“Think this place ’ll do, sir?” said Shaddy, after washing down his repast with copious draughts of maté made by his men.
“Excellently, Naylor.”
“And you ain’t hardly begun yet,” said Shaddy, smiling. “Wait till you get higher up, where it’s wilder and wonderfler: this is nothing. Suit you, Master Rob? Never had such fishing as that before, did you?”
“Never, Shaddy; but what did you do with the alligator and the fish?”
“My lads cut all off as the ’gator hadn’t had down his throat, and tumbled the other into the stream. Ain’t much of him left by this time.”
The night came on almost directly after, with the remarkable tropical absence of twilight; and, as if all had been waiting for the darkness, the chorus of the forest began. Then, well making up the fire with an abundance of wood, the boatmen came on board, and immediately settled themselves down to sleep.