my dress,
especially in my stout boots and cartridge-belt. Then, too, he touched
my gun, frowning fiercely the while. My big case-knife also took up a
good deal of his attention and had to be pulled out several times and
its qualities as a cutter of tough wood shown.

After this he drew my attention to his slight spear, which, though of
wood, was very heavy, and its point remarkably sharp and hard. In spite
of its wanting a steel point I felt no doubt of its going through
anything against which it was directed with force.

He next held out his waddy to me to examine. This was a weapon of
black-looking wood, with a knob at the end about the shape of a
good-sized tomato.

I took hold of the waddy rather quickly, when it must have struck the
boy that I had some hostile intention, for he snatched at it, and for
the moment it seemed as if there was a struggle going on; then I felt a
violent blow from behind, as if a large stone had fallen upon my head,
and that was all.

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.

HOW I FOUND THAT I HAD A FELLOW-PRISONER.

I have had a good many headaches in my time, but nothing to compare with
the fearful throbbing, that seemed as if I were receiving blow after
blow upon my temples, when I began to come to myself.

I was stupefied and confused, and it took a long time before I recovered
sufficiently to comprehend my position. By degrees, though, I was able
to bear my eyes unclosed for sufficiently long at a time to see that I
was in some kind of hut, and as I realised all this it seemed that I
must be still a prisoner, and that all my long journeying since was only
a dream.

I began wondering where Jimmy could be, and the doctor, and Jack Penny,
and then my head throbbed so violently that I closed my eyes, feeling at
the same time that I had no arms, no legs, nothing but an inanimate
body, and a head that ached with terrible violence as I lay there
half-stunned.

After a time I must have grown a little more collected, for I awoke to
the fact that I was tightly bound with twisted grass, hand and foot;
that I was certainly in a hut, quite a large hut, built of bamboo and
mats; and that behind me the light shone in, and somewhere close by the
sound arose as of a person sleeping heavily.

I tried to turn round, but the movement caused such intense pain that I
desisted for a time, till my anxiety to know more about my position
forced me to make a fresh effort, and I swung myself over, making my