he used for
mending his stockings."

"Hear, hear!" cried the little sailor, by way of corroboration as to his
handling of a needle.

"And then we forgot all about it," cried Dean.

"Yes," cried Mark. "Oh, I say, I am sorry! What a fuss I have been
making about nothing!"

CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.

A FAMILY PARTY.

"I don't like to talk about it," said the doctor, "but I am afraid of
what those two black fellows have done."

"Yes," said Sir James; "there is an ugly suggestion about it. But say
what you are thinking, doctor."

The doctor was silent, and the boys listened for his next words with
strained ears.

"I tell you what I think," he said, at last. "I am afraid that it may
cause us great trouble--the great trouble of a visit from a hostile
party of neighbouring savages."

"To take revenge," said Sir James, "for the injury or death of their
friends?"

"Yes," said the doctor.

"But why should they think that we hurt them, when it was done by Mak
and the pigmy?"

"Because they may associate us with them," replied the doctor. "Still,
there is the hope that they may not know we are on friendly terms; but
it is a very faint hope, and I am disposed to say that we ought to give
up and make our way back to the station."

"Oh, that would be such a pity," said Mark. "This is such a wonderful
place, with so much to find out yet."

"Yes," put in Dean.

"Well," said Sir James, "I feel like the boys do."

"And I must own," said the doctor, "that I should bitterly regret having
to go from a neighbourhood where we cannot stir without coming upon
something to interest us."

"Then don't let's go," cried Mark. "We are a strong party, and if we
were attacked we could defend ourselves. A few shots would scare an
enemy away."

"You had better be silent, Mark," said the doctor. "I shall be tempted
to run the risk."

"Let's go on tempting him," said Dean, laughing; and Sir James smiled.

"We may be only frightening ourselves with shadows, doctor," he said,
"and it is quite possible that our visitors were only one or two
wandering blacks."

"I hope you are right, Sir James," said the doctor; "but the finding of
that old fellow when we first came, and the way in which he disappeared,
lead me to suppose that we are not so lonely as we seem. Well, if we
stay, the great thing is to keep a most stringent watch night by night,
and always to be ready against surprise."

These last words of the doctor's de