what has Arabic got to do with the Central African Forest?"

"Quite as much as your short-nosed elephant or long-tailed
hippopotamus. I also wish to discover something that has been lost.
Don't open your mouth so wide."

"Is it an animal, Dick?"

"Good gracious, no! I don't care twopence about an animal, except it
is for the pot, or unless it wants me for dinner. No; mine is
another search. It is connected with my father."

"Yes," said Venning, quietly; for his friend had suddenly grown
grave.

"When I was a little chap, about seventeen years ago, my mother
received a letter dated from the 'great forest.'"

"It contained only these words, 'Good-bye.' With it there was a
letter in Arabic, written by my father's headman. That letter was
seven months on its travels, and since then no other word have I
heard."

Venning muttered something in sympathy.

"My mother," continued the other, "died five years ago, without
having learnt the meaning of the message in Arabic. She had a wish
that no one but I should read the letter, and often she told me that
if it contained any instructions or directions, I was to carry them
out. Well, I have interpreted the Arabic signs."

"Yes, Dick; and----"

"And I can't quite make out the meaning. There is a reference to the
journal my father kept, with the statement that it was safely
hidden; but then follows a reference to a Garden of Rest, to certain
people who protected him, and to a slave-trader who did him an
injury. These references to me are a mystery; but what is clear is
his desire to have his journal recovered from the Arab slave-dealer,
described merely as 'The Wolf.'"

"And that is why you wish to go to Central Africa?"

"That is why, Venning. I must recover my father's journal if it
exists; I must, if it is not too late, find out how he died; I must
find out who are the wild people, and what is the Garden of Rest."

"The Garden of Rest! That sounds peaceful, but it is very vague,
Dick, as a direction. A garden in a forest hundreds of miles in
length will take some finding."

"I have a clue."

"So."

"There is mention of the 'gates' to the garden, whose summits 'are
in the clouds'--twin mountains, I take it."

"Even so, Dick, I think I should have more chance of finding my new
animal than you would have of hitting off your garden."

"Well, you know now why I have been studying Arabic. I have a little
money, and no ties."

"Like me. By Jove! why shouldn'