HAMMOCK NIGHTS 227 



in my direction. Their appraisal was brief; 

 •with no more than a second's delay they started 

 toward me. I waited until they were well on 

 their w^ay, then vigorously twanged the cords 

 under them harp wise, sending all the scouts into 

 mid-air and headlong down among their fellows. 

 So far as I know, this was a revolutionary ma- 

 neuver in military tactics, comparable only to the 

 explosion of a set mine. But even so, when the 

 last of this brigade had gone on their menacing, 

 pitiless way, and the danger had passed to a new 

 province, I could not help thinking of the certain, 

 inexorable fate of a man who, unable to move 

 from his hammock or to make any defense, should 

 be thus exposed to their attack. There could 

 be no help for him if but one of this great host 

 should scent him out and carry the w^ord back 

 to the rank and file. 



It was after this army had been lost in the 

 black shadows of the forest floor, that I remem- 

 bered those others who had come with them — 

 those attendant birds of prey who profit by the 

 evil work of this legion. For, hovering over 

 them, sometimes a little in advance, there had 

 been a flying squadron of ant-birds and others 

 which had come to feed, not on the ants, but on 



