ng this dried and warmed his hands as well before
he proceeded to open the lid, when he uttered a cry of satisfaction.

"Bravo, Preston! Dry as dust. Have a pinch, my dear sir?"

"Thanks. No. I am drying a cigar here for my refreshment, in the hot
sand. I daresay my matches are all right in their metal box."

"Just as you like. Smoking is all very well, but nothing like a pinch."

"I am most anxious about the boy," said the professor.

"Must teach him to take snuff. Well, where are we? Is this a desolate
island, and are we going to be so many Robinson Crusoes for the rest of
our days?"

"Desolate enough just here," replied the professor; "but it must be
inhabited. It strikes me that we have reached Cyprus."

"Then, my dear fellow, just look about, or shout, or do something to
make the inhabitants bring me a bottle of Cyprus wine. Hah! a pinch of
snuff is a blessing, and, bless me, how wet my handkerchief is!" he
cried, as he struggled to his feet and took out and wrung the article in
question before making the rocks echo with a tremendous blow.

"How do you feel?" said the professor.

"Bad, sir; but I'm not going to grumble till we get all right again. I
must try and walk about to get some warmth into me. How beautiful and
warm this sand is! Hah!"

He seemed to revel in the beautiful dry sand of the shore, which, with
the sunshine, sent a glow into the perishing limbs of all, and to such
an extent that in about an hour the sufferers were not so very much the
worse for their adventure. The professor and Mr Burne had lit cigars;
Yussuf was enjoying his pipe; and Lawrence alone was without anything to
soothe his hunger.

The wounded Greek lay at a distance where his companions had left him.
The professor had been to him with Lawrence, and seen to his injury, the
others paying no heed, and the injured man himself only looking sulky,
and as if he would like to use his knife, even though he was being
tended by a man who knew something of what was necessary to be done.

He was left then, and the professor and Lawrence joined Mr Burne, who
was very cheerful though evidently in pain.

"I say," he said, "those fellows had planned that attack."

"Decidedly," said the professor. "I feared it, though I did not say
anything more to you."

"Then it was very ungentlemanly of you, sir," cried the old lawyer
testily. "Lucky for you I was awake, sir, or we should all have been
killed in our sleep."

"I t