The Kangaroo Rat 



light. In summer-time, I now remembered, 

 when other plants were not dead, as at present, 

 the bayonet, in its sombre evergreen, would be 

 a poor landmark by night ; but it meets the new 

 necessity in a splendid way. Out of its bristling 

 topmost serried spears it sends far up into the 

 purple night a wondrous candelabrum on a 

 towering pole, with flowers of shining white, 

 that must loom up afar, like some new constel- 

 lation in the sky. And so the Perodipus's safety- 

 port is lighthoused day and night. 



I began carefully to open up the main gallery 

 to the home of my moonlight dancer, and had 

 not gone very far when I came on something 

 that made me jump ; nothing less than a fero- 

 cious-looking reptile — the Huajalote, that the 

 Mexicans hold in superstitious and mortal dread, 

 the Amblystoma of scientists. It was only a 

 small one, but it gave me the creeps to see him 

 lashing his venomous-looking tail and oozing 

 all over with a poisonous slime. If he could 

 affect me so much, what might he be like to the 

 gentle little Perodipus, whose home he seemed 

 trying to raid? But for some reason that I did 

 not understand then, the reptile was boring his 



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