“Poor Kettle went down, transfixed by a spear in the first few seconds after the encounter. Professor Chadwick’s intention had merely been to reconnoitre in preparation for an expedition later on. Not expecting trouble, none of the party was armed. Allworthy dashed back to the boat and seized up an oar. He did valiant service with it before he, too, was felled by a spear-thrust. In the meantime, Professor Chadwick and Abner Jennings had been captured, notwithstanding their stout resistance. Then they were dragged off into the jungle, while we stood half-paralyzed with horror at the suddenness and disastrous consequences of the attack. “The last we saw of your father. Jack, he was motioning back to us to put out to sea. Brave to the last, he thought of us before himself.” Ned stooped and placed his hands over his eyes as if to shut out the picture his words called up. Jack Chadwick sat staring vacantly at the paneling of the cabin, not daring to trust his voice to speech. Tom, not less affected, gripped his cousin’s hand. “Remember, old chap,” he murmured, “that Ned told us some time ago that there was reason to believe that your father was still alive.” “I’m coming to that,” said Ned, raising his head and proceeding with his narrative. CHAPTER VII—THE THREE COLORED GEMS “It was MacDuffy,” continued the lad, “who organized an expedition to go to your father’s rescue. There was MacDuffy, Captain Andrews, four seamen and myself. The rest were left in charge of the _Sea King_, the engine-room force having instructions to proceed with the repairs to the shaft, which were really simple enough, consisting only of bolting a collar of metal around the split. “We were heavily armed, as you may imagine, and after we had landed in the light boat, we stowed it in the brush where it would not be likely to be discovered by marauders. The other boat, the one in which your father landed, had been stove in by those rascally natives. Our first task after this, was to bury poor Kettle as decently as we could. This done, we took up the trail, which was plain enough to follow. In fact, we learned afterward, it was a regular path that the natives followed when they came to the coast after turtles and fish.