you'll find your breakfast. Well, when I built this
house I didn't neglect the plenishings of it. Open the door next to you
and you'll find boucan inside. 'Boucan,' as you doubtless know, is dried
beef, and from it we got our name the buccaneers, because in the
beginning we lived so much upon dried beef. Enough is in that closet to
last us a month, and there are herds of wild cattle on the island, an
inexhaustible larder."

"But we can't catch wild cattle with our hands," said Robert.

The slaver laughed.

"You don't think, Peter," he said, "that when I built a house here and
furnished it I neglected some of the most necessary articles. In the
other closet you'll find weapons and ammunition. But deal first with the
boucan."

Robert opened the closet and found the boucan packed away in sheets or
layers on shelves, and at once he became ravenously hungry.

"On a lower shelf," said the slaver, "you'll find flint and steel, and
with them it shouldn't be hard for a wilderness lad like you to start a
fire. There are also kettles, skillets and pans, and I think you know
how to do the rest."

Robert went to work on a fire. The wood, which was abundant outside, was
still damp, but he had a strong clasp knife and he whittled a pile of
dry shavings which he succeeded in igniting with the flint and steel,
though it was no light task, requiring both patience and skill. But the
fire was burning at last and he managed to make in one of the kettles
some soup of the dried beef, which he gave to the captain. The man had
no appetite, but he ate a little and declared that he felt stronger.
Then Robert broiled many strips for himself over the coals and ate
ravenously. He would have preferred a greater variety of food, but it
was better than a castaway had a right to expect.

His breakfast finished, he continued his examination of the house, which
was furnished with many things, evidently captured from ships. He found
in one of the closets a fine fowling piece, a hunting rifle, two
excellent muskets, several pistols, ammunition for all the fire-arms and
a number of edged weapons.

"You see, Peter, you're fitted for quite an active defense should
enemies come," said the slaver. "You'll admit, I think, that I've been a
good housekeeper."

"Good enough," said Peter. "Are there any medicines?"

"You'll find some salves and ointments on the top shelf in the second
closet, and you can make a poultice for this hurt of mine. Between you