red of them than was absolutely necessary.
Those of them who were ill were freed at once from toil, carefully
nursed by Letta and doctored by Sam.

At first Robin and his comrades sailed away without any definite purpose
in view, but after things had been got into order, a council was held
and plans were discussed. It was then that Letta mentioned what the
pirates in the cavern had said about her having been taken from Sarawak.

"Sarawak!" exclaimed Robin, "why, that's the place that has been owned
and governed for many years by an Englishman named Brooke--Sir James
Brooke, if I remember rightly, and they call him Rajah Brooke. Perhaps
your mother lives there, Letta."

"Where is Sarawak?" asked Stumps, whose injuries in the recent fight
were not so severe as had at first been supposed.

"It's in the island of Borneo," replied Sam; "you're right, Robin--"

"No, he's Robin Wright," interrupted Slagg.

"Be quiet, Jim. I think it is highly probable that your parents are
there, Letta, and as we have no particular reason for going anywhere
else, and can't hope to make for England in a tub like this, we will
just lay her head for Sarawak."

This was accordingly done, their new course being nor'-east and by east.

It would extend our tale to undue proportions were we to give in detail
all the adventures they experienced, dangers they encountered, and
hairbreadth escapes they made, between that point on the wide southern
ocean and the Malay Archipelago. The reader must be content to skip
over the voyage, and to know that they ultimately arrived at the port of
Sarawak, where they were kindly treated by a deputy, the Rajah himself
being absent at the time.

During the voyage, the subject of finding Letta's parents became one of
engrossing and increasing interest,--so much so, indeed, that even
electricity and telegraph-cables sank into secondary importance. They
planned, over and over again, the way in which they would set about
making inquiries, and the various methods which they would adopt in
pursuit of their end. They even took to guessing who Letta's parents
would turn out to be, and Sam went so far as to invent and relate
romantic stories, in which the father and mother of Letta played a
conspicuous part. He called them Colonel and Mrs Montmorenci for
convenience, which Slagg reduced to Colonel and Mrs Monty, "for short."

In all this Letta took great delight, chiefly because it held the
conversation on tha