reply.

"Thought not," he said. "Only waste of breath. We've wandered away
farther than I thought, and the trees shuts in sound. Stand fast,
gentlemen, till I come back."

He paused for a few moments, and then forced his way in amongst the
trees in a direction which Rob felt to be entirely wrong, but in his
despondent state he was too low in spirit to make any opposition, and
after marking the spot where Shaddy had disappeared, he turned round
suddenly, placed his arm across a huge tree trunk, rested his brow
against it, and hid the workings of his face.

"Come, come, Rob, be a man!" cried Brazier, laying his hand upon the
lad's shoulder. "Never despair, my boy, never despair!"

"Joe! Joe!" groaned Rob; "it is so horrible!"

"Not yet. We don't know that he is lost."

"He must be, sir, he must be, or he would have answered our hails."

At that moment there was a shout from out of the forest, and Rob started
round as if thinking it might be their young companion, but the cry was
not repeated; a shrill whistle came instead.

Brazier answered it with a whistle attached to his knife.

"It was only Shaddy," groaned Rob. "Mr Brazier, you don't know," he
continued. "We two had quarrelled, and had not made friends, and now,
poor fellow, he is gone."

"No, I will not believe it yet," cried Brazier; "for aught we know, he
may have escaped. He is too clever and quick a lad not to make a
desperate effort to escape. We shall run up against him yet, so cheer
up. Ahoy!" he cried in answer to a hail, and followed it up with a
whistle.

"Naylor said he should whistle for a time and then hail," said Brazier,
trying to speak cheerfully. "Come, lad, make a brave fight of it. You
are getting faint with hunger, and that makes things look at their
worst, so rouse up. Now then, answer Naylor's signal."

"I can't, not yet," said Rob huskily. "I am trying, Mr Brazier, and I
will master it all soon."

Just then the peculiar cry they had first heard rang out again from a
distance.

"Was that Joe?" whispered Rob, with a ghastly look. "He must be in
peril."

"No, no; it was a jaguar, I think. There goes Naylor again! Whistle!
whistle!"

Rob only gazed at him piteously, and Brazier responded to the signal
himself.

"Come, come, Rob," he whispered, "be a man!"

The lad made a tremendous effort to conquer his weakness, and turned
away from the tree with his lips compressed, his eyes half closed, and
forehead w