the howling was continued as I started up, all
wakefulness, and saw a dark figure bending over me and looking colossal
as seen against the ruddy light of the fire.

"Is that you, doctor?" I said.

"Yes, Joe; wake up. I want you."

"What's the matter--has that horrible thing come again?"

"No," he said; "the black is very bad."

"What! old Jimmy?" I cried.

"Yes. That is he howling."

I jumped up with a curious sensation of suffocation at my chest, for,
startled from a deep sleep into wakefulness, it occurred to me that
something dreadful was going to happen, and that we were to lose the
true-hearted, merry, boyish companion of so many years. Like a flash
there seemed to come back to me the memory of dozens of expeditions in
which he had been my faithful comrade, and this was like a death-blow to
our hopes, for, in spite of his obstinacy and arrogance, Jimmy would
have laid down his life to serve me.

"Let us go to him, doctor," I said. "Make haste!"

Our way to the black lay past the camp fire, where Jack Penny was
sitting with Ti-hi, and the former spoke excitedly as we drew near:

"I say, doctor, do make haste and give him a dose of something to do him
good, or else put him out of his misery."

"Jack!" I said in disgust.

"Well, he's awful bad, you know, and he ought to have something. Mind
how you go to him. I went just now and he began hitting at my legs with
his waddy, and then he poked at Gyp with his spear for going up to smell
him."

"He won't hurt me," I said sadly; and as another doleful cry came from
among the bushes, I led the way to where the poor fellow lay, horribly
swollen and writhing in agony.

Two of the blacks were watching him, and from what we could make out it
seemed that Jimmy had alarmed them by his restlessness, and that they
had fetched him back when he ran some distance and fell, and laid him
where he now was, in too much agony to stir.

"What is the matter with him, doctor?" I said excitedly, as I went down
on one knee and took the poor fellow's hand, which he grasped
convulsively, and laid flat directly upon his chest--at least that is to
say, nearly.

"I hardly know yet, my lad," said the doctor. "Perhaps he has eaten
some poisonous berry. You know how he tastes every wild fruit we pass."

"And will it--will it--"

I could say no more, for something seemed to choke my voice, and I
looked up imploringly in the doctor's eyes.

"Oh! no, Joe, my lad," he sa