With the slumbering of the Javanese mountains, however, these tremors and the consequent fears subsided, and were almost forgotten in another source of anxiety.
One morning, while Teddy Malone was walking on the beach of Silver Bay, he observed a small object running and stumbling towards him, as if in great haste or fear. Hurrying forward to meet this object he soon perceived that it was little Brown-eyes, of whom he was very fond.
“What’s wrong, me darlint?” he asked, catching the child up and kissing her.
“Oh, such funny tings me sawd—oder side de rocks,” replied Brown-eyes, panting; “come wid me an’ see dem. Come kik!”
“Funny things, eh, mavourneen, what sort of things?”
“Oh, like beasts. Come kik!”
“They wasn’t sarpints, was they?” said Malone, seating the child on his shoulder and hastening towards the rocky point which separated Silver Bay from the land beyond.
“No, no—not saa’pints. Long beasts, like mans, only hims not stand and walk, but lie down and crawl.”
Much impressed with the child’s eager manner, the Irishman hurried towards the point of rocks, filled with curiosity as to what the creatures could be.
“What sort o’ hids have they, darlint?” he asked, as he neared the point.