the course of time to more than counterbalance this advantage.

Being resolved to impress the natives with a respect for our physical
powers, we made a point of each carrying a pretty heavy load on our
journeys--excepting, of course, when we went out a-hunting. But to
return.

Our crew worked willingly and well, so that ere night closed in upon us
we were a considerable distance away from the village. As the sun set
we landed, and ordering our men to advance in the canoe to a certain
bend in the river, and there encamp and await our return, we landed and
went off into the woods as if to search for game.

"Now, Makarooroo, quick march, and don't draw rein till we reach the
cave," said Jack when we were out of sight of the canoe.

Our guide obeyed in silence, and for the next two hours we travelled
through the woods at a sort of half trot that must have carried us over
the ground at the rate of five miles in hour. The pace was indeed
tremendous, and I now reaped the benefit of those long pedestrian
excursions which for years past I had been taking, with scientific ends
in view, over the fields and hills of my native land. Jack and Peterkin
seemed both to be made of iron, and incapable of suffering from fatigue.
But I have no doubt that the exciting and hazardous nature of the
expedition on which we had embarked had much to do with our powers of
endurance.

After running and doubling, gliding and leaping through the dense woods,
as I have said, for two hours, we arrived at a broken, rocky piece of
ground, over which we passed, and eventually came upon a thick jungle
that concealed a vast cliff almost entirely from view. The cracking of
the bushes as we approached showed that we had disturbed the slumbers of
more than one of the wild beasts that inhabited the spot. Here
Makarooroo paused, and although it was intensely dark I could observe
that he was trembling violently.

"Come, Mak," said I in a whisper, "surely you, who have received a
Christian education, do not really believe that devils inhabit this
spot?"

"Me don know, massa. Eber since me was be a pikaniny me 'fraid--
horrobably 'fraid ob dat cave."

"Come, come," said Jack impatiently; "we have no time for fears of any
kind this night. Think of Okandaga, Mak, and be a man."

This was sufficient. The guide pushed boldly forward, and led us to the
mouth of a large cavern, at which he halted and pointed to the gloomy
interior.

"You have the matc