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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bunyip Land, by George Manville Fenn
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Bunyip Land
+       A Story of Adventure in New Guinea
+
+Author: George Manville Fenn
+
+Illustrator: Gordon Browne
+
+Release Date: May 4, 2007 [EBook #21301]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUNYIP LAND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+Bunyip Land; a Story of Adventure in New Guinea,
+by George Manville Fenn.
+
+_______________________________________________________________________
+
+Joe Carstairs is a boy on a farm in Australia.  His father is a keen
+naturalist who, some years before had set off for New Guinea in search
+of specimens, and never been heard of again.  Joe is old enough to mount
+a search expedition, and takes with him a local doctor and an
+aboriginal worker on his farm.  They find themselves joined by a
+stowaway, Jimmy, whose father is a squatter (farmer) nearby, together
+with his dog, Gyp.
+
+This team sets off, arrive in New Guinea, hire some more porters, and
+travel guided by some sixth sense straight to where Mr Carstairs has
+been kept a prisoner, along with another Englishman, whose mind has
+gone, under the stress of his imprisonment.
+
+There are the usual close shaves and tense moments, but finally they
+achieve their end, and return home triumphantly.
+
+_______________________________________________________________________
+
+BUNYIP LAND; A STORY OF ADVENTURE IN NEW GUINEA,
+BY GEORGE MANVILLE FENN.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+HOW I MADE MY PLANS AND THEY WERE ENDORSED.
+
+"Now, Master Joseph, do adone now, do.  I'm sure your poor dear eyes'll
+go afore you're forty, and think of that!"
+
+"Bother!"
+
+"What say, my dear?"
+
+"Don't bother."
+
+"You're always running your finger over that map thing, my dear.  I
+can't abear to see it."
+
+Nurse Brown looked over the top of her spectacles at me and shook her
+head, while I bent lower over the map.
+
+Then the old lady sighed, and went on making cottage windows all over my
+worsted stockings, giving vent to comments all the time, for the old
+lady had been servant to my grandmother, and had followed her young
+mistress when she married, nursing me when I was born, and treating me
+as a baby ever since.  In fact she had grown into an institution at
+home, moving when we moved, and doing pretty well as she liked in what
+she called "our house."
+
+"Bang!"
+
+"Bless the boy! don't bang the table like that," she cried.  "How you
+made me jump!"
+
+"It's of no use talking, nurse," I cried; "I mean to go."
+
+"Go!" she said.  "Go where?"
+
+"Go and find my poor dear father," I cried.  "Why, nurse, am I to sit
+down quietly at home here, when perhaps my poor father is waiting for me
+to come to his help?"
+
+"Oh, hush! my dearie; don't talk like that I'm afraid he's dead and
+gone."
+
+"He isn't, nurse," I cried fiercely.  "He's a prisoner somewhere among
+those New Guinea savages, and I mean to find him and bring him back."
+
+Nurse Brown thrust her needle into the big round ball of worsted, and
+held it up as if for me to see.  Then she took off her glasses with the
+left hand in the stocking, and shaking her head she exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, you bad boy; wasn't it enough for your father to go mad after his
+botaniky, and want to go collecting furren buttercups and daisies, to
+break your mother's heart, that you must ketch his complaint and want to
+go too?"
+
+"My father isn't mad," I said.
+
+"Your father _was_ mad," retorted Nurse Brown, "and I was surprised at
+him.  What did he ever get by going wandering about collecting his dry
+orchardses and rubbish, and sending of 'em to England?"
+
+"Fame," I cried, "and honour."
+
+"Fame and honour never bought potatoes," said nurse.
+
+"Why, four different plants were named after him."
+
+"Oh, stuff and rubbish, boy!  What's the good of that when a man gets
+lost and starves to death in the furren wilds!"
+
+"My father was too clever a man to get lost or to starve in the wilds,"
+I said proudly.  "The savages have made him a prisoner, and I'm going to
+find him and bring him back."
+
+"Ah! you've gone wandering about with that dirty black till you've quite
+got into his ways."
+
+"Jimmy isn't dirty," I said; "and he can't help being black any more
+than you can being white."
+
+"I wonder at a well-brought-up young gent like you bemeaning yourself to
+associate with such a low creature, Master Joseph."
+
+"Jimmy's a native gentleman, nurse," I said.
+
+"Gentleman, indeed!" cried the old lady, "as goes about without a bit of
+decent clothes to his back."
+
+"So did Adam, nursey," I said laughing.
+
+"Master Joseph, I won't sit here and listen to you if you talk like
+that," cried the old lady; "a-comparing that black savage to Adam!  You
+ought to be ashamed of yourself.  It all comes of living in this
+horrible place.  I wish we were back at Putney."
+
+"Hang Putney!"  I cried.  "Putney, indeed! where you couldn't go half a
+yard off a road without trespassing.  Oh, nurse, you can't understand
+it," I cried enthusiastically; "if you were to get up in the dark one
+morning and go with Jimmy--"
+
+"Me go with Jimmy!" cried the old lady with a snort.
+
+"And get right out towards the mountain and see the sunrise, and the
+parrots in flocks, and the fish glancing like arrows down the silver
+river--"
+
+"There's just how your poor dear pa used to talk, and nearly broke your
+poor ma's heart."
+
+"No, he didn't; he was too fond of her," I said; "only he felt it his
+duty to continue his researches, the same that brought him out here,
+and--oh, I shall find him and bring him back."
+
+"Don't, don't, don't! there's a good boy; don't talk to me like that.
+You're sixteen now, and you ought to know better."
+
+"I don't want to know any better than that, nurse.  I know it's my duty
+to go, and I shall go."
+
+"You'll kill your poor ma, sir."
+
+"No, I sha'n't," I said.  "She won't like my going at first, because it
+will seem lonely for her out here; but she'll be as pleased as can be
+afterwards.  Look here: my mother--"
+
+"Say _ma_, Master Joe, dear.  Doey, please; it's so much more genteel."
+
+"Stuff! it's Frenchy; mother's old English.  Mother don't believe
+father's dead, does she?"
+
+"Well, no, my dear; she's as obstinate as you are about that."
+
+"And she's right.  Why, he's only been away four years, and that isn't
+so very long in a country where you have to cut every step of the way."
+
+"Cooey--cooey--woo--woo--woo--woo--why yup!"
+
+"Cooey--cooey!"  I echoed back, and nurse held he hands to her ears.
+
+"Now don't you go to him, Master Joseph; now please don't," said the old
+lady.
+
+"Mass Joe! hi Mass Joe!  Jimmy fine wallaby.  Tick fass in big hole big
+tree."
+
+Just then my first-lieutenant and Nurse Brown's great object of dislike,
+Jimmy, thrust his shiny black face and curly head in at the door.
+
+"Go away, sir," cried nurse.
+
+"Heap fis--come kedge fis--million tousand all up a creek.  Jimmy go
+way?"
+
+He stood grinning and nodding, with his hands in the pocket holes of his
+only garment, a pair of trousers with legs cut off to about mid-thigh.
+
+"If you don't take that nasty black fellow away, Master Joseph, I shall
+be obliged to complain to your poor ma," said nurse.
+
+"Get out!"  I said; "Jimmy won't hurt you; and though it don't show,
+he's as clean as a new pin."
+
+"He isn't clean; he can't be, dear.  How can any one be clean who don't
+wear clothes, Master Joseph? and look at his toes."
+
+Nurse Brown always fell foul of Jimmy's toes.  They fidgeted her, for
+they were never still.  In fact Jimmy's toes, which had never probed the
+recesses of a pair of boots, were more like fingers and thumbs, and had
+a way of twiddling about when he was supposed to be standing still--
+stand perfectly still he never did--and these toes belonged to feet that
+in climbing he could use like hands.  More than once I've seen him pick
+stones off the ground--just like a monkey, nurse said--or stand talking
+to any one and keep his attention while he helped himself to something
+he wanted with his feet.
+
+"There, be off Jimmy," I said, for I wanted to stop indoors.
+
+"Come kedge fis."
+
+"No, not to-day."
+
+"Hi--wup--wup--wup!"
+
+Jimmy threw himself into an attitude, snatching a small hatchet from the
+waistband of his trousers, and made believe to climb a tree, chop a hole
+larger, and draw out an animal, which he seemed to be swinging round by
+its tail.
+
+"No, not to-day, Jimmy," I cried.
+
+"Sleep, sleep," said Jimmy, imitating a kangaroo by giving a couple of
+hops into the verandah, where he chose a sunny place, well haunted by
+flies, curled up, and went to sleep.
+
+"Good morning!" cried a hearty voice, and I ran out to welcome our
+neighbour the doctor, whose horse's hoofs had not been heard, and who
+was now fastening the rein to the hook in one of the verandah posts.
+
+"Well, Joe," he said as I shook hands and looked up admiringly in his
+bold well-bearded face.
+
+"Well, doctor, I'm so glad you've come; walk in."
+
+"Ah! nurse," he cried; "how well you look!"
+
+"Yes, yes; but I am glad you're come," she said.  "I want you to look at
+Master Joseph."
+
+"I did look at him."
+
+"Isn't he feverish or something, sir?  He's that restless as never was."
+
+"Sign he's growing," cried the doctor.  "How's mamma?"
+
+"Oh, she's pretty well," I said.  "Gone to lie down."
+
+"That's right," said the doctor.  "I had to come and look at Bowman's
+broken arm, so I came on here to beg a bit of dinner."
+
+"I'm so glad!"  I said: for Jimmy, the half-wild black, was my only
+companion, there being no boys within miles of our run; "stop a week and
+have some fishing."
+
+"And what's to become of my patients?"
+
+"You haven't got any," I said.  "You told me so last time."
+
+"True, O King Joseph!  I've come to the wrong place; you don't want many
+doctors in Australia.  Why, nurse, how this fellow grows!"
+
+"I wish he'd grow good," cried the old lady.  "He's always doing
+something to worry away his poor ma's and my life."
+
+"Why, what's the matter now, nurse?"
+
+"Matter, sir!  Why, he's took it into his head to go looking for his
+poor dear dead-and-gone pa.  Do, do please tell him he mustn't think of
+such things."
+
+"Why, Joe!" cried the doctor, turning sharply round to me, and ceasing
+to beat his high boots with his long-thonged whip.
+
+"I don't care what anybody says," I cried, stamping my foot.  "I've made
+up my mind, and mean to go to New Guinea to find my father."
+
+"There, doctor, did you ever hear any one so wickedly obstinate before?"
+cried nurse.  "Isn't it shocking? and his ma that delicate and worried
+living all alone, like, here out in these strange parts, and him as
+ought to be a comfort to her doing nothing but hanker after running away
+to find him as is dead and gone."
+
+"He's not dead, nurse; he's only gone," I cried; "and I mean to find
+him, as sure as I live.  There, that I will."
+
+"There, doctor, did you ever hear such a boy?" cried nurse.
+
+"Never," said the doctor.  "Why, Joe, my boy," he cried as I stood
+shrinking from him, ready to defend myself from his remonstrances, "your
+ideas do you credit.  I didn't think you had it in you."
+
+"Then you don't think it is wrong of me, doctor?"  I said, catching his
+hand.
+
+"No, my boy, I do not," he said gravely; "but it is a task for strong
+and earnest men."
+
+"But I am strong," I said; "and if I'm not a man I'm in real earnest."
+
+"I can see that, my lad," said the doctor, with his brown forehead
+filling with thoughtful wrinkles; "but have you counted the cost?"
+
+"Cost!"  I said.  "No.  I should get a passage in a coaster and walk all
+the rest of the way."
+
+"I mean cost of energy: the risks, the arduous labours?"
+
+"Oh, yes," I said; "and I sha'n't mind.  Father would have done the same
+if I was lost."
+
+"Of course he would, my lad; but would you go alone?"
+
+"Oh, no," I replied, "I should take a guide."
+
+"Ah, yes; a good guide and companion."
+
+"There, Master Joseph, you hear," said nurse.  "Doctor Grant means that
+sarcastical."
+
+"No, I do not, nurse," said the doctor quietly; "for I think it a very
+brave and noble resolve on the part of our young friend."
+
+"Doctor!"
+
+"It has troubled me this year past that no effort has been made to find
+the professor, who, I have no doubt, is somewhere in the interior of the
+island, and I have been for some time making plans to go after him
+myself."
+
+Nurse Brown's jaw dropped, and she stared in speechless amazement.
+
+"Hurray, doctor!"  I cried.
+
+"And I say hurray too, Joe," he cried.  "I'll go with you, my lad, and
+we'll bring him back, with God's help, safe and sound."
+
+The shout I gave woke Jimmy, who sprang to his feet, dragged a boomerang
+from his waistband, and dashed to the door to throw it at somebody, and
+then stopped.
+
+"You'll break his mother's heart, doctor," sobbed nurse.  "Oh! if she
+was to hear what you've said!"
+
+"I did hear every word," said my mother, entering from the next room,
+and looking very white.
+
+"There, there," cried nurse, "you wicked boy, see what you've done."
+
+"Mother!"  I cried, as I ran to her and caught her--poor, little, light,
+delicate thing that she was--in my arms.
+
+"My boy!" she whispered back, as she clung to me.
+
+"I must go.  I will find him.  I'm sure he is not dead."
+
+"And so am I," she cried, with her eyes lighting up and a couple of red
+spots appearing in her cheeks.  "I could not feel as I do if he were
+dead."
+
+Here she broke down and began to sob, while I, with old nurse's eyes
+glaring at me, began to feel as if I had done some horribly wicked act,
+and that nothing was left for me to do but try to soothe her whose heart
+I seemed to have broken.
+
+"Oh, mother! dear mother," I whispered, with my lips close to her little
+pink ear, "I don't want to give you pain, but I feel as if I must--I
+must go."
+
+To my utter astonishment she laid her hands upon my temples, thrust me
+from her, and gazing passionately in my great sun-browned face she bent
+forward, kissed me, and said:
+
+"Yes, yes.  You've grown a great fellow now.  Go?  Yes, you must go.
+God will help you, and bring you both safely back."
+
+"Aw--ugh!  Aw--ugh!  Aw--ugh!" came from the verandah, three hideous
+yells, indicative of the fact that Jimmy--the half-wild black who had
+attached himself to me ever since the day I had met him spear-armed, and
+bearing that as his only garment over the shoulder, and I shared with
+him the bread and mutton I had taken for my expedition--was in a state
+of the utmost grief.  In fact, he had thrown himself down on the sand,
+and was wallowing and twisting himself about, beating up the dust with
+his boomerang, and generally exciting poor old nurse's disgust.
+
+"Mother!"  I cried; and making an effort she stood up erect and proud.
+
+"Mr Grant," she exclaimed, "do you mean what you say?"
+
+"Most decidedly, my dear madam," said the doctor.  "I should be unworthy
+of the professor's friendship, and the charge he gave me to watch over
+you in his absence, if I did not go."
+
+"But your practice?"
+
+"What is that, trifling as it is, to going to the help of him who gave
+me his when I came out to the colony a poor and friendless man?"
+
+"Thank you, doctor," she said, laying her hand in his.
+
+"And I go the more willingly," he said smiling, "because I know it will
+be the best prescription for your case.  It will bring you back your
+health."
+
+"But, doctor--"
+
+"Don't say another word," he cried.  "Why, my dear Mrs Carstairs, it is
+five years since I have had anything even approaching a holiday.  This
+will be a splendid opportunity; and I can take care of Joe here, and he
+can take care of me."
+
+"That I will--if I can," I cried.
+
+"I know you will, Joe," he said.  "And we'll bring back the professor
+with all his collection of new plants for that London firm, on condition
+that something fresh with a big red and yellow blossom is named after
+me--lay the Scarlet Grantii, or the Yellow Unluckii in honour of my
+non-success."
+
+"You're never going to let him start, Miss Eleanor?" cried nurse.
+
+"Would you have me stand between my son and his duty, nurse?" cried my
+mother, flushing.
+
+"Dearie me, no," sighed the old lady; "only it do seem such a wild-goose
+chase.  There'll be no one to take care of us, and that dreadful black,
+Jimmy"--nurse always said his name with a sort of disrelish--"will be
+hanging about here all the time."
+
+"Iss, dat's him, Jimmy, Jimmy, here Jimmy go.  Hi--wup--wup--wup, Jimmy
+go too."
+
+"Nonsense, Jimmy!"  I said; "I'm going to New Guinea to seek my father."
+
+"Iss.  Hi--wup--wup--wup, Jimmy going to look for his fader."
+
+"Why, you said he was dead," I cried.
+
+"Iss, Jimmy fader dead, little pickaninny boy; Jimmy go look for him,
+find him dere."
+
+"Be quiet," I said, for the black was indulging in a kind of war-dance;
+"you don't understand.  I'm going across the sea to find my father."
+
+"Dat him.  Jimmy want go 'cross sea find him fader bad.  Hi! want go
+there long time."
+
+"Why, you never heard of the place before," I said.
+
+"No, never heard him fore; want to go long time.  Jimmy go too."
+
+"Why, what for?"  I said.
+
+"Hunt wallaby--kedge fis--kill black fellow--take care Mass Joe--find um
+fader.  Hi--wup--wup--wup!"
+
+"He would be very useful to us, Joe," said the doctor.
+
+"And I should like to take him," I said eagerly.
+
+"Iss, Jimmy go," cried the black, who contrived, in spite of his bad
+management of our language, to understand nearly everything that was
+said, and who was keenly watching us all in turn.
+
+"He would be just the fellow to take," said the doctor.
+
+"Hi--wup--wup!  Jimmy juss a fellow to take."
+
+"Then he shall go," I said; and the black bounded nearly to the ceiling,
+making nurse utter a shriek, whereupon he thrust his boomerang into his
+waistband, and dragged a waddy from the back, where it had hung down
+like a stumpy tail, and showing his white teeth in a savage grin, he
+began to caper about as if preparing to attack the old lady, till I
+caught him by the arm, and he crouched at my feet like a dog.
+
+"Come long," he said, pointing out at the sun, "walk five six hour--all
+black dark; go sleep a morning."
+
+"All in good time, Jimmy," I said.  "Go out and wait."  The black ran
+out, and crouched down upon his heels in the verandah, evidently under
+the impression that we were about to start at once; but Europeans bound
+on an expedition want something besides a waddy, boomerang, and spear;
+and with nurse shaking her head mournfully the while, my mother, the
+doctor, and I held a council of war, which, after a time, was
+interrupted by a curious noise between a grunt and a groan, which proved
+to be from Jimmy's throat, for he was preparing himself for his journey
+by having a nap.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+HOW WE PREPARED TO START, AND STARTED.
+
+You will have gathered from all this that my father had been missing for
+pretty well three years, and that he, a well-known botanist, had
+accepted a commission from a well-known florist in the neighbourhood of
+London to collect new plants for him, and in his quest he had made his
+last unfortunate trip--which had followed one to Carpentaria--to New
+Guinea.
+
+We had heard from him twice, each time with a package of seeds and
+plants, which we had forwarded to London.  Then there was an utter
+cessation of news; one year had become two--then three--and it would
+soon be four.
+
+Quite a little fellow when he started, I had cried with disappointment
+at being left behind.  Now I had grown into a big fellow for my age; I
+had dreamed incessantly of making the attempt to find my father, and now
+at last the time had come.
+
+I believe I was quite as excited over the proposed journey as Jimmy, but
+I did not go about throwing a spear at gum-trees, neither did I climb
+the tallest eucalyptus to try if I could see New Guinea from the topmost
+branches.  Moreover I did not show my delight on coming down, certain of
+having seen this promised land, by picking out a low horizontal branch
+and hanging from it by my toes.
+
+All of these antics Jimmy did do, and many more, besides worrying me
+every half-hour with--
+
+"Come long--time a go find him fader."
+
+Of course now I know that it would have been impossible for me to have
+carried out my plans without the doctor, who was indefatigable, bringing
+to bear as he did the ripe experience of a man who had been all over the
+world pretty well before he came to Australia to make a practice; and
+every day I had from him some useful hint.
+
+He was quite as eager as I, but he met all my impatient words with--
+
+"Let's do everything necessary first, Joe.  Recollect we are going to a
+far more savage land than this, and where we can renew nothing but our
+store of food.  Don't let's fail through being too hasty.  All in good
+time."
+
+But the time did seem so long, for there was a great deal to do.
+
+Jimmy--who by the way really bore some peculiar native name that sounded
+like Wulla Gurra--was fitted out with a serviceable sailor's suit, of
+which he was very proud, and never prouder than when he could see it to
+its best advantage.
+
+This was in the wool barn, where, upon every opportunity, the black used
+to retreat to relieve himself of the unwonted garb, and hang it up
+against the shingle wall.  Then he would show his teeth to the gums and
+squat down, embrace his knees, and gaze at the clothes.
+
+When satisfied with the front he would rise deliberately, go to the
+wall, turn every article, and have a good look at the other side.
+
+We ran some risks at this time, for our henchman was given his first
+lessons in the use of a rifle, and for a long time, no matter how the
+doctor tried, it seemed as if it was impossible for the black to hold
+the piece in any other direction than pointed straight at one of his
+friends.  By slow degrees, though, he got over it, and wanted lessons in
+loading and firing more often than his master was prepared to give them.
+
+Jimmy had heard the report of a gun hundreds of times, but his
+experience had never gone so far as holding the piece when it was fired;
+and when, after being carefully shown how to take aim, he was treated to
+a blank charge and pulled the trigger, the result was that I threw
+myself on the ground and shrieked with laughter, while the doctor seated
+himself upon a stump and held his sides, with the tears rolling down his
+cheeks.
+
+For at the flash and report Jimmy uttered a yell, dropped the rifle, and
+turned and ran as hard as he could for the barn, never once looking
+behind him.
+
+A couple of minutes were, however, sufficient to let his fear evaporate,
+and he came back waddy in fist, half shamefaced, half angry, and rubbing
+his right shoulder the while.
+
+"Don't do dat," he cried fiercely.  "Don't do dat.  Play trick, Mass
+Joe.  Play trick, Jimmy."
+
+"I didn't," I cried, laughing.  "Here; see me."
+
+I took the rifle, put in a charge, and fired.
+
+"There," I said, reloading.  "Now, try again."
+
+Jimmy had on only his curtailed trousers, into whose waistband he
+cautiously stuck the waddy, the knob at the end stopping it from falling
+through, and gingerly taking the rifle once more to show that he was not
+afraid, he held it loosely against his shoulder and fired again.
+
+The gun kicked more than ever, for it was growing foul, and, uttering a
+yell, Jimmy dashed it down, snatched the waddy from his waistband, and
+began belabouring the butt of the piece before we could stop him, after
+which he stood sulkily rubbing his right shoulder, and scowling at the
+inanimate enemy that had given him a couple of blows.
+
+One or two more experiments with the piece, however, taught the black
+its merits and demerits to such an extent that he was never so happy as
+when he was allowed to shoulder the formidable weapon, with which he
+would have liked to go and fight some native tribe; and his constant
+demand to me was for me to put in an extra charge so that he might have
+what he called "big-bang."
+
+The doctor took care that we should both be well furnished with every
+necessary in arms, ammunition, and camp equipments, such as were light
+and would go into a small space.  He got down from Sydney, too, a
+quantity of showy electro-gilt jewellery and fancy beads, with common
+knives, pistols, guns, and hatchets for presents, saying to me that a
+showy present would work our way better with a savage chief than a great
+deal of fighting, and he proved to be quite right in all he said.
+
+Taken altogether we had an excellent outfit for the journey, my mother
+eagerly placing funds at the doctor's disposal.  And then came the
+question of how we were to get to the great northern island, for as a
+rule facilities for touching there were not very great; but somehow this
+proved to be no difficulty, all that we undertook being easily mastered,
+every obstacle melting away at the first attack.  In fact the journey to
+New Guinea was like a walk into a trap--wonderfully easy.  The
+difficulty was how to get out again.
+
+Perhaps had I known of the dangers we were to encounter I might have
+shrunk from the task--I say might, but I hope I should not.  Still it
+was better that I was in ignorance when, with the doctor, I set about
+making inquiries at the harbour, and soon found a captain who was in the
+habit of trading to the island for shells and trepang, which he
+afterwards took on to Hongkong.
+
+For a fairly liberal consideration he expressed himself willing to go
+out of his way and land us where we liked, but he shook his head all the
+same.
+
+"You've cut out your work, youngster," he said; "and I doubt whether
+you're going to sew it together so as to make a job."
+
+"I'm going to try, captain," I said.
+
+"That's your style," he said heartily, as he gave me a slap on the
+shoulder.  "That's the word that moves everything, my boy--that word
+`try.'  My brains and butter! what a lot `try' has done, and will always
+keep doing.  Lor', it's enough to make a man wish he was lost, and his
+son coming to look after him."
+
+"Then you have a son, captain?"  I said, looking at him wistfully.
+
+"Me?  Not a bit of it.  My wife never had no little 'uns, for we always
+buys the boats, they arn't young ships.  I married my schooner, my lad;
+she's my wife.  But there, I'm talking away with a tongue like an old
+woman.  Send your traps aboard whenever you like, and--there, I like
+you--you're a good lad, and I'll help you as much as ever I can.  Shake
+hands."
+
+It was like a fierce order, and he quite hurt me when we did shake
+hands, even the doctor saying it was like putting your fist in a
+screw-wrench.
+
+Then we parted, the doctor and I to complete our preparations; the
+various things we meant to take were placed on board, and now at last
+the time had come when we must say _Good-bye_!
+
+For the first time in my life I began to think very seriously of money
+matters.  Up to this money had not been an object of much desire with
+me.  A few shillings to send into Sydney for some special object now and
+then was all I had required; but now I had to think about my mother
+during my absence, and what she would do, and for the first time I
+learned that there was no need for anxiety on that score; that my
+father's private income was ample to place us beyond thought for the
+future.  I found, too, that our nearest neighbour had undertaken to
+watch over my mother's safety, not that there was much occasion for
+watchfulness, the days gliding by at our place in the most perfect
+peace, but it was satisfactory to feel that there were friends near at
+hand.
+
+I was for saying _good-bye_ at the little farm, but my mother insisted
+upon accompanying us to Sydney, where I noticed that in spite of her
+weakness and delicate looks, she was full of energy and excitement,
+talking to me of my journey, begging me to be prudent and careful, and
+on no account to expose myself to danger.
+
+"And tell your father how anxiously I am looking forward to his return,"
+she said to me on the last evening together; words that seemed to give
+me confidence, for they showed me how thoroughly satisfied she was that
+we would bring my father back.
+
+We were too busy making preparations to the very last for there to be
+much time for sadness, till the hour when the old skipper came, and was
+shown up to our room.
+
+He came stamping and blundering up in a pair of heavy sea-boots, and
+began to salute me with a rough shout, when he caught sight of my pale
+delicate-looking mother, and his whole manner changed.
+
+"Lor', I didn't know as there were a lady here," he said in a husky
+whisper, and snatching off his battered Panama hat, sticking out a leg
+behind, and making a bow like a school-boy.  I beg your pardon for
+intruding like, mum, but I only come to say that the schooner's warped
+out, and that youngster here and Mr Grant must come aboard first thing
+in the morning.
+
+He sat down after a good deal of persuasion, and partook of
+refreshment--liquid, and copiously.  But when, on leaving, my mother
+followed him to the door, and I saw her try to make him a present, he
+shook his head sturdily.
+
+"No, no," he growled; "I asked my price for the trip, and the doctor
+there paid me like a man.  Don't you be afeared for young chap there
+while he's aboard my craft.  While he's with me I'll look after him as
+if he was gold.  I don't like boys as a rule, for they're a worrit and
+wants so much kicking before you can make 'em work, but I've kind of
+took to youngster there, and I'll see him through.  Good night."
+
+The captain went clumping down the stairs, and we could hear him
+clearing his throat very loudly down the street.  Then the doctor, with
+great delicacy, rose and left us alone, and I tried to look cheerful as
+I sat for an hour with my mother before going to bed.
+
+Did any of you who tried to look cheerful when you were going to leave
+home for the first time ever succeed, especially with those wistful,
+longing eyes watching you so earnestly all the time?  I'm not ashamed to
+say that I did not, and that I almost repented of my decision, seeing as
+I did what pain I was causing.
+
+But I knew directly after that it was pain mingled with pleasure, and
+that I was about to do my duty as a son.
+
+Twice over, as I lay half sleeping, I fancied I saw, or really did see,
+somebody gliding away from my bedside, and then all at once I found that
+it was morning, and I got up, had a miserable breakfast, which seemed to
+choke me, and soon after--how I don't know, for it all seemed very
+dream-like--found myself on the wharf with my mother, waiting for the
+boat that was to take us three travellers to the ship.
+
+Jimmy was there, looking rather uncomfortable in his sailor's suit,
+which was not constructed for the use of a man who always sat down upon
+his heels.  The doctor was there, too, quiet and cheerful as could be,
+and I made an effort to swallow something that troubled me, and which I
+thought must be somehow connected with my breakfast.  But it would not
+go down, and I could do nothing but gaze hard as through a mist at the
+little delicate woman who was holding so tightly to my hands.  There was
+a dimness and an unreality about everything.  Things seemed to be going
+on in a way I did not understand, and I quite started at last as
+somebody seemed to say, "Good-bye," and I found myself in the little
+boat and on the way to the schooner.
+
+Then all in the same dim, misty way I found myself aboard, watching the
+wharf where my mother was standing with a lady friend, both waving their
+handkerchiefs.  Then the wharf seemed to be slowly gliding away and
+getting more and more distant, and then mixed up with it all came the
+sound of the bluff captain's voice, shouting orders to the men, who were
+hurrying about the deck.
+
+Suddenly I started, for the doctor had laid his hand upon my shoulder.
+
+"We're off, Joe," he said heartily; "the campaign has begun.  Now, then,
+how do you feel for your work?"
+
+His words electrified me, and I exclaimed excitedly:
+
+"Ready, doctor, ready.  We'll find him and bring him back."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+HOW I MADE MY FIRST CHARGE WITH A LANCE.
+
+We had not been a day at sea before our black follower was in trouble.
+As a matter of course the men began joking and teasing him about the
+awkward manner in which he wore his sailor's suit, asking him if it
+wouldn't be better to have a coat of white paint over him instead, as
+being cooler and less trouble, and the like.
+
+All this Jimmy took with the greatest of equanimity, grasping the men's
+meaning very well, and very often throwing himself flat on the deck and
+squirming about, which was his way of showing his delight.  But it was
+absolutely necessary that all this banter should come from the
+Englishmen.  If one of the Malay sailors attempted such a familiarity,
+Jimmy was furious.
+
+"Hi--wup--wup!" he exclaimed to me after one of these bouts; "dirty
+fellow, brown fellow no good.  Not white fellow, not black fellow.  Bad
+for nothing."
+
+One afternoon the doctor and I were sitting forward watching the
+beautiful heaving waves, and talking over the plans we intended to
+follow when we landed, and we had agreed that a small party was far more
+likely to succeed than a large one, being more suitable for passing
+unnoticed through the country.  We had just arrived at the point of
+determining that we would engage six natives at a friendly shore village
+to carry our baggage and act as guides, when the noise of some trouble
+aft arose, and we turned to see a Malay sailor lying upon the deck, and
+Jimmy showing his teeth fiercely, waddy in hand, after having given the
+man what he afterwards called "a topper on de headums."
+
+We ran up, fearing more mischief, for Jimmy could fight fiercely when
+roused; and we were just in time, for as the doctor reached the Malay
+the man had scrambled up, drawn his knife, and rushed at the black.  But
+before he could strike, the doctor showed me what wonderful strength of
+arm he possessed, by seizing the Malay by the waistband and arm and
+literally swinging him over the low bulwark into the sea.
+
+"That will cool his passion," said the doctor, smiling.  "I'm sorry I
+did it though, captain," he said the next minute; "these men are very
+revengeful."
+
+"Too late to say that," cried the captain roughly.  "Here, hi! man
+overboard!  Never mind the boat: he swims like a fish."
+
+This was plain enough, for the Malay was making his way swiftly through
+the water, and the captain ran aft with a coil of rope to throw to him
+from the stern.
+
+I ran too, and could see that as the man struck the water in a peculiar
+fashion, he held his knife open in his hand, and was thinking whether he
+would use it when the captain threw the rope, the light rings uncoiling
+as they flew through the air and splashed the water.
+
+"Here, look out!" cried the captain; but the man did not heed, but began
+to beat the water furiously, uttering a strange gasping cry.
+
+"Look, doctor!"  I cried, pointing, and leaning forward.
+
+A low hiss escaped his lips as he, too, saw a dull, indistinct something
+rising through the transparent sea.
+
+"Yah, hi!  Bunyip debble fis!" shouted Jimmy excitedly.  "Bite sailor,
+brown fellow.  Hoo.  Bite!"
+
+The black gave a snap and a shake of the head, and then taking the long
+sharp knife the doctor had given him from his belt, he tore off his
+shirt and, it seemed to me, jumped out of his trousers.  Then the sun
+seemed to flash from his shiny black skin for an instant, and he plunged
+into the sea.
+
+The exciting incidents of that scene are as plain before me now I write
+as if they had taken place yesterday.  I saw the body of the black
+strike up a foam of white water, and then glide down in a curve in the
+sunlit sea, plainly crossing the course of the great fish, which had
+altered its course on becoming aware of the second splash.
+
+The Malay knew what he was doing, for ignoring the help of the rope he
+allowed himself to drift astern, seeing as he did that the shark's
+attention had been drawn to the black.
+
+"He knows what he's about," said the captain.  "If he laid hold of that
+there rope, and we tried to draw him aboard, that snipperjack would take
+him like a perch does a worm in the old ponds at home.  Here, lower away
+that boat, and I'll go and get the whale lance."
+
+Away went the skipper, while the men lowered the boat; and I was so
+intent upon the movements of the great fish that I started as the boat
+kissed the water with a splash.
+
+The shark was about ten feet long and unusually thick; and as it kept
+just below the surface the doctor and I could watch its every movement,
+guided by the strange but slow wave of the long, curiously-lobed tail.
+
+"Now, you brown fellow, you come on.  Knife, knife!"
+
+As Jimmy shouted out these words he raised himself in the water and
+curved over like a porpoise, diving right down, and at the same moment
+the shark gave a sweep with its tail, the combined disturbance making so
+great an eddy that it was impossible to see what took place beneath the
+surface.  Then all at once there was a horrible discoloration in the
+sea, and I drew back, holding on by the bulwarks with both hands to keep
+myself from falling.  For, as the water grew discoloured, so did the air
+seem to glow before my eyes.  I was sick and dizzy; the deck seemed to
+rise in waves, and a curious kind of singing noise in my ears made
+everything sound distant and strange.  There was a strange despairing
+feeling, too, in my heart, and my breath came thick and short, till I
+was brought partly to myself by hearing a voice shouting for a rope, and
+then the mist gradually cleared away, and I became aware of the fact
+that the boat was moving before me, and that the round, shiny black face
+of Jimmy was close at hand.
+
+A few minutes later both Jimmy and the Malay were aboard, the former
+throwing himself flat on his back to rest, for he was panting heavily
+after his exertions.
+
+"Big bunyip debble, Mass Joe," he sputtered; "swim more stronger Jimmy,
+but no got knife.  Tick black fellow knife in um lot o' time.  Tick it
+in him frontums, tick it in ums back ums tight, and make um dibe down
+and take Jimmy much long ways."
+
+"Why didn't you leave go of the knife, my man?" said the doctor.
+
+"Leave go dat big noo knife?" cried Jimmy sharply.  "Let bunyip fis have
+dat noo knife?"
+
+Jimmy did not finish, but shook his head from side to side, so that
+first one black ear went into the puddle of water on the deck, then the
+other, while his lips parted in a tremendously long grin, which seemed
+to say, "Black fellow knows better than to do such a stupid thing as
+that."
+
+Then, as if made of india-rubber, Jimmy drew his heels in, gave a
+spring, and leaped to his feet, running to the side, and then throwing
+up his arms with delight.
+
+"Dere um is, Mass Joe; turn up him under frontums like fis on hook an'
+line."
+
+For there was the monster making an effort to keep in its normal
+position, as it swam slowly round and round, but always rolling back,
+and rising helplessly every time it tried to dive.
+
+"Jimmy sorry for you," cried the black.  "Plenty good to eat like much
+muttons.  Go down boat bring him board."
+
+"Well, I don't know about good meat, blackee, but we may as well have
+his head to boil out his jaws," said the captain, who was standing
+looking on, whale lance in hand.
+
+"Go down and put him out of his misery, captain," I said, "and take me
+too."
+
+"Oh! all right, my lad," he said, laughing.  "You may do the job if you
+like."
+
+"May I?"
+
+"To be sure," he said; and I jumped down into the boat, after he had
+lowered himself, bear fashion, on to one of the thwarts.
+
+"Here, send out one of the sailors," said the doctor.  "I'll go too."
+
+One of the men returned to the deck, looking rather glum, and the doctor
+took his place, while I sympathised with that sailor and wished that the
+doctor had not spoken, for I felt sure that he had come down into the
+boat to take care of me, and it made me feel young and childish.
+
+But I did not show my annoyance, I am glad to say; and a minute later
+the men gave way, and the boat glided slowly towards where the shark had
+drifted--I all the while standing up in the bows, lance in hand, full of
+the desire to make use of it, and feeling a cruel, half savage sensation
+that it would be exceedingly pleasant to drive that lance right home.
+
+"Now my water Saint George the Second," cried the doctor banteringly;
+"mind you slay the sea-dragon."
+
+"Mind what you're after, youngster," said the captain.  "Give it him
+close below the gills; a good dig and then draw back sharp."
+
+"All right!"  I cried back to the captain, for I was offended by the
+doctor's chaff; it made me feel small before the men.  Then, recalling
+what I had read that a harpooner would do under such circumstances, I
+shouted: "Give way, boys!"
+
+I'd have given something to have been back on board the schooner just
+then, for a roar of laughter greeted my command, and I felt that I was
+very young, and had made myself rather ridiculous, while to add to my
+discomfiture the men obeyed my order with such energy that the boat gave
+a jerk, and I was nearly sent back in a sitting position on the foremost
+man.
+
+There was another laugh at this, and the doctor said drily:
+
+"No, no, my lad; the lance is for the shark, not for us."
+
+I recovered my balance without a word, and planting my feet firmly wide
+apart, remained silent and looking very red, while I held my weapon
+ready.
+
+It was an old rusty affair, with a stiff pole about eight feet long, and
+was used by the captain for killing those curious creatures which no
+doubt gave rise to the idea of there being such things as tritons or
+mermen--I mean the manatees or dugongs that in those days used to swarm
+in the warmer waters of the Eastern Australian coast.
+
+"Keep it up, my lads; pull!" said the captain, who had an oar over the
+stern to steer.  "We must get back soon."
+
+I thought this was because the shark, which had ceased to swim round and
+round, was now laboriously making its way with the current at the rate
+of pretty well two miles an hour; but as the captain spoke I could see
+that he was scanning the horizon, and I heard the doctor ask if anything
+was wrong.
+
+"Looks dirty," he growled; and I remember wondering half-laughingly
+whether a good shower would not wash it clean, when the skipper went on:
+"Gets one o' them storms now and then 'bout here.  Now, my lads; with a
+will!"
+
+The water surged and rattled beneath my feet, and I was forgetting my
+annoyance and beginning to enjoy the excitement of my ride; and all the
+more that the shark had once more stopped in its steady flight, and was
+showing its white under parts some fifty yards away.
+
+"Ready, my lad!" cried the captain.  "I'll steer you close in.  Give it
+him deep, and draw back sharp."
+
+I nodded, and held the lance ready poised as we drew nearer and nearer,
+and I was ready with set teeth and every nerve tingling to deliver the
+thrust, when _whish_! _splash_! the brute gave its tail a tremendous
+lash, and darted away, swimming along with its back fin ploughing the
+water, and apparently as strong as ever.
+
+"Only his flurry, my lad.  Pull away, boys; we'll soon have him now."
+
+The men rowed hard, and the boat danced over the swell, rising up one
+slope, gliding down another, or so it seemed to me.
+
+"He'll turn up the white directly," cried the captain.  "Take it coolly
+and you'll have him.  I'll put you close alongside, and don't you miss."
+
+"Not I, sir," I shouted without turning my head, for it seemed such a
+very easy task; and away we went once more, getting nearer and nearer,
+till the back fin went out of sight, came up again, went out of sight
+the other way, and then there was the shining white skin glistening in
+the sun.
+
+There was another swirl and the shark made a fresh effort, but this time
+it was weaker and the boat gained upon it fast.
+
+"Now, boys, pull hard, and when I say `In oars,' stop, and we'll run
+close up without scaring the beggar.  Pull--pull--pull--pull!  Now!  In
+oars!"
+
+The men ceased rowing, the boat glided on from the impetus previously
+given, and I was just about to deliver a thrust when the wounded
+creature saw its enemy, and as if its strength had been renewed, went
+off again with a dart.
+
+"Look at that," cried the captain.  "Never mind, he's not going to get
+away.  We'll have him yet."
+
+"We seem to be getting a long way from the schooner," I heard the doctor
+say, and I turned round upon him quite angrily.
+
+"Oh!"  I cried, "don't stop.  We nearly had him that time."
+
+"Well, you shall have another try, my boy," said the captain.  "Pull
+away."
+
+We were going pretty fast all the time, and again and again we drew
+near, but always to be disappointed, and I stamped my foot with anger,
+as, every time, the brute darted off, leaving us easily behind.
+
+"Better let me have the lance, Joe," said the doctor smiling.
+
+"No, no," I cried.  "I must have a try now."
+
+"Let him be," growled the captain; "nobody couldn't have lanced him if
+he'd tried.  Now look out, lad!  Steady, boys!  In oars!  Let's go up
+more softly.  That's the style.  We shall have him this time.  Now you
+have him, lad; give it him--deep."
+
+All these words came in a low tone of voice as the boat glided nearer
+and nearer to where the shark was swimming slowly and wavering to and
+fro, and in my excitement I drew back, raising the lance high, and just
+as the monster was about to dash off in a fresh direction I threw myself
+forward, driving the point of the lance right into the soft flesh,
+forgetful of my instructions about a sharp thrust and return, for the
+keen lance point must have gone right through, and before I realised
+what was the matter I was snatched out of the boat; there was a splash,
+the noise of water thundering, a strangling sensation in my nostrils and
+throat, and I was being carried down with a fierce rush into the depths
+of the sea.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+HOW I WAS NOT DROWNED, AND HOW WE CHASED THAT SCHOONER.
+
+I don't remember much about that dive, except that the water made a
+great deal of noise in my ears, for the next thing that occurred seemed
+to be that I was lying on my back, with the back of my neck aching,
+while the doctor was pumping my arms up and down in a remarkably curious
+manner.
+
+"What's the matter?"  I said quickly; and then again in a sharp angry
+voice, "Be quiet, will you?  Don't!"
+
+"Are you better, young 'un?" said the captain, who seemed to be swollen
+and clumsy looking.
+
+"Better?  Here!"  I cried as a flash of recollection came back, "where's
+the shark?"
+
+"Floating alongside," said the doctor, wiping the great drops of
+perspiration from his forehead.
+
+I pulled myself up and looked over the side, where the great fish was
+floating quite dead, with one of the sailors making fast a line round
+the thin part of the tail.
+
+"Why, I know," I cried; "he dragged me down."
+
+It was all plain enough now.  The captain had fitted a lanyard to the
+shaft of the lance, so that it should not be lost, and I had got this
+twisted round one of my wrists in such a way that I was literally
+snatched out of the boat when it tightened; and I felt a strange kind of
+shudder run through me as the doctor went on to say softly:
+
+"I had begun to give you up, Joe, my boy."
+
+"Only the shark give it up as a bad job, my lad.  That stroke of yours
+finished him, and he come up just in time for us to get you into the
+boat and pump the wind into you again--leastwise the doctor did."
+
+"The best way to restore respiration, captain."
+
+"When you've tried my plan first, my lad," replied the captain.  "What
+is it drowns folks, eh?  Why, water.  Too much water, eh?  Well, my plan
+is to hold up head down'ards and feet in the air till all the salt-water
+has runned out."
+
+"The surest way to kill a half-drowned person, captain," said the doctor
+authoritatively.
+
+"Mebbe it is, mebbe it isn't," said the captain surlily.  "All I know is
+that I've brought lots back to life that way, and rolling 'em on
+barrels."
+
+I shuddered and shivered, and the men laughed at my drenched aspect, a
+breach of good manners that the captain immediately resented.
+
+"There, make fast that shark to the ring-bolt, and lay hold of your oars
+again.  Pull away, there's a hurricane coming afore long."
+
+As he spoke he looked long at a dull yellow haze that seemed to be
+creeping towards the sun.
+
+"Had we not better let the fish go?" said the doctor anxiously.
+
+"No, I want the oil," said the captain.  "We've had trouble enough to
+get him, and I don't mean to throw him away.  Now, my lads, pull."
+
+The men tugged steadily at their oars, but the dead fish hung behind
+like a log, and our progress was very slow.  Every now and then it gave
+a slight quiver, but that soon ceased, and it hung quite passively from
+the cord.
+
+I was leaning over the stem, feeling rather dizzy and headachy when, all
+at once, the captain shouted to me to "cut shark adrift; we're making
+too little way.  That schooner's too far-off for my liking."  I drew my
+knife, and after hauling the fish as closely as I could to the side I
+divided the thin line, and as I did so the boat seemed to dart away from
+its burden.
+
+It was none too soon, for the yellow haze seemed to be increasing
+rapidly, and the wind, which at one minute was oppressively calm, came
+the next in ominous hot puffs.
+
+"Why, the schooner's sailing away from us," cried the captain suddenly.
+"Hang me if I don't believe that scoundrel of a Malay has got to the
+helm, and is taking her right away out of spite."
+
+"Don't begin prophesying evil like that, captain," cried the doctor
+sharply.  "Here, man, I can pull; let's take an oar apiece and help."
+
+"I wasn't croaking," growled the captain; "but whether or no, that's
+good advice.  No, no, youngster, you're not strong enough to pull."
+
+"I can row," I said quickly; and the captain making no farther
+objection, we three pulled for the next half-hour, giving the men a good
+rest, when they took their turn, and we could see that while the haze
+seemed nearer the schooner was quite as far-off as ever.  There was a
+curious coppery look, too, about the sun that made everything now look
+weird and unnatural, even to the doctor's face, which in addition looked
+serious to a degree I had never seen before.
+
+"There'll be somebody pitched overboard--once I get back on deck, and no
+boat ready to pick him up.  Here, what does he mean?"
+
+He stood up in the boat waving his hat to those on board the little
+vessel; but no heed was paid, and the captain ground his teeth with
+rage.
+
+"I'll let him have something for this," growled the captain.  "There,
+pull away, men.  What are you stopping for?"
+
+The men tugged at their oars once more, after glancing uneasily at each
+other and then at the sky.
+
+"If I don't give him--"
+
+"Let's get on board first, captain," said the doctor, firmly.
+
+"Ay, so we will," he growled.  "The brown-skinned scoundrel!"
+
+"That's land, isn't it, captain?"  I said, pointing to a low line on our
+left.
+
+"Ay, worse luck," he said.
+
+"Worse luck, captain?  Why, we could get ashore if we did not overtake
+the schooner."
+
+"Get ashore!  Who wants to get ashore, boy?  That's where my schooner
+will be.  He'll run her on the reefs, as sure as I'm longing for
+two-foot of rope's-end and a brown back afore me."
+
+"A crown apiece for you, my lads, as soon as you get us aboard," cried
+the doctor, who had been looking uneasily at the men.
+
+His words acted like magic, and the oars bent, while the water rattled
+and pattered under our bows.
+
+"That's the sort o' fire to get up steam, doctor," said the captain;
+"but we shall never overtake my vessel, unless something happens.  I'd
+no business to leave her, and bring away my men."
+
+"I'm sorry, captain," I said deprecatingly.  "It seems as if it were my
+fault."
+
+"Not it," he said kindly.  "It was my fault, lad--mine."
+
+All this while the mist was steadily moving down upon us, and the
+captain was watching it with gloomy looks when his eyes were not fixed
+upon the schooner, which kept on gliding away.  The doctor's face, too,
+wore a very serious look, which impressed me more perhaps than the
+threatenings of the storm.  For, though I knew how terrible the
+hurricanes were at times, my experience had always been of them ashore,
+and I was profoundly ignorant of what a typhoon might be at sea.
+
+"There," cried the captain at last, after a weary chase, "it's of no
+use, my lads, easy it is.  I shall make for the land and try to get
+inside one of the reefs, doctor, before the storm bursts."
+
+"The schooner is not sailing away now," I said eagerly.
+
+"Not sailing, boy?  Why she's slipping away from us like--No, no: you're
+right, lad, she's--Pull, my lads, pull; let's get aboard.  That Malay
+scoundrel has run her on the reef."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+HOW WE FOUND JACK PENNY.
+
+The captain's ideas were not quite correct.  Certainly the little
+trading vessel had been run upon one of the many reefs that spread in
+all directions along the dangerous coast; but it was not the Malay who
+was the guilty party.
+
+As far as I was concerned it seemed to me a good job, for it brought the
+schooner to a stand-still, so that we could overtake it.  No thought
+occurred to me that the rocks might have knocked a hole in her bottom,
+and that if a storm came on she would most likely go to pieces.
+
+Very little was said now, for every one's attention was taken up by the
+threatened hurricane, and our efforts to reach the schooner before it
+should come on.
+
+It was a long severe race, in which we all took a turn at the oars,
+literally rowing as it seemed to me for our lives.  At times it was as
+if we must be overtaken by the fierce black clouds in the distance,
+beneath which there was a long misty white line.  The sea-birds kept
+dashing by us, uttering wild cries, and there was overhead an intense
+silence, while in the distance we could hear a low dull murmuring roar,
+that told of the coming mischief.
+
+Every now and then it seemed to me that we must be overtaken by the long
+surging line, that it was now plain to see was pursuing us, and I
+wondered whether we should be able to swim and save our lives when it
+came upon us with a hiss and a roar, such as I had often heard when on
+the beach.
+
+"We shall never do it," said one of the men, who half-jumped from his
+seat the next moment as the captain leaned forward from where he was
+rowing and gave him a sound box on the ears.
+
+"Pull, you cowardly humbug!" he cried.  "Not do it?  A set of furriners
+wouldn't do it; but we're Englishmen, and we're going to do it.  If we
+don't, it won't be our fault.  Pull!"
+
+This trifling incident had its effect, for the men pulled harder than
+ever, exhausted though they were.  It was a struggle for life now, and I
+knew it; but somehow I did not feel frightened in the least, but stunned
+and confused, and at the same time interested, as I saw the great line
+of haze and foam coming on.  Then I was listening to the dull roar,
+which was rapidly increasing into what seemed a harsh yell louder than
+thunder.
+
+"Pull, my lads!" shouted the captain, with his voice sounding strange
+and harsh in the awful silence around us, for, loud as was the roar of
+the storm, it seemed still afar off.
+
+The men pulled, and then we relieved them again, with the great drops
+gathering on our faces in the intense heat; and my breath came thick and
+short, till I felt as it were a sense of burning in my chest.  Then I
+grew half-blind with my eyes staring back at the wall of haze; and then,
+as I felt that I should die if I strained much longer at that oar, I
+heard the captain shout:
+
+"In oars!" and I found that we were alongside the schooner, and close
+under her lee.
+
+There was just time to get on board, and we were in the act of hauling
+up the boat, when, with an awful whistle and shriek, the storm was upon
+us, and we were all clinging for life to that which was nearest at hand.
+
+Now, I daresay you would like me to give you a faithful account of my
+impressions of that storm, and those of one who went through it from the
+time that the hurricane struck us till it passed over, leaving the sky
+clear, the sun shining, and the sea heaving slowly and without a single
+crest.
+
+I feel that I can do justice to the theme, so here is my faithful
+description of that storm.
+
+_A horrid wet, stifling, flogging row_.
+
+That's all I can recollect.  That's all I'm sure that the doctor could
+recollect, or the captain or anybody else.  We were just about drowned
+and stunned, and when we came to ourselves it was because the storm had
+passed over.
+
+"What cheer, ho!" shouted the captain, and we poor flogged and drenched
+objects sat up and looked about us, to find that the waves had lifted
+the schooner off the rocks, and driven her a long way out of her course;
+that the sails that had been set were blown to ribbons; and finally that
+the schooner, with the last exception, was very little the worse for the
+adventure.
+
+"She ain't made no water much," said the captain, after going below;
+"and--here, I say, where's that Malay scoundrel?"
+
+"Down in the cabin--locked in," said an ill-used voice; and I rubbed the
+salt-water out of my eyes, and stared at the tall thin figure before me,
+leaning up against the bulwark as if his long thin legs were too weak to
+support his long body, though his head was so small that it could not
+have added very much weight.
+
+"Why, hallo!  Who the blue jingo are you?" roared the skipper.
+
+The tall thin boy wrinkled up his forehead, and did not answer.
+
+"Here, I say, where did you spring from?" roared the captain.
+
+The tall thin boy took one hand out of his trousers' pocket with some
+difficulty, for it was so wet that it clung, and pointed down below.
+
+The skipper scratched his head furiously, and stared again.
+
+"Here, can't you speak, you long-legged thing?" he cried.  "Who are
+you?"
+
+"Why, it's Jack Penny!"  I exclaimed.
+
+"Jack who?" cried the captain.
+
+"Jack Penny, sir.  His father is a squatter about ten miles from our
+place."
+
+"Well, but how came _he_--I mean that tall thin chap, not his father--to
+be squatting aboard my schooner?"
+
+"Why, Jack," I said, "when did you come aboard?"
+
+"Come aboard?" he said slowly, as if it took him some time to understand
+what I said.  "Oh, the night before you did."
+
+"But where have you been all the time?"
+
+"Oh, down below there," said Jack slowly.
+
+"But what did you come for?"
+
+"Wanted to," he said coolly.  "If I had said so, they wouldn't--you
+wouldn't have let me come."
+
+"But why did you come, Jack?"  I said.
+
+"'Cause I wanted," he replied surlily.  "Who are you that you're to have
+all the fun and me get none!"
+
+"Fun!"  I said.
+
+"Yes, fun.  Ain't you goin' to find your father?"
+
+"Of course I am; but what's that got to do with fun?"
+
+"Never you mind; I've come, and that's all about it," he said slowly;
+and thrusting his hands back into his trousers' pockets as fast as the
+wet clinging stuff would let him, he began to whistle.
+
+"But it arn't all about it," cried the captain; "and so you'll find.
+You arn't paid no passage, and I arn't going to have no liberties took
+with my ship.  Here, where's that Malay chap?"
+
+"I told you where he was, didn't I?" snarled Jack Penny.  "Are you deaf?
+In the cabin, locked in."
+
+"What's he doing locked in my cabin?" roared the captain.  "I say, are
+you skipper here, or am I?  What's he doing in my cabin locked in?"
+
+"Rubbing his sore head, I s'pose," drawled Jack Penny.  "I hit him as
+hard as I could with one o' them fence rails."
+
+"Fence rails!" cried the captain, who looked astounded at the big thin
+boy's coolness, and then glanced in the direction he pointed beneath the
+bulwarks.  "Fence rails!  What do you mean--one of them capstan bars?"
+
+"I don't know what you call 'em," said Jack.  "I give him a regular
+wunner on the head."
+
+"What for, you dog?"
+
+"Here, don't you call me a dog or there'll be a row," cried Jack, rising
+erect and standing rather shakily about five feet eleven, looking like a
+big boy stretched to the bursting point and then made fast.  "He was
+going to kill the black fellow with his knife after knocking him down.
+I wasn't going to stand by and see him do that, was I?"
+
+"Well, I s'pose not," said the captain, who looked puzzled.  "Where is
+the black fellow?  Here, where's Jimmy?"
+
+"Down that square hole there, that wooden well-place," said Jack,
+pointing to the forecastle hatch.  "He slipped down there when the
+yaller chap hit him."
+
+"Look here--" said the captain as I made for the hatch to look after
+Jimmy.  "But stop a minute, let's have the black up."
+
+Two of the men went below and dragged up poor Jimmy, who was quite
+stunned, and bleeding freely from a wound on the head.
+
+"Well, that's some proof of what you say, my fine fellow," continued the
+captain, as the doctor knelt down to examine poor Jimmy's head and I
+fetched some water to bathe his face.  "What did you do next?"
+
+"Next?  Let me see," drawled Jack Penny; "what did I do next?  Oh!  I
+know.  That chap was running away with the ship, and I took hold of that
+wheel thing and turned her round, so as to come back to you when you
+kept waving your cap."
+
+"Hah! yes.  Well, what then?"
+
+"Oh, the thing wanted oiling or greasing; it wouldn't go properly.  It
+got stuck fast, and the ship wouldn't move; and then the storm came.  I
+wish you wouldn't bother so."
+
+"Well, I _am_ blessed," cried the captain staring.  "I should have been
+proud to have been your father, my young hopeful.  'Pon my soul I
+should.  You are a cool one, you are.  You go and run the prettiest
+little schooner there is along the coast upon the rocks, and then you
+have the confounded impudence to look me in the face and tell me the
+rudder wants greasing and it stuck."
+
+"So it did!" cried Jack Penny indignantly.  "Think I don't know?  I
+heard it squeak.  You weren't on board.  The ship wouldn't move
+afterwards."
+
+"Here, I say; which are you?" cried the captain; "a rogue or a fool?"
+
+"I d'know," said Jack coolly.  "Father used to say I was a fool
+sometimes.  P'r'aps I am.  I say, though, if I were you I'd go and tie
+down that yaller Malay chap in the cabin.  He's as vicious as an old man
+kangaroo in a water-hole."
+
+"Your father's wrong, my fine fellow," said the captain with a grim
+smile; "you ar'n't a fool, for a fool couldn't give such good advice as
+that.  Here, doctor, p'r'aps you'll lend me one of your shooting things.
+You can get into your cabin; I can't get into mine."
+
+The doctor nodded, and in the excitement of the time we forgot all about
+our drenched clothes as he went down and returned directly with his
+revolver, and another for the captain's use.
+
+"Thank'ye, doctor," said the captain grimly, cocking the piece.  "I
+don't want to use it, and I daresay the sight of it will cool our yaller
+friend; but it's just as well to be prepared.  What! are you coming too?
+Thought your trade was to mend holes and not make 'em."
+
+"My trade is to save life, captain," said the doctor quietly.  "Perhaps
+I shall be helping to save life by coming down with you."
+
+"P'r'aps you will, doctor.  Here, we don't want you two boys."
+
+"We only want to come and see," I said in an ill-used tone; and before
+the doctor could speak the captain laughingly said, "Come on," and we
+followed them down below, the men bringing up the rear, armed with bars
+and hatchets.
+
+The captain did not hesitate for a moment, but went straight down to the
+cabin door, turned the key, and threw it open, though all the while he
+knew that there was a man inside fiercer than some savage beast.  But
+had he been a little more cautious it would have saved trouble, for the
+Malay had evidently been waiting as he heard steps, and as the door was
+opened he made a spring, dashed the doctor and captain aside, overset
+me, and, as the men gave way, reached the deck, where he ran right
+forward and then close up to the foremast, stood with his long knife or
+kris in his hand, rolling his opal eyeballs, and evidently prepared to
+strike at the first who approached.
+
+"The dog! he has been at the spirits," growled the captain fiercely.
+"Confound him!  I could shoot him where he stands as easy as could be;
+but I arn't like you, doctor, I don't like killing a man.  Never did
+yet, and don't want to try."
+
+"Don't fire at him," said the doctor excitedly; "a bullet might be
+fatal.  Let us all rush at him and beat him down."
+
+"That's all very fine, doctor," said the captain; "but if we do some
+one's sure to get an ugly dig or two from that skewer.  Two or three of
+us p'r'aps.  You want to get a few surgery jobs, but I'd rather you
+didn't."
+
+All this while the Malay stood brandishing his kris and showing his
+teeth at us in a mocking smile, as if we were a set of the greatest
+cowards under the sun.
+
+"Look here, Harriet," cried the captain; "you'd better give in; we're
+six to one, and must win.  Give in, and you shall have fair play."
+
+"Cowards! come on, cowards!" shouted the Malay fiercely, and he made a
+short rush from the mast, and two of the hatchet men retreated; but the
+Malay only laughed fiercely, and shrank back to get in shelter by the
+mast.
+
+"We shall have to rush him or shoot him," said the captain, rubbing his
+nose with pistol barrel.  "Now then, you dog; surrender!" he roared; and
+lowering the pistol he fired at the Malay's feet, the bullet splintering
+up the deck; but the fellow only laughed mockingly.
+
+"We shall have to rush him," growled the captain; "unless you can give
+him a dose of stuff, doctor, to keep him quiet."
+
+"Oh, yes; I can give him a dose that will quiet him for a couple of
+hours or so, but who's to make him take it?"
+
+"When we treed the big old man kangaroo who ripped up Pompey, Caesar,
+and Crassus," drawled Jack Penny, who was looking on with his hands in
+his pockets, "I got up the tree and dropped a rope with a noose in it
+over his head.  Seems to me that's what you ought to do now."
+
+"Look'ye here," cried the captain, "don't you let your father call you
+fool again, youngster, because it's letting perhaps a respectable old
+man tell lies.  Tell you what, if you'll shin up the shrouds, and drop a
+bit of a noose over his head while we keep him in play, I won't say
+another word about your coming on board without leave."
+
+"Oh, all right!  I don't mind trying to oblige you, but you must mind he
+don't cut it if I do."
+
+"You leave that to me," cried the captain.  "I'll see to that.  There,
+take that thin coil there, hanging on a belaying-pin."
+
+The tall thin fellow walked straight to the coil of thin rope, shook it
+out, and made a running noose at the end, and then, with an activity
+that surprised me, who began to feel jealous that this thin weak-looking
+fellow should have proved himself more clever and thoughtful than I was,
+he sprang into the shrouds, the Malay hardly noticing, evidently
+believing that the boy was going aloft to be safe.  He looked up at him
+once, as Jack Penny settled himself at the masthead, but turned his
+attention fiercely towards us as the captain arranged his men as if for
+a rush, forming them into a semicircle.
+
+"When I say ready," cried the captain, "all at him together."
+
+The Malay heard all this, and his eyes flashed and his teeth glistened
+as he threw himself into an attitude ready to receive his foes, his body
+bent forward, his right and left arms close to his sides, and his whole
+frame well balanced on his legs.
+
+"Ready?" cried the captain.
+
+"All ready!" was the reply; and I was so intent upon the fierce lithe
+savage that I forgot all about Jack Penny till I heard the men answer.
+
+There was the whizzing noise of a rope thrown swiftly, and in an instant
+a ring had passed over the Malay's body, which was snatched tight,
+pinioning his arms to his side, and Jack Penny came down with a rush on
+the other side of the fore-yard, drawing the savage a few feet from the
+deck, where he swung helplessly, and before he could recover himself he
+had been seized, disarmed, and was lying bound upon the deck.
+
+"I didn't mean to come down so fast as that," drawled Jack, rubbing his
+back.  "I've hurt myself a bit."
+
+"Then we'll rub you," cried the captain joyously.  "By George, my boy,
+you're a regular two yards of trump."
+
+The excitement of the encounter with the Malay being over, there was
+time to see to poor Jimmy, who was found to be suffering from a very
+severe cut on the head, one of so serious a nature that for some time
+the poor fellow lay insensible; but the effect of bathing and bandaging
+his wound was to make him open his eyes at last, and stare round for
+some moments before he seemed to understand where he was.  Then
+recollection came back, and he grinned at me and the doctor.
+
+The next moment a grim look of rage came over his countenance, and
+springing up he rushed to where the Malay was lying upon the deck under
+the bulwarks, and gave him a furious kick.
+
+"Bad brown fellow!" he shouted.  "Good for nothing!  Hi--wup--wup--wup!"
+
+Every utterance of the word _wup_ was accompanied by a kick, and the
+result was that the Malay sprang up, snatched his kris from where it had
+been thrown on the head of a cask, and striking right and left made his
+way aft, master of the deck once more.
+
+"Well, that's nice," growled the captain.
+
+"I thought them knots wouldn't hold," drawled Jack Penny.  "He's been
+wriggling and twisting his arms and legs about ever since he lay there.
+I thought he'd get away."
+
+"Then why didn't you say so, you great, long-jointed two-foot rule?"
+roared the captain.  "Here, now then, all together.  I'm skipper here.
+Rush him, my lads; never mind his skewer."
+
+The captain's words seemed to electrify his little crew, and, I venture
+to say, his passengers as well.  Every one seized some weapon, and,
+headed by the skipper, we charged down upon the savage as he stood
+brandishing his weapon.
+
+He stood fast, watchful as a tiger, for some moments, and then made a
+dash at our extreme left, where Jack Penny and I were standing; and I
+have no doubt that he would have cut his way through to our cost, but
+for a quick motion of the captain, who struck out with his left hand,
+hitting the Malay full in the cheek.
+
+The man made a convulsive spring, and fell back on the edge of the
+bulwarks, where he seemed to give a writhe, and then, before a hand
+could reach him, there was a loud splash, and he had disappeared in the
+sea.
+
+We all rushed to the side, but the water was thick from the effects of
+the storm, and we could not for a few moments make out anything.  Then
+all at once the swarthy, convulsed face of the man appeared above the
+wave, and he began to swim towards the side, yelling for help.
+
+"Ah!" said the skipper, smiling, "that's about put him out.  Nothing
+like cold water for squenching fire."
+
+"Hi--wup! hi--wup!" shouted Jimmy, who forgot his wound, and danced up
+and down, holding on by the bulwarks, his shining black face looking
+exceedingly comic with a broad bandage of white linen across his brow.
+"Hi--wup! hi--wup!" he shouted; "bunyip debble shark coming--bite um
+legs."
+
+"Help!" shrieked the Malay in piteous tones, as he swam on, clutching at
+the slippery sides of the schooner.
+
+"Help!" growled the captain; "what for?  Here, you, let me have that
+there kris.  Hitch it on that cord."
+
+As he spoke the captain threw down the thin line with which the Malay
+had been bound, the poor wretch snatching at it frantically; but as he
+did so it was pulled away from his despairing clutch.
+
+"I could noose him," drawled Jack Penny coolly.  "I've often caught
+father's rams like that."
+
+"Yes, but your father's rams hadn't got knives," said the captain
+grimly.
+
+"No, but they'd got horns," said Jack quietly.  "Ain't going to drown
+him, are you?"
+
+"Not I, boy; he'll drown himself if we leave him alone."
+
+"I don't like to see fellows drown," said Jack; and he left the bulwarks
+and sat down on the hatchway edge.  "Tell a fellow when it's all over,
+Joe Carstairs."
+
+"Help, help!" came hoarsely from the poor wretch; and my hands grew wet
+inside, and a horrible sensation seemed to be attacking my chest, as I
+watched the struggles of the drowning man with starting eyes.  For
+though he swam like a fish, the horror of his situation seemed to have
+unnerved him, and while he kept on swimming, it was with quick wearying
+effort, and he was sinking minute by minute lower in the water.
+
+"For Heaven's sake, throw the poor wretch a rope, captain," said the
+doctor.
+
+"What! to come aboard and knife some of us?" growled the captain.
+"Better let him drown.  Plenty of better ones than him to be had for a
+pound a month."
+
+"Oh, captain!"  I cried indignantly, for my feelings were too much for
+me; and I seized a rope just as the Malay went down, after uttering a
+despairing shriek.
+
+"Let that rope alone, boy," said the skipper with a grim smile.  "There,
+he's come up again.  Ketch hold!" he cried, and he threw his line so
+that the Malay could seize it, which he did, winding it round and round
+one arm, while the slowly-sailing schooner dragged him along through the
+sea.  "I'm only giving him a reg'lar good squencher, doctor.  I don't
+want him aboard with a spark left in him to break out again: we've had
+enough of that.  Haul him aboard, lads, and shove him in the chain
+locker to get dry.  We'll set him ashore first chance."
+
+The Malay was hauled aboard with no very gentle hands by the white
+sailors, and as soon as he reached the deck he began crawling to the
+captain's feet, to which he clung, with gesture after gesture full of
+humility, as ha talked excitedly in a jargon of broken English and
+Malay.
+
+"That's what I don't like in these fellows," said Jack Penny quietly;
+"they're either all bubble or else all squeak."
+
+"Yes; he's about squenched now, squire," said the captain.  "Here, shove
+him under hatches, and it's lucky for you I'm not in a hanging humour
+to-day.  You'd better behave yourself, or you may be brought up again
+some day when I am."
+
+As the captain spoke to the streaming, shivering wretch he made a noose
+in the rope he held, manipulating it as if he were really going to hang
+the abject creature, in whom the fire of rage had quite become extinct.
+Then the sailors took hold of him, and he uttered a despairing shriek;
+but he cooled down as he found that he was only to be made a prisoner,
+and was thrust below, with Jimmy dancing a war-dance round him as he
+went, the said dance consisting of bounds from the deck and wavings of
+his waddy about his head.
+
+As the Malay was secured, Jack Penny rose from his seat and walked to
+the side of the vessel, to spit into the water with every sign of
+disgust upon his face.
+
+"Yah!" he said; "I wouldn't squeak like that, not if they hung me."
+
+"Well, let's see," cried the captain, catching him by the collar;
+"hanging is the punishment for stowaways, my fine fellow."
+
+"Get out!" said Jack, giving himself a sort of squirm and shaking
+himself free.  "You ain't going to scare me; and, besides, you know what
+you said.  I say, though, when are we going to have something to eat?"
+
+The captain stared at Jack's serious face for a few moments, and then he
+joined with the doctor and me in a hearty laugh.
+
+"I don't well understand you yet, my fine fellow," he said; "perhaps I
+shall, though, afore I've done.  Here, come down; you do look as if a
+little wholesome vittles would do you good.  Are you hungry then?"
+
+"Hungry!" said Jack, without a drawl, and he gave his teeth a gnash;
+"why, I ain't had nothing but some damper and a bottle o' water since I
+came on board."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+HOW JIMMY WAS FRIGHTENED BY THE BUNYIP.
+
+"Oh, I don't know that I've got any more to say about it," said Jack
+Penny to me as we sat next day in the bows of the schooner, with our
+legs dangling over the side.  "I heard all about your going, and there
+was nothing to do at home now, so I said to myself that I'd go, and here
+I am."
+
+"Yes, here you are," I said; "but you don't mean to tell me that you
+intended to go up the country with us?"
+
+"Yes, I do," he said.
+
+"Nonsense, Jack! it is impossible!"  I said warmly.
+
+"I say!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"New Guinea don't belong to you, does it?"
+
+"Why, of course not."
+
+"Oh, I thought p'r'aps you'd bought it."
+
+"Don't talk nonsense, Jack."
+
+"Don't you talk nonsense then, and don't you be so crusty.  If I like to
+land in New Guinea, and take a walk through the country, it's as free
+for me as it is for you, isn't it?"
+
+"Of course it is."
+
+"Then just you hold your tongue, Mister Joe Carstairs; and if you don't
+like to walk along with me, why you can walk by yourself."
+
+"And what provisions have you made for the journey?"  I said.
+
+"Oh, I'm all right, my lad!" he drawled.  "Father lent me his revolver,
+and I've got my double gun, and two pound o' powder and a lot o' shot."
+
+"Anything else?"
+
+"Oh, I've got my knife, and a bit o' string, and two fishing-lines and a
+lot of hooks, and I brought my pipe and my Jew's-harp, and I think
+that's all."
+
+"I'm glad you brought your Jew's-harp," I said ironically.
+
+"So am I," he said drily.  "Yah!  I know: you're grinning at me, but a
+Jew's-harp ain't a bad thing when you're lonely like, all by yourself,
+keeping sheep and nobody to speak to for a week together but Gyp.  I
+say, Joe, I brought Gyp," he added with a smile that made his face look
+quite pleasant.
+
+"What! your dog?"  I cried.
+
+"Yes; he's all snug down below, and he hasn't made a sound.  He don't
+like it, but if I tell him to do a thing he knows he's obliged to do
+it."
+
+"I say, I wonder what the captain will say if he knows you've got a dog
+on board?"
+
+"I sha'n't tell him, and if he don't find it out I shall pay him for
+Gyp's passage just the same as I shall pay him for mine.  I've got lots
+of money, and I hid on board to save trouble.  I ain't a cheat."
+
+"No, I never thought you were, Jack," I said, for I had known him for
+some years, and once or twice I had been fishing with him, though we
+were never companions.  "But it's all nonsense about your going with us.
+The doctor said this morning that the notion was absurd."
+
+"Let him mind his salts-and-senna and jollop," said Jack sharply.
+"Who's he, I should like to know?  I knowed your father as much as he
+did.  He's given me many a sixpence for birds' eggs and beetles and
+snakes I've got for him.  Soon as I heard you were going to find him, I
+says to father, `I'm going too.'"
+
+"And what did your father say?"
+
+"Said I was a fool."
+
+"Ah! of course," I exclaimed.
+
+"No, it ain't `ah, of course,' Mr Clever," he cried.  "Father always
+says that to me whatever I do, but he's very fond of me all the same."
+
+Just then the captain came forward with his glass under his arm, and his
+hands deep down in his pockets.  He walked with his legs very wide
+apart, and stopped short before us, his straw hat tilted right over his
+nose, and see-sawing himself backwards and forwards on his toes and
+heels.
+
+"You're a nice young man, arn't you now?" he said to Jack.
+
+"No, I'm only a boy yet," said Jack quietly.
+
+"Well, you're tall enough to be a man, anyhow.  What's your height?"
+
+"Five foot 'leven," said Jack.
+
+"And how old are you?"
+
+"Seventeen next 'vember," said Jack.
+
+"Humph!" said the captain.
+
+"Here, how much is it?" said Jack, thrusting his hand in his pocket.
+"I'll pay now and ha' done with it."
+
+"Pay what?"
+
+"My passage-money."
+
+"Oh!" said the captain quietly, "I see.  Well, I think we'd better
+settle that by-and-by when you bring in claim for salvage."
+
+The captain pronounced it "sarvidge," and Jack stared.
+
+"What savage?" he said.  "Do you mean Joe Carstairs' black fellow?"
+
+"Do I mean Joe Carstairs' grandmother, boy?  I didn't say savage; I said
+salvage--saving of the ship from pirates."
+
+"Oh, I see what you mean," replied Jack.  "I sha'n't bring in any claim.
+I knew that Malay chap wasn't doing right, and stopped him, that's
+all."
+
+"Well, we won't say any more about stowing away, then," said the
+captain.  "Had plenty to eat this morning?"
+
+"Oh yes, I'm better now," drawled Jack.  "I was real bad yesterday, and
+never felt so hollow before."
+
+The captain nodded and went back, while Jack turned to me, and nodding
+his head said slowly:
+
+"I like the captain.  Now let's go and see how your black fellow's head
+is."
+
+Jimmy was lying under a bit of awning rigged up with a scrap of the
+storm-torn sail; and as soon as he saw us his white teeth flashed out in
+the light.
+
+"Well, Jimmy, how are you?"  I said, as Jack Penny stood bending down
+over him, and swaying gently to and fro as if he had hinges in his back.
+
+"Jimmy better--much better.  Got big fly in um head--big bunyip fly.
+All buzz--buzz--round and round--buzz in um head.  Fedge doctor take um
+out."
+
+"Here, doctor," I shouted; and he came up.  "Jimmy has got a fly in his
+head."
+
+"A bee in his bonnet, you mean," he said, bending down and laying his
+hand on the black's temples.
+
+"Take um out," said Jimmy excitedly.  "Buzz--buzz--bunyip fly."
+
+"Yes, I'll take it out, Jimmy," said the doctor quietly; "but not
+to-day."
+
+"When take um out?" cried the black eagerly; "buzz--buzz.  Keep buzz."
+
+"To-morrow or next day.  Here, lie still, and I'll get your head ready
+for the operation."
+
+The preparation consisted in applying a thick cloth soaked in spirits
+and water to the feverish head, the evaporation in the hot climate
+producing a delicious sense of coolness, which made Jimmy say softly:
+
+"Fly gone--sleep now," and he closed his eyes, seeming to be asleep till
+the doctor had gone back to his seat on the deck, where he was studying
+a chart of the great island we were running for.  But as soon as he was
+out of hearing Jimmy opened first one eye and then another.  Then in a
+whisper, as he gently took up his waddy:
+
+"No tell doctor; no tell captain fellow.  Jimmy go knock brown fellow
+head flap to-night."
+
+"What?"  I cried.
+
+"He no good brown fellow.  Knock head off.  Overboard: fis eat up."
+
+"What does he say; he's going to knock that Malay chap's head off?"
+drawled Jack.
+
+"Yes, Jimmy knock um head flap."
+
+"You dare to touch him, Jimmy," I said, "and I'll send you back home."
+
+"Jimmy not knock um head flap?" he said staring.
+
+"No.  You're not to touch him."
+
+"Mass Joe gone mad.  Brown fellow kill all a man.  Jimmy kill um."
+
+"You are not to touch him," I said.  "And now go to sleep or I shall go
+and tell the captain."
+
+Jimmy lifted up his head and looked at me.  Then he banged it down upon
+his pillow, which was one of those gooseberry-shaped rope nets, stuffed
+full of oakum, and called a fender, while we went forward once more to
+talk to the doctor about his chart, for Jack Penny was comporting
+himself exactly as if he had become one of the party, though I had made
+up my mind that he was to go back with the captain when we were set
+ashore.
+
+All the same, at Jack Penny's urgent request I joined him in the act of
+keeping the presence of the other passenger a secret--I mean Gyp the
+dog, to whom I was stealthily introduced by Jack, down in a very
+evil-smelling part of the hold, and for whom I saved scraps of meat and
+bits of fish from my dinner every day.
+
+The introduction was as follows on the part of Jack:
+
+"Gyp, old man, this is Joe Carstairs.  Give him your paw."
+
+It was very dark, but I was just able to make out a pair of fiery eyes,
+and an exceedingly shaggy curly head--I found afterwards that Gyp's papa
+had been an Irish water spaniel, and his mamma some large kind of hound;
+and Jack informed me that Gyp was a much bigger dog than his mamma--then
+a rough scratchy paw was dabbed on my hand, and directly after my
+fingers were wiped by a hot moist tongue.  At the same time there was a
+whimpering noise, and though I did not know it then, I had made one of
+the ugliest but most faithful friends I ever had.
+
+The days glided by, and we progressed very slowly, for the weather fell
+calm after the typhoon, and often for twenty-four hours together we did
+nothing but drift about with the current, the weather being so hot that
+we were glad to sit under the shade of a sail.
+
+The doctor quite took to Jack Penny, saying that he was an oddity, but
+not a bad fellow.  I began to like him better myself, though he did
+nothing to try and win my liking, being very quiet and distant with us
+both, and watching us suspiciously, as if he thought we were always
+making plots to get rid of him, and thwart his plans.
+
+Gyp had remained undiscovered, the poor brute lying as quiet as a mouse,
+except when Jack Penny and I went down to feed him, when he expressed
+his emotion by rapping the planks hard with his tail.
+
+At last the captain, who had been taking observations, tapped me on the
+shoulder one hot mid-day, and said:
+
+"There, squire, we shall see the coast to-morrow before this time, and I
+hope the first thing you set eyes on will be your father, waving his old
+hat to us to take him off."
+
+Just then Jimmy, whose wound had healed rapidly, and who had forgotten
+all about the big bunyip fly buzzing in his head, suddenly popped his
+face above the hatchway with his eyes starting, his hair looking more
+shaggy than usual, and his teeth chattering with horror.
+
+He leaped up on the deck, and began striking it with the great knob at
+the end of his waddy, shouting out after every blow.
+
+"Debble, debble--big bunyip debble.  Jimmy, Jimmy see big bunyip down
+slow!"
+
+"Here, youngster, fetch my revolver," shouted the captain to me.  "Here,
+doctor, get out your gun, that Malay chap's loose again."
+
+"A no--a no--a no," yelled Jimmy, banging at the deck.  "Big bunyip--no
+brown fellow--big black bunyip debble, debble!"
+
+"Get out, you black idiot; it's the Malay."
+
+"A no--a no--a no; big black bunyip.  'Gin eat black fellow down slow."
+
+To my astonishment, long quiet Jack Penny went up to Jimmy and gave him
+a tremendous kick, to which the black would have responded by a blow
+with his war-club had I not interposed.
+
+"What did you kick him for, Jack?"  I cried.
+
+"A great scuffle-headed black fool! he'll let it out now about Gyp.
+Make him be quiet."
+
+It was too late, for the captain and the doctor were at the hatchway,
+descending in spite of Jimmy's shouts and cries that the big bunyip--the
+great typical demon of the Australian aborigine--would eat them.
+
+"Shoot um--shoot um--bing, bang!" _whop_ went Jimmy's waddy on the deck;
+and in dread lest they should fire at the unfortunate dog in the dark, I
+went up and told the captain, the result being that Gyp was called up on
+deck, and the great beast nearly went mad with delight, racing about,
+fawning on his master and on me, and ending by crouching down at my feet
+with his tongue lolling out, panting and blinking his eyes, unaccustomed
+to the glare of daylight.
+
+"You're in this game, then, eh, Master Carstairs?" said the captain.
+
+"Well, yes, sir; Penny here took me into his confidence about having
+brought the dog, and of course I could not say a word."
+
+"Humph!  Nice game to have with me, 'pon my word.  You're a pretty
+penny, you are, young man," he added, turning to Jack.  "I ought to toss
+you--overboard."
+
+"I'll pay for Gyp's passage," said Jack coolly.  "I wish you wouldn't
+make such a fuss."
+
+The captain muttered something about double-jointed yard measures, and
+went forward without another word, while Gyp selected a nice warm place
+on the deck, and lay down to bask on his side, but not until he had
+followed Jimmy up the port-side and back along the starboard, sniffing
+his black legs, while that worthy backed from him, holding his waddy
+ready to strike, coming to me afterwards with a look of contempt upon
+his noble savage brow, and with an extra twist to his broad nose, to
+say:
+
+"Jimmy know all a time only big ugly dog.  Not bunyip 'tall."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+HOW WE STOPPED THE BLACKBIRD CATCHERS.
+
+The captain was right, for we made the south coast of New Guinea the
+_very_ next morning, and as I caught sight of the land that I believed
+to be holding my father as in a prison, a strange mingling of pain and
+pleasure filled my breast I looked excitedly and long through the
+doctor's double glass, and he shook hands with me afterwards, as if he
+thoroughly appreciated my feelings in the matter.
+
+It was a lovely morning, with a pleasant breeze blowing, and as we drew
+nearer we made out a vessel very similar in build to our own going in
+the same direction.
+
+"Why, they are for the same port, I should think!"
+
+"I don't know," said the skipper rather oddly.  "We're for a little
+place I know, where the savages are pretty friendly, and I've been
+talking it over with the doctor as to its being a good starting-place
+for you, and he thinks it will be.  There it lies," he said, pointing
+north-east.  "We can soon make it now."
+
+"Looks a nicer place than our land," said Jack Penny, as I stood with
+him gazing wonderingly at the forest and mountain scenery that hour by
+hour grew more clear.  "I think I shall like Noo Guinea."
+
+The day glided on with the look-out growing more and more interesting;
+and at last, when we were pretty near, we could see the other schooner
+had outsailed us, and was within a short distance of a scattered
+collection of huts; while a little crowd of the natives was on the sandy
+beach busily launching their canoes, in which they paddled out towards
+the other vessel.
+
+"I don't like that," said the skipper suddenly, as he was using his
+glass.  "That's bad for us."
+
+"What is?"  I said eagerly.
+
+"That there schooner going before us.  They're blackbird catchers, or
+I'm a Dutchman."
+
+"Blackbird catchers?"  I said.  "Why, I thought there were no blackbirds
+out of Europe."
+
+"Just hark at him," said the captain, turning to the doctor.
+"Blackbirds, boy, why, there's thousands; and it's them varmint who go
+in for the trade of catching 'em as makes the coast unsafe for honest
+men."
+
+"What do you mean?"  I cried, and I became aware of the fact that Jack
+Penny was bending over me like a bamboo.
+
+"Mean, boy? just you take the doctor's little double-barrelled telescope
+and watch and see."
+
+I took the glass and looked intently, watching through it the scene of
+the blacks paddling up to the schooner, and holding up what seemed to be
+fruit and birds for sale.
+
+All at once I saw something fall into one of the canoes, which
+immediately sank, and eight of its occupants were left struggling in the
+water.
+
+To my great relief I saw a small boat rowed round from the other side of
+the little vessel, evidently, as I thought, to go to the help of the
+poor creatures; but, to my horror, I saw that two men stood up in the
+boat, and, as it was rowed, they struck at the swimming men with heavy
+bars, and dragged them one by one into the boat.
+
+I saw four saved like this, and then the boat was rowed rapidly in
+pursuit of the other four, who were swimming as hard as they could, as
+they tried to overtake the canoes, whose occupants were making for the
+shore.
+
+The noise of the shouts reached our ears faintly, and I saw one of the
+men picked up by the last canoe, and the other three were literally
+hunted by the schooner's boat, diving like ducks and trying every feat
+they could think of to avoid capture; but oars beat hands in the water,
+and I saw two of the fugitives struck on the head by a fellow in the
+bows of the boat, and then they were dragged over the side.
+
+There was one more savage in the water, and he swam rapidly and well,
+besides which, he had gained some distance during the time taken up in
+capturing his fellows.  As he had changed his direction somewhat I had a
+better view of the chase, and I felt horrified to see how rapidly the
+boat gained upon him till it was so near that it could be only a matter
+of minutes before he would be worn out and treated in the same way as
+his unfortunate fellows.
+
+At last the boat overtook the poor wretch, but he dived down and it
+passed over him, the blow struck at his head merely making a splash in
+the water, when up he came, his black head just showing above the
+surface, and he struggled in another direction for his liberty.
+
+To add to the excitement of the scene the sandy shore about the huts was
+lined with savages, who were rushing about in a tremendous state of
+excitement, shaking their spears and yelling, but showing plainly that
+they were a very cowardly race, for not one of them made an effort to
+launch a canoe and try to save his brother in distress.
+
+There could be but one end to this cruel tragedy, so I thought; but I
+was wrong.  Again and again the boat overtook the poor fellow, but he
+dived and escaped even though blows were struck at him with a boat-hook;
+but it was evident that he was growing weaker, and that he stayed below
+a shorter time.
+
+All at once, as if the men had become furious at the length of the
+chase, I saw the boat rowed rapidly down upon him; but the savage dived
+once more, evidently went right under the boat, and came up full thirty
+yards astern, swimming now straight for the shore.
+
+Then all at once I saw him throw up his arms and disappear, as if he had
+been snatched under.
+
+"Out of his misery," said a deep voice beside me; and turning I found
+that the captain had been watching the scene through his long glass.
+
+"What do you mean?"  I said.
+
+"Sharks took him down, poor chap," said the captain.  "Sharks is
+ignorant, or they would have grabbed the white fellows instead."
+
+As I still watched the scene, with my brow wet with perspiration, I saw
+the boat make now for the schooner, and quite a dozen canoes put off
+from the shore.
+
+"Lor', what a thing ignorance is, and how far niggers are behind white
+men in pluck!  Why, if these fellows knew what they were about, they
+might easily overhaul that little schooner, take their brothers out of
+her, and give the blackbird catchers such a lesson as they'd never
+remember and never forget, for they'd kill the lot.  There ain't a
+breath o' wind."
+
+"But they will take them, won't they, captain?"  I cried.
+
+"No, my lad, not they.  They'll go and shout and throw a few spears, and
+then go back again; but they'll bear malice, my lad.  All white folks
+who come in ships will be the same to them, and most likely some poor
+innocent boat's crew will be speared, and all on account of the doings
+of these blackbird catchers."
+
+"But what do they do with the poor fellows?"  I cried.
+
+"Reg'larly sell 'em for slaves, though slavery's done away with, my
+boy."
+
+"But will not the blacks rescue their friends?"  I said.
+
+"No, my lad."
+
+"Then we must," I cried excitedly; and Jack Penny threw up his cap and
+cried "Hooray!"  Gyp started to his feet and barked furiously, and Jimmy
+leaped in the air, came down in a squatting position, striking the deck
+a tremendous blow with his waddy, and shouting "Hi--wup, wup--wup," in
+an increasing yell.
+
+The captain, hardened by familiarity with such scenes, laid his hand
+upon my shoulder, and smiled at me kindly as he shook his head.
+
+"No, no, my lad, that would not do."
+
+"Not do!"  I cried, burning with indignation.  "Are we to stand by and
+see such cruelties practised?"
+
+"Yes, my lad; law says we musn't interfere.  It's the law's job to put
+it down; but it's very slow sometimes."
+
+"But very sure, captain," said the doctor quietly.  "And when it does
+move it is crushing to evil-doers.  The captain is quite right, Joe, my
+boy," he continued, turning to me.  "We must not stir in this case.
+I've heard of such atrocities before, but did not know that they were so
+common."
+
+"Common as blackguards," said the captain, "It's regular slavery.
+There, what did I tell you, my lad?" he continued, as he pointed to the
+canoes, which were returning after making a demonstration.  "These poor
+blacks are afraid of the guns.  It's all over--unless--"
+
+He stopped short, scratching his head, and staring first at the schooner
+and then at us in turn.
+
+"Unless what, captain?"  I said excitedly.
+
+"Here, let's do a bit o' bounce for once in our lives," said the bluff
+old fellow.  "Get out your revolvers and shooting-tackle, and let's see
+if we can't frighten the beggars.  Only mind, doctor, and you too, my
+young bantam, our weapons is only for show.  No firing, mind; but if we
+can bully those chaps into giving up their blackbirds, why we will."
+
+The boat was lowered, and with a goodly display of what Jack Penny
+called dangerous ironmongery, we started with three men, but not until
+the captain had seen that the Malay was safely secured.  Then we
+started, and the people aboard the other schooner were so busy with
+their captives that we got alongside, and the captain, Doctor Grant, and
+I had climbed on deck before a red-faced fellow with a violently
+inflamed nose came up to us, and, with an oath, asked what we wanted
+there.
+
+"Here, you speak," whispered the captain to Doctor Grant.  "I'm riled,
+and I shall be only using more bad language than is good for these
+youngsters to hear.  Give it to him pretty warm, though, all the same,
+doctor."
+
+"D'yer hear?" said the red-faced fellow again.  "What do you want here?"
+
+"Those poor wretches, you slave-dealing ruffian," cried the doctor, who
+looked quite white as he drew himself up and seemed to tower over the
+captain of the other schooner, who took a step back in astonishment, but
+recovered himself directly and advanced menacingly.
+
+"Come for them, have you, eh?" he roared; "then you'll go without 'em.
+Here, over you go; off my ship, you--"
+
+The scoundrel did not finish his speech, for as he spoke he clapped a
+great rough hairy paw on the doctor's shoulder, and then our friend
+seemed to shrink back at the contact; but it was only to gather force,
+like a wave, for, somehow, just then his fist seemed to dart out, and
+the ruffianly captain staggered back and then fell heavily on the deck.
+
+Half a dozen men sprang forward at this, but Doctor Grant did not
+flinch, he merely took out his revolver and examined its lock, saying:
+
+"Will you have these poor fellows got into our boat, captain?"
+
+"Ay, ay, doctor," cried our skipper; and the slave-dealing crew shrank
+back and stared as we busily handed down the blackbirds, as the captain
+kept on calling them.
+
+Poor creatures, they were still half-stunned and two of them were
+bleeding, and it must have seemed to then? that they were being tossed
+out of the frying-pan into the fire, and that we were going to carry on
+the villainy that our ruffianly countrymen had commenced.  In fact had
+we not taken care, and even used force, they would have jumped overboard
+when we had them packed closely in.
+
+"Here, shove off!" the captain said, as we were once more in our boat;
+and just then the leader of the ruffians staggered to his feet and
+leaned over the side.
+
+"I'll have the law of you for this," he yelled.  "This is piracy."
+
+"To be sure it is," said our captain; "we're going to hyste the black
+flag as soon as we get back, and run out our guns.  Come on, my
+red-nosed old cocky-wax, and we'll have a naval engagement, and sink
+you."
+
+He nudged me horribly hard with his elbow at this point, and turning his
+back on the schooner winked at me, and chuckled and rumbled as if he
+were laughing heartily to himself in secret; but he spoke again directly
+quite seriously.
+
+"I haven't got no boys of my own," he said, "but if I had, I should say
+this was a sort o' lesson to you to always have right on your side.
+It's again' the law, but it's right all the same.  See how we carried
+all before us, eh, my lads!  The doctor's fist was as good as half a
+dozen guns, and regularly settled the matter at once."
+
+"Then we may set these poor fellows free now?"  I said.
+
+"Well, I shouldn't like to be one of them as did it," said the captain
+drily.  "Look at the shore."
+
+I glanced in that direction and saw that it was crowded with blacks, all
+armed with spears and war-clubs, which they were brandishing excitedly.
+
+"They wouldn't know friends from foes," said the doctor quietly.  "No;
+we must wait."
+
+I saw the reason for these remarks; and as soon as we had reached the
+side of the schooner and got our captives on board I attended the doctor
+while he busied himself bandaging and strapping cuts, the blacks staring
+at him wondering, and then at Jimmy, who looked the reverse of friendly,
+gazing down at the prisoners scornfully, and telling Jack Penny in
+confidence that he did not think much of common sort black fellow.
+
+"Jimmy xiv all o' men waddy spear if try to kedge Jimmy," he said,
+drawing himself up and showing his teeth.  "No kedge Jimmy.  Killer um
+all."
+
+It was hard work to get the poor prisoners to understand that we meant
+well by them.
+
+"You see they think you're having 'em patched up," said Jack Penny, "so
+as they'll sell better.  I say, Joe Carstairs, give your black fellow a
+topper with his waddy; he's making faces at that chap, and pretending to
+cut off his legs."
+
+"Here, you be quiet, Jimmy, or I'll send you below," I said sharply; and
+as I went to the breaker to get a pannikin of water for one of the men,
+Jimmy stuck his hands behind him, pointed his nose in the air, and
+walked forward with such a display of offended dignity that Jack Penny
+doubled up, putting his head between his knees and pinning it firm,
+while he laughed in throes, each of which sent a spasm through his
+loose-jointed body.
+
+The black to whom I took the water looked at me in a frightened way, and
+shook his head.
+
+"He thinks it is poisoned, Joe," said the doctor quietly; and I
+immediately drank some, when the prisoner took the pannikin and drank
+with avidity, his companions then turning their eager eyes on me.
+
+"It is the feverish thirst produced by injuries," said the doctor; and
+as I filled the pannikin again and again, the poor wretches uttered a
+low sigh of satisfaction.
+
+The schooner lay where we had left it, and all seemed to be very quiet
+on board, but no movement was made of an offensive nature; and the day
+glided by till towards sundown, when there was less excitement visible
+on the shore.  Then the captain ordered the boat to be lowered on the
+side away from the land, while he proceeded to sweep the shore with his
+glass.
+
+"I think we might land 'em now, doctor," he said, "and get back without
+any jobs for you."
+
+"Yes, they seem pretty quiet now," said the doctor, who had also been
+scanning the shore; "but there are a great many people about."
+
+"They won't see us," said the captain.  "Now, my blackbirds, I'm not
+going to clip your wings or pull out your tails.  Into the boat with
+you.  I'll set you ashore."
+
+For the first time the poor fellows seemed to comprehend that they were
+to be set at liberty, and for a few minutes their joy knew no bounds;
+and it was only by running off that I was able to escape from some of
+their demonstrations of gratitude.
+
+"No, my lad," said the captain in response to my demand to go with him.
+"I'll set the poor chaps ashore, and we shall be quite heavy enough
+going through the surf.  You can take command while I'm gone," he added,
+laughing; "and mind no one steals the anchor."
+
+I felt annoyed at the captain's bantering tone, but I said nothing; and
+just at sunset the boat pushed off quietly with its black freight, the
+poor fellows looking beside themselves with joy.
+
+"I say, skipper," said the captain laughingly to me, "mind that Malay
+chap don't get out; and look here, it will be dark directly, hyste a
+light for me to find my way back."
+
+I nodded shortly, and stood with Jack Penny and the doctor watching the
+boat till it seemed to be swallowed up in the thick darkness that was
+gathering round, and the doctor left Jack Penny and me alone.
+
+"I say," said Jack, who was leaning on the bulwarks, with his body at
+right angles; "I say, Joe Carstairs, I've been thinking what a game it
+would be if the captain never came back."
+
+"What!"  I cried.
+
+"You and I could take the ship and go where we like."
+
+"And how about the doctor?"  I said scornfully.
+
+"Ah!" he drawled, "I forgot about the doctor.  That's a pity.  I wish
+he'd gone ashore too."
+
+I did not answer, for it did not suit my ideas at all.  The adventure I
+had on hand filled my mind, and I felt annoyed by my companion's foolish
+remark.
+
+We had tea, and were sitting with the doctor chatting on deck, after
+vainly trying to pierce the darkness with our eyes or to hear some
+sound, when all at once the doctor spoke:
+
+"Time they were back," he said.  "I say, Skipper Carstairs, have you
+hoisted your light?"
+
+"Light!"  I said excitedly.  "What's that?" for just then a bright red
+glow arose to our right in the direction of the shore.
+
+"They're a making a bonfire," said Jack Penny slowly.
+
+"Or burning a village," said the doctor.
+
+"No, no," I cried; "it's that schooner on fire!"
+
+"You're right, Joe," said the doctor excitedly.  "Why, the savages must
+have gone off and done this, and--yes, look, you can see the canoes."
+
+"Here, I say, don't!" cried Jack Penny then, his voice sounding curious
+from out of the darkness; and the same moment there was a rush, a
+tremendous scuffle, Jimmy yelled out something in his own tongue, and
+then lastly there were two or three heavy falls; and in a misty,
+stupefied way I knew that we had been boarded by the savages and made
+prisoners, on account of the outrage committed by the other captain.
+
+What followed seems quite dream-like; but I have some recollection of
+being bundled down into a boat, and then afterwards dragged out over the
+sand and hurried somewhere, with savages yelling and shouting about me,
+after which I was thrown down, and lay on the ground in great pain, half
+sleeping, half waking, and in a confused muddle of thought in which I
+seemed to see my father looking at me reproachfully for not coming to
+his help, while all the time I was so bound that I could not move a
+step.
+
+At last I must have dropped into a heavy sleep, for the next thing I saw
+was the bright sunshine streaming into the hut where I lay, and a crowd
+of blacks with large frizzed heads of hair chattering about me, every
+man being armed with spear and club, while the buzz of voices plainly
+told that there was a throng waiting outside.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+HOW I RAN FROM THE WHITEBIRD CATCHERS.
+
+Yes, I may as well own to it: I was terribly frightened, but my first
+thoughts were as to what had become of my companions.  Jack Penny and
+the doctor must have been seized at the same time as I.  Jimmy might
+have managed to escape.  Perhaps his black skin would make him be looked
+upon as a friend.  But the old captain, what about him?  He would return
+to the schooner with his men and be seized, and knocked on the head for
+certain.  The fierce resistance he would make certainly would cause his
+death, and I shuddered at the thought.
+
+Then I began to think of my mother and father, how I should have failed
+in helping them; and I remember thinking what a good job it was that my
+mother would never know exactly what had happened to me.  Better the
+long anxiety, I thought, of watching and waiting for my return than to
+know I had been killed like this.
+
+"But I'm not killed yet," I thought, as the blood flushed to my face.
+"I'll have a run for it, if I can."
+
+I had not much time given me to think, for I was dragged to my feet, and
+out into a large open place where there were huts and trees, and there
+before me lay the sea with our schooner, but the other was gone; and as
+I recalled the fire of the previous night I knew that she must have been
+burned to the water's edge and then sunk.
+
+I began wondering about what must have been the fate of the other
+schooner's crew, and somehow it seemed that they deserved it.  Then I
+began thinking of my own friends, and then, very selfishly no doubt,
+about myself.
+
+But I had little time for thought, being hurried along and placed in the
+middle of a crowd of the savages, all of whom seemed to be rolling their
+eyes and looking at me as if enjoying my position.
+
+"Well," I thought to myself, "it is enough to scare anybody; but I'll
+try and let them see that I belong to a superior race, and will not show
+what I feel."
+
+My eyes kept wandering about eagerly, first to look where my companions
+were placed, but as I saw no sign of them I began to hope that they
+might have escaped; secondly, to see which would be the best course to
+take if I ran for my life.  For I could run, and pretty swiftly, then.
+The hardy life I had led out in the bush, with Jimmy for my companion,
+had made me light of foot and tolerably enduring.
+
+But for some little time I saw not the slightest chance of escape.
+There were too many savages close about me, and they must have divined
+my ideas, for they kept a watchful eye upon every act.
+
+At first I had felt numbed and cold.  My legs and arms ached, and when
+the blacks took off the rope that they had bound about my limbs every
+nerve seemed to throb and burn; but by degrees this passed off, and to
+my great joy I felt more myself.
+
+At last, after a great deal of incomprehensible chatter, it seemed that
+a decision had been come to about me, and a tall black armed with a
+war-club came dancing up to me, swinging his weapon about, chattering
+wildly, and after a few feints he made a blow at my head.
+
+If that blow had taken effect I should not have been able to tell this
+story.  But I had been too much with my friend Jimmy not to be well upon
+the alert.  We had often played together--he like a big boy--in mimic
+fight, when he had pretended to spear me, and taught me how to catch the
+spear on a shield, and to avoid blows made with waddies.  Jimmy's
+lessons were not thrown away.  I could avoid a thrown spear, though
+helpless, like the black, against bullets, which he said came "too much
+faster faster to top."  And as the savage made the blow at me I followed
+out Jimmy's tactics, threw myself forward, striking the wretch right in
+the chest with my head, driving him backward, and leaping over him I ran
+for my life, making straight for the forest.
+
+"It's all because of those wretches in the other schooner yesterday," I
+thought, as I ran swiftly on with a pack of the enemy shouting in my
+rear; and though I could run very fast, I found, to my horror, that my
+pursuers were as swift of foot, and that though I was close upon the
+forest it was all so open that they would be able to see me easily, and
+once caught I knew now what was to be my fate.
+
+I began thinking of the hunted hare, as I ran on, casting glances behind
+me from time to time, and seeing that though some of my pursuers lagged,
+there were four who were pretty close upon my heels, one of whom hurled
+his spear at me, which came whizzing past my ear so closely that it
+lightly touched my shoulder, making me leap forward as if struck by the
+weapon.
+
+I was panting heavily, and a choking sensation came upon me, but I raced
+on, since it was for life.
+
+How long the pursuit lasted I cannot tell.  Perhaps a minute.  It seemed
+half an hour.  Twice I leaped aside to avoid blows aimed at me, and each
+time ran blindly in a fresh direction; but all at once the idea occurred
+to me in a flash that in my unnerved stupefied position I must have been
+going backward and struck my head violently against a tree, for it
+seemed as if there was a violent shock like thunder with a flash of
+lightning to dazzle my eyes, and then there was nothing at all.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+HOW I WAS NOT MADE INTO PIE.
+
+When I came to, it was as if all the past was a dream, for I heard
+voices I knew, and lay listening to them talking in a low tone, till,
+opening my eyes, I found I was close to the doctor, the captain, Jimmy,
+and the sailors, while Jack Penny was sitting holding my hand.
+
+"What cheer, my hearty?" said the captain, making an effort to come to
+me; but I then became aware of the fact that we were surrounded by
+savages, for one great fellow struck the captain on the arm with his
+club, and in retort the skipper gave him a kick which sent him on his
+back.
+
+There was a loud yell at this, and what seemed to threaten to be a
+general onslaught.  My friends all prepared for their defence, and Jimmy
+took the initiative by striking out wildly, when half a dozen blacks
+dashed at him, got him down, and one was foolish enough to sit upon his
+head, but only to bound up directly with a shriek, for poor Jimmy, being
+held down as to arms and legs, made use of the very sharp teeth with
+which nature had endowed him.
+
+We should have been killed at once, no doubt, had not one tall black
+shouted out something, and then begun talking loudly to the excited mob,
+who listened to him angrily, it seemed to me; but I was so dull and
+confused from the blow I had received upon my head that all seemed misty
+and strange, and once I found myself thinking, as my head ached
+frightfully, that they might just as well kill us at once, and not
+torture us by keeping us in suspense.
+
+The talking went on, and whenever the tall chief stopped for a moment
+the blacks all set up a yell, and danced about brandishing their spears
+and clubs, showing their teeth, rolling their eyes, and behaving--just
+like savages.  But still we were not harmed, only watched carefully,
+Jimmy alone being held, though I could see that at a movement on our
+part we should have been beaten to death or thrust through.
+
+At last, after an interminable speech, the big chief seemed to grow
+hoarse, and the blacks' yells were quicker and louder.
+
+Then there was a terrible pause, and a dozen sturdy blacks sprang
+towards us as regularly as if they had been drilled, each man holding a
+spear, and I felt that the end had come.
+
+I was too stupid with my hurt to do more than stare helplessly round,
+seeing the bright sunshine, the glittering sea, and the beautiful waving
+trees.  Then my head began to throb, and felt as if hot irons were being
+thrust through it.
+
+I closed my eyes, the agony was so great; and then I opened them again,
+for all the savages were yelling and clapping their hands.  Two men had
+seized me, and one of them had his head bandaged, and in a misty way I
+recognised him as one of the poor wretches to whom I had given water.
+He and the others, who were easily known by the doctor's patches of
+sticking-plaster, were talking with all their might; and then all the
+blacks began yelling and dancing about, brandishing their spears and
+clubs, frantic apparently with the effect of the injured men's words.
+
+"They ar'n't going to kill us, my lad," said the captain then; "and look
+ye there, they are going to feast the doctor."
+
+For the latter was regularly hustled off from among us by a party of
+blacks, led by two of the sticking-plastered fellows, while two others
+squatted down smiling at us and rubbing their chests.
+
+"Are we to be spared, then?"  I said.
+
+"Spared?  Well, I don't know, my lad," said the captain.  "They won't be
+so ungrateful as to kill us, now these blacks set ashore have turned up
+and told 'em what sort of chaps we are; but I don't think they'll free
+us.  They'll keep us here and make the doctor a physic chief.  Eh! go
+there?  All right; I can understand your fingers better than your
+tongue, my lad.  Come on, all of you."
+
+This last was in response to the gesticulations of the injured men who
+were with us, and soon after, we were all settled down in a very large
+open hut, eating fruit and drinking water, every drop of which seemed to
+me more delicious than anything I had ever tasted before.
+
+A curious kind of drink was also given to us, but I did not care for it,
+and turned to the water again; while the doctor set to work to dress and
+strap up my injury as well as he could for the pressure of the people,
+who were wonderfully interested in it all, and then gathered round the
+doctor's other patients, examining their injuries, and listening to the
+account of the surgical treatment, which was evidently related to them
+again and again.
+
+"Well, this is different to what you expected; isn't it, squire?" said
+the captain to me the first time he could find an opportunity to speak.
+"I was beginning to feel precious glad that I shouldn't have a chance to
+get back and meet your mother after what she said to me."
+
+"Then you think we are safe now?" said the doctor.
+
+"Safe!" said the captain; "more than safe, unless some of 'em, being a
+bit cannibal like, should be tempted by the pleasant plumpness of Mr
+Jack Penny here, and want to cook and eat him."
+
+"Get out!" drawled Jack.  "I know what you mean.  I can't help being
+tall and thin."
+
+"Not you, my lad," said the captain good-humouredly.  "Never mind your
+looks so long as your 'art's in the right place.  We're safe enough,
+doctor, and I should say that nothing better could have happened.
+Niggers is only niggers; but treat 'em well and they ain't so very bad.
+You let young Squire Carstairs here ask the chief, and he'll go with
+you, and take half his people, to try and find the professor; ah, and
+fight for you too, like trumps."
+
+"Do you think so?"  I said.
+
+"Think!  I'm sure of it; and I'm all right now.  They'll be glad to see
+me and trade with me.  I'm glad you made me set those chaps free."
+
+"And what has become of the crew of the other schooner?"  I said
+anxiously.
+
+"Nobbled," said the captain; "and sarve 'em right.  Tit for tat; that's
+all.  Men who plays at those games must expect to lose sometimes.
+They've lost--heavy.  Change the subject; it's making young Six-foot
+Rule stare, and you look as white as if you were going to be served the
+same.  Where's the doctor?"
+
+"He said he was going to see to the injured men," I replied.
+
+"Come and let's look how he's getting on," said the captain.  "It's all
+right now; no one will interfere with us more than mobbing a bit,
+because we're curiosities.  Come on."
+
+I followed the captain, the blacks giving way, but following us closely,
+and then crowding close up to the door of the great tent where the
+doctor was very busy repairing damages, as he called it, clipping away
+woolly locks, strapping up again and finishing off dressings that he had
+roughly commenced on board.
+
+During the next few days we were the honoured guests of the savages,
+going where we pleased, and having everything that the place produced.
+The captain moored his vessel in a snug anchorage, and drove a roaring
+trade bartering the stores he had brought for shells, feathers,
+bird-skins, and other productions of the island.
+
+Gyp was brought on shore, and went suspiciously about the place with his
+head close up to his master's long thin legs, for though he had
+tolerated and was very good friends with Jimmy, he would not have any
+dealings with the New Guinea folk.  It did not seem to be the black
+skins or their general habits; but Jack Penny declared that it was their
+gummed-out moppy heads, these seeming to irritate the dog, so that,
+being a particularly well-taught animal, he seemed to find it necessary
+to control his feelings and keep away from the savages, lest he should
+find himself constrained to bite.  The consequence was that, as I have
+said, he used to go about with his head close to his master's legs,
+often turning his back on the people about him; while I have known him
+sometimes take refuge with me, and thrust his nose right into my hand,
+as if he wished to make it a muzzle to keep him from dashing at some
+chief.
+
+"I hope he won't grab hold of any of 'em," Jack Penny said to me one day
+in his deliberate fashion; "because if he does take hold it's such a
+hard job to make him let go again.  And I say, Joe Carstairs, if ever
+he's by you and these niggers begin to jump about, you lay hold of him
+and get him away."
+
+"Why?"  I said.
+
+"Well, you see," drawled Jack, "Gyp ain't a human being."
+
+"I know that," I replied.
+
+"Yes, I s'pose so," said Jack.  "Gyp's wonderfully clever, and he thinks
+a deal; but just now, I know as well as can be, he's in a sort of doubt.
+He thinks these blacks are a kind of kangaroos, but he isn't sure.  If
+they begin to jump about, that will settle it, and he'll go at 'em and
+get speared; and if any one sticks a spear into Gyp, there's going to be
+about the biggest row there ever was.  That one the other day won't be
+anything to it."
+
+"Then I shall do all I can to keep Gyp quiet," I said, smiling at Jack's
+serious way of speaking what he must have known was nonsense.  After
+that I went out of the hut, where Jack Penny was doing what the captain
+called straightening his back--that is to say, lying down gazing up at
+the palm-thatched rafters, a very favourite position of his--and joined
+some of the blacks, employing my time in trying to pick up bits and
+scraps of their language, so as to be able to make my way about among
+the people when we were left alone.
+
+I found the doctor was also trying hard to master the tongue; and at the
+same time we attempted to make the chiefs understand the object of our
+visit, but it was labour in vain.  The blacks were thoroughly puzzled,
+and I think our way of pointing at ourselves and then away into the bush
+only made them think that we wanted fruit or birds.
+
+The time sped on, while the captain was carrying on his trade, the
+blacks daily returning from the ship with common knives, and hatchets,
+and brass wire, the latter being a favourite thing for which they
+eagerly gave valuable skins.  My wound rapidly healed, and I was eager
+to proceed up the country, our intention being to go from village to
+village searching until we discovered the lost man.
+
+"And I don't know what to say to it," said the captain just before
+parting.  "I'm afraid you'll get to some village and then stop, for the
+blacks won't let you go on; but I tell you what: I shall be always
+trading backwards and forwards for the next two years, and I shall coast
+about looking up fresh places so as to be handy if you want a bit of
+help; and I can't say fairer than that, can I, doctor?"
+
+"If you will keep about the coast all you can," said the doctor, "and be
+ready, should we want them, to supply us with powder and odds and ends
+to replenish our stores, you will be doing us inestimable service.
+Whenever we go to a coast village we shall leave some sign of our having
+been there--a few words chalked on a tree, or a hut, something to tell
+you that English people have passed that way."
+
+"All right, and I shall do something of the kind," said the captain.
+"And, look here, I should make this village a sort of randy-voo if I was
+you, for you'll always be safe with these people."
+
+"Yes; this shall be headquarters," said the doctor.  "Eh, Joe?"
+
+I nodded.
+
+"And now there's one more thing," said the captain.  "Six-foot Rule; I
+suppose I'm to take him back?"
+
+"If you mean me," drawled Jack Penny, entering the hut with Gyp, "no,
+you mustn't take him back, for I ain't going.  If Joe Carstairs don't
+want me, I don't want him.  The country's as free for one as t'other,
+and I'm going to have a look round along with Gyp."
+
+"But really, my dear fellow," said the doctor, "I think you had better
+give up this idea."
+
+"Didn't know you could tell what's best here," said Jack stoutly.
+"'Tain't a physicky thing."
+
+"But it will be dangerous, Jack.  You see we have run great risks
+already," I said, for now the time for the captain's departure had
+arrived, and it seemed a suitable occasion for bringing Jack to his
+senses.
+
+"Well, who said it wouldn't be dangerous?" he said sulkily.  "Gyp and me
+ain't no more afraid than you are."
+
+"Of course not," I said.
+
+"'Tain't no more dangerous for me and a big dog than it is for you and
+your black fellow.  I don't want to come along with you, I tell you, if
+you don't want me."
+
+"My dear Jack," I said, "I should be glad of your company, only I'm
+horrified at the idea of your running risks for your own sake.  Suppose
+anything should happen to you, what then?"
+
+Jack straightened up his long loppetty body, and looked himself all over
+in a curious depreciatory fashion, and then said in a half melancholy,
+half laughing manner:
+
+"Well, if something did happen, it wouldn't spoil me; and if I was
+killed nobody wouldn't care.  Anyhow I sha'n't go back with the
+captain."
+
+"Nonsense, my lad!" said the latter kindly.  "I was a bit rough when I
+found you'd stowed yourself on board, but that was only my way.  You
+come back along with me: you're welcome as welcome, and we sha'n't never
+be bad friends again."
+
+"Would you take Gyp too?" said Jack.
+
+"What! the dog?  Ay, that I would; wouldn't I, old fellow?" said the
+captain; and Gyp got up slowly, gave his tail a couple of wags slowly
+and deliberately, as his master might have moved, and ended by laying
+his head upon the captain's knee.
+
+"Thank'ye, captain," said Jack, nodding in a satisfied way, "and some
+day I'll ask you to take me back, but I'm going to find Joe Carstairs'
+father first; and if they won't have me along with them, I dessay I
+shall go without 'em, and do it myself."
+
+The end of it all was that we shook hands most heartily with the captain
+next day; and that evening as the doctor, Jack Penny, Jimmy, Gyp, and I
+stood on the beach, we could see the schooner rounding a point of the
+great island, with the great red ball of fire--the sun--turning her
+sails into gold, till the darkness came down suddenly, as it does in
+these parts; and then, though there was the loud buzzing of hundreds of
+voices about the huts, we English folk seemed to feel that we were alone
+as it were, and cut off from all the world, while for the first time, as
+I lay down to sleep that night listening to the low boom of the water,
+the immensity, so to speak, of my venture seemed to strike me, giving me
+a chill of dread.  This had not passed off when I woke up at daybreak
+next morning, to find it raining heavily, and everything looking as
+doleful and depressing as a strange place will look at such a time as
+this.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+HOW WE SAW STRANGE THINGS.
+
+"You rascal!"  I exclaimed; "how dare you!  Here, doctor, what is to be
+done?  How am I to punish him?"
+
+"Send him back," said the doctor; "or, no: we'll leave him here at the
+village."
+
+Jimmy leaped up from where he had been squirming, as Jack Penny called
+it, on the ground, and began to bound about, brandishing his waddy, and
+killing nothing with blows on the head.
+
+"No, no," he shouted, "no send Jimmy back.  Mass Joe leave Jimmy--Jimmy
+kill all a black fellow dead."
+
+"Now look here, sir," I said, seizing him by the ear and bringing him to
+his knees, proceedings which, big strong fellow as he was, he submitted
+to with the greatest of humility, "I'm not going to have you spoil our
+journey by any of your wild pranks; if ever you touch one of the people
+again, back you go to the station to eat damper and mutton and mind
+sheep."
+
+"Jimmy no go back mind sheep; set gin mind sheep.  Jimmy go long Mass
+Joe."
+
+"Then behave yourself," I cried, letting him rise; and he jumped to his
+feet with the satisfaction of a forgiven child.  In fact it always
+seemed to me that the black fellows of Australia, when they had grown
+up, were about as old in brains as an English boy of nine or ten.
+
+That morning we had made our start after days of preparation, and the
+chiefs of the village with a party of warriors came to see us part of
+the way, those who stayed behind with the women and children joining in
+a kind of yell to show their sorrow at our departure.  The chief had
+offered half-a-dozen of his people for guides, and we might have had
+fifty; but six seemed plenty for our purpose, since, as the doctor said,
+we must work by diplomacy and not by force.
+
+So this bright morning we had started in high spirits and full of
+excitement, the great band of glistening-skinned blacks had parted from
+us, and our journey seemed now to have fairly begun, as we plunged
+directly into the forest, the six men with us acting as bearers.
+
+We had not gone far before our difficulties began, through the behaviour
+of Jimmy, who, on the strength of his knowledge of English, his
+connection with the white men, and above all the possession of clothes,
+which, for comfort's sake, he had once more confined to a pair of old
+trousers whose legs were cut off at mid-thigh, had begun to display his
+conceit and superiority, in his own estimation, over the black bearers
+by strutting along beside them, frowning and poking at them with his
+spear.  At last he went so far as to strike one fine tall fellow over
+the shoulders, with the result that the New Guinea man threw down his
+load, the others followed suit, and all made rapid preparations for a
+fight.
+
+Humble as he was with me, I must do Jimmy the credit of saying that he
+did not turn tail, but threw himself into an attitude as if about to
+hurl his spear; and blood would undoubtedly have been shed had I not
+taken it upon myself to interfere, to the great satisfaction of our
+bearers.
+
+Order then was restored, the loads were resumed, and Jimmy, who did not
+seem in the slightest degree abashed by being degraded before the men he
+had ill-treated, strutted on, and the journey was continued, everyone on
+the look-out for dangerous beast or savage man.
+
+The doctor and I carried revolvers and double-barrelled guns, one barrel
+being charged with ball.  Jack Penny was delighted by being similarly
+furnished; and in addition he asked for an axe, which he carried stuck
+in his belt.
+
+We were each provided with a similar weapon, ready to hand at times to
+the blacks, who were always ready to set down their burdens and make
+short work of the wild vines and growth that often impeded our path.
+
+We had determined--I say we, for from the moment of starting the doctor
+had begun to treat me as his equal in every sense, and consulted me on
+every step we took; all of which was very pleasant and flattering to me;
+but I often felt as if I would rather be dependent upon him--we had then
+determined to strike into the country until we reached the banks of a
+great river, whose course we meant to follow right up to the sources in
+the mountains.
+
+There were good reasons for this, as a moment's thought will show.
+
+To begin with, we were in a land of no roads, and most of our journey
+would be through dense forest, whereas there was likely to be a certain
+amount of open country about the river banks.
+
+Then we were always sure of a supply of water; game is always most
+abundant, both birds and beasts, near a river, and, of course, there is
+always a chance of getting fish; fruit might also be found, and what was
+more, the villages of the natives not upon the coast are nearly always
+upon the rivers.
+
+Of course, on the other hand, there were plenty of dangers to be risked
+by following a river's course: fever, noxious beast and insect, inimical
+natives, and the like; but if we had paused to think of the dangers, we
+might very well have shrunk from our task, so we put thoughts of that
+kind behind us and journeyed on.
+
+At first, after getting through a dense patch of forest, we came upon
+open plains, and a part of the country that looked like a park; and as I
+trudged on with fresh objects of interest springing up at every turn, I
+found myself wondering whether my poor father had passed this way, and
+as I grew weary I began to take the most desponding views of the
+venture, and to think that, after all, perhaps he was dead.
+
+That we were in a part not much troubled by human beings we soon found
+by the tameness of the birds and the number of deer that dashed
+frightened away from time to time, hardly giving us a glimpse of their
+dappled skins before they were lost in the jungly growth.
+
+The walking had grown more difficult as the day wore on, and at last the
+great trees began to give place to vegetation of a different kind.
+Instead of timber we were walking amongst palm-like growth and plants
+with enormous succulent leaves.  Great climbers twined and twisted one
+with another, unless they found some tree up which they seemed to force
+their way to reach the open sunshine, forming a splendid shelter from
+the ardent rays when we wished to rest.
+
+There was no attempt during the morning to make use of our guns, for at
+first we moved watchfully, always on the look-out for enemies, seeing
+danger in every moving leaf, and starting at every rustling dash made by
+some frightened animal that crossed our path.
+
+By degrees, though, we grew more confident, but still kept up our
+watchfulness, halting at mid-day beside a little clear stream in a spot
+so lovely that it struck me as being a shame that no one had a home
+there to revel in its beauties.
+
+The water ran bubbling along amongst mossy rocks, and overhung by
+gigantic ferns.  There were patches of the greenest grass, and close by,
+offering us shade, was a clump of large trees whose branches strewed
+brightly coloured flowers to the earth.  A flock of gorgeously plumaged
+birds were noisily chattering and shrieking in the branches, and though
+they fled on our first coming, they came back directly and began
+climbing and swinging about so near that I could see that they were a
+small kind of parrot, full of strange antics, and apparently playing at
+searching for their food.
+
+"We'll have two hours' rest here," said the doctor, "a good meal, and
+perhaps a nap, and our feet bathed in the cool water, and the rest of
+the day's journey will come easier."
+
+"But hadn't we better get on?"  I said anxiously.
+
+"`Slow and sure' must be our motto, Joe," said the doctor.  "We have
+hundreds of miles to tramp, so we must not begin by knocking ourselves
+up.  Patience, my boy, patience and we shall win."
+
+As soon as he saw that we were going to stop for rest and refreshment,
+Jimmy began to rub the centre of his person and make a rush for the
+native basket that contained our food, from which he had to be driven;
+for though generally, quite unlike many of his fellow-countrymen, Jimmy
+was scrupulously honest, he could not be trusted near food.
+
+There was no stopping to lay the cloth and arrange knives and forks.  We
+each drew our heavy knife, and filled the cup of our little canteen from
+the stream before setting to at a large cold bird that we had brought
+with us, one shot by the doctor the day before, and cooked ready for the
+expedition.  I cannot give you its name, only tell you that it was as
+big as a turkey, and had a beautiful crest of purple and green.
+
+We had brought plenty of damper too, a preparation of flour that, I dare
+say, I need not stop to describe, as every one now must know that in
+Australia it takes the place of ordinary bread.
+
+The native carriers were well provided for, and my depression passed off
+as the restful contented feeling induced by a good meal came over me.
+As for Jack Penny, he spread himself out along the ground, resting his
+thin body, and went on eating with his eyes half shut; while Gyp, his
+dog, came close alongside him, and sat respectfully waiting till his
+master balanced a bone across his nose, which Gyp tossed in the air,
+caught between his jaws, and then there was a loud crunching noise for a
+few minutes, and the dog was waiting again.
+
+Jimmy was eating away steadily and well, as if he felt it to be his
+bounden duty to carry as much of the store of food neatly packed away
+inside him as it was possible to stow, when he suddenly caught sight of
+Gyp, and stopped short with his mouth open and a serious investigating
+look in his eyes.
+
+He saw the dog supplied twice with what he evidently looked upon as
+dainty bits, and a broad smile came over his countenance.  Then he
+looked annoyed and disappointed, and as if jealous of the favour shown
+to the beast.
+
+The result was that he left the spot where he had been lying half-way
+between us and the carriers, went to the stream, where he lay flat down
+with his lips in the water, and drank, and then came quietly up to my
+side, where he squatted down in as near an imitation of Gyp as he could
+assume, pouting out his lips and nose and waiting for a bone.
+
+The doctor burst out laughing, while I could not tell whether to set it
+down to artfulness or to simple animal nature on the poor fellow's part.
+
+However, I was too English at heart to lower my follower, so I did not
+treat him like a dog, but hacked off a good bone and sent him to his
+place.
+
+We thoroughly enjoyed our meal, and, as the doctor said, somewhat
+lightened our loads, when all at once it seemed to me that a spasm ran
+through Jack Penny where he lay.  Then, as I watched him, I saw his hand
+stealing towards his gun, and he looked at me and pointed towards where
+a dense patch of big trees formed a sort of buttress to the great green
+wall of the forest.
+
+For a few moments I could see nothing; then I started, and my hand also
+went towards my piece, for peering round the trunk of one of the trees,
+and evidently watching us, was one of the most hideous-looking faces I
+had ever seen.  The eyes were bright and overhung by dark wrinkled
+brows, and, seen in the half light, the head seemed as large as that of
+a man.  In fact I was convinced that it was some fierce savage playing
+the spy upon our actions.
+
+I felt better when I had fast hold of my gun--not that I meant to fire,
+only to protect myself--and I was reaching out a foot to awaken the
+doctor, who had thrown himself back with his hat over his face, when I
+found that Gyp had caught sight of the hideous countenance, and, with a
+fierce bay, he dashed at the creature.
+
+Jack Penny and I started to our feet, Jimmy went after the dog, waddy in
+hand, and his yell awakened the doctor, who also sprang to his feet just
+in time to see the creature leap up at a pendent branch, swing itself up
+in the tree, and disappear amongst the thick leafage, while Gyp barked
+furiously below.
+
+"Big monkey that, my lads," said the doctor.  "I did not know we should
+see anything so large."
+
+Jack Penny was all eagerness to follow and get a shot at the animal; but
+though he looked in all directions, and Gyp kept baying first at the
+foot of one tree then at the foot of another, he did not see it again.
+Where it went it was impossible to say; perhaps it travelled along the
+upper branches, swinging itself from bough to bough by its long arms;
+but if it did, it was all so silently that not so much as a leaf
+rustled, and we were all at fault.
+
+I was not sorry, for the idea of shooting anything so like a human
+being, and for no reason whatever, was rather repugnant to my feelings,
+so that I did not share in my companion's disappointment.
+
+"Depend upon it, he has not gone far," said the doctor, when Jack Penny
+stood staring at the tree where we saw the ape first.  "There, lie down,
+my lad, and rest, and--hallo! what's the matter with Jimmy?"
+
+I turned to see the black standing close by, his waddy in one hand, his
+boomerang in the other, head bent, knees relaxed, an expression of the
+greatest horror in his face, as he shivered from head to foot, and shook
+his head.
+
+"Why, what's the matter, Jimmy?"  I cried.
+
+"Bunyip," he whispered, "big bunyip debble--debble--eat all a man up.
+Bunyip up a tree."
+
+"Get out!"  I said; "it was a big monkey."
+
+"Yes: big bunyip monkey.  Come 'way."
+
+For the sudden disappearance of the ape had impressed Jimmy with the
+idea that it was what the Scottish peasants call "no canny," and as it
+was his first interview with one of these curious creatures, there was
+some excuse for his apparent fear, though I am not certain that it was
+not assumed.
+
+For Jimmy was no coward so long as he was not called upon to encounter
+the familiar demons of his people, the word bunyip being perhaps too
+often in his mouth.
+
+The black's dread went off as quickly as it came, when he found that he
+was not noticed, and for the next two hours we lay resting, Jack Penny
+and I seeing too many objects of interest to care for sleep.  Now it
+would be a great beetle glistening in green and gold, giving vent to a
+deep-toned buzzing hum as it swept by; then a great butterfly, eight or
+nine inches across, would come flitting through the trees, to be
+succeeded by something so swift of flight and so rapid in the flutter of
+its wings that we were in doubt whether it was a butterfly or one of the
+beautiful sunbirds that we saw flashing in the sunshine from time to
+time.
+
+It proved afterwards to be a butterfly or day-moth, for we saw several
+of them afterwards in the course of our journey.
+
+Over the birds Jack Penny and I had several disputes, for once he took
+anything into his head, even if he was wrong, he would not give way.
+
+"These are humming-birds," he said, as we lay watching some of the
+lovely little creatures that were hovering before the flowers of a great
+creeper, and seemed to be thrusting in their long beaks.
+
+"No," I said, "they are not humming-birds;" and I spoke upon my mother's
+authority, she in turn resting on my father's teaching.  "There are no
+humming-birds here: they are found in America and the islands."
+
+"And out here," said Jack, dictatorially.  "There they are; can't you
+see 'em?"
+
+"No," I said, "those are sunbirds; and they take the place of the
+humming-birds out here in the East."
+
+"Nonsense!  Think I don't know a humming-bird when I see one.  Why, I
+saw one at Sydney, stuffed."
+
+"When you two have done disputing," said the doctor, "we'll start."
+
+"Look here, doctor; ain't those humming-birds?" said Jack.
+
+"No, no, doctor," I cried; "they are sunbirds, are they not?"
+
+"I don't know," said the doctor; "let's make haste on and ask the
+professor."
+
+I sprang to my feet as if stung by a reproach, for it seemed to me as if
+I had been thinking of trifles instead of the great object of my
+mission.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+HOW JACK PENNY WAS NOT SATISFIED WITH HIMSELF.
+
+It was intensely hot when we started again, the heat seeming to be
+steamy, and not a breath of air to fan our cheeks; but we trudged on for
+a time without adventure, till all at once a butterfly of such lovely
+colours flashed across our path, that it proved too much for Jack Penny,
+who laid down his gun, snatched off his hat, and went in pursuit.
+
+We could not go on and leave him; so we stopped to rest, and watch him
+as he was hopping and bounding along through a tolerably open sunlit
+part, full of growth of the most dazzling green.  Now he neared the
+insect; now it dashed off again, and led him a tremendous chase, till,
+just as the doctor shouted to him to return, we saw him make a dab down
+with his hat and then disappear.
+
+"He has got it," I said; for I could not help feeling interested in the
+chase; but I felt annoyed again directly, as the doctor said coldly:
+
+"Yes: he seems to have caught his prize, Joe; but we must defer these
+sports till our work is done."
+
+Just then we saw Jack Penny rise up and turn towards us.  To hide my
+vexation I shouted to him to make haste, and he began to trot towards
+us, his long body bending and swaying about as he ran.
+
+Then he jumped and jumped again, and the doctor shaded his eyes with his
+hands.
+
+"He has got into a swampy patch," he said.  "Of course.  There's a bit
+of a stream runs along there, and--"
+
+"Ow!" came in a dismal yell, followed by a furious barking, as we saw
+Jack make a tremendous jump, and then disappear.
+
+"Help, help!" came from among some dense green growth, and hurrying
+forward we at last came in sight of our companion, at least in sight of
+his head and shoulders, and we could not approach him, for the ground
+gave way beneath our feet, the bright green moss almost floating upon a
+treacherous bog.
+
+"Hold on!" shouted the doctor; "we'll help you directly;" and taking out
+his big knife he began to hack at some small bamboos which grew in thick
+clumps about us.
+
+"Make haste," moaned Jack, "I'm sinking;" and we could see Gyp, who was
+howling furiously, tearing at the soft moss as if to dig his master out.
+
+"Give Jimmy knife," said the black, who was grinning and enjoying Jack
+Penny's predicament.
+
+I handed him mine, and he too cut down armfuls of the young green
+bamboo, the carriers coming up now and helping, when, taking a bundle at
+a time, Jimmy laid them down, dancing lightly over them with his bare
+feet, and troubling himself very little about danger, as he made a sort
+of green path right up to Jack.
+
+"His black fellow pull up," shouted Jimmy; but I ran up to where he was,
+and each taking one of Jack's hands he gave a wriggle, floundered a bit,
+and then we had him out covered with black mud; and though we were
+standing up, he would not trust himself just then erect, but crept after
+us on hands and knees, the soft bog beneath us going up and down like a
+wave.
+
+As soon as he was quite safe there was a hearty laugh at Jack Penny's
+expense; and the doctor drily asked for the butterfly.
+
+"Oh, I caught him," said Jack; "but I lost him when I trod on that great
+beast."
+
+"What great beast?"  I said.
+
+"Crocodile fifty foot long," drawled Jack.
+
+"Say sixty," said the doctor.
+
+"Well, I hadn't time to measure him," drawled Jack.  "I trod upon one,
+and he heaved up, and that made me jump into a soft place, and--ugh!
+what's that?"
+
+I was very doubtful about Jack's crocodile, but there was no mistake
+about the object that had made him utter this last cry of disgust.
+
+"They're pricking me horrid," he shouted; and we found that he had at
+least twenty large leeches busily at work banquetting upon his blood.
+
+The blacks set to work picking them off, and scraping him clear of the
+thick vegetable mud that adhered to him; and with the promise that he
+was to have a good bathe in the first clear water we encountered, we
+once more started, Jack looking anything but cheerful, but stubbornly
+protesting that it was wonderful how comfortable his wet clothes made
+him feel.
+
+Master Jack had to listen to a lecture from the doctor, in which the
+latter pointed out that if success was to attend our expedition, it
+would not do for the various members to be darting off at their good
+pleasure in search of butterflies, and at first Jack looked very grim,
+and frowned as if about to resent it all.  To my surprise, however, he
+replied:
+
+"I see, doctor; we must be like soldiers and mind the captain.  Well,
+all right.  I won't do so any more."
+
+"I'm sure you will not," said the doctor, holding out his hand.  "You
+see we must have discipline in our little corps, so as to be able fully
+to confide in each other in cases of emergency.  We must be men."
+
+Jack scratched his head and looked ruefully from one to the other.
+
+"That's just what I want to be, doctor," he drawled; "but I'm always
+doing something that makes me seem like a small boy.  I'm grown up a
+deal, but somehow I don't feel a bit older than I used to be years ago."
+
+"Ah, well, wait a bit, Penny," replied the doctor; "and we will not say
+any more about the butterfly hunt."
+
+Jack's brow seemed to grow as wrinkled as that of an old man, and he was
+very solemn for the rest of the day, during which we tramped on through
+the forest, its beauties seeming less attractive than in the freshness
+of the early morning, and the only striking thing we saw was a pack of
+small monkeys, which seemed to have taken a special dislike to Jimmy,
+following him from tree to tree, chattering and shrieking the while, and
+at last putting the black in a passion, and making him throw his
+boomerang savagely up in return for the nuts that were showered down.
+
+"Bad black fellow," he said to me indignantly.  "Come down, Jimmy fight
+twenty forty all a once."
+
+He flourished his club and showed me how he would clear the ground, but
+the monkeys did not accept the challenge, and that night we halted under
+a great tree covered with a scarlet plum-like fruit, and proceeded to
+set up our tent as a shelter to keep off the heavy dew.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+HOW WATCH WAS KEPT BY NIGHT.
+
+The sheet which I have called our tent was stretched over a low bough,
+and secured to pegs at the four corners, being all open at the sides, so
+that as I lay I could gaze right away in any direction.
+
+On one side there was gloom, with the tall pillar-like tree trunks
+standing up grey and indistinct; on the other side there was the bright
+fire, which was as dangerous, I thought, as it was useful, for though it
+served to keep off wild beasts it was likely to attract savage men, just
+as moths fly to a flame.
+
+As I lay there I could see the doctor keeping watch, and beside him one
+of the natives, whose black face looked curious and ghastly with the
+bandage he wore round his head, for this was one of the men who had been
+seized by the captain of the other schooner, and who had eagerly
+volunteered to be of our party.
+
+This man was gazing intently at the doctor, as if eager to catch the
+slightest indication of a wish, and so still and misty did he look in
+the weird light that but for the flaming of the fire from his eyes it
+would have been hard to tell that he was a living being.
+
+Though it was not cold our black followers all slept close about the
+fire, Jimmy the nearest--so close, in fact, that he seemed as if he were
+being prepared for a feast on the morrow; and this idea of roasting came
+the more strongly from the fact that we were in a land whose inhabitants
+were said to have certain weaknesses towards a taste for human joints.
+
+Jack Penny was sleeping heavily close to me, and at regular intervals
+seeming to announce that he was dreaming of eating, for his lips gave
+vent over and over again to the word _pork_!
+
+Sometimes this regular snoring sound annoyed me, but I forgot it again
+directly as I lay sleepless there, now watching the gloom of the forest,
+now the flickering and dancing light of the fire as the wood crackled
+and burned and the sparks and smoke went straight up, till they were
+lost on high amid the densely thick branches overhead.
+
+It was a curious sensation to be there in that awful solitude, thinking
+of my past adventures, and wondering what the next day might bring
+forth.  I wanted to sleep and rest, so as to rise refreshed when the
+doctor called me two hours after midnight, when I was to relieve guard;
+but sleep would not come, and I lay fidgeting about, wondering how it
+was possible that such a small twig could set up so much irritation
+beneath my back.
+
+Then, just as I thought I was going off there would be the sensation as
+of some creeping insect crawling about over my face and in amongst the
+roots of my hair.  Then after impatiently knocking it away, something
+seemed to be making its way up my sleeve, to be succeeded by something
+else in the leg of my trousers, while I had hardly got rid of this
+sensation when a peculiarly clammy cold touch taught me that either a
+lizard or a snake was crawling over my feet.
+
+This last I felt constrained to bear, for a movement might result in the
+bite of some poisonous creature, while by lying still I might escape.
+
+At last I really was dropping off into a sound sleep, when all at once I
+started into wakefulness, fascinated as it were by the sight of
+something shining in the black darkness to the left of our fire.
+
+With a shudder running through me I rose to my elbow, at the same moment
+seizing my gun, when a single intent glance convinced me that I was
+right, for certainly some creature was watching the doctor, and probably
+crouching before making a deadly bound.
+
+I cocked the piece softly, holding the trigger the while, so that there
+should be no sharp click, and in another moment I should have fired,
+after careful aim, between the two bright glaring eyes, when the doctor
+made a movement, and the animal darted aside and went bounding off, just
+giving me a glimpse of its form, which was that of a small deer.
+
+I saw the doctor shade his eyes and stand watching the flying creature.
+Then stooping down he picked up a few branches that had been gathered
+ready, and made the fire blaze more brightly.
+
+As the glow increased I saw something which there was no mistaking for a
+harmless deer, for not ten yards away there was a large cat-like
+creature crouching close to the ground, while, to make assurance doubly
+sure, there came from between its bared and glistening white teeth a low
+angry snarl.
+
+I took aim, and tried to get a good sight at its head, but hesitated to
+draw trigger, for the glow from the fire made appearances deceptive, the
+body of the cat-like beast seeming to waver up and down; and directly
+after the creature moved, and its head was covered by a low bush.
+
+But the doctor and his companion had both seen the animal, which uttered
+a menacing roar as the former stepped forward, snatched a piece of
+burning wood from the fire, and hurled it towards the beast, his example
+being followed by the New Guinea man.
+
+The result was a furious roar, and the great cat bounded away towards
+the forest.
+
+This brought Gyp to his feet with a fierce volley of barking, and he
+would have been off in pursuit but for his master, who woke up and ran
+out exclaiming:
+
+"Dingoes after the sheep! dingoes after the sheep!  Here, Gyp, boy!
+here, Gyp--here--eh!  I say, is anything the matter?"
+
+"No, no; all right!" cried the doctor.
+
+"I--I thought I was at home," said Jack, rubbing his eyes; "and--oh! how
+sleepy I am."
+
+"Lie down again, then," said the doctor; and Jack obeyed, Gyp following
+and curling up close by his master, who very soon resumed his heavy
+breathing, in so objectionable a manner that I felt over and over again
+as if I should like to kick him and wake him up.
+
+For there is nothing on earth so annoying as to be unable to sleep when
+some one close by is snoring away in happy oblivion.
+
+As I lay there with my face turned from the fire, so that it should not
+keep me awake, I felt more and more the sensation of awe produced by
+being there in the midst of that wild place.  While I was perfectly
+still my eyes were directed upwards in amongst the branches of the great
+tree, now illumined by the bright flame of our fire, and by degrees I
+made out that these boughs were peopled by birds and what seemed to be
+squirrels, and all more or less excited by the unaccustomed light.
+
+I lay gazing up at them, seeing the different objects very indistinctly
+in the dancing light, and then all at once it seemed to me that one
+particular branch was rising and falling slowly with a peculiar
+movement.  It was a strange wavy motion, which was the more remarkable
+from the fact that there was no wind; but after a moment or two's
+thought I fancied I had found the cause in the heated air produced by
+the fire.
+
+But that did not explain what next took place in the smoky obscurity
+above the fire, for the branch seemed to wave about more and more, and
+to lengthen; and then I made sure that it was the shadow I saw; but
+directly after, a thrill ran through me as I recalled that these
+creatures were fond of nestling high up in branches, where they captured
+birds and monkeys, and I said in a low hoarse whisper:
+
+"Why, it's a snake!"
+
+There was no doubt about the matter, for as it swung lower, holding on
+by its tail, I could see that it was indeed a snake, evidently of
+considerable length, and about as thick as my arm.  It had been aroused
+from probably a torpid state by the fumes of the fire, and was now
+descending from bough to bough to reach the earth, and I paused for a
+time, asking myself what I had better do.
+
+The result was that I overcame the unwillingness I felt to move, and
+crept so softly towards the doctor that I was able to lay my hand upon
+his shoulder before he heard me approach.
+
+"Why, Joe!" he exclaimed, starting, "I thought it was an enemy."
+
+"Yes; there he is!"  I said with a shudder, and I pointed up among the
+branches.
+
+The black who was the doctor's fellow-watcher had seen me approach, and
+following with his eyes the direction pointed to by my hand, he too
+looked up into the tree, where, glistening in the fire-light, there was
+the reptile swinging slowly to and fro with a pendulum-like motion.
+
+In spite of the horror inspired by such a creature, free and within a
+few yards of where I was standing, I could not help noticing the beauty
+of the scales, which shone in the fire-light as if of burnished bronze.
+But I had little time for examination; one moment I was noting the head
+and curved neck of the reptile, the next there was a sharp twanging
+noise, and I saw the serpent's head jerk upwards, and then what seemed
+to be a mass of thick rope fell near the fire; there was a tremendous
+lashing and tossing about, and when the doctor and I approached the spot
+cautiously with our guns, it was to find that the reptile had glided off
+into the forest depths.
+
+"A good shot for a bow and arrow," said the doctor, turning to our black
+companion, who smiled complacently, our manner plainly showing him that
+we were admiring his skill.
+
+"You are getting a poor night's rest, Joe," said the doctor smiling.
+"Now go and lie down again."
+
+"It is of no use," I said fretfully.  "I can't sleep, and I only lie
+thinking about home and him.  I shall stay and watch."
+
+The doctor protested, but finding at last that I was unwilling to lie
+down again, he said:
+
+"Well, I am quite different, for I am so tired that I cannot keep awake.
+I will go and lie down then, if you promise to come and wake me as soon
+as you are drowsy.  Mind and keep up a good blaze."
+
+I replied that he might be sure of that.
+
+"Don't fire unnecessarily," he continued.  "If any wild animal comes
+near, a piece of burning wood will scare it away at once."
+
+"As it did that great cat!"  I said.
+
+"Did you see, then?" he said.
+
+"I have not been asleep for a single minute," I replied.  "What was it--
+a tiger?"
+
+"Tiger!  No, my lad," he said, laughing; "I don't think we shall see any
+tigers here.  There, I shall yawn my head off if I stop here talking.
+Good night!"
+
+He walked to the shelter, and I went and sat down next our black
+companion, who smiled a welcome; and thinking this a favourable
+opportunity, I set to work to try and increase my knowledge of the
+language, by lifting up different objects and making the black give them
+their native name, which I tried to imitate as well as I could.
+
+He was very intelligent, grasping my meaning at once, and repeating the
+words again and again, till I was nearly perfect, when he laughed with
+childlike pleasure.
+
+The time passed so quickly in this occupation that I was quite startled
+by hearing a wild resonant cry that seemed to echo through the forest
+arcades.  Then there was a succession of piercing screams, followed by
+loud whistling and muttering.  A monkey started a chattering noise,
+which was answered from a distance with a hundredfold power; and looking
+about me I found that the day was breaking and the night-watch at an
+end.
+
+The change from night to morning is very rapid near the equator, and
+soon the sun was making bright and attractive places that had looked
+awful and full of hidden dangers in the night; while, in place of the
+depression produced by the darkness, I felt eager sensations and desires
+springing up within my heart, and a strong inclination to get forward
+once more upon our journey.
+
+We made a very hearty meal before the sun was much above the horizon;
+our simple packing was soon done, and we were not long before we were
+well on the road of discovery.
+
+I expected to be very tired and sleepy, but to my surprise I did not
+feel in the least the worse for my restless night, and we trudged along
+pretty swiftly when the land was open, slowly and toilsomely when
+tangled growth obstructed our way.
+
+I was too much occupied with thoughts of my father to pay much heed to
+the fruits and flowers that we came upon in many spots; besides, I was
+on before with Jack Penny, and Gyp in front of us very intelligently
+leading the way.  There was, I knew, always the chance of meeting some
+danger, and on this account we kept a very sharp look-out ahead, till
+suddenly we were stopped by a strange noise as of water being struck a
+succession of heavy blows; and as Gyp set up his ears, threw up his
+nose, and uttered a low whimper, there was the click, click of
+gun-locks, and every one prepared for some coming danger, the blacks
+remaining quiet, and looking wonderingly at our strange proceedings.
+
+The sound ceased as suddenly as it had begun, and though we listened
+intently we heard it no more for that time, so we continued our journey
+with every one thoroughly on the alert.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+HOW JACK PENNY PUT HIS FOOT IN A TRAP.
+
+We had made our plans, but they were very elastic, for it was impossible
+for us to keep to any hard-and-fast line.
+
+"No, Joe," the doctor said, "we cannot say that we will do this or that;
+we must be governed by circumstances.  We have one object in view--to
+find your father, and so far we have determined to follow the course of
+the first big river; when we shall be diverted from it time must prove."
+
+We slept that night under the shade of another tree, and as the mist
+rolled off the next morning we started once again.
+
+It was so glorious a morning that, in spite of the serious nature of our
+position, it was impossible not to feel in the highest of spirits.  The
+way lay through dense forest, but we had fallen into a track which I at
+first thought was a regular pathway, and so it proved to be, but not of
+the kind I imagined as I eagerly called the doctor's attention to it,
+and the ease with which we were now getting along.
+
+"No, Joe," he said; "this is not a path used by human beings.  Look down
+at the footprints."
+
+I looked down to see the hoof-marks of innumerable wild creatures, and
+said so.
+
+"Yes," replied the doctor, "it is a track down to the river, followed by
+the animals that go to drink, and we shall not be long before we get to
+the water side."
+
+Our way did not seem wearisome, for there was so much to see, the birds
+in particular taking my attention greatly.  One moment a flock of black
+cockatoos would fly screaming by, then a cloud of brilliantly-coloured
+parroquets, and in one opening we came upon what looked at first like a
+gigantic beech-tree completely alive with tiny blue-and-green parrots
+about the size of sparrows, climbing, fluttering, chattering, and
+chirping, now with their heads up, now heads down, and forming one of
+the prettiest sights I had ever seen.
+
+I could have shot twenty or thirty together as they sat in rows upon the
+bare branches, so little did they heed our presence; but it was
+unnecessary to destroy their little lives, and we passed on.
+
+I was less merciful an hour later, for food was a necessity, and I was
+fortunate enough to bring down at the first shot a beautiful little deer
+that started up in our very path.
+
+My shot seemed to alarm the whole forest and set it in an uproar: birds
+shrieked, monkeys chattered, and to right and left there was a rushing
+crackling noise, as of big creatures seeking flight.  There was a
+deep-mouthed howl, too, away on our right that made me look anxiously at
+the doctor.
+
+"I don't know, Joe," he replied, as if in answer to a spoken question.
+"There may be tigers here, and leopards, and old men of the woods, big
+as ourselves.  It is new land, my lad, so don't look to me for
+information."
+
+"Dat big bunyip," said Jimmy in a scared whisper.  "Take black fellow--
+kill um, eatum."
+
+Just then we heard the same beating noise that had fallen upon our ears
+the previous day.
+
+"Dat big bunyip beat um gin," whispered Jimmy, with a curious
+awe-stricken look in his countenance.
+
+"'Taint," said Jack Penny slowly.  "I don't believe in bunyips.  If it
+was a bunyip beating his gin, she'd holloa out like hooray, and squeak
+the leaves off the trees."
+
+"'Fraid squeak," said Jimmy eagerly, as he caught Jack's meaning.
+
+"Well, perhaps Jimmy's right," said the doctor slowly; "and as I've
+never seen a bunyip the present is a favourable opportunity, and we can
+interfere to stop him from too severely castigating his wife.  Come,
+Jimmy, lead on."
+
+Jimmy's jaw dropped, but his hand stole to his waistband, from which he
+drew his waddy, talking slowly the while, till, seeing the doctor make a
+movement towards him, he turned round and darted into the bush.
+
+"He won't stop till he gets back to the village," drawled Jack.
+
+"He won't go farther than the first big tree," I said, laughing.  "He's
+watching us now, I'll be bound."
+
+"Then you and I will have to meet the bunyip, Joe," said the doctor.
+"Are you coming, Penny?"
+
+"Yes, I'll come," said Jack quietly.  "I should like to see a bunyip.
+Come along."
+
+Jack went on--not first, for Gyp started before him and, guided by the
+noise, we pushed on amongst the dense growth, finding the earth grow
+moister beneath our feet; and then all at once it seemed as if the big
+trees had come to an end and we were in a lighter place.
+
+"There's the water," I cried, as I caught sight of a flash.
+
+"You'll be in it here directly, same as I was," drawled Jack.  "I say,
+doctor, ain't this the sort of place big snakes like?"
+
+"Hush!" whispered the doctor; and pressing back the thick growth we
+advanced cautiously, and following his example I, too, stepped from tuft
+to tuft, listening to the beating noise and to the other sounds that
+arose.
+
+First there was the loud rustle of wings as some water birds flew up,
+long-legged creatures with far-stretching necks.  Then on my left there
+was an ominous noise, as of something crawling amongst the reeds, and I
+shuddered as I saw that Jack Penny was holding his gun ready, and that
+Gyp's hair was bristling all about his neck, while his teeth were bared.
+
+The doctor was some distance before us now, and I could see him peering
+between some bushes and waving his hand to me to come forward; so,
+forgetting the danger, if danger there was, I went cautiously to my
+companion's side, to gaze with astonishment at the scene before me.
+
+There was no bunyip or native Australian demon there, but a great
+shallow, muddy pond or lake, which seemed as if it must be swarming with
+fish and crocodiles, for every here and there, as the great rugged backs
+of the horrible lizards were seen pushing towards the shore, shoals of
+silvery fish leaped out, flashing in the sunshine before they splashed
+back into the water.
+
+Here, then, was the secret of the mysterious noise which was being
+produced before my eyes.  For the crocodiles were driving the shoals of
+fish into the little bays and creeks, and then stunning them by beating
+the water heavily with their tails, the result being that the paralysed
+fish were easily devoured.
+
+I felt as if I could never tire of gazing at the monsters so busy before
+us.  There must have been at least five-and-twenty, and all of large
+size; and it was not a pleasant thought to consider what would have been
+the consequences if we had attempted to wade across the lagoon.
+
+Before leaving, however, the doctor took out his glass and swept the
+shore of the great pond, to nod with satisfaction.
+
+"This is only a sort of bay belonging to the river we are seeking, Joe,"
+he said.  "Look there to the left, and you can see the entrance choked
+up with reeds."
+
+We crept back cautiously, to find Jimmy awaiting our return; and then
+making a detour towards the lake, we soon reached the river, along whose
+bank was a well-trodden path, in whose softer parts, besides those of
+deer, it was plain to see the ugly toes of crocodiles, and the long
+trail they made as they dragged themselves along.
+
+We did not halt until we had left the crocodile pond a long way behind;
+but a fine dry, open spot, close to the flashing water of the swift
+river, was so tempting that we did not go so far as we had intended.
+
+Here a fire was soon lit, and Jimmy sat watching the roasting of the
+buck with an indescribable look of satisfaction in his countenance;
+while, eager to try whether it would be possible to add to our provision
+store at any time from the river, I went on down to the water's edge.
+For if there were fish in such abundance in the lagoon, I felt sure that
+if they would bite there must be plenty in the stream.
+
+My first idea had been to have a bathe in the cool-looking water, but,
+seeing my intention, the black who had been my companion in the watch,
+took my hand, led me cautiously along for a short distance, and then
+pointed to where there was lying, dimly outlined in the thickened water,
+one of the hideous creatures such as I had seen in the lagoon.
+
+The black then put his wrists together, spread wide his hands, and
+closed them sharply upon my arm like a pair of jaws, and snatched me
+sidewise with a good tug.
+
+I was quite satisfied, and nodding and shuddering I joined the doctor,
+who was ready enough to help me fish.
+
+We soon had our lines ready, and baiting the hooks with pieces of raw
+meat, we threw out and waited, after the manner of fishermen at home,
+for a bite.
+
+After a time I examined my bait and threw in again.  Then the doctor
+examined his and threw in again, but neither of us had the slightest
+touch, and growing weary we went back to the fire to find the buck
+sufficiently roasted and Jimmy's eyes standing out of his head with
+hunger; so we made a hasty meal, left the blacks to finish it, and Jack
+Penny to rest his long body, while we had another try at the fishing.
+
+But Jack Penny did not care to rest when anything was going on, and
+after we had been fishing without result for about half an hour he
+joined us.
+
+"Caught anything?" he said; and on our replying in the negative, "Here,
+let me try," he said.
+
+I handed him my line, and he twisted it well round his hand.
+
+"Fish run big, sometimes," he said, nodding his head sagaciously.
+"Don't leave your line like that, doctor," he added; "make it fast to
+that bough."
+
+The doctor obeyed, and leaving Jack looking very drowsy and dreamy we
+two took our guns and started along the river bank, thinking that
+perhaps we might find something useful for the larder, the heat of the
+climate rendering it necessary for a supply to be obtained from day to
+day.
+
+It was a glorious walk past quiet bends of the river that were as still
+as ponds, and full of red and white lotus plants which shot up their
+lovely blossoms from amidst their floating liliaceous leaves.  Trees in
+places overhung the water, and great wreaths of blossom or leaves of
+dazzling green were reflected on the surface.  Insect life was abundant:
+burnished beetles and lovely coloured butterflies flitting from flower
+to flower.  Birds, too, especially waders and great creatures that I
+took to be pelicans, were busy in the shallows, where now and then a
+great crocodile wallowed through the mud, evidently roused by our
+approach, for though we saw several of these creatures, not one gave the
+slightest sign of a disposition to attack.
+
+"There, we are not likely to see deer before evening when they come down
+to drink," said the doctor.  "Let's get back, Joe, my lad, the sun is
+not so powerful as it was, and we may as well make a fresh start."
+
+We were about three parts of the way back, finding some fresh object of
+interest at every turn, when I suddenly caught hold of my companion's
+arm, for a peculiar cry fell upon my ear.
+
+"Something wrong!" exclaimed the doctor, and we set off at a sharp run
+where the undergrowth would allow.
+
+A curious sensation of dread came over me, and a cold damp feeling was
+on my brow and in the palms of my hands as the cry rose once more--a
+singularly doleful cry, as of some one in great peril.
+
+"Are you loaded?" said the doctor, as we ran on, and his voice sounded
+hoarse with emotion.
+
+I nodded, for I could not speak, and, full of the idea that our little
+camp had been attacked by savages and that some of our followers were
+being killed, I ran on.
+
+It was hard work and like running in a nightmare to get back to our
+starting-place, for there was always some thorn or tangle that we had
+not noticed in our careful advance seeming to stop us on our way; but at
+last we came within sight of the spot where we had left Jack Penny, but
+he was not there.
+
+"There's something wrong at the camp," I panted.
+
+"Be cool," replied the doctor, "we may have to fire.  Try and keep your
+nerve.  Ah!"
+
+This ejaculation was consequent upon our simultaneously catching sight
+of Jack Penny, up to the armpits in the river, holding on by the branch
+of a tree.
+
+As he saw us he shouted lustily for help.  It was no drawl now, but a
+sharp quick shout.
+
+I ran down the bank and the doctor following, we joined hands, when,
+catching at Jack's wrist, I held on tightly.
+
+"Now, then," I said, as I gazed wonderingly in his ghastly face and
+staring eyes, "let go, and we'll draw you ashore."
+
+"No, no," he cried hoarsely.  "Got hold of me--drag me in."
+
+"Got hold?  Of course," I said, "we'll drag you in."
+
+"One of those brutes has got him, Joe," cried the doctor excitedly, and
+his words sent such a thrill through me that I nearly loosed my hold.
+"Here, pull both together," he said, as he got down by my side and
+seized Jack Penny by the other arm.
+
+We gave a fierce drag, to find that it was answered from below, Jack
+being nearly drawn out of our hands, his head going down nearly to the
+eyes, and for the moment it seemed as if we were to be drawn in as well.
+
+But fortunately Jack still had tight hold of the branch, to which he
+clung in the agony of desperation, and he uttered such a piercing cry
+that it served to arouse the sleeping blacks, the result being that, as
+we were holding on, and just maintaining our ground, Jimmy and Ti-hi,
+the black who had attached himself to me, came running down.
+
+They saw what was wrong, and Jimmy seized me, the black doing the same
+by Jimmy, with the effect of dragging poor Jack Penny farther and
+farther from the water in spite of the struggles of the reptile that was
+trying to haul him back.  First we had him out to the chest, then to the
+hips, then nearly to the knees, and I never till then thoroughly
+realised what a lot there was of him, for it seemed as if he would never
+end.
+
+"Hold on!" cried the doctor suddenly.  "I'm going to loose him."
+
+"No, no!" panted Jack, with a horrified look; but the doctor did loose
+his hold and caught up his gun.
+
+"Now, then," he cried.  "All together.  Haul with all your might."
+
+We obeyed, and though we were for the moment mastered we gave a good
+swing again, and it seemed as if Jack Penny must be dragged in two.
+
+It was like playing a game of French and English, and we were in danger
+of getting the worst of it.  We saw what the doctor wanted, and that was
+to get the reptile so near the surface that he could fire; but as soon
+as we got poor Jack nearly ashore the creature gave a tremendous tug,
+making the water swirl and the mud and sand from the bottom rise in
+clouds.
+
+This went on for five minutes, during which we were striving with all
+our might, when I nearly loosed my hold, for Jack said in a low
+despairing tone of voice:
+
+"Joe Carstairs, don't let him have me till you've shot me first."
+
+I held fast though, and the fight went on, till, just as we were
+beginning to despair, the reptile came nearer to the surface, the ugly
+protuberances over its eyes were level with the water, and, bending
+down, the doctor reached out with his gun in one hand, held the muzzle
+close to the creature's eye, and fired.
+
+There was a tremendous sputter and we were nearly forced to leave go,
+but the next moment there was no resistance but weight, and we drew Jack
+and his aggressor, a crocodile about ten feet long, right up to the
+bank, the monster's jaws, which had closed over one of Jack's stoutly
+booted feet, remaining fast, though the upper part of its head was all
+blown away.
+
+"Dat a big bunyip," cried Jimmy, forcing the end of his spear through
+the reptile's jaws and trying to push them open, which he did with his
+companion's help, and Jack Penny was free to limp feebly for a few
+yards, and sink down amongst the reeds.
+
+Jimmy did not seem in the least afraid of the bunyip now, for hacking
+off a long lithe cane he put it over the reptile's jaw, and, twisting it
+tightly rope-fashion, he and Ti-hi dragged it right away from the water,
+and, avoiding the frantic lashings of its tail, they turned it over with
+their spears, used like levers, and kept on stabbing it in its tender
+underparts until it ceased to struggle, when Jimmy turned it over again
+and began to perform a triumphant war-dance on its back.
+
+Meanwhile poor Jack Penny, who had been nearly speechless, began to
+revive.
+
+"That's better," said the doctor.  "Now let me look at your foot."
+
+"Has he bit it right off?" said Jack faintly.  "I can't feel it.  Just
+when I needed it so badly, too!"
+
+"Bit it off!  No!"  I cried.  "Is it much hurt, doctor?"
+
+"I can't tell till I have unlaced his boot," he replied.  "Tell me if I
+hurt you much, my lad."
+
+"It don't hurt," said Jack faintly.  "I can't feel at all."
+
+It was rather hard work to get the boot off; but at last it was free,
+and the doctor inspected a double row of red spots, two of which bled a
+little, but not much.
+
+"I'm beginning to feel now," said Jack dolefully.  "Why, he ain't bit it
+off!" he said, raising himself so that he could look down at the injured
+member.  "I thought it was gone."
+
+"No; your foot has only had an ugly pinch; the stout boot saved it.  Let
+it bleed a little, my lad; it will save you pain."
+
+"What! had he only got hold of my boot?" said Jack excitedly.
+
+"And the foot in it," said the doctor.  "See, here are the marks of the
+teeth."
+
+"I thought he'd bit it right off, Joe Carstairs," said Jack dolefully.
+"An' I say, what a coward I am!"
+
+"Coward!"  I exclaimed.  "Why?"
+
+"To be so frightened as I was," replied Jack, with a dismal sigh.
+
+"Well, I don't know about being a coward, Master Jack Penny," said the
+doctor quietly; "but I do know that if I had had my foot in that
+reptile's mouth I should have been in a most horrible state of fear.
+There, my lad," he continued kindly, "don't think any more about it,
+only to be thankful for your escape."
+
+"But he ought to tell us first how he was caught like that," I said.
+
+"Oh, there ain't much to tell," said Jack, sitting up and raising his
+leg, and softly rubbing his injured foot.  "I was fishing, and the fish
+wouldn't bite, and I got a little nearer to the river side and threw in
+again and fished; and the sun seemed to get hotter, and I suppose I fell
+asleep, for I remember dreaming that the dingoes had got among father's
+sheep again, and that he flicked his whip-lash round my wrist.  Then I
+tried to start up, but a big fish had hold of the line, and it tugged
+away so hard that I was overbalanced, and took a header off the bank
+right into the river; and when I came up, pretty tidy astonished like,
+and began to swim for the bank, the fish on the line, which I had
+twisted round my wrist, began tugging me out into the stream.  It took
+me out ever so far before I could get the line off my wrist; and then I
+swam easily back, feeling awful popped like at having lost the fish and
+the line; and I was just wondering what you would say, when all at once
+there was a regular rush in the water, and something shut on my foot,
+giving me such an awful nip that I yelled out as I caught hold of that
+branch, and held on, shivering all the while with fear, for I forgot
+about the crocodiles, and thought it must be a shark."
+
+"Well!"  I said, excitedly; for he stopped.
+
+"Well, what?" said Jack.
+
+"What next?  What did you do?"  I said.
+
+"Hollered!" replied Jack laconically.  "So would you if you had been
+me."
+
+"Yes," I said, "of course; but what took place next?"
+
+"Oh, nothing; only that I held tight and he held tight, and as often as
+he tugged at me it jumped the bough up and down like a see-saw, and it
+was very horrid."
+
+"Most horrible!" said the doctor.
+
+"Then I hollered again," said Jack.
+
+"Yes; go on!"  I cried impatiently.
+
+"I did go on," he replied.  "I went on hollering, but them chaps at the
+camp were asleep, and I began to feel that I should have to let go soon;
+only I wouldn't, because I wanted to find out first what had become of
+the professor.  Then at last you came, and that's all; only I don't feel
+much like walking very far to-day, so I shall sit still and fish."
+
+"Fish! what, with things like that in the water?"  I exclaimed.
+
+"Oh! they won't hurt me," said Jack; "because I shall be on the look-out
+now, and won't go in after the next fish that takes my line.  I say,
+where's Gyp?"
+
+"I don't know," I said.  "I have not seen him."
+
+"Crocodiles are very fond of dogs," said Jack quietly.  "I hope one of
+'em hasn't got Gyp."
+
+"Oh, no! he'd be too sharp for one of the reptiles," said the doctor
+reassuringly.
+
+"I don't know," said Jack in his quiet drawl.  "I thought I was much too
+clever for crocodiles; but they're sharp--precious sharp about the
+teeth.  Perhaps he's gone hunting something.  He often used at home."
+
+"Oh, yes; he'll come back," I said.
+
+"Well, we shall see," said Jack.  "I'm better now.  Lend me another
+line, Joe Carstairs.  I want to see if I can't catch a fish."
+
+I looked about first to see if I could trace my line, but it was
+hopelessly gone.  To my surprise and pleasure, though, I found the
+doctor's where he had left it, tied to a root and drawn out tight,
+evidently with a fish at the end.
+
+I imagined that I could easily draw this out, and I did get it close up
+to the bank, but as soon as it was in the shallow water it sprang right
+out and darted away again, making the line rush through my hands so
+rapidly that it burned my skin.
+
+As it leaped out I had a good opportunity of seeing that a great silvery
+fellow, fully a yard long, had hooked itself, and meant to have some
+playing before it turned over upon its side in token of submission.
+
+I kept on playing the fish, which seemed to grow stronger instead of
+weaker as I went on at give and take with it, till I was almost tired.
+At least six times did I draw it in and try to bring it within reach of
+Ti-hi's fingers, but in vain, for it always darted off as if refreshed.
+
+At last, though, I drew it well in, and once more it was about to repeat
+its tactics; but this time it was too late, for the black pounced down
+upon it, thrust his hooked finger into its gills, and pulled it up on to
+the bank.
+
+Just then Jimmy came trotting up, hauling away at a line, and to my
+great delight I found that he had hunted out the one we had left with
+Jack Penny.
+
+"Fastum round big wood!" he cried; and then he tried to explain how the
+fish had entangled the line round what an American would call a snag;
+and the result was that we had two fine fish to carry back to the camp,
+Jimmy's being tired out and readily yielding as he hauled on the line.
+
+"I don't think I'll fish to-day," said Jack Penny then.  "I say, I feel
+as if that buck warn't good enough to eat."
+
+Hardly had he spoken before he softly sank down sidewise, and lay
+looking very white, and with his eyes shut.
+
+"Is it the venison?"  I said in a whisper to the doctor.
+
+"No.  He is a little faint, now the reaction has set in," replied the
+doctor; and we had to carry poor wet Jack Penny as well as the fish into
+camp, and of course we got no farther on our journey that day.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
+
+HOW A STRANGE VISITOR CAME TO CAMP.
+
+Jack seemed very little the worse after a good night's rest, that is to
+say bodily.  He was a little white, and his breakfast did not disappear
+so rapidly as usual, for, probably on account of his great length, and
+the enormous amount of circulation and support to keep up, Jack Penny
+used to eat about as much as two ordinary boys.  He was, however
+evidently a little bit upset in his mind, and he laid this open to me
+just before starting once more.
+
+"I say," he said in a low tone, "did I seem such a very great coward
+yes'day, Joe Carstairs?"
+
+"Coward!  No," I said; "not you.  Any one would have been frightened."
+
+"But I hollered so," whispered Jack.  "I don't think a young fellow
+ought to holler like a great girl."
+
+"I know I should," I replied.  "There, never mind now.  They're all
+ready to start.  Come on!"
+
+Jack Penny shook his head rather thoughtfully, and then, in a
+dissatisfied dreamy way, he walked on with me, shouldering his gun, and
+stooping more than ever, so that it seemed as if he were looking for
+something which he could not find.
+
+We had to pass pretty close to the crocodile, so close that Jack nearly
+stumbled over it, and a cry of horror involuntarily escaped him as he
+jumped aside.
+
+Then, turning scarlet with annoyance, he gave the monster a kick, and
+darted back holding his nose, for it was exhaling a most offensive musky
+odour.
+
+I looked at the creature closely and with some curiosity, thinking the
+while how much smaller it was than those we had seen in the lagoon.  All
+the same, though, it was fully as big in body as a man, though double
+the length.
+
+It was not going to poison the air long, for already it was covered with
+something red, and a long red line extended from it right away into the
+jungle.  Each tiny red object was an ant, and from experience I knew
+that very soon every particle of flesh would be devoured.
+
+Keeping within easy reach of the river we journeyed steadily on, finding
+the country grow more beautiful at every step.  The trees were bigger,
+the bamboos taller and more feathery.  In the sunny patches flowers were
+in abundance, and we had no want of opportunities for supplying our
+larder, large pheasant-like birds, with long tails and crests, and
+plumage of the most beautiful tints, being plentiful.
+
+It seemed a pity to shoot them, but it was a necessity, for our supply
+of powder, shot, and ball was looked upon by us as so much condensed
+meat, ready to be expanded when opportunity served.
+
+We encountered nothing particular that day except Gyp, who turned up all
+at once with a piece of furry skin in his mouth, all he had been able to
+carry of some deer that he had run down; and at the sight of his friend
+Jack Penny became more himself, throwing off a good deal of his gloom.
+In fact I saw the tears stand in his eyes as he saw him once more; but
+catching sight of me looking at him he scowled, and, running to the dog,
+kicked him over and over again quite savagely.
+
+"Just you run away again," he drawled angrily, "and I'll 'bout kill yer.
+That's what I'll do with you."
+
+Gyp closed his eyes and winced and crouched down close to the ground
+till his master had ceased punishing him, and then he rose dejectedly,
+and followed quite in the rear of our party with drooping head and tail.
+
+I noticed at the time that Jimmy had watched all this with sparkling
+eyes, wonderfully intent, but I thought no more of it till I saw the
+black glance at us all in turn, and then begin to slink back.
+
+"What is he after now?"  I said to myself; and stepping aside among the
+thick leafage, I let our party go by and stopped to see what Jimmy was
+about to do.
+
+I had not long to wait, for the fact was that the black had snatched at
+the opportunity to tyrannise over something.  He had been summarily
+checked when amusing himself by sticking his spear into the New Guinea
+men, and, as we have seen, one of them resented it; but here was a
+chance.  Gyp had been beaten, and had cowered down under his master's
+blows, so Jimmy took out his waddy, and after glancing forward to see
+that he was not observed, he waited until Gyp came up slowly, and
+casting sidelong looks at the Australian, who gave him a heavy thump on
+the ribs with the war-club.
+
+"Bad bunyip dog.  Good for nothing, dirty dingo dog," cried Jimmy.  "Go
+long, bad for good dog.  Get--yah!"
+
+This last was a terrific yell of fear and pain, for instead of cowering
+down and suffering himself to be beaten and kicked, Gyp knew that this
+was not his master.  For one moment he had stood astonished at the blow,
+and then seemed puzzled by the strange broken English objurgations; then
+with a fierce snarl he darted at the black and tried to seize him by the
+legs, an attack which Jimmy avoided by making a tremendous spring,
+catching at a horizontal branch above him, and swinging himself up into
+a tree, where he crouched like a monkey, showering down angry epithets
+upon the dog as it yelped and barked at him furiously.
+
+I came out of my hiding-place laughing till the tears ran down my
+cheeks; and the noise made by Gyp brought back the doctor and Jack
+Penny, the latter taking in the situation at a glance and indulging in a
+broad grin.
+
+"Take away bunyip dog; take um way or Jimmy killum," cried the black.
+
+"All right!" said Jack Penny; "come down and kill him then."
+
+But Jimmy showed no disposition to move, and it was not until Jack had
+ordered the dog away that the black dropped down, looking at me very
+sheepishly and acting like a shamefaced child.
+
+As we proceeded farther into the interior, wild creatures grew more
+abundant, and we saw fewer traces of man having traversed these regions.
+As I noted the various objects I could not help feeling how my father
+must have revelled in exploring such a naturalist's paradise as this,
+and I grew more hopeful as the idea gained ground in my mind that very
+likely he was busy in the interior still pursuing his researches.
+
+We travelled very little way now without catching glimpses of some of
+the occupants of these wilds.  Perhaps it was but a glimpse, but
+generally we were able to distinguish what it was that darted through
+bush, tree, or shadowy glade.  Once or twice we caught sight of the
+spots of leopards; then a graceful deer would stand at gaze for a moment
+before going off like the wind.  Once a herd of heavy buffaloes started
+up before us and crashed through the undergrowth; and at last, as we
+drew near a great tree, the doctor said, pointing upward:
+
+"No fear of our wanting food, Joe, while there are such birds as these."
+
+As he spoke, with a noise like a whirlwind a flock of great pigeons took
+flight--great fellows, three times as big as ordinary pigeons, and, as
+we knew from those shot in Australia, splendid eating.
+
+The great tree offered so pleasant a camping place that we decided to
+pass the night there, and after a look round to see if there was likely
+to be danger lurking near, the fire was lit, the blacks setting to work
+at once to collect wood when they had put down their burdens.  Then food
+was prepared and a hearty meal enjoyed, the restful sensation that came
+over us after the day's exertion being most delicious.  Then one by one
+our followers dropped asleep, Jack Penny, who was still rather grumpy,
+last.
+
+The doctor and I were sitting together by the fire that night, talking
+in a low voice about our plans, and agreeing that we could not do better
+than wander on and on through the wilds until we learned some tidings of
+the lost man, when suddenly my companion laid his finger on his lips and
+bent forward as if listening.
+
+I listened too, thinking the while how strange it all looked about us,
+with the fire casting weird shadows all around, while the silence now
+was almost appalling.
+
+"Nothing, Joe," said the doctor, dropping his hand.  "I thought I heard
+something."
+
+"I'm sure I did," I whispered, with a strange feeling upon me that it
+would be dangerous to speak aloud.
+
+"There are curious sounds heard sometimes in forests," he said
+thoughtfully.  "There, go on--what were we talking about?"
+
+As he spoke there was a strange rushing noise, then a peculiar whining
+sound not far distant among the trees.
+
+"What can that be, doctor?"  I whispered.
+
+"Can't say, Joe.  Sounds as if some animal had been climbing along a
+branch, or had bent down a sapling and then let it fly up again with a
+loud whish among the trees."
+
+"That is just how it sounded to me," I said, gazing full in his eyes.
+
+He remained silent for a few moments, not listening but thinking.
+
+"We must take a lesson from our friend Jack Penny, there," he said,
+smiling in my face as he stroked his broad beard.  "I must confess, Joe,
+to feeling a curious sensation of awe as we sit out here in this
+primeval forest, surrounded by teeming savage life; but Jack Penny
+coolly sleeps through it all, and, as I say, we must take a lesson from
+him, and get used to these strange sounds."
+
+"There it is again!"  I said, catching his arm, and unable to control
+the feeling that at any moment something might spring out of the
+darkness upon my back.
+
+For the same curious rustling of leaves came whispering from among the
+trees, and then there was a low expiration of breath, as if some great
+beast had yawned.
+
+Click-click, click-click sounded loudly on the night air, and I followed
+the doctor's example, cocking both barrels of my piece.
+
+"It's coming nearer, whatever it is," said the doctor in a low tone,
+"and that strange noise means, I think, that it is some great serpent."
+
+"But would serpents be out at night?"  I said.
+
+"That one was the other night, Joe, and we must not reckon upon the
+regular habits of animals if we light great fires in their lairs."
+
+We sat listening again, and the rustling sound began once more.
+
+"It's just as if the thing were climbing along trees that are not strong
+enough to bear it," I said in an excited whisper, "and they keep flying
+up after it passes."
+
+"Hush!" said the doctor.
+
+We listened, and from out of the darkest part before us there arose a
+loud tearing noise as if bark was being scratched from a tree trunk.
+
+"Some kind of beast of the cat family, I should say," whispered the
+doctor.  "Pst! be ready; but don't fire unless we are attacked."
+
+Just then there was a rush, a scramble, a dull thud, and some creature
+uttered a sound that seemed like the word _Howl_ in a hollow echoing
+tone.
+
+Again and again there was the low rustling, and then that word _Howl_
+that seemed to come from some great throat; and in imagination I saw in
+the darkness a pair of fiery eyes and a set of great sharp teeth.
+
+"Yes; some kind of cat, leopard, or panther," said the doctor; but, low
+as his utterance was, it seemed to irritate the creature in our
+neighbourhood, as it kept on the rustling, for there was a harsh
+exclamation and the earth seemed to be torn up.
+
+Then all at once the sound ceased, and it was perfectly still for quite
+a quarter of an hour, which seemed an endless time; and then, tired of
+staring intently into the darkness, and too much excited to be silent, I
+whispered:
+
+"This night-watching is the hardest part of our work, doctor."
+
+"Oh! no, my boy.  It makes you a little creepy at first, but as soon as
+you feel your own power and how you must alarm these creatures, you will
+get used to it."
+
+"But the fire makes them see us, and we can't see them," I said, in an
+ill-used tone.
+
+Just then there arose from what seemed to be just the other side of the
+fire one of the most awful cries I ever heard, and my hair felt as if a
+tiny cold hand were stirring it about the roots, while a curious
+sensation ran down my back.
+
+As the fearsome howl rang out the doctor levelled his piece, ready to
+fire, and as the fire shone full upon him in his half-kneeling position
+there was something terribly earnest in his face, and he looked so brave
+that it seemed to give me a little courage just when I seemed to have
+none.
+
+"Pick up some of those thin branches and throw them on the fire," said
+the doctor; and I hurried to obey his command, when there was another
+awful howling roar, and the creature, whatever it was, charged at me;
+but I threw on the branches all the same, when the fire leaped up with a
+tremendous blaze, lighting the forest all round.
+
+"See it, doctor?"  I whispered.
+
+"No," he answered; "it keeps in amongst the trees."
+
+The doctor's voice sounded so hoarse and strange that it added to my
+trepidation.  He stopped, and I wanted him to go on talking, but he
+remained silent, while once more the forest resounded with the hideous
+cry of the beast.
+
+The wood blazed well, so that I could see, as it were, a circle of
+light, and behind us our black shadows were thrown upon the trees, quite
+startling me as I looked round.
+
+"Keep up the fire," whispered the doctor; "whatever it is it will not
+attack while there is this blaze."
+
+I obeyed him and kept on throwing twigs and boughs that had been laid in
+a heap ready, but with a curious sensation of dread the while, for it
+seemed to me that if the fire consumed all our wood we should be left at
+the creature's mercy.
+
+All at once it seemed to me that the rustling and snuffling noise was
+coming round to our left, and as if I had drawn his attention to the
+fact, the doctor exclaimed:
+
+"Yes, it is coming on here; keep round this way."
+
+We edged round the fire so as to keep it between us and the animal that
+seemed to be watching us, when all at once the sound came from close
+behind us, and, as if moved by one impulse, we bounded past the fire,
+the pieces I had held in my hand making a crackling blaze and shower of
+sparks.
+
+This seemed to excite our assailant, which uttered three hideous roars
+at intervals, and each seemed nearer than the last, so that we were
+driven to keep on edging round the fire so as to keep it as our shield.
+
+We walked slowly round the fire three times, fully aware of the fact
+that the creature was regularly stalking us, for it kept up the
+scratching rustling noise, and howled at intervals.
+
+This was trying enough to our nerves; but when, all at once, every sound
+ceased, and we stood there by the ruddy blaze, it seemed terrible to
+know that our enemy was close at hand, but not to know exactly where.
+At any moment we felt that it might spring upon us, and I turned a
+wistful look upon the doctor, which he responded to by saying:
+
+"Throw on more wood."
+
+I obeyed him, and the blaze flashed up higher once again, spreading a
+cloud of sparks on high to rise among the leaves and tinge the broad
+branches with a ruddy golden glow.
+
+I gazed in all directions for the danger, and started with nervous
+trepidation every time the doctor spoke, his words being
+generally--"Throw on more wood."  But at last, after a terrible period
+of anxious silence, he whispered my name.
+
+"Yes," I said.
+
+"This can't go on much longer.  I'm afraid the beast is coming nearer.
+Can you see anything your side?"
+
+"Yes--no--yes, I think so," I whispered back.  "There's a shadowy
+something just at the edge of the light.  I think it is some kind of
+wild beast."
+
+"Is it the dog?" he whispered back.
+
+"No," I said.  "Gyp always sleeps close to his master."
+
+"Do you think you could take steady aim at it, my lad?" he said.
+
+"I don't know," I replied, "but I will try.  Shall I fire at it?"
+
+"Let me think," he answered.  "I don't know whether it would be wise to
+fire, and perhaps only wound the creature."
+
+"But perhaps I shall kill it," I said.
+
+"It is doubtful, Joe," he replied, "and the noise of your piece would
+bring out our people, perhaps into danger.  Let us wait.  Here," he
+said, "I have it!  This beast has been cautiously following us round,
+always keeping out of our sight.  I think now that the best way will be
+for you to continue the retreat round the fire while I stop here on one
+knee.  The beast will then follow you, and I shall get a good certain
+shot at him."
+
+I did not like the idea at all, for it seemed like setting a trap and
+making me the bait; but I said nothing beyond intimating that I would do
+as he wished, and he went on:
+
+"I shall be certain to hit the brute, but I may not kill, so be ready to
+fire in turn; you will get a good chance for a sure hit, the animal will
+be less cautious."
+
+"Stop a moment," I said.  "I thought at first that it would be very
+dangerous for me; now I see that it will be more dangerous for you.
+Let's keep together."
+
+"Do as I bid you," he replied sternly.  "Now go on round, as if trying
+to keep the fire between you and danger.  Fire quickly if you have a
+good chance, and don't miss.  But first of all let's try the effect of a
+firebrand or two in the direction you think you saw the brute."
+
+He picked up a piece of blazing wood and gave it a whirl round his head.
+
+The result was to bring a fierce roar from the wood close behind us, and
+we involuntarily sprang to the other side of our fire.
+
+"There's no knowing where to have the beast," muttered the doctor, as he
+realised the cunning sneaking habits of our enemy.
+
+As he spoke he stooped and picked up another blazing piece of wood, for
+he had dropped the first to bring his gun to bear.  Now, holding the gun
+in his left hand, he gave the blazing wood a whirl round his head and
+threw it in the direction from which the fierce roar had come.
+
+To my horror and consternation it was answered by a savage yell, and
+something charged out nearly to the fire but dashed back directly, so
+quickly, indeed, that we had no time to get more than a sharp shot
+apiece at the fierce creature.
+
+"Load again quickly," whispered the doctor; and I obeyed him, listening
+the while to the rustling crackling noise at a little distance.
+
+"Do you think we hit it?"  I said softly.  I was afraid to speak aloud
+lest it should bring down a charge upon us.
+
+"I'm afraid not," he replied, as he reloaded and then stood scanning the
+edge of the circle of light formed by the fire's glow.
+
+There was nothing visible but what seemed to be a dark opening amongst
+the trees, through which it appeared to me that our enemy must have
+passed.
+
+Then we waited, watching so excitedly for the next attack that the fire
+was for the moment forgotten.  Then, seeing the glow it cast become
+less, we both seized upon armfuls of wood and threw them on, deadening
+the flame so that the space around was comparatively dark.
+
+That was the most anxious time of all, for, do what we would, the fire
+sent forth huge volumes of smoke, but would not blaze.  At any moment it
+seemed that the great beast might take advantage of the gloom and spring
+upon us, and we shook the ends of the burning branches and half-consumed
+pieces of wood, but in vain.  Instead of the light glow there was
+comparative darkness, and in despair, as if again moved by the same
+impulse, we ceased troubling about the fire, and stood with hand on
+trigger, ready to pull at the first chance.
+
+Then all at once there was a vivid tongue of flame cutting right through
+the thick smoke, another and another, and I uttered a sigh of relief as
+the heap of smouldering boughs and leaves burst once more into a blaze.
+
+"Now while the light lasts let's have a good shot at the brute," said
+the doctor, speaking as if nerved to desperation by the torture under
+which we both writhed.  "I'm going to kneel here, Joe; you walk on, and
+that will make the tiger, or whatever it is, show itself in watching
+you."
+
+"It isn't a tiger," I whispered.  "I caught sight of it, and it looked
+more like a man."
+
+The doctor gave me a quick look, and then said sharply, "Go on!"
+
+I obeyed him, walking backwards round the fire, my piece ready, so as to
+get a shot if I saw the creature again; but this time all remained
+perfectly still, and though I went right round the fire, no sound came
+from among the trees.
+
+"Take a piece of burning wood and throw it opposite to where you stand,
+Joe."
+
+I did so, and the blazing wood described an arc, fell in a tuft of dry
+undergrowth which burst out into a vivid column of light for a few
+minutes and died out, but there was no charge, no roar from our enemy,
+not even the rustling of the bushes as it passed through.
+
+"It's very strange, Joe," whispered the doctor.  "Pile on more wood."
+
+I obeyed him, and this time it caught directly and there was a
+tremendous blaze, but no attack followed; and we stood listening for
+some sound of the enemy in vain.
+
+"You must have shot it," I said, speaking with some confidence.
+
+"Or else you did, Joe," said the doctor.
+
+I shook my head, and we remained listening for quite a quarter of an
+hour, but still in vain.  The silence in the forest was now awful, and
+though we strained our eyes till the fire across which we looked dazzled
+them, we could see nothing to cause alarm.
+
+"Either it's dead or it has gone off, scared by our fire," said the
+doctor at last.  And now that we found time to think, he continued, with
+a smile, "I hope we are not going to have many such night-watches as
+this on our expedition.  I say though, my lad, how some people can
+sleep!  I should have thought that those howls would have wakened
+anything.  Why, hallo!  Gyp, didn't you hear anything?  Where's your
+master?"
+
+He stooped and patted the dog, which came trotting up to us, and then
+yawned and stretched himself out.
+
+"Here I am," said Jack Penny, involuntarily imitating his dog.  "Here,
+where's that chap Jimmy?  He was to watch with me, wasn't he?  Is it
+time?"
+
+"Time!  Yes," I said impatiently.  "You ought to have been here two
+hours ago.  He'll have to look out, won't he, doctor, for that tiger or
+wild man."
+
+"Yah! stuff!" said Jack with a sneer.  "I sha'n't see no--hullo! what
+has Gyp found?  Look, there's something there."
+
+We all turned to see the dog, which had picked up some scent about
+half-way between the fire and the edge of the circle of light.  He ran
+at once to the thick bushes, barked angrily, and then followed the scent
+round and round the fire at the distance of about twenty yards, ending
+by dashing right off into the forest depths, his bark growing fainter as
+we listened.
+
+"I say, ought we to follow Gyp?" said Jack Penny.
+
+"If we wish to lose our lives," replied the doctor.  "You see, Joe, it
+has gone right off."
+
+"But I don't like Gyp to go off after anything and not follow him,"
+cried Jack Penny.  "He's a good dog, you know.  What is it he's after?"
+
+"Some savage beast that has been haunting us all night," cried the
+doctor.  "I should like to follow Gyp, but it would be madness, my lads,
+and--hark, what's that?"
+
+I felt cold as a most unearthly howl came from a long distance away.
+
+"Is--is that him?" said Jack, whose eyes looked round and large.
+
+"Dat big bunyip," said a voice that made us start, for Jimmy had come up
+from the dark camp unperceived.  "Eat black fellow, white man, anyfing."
+
+No one replied to Jimmy's piece of information, and we listened for some
+minutes till a faint rustling, heard first by the black, who stood ready
+to hurl his spear, made us all place a finger on the trigger.
+
+But it was only caused by the dog, who soon after came into sight, with
+his tail between his legs, and his hair bristling with terror.
+
+He ran right to his master and stood behind him, shivering and whining,
+as he stared in the direction from which he had come.
+
+"Gyp see big bunyip!" cried Jimmy.  "Gyp find a bunyip!"
+
+"I say," said Jack; "it's my watch now.  I s'pose you two are going to
+lie down."
+
+"Frightened, Jack?"  I said maliciously.
+
+"P'r'aps I am, and p'r'aps I ain't," said Jack stoutly.  "I should say I
+felt frightened if I was; but if you two were going to watch I wouldn't
+go away and leave you with a big beast like that about.  He must be a
+big one or he wouldn't have frightened Gyp, who'll tackle old man
+kangaroos six-foot high.  You can go if you like, though."
+
+This was a long speech for Jack Penny, who rubbed one of his ears in an
+ill-used way.
+
+"Jimmy, black fellow 'fraid um bunyip; oh, yes!" said my follower; "but
+Jimmy no run away."
+
+"We shall not leave you alone, Penny," said the doctor, smiling.  "It
+would not be fair."
+
+So we stayed with him till day broke, and not having heard the slightest
+sound to intimate the neighbourhood of danger, and the dog lying quite
+still and content by his master, the doctor and I went to get a couple
+of hours' rest, just as the forest glades were beginning to echo with
+the screaming of birds of the parrot family, Jimmy bending over me and
+poking me with the butt end of his spear, almost directly, so it seemed
+to me, that I had lain down.
+
+"Jimmy hungry," he said; "gimmy damper--brackfass.  Come long."
+
+"Did you hear the bunyip any more, Jimmy?"  I said, yawning.
+
+"No.  Bunyip go sleep all a morning--all a day!  Come a night.
+How-wow!"
+
+He put his head on one side and gave so marvellous an imitation of the
+terrible cries I had heard during the night that I felt sure he must
+know the creature.
+
+"What is it makes that noise, Jimmy?"  I said eagerly.
+
+"Bunyip--big ugly fellow bunyip!" he exclaimed; and I felt so cross and
+annoyed with his eternal bunyip that I was ready to kick him; but I
+refrained, and went instead to the fire, where the doctor was waiting
+breakfast, after sending Jimmy to wake me up.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
+
+HOW JACK PENNY WAS PERSECUTED BY PIGS.
+
+I have often thought since what a wild journey ours was, and how
+ignorant we must have been to plunge recklessly and in such a haphazard
+way into a country that, though an island, is a long way on towards
+being large enough to be called a continent.
+
+Still we made the venture, and somehow as soon as a peril was passed we
+all looked upon it as belonging to yesterday, and troubled ourselves
+about it no more.
+
+I had risen on the morning after our nocturnal adventure feeling
+despondent and sleepy; but the bright sunshine and the tempting odour of
+roasting bird stuck on a stick close to the flame, soon made me forget
+the troubles of the night, and an hour later, with every one in the best
+of spirits, we made a fresh start, keeping near the river, but beneath
+the shade of the trees, for the sun seemed to be showering down burning
+arrows, and wherever we had to journey across the open the heat was
+intense.
+
+In the shady parts the green of the undergrowth looked delicate and
+pale, but in the sunshine it was of the most vivid green; and bathing in
+it, as it were, flies and beetles hummed and buzzed, and beat their
+gauzy wings, so that they seemed invisible, while wherever there was a
+bare patch of stony or rocky earth lizards were hurrying in and out, and
+now and then a drab-looking little serpent lay twisted up into a knot.
+
+The bearers stepped along lightly enough beneath their loads, and I
+observed that they never looked to right or left, or seemed to admire
+anything before them, their eyes being always fixed upon the earth where
+they were about to plant their feet.
+
+Ti-hi in particular tried to warn me to be on the look-out, pointing
+over and over again to the spade-headed little serpents we saw now and
+then gliding in amongst the grass.
+
+"Killum," said Jimmy upon one of these occasions, and he suited the word
+to the action by striking one of these little reptiles with his spear
+and breaking its back.  After this he spat viciously at the little
+creature, picking it up by its tail and jerking it right away amongst
+the trees.
+
+"No killum kill all a body," said Jimmy nodding; and he went through a
+sort of pantomime, showing the consequences of being bitten by a viper,
+beginning with drowsiness, continuing through violent sickness, which it
+seemed was followed by a fall upon the earth, a few kicks and struggles,
+and lastly by death, for the black ended his performance by stretching
+himself out stiffly and closing his eyes, saying:
+
+"Jimmy dead; black fellow dig big hole and put um in de ground.  Poor
+old Jimmy!"
+
+Then he jumped up and laughed, saying: "Killum all um snake!  No good!
+No!"
+
+"I say, Joe Carstairs," said Jack Penny, who had watched the performance
+with a good deal of interest; "don't that chap ever get tired?"
+
+"Oh yes; and goes to sleep every time he gets a chance," I said.
+
+"Yes! but don't his back ache?  Mine does, horrid, every day, without
+banging about like that;" and as if he felt his trouble then Jack Penny
+turned his rueful-looking boy's face to me and began softly rubbing his
+long man's back just across the loins.
+
+It was very funny, too, when Jack was speaking earnestly.  In an
+ordinary conversation he would go on drawl, drawl, drawl in a bass
+voice; but whenever he grew excited he began to squeak and talk in a
+high-pitched treble like a boy, till he noticed it himself, and then he
+would begin to growl again in almost an angry tone; and this was the
+case now.
+
+"Here, you're laughing!" he said savagely.  "I can't help being tall and
+thin, and having a gruff voice like a man, when I'm only a boy.  I don't
+try to be big and tall!  I grew so.  And I don't try to talk gruff."
+
+"Oh yes! you do, Jack," I said.
+
+"Well, p'r'aps I do; but I don't try to talk thin, like I do sometimes."
+
+"I couldn't help laughing, Jack," I said, holding out my hand.  "I did
+not mean to ridicule you."
+
+He gave my hand quite an angry slap and turned away, but only to come
+back directly.
+
+"Here, I say; I beg your pardon, Joe Carstairs," he said, holding out
+his hand, which I shook heartily.  "I wish I hadn't got such a beastly
+bad temper.  I do try not to show it, but it makes me wild when people
+laugh at me."
+
+"Well, I won't laugh at you any more, Jack," I said earnestly.
+
+"No, don't; there's a good chap," he said, with the tears in his eyes.
+"It's partly why I came away from home, you know.  I wanted to come and
+find the professor, of course, and I like coming for the change; but
+it's principally that."
+
+"Principally _that_!"  I said.  "I don't understand you, Jack."
+
+"Why, I mean about being laughed at!  Everybody has always been laughing
+at me, because I grew so thin and long and weak-looking, and I got tired
+of it at last, and was precious glad to come out to New Guinea to stop
+till I had grown thicker.  For I said to myself, I don't s'pose the
+savage chaps will laugh at me, and if they do I can drop on 'em and they
+won't do it again."
+
+"It must have been unpleasant, Jack," I said.
+
+"It's horrid, old fellow," he said confidentially; "and all the more
+because you are obliged to laugh at it all when you feel as if you'd
+like to double 'em up and jump on 'em."
+
+"Well, there, Jack; I give you my word I won't laugh at you again."
+
+"Will you?" cried Jack, with his face beaming, and looking quite
+pleasant.  "Well, that is kind of you.  If the doctor wouldn't laugh
+either I should be as happy as the day's long."
+
+"I'll ask him not to," I said.
+
+"Oh, no; don't do that!" he cried quickly then; "he'd leave off laughing
+at me just out of pity, and I'd rather he laughed at me than pitied me,
+you know.  Don't ask him not."
+
+"All right!"  I said.  "I will not."
+
+"I'd rather he laughed at me," said Jack again thoughtfully; "for I like
+the doctor; he's such a brave chap.  I say, Joe Carstairs, I wish I
+could grow into a big broad-chested brave chap with a great beard, like
+the doctor."
+
+"So you will some day."
+
+"Tchah!" he cried impatiently.  "Look there--there's long thin arms!
+There's a pair of legs!  And see what a body I've got.  I ain't got no
+looking-glass here, but last time I looked at myself my head and face
+looked like a small knob on the top of a thin pump."
+
+"You let yourself alone, and don't grumble at your shape," I said
+sturdily, and to tell the truth rather surprising myself, for I had no
+idea that I was such a philosopher.  "Your legs are right enough.  They
+only want flesh and muscle, and it's the same with your arms.  Wait a
+bit and it will all come, just as beards do when people grow to be men."
+
+"I sha'n't never have any beard," said Jack, dolefully; "my face is as
+smooth as a girl's!"
+
+"I daresay the doctor was only a little smooth soft baby once," I said;
+"and now see what he is."
+
+"Ah! ain't he a fine fellow?" said Jack.  "I'm going to try and do as he
+does, and I want to have plenty of pluck; but no sooner do I get into a
+scrape than I turn cowardly, same as I did over that little humbug of a
+crocodile."
+
+"Don't talk nonsense, Jack!"  I said.
+
+"'Tisn't nonsense!  Why, if I'd had as much courage as a wallaby I
+should have kicked that thing out of the water; and all I did was to lay
+hold of a bough and holler murder!"
+
+"I didn't hear you," I said.
+
+"Well, _help_! then.  I know I hollered something."
+
+"And enough to make you.  The doctor said he is sure he should not have
+borne it so bravely as you."
+
+"No: did he?  When?"
+
+"To be sure he did, when we were sitting watching last night."
+
+"Bah! it was only his fun.  He was laughing at me again."
+
+"He was not," I said decidedly.  "He was in real earnest."
+
+"Oh!" said Jack softly; and there was once more the pleasant light in
+his countenance that quite brightened it up.
+
+I was going to say something else, but he made a motion with his hand as
+if asking me to be silent; and he walked on to the front to go behind
+Ti-hi, who was first man, while I went and marched beside the doctor,
+and chatted with him about the country and our future prospects.
+
+"It seems, almost too lovely," I said; "and it worries me because I feel
+as if I ought to be sad and unhappy, while all the time everything seems
+so beautiful that I can't help enjoying it."
+
+"In spite of perils and dangers, Joe, eh?" he said smiling; and then we
+went on threading our way amongst the magnificent trees, and every now
+and then coming upon one standing all alone, its position having allowed
+of its growing into a perfect state.
+
+Again we came upon one of these, literally alive with parrots; and, as I
+stopped to admire them, I could see that when they opened their vivid
+green wings the inner parts were of a brilliant flame colour, and there
+was a ruddy orange patch upon the little feathers at the inset of their
+tails.
+
+Then we came upon monkeys again, quite a family of them, and instead of
+running away and leaping from branch to branch they began to chatter and
+shriek and dash about in the greatest excitement, just as if they were
+scolding us for coming among them, chattering among themselves directly
+after as if meditating an attack.
+
+Before another hour had passed, after noting the beauty of the
+butterflies, which seemed to increase in number as we penetrated farther
+into the interior, we came next upon an enormous tree full of
+gaudily-tinted parroquets, which were nearly as numerous as the parrots
+of an hour before.
+
+"We sha'n't want for food, Joe," the doctor said, "so long as we have
+plenty of powder; parroquets and parrots are fruit birds, and splendid
+eating.  Look there."
+
+As he spoke he raised his gun, fired, and directly the report had struck
+my ears I saw Jimmy and Gyp set off at full speed.
+
+They returned both at odds, the one growling, the other calling his
+rival a bad bunyip dog, but both holding tightly by a large bird, Gyp
+having its head, Jimmy the legs.
+
+It proved to be something between a turkey and a pheasant, and from its
+look it promised to be good eating, for which purpose it was handed over
+to Ti-hi's care.
+
+The leader now bore off a little to our left, the result being that we
+once more struck the river, to find it a large swift stream, but not an
+attractive place for travellers, since from that one spot where we stood
+beneath the shelter of some trees I counted at least twenty crocodiles
+floating slowly down, with the protuberances above their eyes just
+visible, and here and there at least thirty more lying about on the
+muddy banks.
+
+Towards evening, as we were journeying slowly on, Jimmy came running
+back to fetch me, and catching me by the hand he led me through some
+bushes to where a thickly wooded park-like stretch of land began, and
+motioning me to be silent and follow him he crept from tree to tree,
+till, having reached what he considered to be a satisfactory position,
+he pointed upward, and from behind the tree where we were ensconced I
+looked among the branches far overhead, and for the first time saw one
+of those wonderfully plumaged creatures--the birds of paradise.
+
+I could have stopped there for long, gazing at the beautiful creatures
+with their fountain-like plumage of pale gold, but time would not permit
+of my lagging behind, and to Jimmy's great disgust I hurried back, and
+determined that no object should lead me away from the great aim of our
+journey.
+
+The turkey was ample as a meal for us, but we wanted food for our
+followers, so as to husband our flour and biscuits.  Birds were all very
+well, but we wanted to kill something more substantial, and for a long
+time past we had seen no sign of deer, though traces of buffalo were
+pretty frequent in spots where they had made a peculiar track down to
+the river, evidently going regularly to quench their thirst.
+
+The sight of the buffalo tracks formed the subject of a discussion.
+Fresh meat was wanted for our followers, who made very light of birds,
+and one of these animals would have been invaluable to us just then; but
+the doctor decided that it would not be prudent to follow them, they
+being rather dangerous beasts, and therefore, though the meat would have
+been so useful both for present use and to dry in the sun, we gave up
+the idea of trying to obtain any, preferring to trust to finding deer,
+and continued our journey.
+
+We had gone very little farther, and I was just about to propose to the
+doctor that we should venture as far as the river and try for some fish,
+when there was an alarm given by the native who was leading, and in an
+instant loads were thrown down and every man sought refuge in a tree.
+
+We did not understand the natives' words, but their actions were easy
+enough to read, and all followed their example, the doctor and I getting
+up into the same tree, one which forked very low down, and we were just
+in safety when we heard a cry, and saw that Jack Penny was in
+difficulties.  He too had climbed part of the way into a tree, when he
+had slipped, and in spite of all his efforts he could not at first
+contrive to get back; and this was just as a rushing noise was heard,
+that I thought must be a herd of buffalo, but, directly after, a drove
+of small wild pig came furiously charging down.
+
+My attention was divided between the sight of the pigs and Jack Penny,
+whose long legs kept dropping down, and then being spasmodically
+snatched up.
+
+I burst into a roar of laughter, and Jimmy, who was standing, spear in
+hand, upon a branch, holding on by another, danced with excitement and
+delight.
+
+"Pull yourself right up, Jack," I shouted, and I had hard work to make
+my voice heard above the grunting and squealing.
+
+"I can't," he yelled back.
+
+"Then kick out at the little brutes," I shouted; and just then he
+lowered himself to the full length of his arms, swung to and fro, and
+half-a-dozen pigs rushed at him, but he had gained impetus, and just as
+they made a dash at him he swung his legs up, and clung with them to a
+branch.
+
+"Hurrah!"  I shouted; and then a sharp squeal uttered by one unfortunate
+pig as Jimmy drove his spear through it as it passed beneath his feet,
+and the sharp report of the doctor's piece, brought me to my senses.
+
+The scene had been so comical, especially as regarded Jack Penny, that I
+had forgotten that I was letting several good dinners slip away, and I
+had just time to get a quick shot at one of the pigs which was stamping
+his hoof and grunting defiantly at Jack Penny, before the whole drove,
+including one that had received an arrow from Ti-hi's bow, swept by us
+as hurriedly as they came, and were gone.
+
+"Not hurt, are you, Jack?"  I said, preparing to jump.
+
+"Keep your place," cried the doctor; "they may come back."
+
+"Well, I shall have a better shot at them," I said.
+
+"You foolish boy!" cried the doctor.  "Why, the boars would rip you to
+pieces."
+
+I returned to my place at this, and it was fortunate that I did so, for
+directly after, as if in the wildest of haste, the pig drove came
+dashing back, to stop as hastily as they came up, and stand snapping,
+tossing their heads, grunting, squealing, and at times literally barking
+at us.
+
+A couple of shots which laid low one of their party seemed, however, to
+scare them, and they dashed on once more, and hardly had they gone
+twenty yards before there was a loud thud and Jack Penny fell from the
+branch, where he had been clinging, flat upon his back.
+
+"Oh my!" he cried, as he sat up and looked about.  "I couldn't hold on
+any longer.  It's lucky they are gone."
+
+"Look out!"  I cried, swinging myself down, dropping my gun, and pulling
+my hatchet from my belt; but Jack would have fared badly if he had
+depended on me.
+
+For the little boar that had been wounded by an arrow, had dropped,
+apparently dying, when its companions swept by the second time, but it
+had fierce life enough left in it to take advantage of Jack Penny's
+helpless condition, and leaping up it charged at him, its tusks
+glistening, and the foam tossed from its snapping jaws falling upon its
+sides.
+
+A bullet would have given the fierce beast its quietus, but the doctor
+would not fire for fear of hitting Jack, and he sat with his gun raised
+waiting for an opportunity.
+
+Jack saw his danger and rolled himself over, trying vainly the while to
+drag his axe from his belt.  Then just as the furious little boar was
+dashing at him, I saw something black dart down from above; there was a
+rush, a squeal, and the boar was literally pinned to the earth, while
+Jimmy stood grinning and staring from the doctor to me and back, as if
+asking to be complimented upon his feat.  For it really was a feat.  He
+had jumped fully ten feet to the ground spear in hand, and literally
+thrown himself upon the little boar.
+
+"A magnificent jump, Jimmy," I cried.
+
+"Jimmy de boy to jump," he said, complacently.  "Pig, pig kill Mass Jack
+Penny, Jimmy no spear um."
+
+"Yes, I 'spect I should have ketched it pretty warmly," said Jack,
+gathering himself up.  "Oh, I say, I did come down such a bump, Joe
+Carstairs.  It seemed to shake my back joints all to pieces."
+
+"Jimmy spear um lil pig, pig," said the black.
+
+"Yes, and I'll give you my knife for it," said Jack, taking out his
+great clasp-knife.  "It's a real good one, Jimmy, and I wouldn't have
+parted with it for a deal."
+
+"Jimmy got knife," said the black, with a contemptuous look.  "Jimmy
+don't want knife."
+
+"Well, then, what shall I give you?" said Jack.
+
+"Tickpence," said he, grinning; "give Jimmy tickpence."
+
+"Why, what for?"  I cried.  "What are you going to do with _tick_
+pence?"
+
+"Spend um," said Jimmy; "black fellow spend money, money.  Give Jimmy
+all a tickpence."
+
+"But there's nowhere to spend it," I said.
+
+"Nev mind, Jimmy spend tickpence all a same.  Give Jimmy tickpence."
+
+Jack had not a single coin about him, neither had I, but fortunately the
+doctor had one, which he handed to Jack, who gave it to the delighted
+black, and it was forthwith thrust into the pocket of the curtailed
+trousers, after which he strutted about, leaving the other blacks to
+perform the duty of dressing the pigs.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
+
+HOW JIMMY WAS TAKEN VERY BAD INDEED.
+
+This sudden supply of food necessitated our making camp where we were,
+and cutting the meat up into strips to dry, while, apparently on the
+principle of making their hay while the sun shone, the blacks lit a fire
+and had a tremendous feast, both Jack Penny and I laughing heartily to
+see the solemn face of Jimmy as he devoted himself to the task of
+storing up an abundance of food, ready for emergencies.
+
+At our table, as the doctor called it, we contented ourselves with the
+turkey-like bird, which was delicious, but we tasted the wild pig, a
+piece of which, fairly well roasted, was brought to us in the most
+solicitous manner by Ti-hi, who smiled contentedly as he saw us begin to
+partake thereof.
+
+We set it aside, though, as soon as the black had gone, for the doctor
+pronounced it strong and musky, and Jack Penny behaved very rudely,
+according to the ordinary etiquette of the dinner table, and exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, law!"
+
+It was a glorious sunset, and the place where we were encamped, as we
+styled it, was once more beneath a huge tree.  For a time I was
+listening to the birds' screams and cries from the forest, and then all
+at once they ceased, and a long-drawn howl, which recalled the horrors
+of our night-watch, arose from a distance.  Then the sun sank, and
+darkness began to come on very quickly.  First the sky paled and a star
+or two began to twinkle, then all above us was of a deep intense purple,
+studded and encrusted with points of dazzling light, and, like the
+doctor, tired out with loss of rest, I began to yawn.
+
+For our evenings were not devoted to amusements.  Our day only had two
+divisions, that for work and that for rest.  As soon as the arduous toil
+of the day was over, and we had partaken of food, we were ready for
+sleep; so this time Jack Penny was set to watch with Ti-hi and Gyp, and
+we lay down on a bough-made bed.
+
+One moment I was lying on my back gazing up at the stars, and first
+thinking of my mother and how anxious she must be as to how I was
+getting on; then wondering where my father was likely to be, and whether
+we were going to work in the best way to find him; the next moment I was
+dreaming that Gyp had run after and caught a wild man of the woods by
+the tail, and had dragged him into camp, howling dismally.
+
+It did not fit into my dream that wild men of the woods were not likely
+to be possessed of tails for Gyp to tug, and if they were, that they
+would have striven to crush the dog by one blow of the hand; my dream
+arranged itself, and the howling was continued as I started up, all
+wakefulness, and saw a dark figure bending over me and looking colossal
+as seen against the ruddy light of the fire.
+
+"Is that you, doctor?"  I said.
+
+"Yes, Joe; wake up.  I want you."
+
+"What's the matter--has that horrible thing come again?"
+
+"No," he said; "the black is very bad."
+
+"What! old Jimmy?"  I cried.
+
+"Yes.  That is he howling."
+
+I jumped up with a curious sensation of suffocation at my chest, for,
+startled from a deep sleep into wakefulness, it occurred to me that
+something dreadful was going to happen, and that we were to lose the
+true-hearted, merry, boyish companion of so many years.  Like a flash
+there seemed to come back to me the memory of dozens of expeditions in
+which he had been my faithful comrade, and this was like a death-blow to
+our hopes, for, in spite of his obstinacy and arrogance, Jimmy would
+have laid down his life to serve me.
+
+"Let us go to him, doctor," I said.  "Make haste!"
+
+Our way to the black lay past the camp fire, where Jack Penny was
+sitting with Ti-hi, and the former spoke excitedly as we drew near:
+
+"I say, doctor, do make haste and give him a dose of something to do him
+good, or else put him out of his misery."
+
+"Jack!"  I said in disgust.
+
+"Well, he's awful bad, you know, and he ought to have something.  Mind
+how you go to him.  I went just now and he began hitting at my legs with
+his waddy, and then he poked at Gyp with his spear for going up to smell
+him."
+
+"He won't hurt me," I said sadly; and as another doleful cry came from
+among the bushes, I led the way to where the poor fellow lay, horribly
+swollen and writhing in agony.
+
+Two of the blacks were watching him, and from what we could make out it
+seemed that Jimmy had alarmed them by his restlessness, and that they
+had fetched him back when he ran some distance and fell, and laid him
+where he now was, in too much agony to stir.
+
+"What is the matter with him, doctor?"  I said excitedly, as I went down
+on one knee and took the poor fellow's hand, which he grasped
+convulsively, and laid flat directly upon his chest--at least that is to
+say, nearly.
+
+"I hardly know yet, my lad," said the doctor.  "Perhaps he has eaten
+some poisonous berry.  You know how he tastes every wild fruit we pass."
+
+"And will it--will it--"
+
+I could say no more, for something seemed to choke my voice, and I
+looked up imploringly in the doctor's eyes.
+
+"Oh! no, Joe, my lad," he said kindly, "not so bad as that."
+
+"Jimmy bad as that--Jimmy bad as that," moaned the poor fellow; and as
+just then Jack Penny threw some light twigs upon the fire, the blaze
+showed me the swollen and distorted countenance of my poor companion,
+and a strange chill of apprehension came over me.
+
+We watched by him all night, but he grew worse towards morning, and at
+last he lay apparently stupefied, free from pain, but as if the berry,
+or whatever it was that he had swallowed, had rendered him insensible.
+
+Of course, continuing our journey was out of the question, so all we
+could do was to make the rough brushwood pallet of the sufferer more
+comfortable by spreading over it a blanket, and I did little else but
+watch by it all the day.
+
+I felt hurt two or three times by the rough, unfeeling manner in which
+the doctor behaved towards the black, and I could not help thinking that
+if Jimmy had been a white man the treatment would have been different.
+
+This worried me a good deal, for it seemed so different to the doctor's
+customary way; but I took comfort from the fact that poor Jimmy was as
+insensible to pain as he was to kindness, and in this state of misery I
+hardly left him all day.
+
+Towards evening the doctor, who had spent the time overhauling and
+cleaning our guns and pistols, came to me and insisted upon my going to
+Jack Penny, who had just got a good meal ready.
+
+"But I am not a bit hungry, doctor," I cried.
+
+"Then go and eat against you are," he said.  "Lay in a moderate store,
+and don't," he added meaningly, "don't eat more than is good for you."
+
+I looked at him wonderingly, and got up without a word, feeling more
+hurt and annoyed with him than ever, and the more so as he looked at me
+with a peculiar smile as he twisted a stout cane about in his hands.
+
+"How's Jimmy?" said Jack Penny.
+
+"Dying," I said sadly, as I took my seat before him.
+
+"Oh!  I say, not so bad as that, Joe Carstairs!  It takes a lot to kill
+a fellow like Jimmy.  He'll come all right again.  Here, set to and have
+a good feed.  You must want it awfully."
+
+"I can't eat," I said bitterly.  "I liked poor old Jimmy.  A better
+fellow never breathed.  He saved your life yesterday."
+
+"Ah! that he did," said Jack; "and it's all right.  The doctor says--
+Hullo! what's that?"
+
+I started to my feet, for a horrible scream rang through the woods from
+the direction where poor Jimmy lay; and a pang shot through me as I felt
+that it was a new throe being suffered by my poor black comrade--comrade
+soon to be no more.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
+
+HOW THE DOCTOR GAVE JIMMY HIS PHYSICS.
+
+I could not move for a few moments, the terrible cry and the shrieks
+that followed seemed to rob me of all power; but overcoming this
+paralysing feeling at last, I ran towards where poor Jimmy lay, the
+thought flashing upon my mind that the doctor must be performing some
+operation to try and save the poor fellow's life.
+
+I was quite right, as I found when I reached the spot, followed by all
+the little camp: the doctor was performing an operation, and the
+Australian was upon his knees now, his feet then, capering about, and
+appealing for mercy.
+
+For the instrument with which the doctor was performing his operation
+was the stout cane I had previously seen in his hand, one that he had
+cut in the jungle, and then sent me away so as to spare my feelings and
+keep me from witnessing the painful sight.
+
+To my utter astonishment Jimmy was apparently free from all traces of
+his late ailment, and catching sight of me he bounded to me, getting
+behind me to avoid the hail of blows that the doctor was showering upon
+his unprotected person.
+
+"Doctor!"  I shouted.
+
+"The dose to be repeated," he said, "when necessary," and he reached
+round me with the cane, giving Jimmy two or three very sharp cuts.  "See
+how this takes down the swelling.  For outward application only.  One
+dose nearly certain to cure."
+
+"What are you doing?"  I cried.
+
+"Doing?  Performing a wonderful cure.  Hasn't Jimmy here been horribly
+ill, and alarmed the whole camp?"
+
+Every time he could he gave Jimmy a smart cut, and the black shrieked
+with pain.
+
+"How are you now, my man?" he said mockingly.
+
+"Jimmy quite as well.  Ever so better.  All rightums.  Tank you better,"
+yelled the black, and he sheltered himself again behind my back.
+
+"Doctor," I said, surprised and angry at what seemed horrible cruelty.
+
+"Give him some more?" he said laughing.  "Of course I will," and he
+tried to reach round me, but I caught hold of the cane, and Jimmy took
+advantage of the cessation of hostilities for a moment to run for some
+distance and then climb up a tree, in one of the higher branches of
+which he settled himself like a monkey, and sat rubbing himself and
+looking down at the danger from which he had escaped.
+
+"There, Joe," said the doctor, laughing; "it has made me hot.  That's as
+good a cure as the Queen's physician could have made."
+
+"How could you be so brutal to the poor wretch?"  I said indignantly.
+
+"Brutal!  Ha! ha! ha!  My indignant young hero!" he cried.  "Here are
+you going to take up the cudgels in the rascal's behalf.  Don't you see
+there was nothing the matter with the artful black ruffian."
+
+"Nothing the matter!"  I said.  "Why, wasn't he dangerously ill?"
+
+"Dangerously full," said the doctor, clapping me on the shoulder.  "I
+was obliged to give him a lesson, Joe, and it will do him good for all
+our trip.  I suspected the rascal from the very first, but I have
+studied medicine long enough to know how easy it is to be deceived by
+appearances; so I gave Master Jimmy the benefit of the doubt, and
+treated him as if he was really very ill, till I had made assurance
+doubly sure, and then I thrashed him."
+
+"What! do you really mean, doctor--" I began.
+
+"It could not very well have happened with an Englishman, Joe.  With
+Master Jimmy there, it was different."
+
+"But was he not very ill?"
+
+"You saw him run and climb that tree; you heard how he yelled.  Now what
+do you think?  Could a dying man do that?"
+
+"N-no," I faltered.  "What does it all mean, then?"
+
+"Pig!" said the doctor, smiling; "the gluttonous dog ate till he could
+not stir.  He had as much as anybody else, and then waited his chance,
+and when every one was lying down he began upon the store of dried
+strips."
+
+"Jimmy terribull sorry, Mass Joe," came from up the tree.
+
+"He behaved like a boa constrictor, and then alarmed us all horribly
+instead of confessing the truth.  Why, my dear boy, do you suppose I
+should have been so cruel to a sick man?"
+
+"You black rascal!"  I cried, looking up at Jimmy, who howled like a
+dog.
+
+"Jimmy come down now!  Never do so no more."
+
+"Only let me have a turn at you," I said, and he immediately began to
+climb higher.
+
+"Here, you come down, sir," I shouted.
+
+For answer he climbed higher and higher till he was pretty well out of
+sight among the small branches in the top of the tree.
+
+"All right!"  I said, "I can wait;" and I walked away with the doctor,
+horribly annoyed at the waste of time, but wonderfully relieved at
+matters being no worse.
+
+I never knew, but I suspect that Jimmy stopped in the top of the tree
+till it was dark and then slunk down and hid himself amongst the bushes
+close up to the watch-fire.
+
+At all events he was busy the next morning working away as if nothing
+had been wrong overnight.  He showed himself to be most active in
+putting things straight, making up the loads, and every now and then
+glancing furtively first at one of us and then at the other.
+
+"Oh, I do like Jimmy, that I do," said Jack Penny to me, and then he
+threw himself down and began to laugh heartily, shutting his eyes and
+rolling himself gently to and fro till he declared that he felt better,
+and got up.
+
+"I don't care about laughing when I'm standing up," he said seriously,
+"it waggles my back so."
+
+When breakfast time came, for we had a seven or eight mile walk first in
+the cool of the early morning, we made a halt and the rations were
+served out by the doctor, who gave me a look and handed each black his
+portion in turn, but omitted Jimmy.
+
+The latter stood disconsolately looking on for some minutes in the hope
+that he was to be remembered after all; but when he saw everybody busy
+at work eating and himself utterly neglected, he walked slowly away some
+distance from where we were seated and, laying his head against the
+trunk of a tree, let out a series of the most unearthly howls.
+
+"Oh, I say!" exclaimed Jack Penny.
+
+"Pleasant," said the doctor, going on with his breakfast; and seeing
+that he was observed, and that his howls were having some effect, Jimmy
+displayed the utter childlike disposition of a savage by redoubling his
+cries.
+
+"If he don't stop directly I shall go and talk to him with this," I
+said, snatching up a stick.
+
+"How--aw--ooo!" cried Jimmy, and I jumped to my feet, when he became
+silent, and I resumed my place.
+
+Jimmy watched us eagerly for a few minutes, when, left half starved
+himself, and unable to bear the neglect when others were
+enjoying themselves, the howls burst out again followed by a
+self-commiserating--"Poor Jimmy, Mass Joe not care poor Jimmy never
+now."
+
+No one took any notice, and we went on eating grilled turkey and damper
+and drinking coffee, and all the time I was rather enjoying my
+importance and the fact of being able to control, boy as I was, a stout
+powerful fellow like Jimmy and make him as obedient as a dog.
+
+"Poor old Jimmy cut handums.  Ebber so sorry, poor Jimmy.  Go and die
+himself.  Haw--ow!"
+
+"I say," said Jack Penny, "he couldn't dye himself any blacker, could
+he, Joe Carstairs?"
+
+"Have some more coffee, Joe?" said the doctor aloud.  "Here, give me a
+piece more turkey."
+
+"Poor Jimmy go starve a deff," was the next that met our ears, and it
+had such an effect upon Jack Penny that some of his coffee got into his
+windpipe and he choked and coughed and laughed till he was obliged to
+lie down.
+
+"If I was to cough much like that I should break my back," he said,
+sitting up and wiping his eyes.  "Poor old Jimmy?  I do like him.  He
+_is_ a one."
+
+Jimmy stood watching the disappearing food, then he sat down.  Then he
+lay at full length; but no one took the slightest notice, for the blacks
+were selfishly busy, and we were keeping up the punishment for the false
+alarm to which our follower had subjected us.
+
+At last this attack upon Jimmy's tenderest part--his appetite--grew to
+be more than he could bear, and he sat up in the squatting attitude so
+much affected by savages.
+
+"Ah!" he exclaimed dolefully, "poor black fellow--poor Jimmy!" and this
+started Jack Penny off laughing once more, which so exasperated Jimmy
+that he sprang up as sharply as if stung, and ran in a rage to where his
+black companions were eating their food.
+
+"Here, hi! you black fellow, Jimmy done wid him.  Jimmy gib boomerang.
+You no fro down wallaby."
+
+He held out his curious hard-wood weapon to Ti-hi, who took it, gazing
+at him wonderingly, while Jimmy glanced at us to see if we were about to
+relent and give him some breakfast.
+
+"Jimmy going," he said at last, loud enough for us to hear; but we paid
+no heed.
+
+"Jimmy going; nebber come back no more," he said in a louder voice; but
+no one turned a head.
+
+"Jimmy go jump river.  Big bunyip crocodile come eat poor Jimmy.  All um
+very sorry.  No see poor Jimmy not nev more."
+
+He glanced at us again, but we were laughing over our breakfast, though
+not so busy but that we were able to see the black fold his arms and
+stalk away, evidently under the impression that we should start up and
+arrest him; but no one moved.
+
+"Big water bunyip glad get black fellow," he said, as loudly as he
+could, and with a scornful look at us.
+
+"Here, suppose we go," said the doctor, rising.
+
+"Go?" said Jack, getting up slowly, "where to?"
+
+"To see Jimmy feed the crocodiles.  Come along, lads."
+
+Jimmy stopped short with his jaw dropped, and nearly beside himself with
+rage.  He seemed to be completely staggered at our cool way of taking
+things, and at last he ran off like the wind, rushed back again with his
+eyes flashing, and slapping his legs as he darted upon Ti-hi, waddy in
+hand.
+
+"Gib boomerang Jimmy, black tief fellow," he roared.  "Take a boomerang.
+Jimmy boomerang.  Tief fellow tole a boomerang."
+
+Snatching it from Ti-hi's hand he made believe to strike him with the
+curious weapon and then rushed off with it into the bush.
+
+"Well, Joe," said the doctor, "do you think the crocodiles will dine on
+blackbird?"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"What do you say, Jack Penny, eh?"
+
+"Jimmy won't jump in, I know," drawled Jack.
+
+"You're right," said the doctor; "he'll come back before long hungry as
+a hunter, and regularly tamed down or I'm no judge of character."
+
+"Yes," I said, "and he'll bring back something he has killed so as to
+try and make friends.  That's how he always did at home."
+
+"Well," said Jack Penny solemnly, "I hope he will.  I like Jimmy, he
+makes me laugh, and though it hurts my back I like laughing.  It does me
+good.  I never used to have anything to laugh at at home.  Father used
+to laugh when he kicked me, but it never seemed funny to me, and I never
+used to laugh at that."
+
+"Well, Jack Penny, I dare say the black will give you something to laugh
+at before long, for I don't suppose it will be long before he is back."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
+
+HOW I NEARLY HAD AN ARROW TO DRINK.
+
+We were soon on the way towards the interior again, and the doctor and I
+had set to work trying to obtain some information from Ti-hi, and also
+from Aroo, another intelligent looking follower who had been one of the
+prisoners made by the captain of the burnt schooner.
+
+It was hard work, but we were daily getting to understand more and more
+of the commoner words of conversation, and by degrees we managed to make
+out that the reason why we had not come upon any native village was that
+the nearest was still many days' journey distant, but that if we changed
+our course and went down to the sea-shore we should soon find signs of
+occupation.
+
+But I felt that this would be of no use, for if my father had been
+anywhere on the coast he must have come in contact sooner or later with
+one or other of the trading vessels, whose captains, even if they could
+not bring him away on account of his being a prisoner, would certainly
+have reported somewhere that they had seen a white captive, and the news
+must have spread.
+
+"He must be right in the interior somewhere," I said; "and I'm sure we
+can't do better than keep on."
+
+"I think you are right, Joe," said the doctor thoughtfully.
+
+"I feel sure I am," I said.  "I don't expect to find him directly; but I
+mean to go on trying till I do."
+
+"That's the way to find anybody," said Jack Penny.  "You're sure to find
+'em if you keep on like that.  Come along."
+
+Jack went off; taking great strides as if he expected to be successful
+at once; but he did not keep up the pace long, but hung back for me to
+overtake him, saying:
+
+"I say, Joe Carstairs; does your back ever ache much?"
+
+"No," I said; "very little.  Only when I'm very tired."
+
+"Ah! you ain't got so much back as I have," he said, shaking his head.
+"When you've got as much as I have you'll have the back-ache awfully,
+like I do.  I say, I wonder where old Jimmy has got to."
+
+"He's close at hand somewhere," I said.  "Depend upon it he has not gone
+far.  If the truth were known," I continued, "he's walking along abreast
+of us, just hidden in the bushes."
+
+"Think so?" said Jack dubiously.
+
+"I'm about sure of it," I replied.
+
+"I ain't," said Jack.  "I'm afraid he's gone right away back; and we've
+offended him so that we sha'n't see him any more."
+
+"You keep your opinion, Jack, and I'll keep to mine.  I say, I wonder
+what that noise is!"
+
+"Noise!  Birds," said Jack.
+
+"No, no!  That dull murmur.  There, listen!"
+
+"Wind in the trees."
+
+"No, I'm sure it is not!"  I exclaimed.  "There! it is gone now.  It is
+like far-off thunder."
+
+"Water," said the doctor, who had closed up with us unperceived.  "I've
+been listening to it, and it sounds to me like a waterfall.  Depend upon
+it we shall find that the river comes down over some pile of rocks, and
+if we were clear of the forest and could take a good look round we
+should find that the country is growing mountainous on ahead."
+
+It seemed during the next day's journey that the doctor was right, for
+we were certainly ascending, the land growing more rugged and toilsome,
+but at the same time far more beautiful and full of variety.  In place
+of always journeying on through thick forest or park-like stretches, we
+now found our way was among stony ridges and long heavy slopes, with
+here and there a lovely valley, so full of beauty that I used to think
+to myself that perhaps we should find my father had built himself a hut
+in some such place as this, and was patiently going on with his
+collecting.
+
+We had seen nothing of Jimmy for three days, and though I suspected him
+of being close at hand, and coming to our camp at night stealthily in
+search of food, it really began to appear as if he had left us for good,
+when an adventure towards evening showed us who was correct in his
+surmise.
+
+"I don't think much of the doctor's waterfall," Jack said to me, in his
+dry drawling way.
+
+"Why, we haven't seen it!"  I replied.
+
+"No, nor we ain't going to, seemingly.  It's wind amongst the trees."
+
+"Don't be so obstinate," I said, listening intently to hear the heavy
+thunderous murmur still, now I listened for it, though I had not seemed
+to notice it before.
+
+"There ain't no waterfall," he replied, "or we should have seen it
+before now."
+
+"Perhaps the shape of the land keeps us from getting near it, or perhaps
+the wind drives the sound away."
+
+"Or perhaps the sound drives the wind away, or perhaps the--Look out,
+Joe, look out!"
+
+Jack Penny leaped aside nimbly, and I followed his example, hardly
+escaping, while the man in front of me, less quick in his motion
+consequent upon his having a load upon his head, was sent flying by a
+great slate-coloured buffalo which had suddenly charged us from behind a
+clump of trees where it had been lying.
+
+It all happened so quickly that I had not time to think of my gun, while
+the doctor was fifty yards behind, and could not have fired had he been
+able to see, for fear of hurting us.
+
+The great beast had stopped for a moment after sending our bearer
+flying, and then, seeing him down, snorted a little, lowered his head,
+and would doubtless have tossed and trampled him to death had there not
+suddenly come a whirring whizzing noise from some bushes in a hollow on
+our right, when something struck the buffalo a heavy blow upon the
+muzzle, making it turn up its head, utter a furious roar, and charge at
+the bushes.
+
+This was my opportunity, and taking a quick aim I fired, and heard the
+bullet strike with a heavy thud, when the buffalo seemed to drop upon
+its knees on the steep slope, and literally turned a somersault,
+crashing with a tremendous noise into some trees; and then, to my
+astonishment, rising again and going off at a lumbering gallop.
+
+It did not go far, for just then there was the sharp crack of the
+doctor's piece, and once more the buffalo fell heavily, to lie
+struggling, while, to my astonishment I saw a familiar black figure
+bound out of the bushes, catch up the boomerang he had thrown, and then
+race after the buffalo, which he reached just as the doctor also came up
+and put it out of its misery by a merciful shot in the head.
+
+"Jimmy killum!  Jimmy boomerang killum!" shouted the black, dancing on
+the prostrate beast, while Jack and I were busy helping the poor bearer
+to his feet, and making sure that though stunned he was not seriously
+hurt.
+
+"No," said the doctor.  "No bones broken.  It's wonderful what some of
+these savage races will bear."
+
+He ceased his examination and gave the poor fellow a friendly clap on
+the shoulder, while, after lying down for a time in the new
+camping-ground, close up to the welcome supply of meat, the injured man
+was sufficiently recovered to sit up, and eat his share of roast buffalo
+flesh.
+
+Some delicious steaks which we cooked proved very welcome to us by way
+of a change, but we did not commence without a few words with Master
+Jimmy, who was all smiles and friendliness now with everybody, till the
+doctor said, pointing to the abundant supply of meat:
+
+"No more bad illness, Jimmy.  You are not to eat much."
+
+"Jimmy won't eat not bit!" he cried viciously.  "Go in a bush and starve
+a deff."
+
+"There, sit down and eat your supper!" said the doctor sternly; "and no
+more nonsense, please."
+
+The black looked at him in a sidelong fashion, and his fingers played
+with the handle of his waddy, which was behind him in his waistband, and
+then he quailed beneath the doctor's steady gaze, and sat down humbly by
+the camp fire to cook and eat what was really a moderate quantity for an
+Australian black.
+
+Next morning we were off at daybreak, our way lying up a narrow ravine
+for a short distance, and then between a couple of masses of rock, which
+seemed to have been split apart by some earthquake; and directly we were
+through here the dull humming buzz that we had heard more or less for
+days suddenly fell upon our ears with a deep majestic boom that rose at
+times, as the wind set our way, into a deafening roar.
+
+I looked triumphantly at Jack Penny, but he only held his head higher in
+the air and gave a sniff, lowering his crest directly after to attend to
+his feet, for we were now in a complete wilderness of rocks and stones,
+thrown in all directions, and at times we had regularly to climb.
+
+"It is useless to bring the men this way," the doctor said, after a
+couple of hours' labour; but as he spoke Ti-hi called a halt and pointed
+in a different direction, at right angles to that which we had so far
+followed, as being the one we should now take.
+
+The sun had suddenly become unbearable, for we were hemmed in by
+piled-up stones, and its heat was reflected from the brightly glistening
+masses, some of which were too hot even to be touched without pain,
+while the glare was almost blinding wherever the rocks were crystalline
+and white.
+
+"I say, is that a cloud?" said Jack Penny, drawing our attention to a
+fleecy mass that could be seen rising between a couple of masses of
+rock.
+
+"Yes!" cried the doctor eagerly, as he shaded his eyes from the sun's
+glare; "a cloud of spray.  The falls are there!"
+
+"Or is it the wind you can see in the trees?"  I said, with a look at
+Jack Penny.
+
+"Get out!" retorted that gentleman.  "I didn't say I was sure, and
+doctor isn't sure now."
+
+"No, not sure, Penny," he said; "but I think I can take you to where
+water is coming down."
+
+We felt no temptation to go on then, and willingly followed our guides,
+who pointed out a huge mass of overhanging rock right in the side of the
+ravine, and here we gladly halted, in the comparatively cool shade, to
+sit and partake of some of the buffalo strips, my eyes wandering
+dreamily to right and left along the narrow valley so filled with
+stones.
+
+I was roused from my thoughts about the strangeness of the place we were
+in and the absence of trees and thick bush by the doctor proposing a bit
+of a look round.
+
+"We are getting up among the mountains, Joe," he said; "and this means
+more difficult travelling, but at the same time a healthier region and
+less heat."
+
+"Oh, doctor!"  I said, wiping my forehead.
+
+"Why, it couldn't be any hotter than it is out there!" said Jack.
+
+"Come with us, then, and let's see if we can find a fresh way out.
+Perhaps we may hit upon a pass to the open country beyond.  At all
+events let's go and see the falls."
+
+We took our guns, leaving all heavy things with the blacks, who were
+settling themselves for a sleep.
+
+The sun's heat almost made me giddy for the first hundred yards, and
+either my eyes deceived me or Jack Penny's long body wavered and shook.
+
+But we trudged laboriously on over and among masses of rock, that seemed
+to be nearly alive with lizards basking in the sun, their curious coats
+of green and grey and umber-brown glistening in the bright sunshine, and
+looking in some cases as if they were covered with frosted metal as they
+lay motionless upon the pieces of weatherworn stone.
+
+Some raised their heads to look at us, and remained motionless if we
+stopped to watch them, others scuffled rapidly away at the faintest
+sound, giving us just a glimpse of a quivering tail as its owner
+disappeared down a crevice almost by magic.
+
+"Don't! don't fire!" cried the doctor, as Jack suddenly levelled his
+piece.
+
+"Why not?" he said in an ill-used tone.  "I daresay they're poison and
+they ain't no good."
+
+The object that had been his aim was an ash-grey snake, rather short and
+thick of form, which lay coiled into the figure of a letter S, and held
+its head a few inches from the rock on which it lay.
+
+"If you wish to kill the little vipers do it with a stick, my lad.
+Every charge of powder may prove very valuable, and be wanted in an
+emergency."
+
+"I say," said Jack Penny, dropping the butt of his piece on the rock,
+leaning his arms upon it, and staring at the speaker.  "You don't think
+we are likely to have a fight soon, do you?"
+
+"I hope not," said the doctor; "but we shall have to be always on the
+alert, for in a land like this we never know how soon danger may come."
+
+"I say, Jack," I whispered, "do you want to go back?"
+
+"No: I don't want to go back," he said with a snort.  "I don't say I
+ain't afraid.  P'r'aps I am.  I always thought our place lonely, but it
+was nothing to these parts, where there don't seem to be no living
+people at all."
+
+"Well, let's get on," said the doctor, smiling; and we threaded our way
+as well as we could amongst the chaotic masses of stones till we were
+stopped short by a complete crack in the stony earth, just as if the
+land had been dragged asunder.
+
+As we stood on the brink of the chasm, and gazed down at the bottom some
+hundred feet below, we could see that it was a wild stony place, more
+sterile than that we had traversed.  In places there were traces of
+moisture, as if water sometimes trickled down, and where this was the
+case I could see that ferns were growing pretty freely, but on the whole
+the place was barrennesss itself.
+
+It seemed to have a fascination though for Jack Penny, who sat down on
+the edge and dangled his long legs over the rock, amusing himself by
+throwing down pieces of stone on to larger pieces below, so as to see
+them shatter and fall in fragments.
+
+"Snakes!" he said suddenly.  "Look at 'em.  See me hit that one."  He
+pitched down a large piece of stone as he spoke, and I saw something
+glide into a crevice, while another reptile raised itself up against a
+piece of rock and fell back hissing angrily.
+
+We were so high up that I could not tell how big these creatures were,
+but several that we noticed must have been six or seven feet long, and
+like many vipers of the poisonous kinds, very thick in proportion.
+
+I daresay we should have stopped there amusing ourselves for the next
+hour, pitching down stones and making the vipers vicious; but our
+childish pursuit was ended by the doctor, who clapped Jack on the
+shoulder.
+
+"Come, Jack," he said, "if we leave you there you'll fall asleep and
+topple to the bottom."
+
+Jack drew up his legs and climbed once more to his feet, looking very
+hot and languid, but he shouldered his piece and stepped out as we
+slowly climbed along the edge of the chasm for about a quarter of a
+mile, when it seemed to close up after getting narrower and narrower, so
+that we continued our journey on what would have been its farther side
+had it not closed.
+
+Higher and higher we seemed to climb, with the path getting more
+difficult, save when here and there we came upon a nice bare spot free
+from stones, and covered with a short kind of herb that had the
+appearance of thyme.
+
+But now the heat grew less intense.  Then it was comparatively cool, and
+a soft moist air fanned our heated cheeks.  The roar of the falls grew
+louder, and at any moment we felt that we might come upon the sight, but
+we had to travel on nearly half a mile along what seemed to be a steep
+slope.  It was no longer arid and barren here, for every shelf and
+crevice was full of growth of the most vivid green.  For a long time we
+had not seen a tree, but here tall forest trees had wedged their roots
+in the cracks and crevices, curved out, and then shot straight up into
+the air.
+
+The scene around was beautiful, and birds were once more plentiful,
+dashing from fruit to flower, and no doubt screaming and piping
+according to their wont, but all seemed to be strangely silent, even our
+own voices sounded smothered, everything being overcome by the awful
+deep loud roar that came from beyond a dense clump of trees.
+
+We eagerly pressed forward now, ready, however, to find that we had a
+long distance to go, and the doctor leading we wound our way in and out,
+with the delicious shade overhead, and the refreshing moist air seeming
+to cool our fevered faces and dry lips.
+
+"Why, we're walking along by the very edge," said Jack Penny suddenly.
+"This is the way;" and stepping aside he took about a dozen steps and
+then the undergrowth closed behind him for the moment, but as we parted
+it to follow him we caught sight of his tall form again and then lost
+it, for he uttered a shrill "Oh!" and disappeared.
+
+"Doctor! quick!"  I cried, for I was next, and I sprang forward, to stop
+appalled, for Jack was before me clinging to a thin sapling which he had
+caught as he fell, and this had bent like a fishing-rod, letting him
+down some ten feet below the edge of an awful precipice, the more
+terrible from the fact that the river seemed to be rushing straight out
+into the air from a narrow ravine high upon our right, and to plunge
+down into a vast rocky basin quite a couple of hundred feet below.
+
+As I caught sight of Jack Penny's face with its imploring eyes I was for
+the moment paralysed.  He had tight hold of the tree, which was only
+about half the thickness of his own thin wrists, and he was swaying up
+and down, the weight of his body still playing upon the elastic sapling.
+
+"I can't hold on long, Joe Carstairs," he said hoarsely.  "I'm such a
+weight; but I say I ain't a bit afraid, only do be quick."
+
+The doctor had crept to my side now, and he reached out his hand to
+grasp Jack, but could not get hold of him by a couple of feet.
+
+"Can't you reach?" the poor fellow gasped.
+
+"No, not yet," the doctor said sharply; and his voice seemed quite
+changed as he took in the position; and I saw him shudder as he noted,
+as I had done, that if Jack fell it would be into the foaming basin
+where the water thundered down.
+
+"Be quick, please," panted Jack.  "I can't do nothing at all; and I
+don't--think--I could swim--down there."
+
+"Don't look down," roared the doctor, though even then his voice sounded
+smothered and low.
+
+Jack raised his eyes to ours directly, and I seemed to feel that but for
+this he would have been so unnerved that he would have loosed his hold.
+
+"Now," cried the doctor, "the tree's too weak for you to cling to it
+with your legs.  Swing them to and fro till we catch hold of you."
+
+Jack looked at me with a face like ashes; but he obeyed, and it was
+horrible to see the sapling bend and play like a cart-whip with the
+weight upon it.  Each moment I expected it to snap in two or give way at
+the roots; but no: it held fast, and Jack swung to and fro, and danced
+up and down over the awful gulf till he was within our reach.
+
+"Now!" shouted the doctor to me.  "Both together."
+
+I did as he did, clutched at Jack's legs as they swung up to us; held
+on; and then we threw ourselves back, dragging with all our might.
+
+"Let go! let go!" roared the doctor to Jack.
+
+"I daren't, not yet," he cried, with his head hidden from us, that and
+his body being over the gulf, while we had his legs over the edge of the
+rock.
+
+"But the tree is drawing you away from us," shouted the doctor.  "Let
+go, I say."
+
+All this time it was as though Jack Penny were made of india-rubber, for
+as we pulled his legs it was against something elastic, which kept
+giving and drawing us back.
+
+For a few moments it seemed doubtful whether we should save him, for our
+hold was hastily taken and none of the best, and I felt the cold
+perspiration gathering in my hands and on my brow.  Then just as I felt
+that I must give way, and the doctor's hard panting breathing sounded
+distant and strange through the singing in my ears, our desperate
+tugging prevailed over even the wild clutch of one who believed himself
+in deadly peril.  Jack's hands relaxed, and we all fell together amongst
+the bushes, but safe.
+
+No one spoke, and the dull sound of panting was heard even amidst the
+roar of the falling waters.  Then the doctor got up, looking fierce and
+angry, and seizing Jack by the collar he gave him a shake.
+
+"Look here," he said.  "I'll have no more of it.  Next time you get into
+danger, you may save yourself."
+
+"Thank ye, doctor," said Jack, sitting up and rocking himself softly.
+"I might just as well have gone as be treated like this.  You might have
+taken hold of a fellow's clothes, both of you.  You've about tore the
+flesh off my bones."
+
+The doctor turned away to look at the great waterfall, evidently amused
+by Jack's dry drawling speech; and I sat and looked at my companion,
+while he looked at me, and spoke out so as to make me hear above the
+roar of the torrent.
+
+"I say, Joe Carstairs, I didn't seem to be very much frightened, did I?"
+
+"No," I said.  "You bore it very bravely."
+
+"Mean it?"
+
+"Of course," I said.
+
+"That's right; because I did feel awfully queer, you know.  I don't mind
+that though so long as I didn't show it."
+
+"How did you manage to get into such a pickle?"  I said.
+
+"Oh, I don't know," he drawled, still rubbing himself gently.  "I was
+wandering forward to get a good look at the waterfall, and then my legs
+seemed to go down.  I only had time to grip hold of that tree, and then
+I was swinging about.  That's all.  Let's have a look at the water,
+though, all the same."
+
+We followed the doctor, going cautiously along till we found him
+standing gun in hand gazing from a bare spot right out at the huge
+tumbling body of water, which made the very rocks on which we stood
+tremble and vibrate as it thundered down.
+
+In one spot, half-way down what looked to be a terribly gloomy chasm, a
+broad beam of sunlight shone right across the foam and fine spray that
+rose in a cloud, and from time to time this was spanned by a lovely
+iris, whose colours looked more beautiful than anything of the kind that
+I had before seen.
+
+I could have stood for hours gazing at the soft oily looking water as it
+glided over the piled-up rocks, and watched it breaking up into spray
+and then plunge headlong into the chaos of water below; but the doctor
+laid his hand upon my shoulder and pointed upwards, when, leading the
+way, he climbed on and on till we were beyond the rocks which formed the
+shelf over which the water glided, and here we found ourselves at the
+edge of a narrow ravine, along which the stream flowed swiftly from far
+beyond our sight to the spot where it made its plunge.
+
+We were in comparative quiet up here, the noise of the fall being cut
+off by the rocks, which seemed to hush it as soon as we had passed.
+
+"Let us get back, my lads," the doctor said then; "I don't think we
+shall advance our business by inspecting this grand river;" and so
+leaving the water-worn smooth rock of the ravine, we retraced our steps,
+and at last, hot and fainting almost with the heat, reached the little
+camp, where our black followers were eagerly looking out for our return.
+
+"Where's Jimmy?"  I said as I glanced round; but no one knew, and
+supposing that he had gone to hunt something that he considered good to
+eat I took no further notice then, though the doctor frowned, evidently
+considering that he ought to have been in camp.  Gyp was there though,
+ready to salute his master, who lay down at once, as he informed me in
+confidence, to rest his back.
+
+We were only too glad to get under the shelter of the great overhanging
+rock, which gave us comparative coolness, situated as it was beneath a
+hill that was almost a mountain, towering up in successive ledges to the
+summit.
+
+The walk, in spite of the excitement of the adventure, had given us an
+excellent appetite, and even Jack Penny ate away heartily, looking
+self-satisfied and as complacent as could be.
+
+"Why, what are you laughing at, Jack?"  I said, as I happened to look
+up.
+
+"I was only smiling," he whispered, "about my accident."
+
+"Smiling--at that!"  I exclaimed.  "Why, I should have thought you would
+have been horrified at the very thought of it."
+
+"So I should if I had been a coward over it, Joe Carstairs; but I
+wasn't--now was I?"
+
+"Coward!  No," I said, "of course not.  Here, fill my cup with water."
+
+We were sitting pretty close to the edge of our shelter, which really
+might have been termed a very shallow cave, some twenty feet above the
+level; and as I spoke I held out the tin pannikin towards Jack, for the
+heat had made me terribly thirsty.  The next moment, though, something
+struck the tin mug and dashed it noisily out of my hand, while before I
+could recover from my astonishment, the doctor had dragged me backwards
+with one hand, giving Jack Penny a backhander on the chest with the
+other.
+
+"Arrows!" he whispered.  "Danger!  There are savages there below."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN.
+
+HOW WE WERE BESIEGED, AND I THOUGHT OF BIRNAM WOOD.
+
+I believe the doctor saved us from dangerous wounds, if not from death,
+for, as he threw himself flat, half a dozen arrows struck the roof of
+our shelter, and fell pattering down amongst us as we lay.
+
+"Here, quick! pass these packages forward," the doctor whispered; and we
+managed to get the blacks' loads between us and the enemy, making of the
+packages a sort of breastwork, which sheltered us while we hauled
+forward some pieces of stone, arrow after arrow reaching this extempore
+parapet, or coming over it to strike the roof and fall back.
+
+The natives with us understood our plans at once, and eagerly helped,
+pushing great pieces of stone up to us, so that in about a quarter of an
+hour we were well protected, and the question came uppermost in my mind
+whether it was not time to retaliate with a charge of shot upon the
+cowardly assailants, who had attacked us when we were so peacefully
+engaged.
+
+We had time, too, now to look round us and lament that our force was so
+much weakened by the absence of Jimmy and Aroo, who had gone to fetch
+more water.
+
+"They will be killed," I said, and I saw Ti-hi smile, for he had
+evidently understood my meaning.  He shook his head too, and tried to
+make me understand, as I found afterwards, that Aroo would take care of
+himself; but we left off in a state of the greatest confusion.
+
+Being then well sheltered we contrived loopholes to watch for our
+enemies, and Ti-hi pointed out to me the place from whence the arrows
+were shot every time the enemy could see a hand.
+
+The spot he pointed to as that in which our assailants lay was where a
+patch of thick growth flourished among some stones, about fifty yards
+along the rocky pass in the direction in which we had come, and as I was
+intently watching the place to make out some sign of the enemy, and
+feeling doubtful whether the black was right, I saw a slight movement
+and the glint of a flying arrow, which struck the face of the rock a few
+feet above my head, and then fell by Jack Penny's hand.
+
+"Mind," I said, as he picked it up; "perhaps it is poisoned."
+
+Ti-hi was eagerly watching my face, and as I spoke he caught the arrow
+from Jack's hand, placed it against his arm, and then closed his eyes
+and pretended to be dead; but as quickly came to life again, as several
+more arrows struck the rock and fell harmlessly among us.  These he
+gathered together all but one, whose point was broken by coming in
+contact with the rock, and that he threw away.
+
+After this he carefully strung the bow that he always, like his fellows,
+carried, and looked eagerly at the doctor, who was scanning the ground
+in front of us with his little double glass.
+
+"I don't like the look of things, my lads," he said in a low voice, and
+his countenance was very serious as he spoke.  "I intended for ours to
+be a peaceable mission, but it seems as if we are to be forced into war
+with two men absent."
+
+"Shall we have to shoot 'em?" said Jack Penny excitedly.
+
+"I hope not," said the doctor, "for I should be sorry to shed the blood
+of the lowest savage; but we must fight in defence of our lives.  We
+cannot afford to give those up, come what may."
+
+Ti-hi fitted an arrow to the string of his short, strong bow, and was
+about to draw it, but the doctor laid his hand upon him and checked him,
+to the savage warrior's great disgust.
+
+"No," said the doctor, "not until we are obliged; and then I shall try
+what a charge of small shot will do."
+
+We were not long in finding out that it was absolutely necessary to
+defend ourselves with vigour, for the arrows began to fall thickly--
+thickly enough, indeed, to show us that there were more marksmen hidden
+among the trees than the size of the clump seemed to indicate from where
+we crouched.
+
+I was watching the patch of trees very intently when I heard a sharply
+drawn inspiration of breath, and turning I saw the doctor pulling an
+arrow from the flannel tunic he wore.
+
+"As doctors say, Joe," he whispered with a smile, "three inches more to
+the right and that would have been fatal."
+
+I don't know how I looked, but I felt pale, and winced a little, while
+the doctor took my hand.
+
+The force of habit made me snatch it away, for I thought he was going to
+feel my pulse.  I fancied for the moment that it must be to see whether
+I was nervous, and the blood flushed to my cheeks now, and made me look
+defiant.
+
+"Why, Joe, my lad, what is it?" he said quietly.  "Won't you shake
+hands?"
+
+"Oh! yes," I cried, placing mine in his, and he gave it a long, firm
+grip.
+
+"I ought," he said, after a pause, "to have said more about the
+troubles, like this one, which I might have known would arise, when we
+arranged to start; but somehow I had a sort of hope that we might make a
+peaceful journey, and not be called upon to shed blood.  Joe, my lad, we
+shall have to fight for our lives."
+
+"And shoot down these people?"  I said huskily.
+
+"If we do not, they will shoot us.  Poor wretches, they probably do not
+know the power of our guns.  We must give them the small shot first, and
+we may scare them off.  Don't you fire, my lad; leave it to me."
+
+I nodded my head, and then our attention was taken up by the arrows that
+kept flying in, with such good aim that if we had exposed ourselves in
+the least the chances are that we should have been hit.
+
+The doctor was on one side of me, Jack Penny on the other, and my tall
+young friend I noticed had been laying some cartridges very methodically
+close to his hand, ready for action it seemed to me; but he had not
+spoken much, only looked very solemn as he lay upon his chest, kicking
+his legs up and sawing them slowly to and fro.
+
+"Are we going to have to fight, Joe Carstairs?" he whispered.
+
+"I'm afraid so," I replied.
+
+"Oh!"
+
+That was all for a few minutes, during which time the arrows kept coming
+in and striking the roof as before, to fall there with a tinkling sound,
+and be collected carefully by Ti-hi and his companions, all of whom
+watched us with glowing eyes, waiting apparently for the order to be
+given when they might reply to the shots of the enemy.
+
+"I say, Joe Carstairs," said Jack, giving me a touch with his long arm.
+
+"Yes; what is it?"  I said peevishly, for his questions seemed to be a
+nuisance.
+
+"I don't look horribly frightened, do I?"
+
+"No," I said; "you look cool enough.  Why?"
+
+"Because I feel in a horrid stew, just as I did when a lot of the black
+fellows carried me off.  I was a little one then."
+
+"Were you ever a little one, Jack!"  I said wonderingly.
+
+"Why, of course I was--a very little one.  You don't suppose I was born
+with long legs like a colt, do you?  The blacks came one day when father
+was away, and mother had gone to see after the cow, and after taking all
+the meal and bacon they went off, one of them tucking me under his arm,
+and I never made a sound, I was so frightened, for I was sure they were
+going to eat me.  I feel something like I did then; but I say, Joe
+Carstairs, you're sure I don't show it?"
+
+"Sure!  Yes," I said quickly.  "If we have to shoot at these savages
+shall you take aim at them?"
+
+"All depends," said Jack coolly.  "First of all, I shall fire in front
+of their bows like the man-o'-war's men do.  If that don't stop 'em I
+shall fire at their legs, and if that don't do any good then I shall let
+'em have it right full, for it'll be their own fault.  That's my
+principle, Joe Carstairs; if a fellow lets me alone I never interfere
+with him, but if he begins at me I'm nasty.  Here, you leave those
+arrows alone, and--well, what's the matter with you?"
+
+This was to Gyp, who was whining uneasily as if he scented danger, and
+wanted to run out.
+
+"Down, Gyp, down!" said his master; and the dog crouched lower,
+growling, though, now as a fresh arrow flashed in from another part.
+
+The doctor started and raised his gun to take aim at the spot from
+whence this shot had come, for one of the savages had climbed up and
+reached a ledge above where we were.  In fact this man's attack made our
+position ten times more perilous than it was before.
+
+But the doctor did not fire, for Ti-hi, without waiting for orders, drew
+an arrow to its head, the bow-string gave a loud twang, and the next
+instant we saw a savage bound from the ledge where he had hidden and run
+across the intervening space, club in one hand, bow in the other,
+yelling furiously the while.
+
+The doctor was about to fire, and in the excitement of the moment I had
+my piece to my shoulder, but before he had come half-way the savage
+turned and staggered back, Ti-hi pointing triumphantly to an arrow
+sticking deep in the muscles of the man's shoulder.
+
+There was a loud yelling as the wounded savage rejoined his companions,
+and our own men set up a triumphant shout.
+
+"That's one to us," said Jack Penny drily.  "I think I shall keep the
+score."
+
+The doctor looked at me just at this time and I looked back at him; and
+somehow I seemed to read in his eyes that he thought it would be the
+best plan to let the blacks fight out the battle with their bows and
+arrows, and I felt quite happy in my mind for the moment, since it
+seemed to me that we should get out of the difficulty of having to shed
+blood.
+
+But directly after I coloured with shame, for it seemed cowardly to want
+to do such work by deputy and to make these ignorant people fight our
+battle; while after all I was wrong, for the doctor was not thinking
+anything of the kind.  In fact he knew that we would all have to fight
+in defence of our lives, and when a flight of about twenty arrows came
+whizzing and pattering over our heads and hurtled down upon the stony
+floor, I knew it too, and began to grow cool with the courage of
+desperation and prepared for the worst.
+
+"Here, Jack Penny," I whispered, "you'll have to fight; the savages mean
+mischief."
+
+"All right!" he replied in a slow cool drawling way, "I'm ready for
+them; but I don't know whether I can hit a man as he runs, unless I try
+to make myself believe he's a kangaroo."
+
+The yelling was continued by our enemies, and as far as I could tell it
+seemed to me that there must be at least thirty savages hiding amongst
+the rocks and trees, and all apparently thirsting for our blood.
+
+"It seems hard, doctor," I said bitterly.  "They might leave us alone."
+
+"I'm afraid they will think that they would have done better in leaving
+us," said the doctor gloomily, "for I don't mean them to win the day if
+I can help it."
+
+I could not help staring at the doctor: his face looked so stern and
+strange till, catching my eye, he smiled in his old way, and held out
+his hand.
+
+"We shall beat them off, Joe," he said gently.  "I would have avoided it
+if I could, but it has become a work of necessity, and we must fight for
+our lives.  Be careful," he added sternly.  "It is no time for trifling.
+Remember your father, and the mother who is waiting for you at home.
+Joe, my boy, it is a fight for life, and you must make every shot tell."
+
+For the moment I felt chilled with horror; and a sensation of dread
+seemed to paralyse me.  Then came the reaction, with the thought that if
+I did not act like a man I should never see those I loved again.  This,
+too, was supplemented, as it were, by that spirit of what the French
+call _camaraderie_, that spirit which makes one forget self; and
+thinking that I had to defend my two companions from the enemy I raised
+the barrel of my piece upon the low breastwork, ready to fire on the
+first enemy who should approach.
+
+"Look," said Ti-hi just then, for he was picking up scraps of our
+tongue; and following his pointing finger I made out the black bodies of
+several savages creeping to posts of vantage from whence they would be
+able to shoot.
+
+"Take care," said the doctor sternly, as an arrow nearly grazed my ear.
+"If one of those arrows gives ever so slight a wound it may prove fatal,
+my lad; don't expose yourself in the least.  Ah! the game must begin in
+earnest," he said partly under his breath.
+
+As he spoke he took aim at a man who was climbing from rock to rock to
+gain the spot from which the other had been dislodged.  Then there was a
+puff of white smoke, a roar that reverberated amongst the rocks, and the
+poor wretch seemed to drop out of sight.
+
+The doctor's face looked tight and drawn as he reloaded, and for a
+moment I felt horrified; but then, seeing a great brawny black fellow
+raise himself up to draw his bow and shoot at the part where Jack Penny
+was crouching, and each time seem to send his arrow more close to my
+companion, I felt suddenly as if an angry wave were sweeping over my
+spirit, and lay there scowling at the man.
+
+He rose up again, and there was a whizz and a crack that startled me.
+
+"I say," drawled Jack Penny, "mind what you're after.  You'll hit some
+one directly."
+
+He said this with a strange solemnity of voice, and picking up the arrow
+he handed it to one of the blacks.
+
+"That thing went right through my hair, Joe Carstairs," he continued.
+"It's making me wild."
+
+I hesitated no longer, but as the great savage rose up once more I took
+a quick aim and fired just as he was drawing his bow.
+
+The smoke obscured my sight for a few moments, during which there was a
+furious yelling, and then, just as the thin bluish vapour was clearing
+off, there was another puff, and an echoing volley dying off in the
+distance, for Jack Penny had also fired.
+
+"I don't know whether I hit him," he answered; "but he was climbing up
+there like t'other chap was, and I can't see him now."
+
+In the excitement of the fight the terrible dread of injuring a fellow
+creature now seemed to have entirely passed away, and I watched one
+savage stealing from bush to bush, and from great stone to stone with an
+eagerness I could not have believed in till I found an opportunity of
+firing at him, just as he too had reached a dangerous place and had sent
+his first arrow close to my side.
+
+I fired and missed him, and the savage shouted defiance as my bullet
+struck the stones and raised a puff of dust.  The next moment he had
+replied with a well-directed arrow that made me wince, it was so near my
+head.
+
+By this time I had reloaded and was taking aim again with feverish
+eagerness, when all at once a great stone crashed down from above and
+swept the savage from the ledge where he knelt.
+
+I looked on appalled as the man rolled headlong down in company with the
+mass of stone, and then lay motionless in the bottom of the little
+valley.
+
+"Who is it throwing stones?" drawled Jack slowly.  "That was a big one,
+and it hit."
+
+"That could not have been an accident," said the doctor; "perhaps Aroo
+is up there."
+
+"I only hope he is," I cried; "but look, look! what's that?"
+
+I caught at the doctor's arm to draw his attention to what seemed to be
+a great thickly tufted bush which was coming up the little valley
+towards us.
+
+"Birnam wood is coming to Dunsinane," said the doctor loudly.
+
+"Is it?" said Jack Penny excitedly.  "What for?  Where?  What do you
+mean?"
+
+"Look, look!"  I cried, and I pointed to the moving bush.
+
+"Well, that's rum," said Jack, rubbing his nose with his finger.  "Trees
+are alive, of course, but they can't walk, can they?  I think there's
+some one shoving that along."
+
+"Why, of course there is," I said.
+
+"Don't fire unless you are obliged," exclaimed the doctor; "and whatever
+you do, take care.  See how the arrows are coming."
+
+For they were pattering about us thickly, and the blacks on our side
+kept sending them back, but with what result we could not tell, for the
+savages kept closely within the cover.
+
+It was now drawing towards evening, and the sun seemed hotter than ever;
+the whole of the sultry ravine seemed to have become an oven, of which
+our cavern shelter was the furnace.  In fact the heat was momentarily,
+from the sun's position, and in spite of its being so long past the
+meridian, growing more and more intense.
+
+Jack Penny had of late grown very silent, but now and then he turned his
+face towards me with his mouth open, panting with heat and thirst, as
+uneasily as his dog, whose tongue was hanging out looking white and dry.
+
+"Is there any water there?" said the doctor suddenly, as he paused in
+the act of reloading.
+
+"Not a drop," I said, dismally.
+
+"Oh! don't say that," groaned Jack Penny.  "If I don't have some I shall
+die."
+
+"It will be evening soon," said the doctor in a husky voice, "and this
+terrible heat will be over.  Keep on firing when you have a chance, my
+lads, but don't waste a shot.  We must read them such a lesson that they
+will draw off and leave us alone."
+
+But as he spoke, so far from the loss they had sustained having damped
+the ardour of the enemy, they kept on sending in the arrows more
+thickly, but without doing us--thanks to our position and the
+breastwork--the slightest harm.
+
+The sun sank lower, but the rock where we were seemed to grow hotter,
+the air to be quivering all along the little valley, and as the terrible
+thirst increased so did our tortures seem to multiply from the fact that
+we could hear the heavy dull thunderous murmur away to our right, and we
+knew that it was cool, clear, delicious water, every drop of which would
+have given our dried-up mouths and parched throats relief.
+
+At one time I turned giddy and the whole scene before me seemed to be
+spinning round, while my head throbbed with the pain I suffered, my
+tongue all the time feeling like a piece of dry leather which clung to
+the roof of my mouth.
+
+And still the firing was going steadily on, each sending a bullet
+straight to its mark whenever opportunity occurred; but apparently
+without effect, for in the midst of all this firing and confusion of
+shouts from the enemy and defiant replies from our people, the arrows
+went to and fro as rapidly as ever.
+
+If it had not been for the sound of the falling water I believe I could
+have borne the thirst far better; but no matter how the fighting went,
+there was always the soft deep roar of the plashing water tantalising us
+with thoughts of its refreshing draughts and delicious coolness when
+laving our fevered heads.
+
+I grew so giddy at times that I felt that I should only waste my shot if
+I fired, and refrained, while, gaining experience and growing bolder by
+degrees, the savages aimed so that every shot became dangerous, for they
+sent them straight at a mass of rock before us some ten or a dozen
+yards, and this they struck and then glanced off, so that we were nearly
+hit three times running.
+
+Stones were set up at once upon our right as a protection, but this only
+saved us for a time.  The savages had found out the way to touch us, and
+before many minutes had elapsed _ricochet_ shots were coming amongst as
+again.
+
+"I can hardly see them, Joe," whispered the doctor suddenly; "my eyes
+are dizzy with this awful thirst.  We must have water if we are to
+live."
+
+He ceased speaking to catch me by the arm, and point to the bush that
+had been so long stationary in one place that I had forgotten it.
+
+"What's that, my lad?" he whispered; "is that bush moving, or are my
+eyes playing me false.  It must be on the move.  It is some trick.  Fire
+at once and stop it, or we shall be taken in the flank."
+
+I raised my gun as I saw the bush moving slowly on towards us, now
+coming a yard or two and then stopping; but I was so giddy and confused
+that I lowered it again, unable to take aim.  This took place again and
+again, and at last I lay there scanning as in a nightmare the coming of
+that great green bush.
+
+The doctor was watching with bloodshot eyes the enemy on his own side,
+Jack Penny was busy on the other, and the command of this treacherous
+advancing enemy was left to my gun, which seemed now to have become of
+enormous weight when I tried to raise it and take aim.
+
+"It's all a dream--it is fancy," I said to myself, as I tried to shade
+my eyes and steady my gaze; but as I said this the bush once more began
+to glide on, and the black patch I saw beneath it must, I felt, be the
+leg of the savage concealed behind.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY.
+
+HOW JIMMY TURNED UP A TRUMP.
+
+Even then I could not shoot, but remained staring, helplessly fascinated
+for a few minutes by the coming danger.  At last, though, I turned to
+Ti-hi, leaning back and touching him where he crouched, busily seizing
+upon the arrows that came in his way and sending them back.
+
+He crept up to me directly and I pointed to the bush.
+
+His eyes glistened, and bending forward he drew an arrow to the head,
+and was about to send it winging into the very centre of the bush when
+we suddenly became aware of some strange excitement amongst the savages,
+who undoubtedly now caught sight of the bush for the first time and sent
+a flight of arrows at it.
+
+The effect of this was that he who had been making use of it for a
+shield suddenly darted from behind it and made for our shelter.
+
+"Aroo, Aroo!" exclaimed the men with us, yelling with delight, while to
+cover his escape we all fired at the savages, who had come out of their
+concealment, but only to dart back again, for one after the other three
+large stones came bounding down the mountain side, scattering the enemy
+to cover, and the duel once more began, with our side strengthened by
+the presence of a brave fighting man, and refreshed, for Aroo had his
+water calabash slung from his shoulders, containing quite a couple of
+quarts, which were like nectar to us, parched and half-dying with
+thirst.
+
+Its effects were wonderful.  The heat was still intense; but after the
+refreshing draught, small as it was, that we had imbibed, I seemed to
+see clearly, the giddy sensation passed off, and we were ready to meet
+the attack with something like fortitude.
+
+We could think now, too, of some plans for the future, whereas a quarter
+of an hour before there had seemed to be no future for us, nothing but a
+horrible death at our enemies' hands.
+
+Ti-hi contrived to make us understand now that as soon as the sun had
+gone down, and it was dark, he would lead us away to the river side and
+then along the gorge, so that by the next morning we could be far out of
+our enemies' reach, when they came expecting to find us in the cave.
+
+His communication was not easy to comprehend, but that this was what he
+meant there could be no doubt, for we all three read it in the same way.
+
+Encouraged then by this hope we waited impatiently for the going down of
+the sun, which was now slowly nearing the broad shoulder of a great
+hill.  Another half-hour and it would have disappeared, when the valley
+would begin to fill with shadows, darkness--the tropic darkness--would
+set in at once, and then I knew we should have to lose no time in trying
+to escape.
+
+But we were not to get away without an attack from the enemy of a bolder
+nature than any they had yet ventured upon.
+
+For some little time the arrow shooting had slackened and we watched
+anxiously to see what it meant, for there was evidently a good deal of
+excitement amongst the enemy, who were running from bush to stone, and
+had we been so disposed we could easily have brought three or four down.
+
+But of course all we wished for was freedom from attack, and in the hope
+that they were somewhat disheartened, and were perhaps meditating
+retreat, we waited and withheld our fire.
+
+Our hopes were short-lived though, for it proved that they were only
+preparing for a more fierce onslaught, which was delivered at the end of
+a few minutes, some twenty savages bounding along the slope war-club in
+hand, two to fall disabled by a mass of stone that thundered down from
+above.
+
+We fired at the same moment and the advance was checked, the savages
+gathering together in a hesitating fashion, when _crash_, _crash_,
+another mass of rock which had been set at liberty far up the hillside
+came bounding down, gathering impetus and setting at liberty an
+avalanche of great stones, from which the savages now turned and fled
+for their lives, leaving the valley free to a single black figure, which
+came climbing down from far up the steep slope, waddy in hand; and on
+reaching the level advanced towards us in the fast darkening eve,
+looking coolly to right and left to see if any enemy was left, but
+without a single arrow being discharged.
+
+A minute later he was looking over our breastwork into the shallow cave,
+showing his teeth, which shone in the gloom as he exclaimed:
+
+"Black fellow dreffle hungry.  Give Jimmy somefin eat.  All gone now."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
+
+HOW WE RETREATED AND WERE CAUGHT IN A TROPIC STORM.
+
+Our black companion was quite right.  The enemy had indeed gone, and the
+time had come for us to get beyond their reach, for all at once it
+seemed to grow dark, and we stood farther out of our shelter, glad to
+free our limbs from the cramping positions in which they had been for so
+long.
+
+The doctor handed to each of us some chips of dried meat, bidding us eat
+as we walked.  The bearers were well provided, and starting at once,
+with Ti-hi to lead and Aroo to cover our retreat, we stepped lightly
+off.
+
+Our blacks knew well enough what was required of them now as to our
+baggage, and every package was taken from the breastwork, shouldered or
+placed upon the head, and, watchful and ready to use our arms, we soon
+left the scene of the fight behind.
+
+The New Guinea savage Ti-hi as we called him, that being the nearest
+approach I can get to his name, followed very much the course we had
+taken early in the day when we sought the waterfall, but left it a
+little to our left and struck the river some few hundred yards above,
+pausing for a few minutes for his men to take breath, and then pointing
+out the course he meant to take.
+
+It was a perilous-looking place, enough to make anyone shiver, and there
+was a murmur amongst the blacks as they looked down at what seemed to be
+a mere shelf or ledge of rock low down near the black hurrying water of
+the river, which seemed to be covered with flowing specks of gold as the
+brilliant stars were reflected from the smooth rushing stream.
+
+Where we were to descend the water seemed to be about thirty feet below,
+but the rocky side of the river bed ran sheer up quite fifty feet as far
+as we could make out in the darkness, and I did not wonder at the murmur
+we heard.
+
+But Ti-hi's voice rose directly, now pleading softly in his own tongue,
+now in tones of command, and the murmur trailed off into a few
+mutterings which resulted in the men beginning to descend.
+
+"They were grumbling about having to go down there, weren't they, Joe
+Carstairs," said Jack Penny in a whisper.
+
+"Yes," I said.
+
+"And 'nough to make 'em," he said.  "I don't like it; even Gyp don't
+like it.  Look at him, how he's got his tail between his legs.  I say,
+can't we wait till daylight?"
+
+"And be shot by poisoned arrows, Penny?" said the doctor quietly.
+"Come: on with you!  I'm sure you're not afraid?"
+
+"Afraid!  What! of walking along there?" said Jack, contemptuously.
+"Not likely.  Was I afraid when I hung over the waterfall?"
+
+"Not a bit, my lad; nor yet when you so bravely helped us to defend
+ourselves against the savages," said the doctor quietly.  "Come along.
+I'll go first."
+
+The blacks were all on ahead save Aroo and Jimmy, who followed last, I
+being next to the doctor, and Jack Penny and his dog close behind me.
+We had to go in single file, for the ledge was not above a yard wide in
+places, and it was impossible to avoid a shiver of dread as we walked
+slowly along, assuming a confidence that we did not feel.
+
+The path rose and fell--rose and fell slightly in an undulating fashion,
+but it did not alter much in its width as we journeyed on for what must
+have been quite a mile, when we had to halt for a few minutes while the
+bearers readjusted their loads.  And a weird party we looked as we stood
+upon that shelf of rock, with the perpendicular side of the gorge
+towering straight up black towards the sky, the summit showing plainly
+against the starry arch that spanned the river, and seemed to rest upon
+the other side of the rocky gorge fifty yards away.  And there now,
+close to our feet, so close that we could have lain down and drunk had
+we been so disposed, rushed on towards the great fall the glassy
+gold-speckled water.
+
+I was thinking what an awful looking place it was, and wondering whether
+my father had ever passed this way, when Jack Penny made me jump by
+giving me a poke with the barrel of his gun.
+
+"Don't do that," I said angrily, for I felt that I might have slipped,
+and to have fallen into that swiftly gliding water meant being borne at
+headlong speed to the awful plunge down into the basin of foam into
+which I had looked that day.
+
+"Oh, all right!" whispered Jack.  "I only wanted to tell you that it
+must be cramp."
+
+"What must be cramp?"  I replied.
+
+"Don't speak so loud, and don't let the doctor hear you," whispered
+Jack.  "I mean in one of my legs: it will keep waggling so and giving
+way at the knee."
+
+"Why, Jack!"  I said.
+
+"No, no," he whispered hastily, "it ain't that.  I ain't a bit afraid.
+It's cramp."
+
+"Well, if you are not afraid," I whispered back, "I am.  I hope, Jack, I
+may never live to be in such an awful place again."
+
+"I say, Joe Carstairs, say that once more," whispered Jack excitedly.
+
+"I hope I may never be--"
+
+"No, no, I don't mean that.  I mean the other," whispered Jack.
+
+"What, about being afraid?"  I said.  "Well, I'm not ashamed to own it.
+It may be cramp, Jack Penny, but I feel as if it is sheer fright."
+
+"Then that's what must be the matter with my leg," said Jack eagerly,
+"only don't let's tell the doctor."
+
+"Ready behind there?" said the latter just then.
+
+"Yes," I said, "quite ready;" and I passed the word to Jimmy and Aroo,
+who were close to me.
+
+"Let's get on then," said the doctor in a low voice.  "I want to get out
+of this awful gorge."
+
+"Hooray!" whispered Jack Penny, giving me such a dig with his elbow that
+for the second time he nearly sent me off the rocky shelf.  "Hooray! the
+doctor's frightened too, Joe Carstairs.  I ain't ashamed to own it now."
+
+"Hist!" whispered the doctor then, and slightly raised as was his voice
+it seemed strangely loud, and went echoing along the side of the chasm.
+
+Going steadily on at once we found the shelf kept wonderfully the same
+in width, the only variation being that it dipped down close to the
+rushing water at times, and then curved up till we were fifteen or
+twenty feet above the stream.  With the walls on either side of the
+river, though, it was different, for they gradually rose higher and
+higher till there was but a strip of starry sky above our heads, and our
+path then became so dark that but for the leading of the sure-footed
+blacks we could not have progressed, but must have come to a halt.
+
+I was wondering whether this gorge would end by opening out upon some
+plain, through its being but a gap or pass through a range of hills, but
+concluded that it would grow deeper and darker, and bring us face to
+face with a second waterfall, and I whispered to the doctor my opinion;
+but he did not agree with me.
+
+"No," he said, "the gorge is rising, of course, from the way in which
+the river rushes on, but there can be no waterfall this way or we should
+hear it.  The noise of the one behind us comes humming along this rocky
+passage so plainly that we should hear another in the same way.  But
+don't talk, my lad.  Look to your footsteps and mind that we have no
+accident.  Stop!" he exclaimed, then, "Halt!"
+
+I did not know why he called a halt just then in that narrow dangerous
+place, but it seemed that he heard a peculiar sound from behind, and
+directly after Aroo closed up, to say that the enemy were following us,
+for he had heard them talking as they came, the smooth walls of the
+rocks acting as a great speaking-tube and bearing the sounds along.
+
+"That's bad news, my lad," said the doctor, "but matters might be worse.
+This is a dangerous place, but it is likely to be far more dangerous
+for an attacking party than for the defenders.  Our guns could keep any
+number of enemies at a distance, I should say.  Better that they should
+attack us here than out in the open, where we should be easy marks for
+their arrows."
+
+"I do wish they'd leave us alone," said Jack Penny in an ill-used tone.
+"Nobody said anything to them; why can't they leave off?"
+
+"We'll argue out that point another time, Jack Penny," said the doctor.
+"Only let's get on now."
+
+"Oh, all right!  I'm ready," he said, and once more our little party set
+forward, the doctor and I now taking the extreme rear, with the
+exception that we let Aroo act as a scout behind, to give warning of the
+enemy's near approach.
+
+And so we went on in the comparative darkness, the only sounds heard
+being the hissing of the swiftly rushing water as it swept on towards
+the fall, and the dull deep roar that came booming now loudly, now
+faintly, from where the river made its plunge.
+
+Twice over we made a halt and stood with levelled pieces ready to meet
+an attack, but they only proved to be false alarms, caused by our
+friends dislodging stones in the path, which fell with a hollow sullen
+plunge into the rushing water, producing a strange succession of sounds,
+as of footsteps beating the path behind us, so curiously were these
+repeated from the smooth face of the rock.
+
+_Hiss-hiss_, _rush-rush_ went the water, and when we paused again and
+again, so utterly solemn and distinct were the sounds made by the
+waterfall and the river that I fancied that our friend Aroo must have
+been deceived.
+
+"If the savages were pursuing us," I said, "we should have heard them by
+now."
+
+"Don't be too satisfied, my dear boy," said the doctor.  "These people
+have a great deal of the animal in them, and when they have marked down
+their prey they are not likely to leave the track till the end."
+
+I did not like the sound of that word, "end."  It was ominous, but I
+held my tongue.
+
+"As likely as not," continued the doctor, "the enemy are creeping
+cautiously along within a couple of hundred yards of where we stand,
+and--"
+
+"I say," cried Jack Penny eagerly, "it's rather cold standing about
+here; hadn't we better make haste on?"
+
+"Decidedly, Penny," said the doctor.  "Forward!"
+
+"Yes, let's get forward," I said, and the doctor suddenly clapped his
+hand over my mouth and whispered:
+
+"Hush!  Look there!"
+
+"I can't see anything," I said, after a long gaze in the direction by
+which we had come.
+
+"Can you see just dimly, close to where that big star makes the blur in
+the water, a light-coloured stone?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Watch it for a minute."
+
+I fixed my eyes upon the dimly-seen rock, just where quite a blaze of
+stars flecked the black water with their reflections, but for a time I
+saw nothing.  I only made my eyes ache, and a strong desire came upon me
+to blink them very rapidly.  Then all at once the stone seemed darker
+for a moment, and then darker again, as if a cloud had come between the
+glinting stars and the earth.
+
+It was so plain that a couple of the savages had glided by that stone
+that we felt it would be best to remain where we were for the present,
+awaiting the attack that we knew must follow.
+
+"We are prepared now," whispered the doctor, "and if we must fight it
+would be better to fight now than have to turn suddenly and meet an
+attack on our rear."
+
+The result was that we remained watching through the next painful hour,
+guns and bows ready for the first oncoming of the savages; but with
+terrible distinctness there was the washing sound of the river hissing
+past the rocks, and the rising and falling musical roar of the distant
+cascade--nothing more!
+
+Then another hour of silence in that awful chasm passed away, with the
+expectation of being attacked every moment keeping our nerves upon the
+stretch.
+
+How different it all seemed, what a change from the peaceful life at
+home!  There I had led a happy boyish life, with the black for my
+companion; sometimes he would disappear to live amongst his tribe for a
+few weeks, but he always returned, and just after breakfast there would
+be his merry black face eagerly watching for my coming to go with him to
+"kedge fis" in some fresh creek or water-hole that he had discovered; to
+hunt out wallabies or some other of the hopping kangaroo family peculiar
+to the land.  Jimmy had always some fresh expedition on the way, upon
+which we started with boy-like eagerness.  But now all at once,
+consequent upon my determination, my course of life had been changed,
+and it seemed that, young as I was, all the work that fell to my hand
+was man's work.  Yesterday I was a boy, now I was a man.
+
+That was my rather conceited way of looking upon matters then, and there
+was some ground for my assumption of manliness; but if excuse be needed
+let me say in my defence that I was suddenly cast into this career of
+dangerous adventure, and I was very young.
+
+Some such musings as the above, mixed up with recollections of my
+peaceful bed-room at home, and the gentle face that bent over me to kiss
+me when I was half asleep, were busy in my brain, when the doctor said
+softly:
+
+"This seems to be such a strong place, Joe, my lad, that I hardly like
+leaving it; but we must get on.  Go forward and start them.  Tell them
+to be as quiet as possible."
+
+His words seemed full of relief, and I started round to obey him, glad
+to have an end to the terrible inaction, when, to my utter astonishment,
+I found Jack Penny, who was behind me, sitting with his legs dangling
+over the edge of the rocky shelf, and apparently within an inch or two
+of the water, while his shoulders were propped against the side of the
+chasm; his rifle was in his lap and his chin buried in his breast--fast
+asleep!
+
+"Jack!"  I whispered softly, utterly astounded that any one could sleep
+at a time like that; but he did not hear me.
+
+"Jack!"  I said again, and laid my hand upon his shoulder, but without
+result.
+
+"Jack!"  I said, giving him an impatient shove.
+
+"Get out!" he mumbled softly; and Gyp, whom I had not seen before,
+resented this interference with his master by uttering a low growl.
+
+"Down, Gyp!"  I said.  "Here, Jack; wake up!"  I whispered, and this
+time I gave him a kick in the leg.
+
+"I'll give you such a wunner, if you don't be quiet!" he growled.  "Let
+me alone, will yer!"
+
+"Jack! be quiet!"  I whispered, with my lips to his ear.  "The savages
+are close at hand!"
+
+"Who cares for the savages?" he grumbled, yawning fearfully.  "Oh!  I am
+so sleepy.  I say, I wish you'd be quiet!"
+
+"Wake up!"  I said, shaking him; and Gyp growled again.
+
+"Shan't!" very decidedly.
+
+"Wake up directly, Jack!  Jack Penny, wake up!"
+
+"Shan't!  Get out!"
+
+"Hist!" whispered the doctor from behind me.
+
+"Wake up!"  I said again, going down on one knee so that I could whisper
+to him.
+
+_Snore_!
+
+It was a very decided one, and when I laid my gun down and gave a tug at
+him, it was like pulling at something long and limp, say a big bolster,
+that gave way everywhere, till in my impatience I doubled my fist and,
+quite in a rage, gave him, as his head fell back, a smart rap on the
+nose.
+
+I had previously held him by the ears and tapped the back of his head
+against the rock without the slightest effect; but this tap on the nose
+was electric in its way, for Jack sprang up, letting his gun fall, threw
+himself into a fighting attitude, and struck out at me.
+
+But he missed me, for when his gun fell it would have glided over the
+edge of the rocky shelf into the stream if I had not suddenly stooped
+down and caught it, the result being that Jack's fierce blow went right
+over my head, while when I rose upright he was wide awake.
+
+"I say," he said coolly, "have I been asleep?"
+
+"Asleep! yes," I whispered hastily.  "Here, come along; we are to get
+forward.  How could you sleep?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know!" he said.  "I only just closed my eyes.  Why, here's
+somebody else asleep!"
+
+Sure enough Jimmy was curled up close to the rock, with his hands tucked
+under his arms, his waddy in one fist, a hatchet in the other.
+
+Jack Penny was in so sour a temper at having been awakened from sleep,
+and in so rude a way, that he swung one of his long legs back, and then
+sent it forward.
+
+"Don't kick him!"  I said hastily; but I was too late, for the black
+received the blow from Jack's foot right in the ribs, and starting up
+with his teeth grinding together, he struck a tremendous blow with his
+waddy, fortunately at the rock, which sent forth such an echoing report
+through the gully that the doctor came hurriedly to our side.
+
+"What is it?" he said in an anxious whisper.
+
+"Big bunyip hit Jimmy rib; kick, bangum, bangum!" cried the black
+furiously.  "Who kick black fellow?  Bash um head um!  Yah!"
+
+He finished his rapidly uttered address by striking a warlike attitude.
+
+"It's all right now," I whispered to the doctor.  "Come along, Jimmy;"
+and taking the black's arm I pushed him on before me, growling like an
+angry dog.
+
+"All right!" the doctor said.  "Yes, for our pursuers!  Get on as
+quickly as you can."
+
+I hurried on now to the front, giving Ti-hi his order to proceed, and
+then signing to the bearers to go on, I was getting back past them along
+the narrow path, and had just got by Jimmy and reached Jack Penny, when
+there was a flash, and a rattling echoing report as of twenty rifles
+from where the doctor was keeping guard.
+
+I knew that the danger must be imminent or he would not have fired, and
+passing Jack Penny, who was standing ready, rifle in hand, I reached the
+doctor just as there was another flash and roar echoing along the gully.
+
+"That's right, my lad!" he whispered; "be ready to fire if you see them
+coming while I reload."
+
+I knelt down, resting my elbow on my knee, and found it hard work to
+keep the piece steady as I waited to see if the savages were coming on.
+
+I had not long to wait before I distinctly saw a couple of dimly-seen
+figures against the surface of the starlit water.  I fired directly, and
+then again, rising afterwards to my feet to reload.
+
+"Now, back as you load, quickly!" whispered the doctor, and he caught
+Aroo by the shoulder and drew him back as half a dozen arrows came
+pattering against the rock over our head and fell at our feet.
+
+"Back!" whispered the doctor quietly; "we must keep up a running fight."
+
+"Here, hold hard a minute!" said Jack Penny aloud; "I must have a shot
+at 'em first."
+
+"No: wait!" cried the doctor.  "Your turn will come."
+
+Jack Penny uttered a low growl in his deep bass voice, which was
+answered by Gyp, who was getting much excited, and had to be patted and
+restrained by angry orders to lie down before he would consent to follow
+his master in the hurried retreat we made to where Ti-hi and his men
+were waiting for us.  Here we found the shelf had widened somewhat, and
+some pieces of rock that had fallen offered shelter from an attack.
+
+As we joined them the men, who had laid down their loads, prepared to
+discharge a volley of arrows, but they were stopped, as it would have
+been so much waste.
+
+For the next six hours, till the stars began to pale, ours was one
+continuous retreat before the enemy, who seemed to grow bolder each time
+we gave way and hurried along the edge of the river to a fresh
+halting-place.
+
+We fired very seldom, for it was only waste of ammunition, and the
+darkness was so great that though they often sent a volley of arrows
+amongst us, not one of our party was hurt.
+
+It was a fevered and exciting time, but fortunately we were not called
+upon to suffer as we had during the attack upon the cave.  Then we were
+maddened almost by the heat and thirst.  Now we had ample draughts of
+cool refreshing water to fly to from time to time, or to bathe our
+temples where the shelf was low.
+
+The savages made no attempts at concealing their presence now, and we
+could hear a loud buzz of excited voices constantly in our rear, but
+still they did not pursue us right home, but made rushes that kept us in
+a constant state of excitement and, I may say, dread.
+
+"Do you think they will get tired of this soon, doctor?"
+
+I said, just at daybreak, when I found the doctor looking at me in a
+strange and haggard way.
+
+"I can't say, my lad," he whispered back.  "We must hope for the best."
+
+Just then Ti-hi came from the front to sign to us to hurry on, and
+following him we found that he had hit upon a place where there was some
+hope of our being able to hold our own for a time.
+
+It was extremely fortunate, for the coming day would make us an easy
+mark, the pale-grey light that was stealing down having resulted in
+several arrows coming dangerously near; and though there were equal
+advantages for us in the bodies of our enemies becoming easier to see,
+we were not eager to destroy life, our object, as I have before said,
+being to escape.
+
+We followed Ti-hi, to find that the narrow shelf slowly rose now higher
+and higher, till at the end of a couple of hundred yards it gained its
+highest point of some five-and-twenty feet above the river; while to add
+to the advantage of our position, the rock above the path stretched over
+it like the commencement of some Titan's arch, that had been intended to
+bridge the stream, one that had either never been finished, or had
+crumbled and fallen away.
+
+In support of this last fanciful idea there were plenty of loose rocks
+and splinters of stones that had fallen from above, mingled with others
+whose rounded shapes showed that they must have been ground together by
+the action of water.
+
+I did not think of that at the time, though I had good reason to
+understand it later on.
+
+The position was admirable, the ledge widening out considerably; we were
+safe from dropping arrows, and we had only to construct a strong
+breastwork, some five feet long, to protect us from attack by the enemy.
+In fact in five minutes or so we were comparatively safe; in ten
+minutes or a quarter of an hour our breastwork was so strengthened that
+we began to breathe freely.
+
+By this time it was morning, but instead of its continuing to grow light
+down in the ravine, whose walls towered up on either side, the gathering
+light seemed suddenly to begin to fade away.  It grew more obscure.  The
+soft cool refreshing morning breeze died away, to give place to a
+curious sultry heat.  The silence, save the rushing of the river, was
+profound, and it seemed at last as if it was to be totally dark.
+
+"What does this mean, doctor?"  I said, as I glanced round and noted
+that the sombre reflection from the walls of the chasm gave the faces of
+my companions a ghastly and peculiar look.
+
+"A storm, my lad," he said quietly.  "Look how discoloured the water
+seems.  There has been a storm somewhere up in the mountains, I suppose,
+and now it is coming here."
+
+"Well, we are in shelter," I said, "and better off than our enemies."
+
+"What difference does that make?" grumbled Jack Penny in ill-used tones.
+"They can't get wet through, for they don't wear hardly any clothes.
+But, I say, ain't it time we had our breakfast?  I've given up my
+night's rest, but I must have something to eat."
+
+"Quick! look out, my lads! look out!" cried the doctor, as there was a
+loud yelling noise from the savages, whom we could plainly see now
+coming along the narrow path, while almost simultaneously there was a
+vivid flash of lightning that seemed to blind us for the time, and then
+a deafening roar of thunder, followed so closely by others that it was
+like one rolling, incessant peal.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
+
+HOW HIGH THE WATER CAME.
+
+The coming of the storm checked the furious onslaught of our black
+enemies, but it was only for the moment.  Setting thunder, lightning,
+and the deluging rain at defiance, they came rushing on, shouting and
+yelling furiously, and we were about to draw trigger, reluctantly
+enough, but in sheer desperation, when a volley of arrows checked them
+for a time, while, resuming what seemed to be a favourite means of
+warring upon his enemies, Jimmy commenced hurling masses of stone at the
+coming foes.
+
+Checked as they were, though, it was only for a while; and we were
+compelled to fire again and again, with fresh assailants taking the
+places of those who fell.  The thunder pealed so that the reports of our
+pieces seemed feeble, more like the crack of a cart-whip, and their
+flashes were as sparks compared with the blinding lightning, which
+darted and quivered in the gorge, at times seeming to lick the walls, at
+others plunging into the rushing, seething stream, into which the rain
+poured in very cataracts down the rocky sides.
+
+We should have ceased in very awe of the terrible battle of the
+elements, but in self-defence we were driven to fight hard and repel the
+continued attacks of the enemy, who, growing more enraged at our
+resistance, came on once more in a determined fashion, as if meaning
+this time to sweep us before them into the rushing stream.
+
+But for the bravery of our black companions our efforts would have been
+useless, and we should certainly have been driven back by the fierce
+savages, who advanced up the path, sprang upon the stone breastwork, and
+would have dashed down upon us regardless of our firearms, but Ti-hi and
+Aroo cast aside their bows at this final onslaught, and used their
+war-clubs in the most gallant manner.  Jimmy, too, seemed to be
+transformed into as brave a black warrior as ever fought; and it was the
+gallant resistance offered that checked the enemy and made them recoil.
+
+The falling back of the foremost men, who were beaten and stunned by the
+blows they had received, drove their companions to make a temporary
+retreat, and enabled us to reload; but ere we could seem to get breath,
+one who appeared to be a chief rallied them, and two abreast, all that
+the path would allow, they came charging up towards us once again.
+
+Then there was a dead pause as the thunder crashed overhead once more,
+and then seemed to be continued in a strange rushing sound, which
+apparently paralysed the attacking party, who hesitated, stopped short
+about a third of the way up the narrow slope that led to our little
+fort, and then with a shriek of dismay turned and began to retreat.
+
+I stared after them, wondering that they should give way just at a time
+when a bold attack would probably have ended in our destruction; but I
+could make out nothing, only that the noise of the thunder still seemed
+to continue and grow into a sound like a fierce rush.  But this was
+nothing new: the thunder had been going on before, and that and the
+blinding lightning the enemy had braved.  Our defence had had no effect
+upon them, save to make them attack more fiercely.  And yet they were
+now in full retreat, falling over each other in their haste, and we saw
+two thrust into the swift river.
+
+"Yah, ah!--big bunyip water, water!" roared Jimmy just then, clapping me
+on the shoulder; and, turning sharply, I saw the meaning of the
+prolongation of the thunder, for a great wave, at least ten feet high,
+ruddy, foaming, and full of tossing branches, came rushing down the
+gorge, as if in chase of our enemies, and before I had more than time to
+realise the danger, the water had leaped by us, swelling almost to our
+place of refuge, and where, a minute before, there had been a rocky
+shelf--the path along which we had come--there was now the furious
+torrent tearing along at racing speed.
+
+I turned aghast to the doctor, and then made as if to run, expecting
+that the next moment we should be swept away; but he caught me by the
+arm with a grip like iron.
+
+"Stand still," he roared, with his lips to my ear.  "The storm--high up
+the mountains--flood--the gorge."
+
+Just then there was another crashing peal of thunder, close upon a flash
+of lightning, and the hissing rain ceased as if by magic, while the sky
+began to grow lighter.  The dull boom of the tremendous wave had passed
+too, but the river hissed and roared as it tore along beneath our feet,
+and it was plain to see that it was rising higher still.
+
+The noise was not so great though, now, that we could not talk, and
+after recovering from the appalling shock of the new danger we had time
+to look around.
+
+Our first thought was of our enemies, and we gazed excitedly down the
+gorge and then at each other, Jack Penny shuddering and turning away his
+head, while I felt a cold chill of horror as I fully realised the fact
+that they had been completely swept away.
+
+There could not be a moment's doubt of that, for the ware spread from
+rocky wall to rocky wall, and dashed along at frightful speed.
+
+We had only escaped a similar fate through being on the summit, so to
+speak, of the rocky path; but though for the moment safe, we could not
+tell for how long; while on taking a hasty glance at our position it was
+this: overhead the shelving rock quite impassable; to left, to right,
+and in front, the swollen, rushing torrent.
+
+The doctor stood looking down at the water for a few moments, and then
+turned to me.
+
+"How high above the surface of the water were we, do you think, when we
+came here?"
+
+"I should say about twenty-five feet?"
+
+"Why, we ain't four foot above it now; and--look there! it's a rising
+fast.  I say, Joe Carstairs, if I'd known we were going to be drowned I
+wouldn't have come."
+
+"Are you sure it is rising?" said the doctor, bending down to examine
+the level--an example I followed--to see crack and crevice gradually
+fill and point after point covered by the seething water, which crept up
+slowly and insidiously higher and higher even as we watched.
+
+"Yes," said the doctor, rising to his feet and gazing calmly round, as
+if to see whether there was any loophole left for escape; "yes, the
+water is rising fast; there can be no doubt of that."
+
+Just then Gyp, who had been fierce and angry, snapping and barking
+furiously at the savages each time they charged, suddenly threw up his
+head and uttered a dismal howl.
+
+"Here, you hold your noise," cried Jack Penny.  "You don't hear us
+holler, do you?  Lie down!"
+
+The dog howled softly and crouched at his master's feet, while Jack
+began to take off his clothes in a very slow and leisurely way.  First
+he pulled off his boots, then his stockings, which he tucked
+methodically, along with his garters, inside his boots.  This done he
+took off his jacket, folded it carefully, and his shirt followed, to be
+smoothed and folded and laid upon the jacket.
+
+And now, for the first time I thoroughly realised how excessively thin
+poor Jack Penny was, and the reason why he so often had a pain in his
+back.
+
+It seemed a strange time: after passing through such a series of
+dangers, after escaping by so little from being swept away, and while in
+terrible danger from the swiftly-rising waters, but I could not help
+it--Jack's aspect as he sat there coolly, very coolly, clothed in his
+trousers alone, was so ludicrous that I burst out laughing, when Jimmy
+joined in, and began to dance with delight.
+
+"What are you larfin at?" said Jack, half vexed at my mirth.
+
+"At you," I said.  "Why, what are you going to do?"
+
+"Do!" he said.  "Why, swim for it.  You don't suppose I'm going to try
+in my clothes?"
+
+My mirth died out as swiftly as it came, for the doctor laid his hand
+upon my arm and pressed it silently, to call my attention to our black
+followers, who were laying their bows and arrows regularly in company
+with their waddies, each man looking very stern and grave.
+
+They showed no fear, they raised no wild cry; they only seemed to be
+preparing for what was inevitable; and as I saw Ti-hi bend over and
+touch the water easily with his hand, and then rise up and look round at
+his companions, saying a few words in their tongue, the chill of horror
+came back once more, for I knew that the group of savages felt that
+their time had come, and that they were sitting there patiently waiting
+for the end.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
+
+WE AWAIT OUR FATE.
+
+I glanced from the blacks to the doctor, to see that he was intently
+gazing up the gorge where the rushing water came seething down, and I
+read in his face that he could not see the slightest hope.
+
+I looked at Jack Penny, who was deeply intent upon a little blue anchor
+that some bush shepherd had tattooed upon his thin white arm.
+
+Then I turned to Jimmy, whose quick dark eyes were busy inspecting his
+toes, those on the right foot having hold of his war-club, which he was
+holding out for Gyp to smell.
+
+He alone of the party did not seem to realise the fact that the end was
+so near.
+
+"Can we do anything, doctor?"  I said at last in a low awe-stricken
+voice.
+
+He gazed at me tenderly and held out his hand to press mine, when I laid
+it in his grasp.
+
+"No, my lad," he said, "nothing.  I have tried mentally to see a way out
+of our peril, but I can see none.  Unless the water sinks we are lost!
+Joe, my lad, you must act like a man!"
+
+"I'll try, doctor," I said in a choking voice; and as I spoke, once more
+there seemed to rise up before me our quiet peaceful home near Sydney,
+with its verandah and flowers and the simply furnished pretty rooms, in
+one of which sat my mother, waiting for tidings of her husband and son.
+
+I could not help it, but clasped my hands together uttering a despairing
+cry.  For it seemed so hard to give up hope when so young and full of
+health and strength.  Even if it had been amidst the roar and turmoil of
+the storm it would not have seemed so bad, or when the great flood wave
+came down; but now, in these calm cool moments, when there was nothing
+to excite, nothing to stir the blood, and, above all, just when the sky
+was of a dazzling blue, with a few silvery clouds floating away in the
+rear of the storm, while the sun shone down gloriously, it seemed too
+hard to bear.
+
+I gazed eagerly at the water, to see that it was nearly a foot higher,
+and then I joined the doctor in searching the rock with my eyes for a
+place where we might find foothold and clamber beyond the reach of the
+rushing torrent; but no, there seemed no spot where even a bird could
+climb, and in despair I too began to strip off some of my clothes.
+
+"Are you going to try to swim?" said the doctor gravely.
+
+I nodded.
+
+"That's right," he said.  "I shall do the same.  We might reach some
+ledge lower down."
+
+He said that word _might_ with a slow solemn emphasis that made me
+shudder, for I knew he felt that it was hopeless; but all the same he
+granted that it was our duty to try.
+
+The doctor now bent down over the water, and I could see that it was
+rising faster than ever.
+
+All at once Jimmy seemed to rouse himself, throwing up his waddy with
+his foot and catching it in his hand.
+
+"No water go down," he said.  "Mass Joe, Mass Jack, doctor, an all a let
+get up higher; no get wet.  Top along get drown, die, and bunyip pull um
+down an eat um!"
+
+"I'm afraid escape is impossible, Jimmy," I said sadly.
+
+"No know what um say!" cried the black impatiently.
+
+"Can't get away," I said.
+
+"No get way!  Waitum, waitum!  Jimmy--Jimmy see!"
+
+He went to the edge of the shelf and dipped one foot in the water, then
+the other, worked his toes about, and then, after a contemptuous look at
+the blacks, who were calmly awaiting their fate, he looked up at the
+face of the rock beyond the curving over abutment, and, reaching up as
+high as he could, began to climb.
+
+It did not seem to occur to him at first that if he were able to escape
+no one else would be, and he tried twice with a wonderful display of
+activity, which resulted merely in his slipping back.
+
+Then he tried elsewhere in two places, but with the same result, and
+after a few more trials he came to me and stood rubbing the back of his
+head, as if puzzled at his being so helpless and beaten at every turn.
+
+"Get much, too much water, Mass Joe!" he said.  "What um going to do?"
+
+I shook my head sadly, and went to where the doctor was watching the
+progress of the rushing river as it rose inch by inch--cracks and points
+of rock that we had before noticed disappearing entirely, till the
+flowing earth-stained surface was but a few inches below the ledge where
+we were grouped, waiting for the time when we should be swept away.
+
+In spite of the knowledge that at most in an hour the ledge would be
+covered I could not help watching the rushing stream as it dashed along.
+It was plain enough to me now why the sides of the gorge were so smooth
+and regular, for the action of the water must have been going on like
+this for many ages after every storm, and, laden as the waters were with
+masses of wood and stone, with pebbles and sand, the scouring of the
+rocks must have been incessant.
+
+Then my thoughts came back to our horrible position, and I looked round
+in despair, but only to be shamed out of any frantic display of grief by
+the stoical calmness with which all seemed to be preparing to meet their
+fate.
+
+Still the water rose steadily higher and higher inch by inch, and I
+could see that in a very few minutes it would be over the ledge.
+
+I was noting, too, that now it was so near the end, my companions seemed
+averse to speaking to me or each other, but were evidently moody and
+thoughtful; all but Jimmy, who seemed to be getting excited, and yet not
+much alarmed.
+
+I had gone to the extreme edge of the ledge, where the water nearly
+lapped my feet, and gazing straight up the gorge at the sunlit waters,
+kept backing slowly up the slope, driven away as the river rose, when
+the black came to me and touched my shoulder.
+
+"Poor black fellow there going die, Mass Joe.  Not die yet while: Jimmy
+not go die till fin' um fader.  Lot o' time; Jimmy not ready die--lot o'
+time!"
+
+"But how are we to get away, Jimmy?  How are we to escape?"
+
+"Black fellow hab big tink," he replied.  "Much big tink and find um
+way.  Great tupid go die when quite well, tank you, Mass Joe.  Jimmy
+black fellow won't die yet?  Mass Joe hab big swim 'long o' Jimmy.  Swim
+much fass all down a water.  Won't die, oh no!  Oh no!"
+
+There was so much hope and confidence in the black's manner and his
+broken English that I felt my heart give a great throb; but a sight of
+the calm resignation of my companions damped me again, till Jimmy once
+more spoke:
+
+"Mass Joe take off closums.  Put long gun up in corner; come and fetch
+um when no water.  Big swim!"
+
+Many had been the times when Jimmy and I had dashed into the river and
+swum about by the hour together; why not then now try to save our lives
+in spite of the roughness of the torrent and the horrors of the great
+fall I knew, too, that the fall must be at least two or three miles
+away, and there was always the possibility of our getting into some eddy
+and struggling out.
+
+My spirits rose then at these thoughts, and I rapidly threw off part of
+my clothes, placing my gun and hatchet with the big knife, all tied
+together, in a niche of the rock, where their weight and the shelter
+might save them from being washed away.
+
+As I did all this I saw the doctor look up sadly, but only to lower his
+head again till his chin rested upon his breast; while Jack Penny
+stared, and drew his knees up to his chin, embracing his legs and
+nodding his head sagely, as if he quite approved of what I was doing.
+
+The only individual who made any active demonstration was Gyp, who
+jumped up and came to me wagging his tail and uttering a sharp bark or
+two.  Then he ran to the water, snuffed at it, lapped a little, and
+threw up his head again, barking and splashing in it a little as he ran
+in breast-high and came back, as if intimating that he was ready at any
+moment for a swim.
+
+The doctor looked up now, and a change seemed to have come over him, for
+he rose from where he had been seated and took my hand.
+
+"Quite right, my lad," he said; "one must never say despair.  There's a
+ledge there higher up where we will place the ammunition.  Let's keep
+that dry if we can.  It may not be touched by the water; even if we have
+to swim for our lives the guns won't hurt--that is, if they are not
+washed away."
+
+It was as if he had prepared himself for the worst, and was now going to
+make strenuous efforts to save himself and his friends, after we had
+taken such precautions as we could about our stores.
+
+Jimmy grinned and helped readily to place the various articles likely to
+be damaged by water as high as we could on ledges and blocks of stone,
+though as I did all this it was with the feeling that we were never
+likely to see the things again.
+
+Still it was like doing one's duty, and I felt that then, of all times,
+was the hour for that.
+
+So we worked on, with many a furtive glance at the water, which kept on
+encroaching till it began to lap the feet of our black companions.
+
+But they did not stir; they remained with their positions unaltered, and
+still the water advanced, till the highest point of the ledge was
+covered, and Gyp began whining and paddling about, asking us, as it
+were, with his intelligent eyes, whether we did not mean to start.
+
+"Hi!  Gyp, Gyp!" shouted Jimmy just then; "up along, boy; up along!" and
+he patted the top of one of the stones that we had used for a
+breastwork.
+
+The dog leaped up directly, placing himself three feet above the flood,
+and stood barking loudly.
+
+"Yes, we can stand up there for a while," said the doctor, "and that
+will prolong the struggle a bit.  Here, come up higher!" he cried,
+making signs to our black companions, who after a time came unwillingly
+from their lower position, splashing mournfully through the water, but
+evidently unwilling even then to disobey their white leader.
+
+They grouped themselves with us close up to the breastwork, where we
+stood with the water rising still higher, and then all at once I felt
+that we must swim, for a fresh wave, the result probably of some portion
+of the flood that had been dammed up higher on the river course, swept
+upon us right to our lips, and but for the strength of our stone
+breastwork we must have been borne away.
+
+As it was, we were standing by it, some on either side, and all clinging
+together.  We withstood the heavy wrench that the water seemed to give,
+and held on, the only one who lost his footing being Jack Penny, who was
+dragged back by the doctor as the wave passed on.
+
+"Enough to pull your arms out of the socket," whined Jack dolefully.  "I
+say, please don't do it again.  I'd rather have to swim."
+
+Higher and higher came the water, icily cold and numbing.  The wave that
+passed was succeeded by another, but that only reached to our waists,
+and when this had gone by there was the old slow rising of the flood as
+before till it was as high as our knees.  Then by degrees it crept on
+and on till I was standing with it reaching my hips.
+
+A fearful silence now ensued, and the thought came upon me that when the
+final struggle was at hand we should be so clasped together that
+swimming would be impossible and we must all be drowned.
+
+And now, once more, with the water rising steadily, the old stunned
+helpless feeling began to creep over me, and I began to think of home in
+a dull heavy manner, of the happy days when I had hardly a care, and
+perhaps a few regrets were mixed with it all; but somehow I did not feel
+as if I repented of coming, save when I thought that my mother would
+have two sorrows now when she came to know of her loss.
+
+Then everything seemed to be numbed; my limbs began to feel helpless,
+and my thoughts moved sluggishly, and in a half dreamy fashion I stood
+there pressed against, the rock holding tightly by the doctor on one
+side, by Jimmy on the other, and in another minute I knew that the
+rising water would be at my lips.
+
+I remember giving a curious gasp as if my breath was going, and in
+imagination I recalled my sensations when, during a bathing expedition,
+I went down twice before Jimmy swam to my help and held me up.  The
+water had not touched my lips--it was only at my chest, but I fancied I
+felt it bubbling in my nostrils and strangling me; I seemed to hear it
+thundering in my ears; there was the old pain at the back of my neck,
+and I struggled to get my hands free to beat the water like a drowning
+dog, but they were tightly held by my companions, how tightly probably
+they never knew.  Then I remember that my head suddenly seemed to grow
+clear, and I was repeating to myself the words of a familiar old prayer
+when my eyes fell upon the surface of the water, and I felt as if I
+could not breathe.
+
+The next minute Gyp was barking furiously, as he stood upon his hind
+legs resting his paws upon his master's shoulders, and Jimmy gave a loud
+shout.
+
+"All a water run away, juss fass now," and as he spoke it fell a couple
+of inches, then a couple more, so swiftly, indeed, that the terrible
+pressure that held us tightly against the stones was taken off pound by
+pound, and before we could realise the truth the water was at my knees.
+
+Ten minutes later it was at my feet, and before half an hour had passed
+we were standing in the glorious sunshine with the rocky ledge drying
+fast, while the river, minute by minute, was going down, so that we felt
+sure if no storm came to renew the flood it would be at its old level in
+a couple of hours' time.
+
+We were dripping and numbed by the icy water; but in that fierce
+sunshine it was wonderful how soon our wrung-out garments dried; and
+warmth was rapidly restored to our limbs by rocks that soon grew heated
+in the torrid rays.
+
+"Big bunyip got no more water.  All gone dis time," said Jimmy calmly.
+"Poor black fellows tink go die.  No die Jimmy.  Lots a do find um fader
+all over big country.  Water all gone, Jimmy cunning--artful, not mean
+die dis time.  Bunyip not got 'nuff water.  Give Jimmy something eat.
+Ready eat half sheep and damper.  Give Jimmy some eat."
+
+We all wanted something to eat, and eagerly set to work, but soaking
+damper was not a very sumptuous repast; still we feasted as eagerly as
+if it had been the most delicious food, and all the time the water kept
+going down.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
+
+HOW THE DOCTOR TOOK ME IN HAND.
+
+It is surprising how elastic the mind is in young people, and my
+experience has shown me that there is a great deal of resemblance
+between the minds of savages and those of the young.
+
+In this case we had all been, I may say, in a state of the most terrible
+despair one hour.  The next, our black companions were laughing and
+chattering over their wet damper, and Jimmy was hopping about in the
+highest of glee, while I must confess to a singular feeling of
+exhilaration which I showed in company with Jack Penny, who, after
+resuming his garments, seemed to have been seized with the idea that the
+proper thing to do was to go round from one to another administering
+friendly slaps on the shoulder accompanied by nods and smiles.
+
+I used to wish that Jack Penny would not smile, for the effect upon his
+smooth boyish countenance was to make him look idiotic.  When the doctor
+smiled there was a grave kindly benevolent look in his fine
+heavily-bearded massive face.  When Jimmy smiled it was in a wholesale
+fashion, which gave you an opportunity of counting his teeth from the
+incisors right back to those known as wisdom-teeth at the angles of his
+jaws.  He always smiled with all his might and made me think of the man
+who said he admired a crocodile because it had such a nice open
+countenance.
+
+Jimmy had a nice open countenance and a large mouth; but it in no
+respect resembled a crocodile's.  His regular teeth were white with a
+china whiteness, more than that of ivory, and there was a genuine
+good-tempered look about his features which even the distortion produced
+by anger did not take away.  It was only the rather comic grotesqueness
+seen sometimes in the face of a little child when he is what his mother
+calls a naughty boy, and distends his mouth and closes his eyes for a
+genuine howl.
+
+But Jack Penny had a smile of his own, a weak inane sickly smile that
+irritated instead of pleasing you, and made you always feel as if you
+would like to punch his head for being such a fool, when all the time he
+was not a fool at all, but a thoroughly good-hearted, brave, and clever
+fellow--true as steel--steel of the very elastic watch-spring kind, for
+the way in which he bent was terrible to see.
+
+So Jack Penny went about smiling and slapping people's backs till it was
+time to go, and we all watched the cessation of the flood with
+eagerness.
+
+The doctor, in talking, said that it was evident that this gorge ran
+right up into quite a mountainous region acting as a drain to perhaps a
+score of valleys which had been flooded by the sudden storm, and that
+this adventure had given us as true an idea of the nature of the
+interior we were about to visit as if we had studied a map.
+
+Down went the water more and more swiftly till, as I was saying to the
+doctor how grand it must have been to see the flood rolling over the
+great fall, we saw that the rocky ledge along which we had come and that
+on the other side of our little haven of safety were bare and drying up,
+being washed perfectly clean and not showing so much as a trace of mud.
+
+"Let us get on at once," the doctor said; "this is no road for a
+traveller to choose, for the first storm will again make it a
+death-trap."
+
+So here we were rescued, and we started at once, every one carefully
+avoiding the slightest reference to the fate of our pursuers, while in
+the broad light of day, in place of looking terrible, the chasm was
+simply grand.  The cool rolling water seemed to bring with it a soft
+sweet breeze that made us feel elastic, and refreshed us as we trudged
+along at an ordinary rate, for there was no fear now of pursuit.
+
+So with one or two halts we walked on all day till I felt eager to get
+out from between the prison-like walls to where the trees were waving,
+and we could hear the voices of the birds.  Here there was nothing but
+stone, stone as high as we could see.
+
+It was a great drawback our not being able to converse with the bearers,
+but we amended this a little every hour, for Ti-hi struggled hard to
+make us understand how much he knew about the place and how he knew that
+there were such floods as this from time to time.
+
+We managed to learn from him, too, that we should not escape from the
+gorge that night, and to our dismay we had to encamp on a broad shelf
+when the sun went down; but the night proved to be clear and calm, and
+morning broke without any adventure to disturb our much-needed rest.
+
+The gorge had been widening out, though, a great deal on the previous
+evening, and by noon next day, when we paused for a rest after a long
+tramp over constantly-rising ground, we were beyond risk from any such
+storm as that which had nearly been our destruction, but as we rested
+amid some bushes beside what was a mere gurgling stream, one of several
+into which the river had branched, Ti-hi contrived to make us understand
+that we were not in safety, for there were people here who were ready to
+fight and kill, according to his words and pantomimic action, which
+Jimmy took upon himself to explain.
+
+For days and days we journeyed on finding abundance of food in the river
+and on its banks by means of gun and hook and line.  The blacks were
+clever, too, at finding for us roots and fruit, with tender shoots of
+some kind of grassy plant that had a sweet taste, pleasantly acid as
+well, bunches of which Jimmy loved to stick behind him in his waistband
+so that it hung down like a bushy green tail that diminished as he
+walked, for he kept drawing upon it till it all was gone.
+
+Now and then, too, we came upon the great pale-green broad leaves of a
+banana or plantain, which was a perfect treasure.
+
+Jimmy was generally the first to find these, for he was possessed of a
+fine insight into what was good for food.
+
+"Regular fellow for the pot," Jack Penny said one day as Jimmy set up
+one of his loud whoops and started off at a run.
+
+This was the first time we found a plantain, and in answer to Jimmy's
+_cooey_ we followed and found him hauling himself up by the large
+leaf-stalks, to where, thirty feet above the bottom, hung, like a
+brobdignagian bunch of elongated grapes, a monstrous cluster of yellow
+plantains.
+
+"I say, they ain't good to eat, are they?" said Jack, as Jimmy began
+hacking through the curved stalk.
+
+"Yup, yup! hyi, hyi!" shouted Jimmy, tearing away so vigorously at the
+great bunch that it did not occur to him that he was proceeding in a
+manner generally accredited to the Irishman who sawed off a branch,
+cutting between himself and the tree.
+
+The first knowledge he, and for the matter of fact we, had of his
+mistake, was seeing him and the bunch of bananas, weighing about a
+hundredweight, come crashing down amongst the undergrowth, out of a
+tangle of which, and the huge leaves of the plantain tree, we had to
+help our black companion, whose first motion was to save the fruit.
+
+This done he began to examine himself to see how much he was hurt, and
+ended by seizing my axe and bounding back into the jungle, to hew and
+hack at the tree till we called him back.
+
+"Big bunyip tree!  Fro black fellow down," he cried furiously.  "Got um
+bana, though!" he exclaimed triumphantly, and turning to the big bunch
+he began to separate it into small ones, giving us each a portion to
+carry.
+
+"I say, what's these?" said Jack Penny, handling his bunch with a look
+of disgust.
+
+"Bananas," I said.  "Splendid fruit food."
+
+"How do you know?" said Jack sourly.  "There's none in your garden at
+home."
+
+"My father has often told me about them," I replied.  "They are rich and
+nutritious, and--let's try."
+
+I ended my description rather abruptly, for I was thirsty and hungry as
+well, and the presence of a highly flavoured fruit was not to be treated
+with contempt.
+
+I cut off one then, and looking at Jack nodded, proceeded to peel it,
+and enjoyed the new sweet vegetable butter, flavoured with pear and
+honey, for the first time in my life.
+
+"Is it good?" said Jack, dubiously.
+
+"Splendid," I said.
+
+"Why, they look like sore fingers done up in stalls," he said.  "I say,
+I don't like the look of them."
+
+"Don't have any, then," I said, commencing another; while every one
+present, the doctor included, followed my example with so much vigour
+that Jack began in a slow solemn way, peeling and tasting, and making a
+strange grimace, and ending by eating so rapidly that the doctor advised
+a halt.
+
+"Oh, all right!" said Jack.  "I won't eat any more, then.  But, I say,
+they are good!"
+
+There was no likelihood of our starving, for water was abundant, and
+fruit to be found by those who had such energetic hunters as the blacks.
+So we proceeded steadily on, hoping day by day either to encounter some
+friendly tribe, or else to make some discovery that might be of value to
+us in our search.
+
+And so for days we journeyed on, hopeful in the morning, dispirited in
+the heat of the day when weary.  Objects such as would have made glad
+the heart of any naturalist were there in plenty, but nothing in the
+shape of sign that would make our adventure bear the fruit we wished.
+If our object had been hunting and shooting, wild pig, deer, and birds
+innumerable were on every hand.  Had we been seeking wonderful orchids
+and strangely shaped flowers and fruits there was reward incessant for
+us, but it seemed as if the whole of the interior was given up to wild
+nature, and that the natives almost exclusively kept to the land near
+the sea-shore.
+
+The doctor and I sat one night by our watch-fire talking the matter
+over, and I said that I began to be doubtful of success.
+
+"Because we have been all over the country?" he replied, smiling.
+
+"Well, we have travelled a great way," I said.
+
+"Why, my dear boy, what we have done is a mere nothing.  This island is
+next in size to Australia.  It is almost a continent, and we have just
+penetrated a little way."
+
+"But I can't help seeing," I said, "that the people seem to be all
+dwellers near the sea-coast."
+
+"Exactly.  What of that?" he replied.
+
+"Then if my poor father were anywhere a prisoner, he would have been
+sure to have found some means of communicating with the traders if he
+had not escaped."
+
+"Your old argument, Joe," he said.  "Are you tired of the quest?"
+
+"Tired?  No!"  I cried excitedly.
+
+"Then recollect the spirit in which we set about this search.  We said
+we would find him."
+
+"And so we will: my mind is made up to find him--if he be living," I
+added mournfully.
+
+"Aha!" said the doctor, bending forward and looking at me by the light
+of the burning wood, "I see, my fine fellow, I see.  We are a bit upset
+with thinking and worry.  Nerves want a little tone, eh? as we doctors
+say.  My dear boy, I shall have to feel your pulse and put you to bed
+for a day or two.  This is a nice high and dry place: suppose we camp
+here for a little, and--"
+
+"Oh no, no, doctor," I cried.
+
+"But I say, Oh yes, yes.  Why, Joe, you're not afraid of a dose of
+physic, are you?  You want something, that's evident.  Boys of your age
+don't have despondent fits without a cause."
+
+"I have only been thinking a little more about home, and--my poor
+father," I said with a sigh.
+
+"My dear Joe," said the doctor, "once for all I protest against that
+despondent manner of speaking.  `My poor father!'  How do you know he is
+poor?  Bah! lad: you're a bit down, and I shall give you a little
+quinine.  To-morrow you will rest all day."
+
+"And then?"  I said excitedly.
+
+"Then," he said thoughtfully--"then?  Why, then we'll have a fishing or
+a shooting trip for a change, to do us both good, and we'll take Jack
+Penny and Jimmy with us."
+
+"Let's do that to-morrow, doctor," I said, "instead of my lying here in
+camp."
+
+"Will you take your quinine, then, like a good boy?" he said laughingly.
+
+"That I will, doctor--a double dose," I exclaimed.  "A double dose you
+shall take, Joe, my lad," he said; and to my horror he drew a little
+flat silver case out of his pocket, measured out a little light white
+powder on the blade of a knife into our pannikin, squeezed into it a few
+drops of the juice of a lemon-like fruit of which we had a pretty good
+number every day, filled up with water, and held it for me to drink.
+
+"Oh, I say, doctor!"  I exclaimed, "I did not think I should be brought
+out here in the wilderness to be physicked."
+
+"Lucky fellow to have a medical man always at your side," he replied.
+"There, sip it up.  No faces.  Pish! it wasn't nasty, was it?"
+
+"Ugh! how bitter!"  I cried with a shudder.
+
+"Bitter?  Well, yes; but how sweet to know that you have had a dose of
+the greatest medicine ever discovered.  There, now, lie down on the
+blanket near the fire here, never mind being a little warm, and go to
+sleep."
+
+I obeyed him unwillingly, and lay attentively watching the doctor's
+thoughtful face and the fire.  Then I wondered whether we should have
+that savage beast again which had haunted our camp at our first
+starting, and then I began to dose off, and was soon dreaming of having
+found my father, and taken him in triumph back to where my mother was
+waiting to receive us with open arms.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
+
+HOW I WAS DISPOSED TO FIND FAULT WITH MY BEST FRIEND.
+
+When I unclosed my eyes it was bright morning and through an opening in
+the trees opposite to where I lay I gazed upon the dazzling summit of a
+mountain of wonderfully regular shape.  As I lay there it put me in mind
+of a bell, so evenly rounded were the shoulders, and I was thinking
+whether it would be possible to clamber up it and inspect the country
+from its summit, when the doctor came up.
+
+"Ah!  Joe," he said; "and how are the spirits this morning?"
+
+"Spirits?"  I said wonderingly, for my sleep had been so deep that I had
+forgotten all about the previous evening.  "Oh, I'm quite well;" and
+springing up I went to the stream by which we were encamped to bathe my
+face and hands, coming back refreshed, and quite ready for the breakfast
+that was waiting.
+
+"Let's see," said the doctor.  "I promised an expedition did I not?"
+
+"Yes: hunting or fishing," I said eagerly, though I half repented my
+eagerness directly after, for it seemed as if I did not think enough
+about the object of our journey.
+
+"I've altered my mind," said the doctor.  "We've been travelling for
+days in low damp levels; now for a change what do you say to trying high
+ground and seeing if we can climb that mountain?  What do you say,
+Penny?"
+
+"Won't it make our backs ache a deal?" he said, gazing rather wistfully
+up at the glittering mountain.
+
+"No doubt, and our legs too," the doctor replied.  "Of course we shall
+not try to ascend the snowy parts, but to get as far as the shoulder;
+that will give us a good view of the lay of the country, and it will be
+something to climb where perhaps human foot has never trod before."
+
+There was something fascinating enough in this to move Jack Penny into
+forgetfulness of the possibility of an aching back; and after getting in
+motion once more, we followed our black bearers for a few miles, and
+then giving them instructions where to halt--upon a low hill just in
+front--we struck off to the left, the doctor, Jack Penny, Jimmy, and the
+dog, and at the end of half an hour began the ascent.
+
+So slight was the slope that we climbed I could hardly believe it
+possible how fast we had ascended, when at the end of a couple of hours
+we sat down to rest by a rill of clear intensely cold water that was
+bubbling amongst the stones.  For on peering through a clump of trees I
+gazed at the most lovely landscape I had seen since I commenced my
+journey.  Far as eye could reach it was one undulating forest of endless
+shades of green, amidst which, like verdant islands, rose hill and
+lesser mountain.
+
+I could have stopped and gazed at the scene for hours had not the doctor
+taken me by the arm.
+
+"Rest and food, my lad," he said; "and then higher up yet before we
+settle to our map making and mark out our future course."
+
+Jimmy was already fast asleep beneath a rock, curled up in imitation of
+Gyp, while Jack Penny was sitting with his back against a tree,
+apparently studying his legs as he rubbed his hands up and down them
+gently, to soften and make more pliable the muscles.
+
+"Tain't time to go on yet, is it?" he said with a dismal glance up at
+us.
+
+"No, no, Penny; we'll have a good rest first," said the doctor; and Jack
+uttered a profound sigh of relief.
+
+"I am glad," he said, "for I was resting my back.  I get up against a
+small tree like this and keep my back straight, and that seems to make
+it stronger and stiffer for ever so long."
+
+"Then take my advice, Penny; try another plan, my lad.  You have grown
+too fast."
+
+"Yes, that's what father always said," replied Jack, beginning with a
+high squeak and rumbling off into a low bass.
+
+"You are then naturally weak, and if I were you I should lie flat down
+upon my back every time we stopped.  You will then get up refreshed more
+than you think for."
+
+"But you wouldn't lie flat like that when you were eating your victuals,
+would you?  I ain't Jimmy."
+
+"No, but you could manage that," I said; and Jack Penny nodded and lay
+down very leisurely, but only to spring up again most energetically and
+uttering a frightened yell.
+
+Gyp and Jimmy uncoiled like a couple of loosened springs, the former to
+utter a series of angry barks, and the latter to spring up into the air
+suddenly.
+
+"Where de bunyip--where de big bunyip?  Jimmy kill um all along."
+
+He flourished his waddy wildly, and then followed Gyp, who charged into
+the wood as the doctor and I seized our guns, ready for action.
+
+Then a fierce worrying noise took place for a few moments in amongst the
+bushes, and then Jimmy came bounding out, dragging a small snake by the
+tail, to throw it down and then proceed to batter its head once again
+with his waddy, driving it into the earth, though the reptile must
+already have ceased to exist.
+
+"Killum dead um!" cried Jimmy, grinning with triumph.  "Jimmy killum
+headums; Gyp killums tail."
+
+"I wish you'd look, doctor, and see if he bit me," said Jack, speaking
+disconsolately.  "I lay down as you told me, and put my head right on
+that snake."
+
+"Don't you know whether it bit you?" said the doctor anxiously.
+
+"No, not the least idea," said Jack, shaking his head.  "I think it must
+have bit me, I was so close."
+
+"I don't believe it did," I said.  "Why, you must have known."
+
+"Think so?" said Jack dismally.  "I say, doctor, is it best, do you
+think, to lie right down?"
+
+"Yes, if you look first to see whether there is danger from snakes.
+There, lie down, my lad, and rest."
+
+Jack obeyed him very reluctantly, and after Gyp and Jimmy had both
+re-curled themselves, the doctor and I lay down to talk in a low voice
+about our prospects, and then as I lay listening to his words, and
+wondering whether I should ever succeed in tracing out my father, all
+seemed to become blank, till I started up on being touched.
+
+"Had a good nap?" said the doctor.  "Then let's get on again."
+
+We started once more, with the ground now becoming more difficult.
+Trees were fewer, but rocks and rugged patches of stony soil grew
+frequent, while a pleasant breeze now played about our faces and seemed
+to send vigour into our frames.
+
+Gyp and the black were wonderfully excited, bounding about in front of
+us, and even Jack Penny stepped out with a less uncertain stride.
+
+Higher we climbed and higher, and at every pause that we made for breath
+the beauty of the great country was more impressed upon me.
+
+"What a pity!" exclaimed the doctor, as we halted at last upon a rugged
+corner of the way we were clambering, with the glistening summit far
+above our heads, while at our feet the wild country looked like some
+lovely green garden.
+
+"What is a pity?"  I said wonderingly, for the scene, tired and hot as I
+was, seemed lovely.
+
+"That such a glorious country should be almost without inhabitant, when
+thousands of our good true Englishmen are without a scrap of land to
+call their own."
+
+"Hey, hi!" cried Jack Penny excitedly.  "Look out!  There's something
+wrong."
+
+Jimmy and the dog had, as usual, been on ahead; but only to come racing
+back, the former's face full of excitement, while the dog seemed almost
+as eager as the black.
+
+"Jimmy find um mans, find.  Quiet, Gyp; no make noise."
+
+"Find?  My father?"  I cried, with a curious choking sensation in my
+throat.
+
+"No; no findum fader," whispered Jimmy.  "Get um gun.  Findum black
+fellow round a corner."
+
+"He has come upon the natives at last, doctor," I said softly.  "What
+shall we do?"
+
+"Retreat if they are enemies; go up to them if they are friendly," said
+the doctor; "only we can't tell which, my lad.  Ours is a plunge in the
+dark, and we must risk it, or I do not see how we are to get on with our
+quest."
+
+"Shall we put on a brave face and seem as if we trusted them then?"  I
+said.
+
+"But suppose they're fierce cannibals," whispered Jack Penny, "or as
+savage as those fellows down by the river?  Ain't it rather risky?"
+
+"No more risky than the whole of our trip, Penny," said the doctor
+gravely.  "Are you afraid?"
+
+"Well, I don't know," drawled Jack softly.  "I don't think I am, but I
+ain't sure.  But I sha'n't run away.  Oh, no, I sha'n't run away."
+
+"Come along then," said the doctor.  "Shoulder your rifle carelessly,
+and let's put a bold front upon our advance.  They may be friendly.
+Now, Jimmy, lead the way."
+
+The black's eyes glittered as he ran to the front, stooping down almost
+as low as if he were some animal creeping through the bush, and taking
+advantage of every shrub and rock for concealment.
+
+He went on, with Gyp close at his heels, evidently as much interested as
+his leader, while we followed, walking erect and making no effort to
+conceal our movements.
+
+We went on like this for quite a quarter of a mile, and the doctor had
+twice whispered to me that he believed it was a false alarm, in spite of
+Jimmy's cautionary movements, and we were about to shout to him to come
+back, when all at once he stopped short behind a rugged place that stood
+out of the mountain slope, and waved his waddy to us to come on.
+
+"He has come upon them," I said, with my heart beating faster and a
+curious sensation of sluggishness attacking my legs.
+
+"Yes, he has found something," said the doctor; and as I glanced round I
+could see that Jack Penny had my complaint in his legs a little worse
+than I.  But no sooner did he see that I was looking at him than he
+snatched himself together, and we went on boldly, feeling a good deal
+encouraged from the simple fact that Gyp came back to meet us wagging
+his tail.
+
+As we reached the spot where Jimmy was watching, he drew back to allow
+us to peer round the block of stone, saying softly:
+
+"Dat's um.  Black fellow just gone long."
+
+To our surprise there were no natives in the hollow into which we
+peered, but just beyond a few stunted bushes I could see smoke arising,
+so it seemed, and the black whispered:
+
+"Black fellow fire.  Cookum damper.  Roastum sheep's muttons."
+
+"But there is no one, Jimmy," I said.
+
+"Jus' gone long.  Hear Jimmy come long.  Run away," he whispered.
+
+"That is no fire," said the doctor, stepping forward.  "It is a hot
+spring."
+
+"Yes, yes, much big fire; go much out now.  Mind black fellow; mind
+spear killum, killum."
+
+"Yes, a hot spring, and this is steam," said the doctor, as we went on
+to where a little basin of water bubbled gently, and sent forth quite a
+little pillar of vapour into the air; so white was it that the black
+might well have been excused for making his mistake.
+
+"Jimmy run long see where black fellow gone.  Cookum dinner here.  Eh!
+whar a fire?" he cried, bending down and poking at the little basin with
+the butt of his spear before looking wonderingly at us.
+
+"Far down in the earth, Jimmy," said the doctor.
+
+"Eh?  Far down?  Whar a fire makum water boils?" cried the black
+excitedly; and bending down he peered in all directions, ending by
+thrusting one hand in the spring and snatching it out again with a yell
+of pain.
+
+"Is it so hot as that, Jimmy?"  I said.
+
+"Ah, roastum hot, O!" cried Jimmy, holding his hand to his mouth.  "Oh!
+Mass Joe, doctor, stop.  Jimmy go and find black fellow."
+
+We tried very hard to make the black understand that this was one of
+Nature's wonders, but it was of no avail.  He only shook his head and
+winked at us, grinning the while.
+
+"No, no; Jimmy too cunning-artful.  Play trickums.  Make fool o' Jimmy.
+Oh, no!  Ha! ha!  Jimmy cunning-artful; black fellow see froo
+everybody."
+
+He stood shaking his head at us in such an aggravating way, after all
+the trouble I had been at to show him that this was a hot spring and
+volcanic, that I felt ready to kick, and I daresay I should have kicked
+him if he had not been aware of me, reading my countenance easily
+enough, and backing away laughing, and getting within reach of a great
+piece of rock, behind which he could dodge if I grew too aggressive.
+
+I left Jimmy to himself, and stood with the doctor examining the curious
+steaming little fount, which came bubbling out of some chinks in the
+solid rock and formed a basin for itself of milky white stone, some of
+which was rippled where the water ran over, and trickled musically along
+a jagged crevice in the rocky soil, sending up a faint steam which faded
+away directly in the glowing sunshine.
+
+"I say," said Jack Penny, who had crouched down beside the basin, "why,
+you might cook eggs in this."
+
+"That you might, Penny," said the doctor.
+
+"But we ain't got any eggs to cook," said Jack dolefully.  "I wish we'd
+got some of our fowls' eggs--the new-laid ones, you know.  I don't mean
+them you find in the nests.  I say, it is hot," he continued.  "You
+might boil mutton."
+
+"Eh! whar a mutton?  Boil mutton?" cried Jimmy, running up, for he had
+caught the words.
+
+"At home, Jimmy," I said, laughing.  The black's disgust was comical to
+witness as he tucked his waddy under one arm, turned his nose in the
+air, and stalked off amongst the rocks, in the full belief that we had
+been playing tricks with him.
+
+He startled us the next moment by shouting:
+
+"Here um come!  Gun, gun, gun!"
+
+He came rushing back to us, and, moved by his evidently real excitement,
+we took refuge behind a barrier of rock and waited the coming onslaught,
+for surely enough there below us were dark bodies moving amongst the low
+growth, and it was evident that whatever it was, human being or lower
+animals, they were coming in our direction fast.
+
+We waited anxiously for a few minutes, during the whole of which time
+Jimmy was busily peering to right and left, now creeping forward for a
+few yards, sheltered by stones or bush, now slowly raising his head to
+get a glimpse of the coming danger; and so careful was he that his black
+rough head should not be seen, that he turned over upon his back, pushed
+himself along in that position, and then lay peering through the bushes
+over his forehead.
+
+The moving objects were still fifty yards away, where the bush was very
+thick and low.  Admirable cover for an advancing enemy.  Their actions
+seemed so cautious, too, that we felt sure that we must be seen, and I
+was beginning to wonder whether it would not be wise to fire amongst the
+low scrub and scare our enemies, when Jimmy suddenly changed his
+tactics, making a sign to us to be still, as he crawled backwards right
+past us and disappeared, waddy in hand.
+
+We could do nothing but watch, expecting the black every moment to
+return and report.
+
+But five minutes', ten minutes' anxiety ensued before we heard a shout
+right before us, followed by a rush, and as we realised that the black
+had come back past us so that he might make a circuit and get round the
+enemy, there was a rush, and away bounding lightly over the tops of the
+bushes went a little pack of a small kind of kangaroo.
+
+It was a matter of moments; the frightened animals, taking flying leaps
+till out of sight, and Jimmy appeared, running up panting, to look
+eagerly round.
+
+"Whar a big wallaby?" he cried.  "No shoot?  No killum?  Eh?  Jimmy
+killum one big small ole man!"
+
+He trotted back as he spoke, and returned in triumph bearing one of the
+creatures, about equal in size to a small lamb.
+
+This was quickly dressed by the black, and secured hanging in a tree,
+for the doctor would not listen to Jimmy's suggestion that we should
+stop and "boil um in black fellow's pot all like muttons;" and then we
+continued our climb till we had won to a magnificent position on the
+shoulder of the mountain for making a careful inspection of the country
+now seeming to lie stretched out at our feet.
+
+A more glorious sight I never saw.  Green everywhere, wave upon wave of
+verdure lit up by the sunshine and darkening in shadow.  Mountains were
+in the distance, and sometimes we caught the glint of water; but sweep
+the prospect as we would in every direction with the glass it was always
+the same, and the doctor looked at me at last and shook his head.
+
+"Joe," he said at last, "our plan appeared to be very good when we
+proposed it, but it seems to me that we are going wrong.  If we are to
+find your father, whom we believe to be a prisoner--"
+
+"Who is a prisoner!"  I said emphatically.
+
+"Why do you say that?" he cried sharply, searching me with his eyes.
+
+"I don't know," I replied dreamily.  "He's a prisoner somewhere."
+
+"Then we must seek him among the villages of the blacks near the
+sea-shore.  The farther we go the more we seem to be making our way into
+the desert.  Look there!" he cried, pointing in different directions;
+"the foot of man never treads there.  These forests are impassable."
+
+"Are you getting weary of our search, doctor?"  I said bitterly.
+
+He turned upon me an angry look, which changed to one of reproach.
+
+"You should not have asked me that, my lad," he said softly.  "You are
+tired or you would not have spoken so bitterly.  Wait and see.  I only
+want to direct our energies in the right way.  The blacks could go on
+tramping through the country; we whites must use our brains as well as
+our legs."
+
+"I--I beg your pardon, doctor!"  I cried earnestly.
+
+"All right, my lad," he said quietly.  "Now for getting back to camp.
+Where must our bearers be?"
+
+He adjusted the glass and stood carefully examining the broad landscape
+before us, till all at once he uttered an exclamation, and handed the
+glass to me.
+
+"See what you make of that spot where there seems to be a mass of rock
+rising out of the plain, and a thin thread of flashing water running by
+its side.  Yonder!" he continued, pointing.  "About ten miles away, I
+should say."
+
+I took the glass, and after a good deal of difficulty managed to catch
+sight of the lump of rock he had pointed out.  There was the gleaming
+thread of silver, too, with, plainly seen through the clear atmosphere
+and gilded by the sun, quite a tiny cloud of vapour slowly rising in the
+air.
+
+"Is that another hot spring, doctor?"  I said, as I kept my glass fixed
+upon the spot; "or--"
+
+"Our blacks' fire," said the doctor.  "It might be either; or in
+addition it might be a fire lit by enemies, or at all events savages;
+but as it is in the direction in which we are expecting to find our
+camp, and there seem to be no enemies near, I am in favour of that being
+camp.  Come: time is slipping by.  Let's start downward now."
+
+I nodded and turned to Jack Penny, who all this while had been resting
+his back by lying flat upon the ground, and that he was asleep was
+proved by the number of ants and other investigating insects which were
+making a tour all over his long body; Gyp meanwhile looking on, and
+sniffing at anything large, such as a beetle, with the result of chasing
+the visitor away.
+
+We roused Jack and started, having to make a detour so as to secure
+Jimmy's kangaroo, which he shouldered manfully, for though it offered us
+no temptation we knew that it would delight the men in camp.
+
+The descent was much less laborious than the ascent, but it took a long
+time, and the sun was fast sinking lower, while as we approached the
+plains every few hundred yards seemed to bring us into a warmer stratum
+of air, while we kept missing the pleasant breeze of the higher ground.
+
+If we could have made a bee-line right to where the smoke rose the task
+would have been comparatively easy, but we had to avoid this chasm, that
+piled-up mass of rocks, and, as we went lower, first thorny patches of
+scrub impeded our passage, and lower still there was the impenetrable
+forest.
+
+I was getting fearfully tired and Jack Penny had for a long time been
+perfectly silent, while Jimmy, who was last, took to uttering a low
+groan every now and then, at times making it a sigh as he looked
+imploringly at me, evidently expecting me to share his heavy load.
+
+I was too tired and selfish, I'm afraid, and I trudged on till close
+upon sundown, when it occurred to me that I had not heard Jimmy groan or
+sigh for some time, and turning to speak to him I waited till he came
+up, walking easily and lightly, with his spear acting as a staff.
+
+"Why, Jimmy; where's the kangaroo?"  I said.
+
+"Wallaby ole man, Mass Joe?" he said, nodding his head on one side like
+a sparrow.
+
+"Yes; where is it?"
+
+"Bad un!" he said sharply.  "Jimmy smell up poo boo!  Bad; not good a
+eat.  No get camp a night.  Jimmy fro um all away!"
+
+"Thrown it away!"  I cried.
+
+"Yes; bad ums.  Jimmy fro um all away!"
+
+"You lazy humbug!"  I said with a laugh, in which he good-humouredly
+joined.
+
+"Yess--ess--Jimmy laze humbug!  Fro um all away."
+
+"But I say, look here, Jimmy!"  I said anxiously, "what do you mean?"
+
+"Light fire here; go asleep!  Findum camp a morning.  All away, right
+away.  Not here; no!"
+
+He ended by shaking his head, and I called to the doctor:
+
+"Jimmy says we shall not find the camp!"  I said hastily; "and that we
+are going wrong."
+
+"I know it," he said quietly; "but we cannot get through this forest
+patch, so we must go wrong for a time, and then strike off to the
+right."
+
+But we found no opportunity of striking off to the right.  Everywhere it
+was impenetrable forest, and at last we had to come to a halt on the
+edge, for the darkness was black, and to have gone on meant feeling our
+way step by step.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
+
+HOW I GOT INTO SERIOUS DIFFICULTIES.
+
+It is not a pleasant place to pass a night, on the ground at the edge of
+a vast forest, inhabited by you know not what noxious beasts, while if
+you light a fire to scare them off you always do so with the idea that
+in scaring one enemy you may be giving notice to a worse where he may
+find you to make a prisoner or put you to death.
+
+However we determined to risk being seen by savages, the more readily
+that we had gone so far now without seeing one, and in a short time a
+ruddy blaze was gilding the forest edge and the great sparks were
+cracking around the trees.
+
+We had calculated upon being back at camp that night, so we had eaten
+all our food, and now, as we sat there by the fire hungry and tired, I
+began to think that we might have done worse than cut off the kangaroo's
+tail before Jimmy had thrown it away.
+
+Poor Jimmy!  He too seemed to be bitterly regretting the idleness that
+had made him give up his self-imposed task, and the dismal hungry looks
+he kept giving me from time to time were ludicrous in the extreme.
+
+"Never mind, Joe," said the doctor smiling; "tighten your belt, my lad,
+and get to sleep.  That's the best way to forget your hunger.  You'll be
+sure to begin dreaming about feasts."
+
+The doctor was right; I lay hungrily awake for a short time, and then
+dropped off to sleep, to dream of delicious fruits, and cooking, and the
+smell of meat burning, and I awoke with a start to find that there was a
+very peculiar odour close to my nose, for a piece of wood must have shot
+a spark of its burning body into the shaggy head of poor Jimmy, who was
+sleeping happily unconscious, while a tiny scrap of wood was glowing and
+the hair sending forth curls of smoke.
+
+I jumped up, seized Jimmy by the hair, and crushed out the spark,
+awaking that worthy so sharply that he sprang up waddy in hand, caught
+me by the throat, and threw me back, swinging his war-club over his head
+to strike a tremendous blow.
+
+He saw who it was in time and dropped his weapon.
+
+"What a fool, Jimmy, yes!  What a fool Jimmy sleep.  Pull Jimmy hair,
+jig jag.  Hallo!  What a want?"
+
+It took some time to make him understand what had been wrong, but even
+when he did comprehend he seemed to be annoyed with me for waking him
+out of a pleasant dream, probably about damper and mutton, for the
+saving of so insignificant a thing as his hair, which would have soon
+grown again.
+
+Jimmy lay down again grumbling, but was soon asleep, and on comparing
+notes with the doctor I found I was so near my time for taking my turn
+at watching and keeping up the fire that I exchanged places with him.
+
+As is often the case, the troubles and depressing influences of the
+night departed with the day, and setting out very hungry, but by no
+means in bad spirits, we soon found a more open part, where the forest
+was beginning to end, and after about three hours' walking we reached
+our little camp, where we had no difficulty in satisfying our cravings,
+our ordinary food being supplemented by a great bunch of plantains which
+one of the blacks had found and saved for us.
+
+After a good rest, during which the doctor and I had talked well over
+our future course, we determined to go right on as we had come for
+another four days and then to strike due south to hit the shore, always
+supposing that we encountered nothing fresh to alter our plans.
+
+"And I'm sure we shall," I said to myself, for somehow, I cannot tell
+you why--and perhaps after all it was fancy--I felt sure that we should
+not be long now before we met with some adventure.
+
+I did not like to say anything of this kind to the doctor, for I felt
+that if I did he would laugh at me; but I took the first opportunity I
+could find of confiding in Jack Penny.
+
+He looked down at me and then seemed to wave himself to and fro, looking
+at me in a curious dreamy fashion.
+
+"Do you think that? do you feel like as if something is going to
+happen?"
+
+"Yes," I said hastily.  "I don't ask you to believe it but I cannot help
+thinking something about my curious feelings."
+
+"Oh!  I believe you," he said eagerly.  "Oh!  I quite believe you, Joe
+Carstairs.  I used to feel like that always on mornings when I woke up
+first, and so sure as I felt that way father used to be going to lick
+me, and he did.  I should put fresh cartridges in my gun if I was you.
+I'll keep pretty close to you all day and see you through with it
+anyhow."
+
+But Jack Penny did not keep his word, for somehow as we were journeying
+on in the heat of the day looking eagerly for a spring or river to make
+our next halting-place we were separated.  I think it was Jack's back
+wanted a rest.  Anyhow I was steadily pushing on within shouting
+distance of my companions, all of whom had spread out so as to be more
+likely to hit upon water.
+
+It was very hot, and I was plodding drowsily along through a beautiful
+open part dotted with large bushes growing in great clumps, many of
+which were covered with sweet smelling blossoms, when just as I was
+passing between a couple of the great clumps which were large enough to
+hide from me what lay beyond, I stopped utterly paralysed by the scene
+some fifty yards in front.
+
+For there in the bright sunshine stood a boy who might have been about
+my own age intently watching something just beyond some bushes in his
+front, and the moment after a small deer stepped lightly out full in my
+view, gazed round, and then stooped its graceful head to begin browsing.
+
+The boy, who was as black as ebony and whose skin shone in the sun,
+seemed to have caught sight of the deer at the same moment as I, for he
+threw himself into position, poising the long spear he carried, resting
+the shaft upon one hand and bending himself back so that he might get
+the greatest power into his throw.
+
+I had seen Jimmy plant himself in the same position hundreds of times,
+and, surprised as I was at coming upon this stranger, whose people were
+probably near at hand, I could not help admiring him as he stood there a
+thorough child of nature, his body seeming to quiver with excitement for
+the moment and then becoming perfectly rigid.
+
+My eye glanced from the boy to the deer and back again, when a slight
+movement to my right caught my attention and I stood paralysed, for in a
+crouching attitude I could see a second black figure coming up, war-club
+in hand, evidently inimically disposed towards the young hunter.
+
+"And he may belong to a friendly set of people," I thought.  "It is
+Jimmy!"
+
+"No: it was not Jimmy, but one of the bearers--Ti-hi," I thought.
+
+"No: it was a stranger!"
+
+Just then the boy drew himself back a little more, and as I saw the
+stooping figure, that of a big burly savage, stealthily creeping on, I
+realised his intention, which was to wait till the boy had hurled his
+spear and then leap upon him and beat him to the ground.
+
+I made no plans, for all was the work of moments.  I saw the spear leave
+the boy's hand like a line of light in the sunshine; then he turned,
+alarmed by some sound behind him, saw the savage in the act of leaping
+upon him, uttered a shrill cry of fear, and ran somewhat in my
+direction, and at the same moment my gun made a jump up at my shoulder
+and went off.
+
+As the smoke rose I stood aghast, seeing the boy on my left crouching
+down with a small waddy in his hand and the great black savage prone on
+his face just to my right.
+
+"I've killed him!"  I exclaimed, a chill of horror running through me;
+but as I thought this I brought my piece to the ready again, for the
+savage leaped to his feet and turned and ran into the bush at a
+tremendous pace.
+
+From habit I threw open the breech of my gun without taking my eyes from
+the boy, and, thrusting my hand into my pouch, I was about to place a
+fresh ball cartridge in its place when I found that I had drawn the
+right trigger and discharged the barrel loaded with small shot, a
+sufficient explanation of the man being able to get up and run away.
+
+I remained standing motionless as soon as I had reloaded, the boy
+watching me intently the while and looking as if he was either ready to
+attack or flee according to circumstances.  Friendly advance there was
+none, for he showed his white teeth slightly and his eyes glittered as
+they were fixed upon mine.
+
+Suddenly I caught sight of the deer lying transfixed by the boy's spear,
+and without a word I walked quietly to where the little animal lay, the
+boy backing slowly and watchfully from me, but holding his waddy ready
+for a blow or to hurl at me, it seemed, if I ventured to attack.
+
+I wanted to make friends, and as soon as I reached the dead deer I
+stooped down, holding my gun ready though, and taking hold of the spear,
+drew it out and offered it to the young hunter.
+
+He understood my motion, for he made a couple of steps forward quickly,
+but only to draw back uttering an angry ejaculation, and raise his waddy
+in a threatening way.
+
+"He thinks I want to trap him," I said to myself; and taking the spear
+in regular native style, as Jimmy had taught me, I smiled and nodded,
+tossed it in the air, and let it drop a few yards away with the shaft
+upright and towards his hands.
+
+I pointed to it and drew back a few yards, when, quick as some wild
+animal, he made two or three bounds, caught up the spear, poised it, and
+stood as if about to hurl it at me.
+
+It was not a pleasant position, and my first impulse was to raise my gun
+to my shoulder; but my second was to stand firm, resting on my piece,
+and I waved my hand to him to lower the spear.
+
+The boy hesitated, uttered a fierce cry, and stamped one foot angrily;
+but I waved my hand again, and, thrusting my hand into my pocket, pulled
+out a ring of brass wire, such as we carried many of for presents to the
+savages, and I tossed it to him.
+
+I saw the boy's eyes glitter with eagerness, but he was too suspicious
+to move, and so we stood for some minutes, during which I wondered
+whether my companions had heard the report of my gun, and if so whether
+they would come up soon.  If they did I was sure they would alarm the
+boy, who seemed as suspicious as some wild creature and shook his spear
+menacingly as soon as I took a step forward.
+
+A thought struck me just then as I saw a red spot glisten on a leaf, and
+stepping forward I saw another and another, which I pointed to, and then
+again at a continuous series of them leading towards the dense bush.
+
+I took a few more steps forward when the boy suddenly bounded to my side
+as if he realised that I had saved his life and that he was bound to try
+and save me in turn.
+
+He uttered some words fiercely, and, catching my arm, drew me back,
+pointing his spear menacingly in the direction taken by the great
+savage, and in response to his excited words I nodded and smiled and
+yielded to his touch.
+
+We had not taken many steps before he stopped short to stand and stare
+at me wonderingly, saying something the while.
+
+Then he touched me, and as I raised my hand to grasp his he uttered a
+fierce cry and pointed his spear at me once more, but I only laughed--
+very uncomfortably I own--and he lowered it slowly and doubtfully once
+again, peering into my eyes the while, his whole aspect seeming to say,
+"Are you to be trusted or no?"
+
+I smiled as the best way of giving him confidence, though I did not feel
+much confidence in him--he seemed too handy with his spear.  He,
+however, lowered this and looked searchingly at me, while I wondered
+what I had better do next.  For this was an opportunity--here was a lad
+of my own age who might be ready to become friends and be of great
+service to us; but he was as suspicious and excitable as a wild
+creature, and ready to dash away or turn his weapons against me at the
+slightest alarm.
+
+It was very hard work to have to display all the confidence, but I told
+myself that it was incumbent upon me as a civilised being to show this
+savage a good example, and generally I'm afraid that I was disposed to
+be pretty conceited, as, recalling the native words I had picked up from
+our followers, I tried all that were available, pointing the while to
+the deer and asking him by signs as well if he would sell or barter it
+away to me for food.
+
+My new acquaintance stared at me, and I'm afraid I did not make myself
+very comprehensible.  One moment he would seem to grasp my meaning, the
+next it appeared to strike him that I must be a cannibal and want to eat
+him when I made signs by pointing to my mouth.  At last, though, the
+offer of a couple of brass rings seemed to convince him of my
+friendliness, and he dragged the little deer to me and laid it at my
+feet.
+
+After this we sat down together, and he began chattering at a tremendous
+rate, watching my gun, pointing at the spots upon the leaves, and then
+touching himself, falling down, and going through a pantomime as if
+dying, ending by lying quite stiff with his eyes closed, all of which
+either meant that if I had not fired at the big black my companion would
+have been killed, or else that I was not on any consideration to use my
+thunder-and-lightning weapon against him.
+
+I did not understand what he meant, and he had doubtless very little
+comprehension of what I tried to convey; but by degrees we became very
+good friends, and he took the greatest of interest in my dress,
+especially in my stout boots and cartridge-belt.  Then, too, he touched
+my gun, frowning fiercely the while.  My big case-knife also took up a
+good deal of his attention and had to be pulled out several times and
+its qualities as a cutter of tough wood shown.
+
+After this he drew my attention to his slight spear, which, though of
+wood, was very heavy, and its point remarkably sharp and hard.  In spite
+of its wanting a steel point I felt no doubt of its going through
+anything against which it was directed with force.
+
+He next held out his waddy to me to examine.  This was a weapon of
+black-looking wood, with a knob at the end about the shape of a
+good-sized tomato.
+
+I took hold of the waddy rather quickly, when it must have struck the
+boy that I had some hostile intention, for he snatched at it, and for
+the moment it seemed as if there was a struggle going on; then I felt a
+violent blow from behind, as if a large stone had fallen upon my head,
+and that was all.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
+
+HOW I FOUND THAT I HAD A FELLOW-PRISONER.
+
+I have had a good many headaches in my time, but nothing to compare with
+the fearful throbbing, that seemed as if I were receiving blow after
+blow upon my temples, when I began to come to myself.
+
+I was stupefied and confused, and it took a long time before I recovered
+sufficiently to comprehend my position.  By degrees, though, I was able
+to bear my eyes unclosed for sufficiently long at a time to see that I
+was in some kind of hut, and as I realised all this it seemed that I
+must be still a prisoner, and that all my long journeying since was only
+a dream.
+
+I began wondering where Jimmy could be, and the doctor, and Jack Penny,
+and then my head throbbed so violently that I closed my eyes, feeling at
+the same time that I had no arms, no legs, nothing but an inanimate
+body, and a head that ached with terrible violence as I lay there
+half-stunned.
+
+After a time I must have grown a little more collected, for I awoke to
+the fact that I was tightly bound with twisted grass, hand and foot;
+that I was certainly in a hut, quite a large hut, built of bamboo and
+mats; and that behind me the light shone in, and somewhere close by the
+sound arose as of a person sleeping heavily.
+
+I tried to turn round, but the movement caused such intense pain that I
+desisted for a time, till my anxiety to know more about my position
+forced me to make a fresh effort, and I swung myself over, making my
+head throb so that I gladly closed my eyes, while I wrenched my arms and
+wrists, that were tied behind my back so harshly that I became quite
+aware of the fact that I had limbs, as well as an inert body and a
+throbbing head.
+
+When I could unclose my eyes again I saw that it was getting near
+sundown, and that the sunshine was lighting up the limbs of the great
+trees beneath which the native village to which I had been brought was
+built.  From where I lay I looked across a broad opening, around which
+was hut after hut, with its open door facing towards the centre.
+
+There was very little sign of life around, but twice in the distance I
+saw a black figure come out of the doorway of a hut and disappear
+amongst the trees, but it was some time before I could make out from
+whence the heavy breathing came that I had heard.
+
+As far as I could judge it was from some one just outside the entrance
+to the hut where I lay, but no one was visible, and it seemed to me that
+if I could untie the rope that held my wrists and legs there was nothing
+to prevent my walking out and making my escape.
+
+I had just come to this conclusion when there was a rustling noise as of
+a stick passing over twigs and leaves, and a spear fell down across the
+doorway.
+
+The next instant I saw a black arm and shoulder come forward, the spear
+was picked up, and the black arm disappeared.  Then there was a
+shuffling sound, as of some one settling down in a fresh position, and
+all was silent, for the heavy breathing had ceased.
+
+"That's my guard," I said to myself, "and he has been, asleep!"
+
+Simple words, but they sent a throb of joy through me, and I began to
+wonder where the doctor was, and what Jack Penny was doing.
+
+Then I thought about Jimmy, and that as soon as I was missed he would be
+sure to hunt me out.
+
+My head began to throb once more horribly, but by degrees the fit died
+off, and I found myself thinking again of escape.
+
+"How foolish of me not to have had a dog!"  I thought.  "Why, if I had
+had one like Gyp he would have tracked me out by this time."
+
+"They'll find me out sooner or later," I said to myself; "so I need not
+regret being without a dog.  But suppose the savages should attack our
+little party and make them prisoners too."
+
+This was quite a new idea to me.  The doctor and I had thought out a
+good many possibilities; but that we, who had come in search of one who
+was a prisoner, should be ourselves made captives, hardly ever occurred
+to me.
+
+"That would be a sorry end to our voyage," I thought, and I lay gazing
+out across the open space, wondering in a dreamy misty way whether my
+poor father had been attacked and captured as I had been, and whether I
+should be kept a prisoner, and have to live for the rest of my life
+among savages.
+
+My head was not so painful then, and I began to feel that if it would
+only leave off aching and my poor mother would not be so troubled at
+this second loss, such a life would be better than being killed,
+especially as there would always be the chance of escape.
+
+I think I must have sunk into a sort of doze or half stupor just then,
+for the scene at which I lay gazing grew dim, and it seemed to me that
+it must all have been a dream about my meeting with that black boy; and
+once more I suppose I slept.
+
+How long I slept I cannot tell, but I can recall being in a confused
+dream about home, and going with Jimmy to a neighbour's sheep-run, where
+there was a dog, and Jimmy coaxed him away with a big piece of meat,
+which he did not give to the dog, but stuck on the end of his spear and
+carried it over his shoulder, with the animal whining and snuffling
+about, but which was to be reserved until several wallabies had been
+hunted out, for that was the aim of the afternoon.
+
+It seemed very tiresome that that dog should be snuffling about me, and
+scratching and pawing at me, and I was about to tell Jimmy to give the
+poor brute the meat and let him go, when his cold nose touched my face,
+and I started awake, trembling in every limb.
+
+The darkness was intense, and for some minutes, try how I would, I could
+not think.
+
+All sorts of wild fancies rushed through my brain, and I grew more and
+more confused; but I could not think--think reasonably, and make out
+where I was and what it all meant.
+
+The past seemed to be gone, and I only knew that I was there, lying with
+my arms and legs dead and my head throbbing.  There seemed to be nothing
+else.
+
+Yes there was--my dream.
+
+It all came with a flash just where it left off, and Jimmy had coaxed
+the dog away, and it was here annoying me.  But why was it dark?
+
+There was dead silence then, following upon the light pattering sound of
+some animal's feet, and with my brain rapidly growing clearer I began to
+arrange my thoughts I had even got so far as to recollect dropping off
+asleep, and I was concluding that I had slept right on into the darkness
+of night, when there was the pattering of feet again, and I knew now
+that it was no fancy, for some animal had touched me, though it was not
+likely to be the dog that Jimmy had coaxed away to go wallaby hunting.
+
+There was a curious snuffling noise now, first in one part of the hut,
+then in another.
+
+Some animal, then, must have come into the hut, and this, whatever it
+was, had been touching and had awakened me.  What could it be?  I
+wondered, as I tried to think what creature was likely to be prowling
+about in the darkness.
+
+It could not be a wild pig, and my knowledge of animal life taught me
+that it was not likely to be any one of the cat family, for they went so
+silently about, while the pattering steps of this creature could be
+plainly heard.
+
+We had encountered nothing in our journey that suggested itself as being
+likely, and I was beginning to perspire rather profusely with something
+very much like utter fright, when I heard the creature, whatever it was,
+come close up and begin snuffling about my legs.
+
+"It's coming up to my face," I thought with a chill of horror seeming to
+paralyse me, or I am certain that I should have called for help.
+
+So there I lay numbed and helpless, not knowing what to expect, unless
+it was to be seized by the throat by some fierce beast of prey, and
+perhaps partly devoured before I was dead.
+
+I tried to shriek out, but not a sound came.  I tried to move my arms;
+to kick out at the creature; but arms and legs had been bound so long
+that the circulation as well as sensation had ceased, and I lay like a
+mass of lead, able to think acutely, but powerless to stir a limb.
+
+The snuffling noise went on; came to my chest, to my throat, to my face;
+and I could feel the hot panting breath of the creature, smell the
+animal odour of its skin; and then, when the dread seemed greater than I
+could bear, I felt a moist nose touch my face.
+
+Another moment and I felt that the intruder would be burying its fangs
+in my throat, and still I could not stir--could not utter sound, but lay
+like one in a trance.
+
+Suddenly the animal began to tear at my chest with its claws, giving
+three or four sharp impatient scratchings alternately with its feet, and
+though I could not see, I could realise that the creature was standing
+with its forepaws on my chest.
+
+Then it was right upon me, with its muzzle at my throat, snuffing still,
+and then it touched my face with its nose again and uttered a low whine.
+
+That sound broke the spell, for I can call it nothing else, and I
+uttered the one word:
+
+"Gyp!"
+
+It was magical in its effects, for the faithful beast it was, and
+uttering a low cry of delight he began nuzzling about my face, licking
+me, pawing me, and crouching closer to me, as all the while he kept up a
+regular patting noise with his tail.
+
+My speech had returned now, and with it a feeling of shame for my
+cowardice, as I thought it then, though I do not think so hardly about
+it now.
+
+"Gyp, you good old dog!"  I whispered.  "And so you've found me out!"
+
+I suppose he did not understand my words, but he liked the sound of my
+voice, for he continued his eager demonstrations of delight, many of
+which were exceedingly unwelcome.  But unwelcome or no I could not help
+myself, and had to lie there passive till, apparently satisfied that
+enough had been done, Gyp crouched close to me with his head upon my
+breast.
+
+For a time I thought he was asleep, and thoroughly enjoying the
+consolation of his company in my wretched position, I lay thinking of
+the wonderful instinct of the animal, and of his training to be silent,
+for in spite of the excitement of our meeting he had not barked once.
+
+But Gyp was not asleep, for at the slightest sound outside he raised his
+head quickly, and in the deep silence I could hear the great hairy ears
+give quite a flap as he cocked them up.
+
+As the noise died away or failed to be repeated, he settled down again
+with his head upon my breast till some fresh sound arose--a distant cry
+in the forest, or a voice talking in some neighbouring hut, when he
+would start up again, and once uttered a low menacing growl, which made
+me think what an unpleasant enemy he would be to a bare-legged savage.
+
+Once more Gyp uttered a low growl; but after that he lay with his head
+upon my breast, and I could feel his regular breathing.  Then he lifted
+a paw and laid it by his nose, but evidently it was not a comfortable
+position, and he took it down.  And there we lay in that black silence,
+while I wished that dog could speak and tell me where my friends where;
+whether they had sent him, or whether his own instinct had led him to
+hunt me out.  Whichever way it was, I felt a curious kind of admiration
+for an animal that I had before looked upon as a kind of slave, devoted
+to his master, and of no interest whatever to anyone else.
+
+"Poor old Gyp!"  I thought to myself, and I wished I could pat his head.
+
+I kept on wishing that I could pay him that little bit of kindness; and
+then at last I seemed to be stroking his shaggy head, and then it seemed
+that I was not free to do it, and then all at once it seemed to be
+morning, with the sun shining, and plenty of black fellows passing and
+repassing to the huts of what was evidently a populous village.
+
+It all looked very bright and beautiful, I thought, seen through the
+open door, but I was in great pain.  My head had pretty well ceased to
+throb, but there was a dull strange aching in my arms and legs.  My
+shoulders, too, seemed as if they had been twisted violently, and I was
+giddy and weak for want of food.
+
+"Prisoner or no prisoner they sha'n't starve me," I said half aloud; and
+I was about to shout to a tall savage who was going by spear on
+shoulder, when I suddenly recollected Gyp and looked sharply round for
+the dog, but he was not to be seen.
+
+For the moment I wondered whether I had not made a mistake and dreamed
+all about the dog; but no, it was impossible, everything was too vivid,
+and after lying thinking for a few minutes I called to the first black
+who came near.
+
+He stopped short, came to the door, thrust in his head and stared at me,
+while, for want of a better means of expressing myself, I opened my
+mouth and shut it as if eating.
+
+He went away directly, and I was about to shout to another when the
+first one came back with a couple more, all talking excitedly, and
+evidently holding some discussion about me.
+
+This ended by two of them going away, leaving the other to stand
+watching.
+
+He was a fine stalwart looking fellow, black as Jimmy, but of a
+different type of countenance, and his hair was frizzed and stuck out
+all round, giving his head the aspect of being twice the size of nature.
+
+As soon as the others had gone he stooped down over me, turning me
+roughly on my face so as to examine my bound hands.
+
+He wrenched my shoulders horribly in doing this, but it did not seem to
+hurt my hands in the least, and he finished by unfastening the cords of
+twisted grass and making me sit up.
+
+This I did, but with great pain, my arms hanging helplessly down by my
+sides.
+
+The men soon returned, and to my great delight one had a gourd and the
+other some plantains, which they put down before me in a morose,
+scowling way.
+
+I bent towards the gourd, which I believed to contain water; but though
+I tried to take it with my hands I could not move either, and I turned
+my eyes up pitifully to my captors.
+
+The man who had unloosed me said something to his companions, one of
+whom bent down, lifted my right hand, and let it fall again.  The second
+man followed suit with my left, and I saw before they dropped them again
+that they were dark and swollen, while as to use, that seemed to be
+totally gone.
+
+The man who had remained with me took hold of the gourd and held it to
+my lips in a quick angry fashion, holding it while I drank with avidity
+every drop, the draught seeming to be more delicious than anything I had
+ever before tasted.
+
+Setting it aside he looked down at me grimly, and then in a laughing
+contemptuous way one of the others picked up and roughly peeled a
+plantain, holding it out to me to eat.
+
+It was not sumptuous fare, cold water and bananas, but it was a most
+delicious and refreshing repast; while to make my position a little more
+bearable one of the men now undid the grass cord that was about my
+ankles, setting them free.
+
+The act probably was meant kindly, but when, soon after, they left the
+cabin, after setting me up and letting me fall again, my wrists and
+ankles began to throb and ache in the most unbearable way, somewhat
+after the fashion of one's fingers when chilled by the cold and the
+circulation is coming back.
+
+As I sat making feeble efforts to chafe the swollen flesh I became aware
+that though unbound I was not to be trusted, for fear of escape, and
+that to prevent this a broad-shouldered black with his hair frizzed into
+two great globes, one on either side of his head, had been stationed at
+the hut door.
+
+When he came up, spear in hand, I saw that he was tattooed with curious
+lines across his chest and back, similar lines marking his arms and
+wrists, something after the fashion of bracelets.
+
+He looked in at me attentively twice, and then seated himself just
+outside the entrance, where he took his waddy from where it was stuck
+through his lingouti or waistband, drew a sharp piece of flint from a
+pouch, and began to cut lines upon his waddy handle in the most patient
+manner.
+
+He had been busily at work for some time, when there was a great sound
+of shouting and yelling, which seemed greatly to excite the people of
+the village, for dozens came running out armed with clubs and spears, to
+meet a batch of about a dozen others, who came into the opening fronting
+my prison, driving before them another black, who was struggling with
+them fiercely, but compelled by blows and pricks of spears to keep going
+forward.
+
+Then three men ran at him with grass cords and seized him, but he drove
+his head fiercely into one and sent him flying, kicked the second, and
+then attacked the other with his fists, regular English fashion, and I
+knew now who it was, without hearing the shout the new prisoner uttered
+and the language he applied to his captors.
+
+Another pair approached, but he drove them back at once, and probably
+feeling' pretty well satisfied that his enemies did not want to spear
+him, he stuck his doubled fists in his sides and went slowly round the
+great circle that had collected, strutting insultingly, as if daring
+them to come on, and ending by striding into the middle of the circle
+and squatting down, as if treating his foes with the most profound
+contempt.
+
+"Poor old Jimmy!"  I exclaimed, proud even to admiration of the black's
+gallant bearing.  "Who would call him a coward now!"
+
+For a time Jimmy was untouched, and sat upon his heels with his wrists
+upon his knees and his hands dangling down, but evidently watchfully on
+the look-out for an attack.  I felt so excited as I sat there that I
+forgot my own pain, and had I been able to move I should have made a
+dash and run to my old companion's side; but I was perfectly helpless,
+and could only look on, feeling sure that sooner or later the blacks
+would attack Jimmy, and if he resisted I shuddered for his fate.
+
+Sure enough, at the end of a consultation I saw a rush made at the
+waiting prisoner, who started up and fought bravely; but he seemed to
+disappear at once, the little crowd heaving and swaying here and there,
+and ending by seeming to group itself under a tall tree, from which they
+at last fell away, and then it was that my heart began to beat less
+painfully and I breathed more freely, for there was Jimmy bound to the
+tree trunk, grinning and chattering at his captors, and evidently as
+full of fight as ever.
+
+I sank down upon my elbow with a sigh of relief, for I felt that had
+they meant to kill my black companion they would have done it at once
+instead of taking the trouble to bind him to the tree.
+
+And now, oddly enough, while I could hear Jimmy calling his captors by
+all the absurd and ugly names he could invent, the pain and aching
+seemed to come back into my wrists and ankles, making me groan as I sat
+and clasped them, a little use having begun to creep back into my arms.
+
+As I rubbed my aching limbs I still had an eye on Jimmy, interest in his
+fate making me think little about my own; and as I watched now the
+black, now the savages grouped about armed with spear and club, I saw
+that his dangerous position had so excited Jimmy that he was quite
+reckless.  He had no means of attack or defence left save his tongue,
+and this he began to use in another way.
+
+He had abused his captors till he had exhausted his list of available
+words, and now in token of derision he gave me another instance to study
+of the childish nature of even a grown-up savage.  For, tied up
+helplessly there, he put out his tongue at his enemies, thrust it into
+his cheeks, and displayed it in a variety of ways.
+
+Jimmy was possessed of a very long tongue, unusually large for a human
+being, and this he shot out, turned down, curled up at the end, and
+wagged from side to side as a dog would his tail.  At the same time he
+contorted and screwed his face up into the most hideous grimaces,
+elongating, flattening, and working his countenance as easily as if it
+had been composed of soft wax, till at times his aspect was perfectly
+hideous.
+
+Every moment I expected to see a spear thrown or the savages rush at
+Jimmy with their clubs; but they retained their composure, simply gazing
+at him, till Jimmy grew weary, and, full of contempt, shouting out
+something about poor black fellow dingoes, and then shutting his eyes
+and pretending to go to sleep.
+
+My guard was, like me, so intent upon the scene that he did not hear a
+slight rustling noise in the darker corner of the hut.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.
+
+HOW I HAD A VISITOR IN THE NIGHT.
+
+The sufferings I had gone through and the excitement must have made me
+in a feverish state, so that, though I heard the faint noise again and
+again, I began to look upon it as dreaming, and nothing which need
+trouble me.  Even the sight of Jimmy bound to the tree, and now hanging
+forward with his head sidewise, did not seem to disturb me.  It, too,
+appeared part of a dream, and my eyes kept closing, and a peculiar hot
+sensation running over my face.
+
+Then this passed off and my brain grew clear, and it was not a dream,
+but real, while the thought now began to torment me, that as the savages
+were conferring together it must be about how they should put poor Jimmy
+to death.
+
+There was the faint noise again, and I glanced at the savage who was my
+guard, but he had not heard it apparently, for he was chipping and
+carving away at the handle of his waddy, only looking up from time to
+time at his fellows with their prisoner.
+
+I wanted to turn myself round and look in the direction whence the sound
+came, for I felt now that it was no fancy, but that Gyp had been really
+with me, and that this was he forcing his way to my side again.
+
+I could not turn, though, without giving myself great pain, for now my
+wrists and ankles were fearfully swollen and tender, so I lay still,
+waiting and wondering why the dog was so long.
+
+Then the rustling ceased altogether, and I was beginning to think that
+the dog had failed to get through and would come round to the front,
+when there was a faint rustle once more, and I was touched on the
+shoulder.
+
+But it was not by Gyp's paw; it was a small black hand laid upon me;
+while, on looking up, there in the dim light was the face of the boy I
+had encountered on the previous day, or whenever it was that I was
+struck down.
+
+He showed his teeth and pointed to the savage on guard, laying his hand
+upon my lips as if to stay me from making any sound.  Then he looked at
+my wrists and ankles, touching them gently, after which he laid his hand
+very gently on the back of my head, and I knew now why it was that I was
+suffering such pain.
+
+For, lightly as he touched me, it was sufficient to send a keen agony
+through me, and it was all I could do to keep from crying out.
+
+The boy saw my pain, and looked at me half wonderingly for a few moments
+before stooping low and whispering in my ear.
+
+I felt so sick from the pain that I paid little heed to his words; but
+whisper or shout it would have been all the same, I could not have
+understood a word.
+
+So faint and strange a sensation came over me that all seemed dim, and
+when I once more saw clearly I was alone and the crowd of blacks had
+disappeared, taking with them Jimmy--if it had not all been a dream due
+to my feverish state.
+
+Just then, however, a couple of blacks came up with the boy straight to
+the door of the hut, and while the latter stood looking on, the men
+applied a roughly made plaster of what seemed to be crushed leaves to my
+head, and then examined my wrists and feet, rubbing them a little and
+giving me intense pain, which was succeeded by a peculiar, dull warm
+sensation as they pressed and kneaded the joints.
+
+While they were busy the boy went off quickly, and returned with a
+handful of plum-like fruit, one of which he placed to my dry lips, and I
+found its acid juice wonderfully refreshing.
+
+They all left me soon after, and I saw the boy go and join a tall,
+peculiar-looking savage, who was marked with tattoo lines or paint in a
+way different to the rest, and these two talked together for a long
+while, gesticulating and nodding again and again in my direction, as if
+I was the subject of their discourse.
+
+The effect of the attention to my injuries was to produce a sensation of
+drowsiness, resulting in a deep sleep, which must have lasted a very
+long time, for when I awoke it was in the dark, and I was not startled
+now on hearing the snuffling noise and feeling myself touched by Gyp,
+who, after silently showing his pleasure, lay down with his head upon my
+chest once more, and seemed to go to sleep.
+
+I made an effort to raise my hand to stroke him, but the pain was too
+great, and soon after it was I who went to sleep, not Gyp, and when I
+awoke it was daybreak and the dog was gone.
+
+I was better that morning, and could take more interest in all that went
+on.  I saw the tall, peculiar-looking savage go by the hut door at a
+distance, and I saw the boy go up to him and pass out of sight.
+
+Soon after a couple of blacks brought me some food and water, of which I
+partook eagerly.
+
+Later on the boy came with the same two men as on the previous day, and
+my head was once more dressed and my limbs chafed.
+
+Then I was left alone, and I lay watching once more the savages coming
+and going in a slow deliberate way.  I noticed that there were a good
+many women and children, but if ever they attempted to come in the
+direction of the hut where I lay they were angrily driven back.
+
+Some of the women appeared to be occupied in domestic work, preparing
+some kind of bread, others busily stripped the feathers from some large
+birds brought in by men who seemed to have been hunting.
+
+I noticed all this feeling calm and restful now, and I was lying
+wondering whether Jack Penny and the doctor would find out where I was,
+when I heard a scuffling noise, which seemed to come from a hut where
+there was a crowd of the people standing.
+
+Then there was a repetition of the scene I had previously witnessed,
+Jimmy being brought out, kicking, struggling, and full of fight.
+
+The blacks seemed to want to drag him to the tree where I had seen him
+tied, but to this Jimmy objected strongly.  The way in which he butted
+at his captors, and kicked out like a grasshopper, would have been most
+laughable had I not been anxious, for I felt sure that it would result
+in his hurting some one, and being rewarded with a blow on the head or a
+spear thrust.
+
+I grew so excited at last as the struggle went on that I waited till
+there was a moment's pause when Jimmy and his captors were drawing
+breath for a fresh attack, and shouted with all my might--
+
+"Jimmy! be quiet!"
+
+My guard, for there was still one at the door, jumped up and stared in,
+while Jimmy and his captors looked in my direction.
+
+Jimmy was the first to break silence by shouting loudly: "Mass Joe!
+Mass Joe!"
+
+"Here!"  I shouted back; but I repented the next moment, for Jimmy
+uttered a yell and made a bound to run towards where he had heard the
+sound.
+
+The result was that one savage threw himself down before the prisoner,
+who fell headlong, and before he could recover, half a dozen of the
+blacks were sitting upon him.
+
+My heart seemed to stand still, and I felt that poor Jimmy's end had
+come, but to my delight I could see that our captors were laughing at
+the poor fellow's mad efforts to escape, and I shouted to him once
+again:
+
+"Be quiet!  Lie still!"
+
+There was no answer, for one of the men was sitting on Jimmy's head; but
+he ceased struggling, and after a while the blacks rose, circled about
+him with their spears, and a couple of them began to push my companion
+towards the tree to which he had before been bound.
+
+"Jimmy no fight?" he shouted to me.
+
+"Not now," I shouted back.  "Wait."
+
+"All rightums," cried Jimmy: "but gettum waddy back, gibs um bang,
+bang--knockum downum--whack, whack--bangum, bangum!"
+
+This was all in a voice loud enough for me to hear, as the poor fellow
+allowed his captors to bind him to the tree, after which he hung his
+head and pretended or really did go to sleep.
+
+Towards evening I saw the blacks take Jimmy some food, and some was
+brought to me; and as I sat up and ate and drank I saw the
+strangely-marked savage and the boy come into the centre of the space by
+the huts, and lie down near Jimmy, who behaved a good deal after the
+fashion of some captured beast, for he raised his head now and then,
+utterly ignoring those who were around, and staring straight before him.
+But in his case it was not right away toward the forest, but in the
+direction of the hut where I was confined, and even at the distance
+where I lay I could read the eagerness in the black's countenance as he
+waited to hear me speak.
+
+It was getting fast towards sundown, and I was wondering how long they
+would leave Jimmy tied up to the tree, and fighting hard to get rid of
+an idea that kept coming to me, namely, that the savages were feeding us
+and keeping us for an object that it made me shudder to think about,
+when I noted a little excitement among the people.  There was some loud
+talking, and directly after about a dozen came to my prison and signed
+to me to get up.
+
+I rose to my knees and then tried to stand, but my ankles were still so
+painful that I winced.  By a stern effort, though, I stood up, and a
+sturdy black on either side took my arms and hurried me to a tree close
+by the one where Jimmy was tied.
+
+As we crossed the opening I saw the boy and the tall painted savage
+standing by the door of a hut on one side, the latter holding a long
+spear tasselled with feathers, and I supposed him to be the chief, or
+perhaps only the doctor or conjuror of the village.
+
+Jimmy's delight knew no bounds.  He shouted and sang and laughed, and
+then howled, with the tears running down his cheeks.
+
+"Hi, yup!  Jimmy glad as big dingo dog for mutton bones!" he cried.
+"How quite well, Mass Joe?  Jimmy so glad be with you.  Seems all over
+again, Mass Joe, and Jimmy knock all black fellow up and down--make um
+run, run.  Whatum, Mass Joe--legs?"
+
+"Only with being tied up so tightly, Jimmy.  They're getting better.  My
+head is the worst."
+
+"Head um worse, Mass Joe!  Show Jimmy black debble hurt um head.  Jimmy
+whack um, whack um too much can't say kangaroo."
+
+"No, no! wait a bit, Jimmy," I said, as the blacks bound me to the tree.
+"We must watch for our time."
+
+"Watch?" said Jimmy; "watch?  Doctor got um watch clock.  Tick, tick,
+tick!"
+
+"Where is the doctor?"  I said.
+
+"Jimmy don't know little bitums.  Doctor go one way.  Mass Jack-Jack
+Penny-Penny, one way find Mass Joe.  Jimmy-Jimmy, go one way find Mass
+Joe.  Jimmy-Jimmy find um.  Hooray!  Nebber shall be slabe!"
+
+"I hope not, Jimmy," I said, smiling.  "So the doctor and Jack Penny and
+you all went to find me, and you were seized by the blacks?"
+
+"Dats um--all lot take um way," cried Jimmy.  "Only Jimmy find Mass Joe.
+Come along a black fellow.  All jump atop Jimmy.  Jimmy fight um, kick
+um--play big goose berry strong black fellow.  Too much big coward big.
+Topper, topper, Jimmy head um.  Go sleep um.  Bring um here."
+
+"Too many of them, and they hit you on the head and stunned you?"
+
+"Hiss! 'tunned Jimmy.  Hiss! 'tunned Jimmy.  Send um all asleep.  Topper
+head."
+
+"Never mind the topper they gave you, Jimmy.  We'll escape and find our
+friends."
+
+"Don't know um," said Jimmy dolefully.  "Bad good black fellow got no
+muttons--no grub--no wallaby.  Eat Mass Joe--eat Jimmy."
+
+"Do you think they are cannibals, Jimmy?"  I said excitedly.
+
+Jimmy opened his mouth and his eyes very wide and stared at me.
+
+"I say, do you think they are cannibals?  How stupid!  Do you think they
+eat man?"
+
+"Yes; 'tupid, 'tupid.  Eat man, lot o' man.  Bad, bad.  Make um sick,
+sick."
+
+I turned cold, for here was corroboration of my fear.  This was why they
+were treating us well instead of killing us at once; and I was turning a
+shuddering look at the circle of black faces around me when Jimmy
+exclaimed:
+
+"Sha'n't ums eat Jimmy.  No, no.  Jimmy eat a whole lot fust.  No eat
+Mass Joe.  Jimmy killum killum all lot."
+
+I stood there tightly bound, talking from time to time to the black,
+happier in mind at having a companion in my imprisonment, and trying to
+make him understand that our best policy was to wait our time; and then
+when our captors were more off their guard we could perhaps escape.
+
+"No good 't all," said Jimmy, shaking his head.  "Go eat um, Mass Joe,
+poor Jimmy.  Make up fat um--fat um like big sheep.  No run at all,
+catch fas'."
+
+"Not so bad as that, Jimmy," I said, laughing in spite of my position at
+the idea of being made so fat that we could neither of us run.
+
+Just then there was a movement among our captors, and having apparently
+satisfied themselves with a long inspection of their prisoners they were
+evidently about to take us back to our prisons.
+
+"Jimmy gib all big kick?" said the black.
+
+"No, no," I cried, "go quietly."
+
+"Jimmy come 'long Mass Joe?" he said next.
+
+"If they will let you," I replied; "but if they will not, go back to
+your own place quietly."
+
+"Mass Joe no kind poor Jimmy," he whimpered.  "Want kick um.  Mass Joe
+say no."
+
+"Wait till I tell you, Jimmy," I replied.  "Now go quietly."
+
+He made an attempt to accompany me, but the blacks seized him sharply
+and led him one way, me the other; and as the sun set and the darkness
+began to come on, I lay in my hut watching the boy and the tall painted
+chief talking earnestly together, for I could not see Jimmy's prison
+from inside my own.
+
+I felt lighter of heart and more ready to take a hopeful view of my
+position now that my sufferings from my injuries were less, and that I
+had a companion upon whom I could depend.  But all the same I could not
+help feeling that my position was a very precarious one.  But when I was
+cool and calm I was ready to laugh at the idea about cannibalism, and to
+think it was the result of imagination.
+
+"No," I said to myself as I lay there, "I don't think they will kill us,
+and I am certain they will not eat us.  We shall be made slaves and kept
+to work for them--if they can keep us!"
+
+As I lay there listening to the different sounds made in the village
+dropping off one by one in the darkness, I grew more elate.  I was in
+less pain, and I kept recalling the many instances Jimmy had shown me of
+his power to be what he called "cunning-artful."  With his help I felt
+sure that sooner or later we should be able to escape.
+
+Drowsiness began to creep over me now, and at last, after listening to
+the hard breathing of the spear-armed savage whose duty it was to watch
+me, I began to wonder whether Gyp would come that night.
+
+"I hope he will," I said to myself.  "I'll keep awake till he does."
+
+The consequence of making this determination was that in a very few
+minutes after I was fast asleep.
+
+Just as before I was wakened some time in the night by feeling something
+touch me, and raising my arm for the first time made the faithful beast
+utter low whines of joy as I softly patted his head and pulled his ears,
+letting my hand slip lower to stroke his neck, when my fingers came in
+contact with the dog's collar, and almost at the same moment with a
+stiff scrap of paper.
+
+For a moment my heart stood still.  Then, sitting up, I caught the dog
+to me, holding his collar with both hands, touching the paper all the
+while, but afraid to do more lest the act should result in
+disappointment.
+
+At last I moved one hand cautiously and felt the paper, trembling the
+while, till a joyous throb rose to my lips, and I rapidly untied a piece
+of string which tightly bound what was evidently a note to the dog's
+collar.
+
+Gyp whined in a low tone, and as I loosened him, grasping the note in my
+hand, I knew that he gave a bit of a skip, but he came back and nestled
+close to me directly.
+
+I needed no thought to know that the note was from the doctor, who must
+be near.  Perhaps, too, Gyp had been night after night with that same
+note, and I had been too helpless to raise a hand and touch his neck
+where it had been tied.
+
+The doctor was close by, then.  There was help, and I would once more be
+free to get back safe to my dear mother.
+
+I stopped there and said half aloud:
+
+"Not yet--safe to try once more to find him."
+
+What was I to do?
+
+I could not read the note.  I opened it and moved my fingers over it as
+a blind person would, but could not feel a letter, as I might have
+known.
+
+What was I to do?
+
+Gyp would be going back.  The letter would be gone, while the doctor
+might not know but what it had been lost.
+
+What should I do?
+
+There was only one thing, and that was to tie my handkerchief, my torn
+and frayed silk handkerchief, tightly to the dog's collar.
+
+"He will know that I am here, and alive," I said to myself.  "I wish I
+could send him word that Jimmy is here as well."
+
+I tried hard to think of some plan, but for a long time not one would
+come.
+
+"I have it!"  I said at last; and rapidly taking off the handkerchief I
+tied two knots fast in one corner.
+
+"Perhaps he will understand that means two of us," I said; and I was
+about to fasten it to the dog's collar, when there was a noise outside
+as of some one moving, and Gyp dashed away from me and was gone.
+
+"Without my message," I said to myself in tones of bitter
+disappointment, as all became silent again.
+
+To my great joy, though, I heard a faint panting once more, and Gyp
+touched my hand with his wet nose.
+
+"I'll be safe this time," I remarked, as I rapidly secured and tied the
+knotted handkerchief, ending by fondling and caressing the dog, I was so
+overjoyed.
+
+"Go on, dear old Gyp," I cried softly; "and come back to-morrow night
+for an answer.  There, good-bye.  Hush! don't bark.  Good-bye!"
+
+I patted him, and he ran his nose into my breast, whining softly.  Then
+after feeling the handkerchief once more, to be sure it was safe, I
+loosened the dog and he bounded from me.  I heard a rustling in the
+corner, and all was silent, while I lay there holding the note tightly
+in my pocket and longing for the day to come that I might read all that
+my friends had to say.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.
+
+HOW I HEARD ENGLISH SPOKEN HERE.
+
+I suppose I must have dropped asleep some time, but it seemed to me that
+I was lying awake watching for the daylight, which seemed as if it would
+never come.  Then I dropped soundly asleep and slept some hours, for
+when I opened my eyes with a start there was one of the blacks leaning
+over me with some cords in his hands, with which he seemed to be about
+to bind me; but a shout outside took his attention, and he went out,
+leaving me trembling with anxiety and crushing the note in my hand.
+
+It was broad daylight with brilliant sunshine without, but my prison was
+windowless, and where I lay was in the shadow, save where here and there
+a pencil of light shone through the palm-leaf thatch and made a glowing
+spot upon the floor.
+
+Every moment I expected to see my guard back again, or I might be
+interrupted, I knew, by the coming of some one with food.  I dared not
+then attempt to read for some time, since it seemed like too great a
+risk of losing words that were inexpressibly precious.
+
+At last all seemed so still but the buzz and hum of distant voices that
+I determined to venture, and undoing my hot hand I unfolded the little
+scrap of paper, upon which, written closely but clearly, were the
+following words--
+
+"_As we are so near a village of the blacks, and you have not returned,
+I have concluded that you have been made a prisoner.  Gyp found your
+scent and went off, returning after many hours' absence; so I write
+these lines to bid you be of good heart, for we shall try by stratagem
+to get you away_."
+
+Then there was this, evidently written the next day:
+
+"_Gyp has been again and brought back the above lines which I tied to
+his collar.  If you get them tie something to the dog's collar to show
+you are alive and well.  Poor Jimmy went in search of you, but has not
+returned_."
+
+"Tie something to the dog's collar to show you are alive and well!"  I
+said to myself over and over again, as I carefully secreted the scrap of
+paper--a needless task, as, if it had been seen, no one would have paid
+any heed to it.  "And I have tied something to the dog's collar and they
+will come, the doctor and Jack Penny, with the blacks, to-night to try
+and save me, and I shall escape."
+
+I stopped here, for the words seemed to be wild and foolish.  How could
+they rescue me, and, besides, ought I not to feel glad that I was here
+among the natives of the island?  What better position could I be in for
+gaining information about my father?
+
+I lay thinking like this for long, and every hour it seemed that my
+injured head and my cut wrists and ankles were healing.  The confused
+feeling had passed away, leaving nothing but stiffness and soreness,
+while the message I had received gave me what I wanted worst--hope.
+
+I did not see Jimmy that day, for he was not brought out, neither was I
+taken to the tree, but I saw that the savage who brought me food had a
+double quantity, and to prove that some of it was meant for my
+fellow-prisoner I soon afterwards heard him shout:
+
+"Mass Joe come have 'nana--come have plantain 'nana."
+
+This he repeated till I uttered a low long whistle, one which he had
+heard me use scores of times, and to which he replied.
+
+An hour after he whistled again, but I could not reply, for three or
+four of the blacks were in the hut with me, evidently for no other
+purpose than to watch.
+
+That night I lay awake trembling and anxious.  I wanted to have
+something ready to send back by the dog when it came at night, but try
+how I would I could contrive nothing.  I had no paper or pencil; no
+point of any kind to scratch a few words on a piece of bark--no piece of
+bark if I had had a point.
+
+As it happened, though I lay awake the dog did not come, and when the
+morning came, although I was restless and feverish I was more at rest in
+my mind, for I thought I saw my way to communicate a word or two with
+the doctor.
+
+I was unbound now, and therefore had no difficulty in moving about the
+hut, from whose low roof, after a good deal of trying, I at last
+obtained a piece of palm-leaf that seemed likely to suit my purpose.
+This done, my need was a point of some kind--a pin, a nail, the tongue
+of a buckle, a hard sharp piece of wood, and I had neither.
+
+But I had hope.
+
+Several different blacks had taken their places at the door of my hut,
+and I was waiting patiently for the one to return who sat there carving
+his waddy handle.  When he came I hoped by some stratagem to get hold of
+the sharp bit of flint to scratch my palm-leaf.
+
+Fortunately towards mid-day this man came, and after a good look at me
+where I lay he stuck his spear in the earth, squatted down, took out his
+flint and waddy, and began once more to laboriously cut the zigzag lines
+that formed the ornamentation.
+
+I lay there hungrily watching him hour after hour, vainly trying to
+think out some plan, and when I was quite in despair the black boy, whom
+I had not seen for many hours, came sauntering up in an indifferent way
+to stand talking to my guard for some minutes, and then entered the hut
+to stand looking down at me.
+
+I was puzzled about that boy, for at times I thought him friendly, at
+others disposed to treat me as an enemy; but my puzzled state was at an
+end, for as soon as I began to make signs he watched me eagerly and
+tried to comprehend.
+
+I had hard work to make him understand by pointing to the savage
+outside, and then pretending to hack at my finger as if carving it.
+Jimmy would have understood in a moment, but it was some time before the
+boy saw what I meant.  Then his face lit up, and he slowly sauntered
+away, as if in the most careless of moods, poising his spear and
+throwing it at trees, stooping, leaping, and playing at being a warrior
+of his tribe, so it seemed to me, till he disappeared among the trees.
+
+The sun was sinking low, but he did not return.  I saw him pass by with
+the tall painted warrior, and then go out of sight.  My food had been
+given me, but I had not seen Jimmy, though we had corresponded together
+by making a few shrill parrot-like whistles.  Night would soon be upon
+me once again, and when Gyp came, if he did come, I should not be ready.
+
+I was just thinking like this when there was a slight tap close by me,
+and turning quickly I saw a sharp-pointed piece of stone upon the beaten
+earth floor, and as I reached out my hand to pick it up a piece of white
+wood struck me on the hand, making a sharp metallic sound.
+
+I felt that there was danger, and half threw myself over my treasures,
+looking dreamily out at the entrance and remaining motionless, as my
+guard entered to stare round suspiciously, eyeing me all over, and then
+going slowly back.
+
+I breathed more freely, and was thinking as I saw him settle down that I
+might at any time begin to try and carve a word or two, and in this mind
+I was about to take the piece of wood from beneath me when the savage
+swung himself round and sprang into the hut in a couple of bounds.
+
+He had meant to surprise me if I had been engaged upon any plan of
+escape, but finding me perfectly motionless he merely laughed and went
+back.
+
+Directly after, another savage came up and took his place, and I eagerly
+began my task.
+
+Very easy it sounds to carve a few letters on a piece of wood, but how
+hard I found it before I managed to roughly cut the words "All Well,"
+having selected these because they were composed of straight lines,
+which mine were not.  Still I hoped that the doctor would make them out,
+and I hid my piece of flint and my wooden note and waited, meaning to
+keep awake till the dog came.
+
+But I had been awake all the previous night, and I fell fast asleep,
+till Gyp came and roused me by scratching at my chest, when in a dreamy
+confused way I found and took something from the dog's collar and tied
+my note in its place, falling asleep directly after from sheer
+exhaustion.
+
+It was broad daylight when I awoke, and my first thought was of my
+message, when, thrusting my hand into my breast, a curious sensation of
+misery came over me as my hand came in contact with a piece of wood, and
+it seemed that I had been dreaming and the dog had not come.
+
+I drew out the flat piece of white wood, but it was not mine.  The
+doctor, probably having no paper, had hit upon the same plan as I.
+
+His words were few.
+
+"Be on the alert.  We shall come some night."
+
+I thrust the wooden label beneath the dust of the floor, scraped some
+more earth over it, and already saw myself at liberty, and in the joy of
+my heart I uttered a long parrot-like whistle, but it was not answered.
+
+I whistled again, but there was no reply; and though I kept on making
+signals for quite an hour no response came, and the joyousness began to
+fade out of my breast.
+
+Twice over that morning I saw the tall savage who was so diabolically
+painted and tattooed go by, and once I thought he looked very hard at my
+hut; but he soon passed out of my sight, leaving me wondering whether he
+was the chief, from his being so much alone, and the curious way in
+which all the people seemed to get out of his path.
+
+Once or twice he came near enough for me to see him better, and I
+noticed that he walked with his eyes fixed upon the ground in a dreamy
+way, full of dignity, and I felt certain now that he must be the king of
+these people.
+
+The next day came and I saw him again in the midst of quite a crowd, who
+had borne one of their number into the middle of the inclosure of huts,
+and this time I saw the tall strange-looking savage go slowly down upon
+his knees, and soon after rise and motion with his hands, when everyone
+but the boy fell back.  He alone knelt down on one side of what was
+evidently an injured man.
+
+The blacks kept their distance religiously till the painted savage
+signed to them once more, when they ran forward and four of their number
+lifted the prostrate figure carefully and carried it into a hut.
+
+"I was right," I said to myself with a feeling of satisfaction.  "I was
+right the first time.  It is the doctor, and he ought to have come to my
+help when I was so bad."
+
+Two days, three days passed, during which I lay and watched the birds
+that flitted by, saw the people as they came and went, and from time to
+time uttered a signal whistle; but this had to be stopped, for on the
+afternoon of the third day a very tall savage entered hurriedly in
+company with my guard and half a dozen more, and by signs informed me
+that if I made signals again my life would be taken.
+
+It was very easy to understand, for spears were pointed at me and
+war-clubs tapped me not very lightly upon the head.
+
+As soon as I was left alone I sat thinking, and before long came to the
+conclusion that this was probably the reason why I had not heard any
+signal from Jimmy, who had perhaps been obstinate, and consequently had
+been treated with greater severity.
+
+I longed for the night to come that I might have some fresh message from
+the doctor, but somehow I could not keep awake, anxious as I was, and I
+was sleeping soundly when a touch awoke me with a start.
+
+I threw up my hands to catch Gyp by the collar, but to my consternation
+I touched a hand and arm in the darkness, and there was something so
+peculiar in the touch, my hand seeming to rest on raised lines of paint,
+that I turned cold, for I knew that one of the savages was bending over
+me, and I felt that it must mean that my time had come.
+
+I should have called out, but a hand was laid over my lips and an arm
+pressed my chest, as a voice whispered in good English:
+
+"Run, escape!  You can't stay here!"
+
+"Who is it?"  I whispered back, trembling with excitement.  "I know!"  I
+added quickly; "you are the tall savage--the doctor!"
+
+"Yes--yes!" he said in a low dreamy tone.  "The tall savage!  Yes--tall
+savage!"
+
+"But you are an Englishman!"  I panted, as a terrible thought, half
+painful, half filled with hope, flashed through my brain.
+
+"Englishman! yes--Englishman!  Before I was here--before I was ill!
+Come, quick! escape for your life!  Go!"
+
+"And you?"
+
+He was silent--so silent that I put out my hands and touched him, to
+make sure that he had not gone, and I found that he was resting his head
+upon his hands.
+
+"Will you go with me to my friends?"  I said, trembling still, for the
+thought that had come to me was gaining strength.
+
+"Friends!" he said softly; "friends!  Yes, I had friends before I came--
+before I came!"
+
+He said this in a curious dreamy tone, and I forced the idea back.  It
+was impossible, but at the same time my heart leaped for joy.  Here was
+an Englishman dwelling among the savages--a prisoner, or one who had
+taken up this life willingly, and if he could dwell among them so could
+my father, who must be somewhere here.
+
+"Tell me," I began; but he laid his hand upon my lips.
+
+"Hist! not a sound," he said.  "The people sleep lightly; come with me."
+
+He took my hand in his and led me out boldly past a black who was lying
+a short distance from my hut, and then right across the broad opening
+surrounded by the natives' dwellings, and then through a grove of trees
+to a large hut standing by itself.
+
+He pressed my hand hard and led me through the wide opening into what
+seemed to be a blacker darkness, which did not, however, trouble him,
+for he stepped out boldly, and then I heard a muttering growl which I
+recognised directly.
+
+"Hush, Jimmy!"  I whispered, throwing myself upon my knees.  "Don't
+speak."
+
+"Jimmy not a go to speak um," he said softly.  "Mass Joe come a top."
+
+"Go," said my companion.  "Go quick.  I want to help--I--the fever--my
+head--help."
+
+There was another pause, and on stretching out my hand I found that my
+guide was pressing his to his forehead once again.
+
+"He has lived this savage life so long that he cannot think," I felt as,
+taking his hand, I led him to the opening, through which he passed in
+silence, and with Jimmy walking close behind he led us between a couple
+more huts, and then for a good hour between tall trees so close together
+that we threaded our way with difficulty.
+
+My companion did not speak, and at last the silence grew so painful that
+I asked him how long it would be before daybreak.
+
+"Hush!" he said.  "Listen!  They have found out."
+
+He finished in an excited way, repeating hastily some native words
+before stooping to listen, when, to my dismay, plainly enough in the
+silence of the night came the angry murmur of voices, and this probably
+meant pursuit--perhaps capture, and then death.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY.
+
+HOW I TALKED WITH MY NEW FRIEND.
+
+As I heard the sound of the pursuit a horrible sensation of dread came
+over me.  I felt that we must be taken, and, in addition, vague ideas of
+trouble and bloodshed floated through my brain, with memories of the
+fight in the gorge, and I shuddered at the idea of there being more
+people slain.
+
+The effect was different upon Jimmy, the distant cries seeming to excite
+him.  He stopped every now and then to jump from the ground and strike
+the nearest tree a tremendous blow with a waddy he had obtained from our
+guide.
+
+The latter checked him, though, laying a hand upon his arm as he said to
+me, after listening intently:
+
+"You don't want to fight.  These people are too strong.  You must
+escape."
+
+"But you will come with us?"  I said once more, with the vague fancy
+coming back that this was he whom I sought, but terribly changed.
+
+He said something in reply in the savage tongue, stopped, and then went
+on.
+
+"I forget--I don't know.  I am the doctor--a savage--what did you say?"
+
+"Come with us," I whispered, and he bent his head in the dark; but my
+words seemed to have no effect upon him, one idea seeming to be all that
+he could retain, for he hurried me on, grasping my arm tightly, and then
+loosed it and went on in front.
+
+Jimmy took his place, gripping my arm in turn, and, whispering, showed
+his power of observation by saying:
+
+"Much good him.  No black fellow.  Talk like Mass Joe some time.  Jimmy
+tink um Mass Joe fader got dust in head.  Don't know know."
+
+"Oh no! impossible, Jimmy," I whispered back with emotion.  "It cannot
+be my father."
+
+"No fader?  All um white fellow got mud mud in head.  Can't see, can't
+know know.  No Mass Joe fader?"
+
+"No, I am sure it is not."
+
+"Then um white fellow.  No black fellow.  Tupid tupid.  Don't know at
+all.  No find wallaby in hole.  No find honey.  No kedge fis.  Tupid
+white fellow all a same, mud in um head."
+
+"He seems strange in his head," I said.
+
+"Yes.  Iss mad mad.  No wash um head clean.  Can't tink straight up an
+down ums like Jimmy."
+
+"But he is saving us," I said.  "Taking us to our friends."
+
+"Jimmy no know.  Jimmy tink doctor somewhere right long--big hill.  Gib
+black white fellow topper topper make um tink more."
+
+"No, no," I whispered, for he had grasped his waddy and was about to
+clear our guide's misty brain in this rough-and-ready way.  "Be quiet
+and follow him."
+
+Just then our guide stopped and let me go to his side.
+
+"Fever--my head," he said softly, and as if apologising.  "Can't think."
+
+"But you will come with us?"  I said.  "My friend the doctor will help
+you.  You shall help us.  You must not go back to that degraded life."
+
+"Doctor!" he said, as if he had only caught that word.  "Yes, the
+doctor.  Can't leave the people--can't leave him."
+
+"Him!"  I said; "that boy?"
+
+"Hush! come faster."  For there were shouts and cries behind, and he
+hurried us along for some distance, talking rapidly to me all the while
+in the savages' tongue, and apparently under the impression that I
+understood every word, though it was only now and then that I caught his
+meaning, and then it was because they were English words.
+
+After catching a few of these I became aware, or rather guessed, that he
+was telling me the story of his captivity among these people, and I
+tried eagerly to get him to speak English; but he did not seem to heed
+me, going on rapidly, and apparently bent on getting us away.
+
+I caught such words as "fever--prisoner--my head--years--misery--
+despair--always--savage--doctor"--but only in the midst of a long
+excited account which he said more to himself.  I was at last paying
+little heed to him when two words stood out clear and distinctly from
+the darkness of his savage speech, words that sent a spasm through me
+and made me catch at his arm and try to speak, but only to emit a few
+gasping utterances as he bent down to me staring as if in wonder.
+
+The words were "fellow-prisoner;" and they made me stop short, for I
+felt that I had really and providentially hit upon the right place after
+all, and that there could be only one man likely to be a
+fellow-prisoner, and that--my poor father.
+
+It was impossible to flee farther, I felt, and leave him whom I had come
+to seek behind.
+
+Then common sense stepped in and made me know that it was folly to stay,
+while Jimmy supplemented these thoughts by saying:
+
+"Black fellow come along fas.  Mass Joe no gun, no powder pop, no
+chopper, no knife, no fight works 'tall."
+
+"Where is he?"  I said excitedly, as I held the arm of our guide.
+
+"Blacks--coming after us."
+
+He talked on rapidly in the savage tongue and I uttered a groan of
+despair.
+
+"What um say, Mass Joe?" whispered Jimmy excitedly.  "Talk, talk, poll
+parrot can't say know what um say.  Come along run way fas.  Fight
+nunner time o," he added.  "Black fellow come along."
+
+He caught my arm, and, following our guide, we hurried on through the
+darkness, which was so dense that if it had not been for the wonderful
+eyesight of my black companion--a faculty which seemed to have been
+acquired or shared by our guide--I should have struck full against the
+trunk of some tree.  As it was, I met with a few unpleasant blows on arm
+or shoulder, though the excitement of our flight was too great for me to
+heed them then.
+
+I was in despair, and torn by conflicting emotions: joy at escaping and
+at having reached the goal I had set up, misery at having to leave it
+behind just when I had found the light.  It might have been foolish,
+seeing how much better I could serve him by being free, but I felt ready
+to hurry back and share my father's captivity, for I felt assured that
+it must be he of whom our guide spoke.
+
+We were hurrying on all this time entirely under the guidance of the
+strange being who had set us free, but not without protests from the
+black, who was growing jealous of our guide and who kept on whispering:
+
+"No go no farrer, Mass Joe, Jimmy fine a doctor an Mass Jack Penny.  Hi
+come along Jimmy now."
+
+He was just repeating this in my ear when we were hurrying on faster,
+for the sounds of our pursuers came clear upon the wind, when our guide
+stopped short and fell back a few paces as a low angry growl saluted him
+from the darkness in front and he said something sharply to us in the
+native tongue.
+
+His words evidently meant "Fall back!" but I had recognised that growl.
+
+"Gyp!"  I cried; and the growling changed to a whining cry of joy, and
+in an instant the dog was leaping up at my face, playfully biting at my
+hands, and then darting at Jimmy he began the same welcoming
+demonstrations upon the black.
+
+"Mass Joe, Mass Joe, he go eat up black fellow.  Top um away, top um
+away."
+
+"It's only his play, Jimmy," I said.
+
+"Him eat piece Jimmy, all up leggum," cried the black.
+
+"Here, Gyp!"  I cried, as the dog stopped his whining cry of pleasure,
+but growled once more.  "Here," I said, "this is a friend.  Pat his
+head, sir, and--, where is he, Jimmy?"
+
+"Black white fellow, Mass Joe?"
+
+"Yes, yes, where is he?"
+
+"Gone 'long uder way.  Run back fas fas.  Fraid o Gyp, Gyp send um way."
+
+"Stop him!  Run after him!  He must not go," I cried.
+
+I stopped, for there was a low piping whistle like the cry of a Blue
+Mountain parrot back at home.
+
+"Jack Penny!"  I gasped, and I answered the call.
+
+"Iss, yes, Mass Jack Penny," cried Jimmy, and Gyp made a bound from my
+side into the darkness, leaving us alone.
+
+We heard the crash and rustle of the underwood as the dog tore off, and
+I was about to follow, but I could not stir, feeling that if I waited
+our guide might return, when, in the midst of my indecision, the whistle
+was repeated, and this time Jimmy answered.
+
+Then there was more rustling, the dog came panting back; and as the
+rustling continued there came out of the darkness a sound that made my
+heart leap.
+
+It was only my name softly uttered, apparently close at hand, and I made
+a bound in the direction, but only to fall back half-stunned, for I had
+struck myself full against a tree.
+
+I just remember falling and being caught by some one, and then I felt
+sick, and the darkness seemed filled with lights.
+
+But these soon died out, and I was listening to a familiar voice that
+came, it appeared, from a long way off; then it came nearer and nearer,
+and the words seemed to be breathed upon my face.
+
+"Only a bit stunned," it said; and then I gasped out the one word:
+
+"Doctor!"
+
+"My dear Joe!" came back, and--well, it was in the dark, and we were not
+ashamed: the doctor hugged me to his heart, as if I had been his brother
+whom he had found.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.
+
+HOW WE MADE FURTHER PLANS.
+
+"Why, Joe, my lad," he said at last, in a voice I did not recognise, it
+was so full of emotion, "you've driven me half-wild.  How could you get
+in such a fix?"
+
+"Jimmy get in big fix," said an ill-used voice.  "Nobody glad to see
+Jimmy."
+
+"I'm glad to feel you," drawled a well-known voice.  "I can't see you.
+How are you, Joe Carstairs?  Where have you been?"
+
+"Jack, old fellow, I'm glad!"  I cried, and I grasped his hands.
+
+"That will do," said the doctor sternly.  "Are the savages after you,
+Joe?"
+
+"Yes, in full pursuit, I think," I said.  "But my guide.  I can't leave
+him."
+
+"Your guide?  Where is he?"
+
+"I don't know.  He was here just now.  He brought us here."
+
+"Jimmy-Jimmy say um goes back along," said the black.  "He no top, big
+fright.  Gyp bite um."
+
+"One of the blacks, Joe?" said the doctor.
+
+"No, no!"  I said, so excited that I could hardly speak coherently.  "A
+white man--a prisoner among the blacks--like a savage, but--"
+
+"No, no," said Jimmy in a disgusted tone; "no like savage black
+fellow-fellow.  Got a dust in head.  No tink a bit; all agone."
+
+"His mind wanders, being a prisoner," I stammered.  "He is with the
+blacks--a prisoner--with my father."
+
+"What?" cried the doctor.
+
+"He has a fellow-prisoner," I faltered.  "I am not sure--it must be--my
+father!"
+
+"Mass Joe find um fader all along," said the black.  "Jimmy find um
+too."
+
+"Be silent!" cried the doctor.  "Do I understand aright, Joe, that your
+father is a prisoner with the people from whom you have escaped?"
+
+"Yes--I think so--I am not sure--I feel it is so," I faltered.
+
+"Humph!"
+
+"Have you seen him?"
+
+"No," I said.  "I did not know he was there till I was escaping."
+
+"Jimmy see um.  All rightums.  Find Mass Joe fader."
+
+"You saw him, Jimmy?"  I panted.
+
+"Iss.  Yes, Jimmy see him.  Big long hair beard down um tummuck."
+
+"You have seen him--the prisoner?" said the doctor.
+
+"Yes; iss Jimmy see um.  Shut up all along.  Sittum down, um look at
+ground all sleep, sleep like wallaby, wallaby."
+
+"He means the poor fellow who helped us to escape," I said sadly.
+
+"Jimmy see Mass Joe fader," cried the black indignantly.  "Jimmy take um
+right long show um."
+
+"The man who brought us here?"
+
+"No, no, no, no!" cried Jimmy, dancing with vexation.  "Not, not.  Jimmy
+see um Mass Joe fader sit all along.  See froo hole.  Big long beard
+down um tummuck--long hair down um back.  Um shake um head so, so.  Say
+`hi--hi--ho--hum.  Nev see home again.  Ah, my wife!  Ah, my boy!'"
+
+"You heard him say that, Jimmy?"  I cried, catching him by the arm.
+
+"Jimmy sure, sure.  Jimmy look froo hole.  Den fro little tone an hit
+um, and den black fellow come along, and Jimmy lay fas' sleep, eye shut,
+no move bit."
+
+"He has seen him, Joe," cried the doctor.  "He could not have invented
+that."
+
+There was a low whining growl here again from Gyp, and Jack Penny
+drawled:
+
+"I say, sha'n't we all be made prisoners if we stop here?"
+
+"Quick!" said the doctor; "follow me."
+
+"And our guide?"  I cried.
+
+"We must come in search of him another time.  If he has been with the
+blacks for long he will know how to protect himself."
+
+I was unwilling to leave one who had helped us in such a time of need;
+but to stay meant putting ourselves beyond being able to rescue my
+father, if it were really he who was our guide's fellow-prisoner.  The
+result, of course, was that I followed the doctor, while a snuffling
+whine now and then told us that Gyp was on in front, and, in spite of
+the darkness, leading the way so well that there seemed to be no
+difficulty.
+
+"Where are we going?"  I said, after a pause, during which we had been
+listening to the cries of the savages, which appeared to come from
+several directions.
+
+"To our hiding-place," said the doctor.  "Jimmy found it before we lost
+him, and we have kept to it since, so as to be near you."
+
+"But how did you know you were near me?"  I said.
+
+"Through Gyp first.  He went away time after time, and I suspected that
+he had found you, so one day we followed him and he led us to the
+village."
+
+"Yes?"  I said.
+
+"Then we had to wait.  I sent messages to you by him; and at last I got
+your answer.  To-night we were coming again to try and reach you,
+perhaps get you away.  We meant to try.  I should not have gone back
+without you, my lad," he said quietly.
+
+The cries now seemed distant, and we went slowly on through the
+darkness--slowly, for the trees were very close and it required great
+care to avoid rushing against them; but the doctor seemed to have made
+himself acquainted with the forest, and he did not hesitate till all at
+once the shouts of the blacks seemed to come from close by upon our
+right, and were answered directly from behind us.
+
+"A party of them have worked round," whispered the doctor.  "Keep cool.
+They cannot know we are so near.  Hist! crouch down."
+
+We were only just in time, for hardly had we crouched down close to the
+ground than the sound of the savages pushing forward from tree to tree
+was heard.
+
+I could not understand it at first, that curious tapping noise; but as
+they came nearer I found that each man lightly tapped every tree he
+reached, partly to avoid it, by the swinging of his waddy, partly as a
+guide to companions of his position.
+
+They came closer and closer, till it seemed that they must either see or
+touch us, and I felt my heart beat in heavy dull throbs as I longed for
+the rifle that these people had taken from me when they made me
+prisoner.
+
+I heard a faint rustle to my right, and I knew it was Jimmy preparing
+for a spring.  I heard a slight sound on my left just as the nearest
+savage uttered a wild cry, and I knew that this was the lock of a gun
+being cocked.  Then all was silent once more.
+
+Perhaps the savages heard the faint click, and uttered a warning, for
+the tapping of the trees suddenly ceased, and not the faintest sound
+could be heard.
+
+This terrible silence lasted quite five minutes.  It seemed to me like
+an hour, and all the while we knew that at least a dozen armed savage
+warriors were within charging distance, and that discovery meant certain
+captivity, if not death.
+
+I held my breath till I felt that when I breathed again I should utter a
+loud gasp and be discovered.  I dared not move to bury my face in my
+hands or in the soft earth, and my sensations were becoming agonising,
+when there was a sharp tap on a tree, so near that I felt the ground
+quiver.  The tap was repeated to right and left, accompanied by a
+curious cry that sounded like "Whai--why!" and the party swept on.
+
+"A narrow escape!" said the doctor, as we breathed freely once more.
+"Go on, Gyp.  Let's get to earth; we shall be safer there."
+
+I did not understand the doctor's words then, but followed in silence,
+with Jack Penny coming close up to me whenever he found the way open, to
+tell me of his own affairs.
+
+"My back's a deal better," he whispered.  "I've been able to rest it
+lately--waiting for you, and it makes it stronger, you know, and--"
+
+"Silence, Penny!" said the doctor reprovingly, and Jack fell back a few
+feet; and we travelled on, till suddenly, instead of treading upon the
+soft decayed-leaf soil of the forest, I found that we were rustling
+among bushes down a steep slope.  Then we were amongst loose stones, and
+as the darkness was not quite so dense I made out by sight as well as by
+the soft trickling sound, that a little rivulet was close to our feet.
+
+This we soon afterwards crossed, and bidding me stoop the doctor led the
+way beneath the dense bushes for some little distance before we seemed
+to climb a stony bank, and then in the intense darkness he took me by
+the shoulders and backed me a few steps.
+
+"There's quite a bed of branches there," he said aloud.  "You can speak
+out, we are safe here;" and pressing me down I sat upon the soft twigs
+that had been gathered together, and Jack Penny came and lay down beside
+me, to talk for a time and then drop off to sleep, an example I must
+have followed.  For all at once I started and found that it was broad
+daylight, with the loud twittering song of birds coming from the bushes
+at the entrance of what seemed to be a low-roofed extensive cave, whose
+mouth was in the shelving bank of a great bluff which overhung a
+silvery-sounding musical stream.
+
+Some light came in from the opening; but the place was made bright by
+the warm glow that came from a kind of rift right at the far end of the
+cave, and through this was also wafted down the sweet forest scents.
+
+"Jimmy's was a lucky find for us," said the doctor, when I had partaken
+of the food I found they had stored there, and we had talked over our
+position and the probability of my belief being correct.  "It is shelter
+as well as a stronghold;" and he pointed to the means he had taken to
+strengthen the entrance, by making our black followers bind together the
+branches of the tangled shrubs that grew about the mouth.
+
+In the talk that ensued it was decided that we would wait a couple of
+days, and then go by night and thoroughly examine the village.  Jimmy
+would be able to point out the hut where my father was confined, and
+then if opportunity served we would bring him away, lie hidden here for
+a few days till the heat of the pursuit was over, and then escape back
+to the coast.
+
+I would not own to the doctor that I had my doubts, and he owned
+afterwards to me that his feeling was the same.  So we both acted as if
+we had for certain discovered him of whom we came in search, and waited
+our time for the first venture.
+
+It was dangerous work hunting for food at so short a distance from the
+village, but our black followers, aided by Jimmy, were very successful,
+their black skins protecting them from exciting surprise if they were
+seen from a distance, and they brought in a good supply of fish every
+day simply by damming up some suitable pool in the little stream in
+whose bank our refuge was situated.  This stream swarmed with fish, and
+it was deep down in a gully between and arched over by trees.  The bows
+and arrows and Jimmy's spear obtained for us a few birds, and in
+addition they could always get for us a fair supply of fruit, though not
+quite such as we should have chosen had it been left to us.  Roots, too,
+they brought, so that with the stores we had there was not much prospect
+of our starving.
+
+In fact so satisfactory was our position in the pleasant temperate cave
+that Jack Penny was in no hurry to move.
+
+"We're just as well here as anywhere else," he said; "that is, if we had
+found your father."
+
+"And got him safe here," he added after a pause.
+
+"And the black chaps didn't come after us," he said after a little more
+thought.
+
+"And your mother wasn't anxious about you," he said, after a little more
+consideration.
+
+"You'll find such a lot more reasons for not stopping, Jack Penny," I
+said, after hearing him out, "that you'll finish by saying we had better
+get our work done and return to a civilised country as soon as we can."
+
+"Oh, I don't know!" said Jack slowly.  "I don't care about civilised
+countries: they don't suit me.  Everybody laughs at me because I'm a bit
+different, and father gives it to me precious hard sometimes.  Give me
+Gyp and my gun, and I should be happy enough here."
+
+"Don't talk like that, Jack," I said in agony, as I thought of him who
+had helped me to escape, and of the prisoner he had mentioned, and whom
+the black professed to have seen.  "Let's get our task done and escape
+as soon as we can.  A savage life is not for such as we."
+
+That day we had an alarm.
+
+Our men had been out and returned soon after sunrise, that being our
+custom for safety's sake.  Then, too, we were very careful about having
+a fire, though we had no difficulty with it, for it burned freely, and
+the smoke rose up through the great crack in the rock above our heads,
+and disappeared quietly amongst the trees.  But we had one or two
+scares: hearing voices of the blacks calling to each other, but they
+were slight compared to the alarm to which I alluded above.
+
+The men, I say, were back, having been more successful than usual--
+bringing us both fish and a small wild pig.  We had made a good meal,
+and the doctor and I were lying on the armfuls of leafy boughs that
+formed our couch, talking for the twentieth time about our plans for the
+night, when all at once, just as I was saying that with a little brave
+effort we could pass right through the sleepy village and bring away the
+prisoner, I laid my hand sharply on the doctor's arm.
+
+He raised his head at the same moment, for we had both heard the
+unmistakable noise given by a piece of dead twig when pressed upon by a
+heavy foot.
+
+We listened with beating hearts, trying to localise the very spot whence
+the sound came; and when we were beginning to breathe more freely it
+came again, but faint and distant.
+
+"Whoever it was has not found out that we are here," I whispered.
+
+The doctor nodded; and just then Jack Penny, who had been resting his
+back, sat up and yawned loudly, ending by giving Jimmy, who was fast
+asleep, a sounding slap on the back.
+
+I felt the cold perspiration ooze out of me as I glanced at the doctor.
+Then turning over on to my hands and knees I crept to where Jimmy was
+threatening Jack with his waddy in much anger, and held up my hand.
+
+The effect was magical.  They were silent on the instant, but we passed
+the rest of that day in agony.
+
+"I'm glad that we decided to go to-night," the doctor said.  "Whoever it
+was that passed must have heard us, and we shall have the savages here
+to-morrow to see what it meant."
+
+The night seemed as if it would never come, but at last the sun went
+down, and in a very short time it was dark.
+
+Our plans were to go as near as we dared to the village as soon as
+darkness set in, place our men, and then watch till the savages seemed
+to be asleep, and then, by Jimmy's help, seek out my father's prison,
+bring him away to the cave, and there rest for a day or two, perhaps for
+several, as I have said.  But the events of the day had made us doubtful
+of the safety of our refuge; and, after talking the matter over with the
+doctor, we both came to the conclusion that we would leave the latter
+part of our plan to take care of itself.
+
+"First catch your hare, Joe!" said the doctor finally.  "And look here,
+my lad; I begin to feel confident now that this prisoner is your father.
+We must get him away.  It is not a case of _try_!  We _must_, I say;
+and if anything happens to me--"
+
+"Happens to you!"  I said aghast.
+
+"Well; I may be captured in his place!" he said smiling.  "If I am,
+don't wait, don't spare a moment, but get off with your prize.  I don't
+suppose they will do more than imprison me.  I am a doctor, and perhaps
+I can find some favour with them."
+
+"Don't talk like that, doctor!"  I said, grasping his hand.  "We must
+hold together."
+
+"We must release your father!" he said sternly.  "There, that will do."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.
+
+HOW WE HEARD A BLACK DISCUSSION AND DID NOT UNDERSTAND.
+
+The rescue party consisted of the doctor, Ti-hi, and myself, with Jimmy
+for guide.  Jack Penny was to take command of the cave, and be ready to
+defend it and help us if attacked or we were pursued.  At the same time
+he was to have the bearers and everything in readiness for an immediate
+start, in case we decided to continue our flight.
+
+"I think that's all we can say, Penny," said the doctor in a low grave
+voice, as we stood ready to start.  "Everything must depend on the
+prisoners.  Now be firm and watchful.  Good-bye."
+
+"I sha'n't go to sleep," said Jack Penny.  "I say, though, hadn't you
+better take Gyp?"
+
+"Yes, yes; take Gyp!"  I said; "he knows the way so well."
+
+"Jimmy know a way so well, too!" said the black.  "No take a dog--Gyp!"
+
+But we decided to take the dog, and creeping down into the bed of the
+rivulet we stood in the darkness listening, shut-in, as it were, by the
+deep silence.
+
+"Forward, Jimmy!" said the doctor, and his voice sounded hollow and
+strange.
+
+Gyp uttered a whine--that dog had been so well trained that he rarely
+barked--ran quickly up the further bank of the rivulet; Jimmy trotted
+after him, waddy in hand; the doctor went next, I followed, and Ti-hi
+brought up the rear.
+
+One minute the stars were shining brightly over us, the next we were
+under the great forest trees, and the darkness was intense.
+
+"Keep close to me, my lad," the doctor whispered; and I followed him by
+the ear more than by the eye; but somehow the task grew easier as we
+went on, and I did not once come in contact with a tree.
+
+By the way Gyp took us I don't suppose it was more than six miles to the
+savages' village; and though we naturally went rather slowly, the
+excitement I felt was so great that it seemed a very little while before
+Jimmy stopped short to listen.
+
+"Hear um talkum talkum," he whispered.
+
+We could neither of us hear a sound, but I had great faith in Jimmy's
+hearing, for in old times he had given me some remarkable instances of
+the acuteness of this sense.
+
+"Jimmy go first see!" he whispered; and the next minute we knew that we
+were alone with Ti-hi, Jimmy and the dog having gone on to scout.
+
+"I detest having to depend upon a savage!" muttered the doctor; "it
+seems so degrading to a civilised man."
+
+"But they hear and see better than we do."
+
+"Yes," he said; "it is so."
+
+There we waited in that dense blackness beneath the trees, listening to
+the faintest sound, till quite an hour had elapsed, and we were burning
+to go on, when all at once Ti-hi, who was behind us, uttered a faint
+hiss, and as we turned sharply a familiar voice said:
+
+"All rightums!  Jimmy been round round, find um Mass Joe fader!"
+
+"You have found him?"  I cried.
+
+"Not talk shouto so!" whispered Jimmy.  "Black fellow come."
+
+"But have you found him?"  I whispered.
+
+"Going a find um; all soon nuff!" he replied coolly.  "Come long now."
+
+He struck off to the right and we followed, going each minute more
+cautiously, for we soon heard the busy hum of many voices--a hum which
+soon after developed into a loud chatter, with occasional angry
+outbursts, as if something were being discussed.
+
+Jimmy went on, Gyp keeping close to his heels now, as if he quite
+understood the importance of not being seen.  We had left the dense
+forest, and were walking in a more open part among tall trees, beneath
+which it was black as ever, but outside the stars shone brilliantly, and
+it was comparatively light.
+
+The voices seemed so near now that I thought we were going too far, and
+just then Jimmy raised his hand and stopped us, before what seemed to be
+a patch of black darkness, and I found that we were in the shadow cast
+by a long hut, whose back was within a yard or so of our feet.
+
+Jimmy placed his lips close to my ear, then to the doctor's, and to each
+of us he whispered:
+
+"Soon go sleep--sleep.  Find Mass Joe fader, and go away fast.  All top
+here Jimmy go see."
+
+I quite shared with the doctor the feeling of helpless annoyance at
+having to depend so much on the black; but I felt that he was far better
+able to carry out this task than we were, so stood listening to the buzz
+of voices, that seemed now to arise on every hand.
+
+From where we stood we could see a group of the savages standing not
+thirty yards from us, their presence being first made plain by their
+eager talking, and I pressed the doctor's arm and pointed.
+
+"Yes," he whispered; "but we are in the shadow."
+
+From huts to right and left we could hear talking, but that in front of
+us was silent, and I began wondering whether it was the one that had
+been my prison.  But it was impossible to tell, everything seemed so
+different in the faint light cast by the stars.  I could not even make
+out the tree where Jimmy had been tied.
+
+All at once a sensation as of panic seized me, for the group of blacks
+set up a loud shout, and came running towards where we were.
+
+I was sure they saw us, and with a word of warning to the doctor I
+turned and should have fled but for two hands that were laid upon my
+shoulders, pressing me down, the doctor crouching likewise.
+
+At first I thought it was Jimmy, but turning my head I found that it was
+Ti-hi, whose hand now moved from my shoulder to my lips.
+
+I drew a breath full of relief the next moment, for in place of dashing
+down upon us the blacks rushed into the hut behind which we were
+standing, crowding it; and there was nothing now but a wall of dried and
+interwoven palm leaves between us and our fierce enemies.
+
+Here a loud altercation seemed to ensue, angry voices being heard; and
+several times over I thought there was going to be a fight.  I could not
+comprehend a word, but the tones of voice were unmistakably those of
+angry men, and it was easy to tell when one left off and another began.
+
+We dared not stir, for now it seemed to be so light that if we moved
+from the shadow of the hut we should be seen, while the fact of one of
+us stepping upon a dead twig and making it snap would be enough to bring
+half the village upon us, at a time when we wanted to employ strategy
+and not force.
+
+The burst of talking in the hut ended all at once, and there was a dead
+silence, as if those within were listening intently.
+
+We held our breath and listened too, trembling with excitement, for all
+at once we heard a voice utter a few words, and then there was a faint
+sound of rustling, with the cracking noise made by a joint, as if some
+one had risen to a standing position.
+
+Were the savages coming round to our side and about to leap upon us?
+Perhaps they were even then stealing from both ends; and my heart in the
+terrible excitement kept on a heavy dull throb, which seemed to beat
+right up into my throat.
+
+The moments passed away, though, and at last I began to breathe more
+freely.  It was evident that the savages had quitted the hut.
+
+In this belief I laid my hand upon the doctor's arm, and was about to
+speak, when close by us, as it seemed, but really from within the wall
+of the hut, there came the low muttering of a voice, and I knew that
+some one had been left behind.
+
+The doctor pressed my hand, and I shivered as I felt how narrow an
+escape we had had.
+
+We wanted, of course, to move, but it seemed impossible, and so we
+stayed, waiting to see if the black had made any discovery.
+
+After what seemed to me an interminable time I heard a slight rustling
+sound, and almost at the same moment there was a hand upon my arm, and
+directly after a warm pair of lips upon my ear:
+
+"Jimmy no find um fader yet!  Take um out o' place place!  Put um
+somewhere; no know tell!"
+
+I placed my lips to his ear in turn and whispered that there was some
+one left in the hut.
+
+"Jimmy go see," he said softly; and before I could stay him he was gone.
+
+"What is it?" whispered the doctor; and I told him.
+
+The doctor drew his pistol--I heard him in the darkness--and grasped my
+arm, as if to be ready for flight; but just then I heard a voice in the
+hut which made me start with joy.  Then there was a rustling sound, and
+Jimmy came round the corner of the hut.
+
+"All rightums!" he whispered.  "Find somebody's fader!"
+
+"You here again, my boy!" whispered a familiar voice.
+
+"Yes!"  I said, catching the speaker's arm; and then, "Doctor," I said,
+"this is the prisoner who saved me--and set Jimmy free!"
+
+"Doctor!" said the poor fellow in a low puzzled voice, as if his mind
+were wandering.  "Yes, I am the doctor!  They made me their doctor
+when--the fever--when--oh! my boy, my boy! why did you come back?" he
+cried excitedly, as if his brain were once more clear.
+
+"To fetch you and--the other prisoner!"  I said.
+
+"Mr Carstairs?" he said earnestly.  "Hush, hush!  They are coming
+back--to kill me, perhaps!  I must go."
+
+He slipped away from us before we could stop him, and while we were
+debating as to whether we had not better rush in and fight in his
+defence, the savages crowded into the hut, and once more there was a
+loud buzz of voices.
+
+These were checked by one deeper, slower, and more stern than the
+others, which were silenced; and after a minute or two, we heard our
+friend the Englishman respond in a deprecating voice, and apparently
+plead for mercy.
+
+Then the chief savage spoke again in stern tones, there was a buzz of
+voices once more, and the savages seemed to file out and cross the
+opening towards the other side of the village.
+
+We dared not move, but remained there listening, not knowing but that a
+guard might have been left; but at the end of a minute or two our friend
+was back at our side, to say excitedly:
+
+"I want to help you, but my head--I forget--I cannot speak sometimes--I
+cannot think.  It is all dark here--here--in my mind.  Why have you
+come?"
+
+"We are friends," said the doctor.  "Where is Mr Carstairs?"
+
+"Carstairs?--Mr Carstairs?" he said.  "Ah--"
+
+He began to speak volubly in the savage tongue now, tantalising me so
+that I grasped his arm, exclaiming fiercely:
+
+"Speak English.  Where is my father?"
+
+I could hardly see his face, but there was light enough to tell that he
+turned towards me, and he stopped speaking, and seemed to be
+endeavouring to comprehend what I said.
+
+"My father--the prisoner," I said again, with my lips now to his ear.
+
+"Prisoner?  Yes.  At the great hut--the chief's hut--"
+
+He began speaking again volubly, and then stopped and bent his head.
+
+"At the chief's hut?" said the doctor excitedly.  "Wait a moment or two
+to give him time to collect himself, then ask him again."
+
+The poor dazed creature turned to the doctor now, and bent towards him,
+holding him by the arm this time.
+
+"Chief's hut?  Yes: right across.  There."
+
+He pointed in the direction the savages seemed to have taken, and from
+whence we could hear the voices rising and falling in busy speech.
+
+My heart leaped, for we knew now definitely where he whom we sought was
+kept, and the longing, impatient sensation there came upon me to be face
+to face with him was so strong that I could hardly contain myself.
+
+"Let us get round there at once," I whispered, "Here, Jimmy."
+
+There was no answer: Jimmy had crept away.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.
+
+HOW I NEARLY MADE A TERRIBLE MISTAKE.
+
+We tried several times over to get our friend to speak, but the result
+was only a voluble burst of words in a tongue we could not comprehend,
+while all the time he seemed to be aware of his failing, and waved his
+hands and stretched them out to us as if begging us to forgive him for
+his weakness.
+
+"Let him be, Joe," whispered the doctor at last; "we may excite him by
+pressing him.  Let him calm himself, and then perhaps he can speak."
+
+I felt as if it was resigning myself to utter despair, and it seemed
+that our attempt that night was to be in vain, when Jimmy suddenly
+popped up among us once more.
+
+"'Long here," he whispered, and we were about to follow him when our
+friend stopped us.
+
+"No; this way," he said, and he pointed in the opposite direction.
+
+"No, no! 'long here way," said Jimmy excitedly.  "Much lot black fellow
+that way."
+
+"Never mind," I whispered; "let's follow him."
+
+"Jimmy find Mass Joe fader right 'long this way," cried the black.  "Not
+go 'long other way."
+
+"Where is my father?"
+
+"Big hut over 'cross," said Jimmy.
+
+"Let's get round this way to it then," I whispered.  "Come along."
+
+The doctor was already in advance, following our guide, and after
+striking the earth a heavy blow with his waddy to get rid of his anger,
+Jimmy followed me, not able to understand that we could get to the
+opposite point by going round one way as readily as by the other.
+
+It was very slow work and we had to labour hard, holding the bushes and
+trees so that they should not fly back upon those who followed us; but
+by dint of great care we got round at last to what, as far as I could
+judge, was the far side of the village, our principal guide being the
+sound of voices which came to us in a dull murmur that increased as we
+drew nearer, and at last we found ourselves similarly situated as to
+position, being at the back of another large hut.
+
+Here we waited, listening to the buzz of voices, till I wondered in my
+impatience what they could be discussing, and longed to ask our guide,
+but feared lest I should confuse him, now that perhaps he was about to
+do us good service if left alone.
+
+I was glad that I had kept quiet the next minute, for the doctor laid
+his hand upon my shoulder and whispered in my ear:
+
+"There is no doubt about it, my lad.  We have reached the right spot.
+Your father is a prisoner in this very hut, and the savages are
+discussing whether they will keep him here or take him away."
+
+"What shall we do?"  I whispered back in agony, for it seemed so
+terrible to have come all these hundreds of miles to find him, and then
+to sit down, as it were, quite helpless, without taking a step to set
+him free.
+
+"We can do nothing yet," he replied, "but wait for an opportunity to get
+him away."
+
+"Can you not make some plan?"  I whispered back.
+
+"Hist!"
+
+He pressed my hand, for I had been growing louder of speech in my
+excitement, and just then there was a fresh outburst of voices from
+within the hut, followed by the trampling of feet and loud shouting,
+which seemed to be crossing the village and going farther away.
+
+"They have taken the prisoner to--"
+
+Our companion said the first words excitedly, and then stopped short.
+
+"Where?"  I exclaimed aloud, as I caught at his arm.
+
+He answered me in the savage tongue, and with an impatient stamp of the
+foot I turned to the doctor.
+
+"What can we do?"  I said.  "It makes me wish to be a prisoner too.  I
+should see him, perhaps, and I could talk to him and tell him that help
+was near."
+
+"While you shut up part of the help, and raised expectations in his
+breast, that would perhaps result in disappointment," replied the
+doctor.  "We must wait, my lad, wait.  The savages are excited and
+alarmed, and we must come when their suspicions are at rest."
+
+"What do you mean?"  I said.  "Do you mean to go back to-night without
+him?"
+
+"Not if we can get him away," he said; "but we must not do anything mad
+or rash."
+
+"No, no, of course not," I said despairingly; "but this is horrible: to
+be so close to him and yet able to do nothing!"
+
+"Be patient, my lad," he whispered, "and speak lower.  We have done
+wonders.  We have come into this unknown wild, and actually have found
+that the lost man is alive.  What is more, we have come, as if led by
+blind instinct, to the very place where he is a prisoner, and we almost
+know the hut in which he is confined."
+
+"Yes, yes.  I know all that," I said; "but it is so hard not to be able
+to help him now."
+
+"We are helping him," said the doctor.  "Just think: we have this poor
+half-dazed fellow to glean some information, and we have a hiding-place
+near, and--Look out!"
+
+I turned my piece in the direction of the danger, for just then a member
+of our little expedition, who had been perfectly silent so far, uttered
+a savage growl and a fierce worrying noise.
+
+Simultaneously there was a burst of shouts and cries, with the sound of
+blows and the rush of feet through the bush.
+
+For the next few minutes there was so much excitement and confusion that
+I could hardly tell what happened in the darkness.  All I knew was that
+a strong clutch was laid upon my shoulders, and that I was being dragged
+backwards, when I heard the dull thud of a blow and I was driven to the
+ground, with a heavy body lying across me.
+
+I partly struggled out of this position, partly found myself dragged
+out, and then, in a half-stunned, confused fashion, I yielded, as I was
+dragged through the dark forest, the twigs and boughs lashing my face
+horribly.
+
+I had kept tight hold of my gun, and with the feeling strong upon me
+that if I wished to avoid a second captivity I must free myself, I
+waited for an opportunity to turn upon the strong savage who held me so
+tightly in his grasp and dragged me through the bush in so pitiless a
+manner.
+
+He had me with his left hand riveted in my clothes while with his right
+hand, I presumed with a war-club, he dashed the bushes aside when the
+obstacles were very great.
+
+My heart beat fast as I felt that if I were to escape I must fire at
+this fierce enemy, and so horrible did the act seem that twice over,
+after laying my hand upon my pistol, I withdrew it, telling myself that
+I had better wait for a few minutes longer.
+
+And so I waited, feeling that, after all, my captivity would not be so
+bad as it was before, seeing that now I should know my father was near
+at hand.
+
+"I can't shoot now," I said to myself passionately; "I don't think I'm a
+coward, but I cannot fire at the poor wretch, and I must accept my
+fate."
+
+My arm dropped to my side, and at that moment my captor stopped short.
+
+"No hear um come 'long now," he said.
+
+"Jimmy!"  I cried; and for a moment the air seemed full of humming,
+singing noises, and if I had not clung to my companion I should have
+fallen.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.
+
+HOW JIMMY AND I WERE HUNTED LIKE BEASTS.
+
+"Jimmy!"  I panted, as soon as I had recovered myself to find that the
+black was feeling me all over in the darkness.
+
+"Not got no knock um chops, no waddy bang, no popgun ball in um
+nowhere," he whispered.
+
+"No Jimmy, I'm not wounded," I said.  "I thought you were one of the
+black fellows."
+
+"No, no black fellow--no common black fellow sabbage," he said
+importantly.  "Come long fas, fas."
+
+"But the doctor and the prisoner and Ti-hi?"  I said.
+
+"All run way much fas," said Jimmy.  "Gyp, Gyp, see black fellow come
+long much, for Jimmy do and nibblum legs make um hard hard.  Gib one two
+topper topper, den Jimmy say time um way, take Mass Joe.  Come long."
+
+"But we must go and help the doctor," I said.
+
+"Can't find um.  All go long back to big hole.  Hidum.  Say Mass Joe
+come back long o' Jimmy-Jimmy."
+
+It seemed probable that they would make for our hiding-place, but I was
+very reluctant to go and leave my friends in the lurch, so I detained
+Jimmy and we sat listening, the black making me sit down.
+
+"Rest um leggums," he said.  "Run much fas den."
+
+We stayed there listening for what must have been the space of half an
+hour, and during that time we could hear the shouting and rapping of
+trees of the blacks as they were evidently searching the bush, but there
+was no sound of excitement or fighting, neither did it seem to me that
+there were any exulting shouts such as might arise over the capture of
+prisoners.
+
+This gave me hope, and in the belief that I might find my companions at
+the hiding-place I was about to propose to Jimmy that we would go on,
+when he jumped up.
+
+"No stop no longer.  Black fellow come along fas.  Get away."
+
+The noises made by the blacks were plainly coming nearer, and I sprang
+to my feet, trying to pierce the darkness, but everywhere there were the
+dimly-seen shapes of trees so close that they almost seemed to lower and
+their branches to bear down upon our heads; there was the fresh moist
+scent of the dewy earth and leaves, and now and then a faint cry of some
+bird, but nothing to indicate the way we ought to go.
+
+I turned to Jimmy.
+
+"Can you tell where the cave is?"  I said.
+
+"No: Jimmy all dark," he answered.
+
+"Can't you tell which way to go?"
+
+"Oh yes um," he whispered.  "Jimmy know which way go."
+
+"Well, which?"  I said, as the shouts came nearer.
+
+"Dat away where no black fellow."
+
+"But it may be away from the cave," I said.
+
+"Jimmy don't know, can't help along.  Find cave morrow nex day."
+
+There was wisdom in his proposal, which, awkwardly as it was shaped,
+meant that we were to avoid the danger now and find our friends another
+time.
+
+"Mass Joe keep long close," he whispered.  "Soon come near time see
+along way Mass doctor and Mass Jack Penny-Penny."
+
+We paused for a moment, the black going down on his knees to lay his
+head close to the ground so as to make sure of the direction where the
+savages were, and he rose up with anything but comfortable news.
+
+"All round bout nearer, come 'long other way."
+
+Just then I gave a jump, for something touched my leg through a great
+rent in my trousers.  It felt cold, and for the moment I thought it must
+be the head of a serpent; but a low familiar whine undeceived me, and I
+stooped down to pat the neck of Jack Penny's shaggy friend.
+
+"Home, Gyp!"  I said.  "Home!"
+
+He understood me and started off at once, fortunately in the direction
+taken by Jimmy, and after a long toilsome struggle through the bush, the
+more arduous from the difficulty we experienced in keeping up with the
+dog, we at last reached a gully at the bottom of which we could hear the
+trickling of water.
+
+"All right ums," said Jimmy quickly, and plunging down through the
+bushes he was soon at the bottom, and went upon his knees to find out
+which way the stream ran.
+
+He jumped up directly, having found that by the direction the water ran
+we must be below the cave, always supposing that this was the right
+stream.
+
+Down in the gully the sounds of pursuit grew very faint, and at last
+died out, while we waded at times, and at others found room upon the
+shelving bank to get along, perhaps for a hundred yards unchecked; then
+would come a long stretch where the gully was full of thick bushes, and
+here our only chance was to creep under them, wading the while in the
+little stream, often with our bodies bent so that our faces were close
+to the water.
+
+Gyp trotted cheerfully on as I plashed through the water, stopping from
+time to time to utter a low whine to guide us when he got some distance
+ahead, and I often envied the sagacious animal his strength and
+activity, for beside him at a time like this I seemed to be a _very_
+helpless creature indeed.
+
+Two or three times over I grasped the black's arm and we stopped to
+listen, for it seemed to me that I could hear footsteps and the rustling
+of the bushes at the top of the gully far above our heads; but whenever
+we stopped the noise ceased, and feeling at last that it was fancy I
+plodded on, till, half dead with fatigue, I sank down on my knees and
+drank eagerly of the cool fresh water, both Jimmy and the dog following
+my example.
+
+At last, though I should not have recognised the place in the gloom,
+Jimmy stopped short, and from the darkness above my head, as I stood
+with the stream bubbling past my legs, I heard the unmistakable click of
+a gun cock.
+
+"Jack!"  I whispered.  "Jack Penny!"
+
+"That'll do," he whispered back.  "Come along.  All right!  Have you got
+him?"
+
+"Whom?"  I said, stumbling painfully up into the cave, where I threw
+myself down.
+
+"Your father."
+
+"No," I said dismally, "and we've lost the doctor and Ti-hi.  Poor
+fellows, I'm afraid they are taken.  But, Jack Penny, we are right.  My
+father is a prisoner in the village."
+
+"Then we'll go and fetch him out, and the doctor too.  Ti-hi can take
+care of himself.  I'd as soon expect to keep a snake in a wicker cage as
+that fellow in these woods; but come, tell us all about it."
+
+I partook, with a sensation as if choking all the while, of the food he
+had waiting, and then, as we sat there waiting for the day in the hope
+that the doctor might come, I told Jack Penny the adventures of the
+night, Jimmy playing an accompaniment the while upon his nose.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.
+
+HOW JACK PENNY FIRED A STRAIGHT SHOT.
+
+There was no stopping Jimmy's snoring.  Pokes and kicks only intensified
+the noise, so at last we let him lie and I went on in a doleful key to
+the end.
+
+"Oh, it ain't so very bad after all!" said Jack Penny, in his slow
+drawl.  "I call it a good night's work."
+
+"Good, Jack?"
+
+"Yes.  Well, ain't it?" he drawled.  "Why, you've got back safe, and you
+don't know that the doctor won't get back, and you've done what you came
+to do--you've found your father."
+
+"But--but suppose, Jack Penny," I said, "they--they do him some injury
+for what has passed."
+
+"'Tain't likely," drawled Jack.  "They've kept him all this time, why
+should they want to--well, kill him--that's what you're afraid of now?"
+
+"Yes," I said sadly.
+
+"Gammon! 'tain't likely.  If you'd got an old kangaroo in a big cage,
+and the young kangaroo came and tried to get him away you wouldn't go
+and kill the old kangaroo for it?"
+
+"No, no," I said.
+
+"Of course not.  I didn't mean to call your father an old kangaroo, Joe
+Carstairs.  I only meant it to be an instance like.  I say, do kick that
+fellow for snoring so."
+
+"It is of no use to kick him, poor fellow, and, besides, he's tired.
+He's a good fellow, Jack."
+
+"Yes, I suppose he is," said Jack Penny; "but he's awfully black."
+
+"Well, he can't help that."
+
+"And he shines so!" continued Jack in tones of disgust.  "I never saw a
+black fellow with such a shiny skin.  I say, though, didn't you feel in
+a stew, Joe Carstairs, when you thought it was a black fellow lugging
+you off?"
+
+"I did," I said; "and when afterwards--hist! is that anything?"
+
+We gazed through the bushes at the darkness outside, and listened
+intently, but there was no sound save Jimmy's heavy breathing, and I
+went on:
+
+"When afterwards I found it was the black I turned queer and giddy.
+Perhaps it was the effect of the blow I got, but I certainly felt as if
+I should faint.  I didn't know I was so girlish."
+
+Jack Penny did not speak for a few minutes, and I sat thinking bitterly
+of my weakness as I stroked Gyp's head, the faithful beast having curled
+up between us and laid his head upon my lap.  I seemed to have been so
+cowardly, and, weary and dejected as I was, I wished that I had grown to
+be a man, with a man's strength and indifference to danger.
+
+"Oh, I don't know," said Jack Penny suddenly.
+
+"Don't know what?"  I said sharply, as he startled me out of my thinking
+fit.
+
+"Oh! about being girlish and--and--and, well, cowardly, I suppose you
+mean."
+
+"Yes, cowardly," I said bitterly.  "I thought I should be so brave, and
+that when I had found where my father was I should fight and bring him
+away from among the savages."
+
+"Ah! yes," said Jack Penny dryly, "that's your sort!  That's like what
+you read in books and papers about boys of fifteen, and sixteen, and
+seventeen.  They're wonderful chaps, who take young women in their arms
+and then jump on horseback with 'em and gallop off at full speed.  Some
+of 'em have steel coats like lobsters on, and heavy helmets, and that
+makes it all the easier.  I've read about some of them chaps who wielded
+their swords--they never swing 'em about and chop and stab with 'em, but
+wield 'em, and they kill three or four men every day and think nothing
+of it.  I used to swallow all that stuff, but I'm not such a guffin
+now."
+
+There was a pause here, while Jack Penny seemed to be thinking.
+
+"Why, some of these chaps swim across rivers with a man under their arm,
+and if they're on horseback they sing out a battle-cry and charge into a
+whole army, and everybody's afraid of 'em.  I say, ain't it jolly
+nonsense Joe Carstairs?"
+
+"I suppose it is," I said sadly, for I had believed in some of these
+heroes too.
+
+"I don't believe the boy ever lived who didn't feel in an awful stew
+when he was in danger.  Why, men do at first before they get used to it.
+There was a chap came to our place last year and did some shepherding
+for father for about six months.  He'd been a soldier out in the Crimean
+war and got wounded twice in the arm and in the leg, big wounds too.  He
+told me that when they got the order to advance, him and his mates, they
+were all of a tremble, and the officers looked as pale as could be, some
+of 'em; but every man tramped forward steady enough, and it wasn't till
+they began to see their mates drop that the want to fight began to come.
+They felt savage, he says, then, and as soon as they were in the thick
+of it, there wasn't a single man felt afraid."
+
+We sat in silence for a few minutes, and then he went on again:
+
+"If men feel afraid sometimes I don't see why boys shouldn't; and as to
+those chaps who go about in books killing men by the dozen, and never
+feeling to mind it a bit, I think it's all gammon."
+
+"Hist!  Jack Penny, what's that?"  I whispered.
+
+There was a faint crashing noise out in the forest just then, and I knew
+from the sound close by me that the black who was sharing our watch must
+have been lifting his spear.
+
+I picked up my gun, and I knew that Jack had taken up his and thrown
+himself softly into a kneeling position, as we both strove to pierce the
+darkness and catch sight of what was perhaps a coming enemy.
+
+As we watched, it seemed as if the foliage of the trees high up had
+suddenly come into view.  There was a grey look in the sky, and for the
+moment I thought I could plainly make out the outline of the bushes on
+the opposite side of the gully.
+
+Then I thought I was mistaken, and then again it seemed as if I could
+distinctly see the outline of a bush.
+
+A minute later, and with our hearts beating loudly, we heard the
+rustling go on, and soon after we could see that the bushes were being
+moved.
+
+"It is the doctor," I thought; but the idea was false, I knew, for if it
+had been he his way would have been down into the stream, which he would
+have crossed, while, whoever this was seemed to be undecided and to be
+gazing about intently as if in search of something.
+
+When we first caught a glimpse of the moving figure it was fifty yards
+away.  Then it came to within forty, went off again, and all the time
+the day was rapidly breaking.  The tree tops were plainly to be seen,
+and here and there one of the great masses of foliage stood out quite
+clearly.
+
+Just then the black, who had crept close to my side, pointed out the
+figure on the opposite bank, now dimly-seen in the transparent dawn.
+
+It was that of an Indian who had stopped exactly opposite the clump of
+bushes which acted as a screen to our place of refuge, and stooping down
+he was evidently trying to make out the mouth of the cave.
+
+He saw it apparently, for he uttered a cry of satisfaction, and leaping
+from the place of observation he stepped rapidly down the slope.
+
+"He has found us out," I whispered.
+
+"But he mustn't come all the same," said Jack Penny, and as he spoke I
+saw that he was taking aim.
+
+"Don't shoot," I cried, striking at his gun; but I was too late, for as
+I bent towards him he drew the trigger, there was a flash, a puff of
+smoke, a sharp report that echoed from the mouth of the cave, and then
+with a horrible dread upon me I sprang up and made for the entrance,
+followed by Jack and the blacks.
+
+It took us but a minute to get down into the stream bed and then to
+climb up amongst the bushes to where we had seen the savage, and neither
+of us now gave a thought of there being danger from his companions.
+What spirit moved Jack Penny I cannot tell.  That which moved me was an
+eager desire to know whether a horrible suspicion was likely to be true,
+and to gain the knowledge I proceeded on first till I reached the spot
+where the man had fallen.
+
+It was a desperate venture, for he might have struck at me, wounded
+merely, with war-club or spear; but I did not think of that: I wanted to
+solve the horrible doubt, and I had just caught sight of the fallen
+figure lying prone upon its face when Jimmy uttered a warning cry, and
+we all had to stoop down amongst the bushes, for it seemed as if the
+savage's companions were coming to his help.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.
+
+HOW THE DOCTOR FOUND A PATIENT READY TO HIS HAND.
+
+We waited for some minutes crouched there among the bushes listening to
+the coming of those who forced their way through the trees, while moment
+by moment the morning light grew clearer, the small birds twittered, and
+the parrots screamed.  We could see nothing, but it was evident that two
+if not three savages were slowly descending the slope of the ravine
+towards where we were hidden.  The wounded man uttered a low groan that
+thrilled me and then sent a cold shudder through my veins, for I was
+almost touching him; and set aside the feeling of horror at having been,
+as it were, partner in inflicting his injury, there was the sensation
+that he might recover sufficiently to revenge himself upon us by a blow
+with his spear.
+
+The sounds came nearer, and it was now so light that as we watched we
+could see the bushes moving, and it seemed to me that more of this
+horrible bloodshed must ensue.  We were crouching close, but the wounded
+man was moaning, and his companions might at any moment hear him and
+then discovery must follow; while if, on the other hand, we did not
+resist, all hope of rescuing my poor father would be gone.
+
+"We must fight," I said to myself, setting my teeth hard and bringing my
+gun to bear on the spot where I could see something moving.  At the same
+time I tried to find where Jack Penny was hiding, but he was out of
+sight.
+
+At the risk of being seen I rose up a little so as to try and get a
+glimpse of the coming enemy; but though the movement among the bushes
+was plain enough I only caught one glimpse of a black body, and had I
+been disposed to shoot it was too quick for me and was gone in an
+instant.
+
+They were coming nearer, and in an agony of excitement I was thinking of
+attempting to back away and try to reach the cave, when I felt that I
+could not get Jack Penny and the black to act with me unless I showed
+myself, and this meant revealing our position, and there all the time
+were the enemy steadily making their way right towards us.
+
+"What shall I do?"  I said to myself as I realised in a small way what
+must be the feelings of a general who finds that the battle is going
+against him.  "I must call to Jack Penny."
+
+"_Cooey_!" rang out just then from a little way to my right, and Jimmy
+looked up from his hiding-place.
+
+"Is Carstairs there?" cried the familiar voice of the doctor, and as
+with beating heart I sprang up, he came staggering wearily towards me
+through the clinging bushes.
+
+"My dear boy," he cried, with his voice trembling, "what I have suffered
+on your account!  I thought you were a prisoner."
+
+"No!"  I exclaimed, delighted at this turn in our affairs.  "Jimmy
+helped me to escape.  I say, you don't think I ran away and deserted
+you?"
+
+"My dear boy," he cried, "I was afraid that you would think this of me.
+But there, thank Heaven you are safe! and though we have not rescued
+your father we know enough to make success certain."
+
+"I'm afraid not," I said hastily.  "The savages have discovered our
+hiding-place."
+
+"No!"
+
+"Yes; and one of them was approaching it just now when Jack Penny shot
+him down."
+
+"This is very unfortunate!  Where?  What! close here?"
+
+I had taken his hand to lead him to the clump of bushes where the poor
+wretch lay, and on parting the boughs and twigs we both started back in
+horror.
+
+"My boy, what have you done?" cried the doctor, as I stood speechless
+there by his side.  "We have not so many friends that we could afford to
+kill them."
+
+But already he was busy, feeling the folly of wasting words, and down
+upon his knees, to place the head of our friend, the prisoner of the
+savages, in a more comfortable position before beginning to examine him
+for his wound.
+
+"Bullet--right through the shoulder!" said the doctor in a short abrupt
+manner; and as he spoke he rapidly tore up his handkerchief, and plugged
+and bound the wound, supplementing the handkerchief with a long scarf
+which he wore round the waist.
+
+"Now, Ti-hi!  Jimmy! help me carry him to the cave."
+
+"Jimmy carry um all 'long right way; put um on Jimmy's back!" cried my
+black companion; and this seeming to be no bad way of carrying the
+wounded man in such a time of emergency, Jimmy stooped down,
+exasperating me the while by grinning, as if it was good fun, till the
+sufferer from our mistake was placed upon his back, when he exclaimed:
+
+"Lot much heavy-heavy!  Twice two sheep heavy.  Clear de bush!"
+
+We hastily drew the boughs aside, and Jimmy steadily descended the steep
+slope, entered the rivulet, crossed, and then stopped for a moment
+beneath the overhanging boughs before climbing to the cabin.
+
+"Here, let me help you!" said the doctor, holding out his hand.
+
+"Yes," said Jimmy, drawing his waddy and boomerang from his belt; "hold
+um tight, um all in black fellow way."
+
+Then, seizing the boughs, he balanced the wounded man carefully, and
+drew himself steadily up step by step, exhibiting wonderful strength of
+muscle, till he had climbed to the entrance of the cave, where he bent
+down and crawled in on hands and knees, waiting till his burden was
+removed from his back, and then getting up once more to look round
+smiling.
+
+"Jimmy carry lot o' men like that way!"
+
+We laid the sufferer on one of the beds of twigs that the savages had
+made for us, and here the doctor set himself to work to more securely
+bandage his patient's shoulder; Jack Penny looking on, resting upon his
+gun, and wearing a countenance full of misery.
+
+"There!" said the doctor when he had finished.  "I think he will do now.
+Two inches lower, Master Penny, and he would have been a dead man."
+
+"I couldn't help it!" drawled Jack Penny.  "I thought he was a savage
+coming to kill us.  I'm always doing something.  There never was such an
+unlucky chap as I am!"
+
+"Oh, you meant what you did for the best!" said the doctor, laying his
+hand on Jack Penny's shoulder.
+
+"What did he want to look like a savage for?" grumbled Jack.  "Who was
+going to know that any one dressed up--no, I mean dressed down--like
+that was an Englishman?"
+
+"It was an unfortunate mistake, Penny; you must be more careful if you
+mean to handle a gun."
+
+"Here, take it away!" said Jack Penny bitterly.  "I won't fire it off
+again."
+
+"I was very nearly making the same mistake," I said, out of compassion
+for Jack Penny--he seemed so much distressed.  "I had you and Ti-hi
+covered in turn as you came up, doctor."
+
+"Then I'm glad you did not fire!" he said.  "There, keep your piece,
+Penny; we may want its help.  As for our friend here, he has a painful
+wound, but I don't think any evil will result from it.  Hist, he is
+coming to!"
+
+Our conversation had been carried on in a whisper, and we now stopped
+short and watched the doctor's patient in the dim twilight of the
+cavern, as he unclosed his eyes and stared first up at the ceiling and
+then about him, till his eyes rested upon us, when he smiled.
+
+"Am I much hurt?" he said, in a low calm voice.
+
+"Oh, no!" said the doctor.  "A bullet wound--not a dangerous one at
+all."
+
+To my astonishment he went on talking quite calmly, and without any of
+the dazed look and the strange habit of forgetting his own tongue to
+continue in that of the people among whom he had been a prisoner for so
+long.
+
+"I thought I should find you here," he said; "and I came on, thinking
+that perhaps I could help you."
+
+"Help us! yes, of course you can!  You shall help us to get Mr
+Carstairs away!"
+
+"Poor fellow; yes!" he said softly, and in so kindly a way that I crept
+closer and took his hand.  "We tried several times to escape, but they
+overtook us, and treated us so hard that of late we had grown resigned
+to our fate."
+
+I exchanged glances with the doctor, who signed to me to be silent.
+
+"It was a very hard one--very hard!" the wounded man continued, and then
+he stopped short, looking straight before him at the forest, seen
+through the opening of the cave.
+
+By degrees his eyelids dropped, were raised again, and then fell, and he
+seemed to glide into a heavy sleep.
+
+The doctor motioned us to keep away, and we all went to the mouth of the
+cave, to sit down and talk over the night's adventure, the conversation
+changing at times to a discussion of our friend's mental affection.
+
+"The shock of the wound has affected his head beneficially, it seems,"
+the doctor said at last.  "Whether it will last I cannot say."
+
+At least it seemed to me that the doctor was saying those or similar
+words from out of a mist, and then all was silent.
+
+The fact was that I had been out all night, exerting myself
+tremendously, and I had now fallen heavily asleep.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.
+
+HOW WE PASSED THROUGH A GREAT PERIL.
+
+It was quite evening when I woke, as I could see by the red glow amongst
+the trees.  I was rested but confused, and lay for some minutes
+thinking, and wondering what had taken place on the previous day.
+
+It all came back at once, and I was just in the act of rising and going
+to see how our poor friend was, when I felt a hand press me back, and
+turning I saw it was Jack Penny, who was pointing with the other towards
+the entrance of the cave.
+
+"What is it?"  I whispered; but I needed no telling, for I could see
+that a group of the blacks were on the other side of the ravine,
+pointing in the direction of the bushes that overhung our refuge, and
+gesticulating and talking together loudly.
+
+They know where we are then, I thought; and glancing from one to the
+other in the dim light I saw that my opinion was shared by the doctor
+and our black followers, who all seemed to be preparing for an
+encounter, taking up various places of vantage behind blocks of stone,
+where they could ply their bows and arrows and make good use of their
+spears.
+
+Just then the doctor crept towards me and placed his lips to my ear:
+
+"They have evidently tracked us, my lad," he said; "and we must fight
+for it.  There is no chance beside without we escape by the back here,
+and give up the object of our search."
+
+"We must fight, doctor!"  I said, though I trembled as I spoke, and
+involuntarily glanced at Jack Penny, wondering even in those critical
+moments whether he too felt alarmed.
+
+I think now it was very natural: I felt horribly ashamed of it then.
+
+Whether it was the case, or that Jack Penny was only taking his tint
+from the greeny reflected light in the cavern, certainly he looked very
+cadaverous and strange.
+
+He caught my eye and blew out his cheeks, and began to whistle softly as
+he rubbed the barrel of his gun with his sleeve.
+
+Turning rather jauntily towards the doctor he said softly:
+
+"Suppose I am to shoot now, doctor?"
+
+"When I give the order," said the latter coldly.
+
+"There won't be any mistake this time?"
+
+"No," said the doctor, quietly; "there will not be any mistake this
+time!"
+
+He stopped and gazed intently at the savages, who were cautiously
+descending towards the stream, not in a body but spread out in a line.
+
+"Fire first with large shot," he said softly.  "If we can frighten them
+without destroying life we will.  Now creep each of you behind that
+clump of stones and be firm.  Mind it is by steadily helping one another
+in our trouble that we are strong."
+
+I gave him a quick nod--it was no time for speaking--and crept softly to
+my place, passing pretty close to where our friend lay wounded and
+quietly asleep.
+
+The next minute both Jack Penny and I were crouched behind what served
+as a breastwork, with our pieces ready, the doctor being on our left,
+and the blacks, including Jimmy, right in front, close to the mouth of
+the cave.
+
+"We must mind and not hit the blacks!" whispered Jack.  "I mean our
+chaps.  Lie down, Gyp!"
+
+The dog was walking about in an impatient angry manner, uttering a low
+snarl now and then, and setting up the hair all about his neck till in
+the dim light he looked like a hyena.
+
+Gyp turned to his master almost a reproachful look, and then looked up
+at me, as if saying, "Am I to be quiet at a time like this?"
+
+Directly after, though, he crouched down with his paws straight out
+before him and his muzzle directed towards the enemy, ready when the
+struggle began to make his teeth meet in some one.
+
+The savages were all the time coming steadily on lower and lower down
+the bank, till suddenly one of them stopped short and uttered a low cry.
+
+Several ran to his side at once, and we could see them stoop down and
+examine something among the bushes, talking fiercely the while.
+
+"They've found out where our friend was wounded, Jack Penny," I said.
+
+"Think so?" he said slowly.  "Well, I couldn't help it.  I didn't mean
+to do it, I declare."
+
+"Hist!"  I whispered; and now my heart began to beat furiously, for the
+blacks, apparently satisfied, began to spread out again, descended to
+the edge of the little stream, and then stopped short.
+
+If I had not been so excited by the coming danger I should have enjoyed
+the scene of this group of strongly-built naked savages, their jetty
+black, shining skins bronzed by the reflections of orange and golden
+green as the sun flooded the gorge with warm light, making every action
+of our enemies plain to see, while by contrast it threw us more and more
+into the shade.
+
+They paused for a few moments at the edge of the stream, so close now
+that they could touch each other by simply stretching out a hand; and it
+was evident by the way all watched a tall black in the centre of the
+line that they were waiting his orders to make a dash up into the cave.
+
+Those were terrible minutes: we could see the opal of our enemies' eyes
+and the white line of their teeth as they slightly drew their lips apart
+in the excitement of waiting the order to advance.  Every man was armed
+with bow and arrows, and from their wrists hung by a thong a heavy
+waddy, a blow from which was sufficient to crush in any man's skull.
+
+"They're coming now," I said in a low voice, the words escaping me
+involuntarily.  And then I breathed again, for the tall savage,
+evidently the leader, said something to his men, who stood fast, while
+he walked boldly across the stream beneath the overhanging bushes, and
+one of these began to sway as the chief tried to draw himself up.
+
+I glanced at the doctor, being sure that he would fire, when, just as
+the chief was almost on a level with the floor of the cave, there was a
+rushing, scratching noise, and the most hideous howling rose from just
+in front of where I crouched, while Gyp leaped up, with hair bristling,
+and answered it with a furious howl.
+
+The savage dropped back into the water with a tremendous splash, and
+rushed up the slope after his people, not one of them stopping till they
+were close to the top, when Jimmy raised his grinning face and looked
+round at us.
+
+"Um tink big bunyip in um hole, make um all run jus fas' away, away."
+
+He had unmistakably scared the enemy, for they collected together in
+consultation, but our hope that they might now go fell flat, for they
+once more began to descend, each one tearing off a dead branch or
+gathering a bunch of dry ferns as he came; and at the same moment the
+idea struck Jack Penny and me that they believed some fierce beast was
+in the hole, and that they were coming to smoke it out.
+
+The blacks came right down into the rivulet, and though the first
+armfuls of dry wood and growth they threw beneath the cave mouth went
+into the water, they served as a base for the rest, and in a very short
+time a great pile rose up, and this they fired.
+
+For a few moments there was a great fume, which floated slowly up among
+the bushes, but very soon the form of the cavern caused it to draw right
+in, the opening at the back acting as a chimney.  First it burned
+briskly, then it began to roar, and then to our horror we found that the
+place was beginning to fill with suffocating smoke and hot vapour,
+growing more dangerous moment by moment.
+
+Fortunately the smoke and noise of the burning made our actions safe
+from observation, and we were thus able to carry our wounded right to
+the back, where the air was purer and it was easier to breathe.
+
+It was a terrible position, for the blacks, encouraged by their success,
+piled on more and more brushwood and the great fronds of fern, which
+grew in abundance on the sides of the little ravine, and as the green
+boughs and leaves were thrown on they hissed and spluttered and sent
+forth volumes of smoke, which choked and blinded us till the fuel began
+to blaze, when it roared into the cave and brought with it a quantity of
+hot but still breathable air.
+
+"Keep a good heart, my lads," said the doctor.  "No, no, Penny!  Are you
+mad?  Lie down! lie down!  Don't you know that while the air high up is
+suffocating, that low down can be breathed?"
+
+"No, I couldn't tell," said Jack Penny dolefully, as he first knelt down
+and then laid his head close to the ground.  "I didn't know things were
+going to be so bad as this or I shouldn't have come.  I don't want to
+have my dog burned to death."
+
+Gyp seemed to understand him, for he uttered a low whine and laid his
+nose in his master's hand.
+
+"Burned to death!" said the doctor in a tone full of angry excitement.
+"Of course not.  Nobody is going to be burned to death."
+
+Through the dim choking mist I could see that there was a wild and
+anxious look in the doctor's countenance as he kept going near the mouth
+of the cave, and then hurrying back blinded and in agony.
+
+We had all been in turn to the narrow rift at the end through which we
+had been able to see the sky and the waving leaves of the trees, but now
+all was dark with the smoke that rolled out.  This had seemed to be a
+means of escape, but the difficulty was to ascend the flat chimney-like
+place, and when the top was reached we feared that it would only be for
+each one who climbed out to make himself a mark for the savages' arrows.
+
+Hence, then, we had not made the slightest attempt to climb it.  Now,
+however, our position was so desperate that Jimmy's proposal was
+listened to with eagerness.
+
+"Place too much big hot," he said.  "Chokum-chokum like um wallaby.  Go
+up."
+
+He caught hold of the doctor's scarf of light network, a contrivance
+which did duty for bag, hammock, or rope in turn, and the wearer rapidly
+twisted it from about his waist.
+
+"Now, Mas' Jack Penny, tan' here," he cried; and Jack was placed just
+beneath the hole.
+
+Jack Penny understood what was required of him, and placing his hands
+against the edge of the rift he stood firm, while Jimmy took the end of
+the doctor's scarf in his teeth and proceeded to turn him into a ladder,
+by whose means he might get well into the chimney-like rift, climb up,
+and then lower down the scarf-rope to help the rest.
+
+As I expected, the moment Jimmy caught Jack Penny's shoulders and placed
+one foot upon him my companion doubled up like a jointed rule, and Jimmy
+and he rolled upon the floor of the cave.
+
+At any other time we should have roared with laughter at Jimmy's disgust
+and angry torrent of words, but it was no time for mirth, and the doctor
+took Jack Penny's place as the latter drawled out:
+
+"I couldn't help it; my back's so weak.  I begin to wish I hadn't come."
+
+"Dat's fine," grunted Jimmy, who climbed rapidly up, standing on the
+doctor's shoulders, making no scruple about planting a foot upon his
+head, and then we knew by his grunting and choking sounds that he was
+forcing his way up.
+
+The moment he had ceased to be of use the doctor stood aside, and it was
+as well, for first a few small stones fell, then there was a crash, and
+I felt that Jimmy had come down, but it only proved to be a mass of
+loose stone, which was followed by two or three more pieces of earth and
+rock.
+
+Next came a tearing sound as of bushes being broken and dragged away,
+and to our delight the smoke seemed to rush up the rift with so great a
+current of air that fresh breath of life came to us from the mouth of
+the cave, and with it hope.
+
+In those critical moments everything seemed dream-like and strange.  I
+could hardly see what took place for the smoke, my companions looking
+dim and indistinct, and somehow the smoke seemed to be despair, and the
+fresh hot wind borne with the crackling flames that darted through the
+dense vapour so much hope.
+
+"Ti-hi come 'long nextums," whispered Jimmy; and the black ran to the
+opening eagerly, but hesitated and paused, ending by seizing me and
+pushing me before him to go first.
+
+"No, no," I said; "let's help the wounded man first."
+
+"Don't waste time," said the doctor angrily.  "Up, Joe, and you can help
+haul."
+
+I obeyed willingly and unwillingly, but I wasted no time.  With the help
+of the doctor and the scarf I had no difficulty in climbing up the rift,
+which afforded good foothold at the side, and in less than a minute I
+was beside Jimmy, breathing the fresh air and seeing the smoke rise up
+in a cloud from our feet.
+
+"Pull!" said the doctor in a hoarse whisper that seemed to come out of
+the middle of the smoke.
+
+Jimmy and I hauled, and somehow or another we got Jack Penny up, choking
+and sneezing, so that he was obliged to lie down amongst the bushes, and
+I was afraid he would be heard, till I saw that we were separated from
+the savages by a huge mass of stony slope.
+
+Two of the black bearers came next easily enough, and then the scarf had
+to be lowered down to its utmost limits.
+
+I knew why, and watched the proceedings with the greatest concern as
+Jimmy and one of the blacks reached down into the smoky rift and held
+the rope at the full extent of their arms.
+
+"Now!" said the doctor's voice, and the two hardy fellows began to draw
+the scarf, with its weight coming so easily that I knew the doctor and
+one of the blacks must be lifting the wounded man below.
+
+Poor fellow, he must have suffered the most intense agony, but he did
+not utter a sigh.  Weak as he was he was quite conscious of his
+position, and helped us by planting his feet wherever there was a
+projection in the rift, and so we hauled him up and laid him on the sand
+among the bushes, where he could breathe, but where he fainted away.
+
+The rest easily followed, but not until the doctor had sent up every
+weapon and package through the smoke.  Then came his turn, but he made
+no sign, and in an agony of horror I mastered my dread, and, seizing the
+scarf, lowered myself down into the heat and smoke.
+
+It was as I feared; he had fainted, and was lying beneath the opening.
+
+My hands trembled so that I could hardly tie a knot, but knowing, as I
+did, how short the scarf was, I secured it tightly round one of his
+wrists and called to them to haul just as Jimmy was coming down to my
+help.
+
+He did not stop, but dropped down beside me, and together we lifted the
+fainting man, called to them to drag, and he was pulled up.
+
+"Here, ketch hold," came from above the next moment in Jack Penny's
+voice, and to my utter astonishment down came the end of the scarf at
+once, long before they could have had time to untie it from the doctor's
+wrist.
+
+"Up, Jimmy!"  I cried, as I realised that it was the other end Jack
+Penny had had the _nous_ to lower at once.
+
+"No: sha'n't go, Mass Joe Carstairs."
+
+"Go on, sir," I cried.
+
+"No sha'n't!  Debble--debble--debble!" he cried, pushing me to the hole.
+
+To have gone on fighting would have meant death to both, for the savages
+were yelling outside and piling on the bushes and fern fronds till they
+roared.
+
+I caught the scarf then, and was half-hauled half-scrambled up, to fall
+down blinded and suffocated almost, only able to point below.
+
+I saw them lower the scarf again, and after what seemed a tremendous
+time Jimmy's black figure appeared.
+
+Almost at the same moment there were tongues of flame mingled with the
+smoke, and Jimmy threw himself down and rolled over and over, sobbing
+and crying.
+
+"Burn um hot um.  Oh, burn um--burn um--burn um!"
+
+There was a loud roar and a rush of flame and smoke out of the rift,
+followed by what seemed to be a downpour of the smoke that hung over us
+like a canopy, just as if it was all being sucked back, and then the
+fire appeared to be smouldering, and up through the smoke that now rose
+slowly came the dank strange smell of exploded powder and the sounds of
+voices talking eagerly, but coming like a whisper to where we lay.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.
+
+HOW THE DOCTOR SAID "THANK YOU" IN A VERY QUIET WAY.
+
+For some little time we did nothing but lie there blackened and half
+choked, blinded almost, listening to the sound that came up that rift,
+for the question now was whether the savages would know that we were
+there, or would attribute the roar to that of some fierce beast that
+their fire and smoke had destroyed.
+
+The voices came up in a confused gabble, and we felt that if the blacks
+came up the rift we could easily beat them back; but if they came round
+by some other way to the rocky patch of forest where we were, our state
+was so pitiable that we could offer no defence.
+
+Jimmy had been applying cool leaves to his legs for some minutes as we
+lay almost where we had thrown ourselves, seeming to want to do nothing
+but breathe the fresh air, when all at once he came to where the doctor
+and I now rested ourselves upon our elbows and were watching the smoke
+that came up gently now and rose right above the trees.
+
+"Jimmy no hurt now.  Roast black fellow," he said grinning.  "Jimmy know
+powder go bang pop! down slow."
+
+"Yes," said the doctor.  "I was trying to get that last canister when I
+was overcome by the smoke, and just managed to reach the bottom of the
+rift.  Who was it saved me?"
+
+"Jimmy-Jimmy!" said the black proudly.
+
+"My brave fellow!" cried the doctor, catching the black's hand.
+
+"Jimmy come 'long Mass Joe.  Haul Mass doctor up.  Mass doctor no wiggle
+Jimmy 'gain, eat much pig."
+
+The doctor did not answer, for he had turned to me and taken my hand.
+
+"Did you come down, Joe?" he said softly.
+
+"Of course I did," I replied quietly, though I felt very uncomfortable.
+
+"Thank you!" he said quietly, and then he turned away.
+
+"Black fellow hear powder bang," said Jimmy, grinning.  "Tink um big
+bunyip.  All go way now."
+
+I turned to him sharply, listening the while.
+
+"Yes: all go 'long.  Tink bunyip.  Kill um dead.  No kill bunyip.  Oh
+no!"
+
+There was the sound of voices, but they were more distant, and then they
+seemed to come up the rift in quite a broken whisper, and the next
+moment they had died away.
+
+"Safe, doctor!"  I said, and we all breathed more freely than before.
+
+The blacks had gone.  Evidently they believed that the occupant of the
+cave had expired in that final roar, and when we afterwards crept
+cautiously round after a detour the next morning, it was to find that
+the place was all open, and for fifty yards round the bushes and
+tree-ferns torn down and burned.
+
+The night of our escape we hardly turned from our positions, utterly
+exhausted as we were, and one by one we dropped asleep.
+
+When I woke first it was sometime in the night, and through the trees
+the great stars were glinting down, and as I lay piecing together the
+adventures of the past day I once more fell fast asleep to be awakened
+by Jimmy in the warm sunlight of a glorious morning.
+
+"All black fellow gone long way.  Come kedge fis an fine 'nana."
+
+I rose to my feet to see that the doctor was busy with his patient, who
+was none the worse for the troubles of the past day, and what was of
+more consequence, he was able to speak slowly and without running off
+into the native tongue.
+
+We went down to the stream, Jack Penny bearing us company, and were
+pretty fortunate in cutting off some good-sized fish which were sunning
+themselves in a shallow, and Ti-hi and his companions were no less
+successful in getting fruit, so that when we returned we were able to
+light a fire and enjoy a hearty meal.
+
+What I enjoyed the most, though, was a good lave in the clear cold water
+when we had a look at the mouth of the cave.
+
+The doctor came to the conclusion that where we were, shut-in by high
+shelving sand rocks, was as safe a spot as we could expect, the more so
+that the blacks were not likely to come again, so we made this our camp,
+waiting to recruit a little and to let the black village settle down
+before making any farther attempt.  Beside this there was our new
+companion--William Francis he told us his name was, and that he had been
+ten years a prisoner among the blacks.  Until he had recovered from the
+effect of his unlucky wound we could not travel far, and our flight when
+we rescued my father must necessarily be swift.
+
+It was terribly anxious work waiting day after day, but the doctor's
+advice was good--that we must be content to exist without news for fear,
+in sending scouts about the village at night, we should alarm the enemy.
+
+"Better let them think there is no one at hand," said the doctor, "and
+our task will be the easier."
+
+So for a whole fortnight we waited, passing our time watching the bright
+scaled fish glance down the clear stream, or come up it in shoals; lying
+gazing at the brightly plumed birds that came and shrieked and climbed
+about the trees above our heads; while now and then we made cautious
+excursions into the open country in the direction opposite to the
+village, and fortunately without once encountering an enemy, but adding
+largely to our store of food, thanks to the bows and arrows of our
+friends.
+
+At last, one evening, after quietly talking to us sometime about the
+sufferings of himself and my father, Mr Francis declared himself strong
+enough to accompany our retreat.
+
+"The interest and excitement will keep me up," he said; "and you must
+not wait longer for me.  Besides, I shall get stronger every day, and--"
+
+He looked from me to the doctor and then back, and passed his hand
+across his forehead as if to clear away a mist, while, when he began to
+speak again, it was not in English, and he burst into tears.
+
+"Lie down and sleep," the doctor said firmly; and, obedient as a child,
+the patient let his head sink upon the rough couch he occupied and
+closed his eyes.
+
+"It is as if as his body grew strong his mental powers weakened," said
+the doctor to me as soon as we were out of hearing; "but we must wait
+and see."
+
+Then we set to and once more talked over our plans, arranging that we
+would make our attempt next night, and after studying the compass and
+the position we occupied we came to the decision that we had better work
+round to the far side of the village, post Mr Francis and two of the
+blacks there, with our baggage, which was principally food; then make
+our venture, join them if successful, and go on in retreat at once.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY NINE.
+
+HOW WE TOOK A LAST LOOK ROUND, AND FOUND IT WAS TIME TO GO.
+
+That next evening seemed as it would never come, and I lay tossing
+feverishly from side to side vainly trying to obtain the rest my friend
+recommended.
+
+At last, though, the time came, and we were making our final
+preparations, when the doctor decided that we would just take a look
+round first by way of a scout.
+
+It was fortunate that we did, for just as it was growing dusk, after a
+good look round we were about to cross the rivulet, and go through the
+cavern and up the rift back into camp, when I caught the doctor's arm
+without a word.
+
+He started and looked in the same direction as I did which was right
+down the gully, and saw what had taken my attention, namely, the
+stooping bodies of a couple of blacks hurrying away through the bushes
+at a pretty good rate.
+
+The doctor clapped his piece to his shoulder, and then dropped it once
+more.
+
+"No!" he said.  "I might kill one, but the other would bear the news.
+Fortunately they are going the other way and not ours.  Quick, my lad!
+let's get back to camp and start."
+
+"And they'll come back with a lot of their warriors to attack us
+to-night and find us gone!"
+
+"And while they are gone, Joe, we will attack their place and carry off
+our prize!"
+
+"If we only could!"  I cried fervently.
+
+"No _ifs_, Joe," he said smiling; "we _will_!"
+
+It did not take us many minutes to reach the mouth of the cave, and as
+we entered I looked round again, to catch sight of another black figure
+crouching far up the opposite bank, at the foot of a great tree.
+
+I did not speak, for it was better that the black should not think he
+had been seen, so followed the doctor into the cave, climbed the rift
+with him, and found all ready for the start.
+
+"Black fellow all 'bout over there way!" said Jimmy to me in a whisper.
+
+"How do you know?"  I said quickly.
+
+"Jimmy smell am!" he replied seriously.  "Jimmy go look 'bout.  Smell um
+black fellow, one eye peeping round um trees."
+
+"Yes, we have seen them too," I said; and signing to him to follow, I
+found the doctor.
+
+"The sooner we are off the better!" he said.  "Now, Mr Francis, do you
+think you can lead us to the other side of the village, round by the
+north? the enemy are on the watch."
+
+Mr Francis turned his head without a word, and, leaning upon a stout
+stick, started at once; and we followed in silence, just as the stars
+were coming out.
+
+It seemed very strange calling this savage-looking being Mr Francis,
+but when talking with him during his recovery from his wound one only
+needed to turn one's head to seem to be in conversation with a man who
+had never been from his civilised fellows.
+
+He went steadily on, the doctor next, and I followed the doctor; the
+rest of our little party gliding silently through the forest for quite
+three hours, when Mr Francis stopped, and it was decided to rest and
+refresh ourselves a little before proceeding farther.
+
+The doctor had settled to leave Mr Francis here, but he quietly
+objected to this.
+
+"No!" he said; "you want my help more now than ever.  I am weak, but I
+can take you right to the hut where Carstairs is kept a prisoner.  If
+you go alone you will lose time, and your expedition may--"
+
+He stopped short and lay down upon the earth for a few minutes, during
+which the doctor remained undecided.  At last he bent down and whispered
+a few words to his patient, who immediately rose.
+
+Orders were then given to the blacks, who were to stay under the command
+of Jack Penny, and, followed by Jimmy, and leaving the rest of our party
+in the shade of an enormous tree, we set off once more.
+
+The excitement made the distance seem so short that I was astounded when
+a low murmur told us that we were close to the village, and, stepping
+more cautiously, we were soon close up behind a great hut.
+
+"This is the place," whispered Mr Francis.  "He is kept prisoner here,
+or else at the great hut on the other side.  Hist!  I'll creep forward
+and listen."
+
+He went down in a stooping position and disappeared, leaving us
+listening to the continuous talk of evidently a numerous party of the
+savages; and so like did it all seem to the last time, that no time
+might have elapsed since we crouched there, breathing heavily with
+excitement in the shade of the great trees that came close up to the
+huts.
+
+It was a painful time, for it seemed that all our schemes had been in
+vain, and that we might as well give up our task, unless we could come
+with so strong a body of followers that we could make a bold attack.
+
+I whispered once or twice to the doctor, but he laid his hand upon my
+lips.  I turned to Jimmy, but he had crouched down, and was resting
+himself according to his habit.
+
+And so quite an hour passed away before we were aware by a slight rustle
+that Mr Francis was back, looming up out of the darkness like some
+giant, so strangely did the obscurity distort everything near at hand.
+
+"Here!" he said in a low voice; and bending down we all listened to his
+words, which came feebly, consequent upon his exertions.
+
+"I have been to the far hut and he is not there!" he whispered.  "I came
+back to this and crept in unobserved.  They are all talking about an
+expedition that has gone off to the back of the cave--to destroy us.
+Carstairs is in there, bound hand and foot."
+
+"My poor father!"  I moaned.
+
+"I spoke to him and told him help was near," continued Mr Francis; "and
+then--"
+
+He muttered something in the savages' tongue, and then broke down and
+began to sob.
+
+"Take no notice," the doctor whispered to me, as I stood trembling
+there, feeling as I did that I was only a few yards from him we had come
+to save, and who was lying bound there waiting for the help that seemed
+as if it would never come.
+
+The doctor realised my feelings, for he came a little closer and pressed
+my hand.
+
+"Don't be downhearted, my lad," he whispered; "we are a long way nearer
+to our journey's end than when we started."
+
+"Yes!"  I said; "but--"
+
+"But!  Nonsense, boy!  Why, we've found your father.  We know where he
+is; and if we can't get him away by stratagem, we'll go to another tribe
+of the blacks, make friends with them, and get them to fight on our
+side."
+
+"Nonsense, doctor!"  I said bitterly.  "You are only saying this to
+comfort me."
+
+"To get you to act like a man," he said sharply.  "Shame upon you for
+being so ready to give up in face of a few obstacles!"
+
+I felt that the rebuke was deserved, and drew in my breath, trying to
+nerve myself to bear this new disappointment, and to set my brain at
+work scheming.
+
+It seemed to grow darker just then, the stars fading out behind a thick
+veil of clouds; and creeping nearer to the doctor I sat down beside
+where he knelt, listening to the incessant talking of the savages.
+
+We were not above half-a-dozen yards from the back of the great hut;
+and, now rising into quite an angry shout, now descending into a low
+buzz, the talk, talk, talk went on, as if they were saying the same
+things over and over again.
+
+I thought of my own captivity--of the way in which Gyp had come to me in
+the night, and wondered whether it would be possible to cut away a
+portion of the palm-leaf wall of the hut, and so get to the prisoner.
+
+And all this while the talking went on, rising and falling till it
+seemed almost maddening to hear.
+
+We must have waited there quite a couple of hours, and still there was
+no change.  Though we could not see anything for the hut in front of us
+we could tell that there was a good deal of excitement in the village,
+consequent, the doctor whispered, upon the absence of a number of the
+blacks on the expedition against us.
+
+At last he crept from me to speak to Mr Francis.
+
+"It is of no use to stay longer, I'm afraid, my lad," he whispered;
+"unless we wait and see whether the hut is left empty when the
+expedition party comes back, though I fear they will not come back till
+morning."
+
+"What are you going to do, then?"  I said.
+
+"Ask Francis to suggest a better hiding-place for us, where we can go
+to-night and wait for another opportunity."
+
+I sighed, for I was weary of waiting for opportunities.
+
+"Fast asleep, poor fellow!" he whispered, coming back so silently that
+he startled me.  "Where's the black?"
+
+I turned sharply to where Jimmy had been curled up, but he was gone.
+
+I crept a little way in two or three directions, but he was not with us,
+and I said so.
+
+"How dare he go!" the doctor said angrily.  "He will ruin our plans!
+What's that?"
+
+"Gyp!"  I said, as the dog crept up to us and thrust his head against my
+hand.  "Jack Penny is getting anxious.  It is a signal for us to come
+back."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"We agreed upon it," I said.  "He was to send the dog in search of us if
+we did not join him in two hours; and if we were in trouble I was either
+to tie something to his collar or take it off."
+
+"Do neither!" said the doctor quietly.  "Look! they are lighting a fire.
+The others must have come back."
+
+I turned and saw a faint glow away over the right corner of the hut; and
+then there was a shout, and the shrill cries of some women and children.
+
+In a moment there was a tremendous excitement in the hut before us, the
+savages swarming out like angry bees, and almost at the same moment the
+whole shape of the great long hut stood out against the sky.
+
+"The village is on fire!" whispered the doctor.  "Back, my boy!
+Francis, quick!"
+
+He shook the sleeping man, whom all at once I could see, and he rose
+rather feebly.  Then we backed slowly more and more in amongst the
+trees, seeing now that one of the light palm-leaf and bamboo huts was
+blazing furiously, and that another had caught fire, throwing up the
+cluster of slight buildings into clear relief, while as we backed
+farther and farther in amongst the trees we could see the blacks--men,
+women, and children--running to and fro as if wild.
+
+"Now would be the time," said the doctor.  "We might take advantage of
+the confusion and get your father away."
+
+"Yes!"  I cried excitedly.  "I'm ready!"
+
+"Stop for your lives!" said a voice at our elbow, and turning I saw Mr
+Francis, with his swarthy face lit up by the fire.  "You could not get
+near the hut now without being seen.  If you had acted at the moment the
+alarm began you might have succeeded.  It is now too late."
+
+"No, no!"  I cried.  "Let us try."
+
+"It is too late, I say," cried Mr Francis firmly.  "The village is on
+fire, and the blacks must see you.  If you are taken now you will be
+killed without mercy."
+
+"We must risk it," I said excitedly, stepping forward.
+
+"And your father too."
+
+I recoiled shuddering.
+
+"We must get away to a place of safety, hide for a few days, and then
+try again.  I shall be stronger perhaps then, and can help."
+
+"It is right," said the doctor calmly.  "Come, Joe.  Patience!"
+
+I saw that he was right, for the fire was leaping from hut to hut, and
+there was a glow that lit up the forest far and wide.  Had anyone come
+near we must have been seen, but the savages were all apparently
+congregated near the burning huts, while the great sparks and flakes of
+fire rose up and floated far away above the trees, glittering like stars
+in the ruddy glow.
+
+"Go on then," I said, with a groan of disappointment, and Mr Francis
+took the lead once more, and, the doctor following, I was last.
+
+"But Jimmy!"  I said.  "We must not leave him behind."
+
+"He will find us," said the doctor.  "Come along."
+
+There was nothing for me to do but obey, so I followed reluctantly, the
+glow from the burning village being so great that the branches of the
+trees stood up clearly before us, and we had no difficulty in going on.
+
+I followed more reluctantly when I remembered Gyp, and chirruped to him,
+expecting to find him at my heels, but he was not there.
+
+"He has gone on in front," I thought, and once more I tramped wearily
+on, when there was a rush and a bound and Gyp leaped up at me, catching
+my jacket in his teeth and shaking it hard.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY.
+
+HOW JIMMY CRIED "COOEE!"  AND WHY HE CALLED.
+
+"Why, Gyp," I said in a low voice, "what is it, old fellow?"
+
+He whined and growled and turned back, trotting towards the burning
+village.
+
+"Yes, I know it's on fire," I said.  "Come along."
+
+But the dog would not follow.  He whined and snuffled and ran back a
+little farther, when from some distance behind I heard a rustling and a
+panting noise, which made me spring round and cock my gun.
+
+"Followed!"  I said to myself, as I continued my retreat, but only to
+stop short, for from the direction in which we had come I heard
+whispered, more than called, the familiar cry of the Australian savage,
+a cry that must, I knew, come from Jimmy, and this explained Gyp's
+appearance.
+
+"_Cooey_!"
+
+There it was again, and without hesitation I walked sharply back, Gyp
+running before me as he would not have done had there been an enemy
+near.
+
+There was the panting and rustling again as I retraced my steps, with
+the light growing plainer, and in less than a minute I came upon Jimmy
+trudging slowly along with a heavy burden on his back, a second glance
+at which made me stop speechless in my tracks.
+
+"Mass Joe!  Jimmy got um fader.  Much big heavy.  Jimmy got um right
+fas'."
+
+He panted with the exertion, for he tried to break into a trot.
+
+I could do no more than go to his side and lay my trembling hands upon
+the shoulder of his burden--a man whom he was carrying upon his back.
+
+"Go on!"  I said hoarsely.  "Forward, Gyp, and stop them!"
+
+The dog understood the word "Forward," and went on with a rush, while I
+let Jimmy pass me, feeling that if he really had him we sought he was
+performing my duty, while all I could do was to form the rear-guard and
+protect them even with my life if we were pursued.
+
+Either the dog was leading close in front or the black went on by a kind
+of instinct in the way taken by our companions.  At any rate he went
+steadily on, and I followed, trembling with excitement, ten or a dozen
+yards behind, in dread lest it should not be true that we had succeeded
+after all.
+
+The light behind us increased so that I could plainly see the bent
+helpless load upon our follower's back; but the black trudged steadily
+on and I followed, panting with eagerness and ready the moment Jimmy
+paused to leap forward and try to take his place.
+
+The fire must have been increasing fast, and the idea was dawning upon
+me that perhaps this was a plan of the black's, who had set fire to one
+of the huts and then seized the opportunity to get the prisoner away.
+It was like the Australian to do such a thing as this, for he was
+cunning and full of stratagem, and though it was improbable the idea was
+growing upon me, when all at once a tremendous weight seemed to fall
+upon my head and I was dashed to the earth, with a sturdy savage
+pressing me down, dragging my hands behind me, and beginning to fasten
+them with some kind of thong.
+
+For the moment I was half-stunned.  Then the idea came to me of help
+being at hand, and I was about to _cooey_ and bring Jimmy to my side,
+but my lips closed and I set my teeth.
+
+"No," I thought, "he may escape.  If any one is to be taken let it be
+me; my turn will come later on."
+
+My captor had evidently been exerting himself a great deal to overtake
+me, and after binding me he contented himself by sitting upon my back,
+panting heavily, to rest himself, while, knowing that struggling would
+be in vain, I remained motionless, satisfied that every minute was of
+inestimable value, and that once the doctor knew of the black's success
+he would use every exertion to get the captive in safety, and then he
+would be sure to come in search of me.
+
+Then I shuddered, for I remembered what Mr Francis had said about the
+people being infuriated at such a time, and as I did so I felt that I
+was a long way yet from being a man.
+
+All at once my captor leaped up, and seizing me by the arm he gave me a
+fearful wrench to make me rise to my feet.
+
+For some minutes past I had been expecting to see others of his party
+come up, or to hear him shout to them, but he remained silent, and stood
+at last hesitating or listening to the faint shouts that came from the
+glow beyond the trees.
+
+Suddenly he thrust me before him, shaking his waddy menacingly.  The
+next moment he uttered a cry.  There was a sharp crack as of one
+war-club striking another, and then I was struck down by two men
+struggling fiercely.  There were some inarticulate words, and a snarling
+and panting like two wild beasts engaged in a hard fight, and then a
+heavy fall, a dull thud, and the sound of a blow, as if some one had
+struck a tree branch with a club.
+
+I could see nothing from where I lay, but as soon as I could recover
+myself I was struggling to my feet, when a black figure loomed over me,
+and a familiar voice said hoarsely:
+
+"Where Mass Joe knife, cut um 'tring?"
+
+"Jimmy!"  I said.  "My father?"
+
+"Set um down come look Mass Joe.  Come 'long fas.  Gyp take care Jimmy
+fader till um come back again again."
+
+As Jimmy spoke he thrust his hand into my pocket for my knife, while I
+was too much interested in his words to remind him that there was my
+large sheath-knife in my belt.
+
+"Come 'long," he said as he set me free, and we were starting when he
+stopped short: "No; tie black fellow up firs'.  No, can't 'top."
+
+Before I knew what he meant to do he had given the prostrate black a
+sharp rap on the head with his waddy.
+
+"Jimmy!"  I said; "you'll kill him!"
+
+"Kill him!  No, makum sleep, sleep.  Come 'long."
+
+He went off at a sharp walk and I followed, glancing back anxiously from
+time to time and listening, till we reached the spot where he had set
+down his burden, just as the doctor came back, having missed me, and
+being in dread lest I had lost my way.
+
+I did not speak--I could not, but threw myself on my knees beside the
+strange, long-haired, thickly-bearded figure seated with its back
+against a tree, while the doctor drew back as soon as he realised that
+it was my father the black had saved.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY ONE.
+
+HOW JIMMY HEARD THE BUNYIP SPEAK, AND IT ALL PROVED TO BE "BIG 'TUFF."
+
+I Need not recount what passed just then.  But few words were spoken,
+and there was no time for displays of affection.  One black had seen and
+pursued Jimmy, and others might be on our track, so that our work was
+far from being half done even now.
+
+"Can you walk, sir?" said the doctor sharply.
+
+My poor father raised his face toward the speaker and uttered some
+incoherent words.
+
+"No, no; he has been kept bound by the ankles till the use of his feet
+has gone," said Mr Francis, who had remained silent up to now.
+
+"Can't walk--Jimmy carry um," said the black in a whisper.  "Don't make
+noise--hear um black fellow."
+
+"You are tired," said the doctor; "let me take a turn."
+
+Jimmy made no objection, but bore the gun, while the doctor carried my
+father slowly and steadily on for some distance; then the black took a
+turn and bore him right to the place where our black followers were
+waiting, and where Jack Penny was anxiously expecting our return.
+
+"I thought you wasn't coming back," he said as Jimmy set down the
+burden; and then in a doleful voice he continued, "I couldn't do that,
+my back's so weak."
+
+But Ti-hi and his friends saw our difficulty, and cut down a couple of
+long stout bamboos whose tops were soon cleared of leaves and shoots.
+Two holes were made in the bottom of a light sack whose contents were
+otherwise distributed, the poles thrust through, and my poor father
+gently laid upon the sack.  Four of us then went to the ends of the
+poles, which were placed upon our shoulders, and keeping step as well as
+we could, we went slowly and steadily on, Mr Francis taking the lead
+and acting as guide.
+
+Our progress was very slow, but we journeyed steadily on hour after
+hour, taking advantage of every open part of the forest that was not
+likely to show traces of our passage, and obliged blindly to trust to
+Mr Francis as to the way.
+
+It was weary work, but no one seemed to mind, each, even Jack Penny,
+taking his turn at the end of one of the bamboos; and when at last the
+morning broke, and the bright sunshine showed us our haggard faces, we
+still kept on, the daylight helping us to make better way till the sun
+came down so fiercely that we were obliged to halt in a dense part of
+the forest where some huge trees gave us shade.
+
+Mr Francis looked uneasily about, and I caught his anxious gaze
+directed so often in different directions that I whispered to the doctor
+my fears that he had lost his way.
+
+"Never mind, lad," replied the doctor; "we have the compass.  Our way is
+south towards the coast--anywhere as long as we get beyond reach of the
+blacks.  No, don't disturb him, let him sleep."
+
+I was about to draw near and speak to my father, in whose careworn
+hollow face I gazed with something approaching fear.  His eyes were
+closed, and now, for the first time, I could see the ravages that the
+long captivity had made in his features; but, mingled with these, there
+was a quiet restful look that made me draw back in silence from where
+the litter had been laid and join my companions in partaking of such
+food as we had.
+
+Watch was set, the doctor choosing the post of guard, and then, lying
+anywhere, we all sought for relief from our weariness in sleep.
+
+As for me, one moment I was lying gazing at the long unkempt hair and
+head of him I had come to seek, and thinking that I would rest like
+that, rising now and then to see and watch with the doctor; the next I
+was wandering away in dreams through the forest in search of my father;
+and then all was blank till I started up to catch at my gun, for some
+one had touched me on the shoulder.
+
+"There is nothing wrong, my lad," said the doctor--"fortunately--for I
+have been a bad sentry, and have just awoke to find that I have been
+sleeping at my post."
+
+"Sleeping!"  I said, still confused from my own deep slumbers.
+
+"Yes," he said; "every one has been asleep from utter exhaustion."
+
+I looked round, and there were our companions sleeping heavily.
+
+"I've been thinking that we may be as safe here as farther away,"
+continued the doctor; "so let them rest still, for we have a tremendous
+task before us to get down to the coast."
+
+Just then Jimmy leaped up staring, his hand on his waddy and his eyes
+wandering in search of danger.
+
+This being absent, his next idea was regarding food.
+
+"Much hungry," he said, "want mutton, want damper, want eatums."
+
+The rest were aroused, and, water being close at hand in a little
+stream, we soon had our simple store of food brought out and made a
+refreshing meal, of which my father, as he lay, partook mechanically,
+but without a word.
+
+The doctor then bathed and dressed his ankles, which were in a fearfully
+swollen and injured state.  Like Mr Francis, he seemed as if his long
+captivity had made him think like the savages among whom he had been;
+while the terrible mental anxiety he had suffered along with his bodily
+anguish had resulted in complete prostration.  He ate what was given to
+him or drank with his eyes closed, and when he opened them once or twice
+it was not to let them wander round upon us who attended to him, but to
+gaze straight up in a vague manner and mutter a few of the native words
+before sinking back into a stupor-like sleep.
+
+I gazed at the doctor with my misery speaking in my eyes, for it was so
+different a meeting from that which I had imagined.  There was no
+delight, no anguished tears, no pressing to a loving father's heart.  We
+had found him a mere hopeless wreck, apparently, like Mr Francis, and
+the pain I suffered seemed more than I could bear.
+
+"Patience!" the doctor said to me, with a smile.  "Yes, I know what you
+want to ask me.  Let's wait and see.  He was dying slowly, Joe, and we
+have come in time to save his life."
+
+"You are sure?"  I said.
+
+"No," he answered, "not sure, but I shall hope.  Now let's get on again
+till dark, and then we'll have a good rest in the safest place we can
+find."
+
+In the exertion and toil that followed I found some relief.  My
+interest, too, was excited by seeing how much Mr Francis seemed to
+change hour by hour, and how well he knew the country which he led us
+through.
+
+He found for us a capital resting-place in a rocky gorge, where, unless
+tracked step by step, there was no fear of our being surprised.  Here
+there was water and fruit, and, short a distance as we had come, the
+darkness made it necessary that we should wait for day.
+
+Then followed days and weeks of slow travel through a beautiful country,
+always south and west.  We did not go many miles some days, for the
+burden we carried made our passage very slow.  Sometimes, too, our black
+scouts came back to announce that we were travelling towards some black
+village, or that a hunting party was in our neighbourhood, and though
+these people might have been friendly, we took the advice of our black
+companions and avoided them, either by making a detour or by waiting in
+hiding till they had passed.
+
+Water was plentiful, and Jimmy and Ti-hi never let us want for fruit,
+fish, or some animal for food.  Now it would be a wild pig or a small
+deer, more often birds, for these literally swarmed in some of the lakes
+and marshes round which we made our way.
+
+The country was so thinly inhabited that we could always light a fire in
+some shut-in part of the forest without fear, and so we got on, running
+risks at times, but on the whole meeting with but few adventures.
+
+After getting over the exertion and a little return of fever from too
+early leaving his sick-bed of boughs, Mr Francis mended rapidly, his
+wound healing well and his mind daily growing clearer.  Every now and
+then, when excited, he had relapses, and looked at us hopelessly,
+talking quickly in the savages' tongue; but these grew less frequent,
+and there would be days during which he would be quite free.  He grew so
+much better that at the end of a month he insisted upon taking his place
+at one of the bamboos, proving himself to be a tender nurse to our
+invalid in his turn.
+
+And all this time my father seemed to alter but little.  The doctor was
+indefatigable in his endeavours; but though he soon wrought a change in
+his patient's bodily infirmities to such an extent, that at last my
+father could walk first a mile, then a couple, and then ease the bearers
+of half their toil, his mind seemed gone, and he went on in a strangely
+vacant way.
+
+As time went on and our long journey continued he would walk slowly by
+my side, resting on my shoulder, and with his eyes always fixed upon the
+earth.  If he was spoken to he did not seem to hear, and he never opened
+his lips save to utter a few words in the savage tongue.
+
+I was in despair, but the doctor still bade me hope.
+
+"Time works wonders, Joe," he said.  "His bodily health is improving
+wonderfully, and at last that must act upon his mind."
+
+"But it does not," I said.  "He has walked at least six miles to-day as
+if in a dream.  Oh, doctor!"  I exclaimed, "we cannot take him back like
+this.  You keep bidding me hope, and it seems no use."
+
+He smiled at me in his calm satisfied way.
+
+"And yet I've done something, Joe," he said.  "We found him--we got him
+away--we had him first a hopeless invalid--he is now rapidly becoming a
+strong healthy man."
+
+"Healthy!"
+
+"In body, boy.  Recollect that for years he seems to have been kept
+chained up by the savages like some wild beast, perhaps through some
+religious scruples against destroying the life of a white man who was
+wise in trees and plants.  Likely enough they feared that if they killed
+such a medicine-man it might result in a plague or curse."
+
+"That is why they spared us both," said Mr Francis, who had heard the
+latter part of our conversation; "and the long course of being kept
+imprisoned there seemed to completely freeze up his brain as it did
+mine.  That and the fever and blows I received," he said excitedly.
+"There were times when--"
+
+He clapped his hands to his head as if he dared not trust himself to
+speak, and turned away.
+
+"Yes, that is it, my lad," said the doctor quietly; "his brain has
+become paralysed as it were.  A change may come at any time.  Under the
+circumstances, in spite of your mother's anxiety, we'll wait and go
+slowly homeward.  Let me see," he continued, turning to a little
+calendar he kept, "to-morrow begins the tenth month of our journey.
+Come, be of good heart.  We've done wonders; nature will do the rest."
+
+Two days later we had come to a halt in a lovely little glen through
+which trickled a clear spring whose banks were brilliant with flowers.
+We were all busy cooking and preparing to halt there for the night.  My
+father had walked the whole of the morning, and now had wandered slowly
+away along the banks of the stream, Mr Francis being a little further
+on, while Jimmy was busy standing beside a pool spearing fish.
+
+I glanced up once or twice to see that my father was standing motionless
+on the bank, and then I was busying myself once more cutting soft boughs
+to make a bed when Jimmy came bounding up to me with his eyes starting
+and mouth open.
+
+"Where a gun, where a gun?" he cried.  "Big bunyip down 'mong a trees,
+try to eat Jimmy.  Ask for um dinner, all aloud, oh."
+
+"Hush! be quiet!"  I cried, catching his arm; "what do you mean?"
+
+"Big bunyip down 'mong stones say, `Hoo! much hungry; where my boy?'"
+
+"Some one said that?"  I cried.
+
+"Yes, `much hungry, where my boy?'  Want eat black boy; eat Jimmy!"
+
+"What nonsense, Jimmy!"  I said.  "Don't be such a donkey.  There are no
+bunyips."
+
+"Jimmy heard um say um!" he cried, stamping his spear on the ground.
+
+Just then I involuntarily glanced in the direction where my father
+stood, and saw him stoop and pick up a flower or two.
+
+My heart gave a bound.
+
+The next minute he was walking slowly towards Mr Francis, to whom he
+held out the flowers; and then I felt giddy, for I saw them coming
+slowly towards our camp, both talking earnestly, my father seeming to be
+explaining something about the flowers he had picked.
+
+The doctor had seen it too, and he drew me away, after cautioning Jimmy
+to be silent.
+
+And there we stood while those two rescued prisoners talked quietly and
+earnestly together, but it was in the savage tongue.
+
+I need not tell you of my joy, or the doctor's triumphant looks.
+
+"It is the beginning, Joe," he said; and hardly had he spoken when Jimmy
+came up.
+
+"Not bunyip 'tall!" he said scornfully.  "Not no bunyip; all big 'tuff!
+Jimmy, Mass Joe fader talk away, say, `where my boy?'"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY TWO.
+
+HOW I MUST WIND UP THE STORY.
+
+It was the beginning of a better time, for from that day what was like
+the dawn of a return of his mental powers brightened and strengthened
+into the full sunshine of reason, and by the time we had been waiting at
+Ti-hi's village for the coming of the captain with his schooner we had
+heard the whole of my father's adventures from his own lips, and how he
+had been struck down from behind by one of the blacks while collecting,
+and kept a prisoner ever since.
+
+I need not tell you of his words to me, his thanks to the doctor, and
+his intense longing for the coming of the schooner, which seemed to be
+an age before it came in sight.
+
+We made Ti-hi and his companions happy by our supply of presents, for we
+wanted to take nothing back, and at last one bright morning we sailed
+from the glorious continent-like island, with two strong middle-aged men
+on board, both of whom were returning to a civilised land with the
+traces of their captivity in their hair and beards, which were as white
+as snow.
+
+Neither shall I tell you of the safe voyage home, and of the meeting
+there.  Joy had come at last where sorrow had sojourned so long, and I
+was happy in my task that I had fulfilled.
+
+I will tell you, though, what the captain said in his hearty way over
+and over again.
+
+To me it used to be:
+
+"Well, you have growed!  Why, if you'd stopped another year you'd have
+been quite a man.  I say, though I never thought you'd ha' done it; 'pon
+my word!"
+
+Similar words these to those often uttered by poor, prejudiced,
+obstinate old nurse.
+
+To Jack Penny the captain was always saying:
+
+"I say, young 'un, how you've growed too; not uppards but beam ways.
+Why, hang me if I don't think you'll make a fine man yet!"
+
+And so he did; a great strong six-foot fellow, with a voice like a
+trombone.  Jack Penny is a sheep-farmer on his own account now, and
+after a visit to England with my staunch friend the doctor, where I
+gained some education, and used to do a good deal of business for my
+father, who is one of the greatest collectors in the south, I returned
+home, and went to stay a week with Jack Penny.
+
+"I say," he said laughing, "my back's as strong as a lion's now.  How it
+used to ache!"
+
+We were standing at the door of his house, looking north, for we had
+been talking of our travels, when all at once I caught sight of what
+looked like a little white tombstone under a eucalyptus tree.
+
+"Why, what's that?"  I said.
+
+Jack Penny's countenance changed, and there were a couple of tears in
+the eyes of the great strong fellow as he said slowly:
+
+"That's to the memory of Gyp, the best dog as ever lived!"
+
+I must not end without a word about Jimmy, my father's faithful
+companion in his botanical trips.
+
+Jimmy nearly went mad for joy when I got back from England, dancing
+about like a child.  He was always at the door, black and shining as
+ever, and there was constantly something to be done.  One day he had
+seen the biggest ole man kangaroo as ever was; and this time there was a
+wallaby to be found; another the announcement that the black cockatoos
+were in the woods; or else it would be:
+
+"Mass Joe, Mass Joe!  Jimmy want go kedge fis very bad; do come a day."
+
+And I?  Well, I used to go, and it seemed like being a boy again to go
+on some expedition with my true old companion and friend.
+
+Yes, friend; Jimmy was always looked upon as a friend; and long before
+then my mother would have fed and clothed him, given him anything he
+asked.  But Jimmy was wild and happiest so, and I found him just as he
+was when I left home, faithful and boyish and winning, and often ready
+to say:
+
+"When Mass Joe ready, go and find um fader all over again!"
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Bunyip Land, by George Manville Fenn
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