on't want to see it. But how the deuce do you manage without a
scalp?--I never heard of such a thing before in my life--how is it
you're not dead? eh?"

"It takes a deal more to kill a tough man than you London chaps think,"
said Mat. "I was found before my head got cool, and plastered over with
leaves and ointment. They'd left a bit of scalp at the back, being in
rather too great a hurry to do their work as handily as usual; and a new
skin growed over, after a little--a babyish sort of skin, that wasn't
half thick enough, and wouldn't bear no new crop of hair. So I had to
eke out and keep my head comfortable with an old yellow handkercher;
which I always wore till I got to San Francisco, on my way back here.
I met with a priest at San Francisco, who told me that I should look a
little less like a savage, if I wore a skull-cap like his, instead of a
handkercher, when I got back into what he called the civilized world. So
I took his advice, and bought this cap. I suppose it looks better than
my old yellow handkercher; but it ain't half as comfortable."

"But how did you lose your scalp?" asked Zack--"tell us all about it.
Upon my life, you're the most interesting fellow I ever met with! And,
I say, let's walk about, while we talk. I feel steadier on my legs now;
and it's so infernally cold standing here."

"Which way can we soonest get out of this muck of houses and streets?"
asked Mat, surveying the London view around him with an expression of
grim disgust. "There ain't no room, even on this bridge, for the wind
to blow fairly over a man. I'd just as soon be smothered up in a bed, as
smothered up in smoke and stink here."

"What a delightful fellow you are! so entirely out of the common way!
Steady, my dear friend. The grog's not quite out of my head yet; and
I find I've got the hiccups. Here's my way home, and your way into the
fresh air, if you really want it. Come along; and tell me how you lost
your scalp."

"There ain't nothing particular to tell. What's your name again?"

"Zack."

"Well, Zack, I was out on the tramp, dodging about after any game that
turned up, on the banks of the Amazon--"

"Amazon? what's that? a woman? or a place?"

"Did you ever hear of South America?"

"I can't positively swear to it; but, to the best of my belief, I think
I have."

"Well; the Amazon's a longish bit of a river in those parts. I was out,
as I told you, on the tramp."

"So I should think! you look like the sort o