AN ISLAND SETTLEMENT 



I followed these goings and comings for two or three 

 minutes. Several times it flew away and then returned, 

 always searching about. Pitying it and desiring, since I 

 was now relieved of the fatigue which the heat had caused 

 me, to go back to breakfast, I took my net and drawing 

 near, made as if to catch it, swinging the pocket rapidly 

 about. It veered away with a quick jerk of the wings, I 

 then took up the swallow-wort, lifting the fragment which 

 marked its original place, and replanted it in the sand. 



I again looked at my watch to see whether I could con- 

 secrate yet a few more minutes to curiosity without mak- 

 ing my kind host, my friend Dr. M*^^ Rivron, and his wife, 

 who honored me with the charming hospitality of Kursac, 

 wait too long. It was only half past eleven ; we usually 

 did not breakfast until about noon; it would take only a 

 quarter of an hour to traverse the distance from the mill 

 of Caudan to the house. I could then, without fear of be- 

 ing chided, dispose of fifteen minutes. This lapse of time 

 would perhaps suffice to show me whether my bestiole would 

 this time find the way to her nest without hesitation. 



I waited a little ; five minutes had not passed when my 

 Bembex, coming like an arrow, alighted on the sand near 

 the plant, still holding the prey which I had noticed when 

 she departed at my chasing her, after her vain attempts to 

 find the entrance to her nest ; but this time she did not 

 hunt long. She felt about a little to right and left, but 

 soon turned directly toward the entrance to the tunnel, 

 distant scarcely two inches from the place where she had 

 settled. My Bembex had a memory. 



127 



