t as though if I stopped alone much longer I should go off
my chump."

"What?"

"Go raving mad, sir, so I shoved some more stuff on the fire, and as
soon as it began to blaze and crackle there was a bigger hissing than
ever, and the serpents all came rushing at me, and I ran for my life and
to try and find you."

"Come along," cried Panton. "We must get back and find Smith."

"You never will, sir," said Wriggs, dolefully. "Poor old Tommy's gone.
I expect it was the snakes. They must have smelt as it was we who
skinned their mates. I had a narrow escape from 'em."

"Did you see them?" asked Oliver.

"Well, sir, I didn't zackly see 'em, but I could hear 'em all about me
awful."

"Then you are not sure they were snakes?"

"Not sure, sir? Why, that I am. Nothing else couldn't keep on hissing
at you but snakes and sarpents. Oh, lor! it's a horful lonesome place,
I was a shivering all down my back. Why, not long ago, while I was
coming along hailing of yer, I heard a mountain come sliding down like
thunder, and shooting loads o' stones."

"You've been scared, Wriggs," said Oliver, as he hurried the man back.
"Tell me again."

"What, 'bout being scared, sir?"

"Nonsense, we mustn't be scared at a noise; I mean about Smith wandering
away."

"Aren't nowt to tell, sir, only as he went to get some more wood, and
the sarpents caught him. Swaller a feller up whole, don't they, sir?"

"Serpents do swallow their food whole," said Oliver.

"Ah, that accounts for his not answering when I shouted. Of course, I
couldn't hear him or him me if he was swallowed down into some long
thing's inside."

"There, that will do," said Oliver, impatiently. "I say, Panton, are we
going right?"

"Must be; the edge of the wood is below us on the right."

"But everything looks so different."

"Yes, looks dark," said Drew. "But we ought to be pretty close to the
place now."

"I'm afraid we've turned up too much among the rocks. It will be
horrible to be lost now. I wish we had not come," said Panton. "We
ought to be resting ready for our work to-morrow."

"All right: we've passed the opening into the forest," cried Oliver.

"How do you know?"

"Look back a little, and you'll see the gleam of the fire. There,
look."

For, as they stopped and glanced back, there was a sudden blaze of light
from some fifty yards below them, as if the fire had fallen together and
flashed up.

"I thought we couldn't be far away,