Big things happened in the lagoon at night, unseen by eyes from
the shore. You would have found the wood behind them, had you
walked through it, full of light. A tropic forest under a tropic
moon is green as a sea cave. You can see the vine tendrils and the
flowers, the orchids and tree boles all lit as by the light of an
emerald-tinted day.

Mr Button took a long piece of string from his pocket.

"It's bedtime," said he; "and I'm going to tether Em'leen, for fear
she'd be walkin' in her slape, and wandherin' away an' bein' lost
in the woods."

"I don't want to be tethered," said E mmeIine.

"It's for your own good I'm doin' it," replied Mr Button, fixing the
string round her waist. "Now come 'long."

He led her like a dog in a leash to the tent, and tied the other end
of the string to the scull, which was the tent's main prop and
support.

"Now," said he, "if you be gettin' up and walkin' about in the night,
it's down the tint will be on top of us all."

And, sure enough, in the small hours of the morning, it was.



CHAPTER XV