d to prove that some of it was meant for my
fellow-prisoner I soon afterwards heard him shout:

"Mass Joe come have 'nana--come have plantain 'nana."

This he repeated till I uttered a low long whistle, one which he had
heard me use scores of times, and to which he replied.

An hour after he whistled again, but I could not reply, for three or
four of the blacks were in the hut with me, evidently for no other
purpose than to watch.

That night I lay awake trembling and anxious. I wanted to have
something ready to send back by the dog when it came at night, but try
how I would I could contrive nothing. I had no paper or pencil; no
point of any kind to scratch a few words on a piece of bark--no piece of
bark if I had had a point.

As it happened, though I lay awake the dog did not come, and when the
morning came, although I was restless and feverish I was more at rest in
my mind, for I thought I saw my way to communicate a word or two with
the doctor.

I was unbound now, and therefore had no difficulty in moving about the
hut, from whose low roof, after a good deal of trying, I at last
obtained a piece of palm-leaf that seemed likely to suit my purpose.
This done, my need was a point of some kind--a pin, a nail, the tongue
of a buckle, a hard sharp piece of wood, and I had neither.

But I had hope.

Several different blacks had taken their places at the door of my hut,
and I was waiting patiently for the one to return who sat there carving
his waddy handle. When he came I hoped by some stratagem to get hold of
the sharp bit of flint to scratch my palm-leaf.

Fortunately towards mid-day this man came, and after a good look at me
where I lay he stuck his spear in the earth, squatted down, took out his
flint and waddy, and began once more to laboriously cut the zigzag lines
that formed the ornamentation.

I lay there hungrily watching him hour after hour, vainly trying to
think out some plan, and when I was quite in despair the black boy, whom
I had not seen for many hours, came sauntering up in an indifferent way
to stand talking to my guard for some minutes, and then entered the hut
to stand looking down at me.

I was puzzled about that boy, for at times I thought him friendly, at
others disposed to treat me as an enemy; but my puzzled state was at an
end, for as soon as I began to make signs he watched me eagerly and
tried to comprehend.

I had hard work to make him understand by pointing to the savage
o