Two Vireos and Some Friends 



your way and must retrace your steps here 

 and there to get through. And right in the 

 depths of it, where you are completely 

 surrounded and beset, and the leafy shadows 

 are creeping in, you hear a low, clear, 

 human whistle close behind you — ^just one, 

 uncanny note, with a certain suggestion 

 of meaning in it that makes you tingle — 

 hke the signal of some friend or foe. 



Startled, you turn and look back, peering 

 through the vines and foliage; but see noth- 

 ing. Then you listen a minute, holding 

 your breath. It sounds, again, but this 

 time from in front, and you know now, 

 from a pecuhar inflection it has, that some- 

 where in that darkening mass of green a 

 hidden eye is watching you. The whistle 

 cannot be other than that of a bird, you 

 think; and yet it certainly does sound 

 like some man or boy. 



Once more you hear it — directly over- 

 head; and again, so close it seems at your 

 very ear; and then, once more, farther 

 off, to the left; and again, and again — 

 from nowhere and everywhere! 



[115] 



