some food in a tin pan. The
invalid observed him at once.

"Ebony! can that be you? Why--when--oh! my poor brain feels so light--
it seems as if a puff of wind would blow it away. I must have been very
ill." Zeppa spoke feebly, and closed his eyes, from which one or two
tears issued--blessed tears!--the first he had shed for many a day.

"His reason is restored," whispered the doctor in Orlando's ear, "but he
must be left to rest."

Orlando's heart was too full to find relief through the lips.

"I cannot understand it at all," resumed Zeppa, reopening his eyes;
"least of all can I understand _you_, Orley, but my hope is in God. I
would sleep now, but you must not let go my hand." (Orlando held it
tighter.) "One word more. Your dear mother?"

"Is well--and longs to see you."

A profound, long-drawn sigh followed, as if an insupportable burden had
been removed from the wearied soul, and Zeppa sank into a sleep so
peaceful that it seemed as if the spirit had forsaken the worn out
frame. But a steady, gentle heaving of the chest told that life was
still there. During the hours that followed, Orlando sat quite
motionless, like a statue, firmly grasping his father's hand.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

A few days after the discovery of Zeppa by his son, a trading vessel
chanced to touch at the island, the captain of which no sooner saw the
British man-of-war than he lowered his gig, went aboard in a state of
great excitement, and told how that, just two days before, he had been
chased by a pirate in latitude so-and-so and longitude something else!

A messenger was immediately sent in hot haste to Sugar-loaf Mountain to
summon Orlando.

"I'm sorry to be obliged to leave you in such a hurry," said Captain
Fitzgerald, as they were about to part, "but duty calls, and I must
obey. I promise you, however, either to return here or to send your
mission-vessel for you, if it be available. Rest assured that you shall
not be altogether forsaken."

Having uttered these words of consolation, the captain spread his sails
and departed, leaving Orlando, and his father, Waroonga, Tomeo,
Buttchee, Ebony, and Rosco on Sugar-loaf Island.

Several days after this, Waroonga entered the hut of Ongoloo and sat
down. The chief was amusing himself at the time by watching his prime
minister Wapoota playing with little Lippy, who had become a favourite
at the palace since Zeppa had begun to take notice of her.

"I would palaver wit