"Yes," answered Godfrey. "He twice saved my life—once from a bear, once from a tiger—"
"The bear was sham! the tiger was sham!" laughed William W. Kolderup. "Both of them were stuffed with straw, and landed before you saw them with Jup Brass and his companions!"
"But he moved his head and his paws!"
"By means of a spring which Jup Brass had fixed during the night a few hours before the meetings which were prepared for you."
"What! all of them?" repeated Godfrey, a little ashamed at having been taken in by these artifices.
"Yes! Things were going too smoothly in your island, and we had to get up a little excitement!"
"Then," answered Godfrey, who had begun to laugh, "if you wished to make matters unpleasant for us, why did you send us the box which contained everything we wanted?"
"A box?" answered William W. Kolderup. "What box? I never sent you a box! Perhaps by chance—"
And as he said so he looked towards Phina, who cast down her eyes and turned away her head.
"Oh! indeed!—a box! but then Phina must have had an accomplice—"