e bite holes in you--raise bumps
on you as big as eggs."

"Oh, good land!" ejaculated the old colored man. "Am dat so Massa Tom?"

"It sure is. Then there's another kind of bug that burrows under your
fingernails, and if you don't get 'em out, your fingers drop off."

"Oh, good land, Massa Tom! Am dat a fact?"

"It sure is. I don't want to see those things happen to you, Rad."

Slowly the old colored man shook his head.

"I don't mahse'f," he said. "I---- I guess I won't go."

Eradicate did not stop to ask how Tom and Ned proposed to combat these
two species of insects.

But there remained Koku to dispose of, and he stood smiling broadly as
Eradicate shuffled of.

"Me no 'fraid bugs," said the giant.

"No," said Tom, with a look at Ned, for he did not want to take the big
man on the trip for various reasons. "No, maybe not, Koku. Your skin
is pretty tough. But I understand there are deep pools of water in the
land where we are going, and in them lives a fish that has a hide like
an alligator and a jaw like a shark. If you fall in it's all up with
you."

"Dat true, Master Tom?" and Koku's voice trembled.

"Well, I've never seen such a fish, I'm sure, but the natives tell
about it."

Koku seemed to be considering the matter. Strange as it may seem, the
giant, though afraid of nothing human and brave when it came to a
hand-to-claw argument with a wild animal, had a very great fear of the
water and the unseen life within it. Even a little fresh-water crab in
a brook was enough to send him shrieking to shore. So when Tom told of
this curious fish, which many natives of Central America firmly believe
in, the giant took thought with himself. Finally, he gave a sigh and
said:

"Me stay home and keep bad mans out of master's shop."

"Yes, I guess that's the best thing for you," assented Tom with an air
of relief. He and Ned had talked the matter over, and they had agreed
that the presence of such a big man as Koku, in an expedition going on
a more or less secret mission, would attract too much attention.

"Well, I guess that clears matters up," said Tom, as he looked over a
collection of rifles and small arms, to decide which to take. "We
won't have them to worry about."

"No, only Professor Beecher," remarked Ned, with a sharp look at his
chum.

"Oh, we'll dispose of him all right!" asserted Tom boldly. "He hasn't
had any experience in business of this sort, and with what you and
Professor