the
party, the ladies preparing to go fruit-seeking after attending to the
wounded men's wants, while Mary collected some large pearl-shell oysters
and the halves of the cocoa-nuts for cups and plates, the major and his
young henchman set off.

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.

HOW MARK AND THE MAJOR SAW SIGNS.

Bruff limped up eagerly, and sometimes put down his injured paw, which
he had been dressing after nature's fashion by licking it well, and
trotted by their side; but it was evident directly that another was to
be of the party, for before they had gone fifty yards Jack bounded up
and placed himself beside the dog.

The major hesitated for a moment.

"He won't do any harm," he said at last. "Let him come. I say, Mark,
my lad, all that was very comic about the little fellow climbing the
tree; but do you know, if you took pains I'm sure you might teach him to
go up into the leafy crowns and screw the nuts round till they dropped."

"I was wondering whether it would be possible," said Mark eagerly.

"Quite. He is an intelligent little fellow. Try. Now, then, let's
take our bearings," continued the major, and he pulled out a
pocket-compass. "Don't let's be wearied out in finding our way back
when we are tired."

"Which way are we going, sir?"

"That depends, my lad. It is not as we please, but as the jungle
allows. You talk as if you were in a country full of roads."

"I forgot," said Mark, changing the position in which he carried his
father's double gun.

"First lesson in using a gun," said the major: "either point the muzzle
at the ground or up at the sky. It's considered bad manners, Mark, to
shoot your companions."

"I--I beg your pardon, sir," faltered Mark. "It was very clumsy of me."

"Not a bit more clumsy than every young fellow is, when he first handles
a gun. That's the way. I'm sure you don't want to have to carry me
home without a head. Now, then, our easiest route would be to go along
the sands at the edge of the cocoa-nut groves; but I propose we strike
in beside the first stream or through the first valley we find. Come
along."

They followed the beautiful shore line for about five hundred yards, and
at a turn came suddenly upon a lovely little stream which offered far
better facilities for obtaining drinking water than that from which it
had been obtained, and as soon as he saw the spot, the major exclaimed
that this was the place for their temporary home.

A cocoa-nut grove