caught my ear. Henriques said something in which I caught
the word 'Blaauwildebeestefontein.' I listened intently, and
there could be no mistake. The minister repeated the name,
and for the next few minutes it recurred often in their talk. I
went back stealthily to bed, having something to make me
forget my aching tooth. First of all, Laputa and Henriques
were allies. Second, the place I was bound for had something
to do with their schemes.

I said nothing to Mr Wardlaw, but spent the next week in
the assiduous toil of the amateur detective. I procured some
maps and books from my friend, the second engineer, and read
all I could about Blaauwildebeestefontein. Not that there was
much to learn; but I remember I had quite a thrill when I
discovered from the chart of the ship's run one day that we
were in the same latitude as that uncouthly-named spot. I
found out nothing, however, about Henriques or the Rev.
John Laputa. The Portuguese still smoked in the stern, and
thumbed his greasy notebook; the minister sat in his deck-
chair, and read heavy volumes from the ship's library. Though
I watched every night, I never found them again together.

At Cape Town Henriques went ashore and did not return.
The minister did not budge from the ship the three days we
lay in port, and, indeed, it seemed to me that he kept his
cabin. At any rate I did not see his great figure on deck till we
were tossing in the choppy seas round Cape Agulhas. Sea-
sickness again attacked me, and with short lulls during our
stoppages at Port Elizabeth and East London, I lay wretchedly
in my bunk till we sighted the bluffs of Durban harbour.