"To say nothing of the light that has been kept burning recently on
Shark's Island, nor of the buildings with which the land is strewn,
nor the fields and plantations that are to be met with in all
directions. For, although a swallow alone is sufficient to convey the
seeds of a forest from one continent to another, still it requires the
hand of man to arrange the trees in rows and furnish them with props."

"Perhaps we may have crossed each other on the way; and the stranger,
after passing the night here, has steered, by some circuitous route,
in the direction of Safety Bay."

"May it not have been a large monkey," suggested Jack, "who has
resolved to play us a trick for having massacred its companions at
Waldeck?"

"Monkeys," replied Ernest, "do not generally open doors, and, seeing
no bed prepared for them, go down stairs and collect material for a
mattress. You may just as well fancy that the monkey, in this case,
came to pass the night at Falcon's Nest with a cigar in its mouth."

"Then he must have been dreadfully annoyed to find neither slippers
nor a night-cap."

"There is, unquestionably, a wide field of supposition open for us,"
said Becker; "but that need not prevent us taking active measures to
arrive at the truth. Our first duty is to care for the safety of the
ladies; Mr. Wolston is still ailing and feeble, so that, if a stranger
were suddenly to appear amongst them, they might be terribly
alarmed."