tream round me. You may fancy how sad I felt when I could
nowhere distinguish you. I knew, however, that it was wrong to give way
to despair, so when the sun came forth I dried the remainder of the
food, which has supported me hitherto."

"But did you feel any pain from your wound?" I asked. "That has been
one great anxiety to me. I thought you were truck by a poisoned arrow."

"No," he answered. "I pulled it out at once, and had forgotten it, till
I felt a pain in my shoulder. Then the dreadful thought that it was
poisoned came across me, and I expected, for some time, to feel it
working within my system. It was perhaps that which made me faint; but
as I did not feel any other ill effects, I began to hope that, either in
passing through my jacket the poison had been scraped off, or that it
has, as I have heard, but slight noxious effects on salt-eating
Europeans."

I agreed with him that this must be the case; indeed, he complained of
only a slight pain in the shoulder where the arrow had struck him. In
the darkness which surrounded us, I could do no more than give him some
of the food we had brought with us. The remainder of the night we sat
on the trunk of the tree, Duppo and I supporting Arthur in our arms,
while True crouched down by my side. We could hear the water washing
round us, and the wind howling among the branches over our heads. The
rain at length ceased, but I felt chilled and cold; and Arthur and Duppo
were, I feared, suffering still more. Thus we sat on, doing our best to
cheer each other. So long a time had passed since Arthur had been
struck by the arrow, that I no longer apprehended any dangerous effects
from it. Still, he was very weak from the long exposure and the want of
food, and I became more anxious to get him safe on shore, where, at all
events, he might obtain shelter and sufficient nourishment. Wherever we
might be cast, we should, in all probability, be able to build a hut;
and I hoped that with my gun, and Duppo's bow, we should obtain an ample
supply of game.

"Now we have found each other, I am afraid of nothing," said Arthur.

"Neither am I," I answered. "Still I fear that Ellen and John will be
very unhappy when they do not see us."

We had been talking for some time, when we felt a violent shock. The
water hissed and bubbled up below us, and the mass of trees on which we
floated seemed as if they were being torn asunder. Such, indeed, was
the case. Duppo ut