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Rh recovered, and gave a hollow, unnatural laugh.

"Robert Menden always was fall of queer ideas. He was sick, and even the captain of the steamship thought he acted queerly. You know his story, but you don't know mine. What both of us are after here belongs to me."

"I guess it will belong to the first man who finds it."

Joseph Farvel grated his teeth. "It belongs to me—and I will have it. Now tell me where Menden is at this moment."

"I haven't the least idea."

"You want me to rescue you, don't you?"

"Would you be inhuman enough to leave me to such a fate as this?" demanded Dick, in horror.

"You got yourself in this box—I had nothing to do with it. How can you expect me to help you if you are not willing to help me?"

"I can do nothing for you, Joseph Farvel. But I would not leave a dog in such a helpless situation as this."

"I would—if the dog stood ready to do me an injury—and that is what you are ready to do, in helping Robert Menden."

So speaking, Farvel withdrew to a distance and consulted in a low tone with the Oarib who accompanied him.

The negro nodded, and then both hurried