at a new hut
were erected for their accommodation; but that they must depart at
sunrise, as they had a long journey before them. Whereupon the Indians,
with joyful songs, at once proceeded to erect the new hut on a vacant
space somewhat apart from the village, pushing forward the work so
rapidly that the hut was completed and ready for occupation by the time
that the first stars began to appear in the sky. And no sooner had the
two white men installed themselves therein, with a large fire blazing
before the hut to afford them light, and drive off the mosquitoes, than
several women appeared with baskets on their heads, some of which
contained cassava, while the contents of others consisted of the young
heads of Indian corn, boiled, and wrapped in plantain leaves, the hind
quarter of a kid, roasted, roasted plantains, a quantity of fruit, and a
calabash containing a liquid which had a faint, mellow, acid flavour,
something like weak cider, exceedingly refreshing as a beverage, but
decidedly heady, as they discovered a little later on. The Peruvian, at
the joint request of the white men, established himself in a corner of
the hut, thankfully accepted such viands as they gave him, and generally
comported himself in such a manner as to convey the idea that he
regarded himself as under their special protection. Indeed they were
glad enough that he should so regard himself, for there could be no
doubt that he would be of very great service to them, if only as a guide
and interpreter; he having, it appeared, been a wanderer up and down the
country for--as Phil understood--nearly forty years.

"The thing that puzzles me most of all," said Dick, when they were
discussing the day's doings as they sat at supper that night, "is how
you and the Peruvian came to be able to converse together. To me it
seems nothing less than a miracle."

"Yes," agreed Stukely, "I have no doubt it does; I can quite understand
that it would so appear to you. Indeed, when I come to reflect upon it,
it also appears miraculous to me; for why should I be able to understand
a language that I have never studied, spoken, or even heard before? It
seems impossible, upon the face of it, doesn't it? Yet, although I know
that I never was abroad until I came over here in the _Adventure_, I
have, from the earliest days of my childhood, had a feeling, amounting
sometimes to conviction, that sometime in the past I dwelt in just such
another land as this; a soun