Ernest then commenced lopping off the branches to the right and left, so as to form a space in the centre for their contemplated dwelling; whilst Becker himself below was making an entrance into the trunk, taking care to avoid an accident that formerly happened, by assuring himself that a colony of bees had not already taken possession of the ground.  The gigantic fig-trees at Falcon’s Nest being for the most part hollow, and supported in a great measure by the bark—­like the willows in Europe when they reach a certain stage of their growth—­it was easy to erect a staircase in the interior; still this was a work of time, and Becker had resolved in the meantime to give up the habitation already constructed to Wolston and his family, at least until such time as an entrance was attached to the new one that did not require any extraordinary amount of gymnastics.

[Illustration]

A portion of the day had been occupied in these operations, when Willis and Jack returned to the camp.

“We have seen no one,” said the Pilot.

“But,” said Jack, “we are on the track of Fritz’s knife.”

“Be good enough to explain yourself.”

“Well, father, at the entrance to the cocoa-nut tree wood we stumbled upon two sugar canes completely divested of their juice.”

“Which proves—­” said Ernest; but his remark was cut short by Jack, who continued—­

“Not a bit of it; a philosopher would have passed these two worthless sugar canes just as a place-hunter passes an overthrown minister, that is, as unworthy of notice.”

“And what did you do?”

“Well, I, the headless, the thoughtless, the stupid—­for these are the epithets I am usually favored with—­I took them up, scrutinized them carefully, and discovered—­”

“That they were sugar canes.”

“In the first instance, yes.”

“Very clever, that!”

“And then that they had not been torn up—­they had been cut.”

“Is that all?”

“Yes, most wise and learned brother, that is all; and I leave you to draw the inferences.”

“I may add,” observed the sailor, “that, as we were steering for the plantation, myself on the starboard and Jack on the larboard—­”

“On the what?”

“Master Jack on the left and myself on the right.”

“That I pitched right over these canes without ever noticing them.”

“Which is not much to be wondered at; Willis has been so long at sea that he has no confidence in the solidity of the land; during our cruise, he kept a look-out after the wind, expecting, I suppose, that it would perform some of the wonderful things you spoke of this morning.”

“After all,” observed Becker, “this is another link in the chain of evidence, and I congratulate Jack on his sagacity in tracing it.”

“But the affair is as much a mystery as ever.”

“True; and the solution may probably be awaiting us at Rockhouse.”