“Oh,” exclaimed Archie impatiently, “how sick I am of hearing you say that!”
“Yes, sir; you’re a bit sleepy now. Just you slip one arm under this pad rope, and lie right over on your side, and you will go off. You may trust me, sir. I won’t go to sleep.”
Utterly wearied out, the subaltern began to make some opposition, but he obeyed his companion’s order, and five minutes after Nature had asserted herself and he was fast asleep.
How that night passed he could never afterwards recall, but he had some dreamy notion that he woke up and took Peter’s duties of watchman, telling him to slip his arm under the pad rope and lie over upon his side so as to get his turn of rest. But it all proved to be imaginary, for the poor fellow, weak and still suffering from the effects of his wound, did not start up until the great elephant had begun to drag his legs out of the deep holes, when he trudged on towards where the track ran once more between two walls of densely matted palm growth; and he stared in wonder at his companion, hardly able to collect his thoughts so as to put the question that was troubling him and say:
“Have I been asleep all night, Pete?”
“Yes, sir; like a top. Feel better now?”
“No!” cried the lad passionately, for the confusion was passing off. “I trusted you.”
“Yes, sir. All right. I have been listening to one of them great cats singing and purring right back on the other side of the river, and I never slept a wink.”
“Oh!” ejaculated Archie; but Peter chose to misunderstand him.
“Oh it is, sir,” he cried ecstatically. “Take another look before we are shut in amongst the trees. It’s lovely! It’s the beautifullest morning I ever did see.”