y's not there!"

I stood out on the verandah to see them off, Dennis singing and chaffing
and chattering to the last. He waved his hat to me as his friend
gathered the reins, a groom sprang up behind, and they were whirled
away. The only part of the business I envied them was the drive.

It was a glorious night, despite the oppressive heat and the almost
intolerable biting of mosquitoes and sandflies. In the wake of the
departing trap flew a solitary beetle, making a noise exactly like a
scissor-grinder at work. Soft and silent moths--some as big as small
birds--went past my face, I fear to the hanging lamp behind me. Passing
footfalls echoed bluntly from the wooden pavement, and in the far-away
distance the bull-frogs croaked monotonously. And down below, as I
looked upon the trees, I could see fireflies coming and going, like
pulsations of light, amongst the leaves.

O'Brien waited on me with the utmost care and civility; served me an
excellent supper with plenty of ice and cooling drinks, and taught me
the use of the "swizzle stick" for mixing them. I am sure he did not
omit a thing he could think of for my comfort. He had been gone for some
time, and I had been writing letters, turning over the engineer's books,
and finally dozing in his chair, when I was startled by sounds from his
bedroom, as if O'Brien were engaged, first in high argument, and then in
deadly struggle with some intruder. I rushed to his assistance, and
found him alone, stamping vehemently on the floor.

"What's the matter?" said I.

"Matther is it? Murther's the matther," and he gave another vicious
stamp, and then took a stride that nearly cost him his balance, and gave
another. "I beg yor pardon, sorr; but it's the cockroaches. The place
swarms wid 'em. Av they'd keep peaceably below, now, but invading the
master's bedroom--that's for ye, ye thief!" and he stamped again.

"The creatures here are a great plague," said I, slapping a mosquito
upon my forehead.

"And that as true a word as your honour ever spoke. They're murderous no
less! Many's the time I'm wishing myself back in old Ireland, where
there's no venomous beasts at all, at all. Arrah! Would ye, ye
skulking--"

I left him stamping and streaming with perspiration, but labouring
loyally on in a temperature where labour was little short of heroism.

I went back to my chair, and began to think over my prospects. It is a
disadvantage of idleness that one wearies oneself with think