d what
we are saying now, they would think that you wanted the kid's body for
some devilry or witchcraft business, and we should as like as not get
left by them. Then who would carry your precious specimens back to the
boats? I would not lift a finger to help you, and I am not over sure
that I could even guide you back, if it came to that. No, this thing
cannot be done until my people are all asleep, so lie still and wait
till I give you the word."

'Juggins groaned, and tried to persuade me to let him go at once, but I
replied that nothing would induce me to go before one o'clock, and, so
saying, I turned over on my side, and lay reading and smoking, while
Juggins fumed and fretted, as he watched the slow hands creeping round
the dial of his watch.

'I always take books with me, as you know, when I go into the jungle,
and I remember that that evening I lay reading Miss Florence
Montgomery's _Misunderstood_, with the tears running down my nose. When
at last Juggins whispered that time was up, that pretty story of child
life had made me more sick with Juggins and his disgusting scheme than
ever.

'I never felt so like a criminal in all my life as I did that night as
Juggins and I crept out of the hut, over the sleeping bodies of my
Malays; nor did I know before, how hard it is to walk on an openwork
flooring of sticks and boughs, if one is anxious to do it without making
a noise. We got out of the house at last, without waking any of my
fellows, and then began to creep along the edge of the jungle that lined
the clearing. Why did we think it necessary to creep? I do not know, but
somehow the long wait, and the uncanny sort of work we were after, had
set our nerves going a bit. The night was as still as most nights are in
real _pukka_ jungle, that is to say it was as full of noises--little
quiet beast and tree noises--as an egg's full of meat, and every one of
them made me jump like a half broken gee shying. There was not a breath
of air blowing in the clearing, but the clouds were racing across the
moon miles up above our heads, and the moon looked as though it was
scudding through them in the opposite direction like a great white fire
balloon. It was dark along the edge of the clearing, for the jungle
threw a heavy shadow, and Juggins kept knocking those great clumsy feet
of his against the stumps, and swearing softly, under his breath.

'When we got near the grave, the moon came out suddenly into a thinner
cloud,