He done save us so
we all could get AWAY from here. I expect he be mighty
peevish when he find we ain't got no more sense than to stay
right here after he done give us the chance to get away.
"I hoped I'd never have to sleep in this here geological garden
another night and listen to all them lonesome noises that
come out of that jumble after dark."
"I don't blame you a bit, Esmeralda," said Clayton, "and you
certainly did hit it off right when you called them `lonesome'
noises. I never have been able to find the right word for
them but that's it, don't you know, lonesome noises."
"You and Esmeralda had better go and live on the cruiser,"
said Jane, in fine scorn. "What would you think if you
HAD to live all of your life in that jungle as our forest
man has done?"
"I'm afraid I'd be a blooming bounder as a wild man,"
laughed Clayton, ruefully. "Those noises at night make the
hair on my head bristle. I suppose that I should be ashamed
to admit it, but it's the truth."
"I don't know about that," said Lieutenant Charpentier. "I
never thought much about fear and that sort of thing--never
tried to determine whether I was a coward or brave man; but
the other night as we lay in the jungle there after poor
D'Arnot was taken, and those jungle noises rose and fell
around us I began to think that I was a coward indeed. It
was not the roaring and growling of the big beasts that
affected me so much as it was the stealthy noises--the ones
that you heard suddenly close by and then listened vainly for
a repetition of--the unaccountable sounds as of a great body
moving almost noiselessly, and the knowledge that you didn't
KNOW how close it was, or whether it were creeping closer
after you ceased to hear it? It was those noises--and the eyes.
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