e the guide.

"Difficult to say, monsieur. Perhaps Injins, though I thought there
were none here just now. But I'm not surprised that we've attracted
_something_ to us. Livin' creeturs always come nat'rally to the light,
and there's plenty fire on the point to-night."

"Rather more than enough," replied Charley, abruptly, as a slight motion
of wind sent the flames curling round his head and singed off his
eyelashes. "Why, Louis, it's my firm belief that if I ever get to the
end of this journey, I'll not have a hair left on my head."

Louis smiled.

"O monsieur, you will learn to _observe_ things before you have been
long in the wilderness. If you _will_ edge round to leeward of the
fire, you can't expect it to respect you."

Just at this moment a loud hurrah rang through the copse, and Harry
Somerville sprang over the fire into the arms of Charley, who received
him with a hug and a look of unutterable amazement.

"Charley, my boy!"

"Harry Somerville, I declare!"

For at least five minutes Charley could not recover his composure
sufficiently to _declare_ anything else, but stood with open mouth and
eyes, and elevated eyebrows, looking at his young friend, who capered
and danced round the fire in a manner that threw the cook's performances
in that line quite into the shade, while he continued all the time to
shout fragments of sentences that were quite unintelligible to any one.
It was evident that Harry was in a state of immense delight at something
unknown save to himself, but which, in the course of a few minutes, was
revealed to his wondering friends.

"Charley, I'm _going_! hurrah!" and he leaped about in a manner that
induced Charley to say he would not only be going, but very soon _gone_,
if he did not keep further away from the fire.

"Yes, Charley, I'm going with you! I upset the stool, tilted the
ink-bottle over the invoice-book, sent the poker almost through the back
of the fireplace, and smashed Tom Whyte's best whip on the back of the
`noo 'oss,' as I galloped him over the plains for the last time--all for
joy, because I'm going with you, Charley, my darling!"

Here Harry suddenly threw his arms round his friend's neck, meditating
an embrace. As both boys were rather fond of using their muscles
violently, the embrace degenerated into a wrestle, which caused them to
threaten complete destruction to the fire as they staggered in front of
it, and ended in their tumbling against the tent, and