hance
engaged in thinking of that very common subject--nothing! If Pedro had
smoked the same thing, it would have been better for his health and
pocket; but Pedro, thinking otherwise, fumigated his fine moustache, and
disconcerted the mosquitoes in the region of his nose.

Quashy, having just replenished the fire until the logs rose two feet or
more from the ground, turned his back on the same, warmed his hands
behind him, and gazed up through the over-arching boughs at the starry
sky with that wistfully philosophical expression which negroes are apt
to assume when their thoughts are "too deep," or too complex, "for
utterance."

Spotted Tiger continued to dally with the turtle soup, and seemed loath
to give in as he slowly, with many a pause between, raised the huge iron
spoon to his lips.

No one seemed inclined to break the silence into which they had sunk,
for all were more or less fatigued; and it seemed as if the very brutes
around sympathised with them, for there was a perceptible lull in the
whistling of the frogs, the howling monkeys appeared to have gone to
rest, and the sighing alligators to have subsided and sunk, so that the
breaking of a twig or the falling of a leaf was perceptible to the
listening ear.

Things were in this state of profound and peaceful calm when a slight
rustling was heard among the branches of the tree above them.

The instant glare of Quashy's eyes; the gaze of Manuela's; the cock of
Pedro's ear, and the sudden pause of our hero's spoon on its way to his
lips, were sights to behold! The Indian alone seemed comparatively
indifferent to the sound, though he looked up inquiringly.

At that moment there burst forth an ear-splitting, marrow-shrivelling
blood-curdling yell, that seemed to rouse the entire universe into a
state of wild insanity. There could be no mistaking it--the peculiar,
horrid, shrieking, only too familiar war-whoop of the painted savage!

Quashy staggered back. He could not recover himself, for a log had
caught his heel. To sit down on the fire he knew would be death,
therefore he bounded over it backwards and fell into Lawrence's lap,
crushing that youth's plate almost into the region where the soup had
already gone, and dashing his feet into the tureen!

Lawrence roared; Manuela shrieked; Pedro sprang up and seized his
weapons. So did Lawrence and his man, regardless of the soup.

Tiger alone sat still, conveying the iron spoon slowly to his lips, but