"Why, to be sure, Mark," cried his cousin. "Don't you remember? You said you could not do it yourself because it was in your right finger and it was such a bungle to handle a pin with your left hand." Mark stared at his cousin for a few moments, and gazed round at those who were waiting to hear him speak; and then a gleam of light seemed to dart from his eyes as he cried excitedly, "Why, of course! I remember now; and you couldn't get it out with the pin, and you said it was a good job too, for a brass pin was a bad thing to use, and that we would leave it till we could get a big needle from Dan, such as he used for mending his stockings." "Hear, hear!" cried the little sailor, by way of corroboration as to his handling of a needle. "And then we forgot all about it," cried Dean. "Yes," cried Mark. "Oh, I say, I am sorry! What a fuss I have been making about nothing!" CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT. A FAMILY PARTY. "I don't like to talk about it," said the doctor, "but I am afraid of what those two black fellows have done." "Yes," said Sir James; "there is an ugly suggestion about it. But say what you are thinking, doctor." The doctor was silent, and the boys listened for his next words with strained ears. "I tell you what I think," he said, at last. "I am afraid that it may cause us great trouble--the great trouble of a visit from a hostile party of neighbouring savages." "To take revenge," said Sir James, "for the injury or death of their friends?" "Yes," said the doctor. "But why should they think that we hurt them, when it was done by Mak and the pigmy?" "Because they may associate us with them," replied the doctor. "Still, there is the hope that they may not know we are on friendly terms; but it is a very faint hope, and I am disposed to say that we ought to give up and make our way back to the station." "Oh, that would be such a pity," said Mark. "This is such a wonderful place, with so much to find out yet." "Yes," put in Dean. "Well," said Sir James, "I feel like the boys do." "And I must own," said the doctor, "that I should bitterly regret having to go from a neighbourhood where we cannot stir without coming upon something to interest us." "Then don't let's go," cried Mark. "We are a strong party, and if we were attacked we could defend ourselves. A few shots would scare an enemy away." "You had better be silent, Mark," said the doctor. "I shall be tempted to run the risk." "Let's go on tempting him," said Dean, laughing; and Sir James smiled. "We may be only frightening ourselves with shadows, doctor," he said, "and it is quite possible that our visitors were only one or two wandering blacks."