“Most of our bats migrate South about September. I have heard sailors say that they sometimes fly hundreds of miles to reach the islands of the tropics.
“These red bats, and their cousins the big hoary bats, are clean enough; but when I was down in Mexico I found a species that had the most disagreeable musky odor. They used to collect literally by the hundreds about old buildings and in church belfries and wherever they could find a dark cranny to hide in, till they simply made it impossible for people to come near. Those Mexican bats are the kind that live in eaves and ruins—”
“And in Hallowe’en pictures?”
“I dare say! As they fly only in the dark, I suppose they need their scent to help take the place of sight. They go with the Gila monsters and rattle-snakes.”
“What good are they, anyway?” wondered the Boy.
“People used to think them just an unmitigated pest, those smelly Mexican bats. But they do eat mosquitoes. I suppose they do their part, down in the malarial districts, in helping to exterminate the malarial mosquitoes. They certainly do devour incredible numbers of insects, so I suppose they have their place in the scheme of things.
“Be that as it may, we do have a bat, the big-eared desert bat, that is known to help the farmer, and that deserves to be protected, just as much as the insect-eating birds. But people generally kill them on sight. These nice clean red bats, too, help to keep the Balance of Nature. I have never killed one in my life.”
The Boy’s eyes marvelled as he gently gave the wee bat to its sleeping mother.
CHAPTER XV
THE SMUGGLER
The Ranger had been puzzled by strange footprints he had found on the river bank. He had also been disturbed to learn that the lumbermen just over the pass were getting liquor. The lumber boss complained that in some mysterious way they were getting the forbidden stuff. There had been several serious accidents in felling the great trees because the men had been drinking. The Ranger suspected that there might be a smuggler about who was bringing rum from some point alongshore up the river, but he could find neither the man nor his cache.