us would make up our minds to eat
him, whatever he may be."

"If it was not so far off, I should have liked the skin, though," said
Mr Sedgwick. "However, we will hang him up in a tree, and some day I
may have his skeleton, when the ants have picked it clean."

Under his direction the men now got some ratan, with which they
surrounded the body of the monster, and then, in a sort of framework,
they hoisted him up to the stoutest branch of a tree which they could
manage to reach. We left him there, for all the world, as Roger Trew
observed, like a pirate hanging in chains, and then began our homeward
march with greater speed than before, to make amends for the time we had
lost.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

TERMINATION OF OUR EXCURSION.

We made our way along the shores of the lower lake till we came out by
the side of a beautiful cascade, which fell down over the cliff into a
river below us, whence the water flowed away, we concluded, towards the
sea; but the dense forest prevented us seeing the course it took. The
lower lake I have been describing was raised but a little way above the
level of the country. The height of the cascade was fifty feet; and,
giving another fifty for the fall of the river, we supposed that we were
not much more than one hundred feet above the sea. My uncle, having
examined his compass, now settled, as far as he was able, the course we
were to take. The river would be our guide, we saw, for a considerable
distance; indeed, the stream we crossed by the bamboo bridge was
evidently a portion of it. Turning back, we saw, rising above us, the
lofty mountain, a shoulder of which we had crossed. We were now better
able to judge of its height. Numerous other lofty hills rose on either
side of it--mostly bare of trees--some almost black, others of a shining
white, which might have been mistaken at a distance for snow; while,
from the centre of the cone, wreaths of smoke circled upwards to the
sky, giving unmistakable signs of its volcanic character. Our uncle
looked at it earnestly.

"It seems to me to be sending forth denser smoke than I have hitherto
observed," I heard him remark to Dick Tarbox. "I hope it is not going
to play us any trick."

"Maybe a little more tobacco has been put into the pipe," observed the
boatswain, in return; "and the old gentleman, whoever he is, who is
smoking it, is having a harder pull than usual."

"I hope so; but I had rather he had put off his smoking