CHAPTER XI.
ON THE WATCH--FECUNDITY OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS--LATEST NEWS FROM THE MOON--A DEATH-KNELL EVERY SECOND--THE INCONVENIENCES OF BEING TOO NEAR THE SUN--NARCOTICS--WILLIS CONTRALTO--HUNTING TURNED UPSIDE DOWN--ELECTRIC CLOUDS--PARTIALITIES OF LIGHTNING--BELLS AND BELL-RINGERS--CONDUCTING RODS--THE RETURN--THE TWO SISTERS--TOBY BECOMES A DRAGOMAN.
As is usual in tropical climates, a blazing hot day was succeeded by an intensely dark night.

The fire that the hunters had made on shore cast a lurid glare on the prominent objects round about.

The flames, as they fitfully lit up the landscape into that dim distinctness termed by artists the _chiar oscuro_, made the bushes and trunks of trees appear like monsters issuing stealthily from the forest that lined the background.

There seemed to be some attraction, however, elsewhere for the real monsters, not a single wild beast having as yet appeared on the scene.
The two young men were eagerly straining their eyes from the stern of the pinnace, whilst the dogs kept diligently wagging their tails in expectation of a signal for the onset.

The position of Willis could be ascertained now and then by an eye of fire, which opened and shut as he inhaled or exhaled the fumes of his Maryland.