night,--to-morrow I will _speak_"

"An', if I may make so bould," said Barney, glancing with a somewhat
rueful expression round the hard earthen floor of the hut, "where-abouts
may I take the liberty of sleepin'?"

The hermit replied by going to a corner, whence, from beneath a heap of
rubbish, he dragged two hammocks, curiously wrought in a sort of light
net-work. These he slung across the hut, at one end, from wall to wall,
and, throwing a sheet or coverlet into each, he turned with a smile to
his visitors,--

"Behold your beds! I wish you a very good sleep,--adios!"

So saying, this strange individual sat down at the table, and was soon as
deeply engaged with his large book as if he had suffered no interruption;
while Martin and Barney, having gazed gravely and abstractedly at him for
five minutes, turned and smiled to each other, jumped into their
hammocks, and were soon buried in deep slumber.

CHAPTER X

AN ENEMY IN THE NIGHT--THE VAMPIRE BAT--THE HERMIT DISCOURSES ON STRANGE,
AND CURIOUS, AND INTERESTING THINGS

Next morning Martin Rattler awoke with a feeling of lightness in his
head, and a sensation of extreme weakness pervading his entire frame.
Turning his head round to the right he observed that a third hammock was
slung across the further end of the hut; which was, no doubt, that in
which the hermit had passed the night. But it was empty now. Martin did
not require to turn his head to the other side to see if Barney
O'Flannagan was there, for that worthy individual made his presence
known, for a distance of at least sixty yards all round the outside of
the hut, by means of his nose, which he was in the habit of using as a
trumpet when asleep. It was as well that Martin did not require to look
round; for he found, to his surprise, that he had scarcely strength to do
so. While he was wondering in a dreamy sort of manner what could be the
matter with him, the hermit entered the hut bearing a small deer upon his
shoulders. Resting his gun in a corner of the room, he advanced to
Martin's hammock.

"My boy," he exclaimed, in surprise, "what is wrong with you?"

"I'm sure I don't know," said Martin, faintly; "I think there is
something wet about my feet."

Turning up the sheet, he found that Martin's feet were covered with
blood! For a few seconds the hermit growled forth a number of apparently
very pithy sentences in Portuguese, in a deep guttural voice, which
awakened Barney with a start. Spr