t it was a wild-goose chase.

"However, lad, please yourself and you'll please me," he added; "and
now, be particular to bear in mind that you've got to write to me every
time you get within hail of a post-office or a passing ship or steamer
that may chance to be comin' this way, and in each letter be sure to
tell me where you're goin' to next, so as I may send a letter there to
you in case I want you to return sudden or otherwise. We mustn't lose
touch, you see. You needn't write long screeds. I only want to know your
whereabouts from time to time. For the rest--you can spin it out in
yarns when you come back."

CHAPTER VI.

THE HERMIT OF RAKATA INTRODUCED.

Nothing worthy of particular note occurred during the boat-voyage along
the northern shore of Java to Sunda Straits. A fair, steady breeze
wafted them westward, and, on the morning of the third day, they came in
sight of the comparatively small uninhabited island of Krakatoa.

The boat in which they voyaged, although a little one, had a small
portion of the bow decked over, so that our hero and his sable friend
could find shelter from the night air when disposed to sleep and from
the fierce rays of the sun at noon.

By the advice of his father, Nigel had changed his sailor costume for
the "shore-goin' toggery" in which he had landed on the Keeling Islands,
as being more suitable to his new character as a traveller, namely, a
white cloth cap with a peak in front and a curtain behind to protect his
neck, a light-grey tunic belted at the waist, and a pair of strong
canvas trousers. He had also purchased an old-fashioned
double-barrelled fowling-piece, muzzle-loading and with percussion
locks.

"For you see, Nigel," the captain had said, "it's all very well to use
breech-loaders when you've got towns and railways and suchlike to supply
you wi' cartridges, but when you've got to cruise in out-o'-the-way
waters, there's nothin' like the old style. It's not difficult to carry
a few thousand percussion-caps an' a bullet-mould about wi' you wherever
you go. As to powder, why, you'll come across that 'most everywhere, an'
lead too; and, for the matter o' that, if your life depended on it you
could shove a handful of gravel or a pen-knife or tooth-pick into your
gun an' blaze away, but with a breech-loader, if you run out o'
cartridges, where are you?"

So, as Nigel could not say where he was, the percussion-gun had been
purchased.

The peak of Rakata--the