An Introduction to a Biology 



m3'self wdth the thought that the next night I could remove 

 the cause of my uneasiness by putting the trunk containing 

 the toads out in the passage. For I must mention that out 

 of a general regard for the state of my companion's nerves, 

 and on account of a definite statement by him at dinner that 

 he could not stand toads at any price, I had not informed 

 him that I had any with me, and still less that there was a 

 party of them under his bed. 



So the next evening, before dinner, I removed the trunk 

 to the passage. After lying awake for about an hour, I was 

 gradually dozing off when, to my horror, I heard the shrill 

 croak of the night before. What was the meaning of this ? 

 The sickening thought suddenly struck me that one of them 

 had escaped on the occasion on which I had fed them, and 

 was now at large in the cabin ; but another possible inter- 

 pretation was that I had only put the trmik just outside 

 in the passage and that between the cabin and the passage 

 there was a window, so that really the toads were not so 

 much farther off after all, and the croak I heard was from 

 one of the captives out in the passage. 



To find out whether this comforting theory was true, I 

 opened the tin boxes in which the toads were, in the hope 

 that I might be able to find out in that way whether one 

 had escaped or not. But I was disappointed. There were 

 four toads left ; but as I could not remember whether I had 

 left one or two with my friend in Naples, the fact that four 

 remained was no help. Had there been five it would have 

 been all right, for I knew that I had left at least one in Naples. 

 Having failed to discover in this way whether one of the 

 toads had or had not escaped, I set myself to find out whether 

 there was actually a toad at large in the room. This I 

 did by remo^dng the trmik containing the tin boxes from 

 the position it occupied just outside the cabin to the end 

 of the passage, which was so far away that a toad's croak 

 could not reach my cabin from it. It can be imagined that 

 that night, directly my cabin companion had put out the 



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