'We ought to be pretty safe now,' he said, 'and had better camp here till the morning. With daylight some of the natives will be able to take their bearings.'
They lay down on the rough grass, already wet with dew.
'How d' you feel, Ephraim?' asked Grinson, bending over the seaman.
'I felt worse when I had typhoid,' said Meek faintly. 'What a lot of trouble I do give you, Mr. Grinson--a lot of trouble. And I ain't said a word of thanks to the gentlemen.'
'Don't bother about that,' said Trentham. 'Get to sleep if you can.'
'Ay, go to sleep at once, Ephraim; d' ye hear, me lad?' said Grinson.
'I 'll try, Mr. Grinson, and if so be I dream horrors----'
'Dream! What's dreams? Why, many's the times I 've been drownded in my sleep. Dreams make me laugh. (I 'll get him off, sir,' he whispered to Trentham. 'A yarn of mine has done it afore now!) I remember once I dreamed as how I 'd got into a Salvation meeting; they was singing a hymn, but the man as played the trumpet--why, somehow the trumpet turned into a beer bottle, and I found I was playing the trumpet myself. They all come up and thanked me afterwards for my beautiful music, and then all of a sudden I was left alone, and couldn't find my hat. While I was hunting for it, that there trumpet fellow rushed in and pushed a rolled-up parcel into my hand. "Very good hat!" says he, and when I opened it, bless you, 'twas nothing but a tea-cosy.... He 's off now, sir. What have those devils been doing to my Ephraim?'
'We 'll hear all about it to-morrow. You had better sleep yourself, Grinson. Tell yourself a yarn.'
'No, sir; that's not my way. I counts over the number of sweethearts I 've had, and by the time I 've got to the third or fourth I 'm dead off; they was so dull.'