s impractical than he. You will pardon my bluntness, but our lives
are all in jeopardy here, and when we get your father back something
must be done to impress upon him the dangers to which he exposes you as
well as himself by his absent-mindedness."

"I quite agree with you," replied the girl, "and I am not offended at
all. Dear old papa would sacrifice his life for me without an
instant's hesitation, provided one could keep his mind on so frivolous
a matter for an entire instant. There is only one way to keep him in
safety, and that is to chain him to a tree. The poor dear is SO
impractical."

"I have it!" suddenly exclaimed Clayton. "You can use a revolver,
can't you?"

"Yes. Why?"

"I have one. With it you and Esmeralda will be comparatively safe in
this cabin while I am searching for your father and Mr. Philander.
Come, call the woman and I will hurry on. They can't have gone far."

Jane did as he suggested and when he saw the door close safely behind
them Clayton turned toward the jungle.

Some of the sailors were drawing the spear from their wounded comrade
and, as Clayton approached, he asked if he could borrow a revolver from
one of them while he searched the jungle for the professor.

The rat-faced one, finding he was not dead, had regained his composure,
and with a volley of oaths directed at Clayton refused in the name of
his fellows to allow the young man any firearms.

This man, Snipes, had assumed the role of chief since he had killed
their former leader, and so little time had elapsed that none of his
companions had as yet questioned his authority.

Clayton's only response was a shrug of the shoulders, but as he left
them he picked up the spear which had transfixed Snipes, and thus
primitively armed, the son of the then Lord Greystoke strode into the
dense jungle.

Every few moments he called aloud the names of the wanderers. The
watchers in the cabin by the beach heard the sound of his voice growing
ever fainter and fainter, until at last it was swallowed up by the
myriad noises of the primeval wood.

When Professor Archimedes Q. Porter and his assistant, Samuel T.
Philander, after much insistence on the part of the latter, had finally
turned their steps toward camp, they were as completely lost in the
wild and tangled labyrinth of the matted jungle as two human beings
well could be, though they did not know it.

It was by the merest caprice of fortune that they headed toward the