-flies were darting about and filling the air with their brilliant
flashes, while the shrill cries of frogs and night-birds and whirr of
beetles resounded on every side. We were riding on, listening to these
varied sounds of animated nature, when we saw some dark objects, which
appeared like human beings, lying on the grass by the road-side.

"What can they be?" exclaimed Delisle. "Dead men, I fear."

We rode on--O'Driscoll was ahead. He dismounted.

"Very noisy dead men, for they snore most confoundedly loud," he cried
out. "As I am a gentleman, here's Robson, and he has chosen the fat
stomach of a greasy nigger for his pillow! I hope he enjoys the
odoriferous, sudoriferous resting-place. His dreams must be curious,
one would think. What is to be done with him, I wonder?"

By this time we had all assembled round our fallen shipmate. We in vain
tried to rouse him. A few inarticulate grunts were the only answers he
could give to our often-repeated remonstrances. The negro was much in
the same condition; but it was evident that he had had sense enough
before falling into repose to allow the ruling passion to have sway, and
he had contrived to pick our friend's pocket of his purse and watch,
which he held firmly in his grasp. The negro guard, when he came up,
wanted to prevent our recovering Robson's property, and pretended that
it belonged to his compatriot and that we had no right to it.

We guessed, as was the case, that Robson had been hospitably entertained
at some farm, when, having taken on board a further supply of liquor, he
had been completely overcome, and that the negro had been sent to guide
him on his way. Probably our shipmate had been treating him in return,
and, when pulling out his purse to pay the reckoning, had excited his
cupidity. Happily for Robson his guide was too far gone by this time to
run off with his booty, and so both had come to the ground together, the
robber and the robbed levelled by that arch destroyer of the human
intellect--strong drink. Oh, when I now come to think of it, how
disgusting was the scene!--though I did not trouble my head much about
the matter myself in those days. Robson was a gentleman, and had
refined ideas and pleasant, agreeable manners, and yet, when once wine
thus got the better of him, he would thus sadly demean himself. After
some pulling and hauling we got him up, and having caught his mule,
which was quietly grazing near, wiser than his rider