You thought the skipper was asleep?" said Billy in a whisper. "Never
ketches him asleep, as we all knows. It's always t'other. So soon as
one o' us as ought to be awake goes off, he finds us out, and no
mistake."

Mark did not answer, and Billy went on:

"It's my belief that when the skipper shuts his eyes he sets his ears to
work to see and hear too. Ah, here we are! Here's a place where we can
go in. I say, Mr Mark, did you eat any o' that cold treacle pooden?"

"No? Bill, I did not."

"Good job, too, sir. It was cooked in one o' they hot springs, and I'm
blest if it didn't taste like brimstone and treacle. Lor', how thirsty
I am! Wish I could find one o' them wooden-box fruit."

"What? cocoa-nuts?"

"No, sir: durings. They are good after all. Give's your hand, my lad."
He bent down from a mass of basalt, which seemed to be the end of a
rugged wall which penetrated the trees, and along which it was possible
to climb more easily than to force a way through the dense growth which
wove the trees together.

"I can manage, Billy," said Mark. "Go on."

Billy turned, and, apparently as active as if he had just started, he
climbed on, parting the bushes that grew out of the interstices and
holding them aside for Mark to clear them, and then on and on, without
the sign of a fruit-tree or berry-bearing bush. The sun beat down
through the overshadowing boughs, but the two had risen so high that the
forest monarchs had become as it were dwarfed, and it was evident that
they would soon be above them and able to look down on their tops.

"Why, Billy," exclaimed Mark, "if we go on, we shall soon be able to see
the sea, and the best way down to the camp."

"Sure we shall, Mr Mark, sir," said the little sailor, descending a
sudden slope and helping Mark to follow, after which they wound in and
out for about a quarter of an hour, thoroughly eager in their quest for
a way to simplify the descent of the rest of the party.

All at once the captain's final words came to memory, and Mark
exclaimed:

"Here; we mustn't go any farther, Billy. We'll turn back now."

"All right! Mr Mark, sir, we'll soon do that; and then we can all come
on this way together. We can show 'em now, eh?"

"Yes," said Mark; "but let's see, which way did we come? Along there,
wasn't it?"

"'Long there, Mr Mark, sir? No, not it. Why, we come this way, down
by these rocks."

"No, that couldn't be right, Billy, because the sun was