"Do you mean that we shall sleep in the canoe?" asked Nigel.
"Ay, why not?" returned the hermit, who could be heard, though not seen, busying himself with the contents of the fore locker. "You'll find the canoe a pretty fair bed. You have only to slip down and pull your head and shoulders through the manhole and go to sleep. You won't want blankets in this weather, and, see—there is a pillow for you and another for Moses."
"I cannot see, but I can feel," said Nigel, with a soft laugh, as he passed the pillow aft.
"T'ank ee, Nadgel," said Moses; "here—feel behind you an' you'll find grub for yourself an' some to pass forid to massa. Mind when you slip down for go to sleep dat you don't dig your heels into massa's skull. Dere's no bulkhead to purtect it."
"I'll be careful," said Nigel, beginning his invisible supper with keen appetite. "But how about my skull, Moses? Is there a bulkhead between it and your heels?"
"No, but you don't need to mind, for I allers sleeps doubled up, wid my knees agin my chin. It makes de arms an' legs feel more sociable like."
With this remark Moses ceased to encourage conversation—his mouth being otherwise engaged.
Thereafter they slipped down into their respective places, laid their heads on their pillows and fell instantly into sound repose, while the dark waters flowed sluggishly past, and the only sound that disturbed the universal stillness was the occasional cry of some creature of the night or the flap of an alligator's tail.