to camp out in the neighborhood of the dreaded
animal. But Pepe Garcia, accustomed as he was by profession to try his
strength with the ferocious bear and the wily boar, was not the man to
be afraid of a tiger, even of a genuine tiger from Bengal. To prove
to the porters how slight was the estimation he placed on the supposed
enemy, and also to drill them in the case of similar rencounters, he
pushed the whole troop pellmell into the thickest part of the reeds,
with the surly order to cut down the canes for sheds. Drawing his own
knife, he slashed right and left among the stems, which the Indians,
trembling with fear, were obliged to make into sheaves on the spot and
transport to the beach selected for the bivouac. Double rows of these
_arundos_, driven into the sand, formed the partitions of the cabins,
for which their interwoven leaves made an appropriate thatch. The
green halls with matted vaults were picturesque enough; each peon,
seeing how easily they were constructed, chose to have a house for
himself; and the Tiger's Beach quickly presented the appearance of a
camp disposed in a long straight line, of which the timorous Indians
occupied the extremity nearest the river.

No "tiger" appeared to justify the apprehensions of the porters; but
what was lacking to their fears from beasts with four feet was made
up to them by beasts with wings. The night closed in dry and serene.
Since leaving Maniri, whether because of the broadening of the valley,
the rarity of the water-courses or the decreasing altitude of the
hills, the adventurers had been little troubled with fogs at night.
The fauna of the region, too, had offered nothing of an alarming
complexion, except the footprints of the tiger in question: an
occasional tapir or peccary from the woods, and otters and fish from
the streams, had attracted the shots of the party, but merely as
welcome additions to their game-bags, not as food for their fears.
To-night, however, the veritable bugbear of the tropical forest paid
them a visit, and left a real souvenir of his presence. As the Indian
servants stretched themselves out in slumber under the bright stars
and in the partial shelter of their ajoupas, a bat of the vampire
species, attracted by the emanations of their bodies, came sailing
over them, and emboldened by the silence reigning everywhere, selected
a victim for attack. Hovering over the fellow's exposed foot, he bit
the great toe, and fanning his prey in the tr