long years, after eating, produced pipe and pouch, the fragrant
tobacco catching the exile's nostrils and drawing a low,
tremulous cry from his lips.

No need to ask what was the matter, for that eager gaze, those
quivering fingers, were enough. And just as though this had been
his express purpose, the professor passed the pipe over, quietly
speaking:

"Perhaps you would like a little smoke after your supper, my good
friend? Oblige me by--"

"May I? Oh, sir, may I--really taste--oh, oh, oh!"

Bruno struck a match and steadied the pipe until the tobacco was
fairly ignited, then drew back and left the exile to himself for
the time being. And, as covert glances told them, never before
had their eyes rested upon mortal being so intensely happy as was
the long-lost aeronaut then and there.

At a sign from the professor, Bruno and Waldo silently arose and
left the cavern, bearing their guardian company to where the
air-ship was resting. And there they busied themselves with
making preparations for the night, which was just settling over
that portion of the earth.

Presently Cooper Edgecombe appeared, the empty pipe in hand, held
as one might caress an inestimable treasure, a dreamy, almost
blissful expression upon his sun-browned face.