ma'am--I
mean, good-afternoon," cried the woman respectfully. "I am so sorry to
be late this week, and I hope the Doctor's quite well."

CHAPTER SIX.

ARCHIE OPENS HIS EARS.

The mess dinner was over, and the officers were sitting back by one of
the open windows, dreamily gazing out at the dark jungle and breathing
in with a calm feeling of satisfaction the soft, comparatively cool air
that floated up on the surface of the swift river.

It was very still, not a word having been spoken for some time; not a
sound came from the native campong, while it was hard to believe that
within touch of the mess-room there were the quarters of nearly three
hundred men. But once in a while something like a whisper came from the
jungle, suggesting the passing through its dense tangle of some
prey-seeking, cat-like creature. But no one spoke; though, in a
half-drowsy way, those seated by the window and a couple of dark figures
outside in the veranda were straining their ears and trying to make out
what caused the distant sounds. Then some one spoke:

"Asleep, Archie?"

"No. I was trying to make out what was that faint cry. Do you know,
Down?"

"Didn't hear any faint cry."

"Listen, then."

"Can't. Deal too drowsy.--Lots of fire-flies out to-night."

"Yes; aren't they lovely?--all along the river-bank. They put me in
mind of the tiny sparks at the back of a wood fire."

"A wood fire? What do you mean--a forest on fire?"

"No, no; at home, when you are burning logs of wood and the little
sparks keep running here and there all over the back of the stove, just
like fireworks at a distance."

"Ah, yes, they do look something like that, just as if the leaves of the
overhanging bushes all burst out into light."

"Yes," said Archie; "and when the soft breeze blows over them it seems
to sweep them all out."

"Good job, too," said Captain Down. "We get heat enough in the sunshine
without having the bushes and the water made hot by fire-flies."

"It's wonderful," said Archie.

"Wonderfully hot."

"No, no; I mean so strange that all those beetles, or whatever they are,
should carry a light in their tails that they can show or put out just
when they like, and that though it's so brilliant it is quite cool."

"Rather awkward for them if it was hot, in a climate like this. They
look very pretty, though."

"Lovely!" said the subaltern enthusiastically. "I don't know when I
have seen them so bright. You can t