86 



CAMPS IN THK CARIBBEES. 



These little gleaming messengers increased in num- 

 ber, and the darkness was crossed and re-crossed by 

 fiery trails of light ; and still the busy fingers of my 

 assailants thrust them in more and more. At last it 

 became quite light, and by an inadvertent movement 

 I exposed myself. With a shout, they proclaimed the 



success of their de- 

 vice, and demanded 

 I should let them 

 in. But this I would 

 not do, and they 

 later subsided, after 

 howling themselves 

 hoarse. Before the 

 termination of the 

 entertainment I had 

 fallen asleep, and did 

 not awake until early 

 the next morning. 



Just before the river, 

 which ran near my 

 hut, trickles through 

 the huge rocks to the 

 Carib Type ocean, it leaves sev- 



eral small pools, hol- 

 lowed from the solid rock by the waves. The sun 

 rises so quickly in that latitude, coming up hot and 

 glaring from the waves, that a bath, to be refresh- 

 ing, must be taken at dawn. The morning was cool 

 and cloudy ; a few birds were chirping as I stepped 

 from my doorway. I drew back suddenly, saluted 

 by a blast from what I thought must be an asthmatic 

 fish-horn. Peering cautiously out, I ascertained, by 



