aring swear-words you ever heard.

After he had led us the whole way round the mountain he brought us to
the exact spot where we started from and there he came to a dead stop.

"Well," said Bumpo to Polynesia, "what do you think of the beetle's
sense now? You see he DOESN'T know enough to go home."

"Oh, be still, you Hottentot!" snapped Polynesia. "Wouldn't YOU want to
stretch your legs for exercise if you'd been shut up in a box all day.
Probably his home is near here, and that's why he's come back."

"But why," I asked, "did he go the whole way round the mountain first?"

Then the three of us got into a violent argument. But in the middle of
it all the Doctor suddenly called out,

"Look, look!"

We turned and found that he was pointing to the Jabizri, who was now
walking UP the mountain at a much faster and more business-like gait.

"Well," said Bumpo sitting down wearily; "if he is going to walk OVER
the mountain and back, for more exercise, I'll wait for him here.
Chee-Chee and Polynesia can follow him."

Indeed it would have taken a monkey or a bird to climb the place
which the beetle was now walking up. It was a smooth, flat part of the
mountain's side, steep as a wall.

But presently, when the Jabizri was no more than ten feet above our
heads, we all cried out together. For, even while we watched him, he had
disappeared into the face of the rock like a raindrop soaking into sand.

"He's gone," cried Polynesia. "There must be a hole up there." And in a
twinkling she had fluttered up the rock and was clinging to the face of
it with her claws.

"Yes," she shouted down, "we've run him to earth at last. His hole is
right here, behind a patch of lichen--big enough to get two fingers in."

"Ah," cried the Doctor, "this great slab of rock then must have slid
down from the summit and shut off the mouth of the cave like a door.
Poor fellows! What a dreadful time they must have spent in there!--Oh,
if we only had some picks and shovels now!"

"Picks and shovels wouldn't do much good," said Polynesia. "Look at the
size of the slab: a hundred feet high and as many broad. You would need
an army for a week to make any impression on it."

"I wonder how thick it is," said the Doctor; and he picked up a big
stone and banged it with all his might against the face of the rock.
It made a hollow booming sound, like a giant drum. We all stood still
listening while the echo of it died slowly away.

And then a cold shi