of these would serve as cups
and plates. I could judge from this what had been the food of the
solitary inhabitant of the hut. This didn't look as if he were out of
his mind.

The time appeared to go by very slowly. I remembered my disappointment
at South's Island when I heard the mysterious knocks on the bottom of
the boat, and I began to fear that after all the stranger might not
prove to be Jack.

I was now sorry that I had not accompanied the rest of the party--at all
events the time would not have appeared so long if I had been walking
and looking out for Jack. At length I determined to get up and to go
out and try and find my companions--perhaps Soper and the stranger were
all this time with them, though I knew they would come back and look for
me. I rose and went to the window, which had a view right down the
valley, probably that the inmate might watch anybody coming in that
direction.

I couldn't see any object moving, and I turned towards the door,
intending to go out, when the sound of voices reached my ears. I
listened. One of the speakers was Miles Soper, the other spoke so
indistinctly that I could not make out what he said.

I opened the door and saw two persons coming through the grove. One
was, as I expected, Soper; the other a strange-looking being with long
hair, his skin tanned of a deep brown, his dress composed of an old
jacket and trousers, patched or rather covered over with leaves, while
his feet and head were destitute of covering.

I stood gazing at him for a few seconds, unable to trace in his
countenance any of the features of my brother Jack, which I fancied I
recollected.

"What, don't you know one another?" exclaimed Soper. "This is Jack
Trawl and no other--the only Jack Trawl I ever knew. Come, Jack, rouse
up, that's your brother Peter Trawl. Give him your fist, man. He's
been talking about you, and looking for you everywhere we've been."

The stranger stopped and gazed eagerly in my face.

"What, are you my little brother Peter?" he exclaimed. "How are Mary,
and father, and mother, and Nancy?"

I knew from this that he was Jack, and springing forward, took both his
hands, and looked earnestly in his face.

"Yes, I am Peter, and I know you are Jack. Mary was well when I left
home long ago, though you wouldn't know her now, and Nancy is with her."

I didn't like at first to tell Jack that father and mother were dead,
but it had to come out at last, and it seem