sh butter on a saucer. It was butter from the tin, but
washed white in the cool water of the spring, and then sprinkled with
salt.

The stranger nodded approval as he started to eat.

"A simple meal, my accomplished friend," he said to Lewis, "but I know
the mouths of the gods are watering."

When nothing was left of the food, the stranger, through Lewis, ordered
the table cleared, then he turned to his guest.

"You have already had occasion to see how useful you would be to me," he
said. "I propose that you seek employment no further. Join me not as
cook, but as interpreter, companion, friend in very present trouble. I
will pay you a living wage."

Lewis's eyes lighted up. What wage should he demand for accompanying
this strange man, who drew him as Lewis himself drew shy, wild creatures
to his knee? No wage. No wage but service. "I will go with you," he
said.

"Good!" said the stranger. "Now--where shall we go?"

"Where shall we go?" repeated Lewis, puzzled.

"Yes. Where shall we go?"

"That is for you to say," said Lewis, gravely, fearing a joke.

"Not at all," said the stranger. "To me it is a matter of complete
indifference. Of all the spots on the face of the earth, this is the
last; no game, no water, no scenery, no women, no food. And having seen
the last spot on earth, direction no longer interests me. What would
_you_ like to see?"

Lewis felt himself inside a book of fairy-tales.

"I?" he said, smiling shyly. "I should like to see the sea again."

"Right you are!" said the stranger. "Tell the guide to start for the
sea."

CHAPTER XI

The stranger was accompanied by two muleteers, a cook, a wash-boy, and
the guide. Not one of these was a menial, for menials do not breed in
open country. When the stranger shouted for one of them, they all
gathered round him and stood at ease, smiling at his gestures, guessing
genially at what he was trying to say, and in the end calmly doing
things their own way.

When Lewis called the guide, they all came, as was their custom.

"Your master," said Lewis to the guide, "wishes to go to the sea. He
bids you start for the sea."

The guide stared at Lewis, then at the stranger.

"The sea! What is the sea?"

"The sea," said Lewis, gravely, "is the ocean, the great water where
ships sail."

"Bah!" said the guide. "More madness. How shall I guide him to the sea
if I know not where it is? Tell him there is no sea."

One of the muleteers broke in.