"It's so bright that if we were to catch a sight of those rascals we'd be right off after them," said the Major. "But they know their way about. I have had information that this gang, with a few in addition who have left them for one reason or another, have visited many places along this coast. It seems that they came from the States; but they know this coast, and knowing it they will have met with lagoons and forests before. They will be just as careful to keep out of our view when there is light enough to see, as we are careful to hide up our fire at night; but I fancy we shall have them. Quick pursuit is one of the things they have not been accustomed to." They stared out across the lagoon for some little while, noticing the tufts of reeds which cropped up here and there, and the white mist in the far distance. Then they turned their faces towards the spot they had left, and felt their way back towards the camp. "We'll take a couple of grains of quinine apiece to-night," said the Major, halting for a breathing spell by the way. "No white man who comes out to a tropical country can afford to neglect that precaution. Even in the canal zone, where we have reduced the occurrence of malarial fever to an extraordinary figure, we still insist that all employees should take quinine regularly. And out away here it's far more necessary. That mist we've been watching spells malaria, fever that sticks to a man's bones till he's old, even though he gets safe home, and lives in comfort and warmth. Besides, listen to the hum of the mosquitoes; any fool could tell that these parts weren't healthy for a white man." Jim agreed with him abruptly. He was thinking of his brother, and wishing at that moment that he had been a little more careful to take precautions; but George had been one of those lusty, healthy fellows, never sick or sorry, who had laughed at fever and scoffed at precautions. And see what it had brought him to. "My brother might have been alive now if only he had taken his quinine," said Jim. "You heard about him, Major?" "I did. As one of the police at Colon his loss was reported to me as a matter of course. It was bad luck, lad; where did he go ashore?" "Miles away along this coast. I hunted high and low, as far as a man can hunt a jungle. Reckon he died in the undergrowth." "Or fell into a swamp, lad. He died, that's sure enough; but come along. There's the fire, and a good meal waiting for us. Gee! we've been getting along; this is better progress than I had dared to hope for." Skilfully the Major drew Jim's attention from the tragedy which had fallen upon his young life, and very soon had him seated beside a roaring fire, and dipping his spoon into a steaming cauldron of stew which the wily Chinee had provided. In fact, it was a stew which had been prepared ashore in the Major's house, and merely required heating.