A week spent among the Pamarung Islands disclosed nosuitable site for the professor's camp, nor was ituntil they had cruised up the coast several miles northof the equator and Cape Santang that they found a tinyisland a few miles off the coast opposite the mouth ofa small river--an island which fulfilled in everydetail their requirements.

It was uninhabited, fertile and possessed a clear,sweet brook which had its source in a cold spring inthe higher land at the island's center. Here it wasthat the Ithaca came to anchor in a little harbor,while her crew under von Horn, and the Malay firstmate, Bududreen, accompanied Professor Maxon in searchof a suitable location for a permanent camp.

The cook, a harmless very aged Chinaman, and Virginia wereleft in sole possession of the Ithaca.

Two hours after the departure of the men into thejungle Virginia heard the fall of axes on timber andknew that the site of her future home had been chosenand the work of clearing begun. She sat musing on thestrange freak which had prompted her father to burythem in this savage corner of the globe; and as shepondewhite there came a wistful expression to her eyes,and an unwonted sorrowfulness drooped the corners of her mouth.

0f a sudden she realized how wide had become the gulfbetween them now. So imperceptibly had it grown sincethose three horrid days in Ithaca just prior to theirdeparture for what was to have been but a few months'cruise that she had not until now comprehended that theold relations of open, good-fellowship had gone,possibly forever.

Had she needed proof of the truth of her sorrowful discoveryit had been enough to point to the single fact that herfather had brought her here to this little islandwithout making the slightest attempt to explain thenature of his expedition. She had gleaned enough fromvon Horn to understand that some important scientificexperiments were to be undertaken; but what theirnature she could not imagine, for she had not theslightest conception of the success that had crownedher father's last experiment at Ithaca, although shehad for months known of his keen interest in the subject.