“Eh?” he exclaimed. “Dwight, you cut a length from that Erythina, with a whorl of branches at one end, and make a grappling, while I go on a look-see.” Dwight drew his pickax and fashioned a wooden grappling hook with its keen hatchet blade. When he got through the curator had returned from the cliffs, bearing a gelatinous bird nest. “Here is the edible bird nest of China!” he exclaimed. “I heard that they got them on Aru, as well as in the cliff caves of Borneo. These banks must be the Aru collecting ground. Ever eat one?” “No!” shuddered Dwight. “Not half bad. We’ll have this one for dessert, to-day. And now le’s see that grappling.” He bound on the end of the cod line, and they found a dead trunk which would form a tolerable raft. Dropping the grappling, with a heavy stone lashed to it, they waited for a short drift, paying out line, and then began to haul. It soon struck something solid. Pulling it in, a great frond of fan coral came to the surface, and attached to its roots was the stone it grew on. The curator cleaned it and examined its structure avidly. “First news of New Guinea!” he chuckled. “This stone formed part of the river drift, long ago. It is--_slate_!” he barked, joyously. “And here is a small bit of fossil on one surface. See it? That means coal measures! It confirms my idea that an island three hundred miles wide and fourteen hundred miles long _can’t_ be all volcanic, or all coral! There _must_ be stratified, geological formations in the interior, coal measures, iron ore--all that civilization needs. Try again!” The next two casts brought up sea ferns, with more chunks of limestone and slate, but the third gave them a yellowish, heavy stone, sandy and streaked with brown. “Ore! Iron ore!” yelled the curator, before even the mud was washed off it. “Regular li’l’ scientific expedition of our own, eh, Dwight!” The boy took the next cast. He brought up a heavy, reddish stone that the curator examined with the greatest interest. “That’s cinnabar, red oxide of mercury, unless I miss my guess. It _may_ be red iron ore, but seems too crystalline for that. We’ll keep this, Dwight, until I can get back to the bungalow and make some chemical tests.” “Is it valuable?” asked the boy, curiously. “Very!” replied the curator, abstractedly. He was off on one of his mental explorations--explorer’s dreams for the future welfare of the world that come to him who opens up new territory for mankind. His very silence awakened a strange presentment of wonders to come in the boy’s mind. Gee! it was great to delve into the world’s secrets, where no white man had ever been before! He longed for the time for the New Guinea trip to come. A few days more on Aru, and then--into a wild and dangerous country, in search of new discoveries that might prove of the greatest value to the civilized world. It was wonderful to be part of this expedition! III PIRATE VISITATIONS