t was, of course, rather hard upon Mrs Gaunt that he should be
left, as it were, alone in this way while the disagreeable novelty of
her position was still fresh upon her; but there was no help for it, so
the brave little woman plucked up her courage, and when her husband was
ready to start bade him a cheery farewell.

Gaunt thought it only prudent to start upon this expedition thoroughly
well armed, and in addition to his repeating rifle, and the revolvers
and hunting-knife which he wore in his belt, he carried an axe, which he
thought might be useful in a variety of ways. He hoped to return to
camp that evening, but foreseeing that he might meet with delays on the
way he cautioned them not to feel in the least anxious on his account
should he be absent that night and the whole of the next day.

On taking leave of his companions he at once struck inland towards the
mountain, which, looming vast and grey, formed the most prominent object
and landmark in the entire island. The ground sloped gently upward, and
was thickly covered with long, tangled, and luxuriant grass; and at a
short distance from the beach it began to be thickly dotted with clumps
of trees, among which the cocoanut, the date-palm, and two or three
varieties of the banana were prominent. On reaching the wooded portion
of the island, the engineer found, to his great gratification, that
although the soil appeared to be most densely overgrown with trees, such
was not in reality the case, as the clump-like arrangement which he at
first encountered still prevailed, although as he advanced inland the
clumps grew much more closely together than they did on the outskirts of
the wood. He had very little difficulty in making his way among the
boles of the trees, as, contrary to what he had anticipated, there was
not much parasitic undergrowth, and where it became inconveniently dense
his axe soon enabled him to clear a way for himself.

Advancing steadily and with tolerable rapidity over the gently rising
ground, he at length, when not more than about two miles from camp,
suddenly found himself upon the verge of a ravine with steeply-sloping
sides, through the bottom of which wound what he at first took to be a
river, but which, on close examination, he found was really an arm of
the sea. Descending the banks of the ravine he followed this stream--
which at the point where he encountered it was about a quarter of a mile
in width--and after pursuing a somewha