there's where he is if he's
still alive. First thing for us to do, is to get up on a high peak and
look around the island for a mountain shaped like a hawks' head--just
to think of it! There's a chance of my meeting Long Arrow, the son of
Golden Arrow, after all!--Come on! Hurry! To delay may mean death to the
greatest naturalist ever born!"

THE SEVENTH CHAPTER. HAWK'S-HEAD MOUNTAIN

WE all agreed afterwards that none of us had ever worked so hard in our
lives before as we did that day. For my part, I know I was often on the
point of dropping exhausted with fatigue; but I just kept on going--like
a machine--determined that, whatever happened, I would not be the first
to give up.

When we had scrambled to the top of a high peak, almost instantly we saw
the strange mountain pictured in the letter. In shape it was the perfect
image of a hawk's head, and was, as far as we could see, the second
highest summit in the island.

Although we were all out of breath from our climb, the Doctor didn't let
us rest a second as soon as he had sighted it. With one look at the
sun for direction, down he dashed again, breaking through thickets,
splashing over brooks, taking all the short cuts. For a fat man, he was
certainly the swiftest cross-country runner I ever saw.

We floundered after him as fast as we could. When I say WE, I mean Bumpo
and myself; for the animals, Jip, Chee-Chee and Polynesia, were a long
way ahead--even beyond the Doctor--enjoying the hunt like a paper-chase.

At length we arrived at the foot of the mountain we were making for; and
we found its sides very steep. Said the Doctor,

"Now we will separate and search for caves. This spot where we now are,
will be our meeting-place. If anyone finds anything like a cave or a
hole where the earth and rocks have fallen in, he must shout and hulloa
to the rest of us. If we find nothing we will all gather here in about
an hour's time--Everybody understand?"

Then we all went off our different ways.

Each of us, you may be sure, was anxious to be the one to make a
discovery. And never was a mountain searched so thoroughly. But alas!
nothing could we find that looked in the least like a fallen-in cave.
There were plenty of places where rocks had tumbled down to the foot of
the slopes; but none of these appeared as though caves or passages could
possibly lie behind them.

One by one, tired and disappointed, we straggled back to the
meeting-place. The Doctor se