cloth falls over you like a cape, as in Fig. 210, and makes a
perfect protection against rain. The ponchos these men had were not
quite long enough to cover the whole bed, so they fastened umbrellas to
the head posts, as shown in Fig. 212. During a shower in the woods the
rain comes straight down in large drops, caused by the water collecting
on the leaves. To prevent these large drops from splashing through the
umbrellas, they laid pieces of cloth over the umbrellas, which served,
like the fly of a tent, to check the fall of rain drops.

A NIGHTMARE.

I slept in the mummy case that night and Dutchy in the first sleeping
bag. It must have been about midnight when I was awakened by a most
unearthly yell. It sent the cold chills running up and down my back. A
second scream brought me into action, and I struggled to throw back the
head flap, which had become caught. It seemed an age before I could open
it and wriggle out of the bag. Dutchy was sitting up in bed with a look
of horror on his face, and his whole body was in a tremor of fear. One
of the men dashed a glass of water in his face, which brought him back
to his senses. It was only a nightmare, we found. Dutchy dreamed he had
been injured in a railway accident and had been taken for dead to the
morgue. He tried to let them know that he was alive, but couldn't utter
a sound, until finally he burst out with the yells that roused the camp.
Then, as he awoke with the horror of the dream still on him, his eyes
fell on the two stretcher beds that looked like biers and the black
coffin-like sleeping bag. It was not much wonder that Dutchy was
frightened. The camp did certainly have a most ghastly appearance in the
vague moonlight that filtered through the trees, and it must have been
still more gruesome to see the coffin and biers suddenly burst open and
the corpses come running toward him. To prevent any further nightmare we
set Dutchy's sleeping bag under the "A" tent, where he would be saved
the horror of again waking up in a morgue.

PACK HARNESS.

[Illustration: Fig. 213. Pack Harness.]

In the morning our friends broke camp and started westward. Dutchy and I
watched them packing up their goods into a couple of very compact
bundles, which they strapped to their backs with a peculiar pack
harness. I took careful note of the way the harness was put together,
and when we returned to the island we made two sets for use on our
tramping expeditions. A canvas yoke