Brazier."

"Well, then, it's a rum 'un. But, I say, look here, sir; you're never
going to trust me again?"

"I am going to treat you with full confidence, just as I trusted you
before, Naylor," replied Brazier.

"Master Rob's asleep too," growled the man. "It can't be true. Here, I
say, Mr Jovanny, give a look at me and tell me, am I awake or no?"

"Awake, of course," said Joe.

"Then all I can say is, Mr Brazier, sir," said the guide, "you've made
me ten times more ashamed of myself than I was before, and that hurt I
can't bear it like."

"Say no more about it, man," said Brazier. "There, it's all over now.
Let's have breakfast, and then start for a long day's collecting."

"Not say no more about it?" cried Shaddy.

"Not a word. It is all past and forgotten."

"Can't be," growled Shaddy.

"It shall be," said Brazier, turning to get his gun from under the
canvas cabin.

"One moment--look here, sir," said Shaddy; "do you mean to say that you
forgive me?"

"Yes, of course."

"And I am not to say another word?"

"No."

"Then I'll think," said Shaddy, "and punish myself that way, Master Rob.
I'll always think about it at night when I'm on the watch. It ain't
likely that I shall ever go to sleep again on dooty with idees like that
on my brain."

"No more talking; breakfast at once," cried Brazier, issuing from the
cabin.

"Right, sir," said Shaddy, working the boat in close to the bank.
"Quick, my lads, and get that fire well alight."

The men were set ashore just as the sun rose and flooded everything with
light, while a quarter of an hour later, as Brazier was patiently
watching one of the tunnel-like openings opposite in the hope of seeing
a deer come down to drink and make them a good meal or two for a couple
of days, Shaddy drew Rob's attention to the black-looking forms of
several alligators floating about a few feet below.

"The brutes!" said the lad. "Just like efts in an aquarium at home."

"Only a little bigger, my lad. I say, there he is--one of 'em."

He pointed down through the clear water, illumined now by the sun so
that the bottom was visible, and there coiled-up and apparently asleep
lay either the anaconda of the previous night or one of its relatives,
perfectly motionless and heedless of the boat, which floated like a
black shadow over its head.

"Might kill it if we had what sailors call the grains to harpoon him
with," said Shaddy; "but I don't know, he'd be an ugly