, eh? That's proof positive, my boy, that you have had a nap or
two. I have not, and I have found it slow."

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.

A JUNCTION.

The skipper moved off into the darkness, and all was wonderfully still
once more in the clearing. There was the dense jungle all round, but
not a sound broke the silence, for it was the peculiar period between
the going to rest of the myriad creat