"Why, of course not."

"Oh, I thought p'r'aps you'd bought it."

"Don't talk nonsense, Jack."

"Don't you talk nonsense then, and don't you be so crusty. If I like to
land in New Guinea, and take a walk through the country, it's as free
for me as it is for you, isn't it?"

"Of course it is."

"Then just you hold your tongue, Mister Joe Carstairs; and if you don't
like to walk along with me, why you can walk by yourself."

"And what provisions have you made for the journey?" I said.

"Oh, I'm all right, my lad!" he drawled. "Father lent me his revolver,
and I've got my double gun, and two pound o' powder and a lot o' shot."

"Anything else?"

"Oh, I've got my knife, and a bit o' string, and two fishing-lines and a
lot of hooks, and I brought my pipe and my Jew's-harp, and I think
that's all."

"I'm glad you brought your Jew's-harp," I said ironically.

"So am I," he said drily. "Yah! I know: you're grinning at me, but a
Jew's-harp ain't a bad thing when you're lonely like, all by yourself,
keeping sheep and nobody to speak to for a week together but Gyp. I
say, Joe, I brought Gyp," he added with a smile that made his face look
quite pleasant.

"What! your dog?" I cried.

"Yes; he's all snug down below, and he hasn't made a sound. He don't
like it, but if I tell him to do a thing he knows he's obliged to do
it."

"I say, I wonder what the captain will say if he knows you've got a dog
on board?"

"I sha'n't tell him, and if he don't find it out I shall pay him for
Gyp's passage just the same as I shall pay him for mine. I've got lots
of money, and I hid on board to save trouble. I ain't a cheat."

"No, I never thought you were, Jack," I said, for I had known him for
some years, and once or twice I had been fishing with him, though we
were never companions. "But it's all nonsense about your going with us.
The doctor said this morning that the notion was absurd."

"Let him mind his salts-and-senna and jollop," said Jack sharply.
"Who's he, I should like to know? I knowed your father as much as he
did. He's given me many a sixpence for birds' eggs and beetles and
snakes I've got for him. Soon as I heard you were going to find him, I
says to father, `I'm going too.'"

"And what did your father say?"

"Said I was a fool."

"Ah! of course," I exclaimed.

"No, it ain't `ah, of course,' Mr Clever," he cried. "Father always
says that to me whatever I do, but he's very fond of me all the