Part 48 (2/2)

They went off again to have another distant view of it and to try and invent so their purpose I was already able to ith the aid of a stick, although not fast enough to keep up with the hold ofar had recently dug for et there, but it seerave about a foot too short, but otherwise commensurate, and sat down on a stone beside it to consider a nuravehimself with a lot of near-philosophy, and if I trespassed over the borders of common sense on that occasion I claim it was not without excuse

My meditations were disturbed by the arrival on the scene of the very last schen had gone out on a journey, leaving his ”wife” in the care of the co on the other side of the grave with both hands in the pockets of his knickerbockers and a grin of led mass of hair that hid his lower face

”Yours?” he asked

I nodded

”A close call! I have seen closer! I have stood so close to the brink of death that the width of an eyelash would have damned me!”

”Piffle!” I answered rudely ”How can the already dahed

”You are sick still You are petulant Neverto call on you I watched you leave the camp from the top of that hill behind you, and followed It is better We can talk here without being overheard Send those natives away!”

”Certainly not!” I answered, but I reckoned without the professor and the fear his hairy presence instilled in theue; and although I ordered them at once to stay by s could carry them

”How do you feel now?” the professor asked

I stared at hi just what he meant

”I mean, without a pistol!”

I saw the point The rest-cae ere quite out of sight fro a the rocks at the foot of the hill behind me ere quite alone, unless, as was probable, he had placed one or two of his own hangers-on in hiding within call

”This grave should be a lesson to you!” he grinned

”It has been,” I answered

”An illustration,” he suggested

”A period,” said I

”To your youth?” he asked e of folly?”

”To the tio into that grave ten times rather than tell you what you want to know!”

”There are worse places than the grave!” he said, beginning to leer savagely His eyes glittered He could scarcely find patience for arguone utterly