t you will come with us?" I said once more, with the vague fancy
coming back that this was he whom I sought, but terribly changed.

He said something in reply in the savage tongue, stopped, and then went
on.

"I forget--I don't know. I am the doctor--a savage--what did you say?"

"Come with us," I whispered, and he bent his head in the dark; but my
words seemed to have no effect upon him, one idea seeming to be all that
he could retain, for he hurried me on, grasping my arm tightly, and then
loosed it and went on in front.

Jimmy took his place, gripping my arm in turn, and, whispering, showed
his power of observation by saying:

"Much good him. No black fellow. Talk like Mass Joe some time. Jimmy
tink um Mass Joe fader got dust in head. Don't know know."

"Oh no! impossible, Jimmy," I whispered back with emotion. "It cannot
be my father."

"No fader? All um white fellow got mud mud in head. Can't see, can't
know know. No Mass Joe fader?"

"No, I am sure it is not."

"Then um white fellow. No black fellow. Tupid tupid. Don't know at
all. No find wallaby in hole. No find honey. No kedge fis. Tupid
white fellow all a same, mud in um head."

"He seems strange in his head," I said.

"Yes. Iss mad mad. No wash um head clean. Can't tink straight up an
down ums like Jimmy."

"But he is saving us," I said. "Taking us to our friends."

"Jimmy no know. Jimmy tink doctor somewhere right long--big hill. Gib
black white fellow topper topper make um tink more."

"No, no," I whispered, for he had grasped his waddy and was about to
clear our guide's misty brain in this rough-and-ready way. "Be quiet
and follow him."

Just then our guide stopped and let me go to his side.

"Fever--my head," he said softly, and as if apologising. "Can't think."

"But you will come with us?" I said. "My friend the doctor will help
you. You shall help us. You must not go back to that degraded life."

"Doctor!" he said, as if he had only caught that word. "Yes, the
doctor. Can't leave the people--can't leave him."

"Him!" I said; "that boy?"

"Hush! come faster." For there were shouts and cries behind, and he
hurried us along for some distance, talking rapidly to me all the while
in the savages' tongue, and apparently under the impression that I
understood every word, though it was only now and then that I caught his
meaning, and then it was because they were English words.

After catching a few of