"Plothoy, wayleal ar Atvatabar!"
With the right hand he pointed to a continent rising above us, its mighty features being clearly visible to the naked eye.
CHAPTER XI.
WE LEARN ATVATABARESE.
This exclamation was a very puzzling phrase to us.
Professor Starbottle said: "It appears to me, gentlemen, before we can make any use of our prisoner we must first learn his language."
Again the stranger smote his breast, exclaiming: "Plothoy, wayleal ar Atvatabar."
"Well, of all the lingoes I iver heard," said Flathootly, "this is the worst case yet. It bates Irish, which is the toughest langwidge to larn undher the sun. What langwidge do you call that, sorr?"
Professor Goldrock, besides being a naturalist, was an adept in language. He stated that our captive appeared to be either a soldier or courier or coast-guard of his country, which was evidently indicated by the last word, Atvatabar. "Let us take for granted," said he, "that 'Plothoy' is his name and 'Atvatabar' his country. We have left the two words 'wayleal ar.' Now the pronunciation and grouping of the letters leads me to think that the words resemble the English language more nearly than any other tongue. The word 'wayleal' has the same number of letters as 'soldier' and 'courier,' and I note that the fourth and last letters are identical in both 'courier' and 'wayleal.' On the supposition that both words are identical we might compare them thus: