A TERRIBLE DISCOVERY. 223 CHAPTER XVIII. A TERRIBLE DISCOVERY. The morning of the i8th dawned, the day on which, according to Harris's prédiction, the travellers were to be safely housed at San Felice. Mrs. Weldon was really much relieved at the prospect, for she was aware that her strength must prove inadéquate to the strain of a more protracted joumey. The condition of her little boy, who was alternately flushed with fever, and pale with exhaustion, had begun to cause her great anxiety, and unwillîng to resign the care of the child even to Nan his faithful nurse, she insisted upon carrying him in her own arms. Twelve days and nights, passed in the open air, had done much to try her powers of endurance, and the charge of a sick child in addition would soon break down her strength entirely. Dick Sands, Nan, and the ncgroes had ail borne the march very fairly. Their stock of provisions, though of course considerably diminished, was still far from small. As for Harris, he had shown himself pre-cminently adapted for forest-life, and capable of bearing any amount of fatigue. Yet, strange to say, as he approached the end of the joumey, his manner underwent a remarkable change ; In- stead of conversîng in his ordinary frank and easy way, he became silent and preoccupied, as if engrossed in his own thoughts. Perhaps he had an instinctive consciousness that " his young frîend," as he was in the habit of addressing Dick, was entertaining hard suspicions about him. The march was resumed. The trees once again ceased to be crowded in impénétrable masses, but stood in
