the Indians which we could not understand; and Long Arrow
told us the baby was sick and she wanted the white doctor to try and
cure it.

"Oh Lord!" groaned Polynesia in my ear--"Just like Puddleby: patients
arriving in the middle of dinner. Well, one thing: the food's raw, so
nothing can get cold anyway."

The Doctor examined the baby and found at once that it was thoroughly
chilled.

"Fire--FIRE! That's what it needs," he said turning to Long
Arrow--"That's what you all need. This child will have pneumonia if it
isn't kept warm."

"Aye, truly. But how to make a fire," said Long Arrow--"where to get it:
that is the difficulty. All the volcanoes in this land are dead."

Then we fell to hunting through our pockets to see if any matches had
survived the shipwreck. The best we could muster were two whole ones and
a half--all with the heads soaked off them by salt water.

"Hark, Long Arrow," said the Doctor: "divers ways there be of making
fire without the aid of matches. One: with a strong glass and the rays
of the sun. That however, since the sun has set, we cannot now employ.
Another is by grinding a hard stick into a soft log--Is the daylight
gone without?--Alas yes. Then I fear we must await the morrow; for
besides the different woods, we need an old squirrel's nest for
fuel--And that without lamps you could not find in your forests at this
hour."

"Great are your cunning and your skill, oh White Man," Long Arrow
replied. "But in this you do us an injustice. Know you not that all
fireless peoples can see in the dark? Having no lamps we are forced to
train ourselves to travel through the blackest night, lightless. I will
despatch a messenger and you shall have your squirrel's nest within the
hour."

He gave an order to two of our boy-servants who promptly disappeared
running. And sure enough, in a very short space of time a squirrel's
nest, together with hard and soft woods, was brought to our door.

The moon had not yet risen and within the house it was practically
pitch-black. I could feel and hear, however, that the Indians were
moving about comfortably as though it were daylight. The task of making
fire the Doctor had to perform almost entirely by the sense of touch,
asking Long Arrow and the Indians to hand him his tools when he mislaid
them in the dark. And then I made a curious discovery: now that I had
to, I found that I was beginning to see a little in the dark myself. And
for the first time I realiz