noon
I but pass some hundreds of yards into the swamp to bury my poor treasure ; as soon as that is safe I will return . '' It was in vain that I sought to dissuade him , urging the dangers of the place ; in vain that I begged to be allowed to follow , pleading the black blood that I now knew to circulate in my veins : to all my appeals he turned a deaf ear , and , bending back a portion of the screen of bushes , disappeared into the pestilential silence of the swamp . At the end of a full hour , the bushes were once more thrust aside ; and my father stepped from out the thicket , and paused , and almost staggered in the first shock of the blinding sunlight . His face was of a singular dusky red ; and yet , for all the heat of the tropical noon , he did not seem to sweat . `` You are tired , '' I cried , springing to meet him . `` You are ill . '' `` I am tired , '' he replied ; `` the air in that jungle stifles one ; my eyes , besides , have grown accustomed to its gloom , and the strong sunshine pierces them like knives .