murmur. The
captain, too, albeit a heavy man, and fat, and addicted to panting and
profuse perspiration, declared that he was game for anything, and would
never be guilty of saying "die" as long as there was "a shot in the
locker." As for Larry O'Hale, he was a man of iron mould, one of those
giants who seem to be incapable of being worn out or crushed by any
amount of physical exertion. So far was he from being exhausted, that
he threatened to carry Mr Cupples if he should again talk of falling
behind. We need scarcely say that Wandering Will was quite equal to the
occasion. Besides being a powerful fellow for his age, he was lithe,
active, and hopeful, and, having been accustomed to hill-climbing from
boyhood, could have left the whole party behind with ease.

Grey dawn found the fugitives far up the sides of the mountains--fairly
lost, as Muggins said, in a waste howlin' wilderness. It was sunrise
when they reached the top of a high cliff that commanded a magnificent
view of land and sea.

"A good place this for us," said the captain, wiping his forehead as he
sat down on a piece of rock. "The pass up to it is narrow; two or three
stout fellows could hold it against an army of savages."

"Av there was only a cave now for to live in," said Larry, looking round
him.

"Wot's that?" exclaimed Muggins, pointing to a hole in the perpendicular
cliff a short distance above the spot where they stood.--"Ain't _that_ a
cave?"

Will Osten clambered up and disappeared in the hole. Soon after he
re-appeared with the gratifying intelligence that it _was_ a cave, and a
capital dry one; whereupon they all ascended, with some difficulty, and
took possession of their new home.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

SHOWS HOW SOUTH SEA MISSIONARIES DO THEIR WORK, AND THAT IF THE WHITES
CAN SURPRISE THE NATIVES THE LATTER CAN SOMETIMES ASTONISH THE WHITES!

For three months did Wandering Will and his friends remain concealed in
the mountains. Of course they were pursued and diligently sought for by
the natives, and undoubtedly they would have been discovered had the
search been continued for any length of time, but to their great
surprise, after the first week of their flight, the search was
apparently given up. At all events, from that period they saw nothing
more of the natives, and gradually became more fearless in venturing to
ramble from the cave in search of food. They puzzled over the matter
greatly, for, to say the least of