arly enamoured of
Craig, suspects us. So does the Chief. Perhaps, secretly, Craig himself is
unwilling to leave us here. The Chief never changes his mind and he has
spoken. We go either as his captives or his guests. I have heard it said,"
the Professor added grimly, "that the Mongars never keep captives longer
than twenty-four hours."

They all rose at once to their feet, and a few moments later horses were
brought. The little procession was already being formed in line. Craig
approached them once more.

"You will mount now and ride in the middle of our caravan," he directed.
"The Chief does not trust you. If you value your lives, you will do as you
are bidden."

"I don't like the idea of the jungle," Lenora sighed.

"Gives me the creeps," Laura admitted, as she climbed upon her horse. "Any
wild animals there, Professor?"

The Professor became more cheerful.

"The animal life of the region we are about to traverse," he observed, as
they moved off, "is in some respects familiar to me. Twelve years ago I
devoted some time to research a little to the westward of our present
route. I will, if you choose, as we ride, give you a brief account of some
of my discoveries."

The two girls exchanged glances. Quest, who had intercepted them, turned
his horse and rode in between the Professor and Lenora.

"Go right ahead, Professor," he invited. "Fortunately the girls have got
saddles like boxes--I think they both mean to go to sleep."

"An intelligent listener of either sex," the Professor said amiably, "will
be a stimulus to my memory."

2.

"You can call this fairyland, if you want," Laura remarked, gazing around
her; "I call it a nasty, damp, oozy spot."

"It seemed very beautiful when we first came," Lenora sighed, "but that
was after the heat and glare of the desert. There does seem something a
little unhealthy about it."

"I'm just about fed up with Mongars," Quest declared.

"We do nothing but lie about, and they won't even let us fire a gun off."

"Personally," the Professor confessed, holding up a glass bottle in front
of him from which a yellow beetle was making frantic efforts to escape, "I
find this little patch of country unusually interesting. The specimen
which I have here--I spare you the scientific name for him--belongs to a
class of beetle which has for long eluded me."

Laura regarded the specimen with disfavour.

"So far as I am concerned," she observed, "I shouldn't have cared if he'd
e