“Joe, you heard that bellowing down the river there?” whispered Rob.
Again there was no reply.
“Sleep too,” growled Shaddy. “Well, don’t you know what that was?”
“No.”
“’Gator. Don’t suppose he thinks it’s bellowing. Dessay he’d call it a song. There it goes again. Comes along the river as if it was close to us. But there, don’t you think you’ve done enough for one day, and had better do as the rest are doing? We’re the only two awake.”
“But what about keeping watch?” said Rob, rather excitedly.
“Oh, I don’t know as there’s any need to keep watch here, my lad,” said Shaddy coolly.
“What, not with all kinds of wild and savage beasts about us, and monstrous reptiles and fishes in the very water where we float! Why, it seems madness to go to sleep among such dangers.”
“Nay, not it, my lad. Why, if you come to that, the world’s full of dangers wherever you are. No more danger here than on board a big ship sailing or steaming over water miles deep.”
“But the wild beasts—lions and tigers, as you call them?”