“Wow!” he yelled a moment later, in a tone that roused Jack, who was almost asleep.
“What’s the matter, Billy?” he asked anxiously.
“Ugh, something soft with legs on it just ran over my face,” cried Raynor. “For goodness’ sake get up and get a light. It may be something that bites or stings.”
Jack lost no time in getting hurriedly out of his bed, and as he shook the curtains something was dislodged from them and went whirring and banging round the room, blundering heavily against the ceiling.
“What the dickens——!” exclaimed the boy, considerably startled, when another cry from Billy split the air.
“Ouch, for the love of Mike. A light, quick. Something just nipped my toe.”
Jack fumbled for the matches; but, as is usual in such cases, he located every object in the room before he found them, finally colliding with the washstand and sending it with a crash to the ground floor. An instant later there was the noise of slamming doors below and the landlord came racing up the stairs to the boys’ room.
“Ciel! What is zee mattaire zees time? First you try drown me, zen you make zee beeg crash like zee tonnaire!”
“It’s all the fault of your old hotel,” exclaimed Jack angrily, going to the door. “This room is full of some kind of animals. It’s a regular menagerie.”
He opened the door and the landlord, with a curious-looking night-light, composed of a wick floating in a tumbler full of some strong-smelling oil that gave out a powerful odor of sandal wood, came inside. Instantly there was a mighty scuffling and several ugly looking lizards darted off across the floor and a huge bat (no doubt the creature that had vacated Jack’s bed-curtains with such a prodigious flapping) went soaring out through the open lattice-work doors which led out on the verandah, but which the boys had left open for coolness. There were also a dozen other specimens of unclassified insects, both winged and legged, which went scuttling off at the sight of the light. Then the landlord’s eye fell on the open doors.