that either Captain Travis or his secretary could learn of their new
home. This was so very little, that Albert stipulated to stay only as
long as he liked it, and to return to the States within a few months if
he found such a change of plan desirable.

As he was going to what was an almost undiscovered country, he thought
it would be advisable to furnish himself with a supply of articles with
which he might trade with the native Opekians, and for this purpose he
purchased a large quantity of brass rods, because he had read that
Stanley did so, and added to these, brass curtain chains and about two
hundred leaden medals similar to those sold by street pedlers during
the Constitutional Centennial celebration in New York City.

He also collected even more beautiful but less expensive decorations for
Christmas trees, at a wholesale house on Park Row. These he hoped to
exchange for furs or feathers or weapons, or for whatever other curious
and valuable trophies the Island of Opeki boasted. He already pictured
his rooms on his return hung fantastically with crossed spears and
boomerangs, feather head-dresses, and ugly idols.

His friends told him that he was doing a very foolish thing, and argued
that once out of the newspaper world, it would be hard to regain his
place in it. But he thought the novel that he would write while lost to
the world at Opeki would serve to make up for his temporary absence from
it, and he expressly and impressively stipulated that the editor should
wire him if there was a war.

Captain Travis and his secretary crossed the continent without
adventure, and took passage from San Francisco on the first steamer that
touched at Octavia. They reached that island in three days, and learned
with some concern that there was no regular communication with Opeki,
and that it would be necessary to charter a sailboat for the trip. Two
fishermen agreed to take them and their trunks, and to get them to their
destination within sixteen hours if the wind held good. It was a most
unpleasant sail. The rain fell with calm, relentless persistence from
what was apparently a clear sky; the wind tossed the waves as high as
the mast and made Captain Travis ill; and as there was no deck to the
big boat, they were forced to huddle up under pieces of canvas, and
talked but little. Captain Travis complained of frequent twinges of
rheumatism, and gazed forlornly over the gunwale at the empty waste of
water.

"If I've got t