l them
that we have already made the discovery, and try to show them the part
of the ocean where such creatures are to be found?"

"Hum! No, my boy. No. We should be making matters worse. Not only
should we be showing the Count and his son that we have found out what
they want to keep secret, but we should be robbing them of the honour of
their discovery as well. No; let them take us into their confidence if
they like, and if they do, so much the better. If they do not--well,
the loss is theirs."

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.

COAST LAND.

"Our skipper's as right as can be, Morny," said Rodd the next evening,
as the lad was once more on board the schooner, and they were sailing
gently along about a mile from shore, the brig following pretty close
behind with the water streaming down from her scuppers as the work at
one of the pumps was still kept up.

For there was the coast, much as he had described, an undulating line of
the singular dark green mangrove forest that looked low and dwarfed,
and, now that the tide was low, showed to full advantage, the singular
ramification of its roots giving the bushy forest the appearance of
standing up upon a wilderness of jagged and tangled scaffolding through
which the sea washed over the muddy shore.

"Not pleasant-looking, gentlemen," said the skipper, coming up to them.
"Not the sort of place where you would like to settle down and build a
country house."

"Why, it's horrible," cried Rodd. "But why should it be so muddy here,
instead of being all nice clean sand?"

"Because it's the edge of a low swampy country, my lad, where great
rivers come from inland and bring down the soil of thousands of miles."

"But I always thought Africa was a sandy desert place where lions were
roving about, and where Mungo Park went travelling to Timbuctoo and
places like that."

"Yes, my lad," said the skipper; "but that's the Africa of the old
books, and there's plenty of it like that on the east side and up in the
north and where old Mungo Park went to, no doubt; but all along this
coast it isn't a dry and thirsty land, but as soon as you get through
the mangroves, full of great forests and big rivers. Why, look at the
sea here. Right away out it was all as clear as crystal; now here
there's mud enough for anything."

"But we shan't want to stop long in a muddy river with banks like this,
captain," said Morny.

"Don't you be in too great a hurry to judge, sir," said the skip