H. De Vere Stacpoole

“ Mulliner laughed.
"I don't blame them if they did," said he. "But you won't find many admirers here, Mabel, unless it's the howling monkeys. This isn't exactly the place for Paris frocks, is it, Jane?"
"It's a melancholy place," said Mrs. Mulliner, "but I dare say it will look better in the morning. I hate the sunset when I have to face it; the only proper way of seeing the sunset is to turn your back upon it." ”

“ Mulliner had only to pull the siren rope to set Nature off in a display finer than fireworks, rouse the echoing woods, and lift rocket stars of painted and screaming birds—blazing parrots, scarlet, green, and blue, paroquets, toucans circling and yelping like dogs far above the tall matamata trees, and egrets like puffs of snow against the burning sapphire of the sky. ”

“ Next morning Miss Kearney did not appear at breakfast, and Mrs. Mulliner had a tired look; she said the heat had kept her awake. But Mulliner seemed in the highest spirits. The beetle hunt which he had promised himself that day banished everything else from his mind, even his wife's tired look.
"Those awful frogs!" said Mrs. Mulliner. "There does seem a stupidity in Nature sometimes. Why and for what earthly reason she allows creatures like that to make such nuisances of themselves is beyond me. And they seem to take such a satisfaction in it—that's the irritating part. ”

“ Some come to their berths as if you were trying to insult them—restive as horses they are—and some do loathe an anchorage, and drag their moorings no matter where you stick your anchor."
"That's true," said Mulliner, who had some knowledge of the way of ships. "Everything made by man has a touch in it of man's character, or, anyhow, a character of its own. Why, no two guns are alike! And that reminds me, you may have a chance of trying that new Winchester of yours to-morrow, Pinckney, on something better than crocs." ”

“ Miss Kearney, who was standing with the others on deck abaft the port alleyway, looked across the bayou. The sun was just setting, and the mournful light of sunset filled the world and lit the water, across which a flock of birds was stringing, the only visible sign of life in all that wide expanse.
"How long do we stay here?" she asked Mulliner. ”

“ I won't go to bed. Mabel, darling, if you only knew—if you only guessed—how I love you, you would not have one bit of fear. It's not I—it's just my love for you that is powerful. What is love? It is everything—it is strength itself, against which no evil can fight!"
A step on the bridge ladder made them turn; it was Captain Sampson. He stood talking to them for a moment, his cheery voice and commonplace remarks coming strangely enough after their late conversation.
Miss Kearney did not come in to dinner that night, and Pinckney did not help the conversation much in her absence. ”

“ There's a big bayou up higher, and the pilot has fixed to run in there. It'll give us a chance with the guns, Pinckney."
"I don't mind if you tie up for a year," replied the young fellow, with a side glance at Miss Kearney. "I was just saying I wished this voyage would last for ever."
"So was I," said she.
Mulliner sank into a deck-chair and lit a cigar. "That's what I like," said he. "Guests in one's own house can go and walk down the street if they are tired of their surroundings, but on board ship people are like birds in a cage. I'm real pleased you two are enjoying this trip. ”

“ They were hugging the left bank and the fringe of a wonderland of forest growth, vast, unknown, where the vigour of the early days of the world seemed still rising in the sap of trees monstrous in splendour and size, and burgeoning in flowers that mimicked birds, and birds more beautiful than flowers. ”

“ You never properly appreciate the gobbling, choking night-cry of an alligator till you hear it, so to speak, outside your bedroom window, or the strangeness of a flying-fish till it lands on your breakfast table through an open port, and exhibits itself beside the eggs and bacon. ”

“ There is company in a gun. Then, with the rifle under his arm, he resumed his watch.
Ten minutes later, resting for a moment at the starboard or shore end of the bridge, his eye was caught by something white just below. A girl's form had appeared from beneath the awning. It was Miss Kearney, fully dressed. She was walking with hands outspread, and he recognised at once that she was walking in her sleep.
As she reached the bulwarks, he saw that the outstretched hands were nearly palm to palm, as though the wrists were tied together by some invisible rope by which she was being led. ”

“ I heard poor Mabel tossing awake for hours, and this morning she's a wreck."
"They are pesky brutes," said Mulliner lightly. "But I guess Nature knows what she's about, and we mustn't grumble at her works. I thought Mabel and you were coming with us on this expedition. ”

“ But crazy men are often the happiest, and the amount of fresh air, health, excitement, and general satisfaction that came to Mulliner in the course of his seemingly insane peregrinations about the world formed a total of riches far beyond the wealth of Wall Street. ”

“ The Pelorus had for passengers Mrs. Mulliner, her brother, George Pinckney, and Mabel Kearney of San Francisco, a friend of Mrs. Mulliner's. Mabel Kearney was reckoned the prettiest girl in San Francisco, and Pinckney was in love with her. He had known her for a very short time, but a sea voyage quickens acquaintanceship, and nothing grows faster than love on the Amazon. ”

“ Next day the Pelorus continued her voyage, with the girl who had been saved and the man who had saved her companions for life.
And will you believe it, in the log of Mulliner you will find a page and a half describing the charms of a certain chocolate-coloured beetle, its hunting and its habitat, followed by two lines and a half: "Pinckney shot anaconda at night in woods close by, after incident with Miss Kearney. Snake measured fifty-four feet six inches. Head spoiled, skin worthless—chewed by wild animals before morning." ”

“ The spirit of the place admitted no sophistry, and as time wore on, the dread that he had been fighting made such way with him that, failing other support, he went into the chart-house and fetched out the Winchester that he had left on the table. ”

“ The most striking features in the Amazonian forests are the trees whose roots are partly exposed above ground, the pachiuba palm that seems standing on stilts, and the huge matamata trees, whose roots form veritable buttresses. ”