“Yes, of course.”
“And I am not to say another word?”
“No.”
“Then I’ll think,” said Shaddy, “and punish myself that way, Master Rob. I’ll always think about it at night when I’m on the watch. It ain’t likely that I shall ever go to sleep again on dooty with idees like that on my brain.”
“No more talking; breakfast at once,” cried Brazier, issuing from the cabin.
“Right, sir,” said Shaddy, working the boat in close to the bank. “Quick, my lads, and get that fire well alight.”
The men were set ashore just as the sun rose and flooded everything with light, while a quarter of an hour later, as Brazier was patiently watching one of the tunnel-like openings opposite in the hope of seeing a deer come down to drink and make them a good meal or two for a couple of days, Shaddy drew Rob’s attention to the black-looking forms of several alligators floating about a few feet below.
“The brutes!” said the lad. “Just like efts in an aquarium at home.”
“Only a little bigger, my lad. I say, there he is—one of ’em.”
He pointed down through the clear water, illumined now by the sun so that the bottom was visible, and there coiled-up and apparently asleep lay either the anaconda of the previous night or one of its relatives, perfectly motionless and heedless of the boat, which floated like a black shadow over its head.