An Introduction to a Biology 



because I could not put the stick into the open end except 

 at such an angle that it would not enter more than a few 

 inches, and it was so strongly built that I could not wrench 

 one side away. I could not bring myself to ask my steward 

 to get the ship's carpenter to unscrew it ; partly, I suppose, 

 because my knowledge of German, though by this time 

 extensive, did not reach so far as to enable me to tell the 

 cabin-steward what I wanted doing, and still less to enlighten- 

 ing him as to the reason of it ; and partly because I could not 

 bear the thought of the merriment that would be engendered 

 by the possible non-discovery of the toad. However, I 

 derived what little comfort I could from the fact that the 

 next was my last night on the ship ; and resolved to leave 

 the said instructions for the ship's carpenter in order to save 

 any elderly person who might occupy the cabin after me 

 the agony of terror, or even the possibility of death, that 

 would be quite likely to attend the discovery of a toad in 

 their cabin ; and to impart these instructions to my steward 

 at the moment of leaving the ship and of tipping him, so 

 as to escape by the former the bitterness of witnessing the 

 merriment caused by the conceivable non-discovery of the 

 toad, and to drown by the latter any objection he might 

 raise. 



That night it was a very long time before I heard any 

 sound of the fugitive ; in fact, so long that I was dozing off 

 to sleep when I heard the first one. I was soon alertly 

 attentive to discover whether I had only dreamt I heard 

 it which would not have been unlikely or whether it had 

 really begun again. I had not to wait long. The shrill cry 

 soon rang out in the stillness of the night; the night was 

 still because we had reached Southampton Water and were 

 anchored there. I listened to discover if I could trace the 

 croak to the hollow step just inside the door ; but the next 

 time I heard it, I was almost sure it was in its old position 

 under my companion's berth. The next time it was so 

 plain that I thought I could be certain that it was in his 



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