s they have escaped--
mine are useless."

But Nigel's matches were as wet as those of the hermit. So were those
of the professor. Luckily Moses carried the old-fashioned flint and
steel, with which, and a small piece of tinder, spark was at last
kindled, but as they were about to apply it to a handful of dry bamboo
scrapings, an extra spurt of rain extinguished it. For an hour and more
they made ineffectual attempts to strike a light. Even the cessation of
the rain was of no avail.

"Vat must ve do _now_?" asked the professor in tones that suggested a
woe-begone countenance, though there was no light by which to
distinguish.

"Grin and bear it," said Nigel, in a voice suggestive of a slight
expansion of the mouth--though no one could see it.

"Dere's nuffin' else left to do," said Moses, in a tone which betrayed
such a very wide expansion that Nigel laughed outright.

"Hah! you may laugh, my yoong frond, bot if zee tigers find us out or
zee elephants trample on us, your laughter vill be turned to veeping.
Vat is zat? Is not zat vonderful?"

The question and exclamation were prompted by the sudden appearance of
faint mysterious lights among the bushes. That the professor viewed
them as unfriendly lights was clear from the click of his rifle-locks
which followed.

"It is only phosphoric light," explained Van der Kemp. "I have often
seen it thus in electric states of the atmosphere. It will probably
increase--meanwhile we must seat ourselves on our boxes and do the best
we can till daylight. Are you there, boys?"

This question, addressed to the bearers in their native tongue, was not
answered, and it was found, on a _feeling_ examination, that, in spite
of leeches, tigers, elephants, and the whole animal creation, the
exhausted porters had flung themselves on the wet ground and gone to
sleep while their leaders were discussing the situation.

Dismal though the condition of the party was, the appearances in the
forest soon changed the professor's woe into eager delight, for the
phosphorescence became more and more pronounced, until every tree-stem
blinked with a palish green light, and it trickled like moonlight over
the ground, bringing out thick dumpy mushrooms like domes of light.
Glowing caterpillars and centipedes crawled about, leaving a trail of
light behind them, and fireflies, darting to and fro, peopled the air
and gave additional animation to the scene.

In the midst of the darkness, thus m