he likes it or whether he don't, he's got to put up with it,
and that's what clever people calls flossify."

"And quite rightly, my man," said Drew, coming close up. "Smith and
Wriggs behaved like brave, true men, my lads."

"Easy, sir, please. We only tried same as you did."

"You think, then, that we tried everything that was possible to save my
friend?"

"Think, sir? Why, Billy and me's sure on it, eh, Billy?"

"Sartain."

"Hah!" ejaculated Drew, "you have done me good, my lads, for my heart
felt very sore and my conscience reproached me cruelly for not doing
more."

"It's all right, sir," cried Smith, cheerily. "You wait till the
morning comes, and then we shall see a way o' sarcumventing this gas, as
you calls it, and I daresay we shall find Mr Lane somewhere all right
on t'other side."

"If I could only feel that, I could rest till morning," said Drew.

"Then just you feel it, sir," said Smith. "It's what I feels strong."

"So do I, sir, now," put in Wriggs. "If Tommy Smith mays so, it's all
right."

Drew tried to think that it was, but the pleasant, hopeful sensation
would not come, and he sat now with the men, now beside the mate and his
friend Panton, waiting for the morning, the first hints of its approach
being in the gradual paling of the golden light from the cloud over the
volcano, and the appearance of the softer, more natural glow, that came
in the east, bringing with it a more diffused light, and the hope that
rides in with the dazzling rays of a new day.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

CHEAP LODGINGS AND CATS.

Oliver Lane's double gun gave forth two sharp clicks as his thumb
pressed back the cocks, and then, raising it to his shoulder, he waited,
with his eyes searching among the thick leaves of the fig-tree, and
trying to penetrate the orchids which clustered where the trunk forked
and sent forth a dozen or so of minor boughs.

But the snarling sound had ceased, and there was not the slightest
rustle among the leaves to indicate the spot where the animal was
hidden. But in imagination he could see some big, lithe, cat-like
creature crouching there in the tree-fork, ready to spring, its head
looking flattened with the ears drawn down, teeth gleaming in a fierce
snarl, eyes flashing with green phosphorescent-like light, and sharp
claws alternately protruded and withdrawn.

All this was pictured by his active brain, but there was nothing visible
save a gleam here and there, where the