"Hush!" said Bell. He put his arm about her shoulder and drew her closer to him. He tilted her face upward. It was oval and quite irresistibly pretty. "I love you," said Bell steadily. "I've been fighting it since God knows when, and I'm going to keep on fighting it--and it's no use. I'm going to keep on loving you until I die." Her fingers closed tightly upon his. Bell kissed her. "Now," he said gruffly, "go to sleep." He pressed her head upon his shoulder and kept it there. After a long time she slept. He stirred, much later, and she opened her eyes again. "What is it?" "Damn these mosquitos," growled Bell. "I can't keep them off your face!" CHAPTER X For four hours after sunrise Bell worked desperately. With the few and inadequate tools in the plane he took apart the oiling system of the motor. It was in duplicate, of course, like all modern air engines, and there were three magnetos, and double spark plugs. Bell drained the crankcase beneath a sun that grew more and more hot and blistering, catching the oil in a gasoline can that he was able to empty into the main tanks. He washed out innumerable small oil pipes with gasoline, and flushed out the crankcase itself, and had at the end of his working as many small scraps of metal as would half fill a thimble. He showed then to Paula. "And the stars in their courses fought against Sisera," he quoted dryly. "Any one of these, caught in just the right place, would have let us down into the jungle last night." She smiled up at him. "But they didn't." "No.... God loves the Irish," said Bell. "What's that thing?" Paula was fishing, sitting on a fallen tree in the cloud of smoke from a smudge fire Bell had built for her. She was wearing the oily flying suit he had found in the shed with the plane, and had torn strips from her discarded dress to make a fishing line. The hook was made out of the stiff wire handle of one of the extra gasoline tins. "Hook and leader in one," Bell had observed when he made it. * * * * * He was pointing to a flat bodied fish with incredible jaws that lay on the grass, emitting strange sounds even in the air. It flapped about madly. Its jaws closed upon a stick nearly half an inch thick, and cut it through. "It is a _piranha_," said Paula. "The same fish that bit your hand. It can bite through a copper wire fastened to a hook, but this hook is so long...." "Pleasant," said Bell. Something large and red passed before his eyes. He struck at it instinctively. "Don't!" said Paula sharply. "Why?" "It's a _maribundi_ wasp," she told him "And its sting.... Children have died of it. A strong man will be ill for days from one single sting." "Still more pleasant," said Bell. "The jungle is a charming place, isn't it?" He wiped the sweat off his face. "Any more little pets about?" She looked about seriously.