We anticipated great fun watching the efforts of these rats to escape the next day when the canoes should be launched on the ocean, and I therefore forbade any of the command to visit the graveyard in the interim, lest the rats should be alarmed.

I well knew that they would not be disturbed by the Indians, who held the sacred spot in awe.

When the work of taking down the canoes and carrying them to the water began, expectation was on tiptoe, but, strange as it may seem, not a rat was to be seen.

This unexpected development was mystifying.

They had all disappeared; there was not one in any of the canoes, as investigation proved, for disappointment instigated a most thorough search.