e?" said Peterkin in a low whisper, while we all
involuntarily crept closer to each other.

"Do you know," said Jack, "I have heard that mysterious sound twice
before, but never so loud as to-night. Indeed, it was so faint that I
thought I must have merely fancied it; so, as I did not wish to alarm
you, I said nothing about it."

We listened for a long time for the sound again; but as it did not come,
we returned to the bower and resumed our work.

"Very strange!" said Peterkin quite gravely.--"Do you believe in ghosts,
Ralph?"

"No," I answered, "I do not. Nevertheless, I must confess that strange,
unaccountable sounds, such as we have just heard, make me feel a little
uneasy."

"What say you to it, Jack?"

"I neither believe in ghosts nor feel uneasy," he replied. "I never saw
a ghost myself, and I never met with any one who had; and I have
generally found that strange and unaccountable things have almost always
been accounted for, and found to be quite simple, on close examination.
I certainly can't imagine what _that_ sound is; but I'm quite sure I
shall find out before long, and if it's a ghost I'll--I'll--"

"Eat it!" cried Peterkin.

"Yes, I'll eat it!--Now, then, my bow and two arrows are finished; so,
if you're ready, we had better turn in."

By this time Peterkin had thinned down his spear, and tied an iron point
very cleverly to the end of it; I had formed a sling, the lines of which
were composed of thin strips of the cocoa-nut cloth, plaited; and Jack
had made a stout bow, nearly five feet long, with two arrows, feathered
with two or three large plumes which some bird had dropped. They had no
barbs; but Jack said that if arrows were well feathered they did not
require iron points, but would fly quite well if merely sharpened at the
point, which I did not know before.

"A feathered arrow without a barb," said he, "is a good weapon, but a
barbed arrow without feathers is utterly useless."

The string of the bow was formed of our piece of whip-cord, part of
which, as he did not like to cut it, was rolled round the bow.

Although thus prepared for a start on the morrow we thought it wise to
exercise ourselves a little in the use of our weapons before starting,
so we spent the whole of the next day in practising. And it was well we
did so, for we found that our arms were very imperfect, and that we were
far from perfect in the use of them. First, Jack found that the bow was
much too strong,