torn and bleeding. "We must get Mr Rimmer to
let the men cut a way through here."

"Now then!" shouted Wriggs from somewhere ahead just then. "None o'
them tricks. D'yer hear?"

"Come, come, my man," said Drew, sternly, "keep to your work. This is
no time for playing."

"All right, sir, but please speak to Tommy Smith. Man don't want big
nuts chucked at his head."

"Who's a-chucking nuts?" cried Smith, indignantly, and he began to force
his way back into sight of his companions.

"Why, you did, and hit me just now."

"Sweer I didn't!" cried Smith. "Here, hullo! Drop that, will you? Who
was that?"

A great nut, half as big as a man's head, had struck the speaker on the
shoulder.

"Why, there's someone up in that tree throwing at us!" said Drew.

"Yes, I see him," cried Wriggs, "that big tree, just where it's getting
light. Here, I see you: leave off will yer?"

"It's the natives, sir," said Smith, in a warning voice. "Get your guns
ready, they'll be shooting pysoned arrows directly."

"I see him plain, now, sir. He's only a little black chap. Yes,
there's two on 'em. Well, upon my word, if they aren't two monkeys!"

Another big nut came with a crash through the branches and, before
Oliver could check him, Drew raised his gun and sent a shower of shot
peppering through the leaves over the heads of the two occupants of the
great tree, with the result that two large apes went swinging from bough
to bough, chattering indignantly, and disappearing at once.

"You shouldn't have done that," cried Oliver. "I wanted to have a look
at the creatures."

"I daresay you'll have plenty more chances, for, if this proves to be an
island, they can't get away."

"But the fact of there being large creatures here, proves that it is not
an island," said Oliver.

"Not a bit of it," said Panton, oracularly. "There are plenty of
islands peopled with animals, because they were occupants of continents
now submerged. Look at Trinidad, for instance. That was once the
north-east corner of North America, and all her flora and fauna are
continental."

"Oh, I say, don't be so horribly scientific," cried Oliver, "let's get
out into the open where we can breathe. Look at the butterflies in that
sunshiny patch. Really we have dropped into a land of wonders."

"And stinging insects and thorns," said Panton. "I say, what was that
rustling away through the leaves?"

"Snake, sir, big 'un. I see his tail wiggle," c