r tone.
"My motto is, `Never say die,' for I have been in a good many tight
places and have always managed somehow to get out of them. But there is
a proverb to the effect that `the pitcher which goes oft to the well
gets broken at last,' and it may be that here is where I get `broken.'
I don't know; I don't care to hazard an opinion. But I wish to heaven,
now, that I had not brought you along with me, Dick."

"Do you really think it as serious as all that, then?" demanded Dick.

"What do you think yourself?" retorted Earle. "What does the capture of
us at all mean? Friendly disposed natives don't do that sort of thing,
you know. And why, having captured us, are they taking such extreme
care that we shall get no chance to escape? I'm afraid, Dick, it means
that they want us for some particular purpose, of which, probably, we
shall very strongly disapprove."

"You mean--?" began Dick.

"Yes," answered Earle. "Something like that. But say! don't you take
what I'm saying too seriously. I give you credit for being no more
afraid of death than I am, therefore I think it only right you should
have an inkling of what may possibly be in store for us. But don't
believe that I am going to take lying down what may be coming to us. I
shall do everything I know to persuade these savages that they could not
do a more unwise thing than hurt either of us. If we should by any
chance be brought within earshot of that idol on the opposite side of
the compound, I shall try the ventriloquial dodge again, among other
things. The worst of it is that I can't speak these beggars' language;
and for a man's own idol to address him in a foreign tongue is not
altogether convincing, is it?"

"It is not," admitted Dick, "although it worked away back there, and it
may again. Poor Grace! If it were not for her, I should not mind so
much."

"What's that about Grace?" demanded Earle.

"My sister, you know," explained Dick. "I have been hoping that, in one
way or another, this expedition would enable me to provide for her, so
that she would not be compelled to go on very much longer earning her
own living. She is all right so long as she can remain with the
Mcgregors; but if anything should happen necessitating her leaving
them--"

"Say, Dick, don't you worry about that," interrupted Earle. "Your
sister is all right for three years from the signing of our contract,
anyway, for she will have your pay to fall back upon if anythin