really wanted to know if they could have what they could find.
That wasn't much, but it seemed a treasure to them. There was a lot
of burned beams floating about alongside, and all of these which
had iron or copper bolts or fastenings they took in tow and rowed
ashore. We hadn't been gone many hundred yards from the vessel when
she sunk. Well, young gentlemen, for upwards of two years I lived
with them critturs. My clothes soon wore out, and I got to be as
naked and dirty as the rest of 'em. They were good hands at fishing,
and could spear a fish by the light of a torch wonderful. In other
respects they didn't seem to have much sense. They lived, when I
first went there, in holes scratched in the side of a hill, but I
taught 'em to make huts, making a sort of ax out of the iron saved.
In summer they used to live in these, but in winter, when it was
awful cold, we lived in the holes, which were a sight warmer than
the huts. Law, what a time that was! I had no end of adventures
with wild beasts. The way the lions used to roar and the elephants
--"

"I think, Jack," Ruthven interrupted, "that this must be one of the
embellishments which have crept in since you first began telling
the tale. I don't think I should keep it in if I were you, because
the fact that there are neither lions or elephants in South America
throws a doubt upon the accuracy of this portion of your story."

"It may be, sir," the sailor said, with a twinkle of his eyes, "that
the elephants and lions may not have been in the first story. Now
I think of it, I can't recall that they were; but, you see, people
wants to know all about it. They ain't satisfied when I tell 'em
that I lived two years among these chaps. They wants to know how I
passed my time, and whether there were any wild beasts, and a lot