The White Squall

"Where?" I repeated, for I could not see the animal as yet anywhere.

"Dere, on manure heap--see?"

"Yes, I see now," I replied, as, getting nearer to the stables, I noticed something on the top of a mound of straw rubbish. It was a creature like a gigantic lizard, some five or six feet long and as broad about the head as a decent-sized pig.

"Yah, yah, dere he is, dere he is!" shouted out Pompey. "Golly, Mass' Tom, he am big 'guana, too! Give me de 'tick, and dis niggah will soon 'top um runnin' 'way."

The green-looking creature had been basking in the sun, enjoying itself all the more, probably, from the warmth of the manure heap on which it lay; but now, on our nearer approach, it raised its serpent-like head and, puffing out its creamy throat, grew in an instant to double its former size, while the beautiful iridescent colouring of its skin became m