Page:Rowland--The Mountain of Fears.djvu/65

  He was silent again, and I waited, for I knew that he would presently back his theory by an illustration.

"You know Margherita?" I asked, presently, to help him get under way.

"Better than is necessary," he replied, and was silent again. The swift tropic twilight had almost faded; the slopes of the mountains were somber with mysterious shadows; a huge cumulus cloud, still crimson about its edges, was stranded on the highest peaks, and above it a dainty crescent moon was swiftly growing brighter.

"Let us go aft," muttered Leyden. "These cattle make too much noise!"

He was quite right, for that part of the deck was infested by our fellow-passengers; the Venezuelans were chattering like a band of apes; naked babies lived and moved and had their unclean little beings where they listed; near us a British engineer was arguing in Spanish with a German coffee planter, and behind him an Austrian Jew who had been [ 49 ]