as a son, for the son he was of the friend and
companion of my youth. His poor, poor mother, how this news will wring
her heart! What grief and anguish is in store for her!"

I need not further dwell on Mr Fordyce's grief; but I cannot leave the
subject without reminding those of my readers who may some day be
inclined carelessly to risk their lives as Nowell and I had been doing
ours, first, that they have no right to do so--that they are committing
a great sin by the act; and then, also, that though they may be careless
of the consequences, that they have mothers and sisters, fathers and
brothers at home, to whose loving hearts their untimely fate will bring
many a bitter pang of grief. It is a soldier's duty to be ready to die
fighting for his country; and though those at home mourn, and mourn
deeply, their grief is not bitter or full of anguish as it would be if
those they have lost had died in consequence of their own folly or
wickedness.

Nowell's death threw a gloom over our little party which it was
difficult to shake off. I was struck by the way, the instant poor Dango
was brought into camp, my grandfather set to work to examine and dress
his hurts.

"My great fear is that mortification will set in before we can reach
Trincomalee," he remarked. "His limb is so much crushed that I fear
amputation will be necessary to save the man's life."

He attended on the poor fellow with as much care and skill as any
medical man could have done, but his fear proved too well founded, and
before two days were over the daring and expert hunter had breathed his
last.

Anxious as we were to get to the termination of our journey, we could
not travel much faster than we had been doing. As our progress was in
no way retarded by it, my grandfather took Lumsden and me to see any
object of interest which was within our reach. The most extraordinary
was the mountain of Mahintala. It rises suddenly out of the plain to
the height of upwards of 1000 feet; its sides are covered with wood,
huge masses of granite towering up on the summit. The southern face is
almost precipitous, but on the north there is a sufficient slope to have
allowed of the formation of a thousand stone steps, leading from the
base to the highest point of the mountain. Some of them are cut out of
the mountain itself, but others are formed of slabs of granite, fifteen
feet in width. Each step averages a foot in height. It was on the
summit of this moun