"This," and he pointed to the
nose-leaves, "is the sucking apparatus. The
bat makes an opening in the skin with its sharp
teeth and proceeds to extract the blood. I can
well believe two or three of them, attacking a
steer or mule at once, could soon weaken it so
the animal would die."
"And a man, too?" asked Ned.
"Well a man has hands with which to use
weapons, but a helpless quadruped has not.
Though if a sufficient number of these bats
attacked a man at the same time, he would have
small chance to escape alive. Their bites, too,
may be poisonous for all I know."
The Indians seemed glad to leave the "place
of the bats," as they called the camp site. Jacinto
explained that the Indians believed a vampire
could kill them while they slept, and they were
very much afraid of the blood-sucking bats.
There were many other species in the tropics,
Professor Bumper explained, most of which
lived on fruit or on insects they caught. The
blood-sucking bats were comparatively few, and
the migratory sort fewer still.
"Well, we're on our way once more,"
remarked Tom as again they were in the canoes
being paddled up the river. "How much
longer does your water trip take, Professor?"
"I hardly know," and Professor Bumper looked
to Jacinto to answer.
"We go two more days in the canoes," the
guide answered, "and then we shall find the
mules waiting for us at a place called Hidjio.
From then on we travel by land until--well until
you get to the place where you are going.
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