“Very good.  You have seen much in very short time.  Perhaps you shall see more by-and-by.  For the present you will go to rest, for you must be fatigued.  I will think to-night,—­to-morrow I will speak”

“An’, if I may make so bould,” said Barney, glancing with a somewhat rueful expression round the hard earthen floor of the hut, “where-abouts may I take the liberty of sleepin’?”

The hermit replied by going to a corner, whence, from beneath a heap of rubbish, he dragged two hammocks, curiously wrought in a sort of light net-work.  These he slung across the hut, at one end, from wall to wall, and, throwing a sheet or coverlet into each, he turned with a smile to his visitors,—­

“Behold your beds!  I wish you a very good sleep,—­adios!”

So saying, this strange individual sat down at the table, and was soon as deeply engaged with his large book as if he had suffered no interruption; while Martin and Barney, having gazed gravely and abstractedly at him for five minutes, turned and smiled to each other, jumped into their hammocks, and were soon buried in deep slumber.

CHAPTER X

AN ENEMY IN THE NIGHT—­THE VAMPIRE BAT—­THE HERMIT DISCOURSES ON STRANGE, AND CURIOUS, AND INTERESTING THINGS

Next morning Martin Rattler awoke with a feeling of lightness in his head, and a sensation of extreme weakness pervading his entire frame.  Turning his head round to the right he observed that a third hammock was slung across the further end of the hut; which was, no doubt, that in which the hermit had passed the night.  But it was empty now.  Martin did not require to turn his head to the other side to see if Barney O’Flannagan was there, for that worthy individual made his presence known, for a distance of at least sixty yards all round the outside of the hut, by means of his nose, which he was in the habit of using as a trumpet when asleep.  It was as well that Martin did not require to look round; for he found, to his surprise, that he had scarcely strength to do so.  While he was wondering in a dreamy sort of manner what could be the matter with him, the hermit entered the hut bearing a small deer upon his shoulders.  Resting his gun in a corner of the room, he advanced to Martin’s hammock.

“My boy,” he exclaimed, in surprise, “what is wrong with you?”

“I’m sure I don’t know,” said Martin, faintly; “I think there is something wet about my feet.”

Turning up the sheet, he found that Martin’s feet were covered with blood!  For a few seconds the hermit growled forth a number of apparently very pithy sentences in Portuguese, in a deep guttural voice, which awakened Barney with a start.  Springing from his hammock with a bound like a tiger, he exclaimed, “Och! ye blackguard, would ye murther the boy before me very nose?” and seizing the hermit in his powerful grasp, he would infallibly have hurled him, big though he was, through his own doorway, had not Martin cried out, “Stop, stop, Barney.  It’s all right; he’s done nothing:”  on hearing which the Irishman loosened his hold, and turned towards his friend.