trong, but very springy,
so much so, that when Adair began to dance a polka on one of them, he
very nearly bounded up to the roof. The village was surrounded and
interspersed with cocoa-nut and other palm-trees, and with bananas,
whose dark-green foliage gave effect to lighter tints of the forest.
The thick jungle pressed hard on every side, leaving space only here and
there for some small fields and gardens. Mr Cherry would not allow the
slightest injury to be done to the houses; for though it was suspected
that they belonged to the pirates, no traces of booty were to be
discovered.

After spending some time in examining the locality, they were about to
embark, when a dark visage was seen peering out at them from among the
trees. Instead of making chase to catch him, Mr Cherry stood still and
beckoned to him. This gave the native courage, who, seeing also that no
injury had been done to the village, after a little hesitation advanced.
One of Jack's crew was a Malay, who could speak not only his own
language, but that of many of the surrounding tribes. He had no
difficulty in entering into conversation with the native, who asserted
that his people had taken the British for pirates, and had run away in
consequence. To prove his sincerity, he offered to pilot the boats to
the chief haunts of the pirates. As there was no reason to doubt him,
his offer was accepted. He merely requested time to equip himself for
the expedition. He entered one of the houses, and soon returned with a
couple of creeses stuck in his sash, and a sword by his side, and the
whole party, embarking once more, proceeded on their voyage. Their
volunteer pilot was a merry, talkative fellow. What his real name was
it was difficult to make out exactly, so Jack gave him that of
Hoddidoddi, which it sounded very like, and he at once readily answered
to it.

All that day they sailed on without seeing anything of the pirates.
They began to last to fancy that Hoddidoddi was deceiving them; but he
entreated them not to despair, and promised, by noon the next day at
farthest, to bring them in sight of the marauders. They brought up at
night in a sheltered bay, where the water was as smooth as a mill-pond.
Jack and Adair grew very sentimental as they leaned back in the
stern-sheets of Mr Cherry's boat, where all the officers had collected
to smoke their cigars, and looked up into the dark sky, sprinkled with
stars innumerable. What they said need n