, and the darkness seemed filled with lights.

But these soon died out, and I was listening to a familiar voice that
came, it appeared, from a long way off; then it came nearer and nearer,
and the words seemed to be breathed upon my face.

"Only a bit stunned," it said; and then I gasped out the one word:

"Doctor!"

"My dear Joe!" came back, and--well, it was in the dark, and we were not
ashamed: the doctor hugged me to his heart, as if I had been his brother
whom he had found.

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.

HOW WE MADE FURTHER PLANS.

"Why, Joe, my lad," he said at last, in a voice I did not recognise, it
was so full of emotion, "you've driven me half-wild. How could you get
in such a fix?"

"Jimmy get in big fix," said an ill-used voice. "Nobody glad to see
Jimmy."

"I'm glad to feel you," drawled a well-known voice. "I can't see you.
How are you, Joe Carstairs? Where have you been?"

"Jack, old fellow, I'm glad!" I cried, and I grasped his hands.

"That will do," said the doctor sternly. "Are the savages after you,
Joe?"

"Yes, in full pursuit, I think," I said. "But my guide. I can't leave
him."

"Your guide? Where is he?"

"I don't know. He was here just now. He brought us here."

"Jimmy-Jimmy say um goes back along," said the black. "He no top, big
fright. Gyp bite um."

"One of the blacks, Joe?" said the doctor.

"No, no!" I said, so excited that I could hardly speak coherently. "A
white man--a prisoner among the blacks--like a savage, but--"

"No, no," said Jimmy in a disgusted tone; "no like savage black
fellow-fellow. Got a dust in head. No tink a bit; all agone."

"His mind wanders, being a prisoner," I stammered. "He is with the
blacks--a prisoner--with my father."

"What?" cried the doctor.

"He has a fellow-prisoner," I faltered. "I am not sure--it must be--my
father!"

"Mass Joe find um fader all along," said the black. "Jimmy find um
too."

"Be silent!" cried the doctor. "Do I understand aright, Joe, that your
father is a prisoner with the people from whom you have escaped?"

"Yes--I think so--I am not sure--I feel it is so," I faltered.

"Humph!"

"Have you seen him?"

"No," I said. "I did not know he was there till I was escaping."

"Jimmy see um. All rightums. Find Mass Joe fader."

"You saw him, Jimmy?" I panted.

"Iss. Yes, Jimmy see him. Big long hair beard down um tummuck."

"You have seen him--the prisoner?" said the doctor.

"Yes