CANOEING ON THE SEA--A MYSTERIOUS NIGHT-SURPRISE AND SUDDEN FLIGHT.


At first the voyagers paddled over the glassy sea in almost total
silence.

Nigel was occupied with his own busy thoughts; speculating on the
probable end and object of their voyage, and on the character, the
mysterious life, and unknown history of the man who sat in front of him
wielding so powerfully the great double-bladed paddle. Van der Kemp
himself was, as we have said, naturally quiet and silent, save when
roused by a subject that interested him. As for Moses, although quite
ready at any moment to indulge in friendly intercourse, he seldom
initiated a conversation, and Spinkie, grasping the mast and leaning
against it with his head down, seemed to be either asleep or brooding
over his sorrows. Only a few words were uttered now and then when Nigel
asked the name of a point or peak which rose in the distance on either
hand. It seemed as if the quiescence of sea and air had fallen like a
soft mantle on the party and subdued them into an unusually sluggish
frame of mind.

They passed through the Sunda Straits between Sumatra and Java--not more
at the narrowest part than about thirteen miles wide--and, in course of
time, found themselves in the great island-studded archipelago beyond.

About noon they all seemed to wake up from their lethargic state. Van
der Kemp laid down his paddle, and, looking round, asked Nigel if he
felt tired.

"Not in the least," he replied, "but I feel uncommonly hungry, and I