ckay was there, too; his leg had been so painful that he had
not left the rude bed, which his comrades had made for him, even to be
carried out into the fresh air and sunshine, for two or three days.
Percival noticed the look of pain in the languid eyes, and had, for a
moment, a fancy that he had seen this man before. But the burns on his
face, the handkerchief tied round his head to conceal a wound on the
temple, and the tangled brown beard and moustache, made it difficult to
seize hold of a possible likeness.

Percival threw himself on the ground with a half-sigh, and crossed his
arms behind his head.

"Is anything the matter?" asked Mackay.

Percival noticed that he never addressed him as "Sir" or "Mr. Heron,"
unless the other men were present.

"Jackson's ill," said Percival, curtly.

Mackay started and turned on his elbow.

"Ill?"

"Fever, I'm afraid. Not bad; just a touch of it. He's in the other hut."

"I'm sorry for that," said Mackay, lying down again.

"So am I. He is the steadiest man among them. How the rain pours!
Pollard is sitting with him."

There was a little silence, after which Percival spoke again.

"Are you keeping count of the days? How long is it since we landed?"

"Sixteen days."

"Is that all? I thought it had been longer."

"You were anxious to get to your journey's end, I suppose," said the
steerage passenger, after a little hesitation.

"Aren't we all anxious? Do we want to stay here for ever?" And then
there was another pause, which ended by Percival's saying, in a tone of
subdued irritation: "There are few of our party that have the same
reasons that I have for wishing myself on the way back to England."

"You are not going to stay in South America, then?"

"Not I. There is someone I want to find; that's all."

"A man?"

"Yes, a man. I thought that he had sailed in the _Falcon_; but I suppose
I was mistaken."

"And if you don't find him?"

"I must hunt the world over until I do. I won't go back to England
without him, if he's alive."

"Friend or enemy?" said Mackay, fixing his eyes on Percival's face with
a look of interest. At any other time Percival might have resented the
question: here, in the log hut, with a tempest roaring and the rain
streaming outside, and the great stormy sea as a barrier between the
dwellers on the island and the rest of the civilised world, such
questions and answers seemed natural enough.

"Enemy," said Percival, sharply. It was evi