hey'll set out to fetch
me. You'll guide them. If I am here, well and good. If I am not,
don't you forget I wouldn't let you stay. You did the only thing
you could for me by obeying orders."

Eustace hid his face in his hands because his lips were trembling
so; he felt sick, and shaky all over.

"O Bob," he said, "must I?"

"For my sake, laddie," said Bob softly.

Eustace stood up, but kept his head turned away that Bob should
still not see his face.

"I do wish," said Bob lightly, "that you could give me a nice slice
of beef before you go; I'm so hungry."

It was a little bit of chaff to help the boy to pull himself
together. It worked quite a miracle, for Eustace's face cleared
instantly.

"Why, how stupid of me!" he said. "I can give you something to eat.
It was what I couldn't finish of my own."

Out of his pockets he pulled the unappetizing lumps of food he had
secreted, and kneeling again, he began feeding the helpless man as
if he had been a baby.

"Upon my word, you are a magician," said Bob, keeping up a cheery
tone, although he could little more than whisper. "But eat some
yourself; turn and turn about."

"I don't want any," said the boy.

"Obey," said Bob briskly, with his kind smile.

So they made their strange meal together. It was a small one, but
quite enough for Bob after his long starvation.

"I ate every leaf and berry within my reach," he told Eustace, "or
I don't think I should be alive to tell the tale. Lucky for me,
they were none of them poisonous. When they were done I started on
chewing twigs, but they didn't go far."

At last Eustace had no excuse to linger. Very unwillingly he rose
to do Bob's behest. He had never heard of anything so awful as
leaving him like this to his fate. It seemed the worst kind of
desertion--something that he would be ashamed of all the days of
his life.

Bob made him take his watch and chain with the compass on it.

"Keep the compass afterwards if you like," Bob said, "and give my
love to every one."

Eustace turned sharply away; he could stand no more.

"Good-bye," he said thickly; "I feel a beast."

He took two quick strides forward, and walked right into some one.
It was the great native chief.

CHAPTER XIII.

A GREAT SURPRISE.

Eustace thought he had never seen anything so wicked as the
chief's grin when he looked down into his astonished face. The
black-fellow's teeth gleamed like a wolf's. His whole expression
seemed to s