ng another; while every one
present, the doctor included, followed my example with so much vigour
that Jack began in a slow solemn way, peeling and tasting, and making a
strange grimace, and ending by eating so rapidly that the doctor advised
a halt.

"Oh, all right!" said Jack. "I won't eat any more, then. But, I say,
they are good!"

There was no likelihood of our starving, for water was abundant, and
fruit to be found by those who had such energetic hunters as the blacks.
So we proceeded steadily on, hoping day by day either to encounter some
friendly tribe, or else to make some discovery that might be of value to
us in our search.

And so for days we journeyed on, hopeful in the morning, dispirited in
the heat of the day when weary. Objects such as would have made glad
the heart of any naturalist were there in plenty, but nothing in the
shape of sign that would make our adventure bear the fruit we wished.
If our object had been hunting and shooting, wild pig, deer, and birds
innumerable were on every hand. Had we been seeking wonderful orchids
and strangely shaped flowers and fruits there was reward incessant for
us, but it seemed as if the whole of the interior was given up to wild
nature, and that the natives almost exclusively kept to the land near
the sea-shore.

The doctor and I sat one night by our watch-fire talking the matter
over, and I said that I began to be doubtful of success.

"Because we have been all over the country?" he replied, smiling.

"Well, we have travelled a great way," I said.

"Why, my dear boy, what we have done is a mere nothing. This island is
next in size to Australia. It is almost a continent, and we have just
penetrated a little way."

"But I can't help seeing," I said, "that the people seem to be all
dwellers near the sea-coast."

"Exactly. What of that?" he replied.

"Then if my poor father were anywhere a prisoner, he would have been
sure to have found some means of communicating with the traders if he
had not escaped."

"Your old argument, Joe," he said. "Are you tired of the quest?"

"Tired? No!" I cried excitedly.

"Then recollect the spirit in which we set about this search. We said
we would find him."

"And so we will: my mind is made up to find him--if he be living," I
added mournfully.

"Aha!" said the doctor, bending forward and looking at me by the light
of the burning wood, "I see, my fine fellow, I see. We are a bit upset
with thinking a