em
of these things. As I lay down to waistcoat, I could not help thinking
of the various fierce creatures we might possibly meet with, and in my
dreams I was engaged in desperate encounters with all those my uncle had
mentioned, and not a few others--such as have no existence except in the
imagination.

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.

EXCURSION CONTINUED--FEARFUL ENCOUNTER WITH A MONSTER.

I was the first inhabitant of our hut awake. Daylight was just
breaking; and going out silently, not wishing to disturb the rest of the
party, I looked round me. Potto Jumbo, who had the morning watch, was
sitting by the fire; a few branches of trees stuck in the ground forming
a sufficient shelter from the night dews. He was leaning against them,
and had evidently fallen asleep, for the fire was almost out. I stood
for some minutes contemplating the strange scene. Surrounding us on
every side were the curious trees I have before described, festooned
with creepers. Here and there the bright flowers of some orchidaceous
plant ornamented their summits, or hung down from their boughs. I
thought to myself, if any natives are in the island, how easily we might
have been surprised; or if tigers lurk in its thickets, how easily one
of our party might be picked off.

Presently Potto Jumbo sprang to his feet with a loud shout. He must
have been dreaming, and supposed that one of the animals I was thinking
of was approaching. His shout was echoed, it seemed, by a thousand
shrill voices; and looking up, I saw the whole of the trees surrounding
us alive with creatures--some trumpeting, some screeching, and others
making prolonged shrill whistlings; and from the high branches, like a
flock of birds, down came some forty or fifty monkeys, striking the tops
of the brushwood to which they clung, either with hands or tails, and
then off they went with the speed of arrows through the jungle. There
seemed to be several descriptions. Some were small creatures of a slate
colour; others of a light yellow, with long arms and long tails. The
noise they made quickly roused Emily and Grace, as well as the rest of
the party, who sprang out of their bowers, watching the proceedings of
our neighbours. Some made tremendous leaps from one branch of a tree to
another, a little lower down. First went one bold leader, taking a jump
towards a tree which it seemed scarcely possible he could reach. Then
the others followed, with more or less trepidation. S