uit also made a magical disappearance, and when all were gone,
Arsenic, looking up with a hideous grin, uttered the single word:
"More."

"Good!" cried Cabot, "he can talk English. Now look here, young man,
if we give you more--all you can carry, in fact, of pork, bread, flour,
tea, and sugar, will you show us the road to the nearest
mission--Ramah, Nain, or Hopedale?"

"Tea, shug," replied the boy, with an expectant grin.

"Yes, tea, sugar, and a lot of other things if you'll show us the way
to Nain. You understand?"

"Tea, shug," repeated the young Indian, again grinning.

"We wantee git topside Nain. You sabe, Nain?" asked Cabot, pointing to
his companion and himself, and then waving his hand comprehensively at
the inland landscape.

"Tea, shug, more," answered the young savage, promptly, while his
relatives regarded him admiringly as one who had mastered the art of
conversing with foreigners.

"Perhaps he understands English better, or rather more, than he speaks
it," suggested White.

"It is to be hoped that he does," replied Cabot. "Even then he might
not comprehend more than one word in a thousand. But I tell you what.
Let's go and get our own breakfast, pack up what stuff we intend to
carry, make the schooner as snug as possible, and come back to the
beach. Here we'll show these beggars what stuff we've brought, and
give them to understand that it shall all be theirs when they get us to
Nain. Then we'll start them up the trail, and follow wherever they
lead. They are bound to fetch up somewhere. Even if they don't take
us where we want to go, we will have provisions enough to last us a
week or more, and can surely find our way back."

"I hate to leave them, for they might skip out while we were gone,"
objected White.

"That's so. Well then, why not invite them on board? They'll be safe
there until we are ready to go. Say, Arsenic, you all come with we all
to shipee, sabe? Get tea, sugar, plenty, eat heap, you understand?"

As Cabot said this he made motions for all the natives to enter the
dinghy, and then pointed to the schooner.

It was evident that he was understood, and equally so that the woman
declined his proposition, for she sat motionless, holding her baby, and
with the younger children close by her side. The boy, however,
expressed his willingness to visit the schooner by entering the dinghy
and seating himself in its stern.

"That will do," said White. "The others won't