s easy enough. Off you go. The thinking's worse than the
doing."

To an ordinary school-boy it would have been nothing. His legs,
hardened by exercise, would have sent him across like a deer, but Jack's
muscles only a short time before were flaccid and weak in the extreme.
Still the voyage had done something; the strong will growing up within
him did more, and without a moment's hesitation, feeling as if his
reputation was at stake, he went sharply to the starting-point, took the
short run, and leaped, but too hurriedly. If he had gone quietly to
work it would have been different; as it was, he cleared the gulf and
landed on the other side, but without throwing himself forward
sufficiently to recover himself, and Ned uttered a cry of horror as he
saw the lad apparently about to totter backward into the depths below.

Lenny saved him by a curiously awkward-looking act. He had been on the
look-out on one side, the doctor on the other, to give the lad a hand as
he landed, but instead of a hand he gave him an arm, delivering a sharp
blow on the back, and driving him into safety just as he was hopelessly
losing his balance, and the men gave a cheer.

"Thank you, Lenny," gasped the boy breathlessly, as he saved himself
from falling forward by catching at the nearest sailor; "but don't hit
quite so hard next time; it hurts."

A roar of laughter followed this, and the doctor took off his pith
helmet to wipe his forehead.

"That's a nice sort of an example to set a fellow," muttered Ned as he
stood on the other side, rather unnerved by what he had seen. "Makes a
poor man feel as if he would rather be at home cleaning the plate."

Then in a fit of determination he flung up his arms, and in regular
boyish fashion shouted--

"Clear the way, there. Here comes my ship full sail."

He cleared the gulf with a good foot to spare, and felt triumphant.

Each took his gun or rifle directly without a word of allusion to Jack's
narrow escape, and with the doctor leading the way they began to climb
the steep ascent in silence.

"I hope that fellow's shouting has not scared our birds," said the
doctor after a time. "Quiet as you can, below there."

"They were so far off I don't think the birds could have heard him,"
replied Jack. "Perhaps the noise would not have gone out of the gully."

"Perhaps not," said the doctor. Then laconically: "Hurt?"

"Oh, not much," said Jack, smiling. "He did hit me a good bang though."