"By the way, Eagen, have you noticed those big bats the last few evenings, over by the cliff? _I_ can't make out in the dusk whether they are vampires or just plain bats." He directed his remarks again to the Nigger. "Next time you see any of those big bats, Doctor, just you notice close. If they have just plain, black eyes, they're all right; but if they have grey eyes, with red rims around 'em, they're vampires. I wish you'd let me know, if you do find out. It's interesting." "Don' get me near no bats," growled the Nigger. "Where's Selover?" inquired Darrow. "He stays aboard," I hastened to say. "Wants to keep an eye on the ship." "That's laudable. What have you been doing?" "We've been cleaning ship. Just finished yesterday evening." "What next?" "We were thinking of wrecking the _Golden Horn_." "Quite right. Well, if you want any help with your engines or anything of the sort, call on me." He arose and began to light his lantern. "I hope as how you're getting on well there above, sir?" ventured Handy Solomon insinuatingly. "Very well, I thank you, my man," replied Percy Darrow drily. "Remember those vampires, Doctor." He swung the lantern and departed without further speech. We followed the spark of it until it disappeared in the arroyo. Behind us bellowed the sea; over against us in the sky was the dull threatening glow of the volcano; about us were mysterious noises of crying birds, barking seals, rustling or rushing winds. I felt the thronging ghosts of all the old world's superstition swirling madly behind us in the eddies that twisted the smoke of our fire. We wrecked the _Golden Horn_. Forward was a rusted-out donkey engine, which we took to pieces and put together again. It was no mean job, for all the running parts had to be cleaned smooth, and with the exception of a rudimentary knowledge on the part of Pulz and Perdosa, we were ignorant. In fact we should not have succeeded at all had it not been for Percy Darrow and his lantern. The first evening we took him over to the cliff's edge he laughed aloud. "Jove, boys, how could you guess it _all_ wrong," he wondered. With a few brief words he set us right, Pulz, Perdosa, and I listening intently; the others indifferent in the hopelessness of being able to comprehend. Of course, we went wrong again in our next day's experiments; but Darrow was down two or three times a week, and gradually we edged toward a practical result. His explanations consumed but a few moments. After they were finished, we adjourned to the fire. Thus we came gradually to a better acquaintance with the doctor's assistant. In many respects he remained always a puzzle, to me. Certainly the men never knew how to take him. He was evidently not only unafraid of them, but genuinely indifferent to them.