to you for
protection!"

"Yes; and I have shielded them, and they are now on board of the vessel
in the harbor."

This information brought back all the native resentment of the old
Chief. "Then he has brought them back to me!" he exclaimed in great
earnestness.

"I believe he intends to do so, but it will not be until they go to
Wonder Island, that marvelous place."

"Then I am content."

John heard the conversation, and soon turned it into another direction,
when he informed the Chief that the Chief of Venture Island as well as
the leader of the criminal colony, were to accompany them to Wonder
Island, and that the company would be incomplete without him and his
family.

He looked at his visitors for some time, doubting in his mind the
propriety of such a course, but the entreaties of Ephraim, and the
urging of Muro and Uraso, were sufficient to decide the question, and
the only matter that now weighed on his mind was to determine who should
accompany him in this wonderful voyage.

Ta Babeda had never summoned up sufficient courage, while the ship was
formerly in port, to board the vessel. His examination of the _Pioneer_
was made from the shore. Now he would step into a new world.

He little knew what wonders would be exhibited to him. The ship's band
was the greatest thing he had ever known, and he never tired of its
music. But when he saw the curious piano, the music box that acted as
though it had life, and the other evidences of civilized arts, that were
found in the cabin, he was content to make the best of it.

Like all natives, as we have already stated, he was immoderately fond of
eating, and the kitchen arrangements, where food was cooked without any
fuel, interested him beyond everything else. He would sit at the
entrance of the kitchen for minutes at a time.

The push buttons, the snap switches for the electric lights and for the
cooking apparatus, were some things which he could not understand. The
little innocent wires meant nothing to him, nor could the boys, or even
John, explain the phenomenon to him so he could understand it.

The boys puzzled over this, as he was insistent upon an explanation.
What finally happened, the very thing the boys tried to avoid in every
way, came when he touched the two wires, and formed a short circuit
through his hand.

He emitted one yell, and bounded out through the door, and it was some
time before he could be induced to make further investigations. Hi