usly to him, as was generally the case--for Sailor was
almost as devotedly attached to Dick as he was to Flora. But on this
occasion no Sailor appeared, nor did he afford any other manifestation
of his near presence. Then Dick began to shout loudly for Flora, hoping
to hear her sweet voice raised in reply.

He now began to feel seriously alarmed, knowing that she must have
wandered away into the bush, and perhaps have lost herself in the
darkness. Yet against this theory was to be set his knowledge of the
sagacity of Sailor, who, he believed, was quite intelligent enough to
find his way back to the camp from the uttermost extremity of the island
in the darkest night. He entered the tent and, lighting the lamps,
looked round the living-room compartment, thinking it possible that
Flora might have left a note explaining her absence, or saying where she
was going. But he knew that, had she written such a note, she would
have left it in some conspicuous situation--as on the table--where it
would at once be found. There was no letter, either on the table or
elsewhere, so far as he could see. Then he instituted a thoroughly
systematic search of the tent in quest of some sign or indication that
might furnish him with a clue as to what had happened to her, or what
had induced her to go off in this mysterious fashion, but without
success. He even ventured to peep into her sleeping apartment,
wondering whether perchance she had felt unwell and become unconscious.
But a single glance sufficed to show him that nothing of that kind had
happened. Finally, he hunted up a lantern, trimmed and lighted it,
provided himself with a small flask of brandy, to meet a possible
emergency, armed himself with a brace of revolvers and a small, keen
tomahawk, and without remembering or being conscious of the fact that he
was by this time fairly hungry--conscious of nothing, indeed, but an
ever-growing feeling of keen anxiety and alarm--set out in search of the
lost one.

The first question that now confronted him was, In which direction was
he to search? There was no especially favourite spot, so far as he
knew, to which she would be predisposed to wend her way; there were no
roads or paths, or anything in the remotest degree approaching thereto,
on the island: she would therefore be just as likely to head in one
direction as another. The grass in the immediate neighbourhood of the
tent was to some extent trodden down, it is true, by fre