Swiss Family Robinson

at, was entangled and brought down uninjured.
    The young hunters seemed to have lived very comfortably on peccary ham, cassava bread and fruit, and plenty of baked potatoes and milk.
    One trial of the pemmican was sufficient, and it was handed over to the dogs. Fritz, however, determined again to attempt the manufacture, knowing its value when properly prepared.
    After collecting a supply of rice and cotton, they took their way to Prospect Hill, `and,' said Fritz, as he afterwards vividly described the dreadful scene there enacted, `when we entered the pine wood, we found it in possession of troops of monkeys, who resolved to make our passage through it as disagreeable as possible, for they howled and chattered at us like demons, pelting us as hard as they could with pine cones.
    `They became so unbearable, that at last we fired a few shots right and left among them; several bit the dust, the rest fled, and we continued our way in peace to Prospect Hill, but only to discover the havoc the wretches had made there.
    `Would you believe it, father? The pleasant cottage had been overrun and ruined by apes just as Woodlands last summer! The most dreadful dirt and disorder met our eyes wherever we turned, and we had hard work to make the place fit for human habitation; and even then we preferred the tent. I felt quite at a loss how to guard the farm for the future; but seeing a bottle of the poisonous gum of the euphorbia in the tool chest, I devised a plan for the destruction of the apes which succeeded beyond my expectations.
    `I mixed poison with milk, bruised millet and anything I thought the monkeys would eat, and put it in cocoanut shells, which I hung about in the trees, high enough to be out of reach of our own animals. The evening was calm and lovely; the sea murmured in the distance, and the rising moon shed a beauty over the landscape which we seemed never before to have so admired and enjoyed. The summer night closed around us in all its solemn stillness, and our deepest feelings were touched; when suddenly the spell was broken by an outburst of the most hideous and discordant noises.
    `As by one consent , every beast of the forest seemed to arise from its den, and utter its wild nocturnal cry. Snorting, snarling and shrieking filled the woods beneath us.
    `From the hills echoed the mournful howl of jackals, answered by Fangs in the yard, who was backed up by the barking and yelping of his friends Floss and Bruno. Far away beyond the rocky fastnesses of the Gap, sounded unearthly hollow snortings and neighings , reminding one of the strange cry of the hippopotamus; above these, occasional deep majestic roarings made our hearts quail with the conviction that we heard the voices of lions and elephants.
    `Overawed and silent, we retired to rest, hoping to forget in sleep the terrors of the midnight forest; but ere long the most fearful cries in the adjoining woods gave notice that the apes were beginning to suffer from the poisoned repast prepared for them.
    `As our dogs could not remain silent amid the uproar and din, we had not a wink of sleep until the morning. It was late, therefore, when we rose, and looked on the awful spectacle presented by the multitude of dead monkeys and baboons thickly strewn under the trees round the farm. I shall not tell you how many there were. I can only say I wished I had not found the poison, and we made all haste to clear away the dead bodies and the dangerous food, burying some deep in the earth, and, carrying the rest to the shore, we pitched them over the rocks into the sea. That day we travelled on to the Gap.'
    The same evening that the boys reached the rocky pass, a messenger-pigeon arrived at Rockburg , bearing a note which concluded in the following words:
    `The barricade at the Gap is broken down. Everything laid waste as far as the sugar-brake, where the hut is knocked to pieces, and the fields trampled over by huge footmarks. Come to us, father--we are safe, but feel we are no match for this unknown danger.'
    I lost not an instant, but saddled Swift, late as it was, in order to ride to the assistance of our boys, desiring Ernest to prepare the small cart, and follow me with his mother at daybreak, bringing everything we should require for camping out for some days.
    The bright moonlight favoured my journey, and my arrival at the Gap surprised and delighted the boys who did not expect me till next day. Early on the following morning I inspected the footprints and