wo or three days ought to take us out of the danger. Then it will be
plain sailing all the rest of the way. The river is long, but,
dearest, we shall be with each other, and it will seem brief."

She parted her lips to make a suitable reply, when a startled
expression came upon her lovely countenance and she whispered:

"They must have followed us through the woods."

"What do you mean?" he asked, grasping his rifle.

"I hear some one moving behind us."

"It is a wild animal----"

He checked himself, for, to his unspeakable amazement, Professor
Grimcke at that instant stepped to view.

The two men caught sight of each other at the same moment. They stared
as if in doubt, and then, with exclamations of delight, clasped hands.

By great good fortune, the lovers had emerged from the forest within a
stone's throw of the point where Grimcke, Long, Bippo, and Pedros were
waiting with the canoe hidden among the trees.

After this reunion they set out for home.

A few days carried them beyond danger, and in good time the Amazon was
reached. Bippo and Pedros were left at Marcapa, at which port the
explorers secured passage for home, where they arrived in safety. And
in that land, so strange to the beauteous Ariel, daughter of Haffgo,
king of the Murhapas, we bid good-by to our friends. But to her,
Ashman was all the world; and in the sunshine of their mutual love they
dwell to-day, happy, grateful, contented, and envying no one, assured,
as they are, that none can be more blessed than they.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAND OF MYSTERY***

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