Page:Dick Sands the Boy Captain.djvu/455

 AN EXCITING CHASE. 427 huts ; calaos with their tuneful song ; grey parrots, with bright red tails, called roufs by the Manyema, who apply the same name to their reigning chicfs ; and insect-eating drongoiy lîke grey linnets with large red bcaks. Hundreds of butterflies flitted about, especially in the neighbourhood of the brooks ; but thèse wcre more to the taste of Cousin Benedict than of little Jack ; over and over again the child expressed his regret that he could not sce over the walls, and more than ever heseemed to miss his friend Dick, who had taught him to climb a mast, and who he was sure would hâve fine fun with him in the branches of the trees, which were growing sometimes to the height of a hundred feet. So long as the supply of insects did not fail, Benedict would hâve been contented to stay on without a murmur in his présent quarters. True, without his glasses hc worked at a disadvantage ; but he had had the good fortune to discover a minute bee that forms its cells in the holes of worm-eaten wood, and a "sphcx" that practises the craft of the cuckoo, and deposits its eggs in an abode not prepared by itself. Mosquitos aboundcd in swarms, and the worthy naturalîst was so covered by their stings as to be hardly recognizable ; but when Mrs. Weldon remon- strated with him for exposing himself so unnecessarily, he merely scratched the irritated places on his skin, and said — On the ijth of June an adventure happcned to him which was attended with unexpectcd conséquences. It was about eleven o'clock in the moming. The insufferable heat had driven ail the résidents within the dcpôt indoors, and not a native was to be scen in the strcets of Kazonndé. Mrs, Weldon was dozing ; Jack was fast asleep. Benedict himself, sorely against his will, for he heard the hum of many an însect in the sunshine, had been driven to the seclusion of his cabin, and was falling into an involuntary siesta. Suddenly a buzz was heard, an insect's wing vibrating some fifteen thousand beats a second 1
 * It îs theîr instinct, you know ; it is their instinct"