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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, In Search of the Okapi, by Ernest Glanville
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: In Search of the Okapi
+       A Story of Adventure in Central Africa
+
+
+Author: Ernest Glanville
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 28, 2006  [eBook #17615]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN SEARCH OF THE OKAPI***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Charles Klingman
+
+
+
+IN SEARCH OF THE OKAPI
+
+A Story of Adventure in Central Africa
+
+by
+
+ERNEST GLANVILLE
+
+Author of "The Diamond Seekers" "The Fossicker" "Tales from the
+Veld" etc.
+
+Illustrated by William Rainey, R.I.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chicago A. C. McClurg & Co.
+1904
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+   CHAP.
+
+       I. THE HUNTER
+
+      II. A NOVEL CRAFT
+
+     III. THE CANOE ADRIFT
+
+      IV. THE STORY OF MUATA
+
+       V. TROUBLE BREWING
+
+      VI. THE FLIGHT
+
+     VII. THE THOUSAND ISLANDS
+
+    VIII. THE BULLS AND THE WILD DOGS
+
+      IX. A LION'S CHARGE
+
+       X. A NIGHT IN THE REEDS
+
+      XI. A TRAP
+
+     XII. THE MAN-EATERS
+
+    XIII. THE TREE-LION
+
+     XIV. THE OVERHEAD PATH
+
+      XV. FIGHT WITH A GORILLA
+
+     XVI. ACROSS THE LAGOON
+
+    XVII. THE PLACE OF REST
+
+   XVIII. THE FIGHT IN THE DEFILE
+
+     XIX. THE MAKER OF LAWS
+
+      XX. THE SECRET WAY
+
+     XXI. A VOICE FROM THE DEAD
+
+    XXII. A TERRIBLE NIGHT
+
+   XXIII. THROUGH THE VAULTS
+
+    XXIV. LETTING IN THE RIVER
+
+     XXV. THE CRY IN THE NIGHT
+
+
+
+IN SEARCH OF THE OKAPI
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE HUNTER
+
+"Dick, why do you study Arabic so closely?"
+
+"To understand Arabic."
+
+"And further?"
+
+Dick Compton closed his book and placed it carefully in a leather
+case.
+
+"It is a pity you were born curious, Venning, otherwise you would
+have made an excellent companion for a studious man.  'Why do I wish
+to understand Arabic?' Why do you stand on one leg watching a
+tadpole shed its tail."
+
+"Excuse me, I always sit down to watch a tadpole."
+
+"Yet I have seen you poised on one leg for an hour like a heron,
+afraid to put down the other foot lest you should scare some
+wretched pollywog. Why?"
+
+"I do it for the love of the thing, Dick. What is a page of your
+crooked signs compared with a single green pond and all that it
+holds?"
+
+"By Jove! Is that so--and would you find a volume in a caterpillar?"
+
+"Why not? Listen to me, Dick.  Take the silver-spiked caterpillar,
+with a skin of black satin and a length that runs to four inches. He
+lives his life in the topmost boughs of an African palm--a feathered
+dome amid the forest--and there beneath the blue sky he browses till
+he descends into the warm earth to sleep in chrysalis form before he
+emerges as a splendid moth, with glass windows in his wide wings to
+sail with the fire-flies through the dark vaults of the silent
+woods."
+
+"All that from a caterpillar?"
+
+"That and much more, Dicky."
+
+"And where will this study of the caterpillar lead you, Godfrey? One
+can't live on a caterpillar."
+
+"Yet there is one kind--fat and creamy--that makes good soup."
+
+"Ugh, you cormorant! But tell me seriously, what is the end of your
+studies--where will they lead you?"
+
+"To Central Africa."
+
+"Do you mean that, Venning?"
+
+"I do, Dick. There is one spot on the map of Africa that is marked
+black. That spot is covered over hundreds of square miles by the
+unexplored forest. Think what that means to me!"
+
+"Fever most likely--or three inches of spear-head."
+
+"A forest big enough to cover England! Just think of the new forms
+of life--from a new ant to an elephant or hornless giraffe. The
+okapi was discovered near that great hunting-ground--and, who is to
+say there are not other animals as strange in its untrodden depths?"
+
+"Is it a wild-fowl, the okapi?"
+
+"A wild-fowl, you duffer!" exclaimed Venning, indignantly. "Haven't
+you heard of the dwarfed giraffe, part zebra, discovered by Sir
+Harry Johnston? It lost the long neck of the original species which
+browses in the open veld by the necessity to adapt its habits to the
+changed conditions of life within the forest."
+
+"Your neck is rather long, my boy, from much stretching to watch
+things. Look out that you don't have it shortened. And so you intend
+to visit Central Africa? That is very curious!"
+
+"I don't see anything curious about it."
+
+"Nor do I, as to one thing.  If a fellow is crazy about butterflies,
+he may as well roam in Africa as a lunatic with a net as anywhere
+else; but the curious part of the matter is, that my study of Arabic
+is intended to prepare me for a trip to the very same place."
+
+"Compton, you don't mean it," said the other, jumping from his seat.
+
+"I do, most decidedly."
+
+"But what has Arabic got to do with the Central African Forest?"
+
+"Quite as much as your short-nosed elephant or long-tailed
+hippopotamus. I also wish to discover  something that has been lost.
+Don't open your mouth so wide."
+
+"Is it an animal, Dick?"
+
+"Good gracious, no! I don't care twopence about an animal, except it
+is for the pot, or unless it wants me for dinner. No; mine is
+another search.  It is connected with my father."
+
+"Yes," said Venning, quietly; for his friend had suddenly grown
+grave.
+
+"When I was a little chap, about seventeen years ago, my mother
+received a letter dated from the 'great forest.'"
+
+"It contained only these words, 'Good-bye.' With it there was a
+letter in Arabic, written by my father's headman. That letter was
+seven months on its travels, and since then no other word have I
+heard."
+
+Venning muttered something in sympathy.
+
+"My mother," continued the other, "died five years ago, without
+having learnt the meaning of the message in Arabic. She had a wish
+that no one but I should read the letter, and often she told me that
+if it contained any instructions or directions, I was to carry them
+out. Well, I have interpreted the Arabic signs."
+
+"Yes, Dick; and----"
+
+"And I can't quite make out the meaning. There is a reference to the
+journal my father kept, with the  statement that it was safely
+hidden; but then follows a reference to a Garden of Rest, to certain
+people who  protected him, and to a slave-trader who did him an
+injury. These references to me are a mystery; but what is clear is
+his desire to have his journal recovered from the Arab slave-dealer,
+described merely as 'The Wolf.'"
+
+"And that is why you wish to go to Central Africa?"
+
+"That is why, Venning. I must recover my father's journal if it
+exists; I must, if it is not too late, find out how he died; I must
+find out who are the wild people, and what is the Garden of Rest."
+
+"The Garden of Rest! That sounds peaceful, but it is very vague,
+Dick, as a direction. A garden in a forest hundreds of miles in
+length will take some finding."
+
+"I have a clue."
+
+"So."
+
+"There is mention of the 'gates' to the garden, whose summits 'are
+in the clouds'--twin mountains, I take it."
+
+"Even so, Dick, I think I should have more chance of finding my new
+animal than you would have of hitting off your garden."
+
+"Well, you know now why I have been studying Arabic. I have a little
+money, and no ties."
+
+"Like me. By Jove! why shouldn't we go out together?"
+
+"Because we have some sense, I suppose," said Compton, coolly. "Have
+you ever roughed it?"
+
+"I have slept out in the New Forest--often."
+
+"Oh, that's picnicking, with the bark of the fox in place of the
+lion's roar, and good food in place of 'hard tack,' and perhaps the
+attentions of a suspicious keeper instead of a surprise attack by
+wild men of the woods. An explorer needs experience."
+
+"Yes, and he must buy his own experience; but tell me how he can,
+unless he makes a beginning."
+
+"Now we come to the point, Venning. He should begin with some one
+who already has experience."
+
+"I see. And you will wait till some seasoned explorer kindly asks
+you to join him? You'll have to wait a precious long time."
+
+"I'm not so sure," said Dick Compton, with a knowing smile.
+
+"Have you found your explorer, Dick?" shouted Venning, eagerly.
+
+Compton produced a leather purse and extracted a slip of paper cut
+from an advertisement column, and passed it to his friend.
+
+"By Jove! eh, that's splendid!" spluttered Venning, in his
+excitement as he glanced at the paper.
+
+"Read it over."
+
+Venning read the notice--
+
+"A GENTLEMAN, who is an experienced traveler, being about to enter
+upon an expedition into Central Africa, would like to make
+arrangements with two young men of education and of means to bear a
+share of the expenses to accompany him.--Apply, for further
+particulars, to D. H., No. 109  Box, Office of this paper."
+
+"Let us write at once to D. H.," he said eagerly.
+
+"I have seen him."
+
+Venning took a deep breath and stared at his friend.
+
+"I saw him this very morning," said Compton, quietly.
+
+"And----------"
+
+"He said you were too young! Eh? Go on--go on!"
+
+"And I told him I thought I could find a friend who would join me."
+
+"You mean to say that he agreed to take you?" cried Venning, jumping
+up.
+
+Compton nodded.
+
+"Oh, splendid! And you will take me to him? You're a brick. What is
+he like, eh? Is he old or young, eh?"
+
+Compton kept cool outwardly, but he could not subdue the glitter of
+his dark eyes, or keep the colour out of his cheeks.
+
+"He is about five feet four. I can look over his head."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"There are grey hairs in his beard."
+
+"Quite old; old and little! What bad luck! He will have to look up
+to us."
+
+"Well, you know, he can't help being small, can he?"
+
+"I suppose, like most little men, he is as vain as he can stick,
+bumptious, and fidgety," said Venning, despondently.
+
+"He struck me as being very quiet. At any rate, you can judge for
+yourself, as we are due to see him within half an hour. You must
+tell him that you are a naturalist, as he intends writing a book, in
+which a great deal of space will be given to animals. He said he
+felt a 'bit shaky on his pins' when it came to scientific terms."
+
+"I should be glad to help him there," said Venning; "but it is too
+good. He would never take a youngster like me."
+
+"He said he would rather have a youngster who would carry out his
+own views about treating a subject, than a man who would try to
+teach him his business. Come along and see him for yourself."
+
+"Within half an hour the two friends who had just left school
+entered a room which was part library, part museum, armoury, dining-
+room, and cabin, so crammed it was.
+
+"This is my friend Venning, Mr. Hume."
+
+"Glad to see you, Venning. Sit down anywhere."
+
+Compton sat down between the horns of a bleached buffalo skull, but
+Venning stood like one in a trance. His hand had been swallowed up
+by a huge palm and thick iron-like fingers, and he was staring down
+on a pair of the broadest shoulders he had seen, with an arching
+chest to match. This was the pigmy he had imagined--this man with
+the shoulders of a giant and the chest of a Hercules. Then his eyes
+ranged over the walls, gradually recovering their animation.
+
+"Know 'em," said Mr. Hume, waving a bronzed hand towards the wall.
+
+"I think so, sir."
+
+"Just reel off the names."
+
+Venning reeled off the names of a score or more of animals without
+hesitation, and Mr. Hume looked pleased.
+
+"There are some men," he said, "who come in here and talk over me
+and round me and under me about fur and feather, and they can't tell
+a bighorn from a koodoo by the horns on the wall. Now, my friend,
+you knew those over there in the corner were the horns of a koodoo,
+but do you know his habits?"
+
+"No, sir; but I spent a month watching a Dartmoor deer."
+
+"A month! Can't learn anything in a month, boy; but you've struck
+the right book. The pages that are spread out under the sky hold the
+right teaching, for those who wish to learn about animals. There are
+writers who make a study of structure; they argue from bones, and
+classify; but bones don't tell us about the living flesh and blood.
+You take my meaning?"
+
+"You make a difference between the structure of animals and their
+habits."
+
+"That's so, my lad. Ever read Jeffreys, and the sketches by the 'Son
+of the Marshes'?"
+
+"They're splendid."
+
+Mr. Hume nodded and filled a pipe, having a footlong stem, made out
+of the wing-bone of an albatross.
+
+"I want to describe the personal habits of animals in their
+surroundings. I said 'personal' habits. Do you take me?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"You think I should use another word, and say, perhaps,
+'distinctive' habits. I say personal. Now, you take a lion--a bush
+lion or a veld lion, a yellow lion or a black lion, young or old.
+That lion, whichever one you take, is a lion by himself. He's got
+his own character and his own experience. All lions have ways in
+common because they're built alike. They're heavy and muscular
+because they've got to pull down big game; and because they're heavy
+they move slowly, and because they move slowly they've got to adopt
+common tactics in hunting. Good; but one lion differs from another,
+and so with other animals, right away through the list. So, I say,
+one must study the personal habits of animals in their own back
+yard, so to say, before he can give a true description of them. Do
+you take my meaning?"
+
+"I should like nothing better than to study animals in their home,"
+said the boy, burning with excitement.
+
+"And the two of you think you would like to join me in my
+expedition?"
+
+Mr. Hume looked at them out of calm yellowish eyes as if he were
+studying them.
+
+"We should," they said eagerly.
+
+"Think it will turn out a picnic--a glorified sort of camping-out,
+with black fellows to wait on you, and a lot of shooting and
+fishing? Is that your idea?"
+
+"We were talking about that this morning," said Compton, "and we
+came to the conclusion that exploring was hard work. We are prepared
+for rough living."
+
+"That's right. And you tell me that you are free to go without
+giving anxiety to relatives, eh?"
+
+"We neither of us have near relatives."
+
+Mr. Hume stood up and felt each one over in turn, making them draw
+deep breaths.
+
+"Seem sound," he mused, "in wind and limb. But there is one thing.
+The great danger in Central Africa is from fever--not from animals
+or blacks." Here he took down a bottle of white powder, and placed a
+large pinch in a wine-glass of water.  "Quinine is the traveler's
+stand-by, but there are some who cannot take quinine, It has no
+effect on them, and such people have no business to set foot in
+fever districts. Drink this?"
+
+Compton emptied the glass with a wry face, and Venning, when his
+turn came, shuddered; but they got the dose down, and smiled.
+
+"Now," said Mr. Hume, "you both of you give me references to the
+headmaster of your school, and I will give you one in return. I will
+make inquiries about you, and I would advise you to make inquiries
+about me. You can come back here to-morrow afternoon, and if we are
+mutually satisfied, we will then fix up a contract."
+
+"I don't think we require a reference," said Venning.
+
+"Why not?" said Mr. Hume, sharply.
+
+"Because," blurted out Venning, turning red--"because you have lived
+among animals."
+
+Mr. Hume laughed heartily with a deep rumbling laugh.
+
+"Animals are tricky, boy; and yet," he added, "there may be a
+meaning in what you say. They have a dignity in death that is grand.
+Go and make your inquiries, lads. I am Dave Hume, the hunter, and my
+life has been passed in wild lands, but there are some in London who
+know me."
+
+He rose up to open the door, and Venning overtopped him by inches,
+yet he did not look either small or unwieldy. His step was springy,
+and his head, poised on a massive neck, was well set, with the chin
+raised. He was a man, evidently, who had always looked the world
+straight in the face. His eyes had a yellowish tinge, and in their
+colour and their calm they reminded Venning somehow of a lion, an
+impression heightened by the tawny hue of a long beard.
+
+The next day, the references having been satisfactorily followed up,
+the contract was entered upon, and the two boys paid over the sum of
+Pounds 50 each to David Hume, who in his turn agreed to let them
+share in any profits which the expedition might make, from any
+source whatever.
+
+"Profits, Mr. Hume?" they asked.
+
+"Profits from hunting, from trading, or from discovery. I don't say
+that we shall make anything. The chances are, of course, that we may
+lose all before we are a month out, but it is always well to be
+business-like. There is gold in Central Africa. We may discover a
+gold reef. There are new animals in the forest. We may catch an
+okapi, and if we could land it in England it would fetch a large
+sum. We might snare a live gorilla, and there is not a gorilla in
+the zoological gardens of Europe."
+
+"A gorilla!" said Venning, thinking of a picture he had seen of an
+erect man-ape bending a rifle-barrel into an arch as if it were a
+cane.
+
+"A gorilla!" said Compton. "I should like to find the Garden of
+Rest."
+
+"You have heard his story, Mr. Venning?" said the hunter, nodding
+his head at Compton.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Well, it was because of that story that I have taken you two into
+my expedition; otherwise I should have been obliged to decline your
+services on account of your youth. But the story interested me, and
+I will do my best to help Compton in his search."
+
+"Thank you," said Compton, quietly.
+
+"The Garden of Rest!" mused the hunter. "That, I take it, would be
+an Arabian phrase; for such a term would not occur to a native, who
+is too often idle to  attach much value to a state of rest. It
+sounds peaceful;  but I have it in my mind that if we ever reach the
+place,  it will be only after much hard work, much suffering, and
+danger. You understand that this is no pleasure excursion?"
+
+"We do, sir," said Compton; "yet we expect to get much pleasure from
+the expedition."
+
+"Another word. I am not an exacting man; but there is one thing I
+will not tolerate, and that is disobedience. It is well to
+understand that now;" and there came a stern expression into those
+singular eyes.
+
+"That is only right," said Compton; and Venning agreed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A NOVEL CRAFT
+
+A month was devoted to preparation--a month that was full of
+pleasure to the two friends, for they came into close touch with
+Dave Hume the hunter, and learnt to regard him almost as a brother.
+Ordinarily, he was curt in his speech and cold in manner, especially
+with strangers; but at night, when he had shed his boots and coat,
+he would talk to them freely of his hunting experiences, and listen
+with interest to their opinions. He never laughed at their mistakes,
+nor damped their enthusiasm, but he got the best out of them by a
+fine courtesy that seemed part of his nature.
+
+Thus it was that when, early in the first week, Venning said he had
+an idea for a boat that could be easily carried round the cataracts
+and worked without much labour, he was at once encouraged to give
+plans and specifications.
+
+"I read once about a 'sneak-box'--a flat-bottomed shooting canoe--
+that could carry a sail and serve at the same time as a cabin."
+
+"I have used one myself duck-shooting. Go on."
+
+"Well, sir, I built a boat on the plan given, and spent a holiday
+one year on the Broads. It drew very little water, and was easily
+managed. However, you know all that. But what I was thinking about
+was a design for a larger boat of the kind, with a propeller
+attached to it which could be worked by lever."
+
+"By a lever?"
+
+"Perhaps you have seen a lame man working a bicycle by a lever--
+well, after that principle. There would be a steel rod with cog-
+wheels, and one man could work the lever as the lame cyclist does
+without the labour of  rowing." Venning waited nervously for the
+criticism.
+
+"At any rate the lever would be a relief after the paddles," said
+Mr. Hume, gravely.
+
+"But that is not all," continued the inventor, hastily. "I would rig
+up a light American windmill amidships, which could work the screw
+and get more speed with a following wind in conjunction with a sail
+rigged up forward."
+
+"Bravo, my boy!" said Mr. Hume, laughing. "How many revolutions of
+the screw to the minute do you expect to get out of your windmill?"
+
+"That depends on the power of the wind, sir. Do you think it is a
+mad scheme?"
+
+"It would impress the natives," said Compton, "and at any rate we
+could start wheat-milling, you know, in case we came to the end of
+our resources."
+
+"There's no wheat in Central Africa, you duffer! Besides, sir, it's
+mainly a question of gear. With a lever, cog-wheels, and a running
+chain after the pattern of the cycle chain, one could----"
+
+"And ball bearings," suggested Compton, slyly.
+
+"Yes; and ball bearings--the friction would be reduced, and we could
+get more power out of a screw and propeller than we could from four
+paddles."
+
+"You may be right," said Mr. Hume, thoughtfully.
+
+"We don't want to take a large party, and I confess the water
+transport has bothered me very much. The wind-mill, I am afraid, we
+must leave to some other time, but the other part of your scheme is
+worth placing before practical men, and I will give you a letter to
+a friend of mine who had a boat built on the Thames."
+
+Venning saw the friend the very next day; the friend gave him an
+introduction to a member of a great firm of torpedo-boat builders on
+the Thames, and this gentleman very kindly gave the matter five
+minutes' attention.
+
+"Your idea, eh?" said the great designer. "Explain what advantage
+you expect to gain."
+
+"Less labour in working than with paddles, and greater speed."
+
+"Humph! Well, my lad, you leave the matter with me, and I will
+report. You can look over the yards if you like."
+
+Venning spent the rest of the morning among the wicked-looking
+sharks of the Navy, and he went back depressed with the thought that
+his "sneak-box" was merely a plaything. However, he picked up
+confidence when the next day brought an offer from the builders to
+turn out an aluminium sneak-box in three divisions, with capacity
+for a crew of six, to be worked on occasion by two men pulling at
+levers, driving the propeller by means of endless chains and cog-
+wheels, the gear to be made of best oil-tempered nickel-steel, with
+hardened ball bearings. Each division, when detached, of such weight
+that it could be easily carried by three men, but no guarantee given
+that the propeller would give the speed desired.
+
+"That is good enough for us, I think," said Mr. Hume.
+
+"They give no guarantee," remarked Compton, cautiously.
+
+"No; but they would not undertake the work unless they had some
+belief in the idea, and if the propeller proves useless, we can at
+the worst unship it. In any case we must have the boat, and we could
+not improve on the makers."
+
+The order was given, and by the fourth week the little boat was
+launched on the Thames for its first trial. It looked workmanlike in
+spite of its wide beam and shallow draught, for the great designer
+who had fashioned the lines of the fastest destroyer afloat had
+himself drawn up the plans after giving a day's careful thought to
+the job. The shaft, which rested on nickel-steel sockets, with ball
+bearings supported by nickel-steel ribs for lightness, was protected
+by a water-tight casing, and all the other parts made of the very
+best metal, so as to secure both lightness and strength, with a
+complicated set of cog-wheels to take off the strain. The steering
+was by a neat wheel right forward, where the look-out man could have
+an uninterrupted view. Forward, too, was the socket for the metal
+mast. The boat was fifteen feet in length, with a beam of four feet
+amidships, tapering fore and aft, with a well in the centre, and the
+remaining space covered in with a light aluminium deck, strengthened
+by oak bends. There was sleeping-room for two, so that with a crew
+of four there would have to be four watches of three hours each. The
+peculiar features of the long, low craft were the two levers rising
+above the after-deck through slots, which gave each a thrust of
+about one and a half feet, and two  saddle-like seats borne on stout
+supports, one near the stem facing the bows, and the other further
+forward facing the stem. Venning perched himself on one seat,
+Compton on the other, one of the hands took the wheel, and Mr. Hume
+and the designer sat in the well.
+
+Compton's clear-cut face, with well-formed jaws, showed no other
+sign of interest than a rather amused smile, but Venning's fair
+features were flushed with excitement and nervous expectation, A man
+pushed the boat out. It moved at first sluggishly.
+
+"Full speed ahead!" cried out Mr. Hume.
+
+Venning pulled his lever over, and as he shot it back Compton pulled
+his, the two moving to and fro easily as if they had been rowing a
+steady stroke.
+
+"She moves, she moves!" cried Mr. Hume, with a shout.
+
+"Take her over the mile," said the designer to the steersman; and he
+pulled out his watch with exactly the same look of calm interest he
+showed when presiding over the trial of the fastest craft afloat.
+
+The shining aluminium boat answered to her helm, slipped through the
+muddy waters in a graceful curve, and then steadied for the straight
+course.
+
+"Let her go, boys."
+
+The levers worked to and fro with an easy swing; there rose the hum
+of the chains moving easily below, and the quickened churning of the
+propeller blades.
+
+The designer glanced from his watch to the bank, which was fast
+slipping away, and nodded his head at Mr. Hume.
+
+"Easy all. I think she will do;" and he nodded at Venning. "Ten
+minutes."
+
+"Ten minutes!"
+
+"A mile in ten minutes--six miles an hour!"
+
+"And it was as easy as nothing," said Venning--"wasn't it, Dick?"
+
+"Like cutting bread," said Compton.
+
+"Very good, I think; but you must remember that she carries no
+cargo. Now we'll try her with the sail alone, and then with the sail
+and screw combined, and then with the screw and oars, for you will
+see that I have fitted row-locks."
+
+Under a fair breeze the boat skimmed along at a merry pace, with no
+wave worth speaking of; and with the sail and screw she put on an
+additional four miles, and with the oars an extra three, making from
+nine to ten miles an hour.
+
+"I congratulate you, Mr. Venning," said the designer, as they
+stepped out, thoroughly pleased.
+
+"I am sure, sir, we thank you," said the boy, warmly.
+
+"Eight," said Mr. Hume; "and we are thoroughly pleased with the
+craft, every one of us."
+
+"She is a beauty," put in Compton--"a real beauty; and I think she
+would be perfect if a light awning could be fixed up over the after-
+deck."
+
+"That could be done easily.
+
+"It would be an improvement, certainly," said Mr. Hume.
+
+"I will rig up brackets to hold the rods for the awning."
+
+"And we could fix up mosquito curtains round the sides. That is A 1.
+Now, what is her name to be?" And Mr. Hume looked at Venning.
+
+He had thought of a name, and was prompt with it--the Okapi.
+
+"And what does that mean?" asked the builder, with a smile.
+
+Venning explained, and the name was adopted.
+
+"Now," said the builder, "if Mr. Venning will come down to-morrow
+afternoon, my workmen will take the Okapi to pieces in his presence
+before packing it for delivery in the docks, and explain thoroughly
+how it is to be put together. I will give orders for several extra
+plates with fittings to be placed in one of the divisions, so that
+if you have an accident you will have the material for repairing the
+mischief. You understand, aluminium cannot be soldered, but you
+could cover a hole by means of nuts and screws."
+
+Venning was in time next day to receive his instructions, and made
+in his note-book an outline sketch of each part. While he was so
+engaged, Mr. Hume, with Compton, were seeing the outfit packed for
+the steamer, every purchase having been made with great judgment, so
+that nothing superfluous figured in the list. Their armament
+consisted of one double express for Mr. Hume, two sporting carbines
+for the boys, three Mauser revolvers, and one fowling-piece, strong
+hunting-knives, as well as four Ghoorka knives for cutting a path
+through the forest. As far as possible all their food-stuff was
+concentrated in tabloids and essences; each had his own special tin-
+lined  medicine-case, in addition to the common drug-chest; each
+his own water-bottle of double canvas, a material which, permitting
+evaporation, keeps the water cool; and each his regulation "billy,"
+or cooking-tin. As for clothing, it was a mixture of luxury and
+rough wear, of the best silk underwear, cellular shirts of a light
+blue, and yellow chamois-skin breeches, warranted to grow tougher
+with use. Putties were discarded, as likely to give harbourage to
+"jiggers," which bore into the toes, in favour of soft leather high
+boots, tightly fastened at the knee; and the outfit included needles
+for the making of moccasins, or  veld schoen, from the hides of the
+larger antelope.
+
+"Why do you select all blue shirts, Mr. Hume?" asked Venning.
+
+"On account of the mosquitoes."
+
+"Consider the feeling of the gorillas," said Compton, dryly.
+"Perhaps they would prefer green."
+
+"They may find us green enough for their taste, Compton; but I am
+not joking. Mosquitoes have a preference for some colours and an
+aversion for others. They dislike blue most of all, so you see I
+have a purpose in selecting blue--not only for the shirts, but for
+the mosquito curtains."
+
+"All these precautions for a wretched fly."
+
+"Exactly. A mosquito's gimlet carries more terrors for the explorer
+than the elephant's trunk, and his hum is more dreaded than the roar
+of the lion. The mosquito is fever-winged, alert, and bloodthirsty.
+He carries the germs of malaria with him; and malaria kills off more
+men than all the reptiles and wild animals combined."
+
+"Is there no way of fighting?" asked Compton, impressed.
+
+"Oh ay; they are fighting him on the West Coast by draining the
+swamps, where he breeds about the villages. But who can drain the
+swamps of the Congo, or let light into the Great Forest?"
+
+"Then we stand a fair chance to catch malaria?"
+
+"A better chance," said Mr. Hume, grimly, "than we have of catching
+the okapi. Fear the mosquito, but at the same time take every
+precaution against its attack. I have an idea myself that nature has
+provided a safeguard."
+
+"Quinine?" said Venning.
+
+"Quinine is an antidote. I mean a preventive--but that is your
+department, Venning. It will be one of your duties to study the
+little brute, and you may make a great discovery, for instance, it
+has been discovered that the mosquito dislikes certain colours. Why?
+It may be that he would show more distinctly on one colour than on
+another, and so fall an easy victim to an insect-eating bird. But it
+may be that the leaves of some plant of a particular hue, or the
+juices of the plant, are distasteful to the insect. Flies don't like
+the leaves of the blue-gum, and I guess mosquitoes have their likes
+and dislikes. Find the plant they dislike, and we may defy them."
+
+They had no accommodation for such a luxury as a tent, but instead
+they purchased canvas hammocks, each with a waterproof covering, and
+a roll of green canvas with strong eyelet-holes, to serve the
+purpose of a tent, in addition to a canvas awning with bamboo rods,
+to cover the whole boat in case they were not able to land for any
+length of time.
+
+It was a pleasant time for the boys, and when at last they were
+pitching down the Channel into the Bay of Biscay, having meanwhile
+passed through a miserable twenty-four hours, they inhaled the
+strong salt air and clapped each other on the back.
+
+It was grand!
+
+They stood in the bows, one hand on the rail, the other on the brim
+of a hat, and tasted the salt with a smack of the lips. The wind
+blew its life into their eyes, brightened them, toughened their
+skins, reddened them, and the spray, drying on the red, softened the
+colour to a fine healthy brown. Then the good ship heeled over and
+rolled back with a swing of the yards, and the first roller from the
+Atlantic went majestically by. They were on the old, old track of
+the adventurers, of the sea-rovers, of the great captains, of the
+empire builders, and before them, far off in the fastness of the
+Dark Continent, was the Great Forest with all its secrets fast held.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE CANOE ADRIFT
+
+They passed in time the rocks that guard Madeira, the green bay of
+Funchal, the peak of Teneriffe, and then the ship turned on its heel
+to the West Coast, and, while yet a thousand miles away, was
+welcomed by two messengers--a shrike and a hawk-moth, who had sailed
+along some upper current of air with red sand from the Sahara to
+filter down at last on to a firm resting-place.
+
+They went away down into the Gulf of Guinea, and with many a call by
+the way to discharge cargo,  approached the mouth of the Congo,
+whose flood gave a tawny colour to the sea. So far they had seen
+nothing but the squalid fringe of the Continent, and the damp heat
+had steamed them and tried them, but the young explorers had not
+lost the fine edge of their imagination. They knew that hundreds of
+miles back in the unexplored heart of the land there were secrets to
+be unraveled, and though they shed their warmer clothing, they
+retained their ardour. The river somewhere in its far reaches held
+for them, and them alone, new forms of life--the  grandfather of all
+the crocodiles, a mammoth hippo; and  somewhere in the forest was
+some huge gorilla waiting to offer them battle. Moreover, were these
+not the gates of the Place of Rest?
+
+"Surely," said Compton, as they steamed slowly into the night off
+the mouth of the great river, "thy slave is not cast down because
+the black children of the mud-house at our last calling-place did
+mock us with their mouths, and the man, their father, wore the silk
+hat and frock-coat of civilization?"
+
+"Perish the thought," said Venning, throwing a banana peel at a
+brilliant flash of phosphorescent light in the oily waters. "Yet the
+man-who-was-tired, he of the parchment face, who sat on a verandah
+with his feet on the rail, prophesied that within seven days we
+should be sighing for English bacon in the country where a white man
+could breathe."
+
+"There is no snap in the air; but I can breathe freely. See;" and
+Compton took a deep breath.
+
+"That is the teaching of the hunter," said Venning, wisely. "Deep
+breathing gives a man deep lungs. That is his teaching. Also this,
+that a man should keep his skin clean and his muscles supple by hard
+rubbing after the bath. Therefore, I did ask the bo'sun to turn the
+hose on us in the morning when they clean down the decks. It is good
+friction."
+
+"And he has another saying--that it is good for the skin to apply
+oil with the palm of the hand till the skin reddens. I have a smell
+about me like a blue gum-tree, for the ointment he gave contains
+eucalyptus oil."
+
+"And the fat of a goat. There is much virtue in goats' fat, and the
+eucalyptus is not to the taste of the trumpeter."
+
+"The mosquito?"
+
+"Even so."
+
+"Then why don't you say so in good English?" and Compton dropped
+away from his high-flown speech. "I bet that's a shark kicking up
+all that phosphorescence."
+
+"He swims in fire, like the--like the----"
+
+"Sprat!"
+
+"Like Apollo, you lean-minded insect. With every sweep of his tail
+he sends out diadems of liquid gems, and his broad nose shovels fire
+before him like a----"
+
+"Stoker. Exactly; and if we had a lump of fat pork and a hook we
+could drag him up and collect a basketful of jewels.  I dare say he
+is leering up at us with a green and longing eye."
+
+"Did you hear that cry?" asked Venning, suddenly.
+
+"No." "Was it the shark whispering, do you think?"
+
+"Shut up and listen."
+
+They leant over the rail and peered into the night. The drowsy air
+throbbed to the measured beat of the engines, but they scarcely
+noticed that accustomed sound.
+
+"There it is again."
+
+"Yes. I heard something like a sheep bleating."
+
+"Would a sheep be swimming out here, you ass?"
+
+"The shark's off--look!" and they saw a streak of fire shoot
+forward.
+
+"And there goes another. By Jove, they must have heard the cry!"
+
+"I'm sorry for the sheep then," muttered Compton.
+
+They bent far forward, listening intently, and following the course
+taken by the sharks as defined by the gleaming wake. The leadsman
+swung out the sounder as the vessel slackened down with a yell from
+the escape-valve that drowned all other sounds with its deafening
+clamour.
+
+"By the deep nine!" cried a bass voice.
+
+The bell in the engine-room signaled the skipper's order, and the
+ship felt her way once more. Again there was silence, save for the
+throb of the engines and the grating of the steering-chain at
+intervals.
+
+"I have not heard the cry again," said Compton.
+
+"Can you see anything over there--follow the line of my finger--
+there, just by that gleam?"
+
+"Yes; I think there is something."
+
+"Then I think the captain ought to know;" and Venning ran off first
+to Mr. Hume.
+
+"Something afloat, eh?" and Mr. Home rose from his deck-chair.
+
+"Some one in distress, I think," They went on to the bridge, and
+Venning began his story; but the captain cut him short by wheeling
+round to the rail.
+
+"Ahoy, there--ahoy!"
+
+A startling response came in a long, quivering wail out of the dark
+sea.
+
+"By the lord," muttered the captain, "what's that?"
+
+"Jackal," said Mr. Hume.
+
+"Impossible! We are miles from the shore."
+
+"Jackal, sure enough. Maybe sent adrift by a flood, and taken to a
+tree."
+
+The captain laughed. "I thought it was a hoodoo at least.  Well,
+lad"--turning to Venning--"you don't want me to pick up a creature
+like that?"
+
+"I don't think it is far away, sir. I think I see a tree or boat,
+and if you would lower me over the bows and ease the vessel----"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Perhaps I could pick it up."
+
+"You are not afraid of being bitten?"
+
+"I think it would know I meant it good."
+
+The skipper laughed good-humouredly. "Well, you're a plucky lad,
+and, at any rate, I'd not be losing time." He touched the bell, and
+motioned to the steersman. The ship slowed down and came round. "Mr.
+Bobbins, just sling this young gentleman over the port-bows, and
+have a light lowered.  Do you still stick to your bargain?"
+
+Venning answered by sliding off the bridge and climbing up into the
+bows, where a knot of sailors had gathered at the gangway. A rope
+was looped round his thigh, so as to give his arms play, and two men
+stood to pay him over and down.
+
+"Here she is!" sang out the mate.
+
+The bell rang out, "Stop her," and Venning went over, catching the
+rope above his head with his left hand, and taking a turn round with
+his right foot. There was a scraping sound against the side of the
+vessel.
+
+"I've got hold," he shouted. "It's a tree--no, a boat." Then, "By
+Jove!"
+
+"What is it?" cried several together, excited by the startled
+exclamation.
+
+"Lower the light!" The lantern sank over the side, but those above
+could not see well because of the bulge of the hull.
+
+"Now lower me. I shall get in and make fast."
+
+"Take care!" cried Mr. Hume.
+
+"Look out for the sharks, sir," sang out a sailor. "There's one
+coming up."
+
+"Lower away, please--quick!"
+
+The men lowered. "That's right. I'm in the boat, or whatever it is.
+Now let down the lantern."
+
+Those leaning over the side saw Venning reach up for the lantern,
+and then they heard a snarling and snapping.
+
+"Stand ready to haul in!" cried the captain. "That brute will attack
+the boy. One of you men go down."
+
+The snarling continued, mingled with soothing cries from Venning;
+and then the weird howl burst forth anew, daunting the sailor who
+was carrying out the captain's order.
+
+The mate stepped forward. "Stand aside!" he cried, and swung himself
+over and down. He reached Venning's  side, and they saw him peering
+about him.
+
+"By thunder!" he muttered.
+
+"What is it?" demanded the captain, irritably. "D'ye expect me to
+spend the whole night here?"
+
+"A minute, sir. Let over a running tackle, and we'll have the whole
+thing aboard."
+
+"Lively there! Lower the tackle, and don't stand staring with your
+mouths open. Swing out those davits."
+
+The davits swung out, the tackle ran through the pulleys into the
+water with a splash, and the mate shifted the unknown craft, with
+its mysterious freight, amidships. A few moments he occupied in
+getting the tackle into position.
+
+"Haul in!" he shouted.
+
+"Heave!" roared the captain, in a state of high excitement; and the
+sailors, wrought up to a pitch, heaved with a will.
+
+The captain, Mr. Hume, and Compton, peering over the side, saw a
+long, narrow canoe rising up, with the forms of the mate and Venning
+standing amidships, and some huddled object aft.
+
+The canoe swung clear of the rails, the tackle was made fast, the
+davits swung in, and then the canoe was slowly lowered to the main
+deck.
+
+"Why, it's a man," shouted Compton.
+
+"And a dog," muttered the sailors, falling back. "With a mouthful of
+teeth."
+
+The mate and Venning stepped out as the canoe reached the deck, and
+the mate turned the lantern full on the huddled group, showing a
+jackal, with raised mane and bared teeth, crouching over the
+prostrate form of a man, whose teeth also were bared, and whose eyes
+seemed to glare with the same fury that showed in the flaming green
+eyes of the animal.
+
+"What a pair of demons!"
+
+"The man is gagged and bound, captain," said Venning.  "If the cook
+will bring a piece of meat for the jackal, I think I can get to the
+man without trouble."
+
+"You've done very well, Venning," said Mr. Hume, quietly. "Leave
+this matter to me; it is more in my line."
+
+With his eyes on the jackal, he placed his hand on the side of the
+canoe and moved forward gently while he spoke in Kaffir. "Peace,
+little friend," were his words, as he afterwards explained to the
+amazed captain. "We are hunters both, eh? We know each other, eh?
+There is no harm in me towards you. You know it, little hunter; you
+know it well."
+
+It was strange to hear the deep accents of an unknown tongue,
+strange to see a man using speech in complete gravity to a wild
+animal, but stranger than all to note the effect on the animal
+itself.
+
+At first the red mouth opened wide and the green eyes flamed up, but
+as the strong hand crept nearer, the glare went out under the steady
+gaze of the man's tawny eyes, and next, with a whimper, the jackal
+crept forward on its stomach, till the sharp black nose smelt the
+man's hand.
+
+"We are friends, little hunter, we three;" and the great fingers
+passed over the yellow body up towards the face of the bound man.
+"Friends--together--for we are hunters all--you, myself, and this
+poor one here with his speech cut off." "We will see to that, eh?"
+The fingers were on the man's face, and with a twist the gag was
+out, and the man drew in his breath with a great sob.
+
+"Ow--ay, that is better; now a little water."
+
+Still keeping his eyes fixed on the man and his beast, Mr. Hume held
+out a hand for a cup, and with a moistened handkerchief bathed the
+cracked and swollen lips. The eyes of both the man and his beast
+continued fixed on the hunter, following his every movement, and
+never straying to the ring of faces round, showing white in the
+glare of the light. The strong fingers moved swiftly here and there,
+loosening the hide ropes that bound the legs and arms, and then
+rubbing ointment with a strong smell of eucalyptus into the bruised
+skin.
+
+"So--now a little broth for the man, cook, and a scrap of meat for
+the jackal. Gently, gently, cook; don't scare them, and don't crowd
+in, you others."
+
+"Ay, ay," burst out the captain, in a sudden fury. "What's the whole
+ship's company doing here? Is this a garden-party, Mr. Robbins?"
+
+"Get forward!" roared the mate, in a voice that sent the jackal
+almost crazy with renewed fright; and at the creature's wild cry the
+sailors hurried off, muttering that they had taken a whole cargo of
+misfortune aboard.
+
+The hunter looked reproachfully at the mate, who was mounting to the
+bridge, and then began once more to soothe the frightened animal,
+which in time took a bit of raw meat he proffered.  The man drank
+his broth, and then sat up to stare about him with quick glances.
+When lying down he had seemed black, but, now that he was in the
+light, it was seen that he was more mahogany than black, with a more
+prominent nose and thinner lips than are usually found with the
+negroid stock. His hair, however, was in little tufts, and the white
+of his eyes had the smoky hue of the negro. As he sat, Mr. Hume
+rubbed the back of his neck, and fed him with broth, a mouthful at a
+time, and as this went on the fierce black eyes again and again
+returned from their swift, suspicious range to the hunter's face.
+
+"He seems to grow stronger," said Venning.
+
+"Fetch a rug from my cabin; we will make him a bed in his own canoe.
+He will rest easier there till the morning."
+
+The rug was brought, and the man nodded his head as it was arranged
+comfortably; then, with another long intent look at the hunter, he
+settled himself down with a sigh, spoke a word to his strange
+companion, which at once curled itself at his feet, and was asleep.
+
+"Now, boys," said Mr. Hume, "you go to bed. I will watch here, and
+in the morning, maybe, we will find out the mystery."
+
+In the morning the steamer was on the yellow waters of the Congo,
+and the boys forgot even about the strange couple in their first
+view of the mighty river; but the sight of a native-manned canoe,
+shooting out from the mist which hung in wisp over the waters,
+recalled the incident. They found Mr. Hume in an easy-chair,
+drinking his early morning cup of coffee, and at his feet,
+stretching along the scuppers, was the canoe, still with its crew
+aboard and asleep, though the jackal slept apparently with one eye
+open.  The canoe was, they saw, made out of a single tree-trunk, and
+was thickly coated with the slime of the river, a heavy, sodden,
+roughly shaped craft, most unlike the light boat that skimmed into
+view from out the mist.
+
+"What do you make of it?" said Mr. Hume, after the two boys had made
+a long inspection.
+
+"It seems to me," said Venning, "that the jackal has a very dark
+coat."
+
+"That is so; it is unusually dark. What does that suggest to you?"
+
+"Well, as the colour is adapted to the nature of the country in
+which the animal hunts, I should say that the jackal came from a
+wooded district."
+
+"Good. And what is your opinion, Compton?"
+
+Compton bent down to examine the bows.  "Look here, sir," he said;
+"there is a prayer to Allah carved in Arabic on a leaden medallion,
+and fixed into the wood."
+
+"Is that so?" and the hunter looked at the signs with interest. "I
+had not seen that. And it means----"
+
+"That Arabs had something to do with the making of the canoe."
+
+"Umph! I doubt very much if it is Arab-built. That talisman may have
+been found by a native and fixed on--though that is impossible;" and
+Mr. Hume pondered. "The Arabs may have taken the canoe from the
+native owner and fixed in the medallion."
+
+"He's awake," said Venning; and the three of them saw that the man,
+without so much as a movement of surprise at his awakening under
+such altered circumstances, was keenly observing them.
+
+After he had gravely inspected each in turn, he sat up and raised
+his hand in salutation. The rug slipped off his shoulders, showing
+his bare breast, with every rib exposed, and clearly outlined in
+blue was the form of an animal.
+
+"A totem!" exclaimed the hunter.
+
+"Otter," said Venning.
+
+"Ask the steward if he has the porridge ready that I ordered."
+
+Venning ran off, and returned with a basin of thick oatmeal
+porridge. The man took it gravely, made another salutation, and ate
+the whole.
+
+"There's nothing wrong with him," said Mr. Hume, with a smile. "Now
+we'll get him out of that and fix him up comfortably. I like his
+looks, and have hopes that he will be useful."
+
+They removed him to a deck-chair, whither he was followed by the
+jackal, who was in such a state of  suspicion that he declined food.
+
+"What I think," said Mr. Hume, in answer to the boys, who wanted his
+explanation, "is this--that the man and the jackal have come from
+the interior."
+
+"From the Great Forest?"
+
+"Probably from the Great Forest; for these reasons--that the men who
+shaped the canoe had no knowledge of the coast-built craft with
+their high bows; that the man is of a different race from the coast
+tribes; and because the jackal, from his dark markings, is evidently
+from a thickly wooded region. That is merely a theory, which does
+not help us much, and certainly does not explain how he came to be
+bound and gagged in a canoe at sea hundreds of miles from the
+forest. However, the main point is that we have got him, and having
+got him, will keep him."
+
+"Against his will, sir?"
+
+"Oh, I reckon he will be only too thankful for our protection."
+
+"I should think, sir," said Venning, "the fact of his totem being an
+otter proves that his tribe derives its living mainly from fish."
+
+"That is plausible; but it may, again, be a sign of chieftainship,
+and a chief I have no doubt he is. Maybe he was sent adrift by some
+rival faction; but that can scarcely be, for he would not have
+survived a long journey; and, again, the canoe would have gone
+aground."
+
+"There is another explanation," said Compton, with a grin. "He may
+not have come down the river at all. He may have been set adrift
+from one of those ships we passed for insubordination."
+
+"Ships do not carry canoes or jackals," said Venning, who had made
+up his mind that the castaway was from the forest, and from nowhere
+else.
+
+They went down to breakfast, and the morning was occupied in getting
+their kit and packages together. At noon the steamer was berthed at
+a pier, and their packages were transferred to a paddle-wheeler,
+which was to take them over three hundred miles up the wide estuary
+to a Belgian station. Thence, perhaps, they would proceed hundreds
+of miles further by another river steamer before they took to their
+own boat.
+
+"Why, we may be days before we really get to work," said Venning,
+when the vastness of the Congo was forced on his attention by a
+casual reference to "hundreds of miles."
+
+"Days--weeks, my boy, before we come to the fringe of our field. The
+river is more than half the length of the Continent; its length is
+half the distance by sea from Southampton to the Cape, and, next to
+the Amazon, it pours a greater body of water into the sea than any
+river in the world."
+
+"Africa," said Compton, "seems to be the driest and the wettest, in
+parts, of any country; and all its great rivers, except the Nile,
+run to waste."
+
+"They'll keep," said Mr. Hume.  "When the old world gets tired, worn
+out, and over-populated, it will find use for these big, silent,
+deserted rivers, that would carry the ships of the world on their
+yellow waters."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE STORY OF MUATA
+
+They went from the wide estuary into the true river, with a width
+that opened out at times to twenty miles; and while the white men
+sweltered on the sticky decks, the rescued man grew in strength.
+When they reached Stanley Pool his skin was like satin again, with a
+polish on it from the palm-oil he rubbed in continually.
+
+And when he found his strength he found use for his tongue, and in
+the speech he made to his rescuers. Mr. Hume caught the meaning of a
+few words of Bantu, Compton detected a phrase or two in Arabic, and
+Venning, who had been schooling himself since they passed Banana
+Point at the river mouth, picked out other words in the tongue of
+the river tribes.
+
+The meaning of his speech, when they had made a mosaic of the
+different understood facts, was this--that he was a great man in his
+own land, but only a child now, being without arms or men, but that
+if the white men ever came to his place, he would be a father and a
+mother to them. He would throw his shield before them, and protect
+them with bow and spear.
+
+After this they sat together learning a polyglot speech that would
+serve roughly as a medium of exchange.
+
+And this was the story of the chief, slowly put together out of
+these talks--
+
+"I am Muata the chief. The kraal of my house is toward the setting
+sun, but the fire no longer burns on the hearth. The men-robbers
+fell upon the place in the early morning.  The people were scattered
+like goats before the lion. Many were taken by the men-robbers, and
+many were slain; and among them my father.
+
+"The chief's wife, my mother, fled with me into the Great Forest.
+Many days she lived on roots, and the 'little people' found her in
+her wanderings. They took her by crooked paths far from the land of
+her people. Ohe!
+
+"Through the dark woods--through the dark and terrible woods,
+through the mist and the rain, with much pain, she followed them as
+they went before her like shadows. And in the folds of her blanket
+she bore me on her back. It is true.
+
+"She was straight as the palm when she fled from the kraal, and when
+after long journeying she set me down at the hiding-place, she was
+thin and bent. Thin and bent was the chief's wife, she who had
+maidens to wait on her.
+
+"At the hiding-place in the forest there were people whose kraals
+had been burnt by the men-robbers. Outcasts  they were, of many
+tribes, living together without a chief; but the place was fat, and
+they grew fat, being without spirit.
+
+"And Muata the child played with other children and grew. He grew on
+the fatness of the land, and when he could walk, his playmates were
+the young of the jackal; his playthings were the bow and the spear.
+
+"Ohe! Muata grew to strength like the lion's cub in the knowledge of
+the hunt. She, even his mother, taught him to follow the trail,
+showed him the leaf bruised by the foot of a man traveling, showed
+him the tracks of the beasts, taught him the cries of the animals.
+
+"She rubbed the oil into his skin, set him to hurl the spear, to
+shaft the arrow, to hit the mark; set him to run and swim, to creep
+like a snake, to bound like the buck.
+
+"So Muata grew in the ways of a hunter; and when the men of the
+place went on the hunt, Muata went with them--went as a hunter, and
+the hut of his mother had meat to spare.
+
+"Then the chief's wife took the boy to the headmen, and the witch-
+doctors. They drew on his body the sign of the otter--he who is
+cunning and brave, who is at home on land or in the water. They made
+him a warrior, he who was a boy, because there was always meat in
+the hut of his mother.
+
+"But his mother spoke. 'O Muata, hunter of the wild pig, take your
+spear and your bow, and the quiver of arrows with the iron heads.
+You will hunt men.' Thus it came that Muata went alone on the war-
+trail. With him went his mother, who carried the pots and the
+sleeping-mat, she who carried nothing at her kraal.
+
+"The trail led into the Great Forest toward the rising sun, and
+there were dangers between the sunrise and its setting--dangers
+between the setting of the sun and its rising.
+
+"A man-ape of great stature, hairy and fierce, stood before us in
+the path. He lifted his brows at us, and bared his teeth. Muata was
+afraid, but his mother called to him softly--called to him not to
+run, called to him to drive this thing from her path.
+
+"Muata notched an arrow and smote the man-ape in the neck. Yoh! He
+stood like a man upright, and roared. His roar was like the roar of
+a lion in pain. Foam came from his lips, and his eyes were fierce.
+
+"The knees of Muata shook; his blood was like water. He was afraid,
+but his mother laughed and cracked her fingers. The man-ape drew
+near, but she stood--she the chief's wife. So Muata the boy notched
+an arrow, and would have loosened it, but she spoke--'Let him come
+still nearer, O warrior.'
+
+"Muata grew stronger at the word. The man-ape came nearer. Three
+paces away he stood--and his head was above the head of Muata, his
+arms were like a young tree, and the chest was like the chest of two
+men. He opened his mouth and the arrow flew into his throat, bit
+deep till the point stood out behind. He clutched the shaft with his
+hands, rocked, and fell, and Muata, taking his spear, thrust it
+between the great ribs.
+
+"Yoh! the man-ape was dead, and the chief's wife broke the great
+teeth from the jaw, and cut off the hairs above the eyes. She burnt
+them, and mixed them with his blood, for Muata to drink.  Muata
+drank and was strong.
+
+"So those two passed through the forest, through the silent dark of
+the woods, in pain and hunger. Passed out into the plains where
+there were kraals and yellow men in white coverings.
+
+"And the chiefs wife spoke: 'Behold, it is for this I have suffered
+much for thee, Muata. What I have sown in sorrow and pain I will
+reap in your strength. Look and look again! Those are of the race
+who destroyed the kraals of your people. They are men-hunters,
+kraal-burners, slayers of children. Steal upon them where they walk
+idly, and for each arrow slay a man.'
+
+"Muata waited on these men a day and a night, and when he sought his
+mother on the edge of the forest his quiver was empty, and the
+chief's wife spoke: 'Where did the arrow strike, O warrior?'  And
+Muata answered, 'In the throat, O my mother.'  And the chief's wife
+said again, 'It is well; but the warrior sees to it that he can
+recover his arrow.  And your quiver is empty.'  So Muata returned
+and recovered his arrows, for the men lay where they fell, the
+living having gone into the kraals in fear.
+
+"So Muata and the chiefs wife went slowly back to the place of
+hiding. And because Muata had slain the man-ape and the robbers--
+they who slay children--the chief's wife sought out the headmen, and
+spoke: 'Oh, listen! This is Muata, the son of a chief. He has slain
+the man-ape, and for each arrow that was in his quiver a man-robber.
+It is fit that he be your chief.' But they laughed, and the chiefs
+wife held her peace.
+
+"And again, after the crops were gathered, Muata went again on the
+war-trail alone--went to the river, followed it down the bank, and
+the little people led him to a kraal in the wood by the river bank--
+a kraal with a high fence, the kraal of the yellow men-robbers.
+Muata dived beneath the fence with a short spear in his hand. With
+his spear he slew the man who watched by the gate, opened the gate,
+and put fire to the huts. The yellow men ran, some into the forest,
+and there the little people found them; others fled into a canoe to
+cross; Muata swam after, and with his spear ripped open the bottom,
+so that it filled and sank.
+
+"And again, when the place of hiding was reached, the chief's wife
+sought out the headmen and spoke, saying that Muata was a chief's
+son. They put her aside with words, saying there was no proof of
+this last thing he had done. But Muata whistled, and the little
+people came forward, saying the chiefs son had destroyed the kraal
+of the  evil-doers. Then the headmen took counsel, and again put the
+chief's wife off.
+
+"The chief's wife bowed her head, but, seeing that she was weak, and
+that her mind was fixed on the thing she asked for, Muata took the
+matter into his own hand. He bade the women prepare a big hut for
+his mother--he put a stick to their shoulders; and when a man sought
+to slay him there in the presence of them all, Muata smote the man
+under the arm with his spear. So they built the great hut, and women
+waited on the chief's wife, his mother, carried water for her, cut
+the wood, and built the fire.
+
+"So Muata was chief, and year by year he led the men of the place
+against the yellow robbers, till the name of Muata was feared.
+
+"The would Muata take to himself wives, and would drink beer, and
+grow fat; but his mother counseled with him, saying he was a boy--
+saying he was only at the beginning of the path. And Muata listened,
+for she was wiser than all, and he set his heart on the plan she put
+before him to win back the land of his people.
+
+"Thus Muata the chief was still a warrior and a hunter. He followed
+the spoor into the fastnesses of the woods, and trained the young of
+the jackal to drive the buck towards him.
+
+"Ohe! it was ended. The evil-doers, the child-slayers,  the robbers
+of men, sent spies into the forest, and when Muata returned from his
+hunting there was wailing at the kraal, and the fire was dead on the
+hearth. And the women cried, 'O chief, they have taken the lioness;
+they lured her out with tales of ill that had befallen Muata, even
+the young lion. So she went forth between the gates, and they, the
+robbers, carried her away.'
+
+"Muata turned on his heel straightway. He sought the trail of the
+man-thieves. It was plain and level. It led through the forest, and
+by night his jackal led him on the scent. By day he followed; by
+night and day Muata went on the track to the river. At the river he
+heard news. They had gone on the river towards the setting sun.
+
+"Muata took a canoe from the river people, and with his jackal he
+followed, while the sun rose and set many times, and he came to the
+father of rivers.
+
+"The waters were wide, and his canoe was like a leaf carried here
+and there. His heart was sad, but the spirit of his mother
+prevailed. He followed, and a man came to him saying that the yellow
+men were near at hand, and sick of the sickness that shakes. Muata
+gathered together his strength and pushed on. Ohe! and he fell into
+the hands of his enemies like a child. He went among them sleeping,
+and when he awoke his hands and limbs were bound.
+
+"And the enemy mocked him, saying, 'Is this Muata?' saying, 'even
+the ant will make him cry aloud;' and they smeared fat on him. They
+shook the ants over him, and they bit deep. They reviled him, they
+spat on him, as day by day he followed in the canoe tied to their
+greater canoe. They made plans about him to kill him, but the chief
+man said even a dog had his price. So they forebore to slay Muata,
+but they carried him down the father of waters to where there was a
+still greater canoe with wings. They put a gag into his mouth to
+still his voice, but in the night the jackal bit through the rope,
+and Muata was alone on the waters.
+
+"Then the jackal cried suddenly, and Muata was borne out of the
+water, and he was fed.
+
+"That is the story of Muata, and his heart goes out to the white men
+who brought him out of the darkness."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+TROUBLE BREWING
+
+That was the story of Muata!
+
+The white boys looked and wondered. This man who had been through so
+many dangers could not be much older than they were. If his story
+were true, he had shown endurance, courage, and a force of character
+that set the stamp of greatness upon him as greatness would be
+reckoned among his kind.
+
+Was it true that he had slain a gorilla with bow and arrow, that he
+warred successfully against the Arab slave-hunters? Had he subdued a
+band of men by sheer force of will?
+
+The boys believed him.  They did not stop to ask whether the story
+was probable.  They formed their opinion upon the manner of the
+young chief--upon his grave dignity, and upon the absence of a
+boastful spirit.
+
+"If his story is true," said Mr. Hume, "he owes much to his mother."
+
+"Where is your mother?" asked Compton.
+
+"The chief's wife is not a woman," said Muata. "And yet she is a
+woman. She beguiled them in the forest by pretence of great
+submission and fear of the woods. So they trusted her to bring
+firewood, believing she would not go far from the camp. But she was
+watching  for sign of the little people. This I know, for she
+vanished in the woods near the river. And the yellow hunters of men
+knew not how she had gone; but they left word to people by the river
+to say to me that my mother had been carried away in a canoe."
+
+"And what will you do now?"
+
+"See, I am no one--a liver on kindness, a slave at the gate. But in
+time Muata will return to the place of hiding."
+
+"Better stay with us, Muata. We go into the forest ourselves. We
+will give you food, and teach you how to use the weapon of the Arab
+hunters. You will hunt for us, work in the canoe for us, and, maybe,
+we will go with you to your hiding-place."
+
+"The forest is dark and terrible. Why, will my father enter the
+darkness with his sons?"
+
+"We go to hunt, and for the love of the woods and the water. Has not
+a hunter joy in the hunting?"
+
+"I know it;" and the chief observed them intently, as if he were
+unpersuaded. "The ways of white men are strange. Muata hunts to keep
+the hut supplied with meat, but the white man carries his meat with
+him. When he kills he leaves the meat and takes only the horns or
+the skin of the thing he has slain. Muata is not a child. When he
+sees a single vulture in the sky, he knows there are others coming
+behind.  A white man comes out of the beyond into the black man's
+country. He is soft-spoken; he is a hunter only. Mawoh! and behind
+him comes an army."
+
+"What do you know about white men, Muata?"
+
+"The wise men at the hiding-place talked. They knew one such. He
+lived among them. His ways were strange. He talked with the trees;
+he sought among the rocks; he communed with spirits. He was
+harmless, but the wise men said others would follow on his trail
+doing mischief. So I ask, my father, why do you wish to enter the
+forest?"
+
+"Because," said Compton, leaning forward, "my father was lost in the
+forest, and I would find him. Tell me, where is the white man your
+old men talked of?"
+
+"The forest takes, the forest keeps," said Muata, lifting a hand
+solemnly.
+
+"Do you mean," asked the boy, quietly, "that the white man does not
+live?"
+
+"The people dealt well by their white man. They gave him food; they
+carried water for him, and built his fire. Even I, as a child,
+carried wood to him and listened at his knees."
+
+"I am not blaming the people; but I want to find the place that is
+called the Place of Rest, where my father lived; perhaps where he
+died."
+
+"This, then, is the hunting?" said the chief, softly.
+
+Mr. Hume recognized the suspicion in the altered tone and suave
+manner of the chief.
+
+"We have spoken," he said sharply. "We go into the forest to hunt
+and to seek without anger against any. We thought you would have
+worked in well with us; but I see you are a man of a crooked mind."
+
+"Softly, my father," said the chief, quietly. "Is it wise that a
+chief should listen to the counsel of strangers without taking
+thought for his people?"
+
+"We saved the chief's life."
+
+"The chiefs life is his own"--Muata snapped his fingers--"but the
+secret of the hiding-place is the life of the people. Go slowly, my
+father. Muata would work for you and with you; his shield is your
+shield; his eye is your eye; but the secret of the hiding-place is
+not his to give away."
+
+"Then you must land here on the bank among your enemies."
+
+The chief glanced at the far-off wooded banks, with lines of smoke
+rising from cooking-fires.
+
+"I have no weapons," he said.
+
+"We cannot help that," said Mr. Hume, with indifference.  "Either
+you agree to take us to the Place of Rest, or you land."
+
+Muata rose up, looked under the flat of his hand all around, then
+let the cotton sheet they had given him slip to the deck. The jackal
+started up, with his ears pricked and his eyes fixed on his master's
+face. The chief caught hold of a wire rope and jumped on to the
+rail, where he steadied himself.
+
+"What will you do?" asked Mr. Hume.
+
+Muata turned round and pointed to the otter on his chest.
+
+"You don't mean to say," said Venning, indignantly, "that you are
+going to let him swim ashore? Why, the bank is miles away, and the
+crocodiles are in between."
+
+Muata's glance fell on the jackal, and he spoke to it. The animal
+whined, then crouched.
+
+"A favour, my father," he said. "If the beast followed me, he would
+be food for the crocodiles. Place him on land when you reach the
+bank, for the sake of good hunting."
+
+"I will do so."
+
+The chief took another long glance around, then drew himself up for
+the dive.
+
+"Stop," said Mr. Hume.
+
+Muata looked round.
+
+"Your shield is our shield. So be it. We will not ask you to lead us
+to your hiding-place. Is that so, Compton?"
+
+"When he leads us," said Compton, nodding his head, "it will be at
+his own will."
+
+"At any rate," muttered Venning, "he has proved himself to be a man;
+but I wonder if he would have reached the shore?"
+
+As he spoke the jackal howled, and the chief, who was still standing
+on the rail, slipped and fell with a splash. They ran to the side,
+and the jackal, with another howl, sprang to the rail and thence
+into the river, where a second or two later it was in the troubled
+wake of the steamer, beating frantically with its fore paws.
+
+"Man overboard!" shouted Mr. Hume. "Stand by with a rope."
+
+But the Belgian skipper on the little bridge held to his course,
+while a small knot of coloured passengers aft stood laughing and
+chattering.
+
+"Stop her, you swab," cried Mr. Hume; then, as the man took no
+notice, he ran to the wheel, thrust aside the steersman, and jammed
+the wheel over.
+
+The displaced man, with an oath, flung himself at the hunter with
+the sympathy of the passengers, who, ceasing their laughter,
+advanced with menacing cries.
+
+Before the boys had time to comprehend the situation, Mr. Hume
+settled the matter out of hand. Letting go the wheel, he caught his
+assailant by the waistband, and with a heave flung him overboard.
+Then with a quick right and left he sent two of the others reeling.
+
+"Now," he roared at the skipper, "back her, or by the Lord I'll
+fling you in as well."
+
+"Fetch the rifles," said Compton to Venning.
+
+A moment later the two boys stood at the ready with their rifles,
+and amid a babel of cries the skipper signaled "Stop her." The
+steamer slowed up, swung gently round, and shaped back to where
+three dark spots showed.
+
+"There are four," cried Venning, at his first swift glance; "and one
+is a crocodile. It is making for the jackal."
+
+"Take the wheel, Compton," said Mr. Hume, quite calm again. "Give me
+your gun, Venning."
+
+The hunter, with the gun, went to the side and looked over. Nearest
+him was the man he had thrown overboard;  beyond was the jackal,
+making a great splashing; and further on was the face of Muata, who
+was crying out encouragement to his faithful companion as he swam
+swiftly towards it; and to the left, moving rapidly towards the
+jackal, was the crocodile, swimming in a great swirl, with only his
+eyes showing, and the end of his snout. The hunter steadied himself
+with a shoulder against a stanchion, and then, without hurry or
+excitement, and after a look round the deck at the people, to see if
+there was any further mischief brewing, took deliberate aim and
+fired.
+
+A shout went up, and the very people who had a minute before been so
+hostile, now were abject in their praise of Mr. Hume, for the
+crocodile span round and round in answer to the shot.
+
+"Stand by with a rope, Mr. Compton," cried the hunter, taking
+command as if by right; and Compton obeyed promptly, but without
+excitement.
+
+The first man caught the line and swarmed up wet, but subdued in
+spirit, casting an appealing glance at his late assailant. Muata, in
+the mean time, reached the half-drowned jackal, held it by the
+scruff of the neck with one hand, and, turning over on his back,
+waited for the rope. This flung and seized, he also climbed on
+board, but there was nothing abject in his appearance. Standing with
+his head thrown back and his nostrils quivering, he glared a moment
+at the group of natives; then, seizing a bar of iron, he made a
+bound forward, uttering a wild war-whoop.
+
+There would have been bloodshed had not Mr. Hume, with surprising
+quietness, flung himself forward and seized the chief round the
+waist.
+
+Compton, cool and ready, wrenched the bar away; and, seeing this,
+the natives plucked up spirit, calling on the white man to throw the
+"black dog" to the crocodiles, which had been attracted by the blood
+of their wounded fellow, still beating the water in his flurry.
+
+Venning, however, stepped between with his rifle, and the uproar
+ceased once more.
+
+"Now," said Mr. Hume, holding the chief by his arm, "what does this
+mean? What harm have those men done you?"
+
+"My father has the lion's grip. Mawoh! Muata was a babe in his
+arms."
+
+"That may be, but it is no answer."
+
+"What harm! Did not my father hear the jackal give tongue?"
+
+"I heard; and those jackals there"--indicating the watching group--
+"yelped at me, so that I flung one into the water. But--what then?
+Do you seek to slay when your beast howls?"
+
+"My father does not know, then."
+
+"I want to know, for it seems to me you were all mad together."
+
+"Ohe! it is the madness that slays. Ask of those mudfish there for
+news of the man who stood behind them to slay Muata, who had the gun
+aimed to shoot when Muata leapt into the water. Ask them, and they
+will lie."
+
+"What manner of man was this?"
+
+"One of those who hound me in the canoe--even one of the man-hunters
+who seized my mother."
+
+Mr. Hume looked at the boys. "Did either of you see an Arab on
+board? Muata says a man was about to fire at him when he sprang
+overboard."
+
+"I thought he fell," said Compton. "I saw no one with a gun."
+
+"Nor I," said Venning; "but the Arab may have gone below."
+
+Mr. Hume hailed the captain. "My man said an attempt was made on his
+life. Have you taken an Arab onboard?"
+
+"I have some mad English on board," said the captain, gruffly; "and
+I will see they do not stay on longer than I can help."
+
+"As to that we will see."
+
+The captain nodded his head and signaled full speed ahead, turning
+his back on the Englishman.
+
+"I think we can manage the lot," said Compton, coolly.
+
+Mr. Hume laughed. "Perhaps so; but it would be very awkward to be
+detained at the next station as prisoners, or to be sent back. We
+must let the matter slide."
+
+"Shall we search the ship, sir?"
+
+Mr. Hume shook his head. "Suppose we found some suspicious
+passenger. What then? There was no actual attempt on Muata, and we
+have only his word; besides"--and he glanced at the angry captain--
+"there is no need to look for trouble--it will come."
+
+He was right. At the next station, reached within a few hours, the
+captain lodged a complaint to the  authorities in the persons of the
+Belgian officials, who  were evidently charmed with the opportunity
+of teaching the Englishmen a lesson.
+
+First of all, they placed Muata in chains straight away on their
+finding that he was a dangerous person. When Mr. Hume protested,
+they placed him under restraint; and that done, they pronounced
+judgment. The English would pay a fine of Pounds 100, surrender
+their weapons, and return to Banana Point by the next steamer down.
+
+"Is that all?"
+
+"That is all. But stay. As you will be possibly detained a
+fortnight, there would be a charge for  maintenance."
+
+"Be good enough," said Mr. Hume, producing a document,  "to read
+that paper. It is a passport from the President of the Congo State--
+your king--authorizing Mr. Hume and party to proceed with his
+servants by land or water anywhere within the State for purposes of
+exploration."
+
+The officers examined the document with sour faces, and one of them
+made an observation in a low tone.
+
+"Precisely," said the other.  "This document," he remarked, turning
+to Mr. Hume, "is not in order. It has not been visaed by the
+officers at the sub-stations."
+
+"But it was initialed by your superior at the coast."
+
+"It must go back to the sub-stations for endorsement."
+
+Mr. Hume put a restraint on his temper. "And how long will that
+take?"
+
+"Who knows? Perhaps a month."
+
+"And in the mean time?"
+
+"In the mean time, m'sieur, you will remain our guests."
+
+"Is there no other way?"
+
+"Monsieur must surrender himself to the unpleasant delay. There is
+no other way."  "Unless--but m'sieur would not perhaps face the
+expense."
+
+"Explain, gentlemen."
+
+"There is a special transport for State business, but to call upon
+the service for other than State purpose there would be a charge of
+ten pounds per day."
+
+"I see." Mr. Hume saw that these gentlemen wished to make money out
+of him. "Very good. I will myself go to the sub-stations by your
+special transport, and if the Governor says the charge is
+reasonable, I will pay on my return. I think that will meet the
+matter."
+
+But it did not at all meet the matter, and the junior officer at
+once informed his senior that unhappily the special transport had
+that very morning developed a leak in the boiler.
+
+There followed an embarrassing delay. The authorities waited for Mr.
+Hume to make a business-like proposal, but the hunter remained
+grimly silent. The two officers whispered.
+
+"Observe, m'sieur," said the senior, clearing his throat, "my
+colleague suggests a middle way. If you will place sum demanded by
+the State in these cases, in the nature of a surety for good faith,
+we may permit you and your friends to proceed."
+
+"My servant also?"
+
+"Your servant?"
+
+"The man you have bound."
+
+"Ohe! Pardon, m'sieur; you are not aware that he is an offender
+against the laws--a notorious criminal. He will be detained and
+tried."
+
+"I will remain to attend his trial, unless a sum will secure his
+freedom also?"
+
+"There is a price on his bead."
+
+"Offered by the slave-hunters?"
+
+The shot went home. The officers had been hand in glove with the
+lawless traders, but they did not want the matter bruited about by
+meddlesome Englishmen. They scowled.
+
+"He has broken the peace," said the senior, sharply; "he has slain
+the servants of the State. Am I to understand that you claim to be
+his master, responsible for his conduct?"
+
+"No, m'sieur," exclaimed the hunter, quickly, fearing he had gone
+too far, and shifting his ground. "The man is a stranger; do with
+him as you please; but as for us, since we are here, we will, with
+your permission, make the place our headquarters. We could not be in
+better hands."
+
+"You wish to wait for another steamer while your passports are
+visaed?"
+
+"We will proceed in our own boat, which we would put together."
+
+"Ah, you have a little boat?"
+
+"A very small boat, m'sieur, with barely room for four men. We
+should be honoured to have your opinion on its qualities, and also
+upon our stores and their suitability."
+
+Venning looked at Mr. Hume with puzzled eyes. He could not
+understand his callous abandonment of Muata.
+
+"But," he began, "we cannot----"
+
+"I think it is an excellent place," said Compton, quickly; "and
+perhaps these gentlemen would be good enough to assist us with
+advice out of their great  experience."
+
+"We should be delighted," said Mr. Hume, politely.
+
+The senior officer stroked his huge moustache with an air of renewed
+importance.
+
+"There are two spare rooms in my little house," murmured the junior--
+"one for the stores, the other for sleeping quarters."
+
+"It is understood," said Mr. Hume, "that we pay rent, and also that
+we pay for the protection you may afford us. I insist on that,
+messieurs."
+
+The senior nodded a dignified assent, but he was not quite won over,
+and retired to his quarters, while his junior inspected the landing
+of the goods, including the sections of the boat. In the afternoon,
+however, after his nap, the senior succumbed to the influence of a
+good cigar, and condescended to sample some of the stores. He was
+even pleased to crack a few jokes over the novel machinery for
+working the screw of the Okapi by levers, and in the  evening he
+invited Mr. Hume to a friendly game of cards, thoughtfully including
+in his invitation a bottle of brandy and a box of cigars, for, said
+he, he wished to wash out the execrable taste of the everlasting
+manioc.
+
+All the day Muata stood bound to a post in the square, the central
+figure of a ring of squatting natives, who chewed manioc and
+discussed his approaching fate with much satisfaction.
+
+He was there, an erect, stoical figure, when the boys sought their
+room in the little thatched house--a room bare of furniture, divided
+from the next compartment by hanging mats of native make.
+
+"It's a beastly shame," said Venning, for about the fourth time, as
+he stared out at the black faces reflected in the blazing log-fires.
+
+"What is a shame?" asked Compton, who was inspecting the  partition
+before seeking his hammock.
+
+"You know well enough. Not a soul stands by the chief; even his
+jackal bolted as soon as he jumped ashore."
+
+"Because Muata ordered him. He is probably watching from  the dark."
+
+"All the worse for us, then. I never thought Mr. Hume would have
+knuckled down so easily. Hark at him shouting over the game."
+
+"What is the game, do you think?"
+
+"Cards," snorted Venning, in disgust.
+
+"So! Queer sort of partition this;" and Compton moved the mat aside.
+"No need for doors, you see. Hulloa! Who are you?"
+
+"Me Zanzibar boy, master," exclaimed a soft, oily voice.
+
+"Then clear out."
+
+"Me put here watch my master--see black fellows no steal."
+
+"Oh, I see.  Chuck a cake of tobacco, Venning. Here! You like that?"
+
+"Ver good," said the boy, reaching out a yellow hand for the
+tobacco.
+
+Venning crossed over and peered into the other room. "You boy," he
+said, "tell me, what will they do to Muata?"
+
+The Zanzibari chuckled. "You want know, eh?"
+
+"We don't care. One black fellow does not matter," said Compton,
+coolly.
+
+"You brute!" muttered Venning, but stopped as Compton's hand gripped
+him.
+
+The Zanzibari chuckled again. "What you give, eh, if cut loose that
+Muata?"
+
+"What do you say?"
+
+"You pay me? Good. In night Muata is loose. He run up river. Bymby
+master go along in little boat, pick Muata up, eh? What you pay?"
+and the boy chuckled softly.
+
+"Suppose I tell your white master, you rascal?"
+
+"Wow! You tell, they kill poor Zanzibar boy."
+
+"Then clear out," said Compton, launching a kick; "and if I see any
+more of you I will tell."
+
+The boy turned sulky. "Me guard--me stay."
+
+"You go," said Compton, "or I will call your masters, and let them
+deal with you."
+
+Growling under his breath, the self-styled "guard" slunk soft-footed
+out of the room.  Compton struck a match and looked around the
+apartment, then turned to Venning with a grin.
+
+"That is the game," he whispered.
+
+"I think I understand," Venning replied softly. "That fellow was
+testing you?"
+
+Compton nodded.
+
+"And you think Mr. Hume has not forgotten Muata?"
+
+"I am sure he has not."
+
+They crept into their hammocks, but not to sleep, and they were wide
+awake when Mr. Hume entered noisily some two hours later.
+
+"To-morrow night," he shouted boisterously.
+
+"With pleasure, and the night after, for good visitors are rare,"
+called the Belgian.
+
+"And good hosts also. Touching those two men you promised as the
+crew for my boat?"
+
+"They will be here to-morrow evening," said the senior officer,
+thrusting a head round the mat. "Ah, you are comfortable, eh? Yes, I
+sent a messenger to Hassan's camp by the vessel which brought you.
+Rest well."
+
+"They are good fellows, these Arabs," said Mr. Hume, with
+enthusiasm--"good fellows. I remember once----"
+
+"To-morrow night," said the officer, as he withdrew, laughing.
+
+Mr. Hume hummed cheerfully as he prepared for bed, taking no notice
+of his young comrades, who were regarding  him with silent
+disfavour.  With one yawn after another he blew out the light, and
+struggled into his hammock, to fall asleep almost at once.
+
+Venning's uneasiness returned. He tossed restlessly, listening to
+the unaccustomed noises from without, and as the hours went by, and
+at last the sound of talking about the fires died off in a lazy
+drone, the desire to see what had become of Muata was too strong to
+resist. Softly he lowered himself to the earth-floor, but, soft as
+he moved, others had heard.
+
+"Are the mosquitoes troublesome?"
+
+Venning started at the deep voice so unexpected. "I did not know you
+were awake, sir."
+
+"I sleep very lightly my boy."
+
+"As you are awake, sir, I would like to say----"
+
+But he stopped as the mat rustled.
+
+"Come in," said Mr. Hume.
+
+"Me guard, great master"--in the same soft, oily tones Venning had
+heard before. "Hear noise. Think may be thieves."
+
+"Mosquitoes, not thieves," said Mr. Hume, quietly. "Bring a light."
+
+The Zanzibar boy complied, and, holding a taper above his head,
+looked not for mosquitoes, but at the rifles in the corner.
+
+"The skeeters, master," he muttered, with an evil squint at Compton,
+who was blinking at the light.
+
+"Better get back into your hammock, Venning. You can go, boy; and
+keep a good watch, for we are coming to the thieves' hour."
+
+The man showed his white teeth in a grin as he withdrew.
+
+"Don't stir from your hammocks until I do," said Mr. Hume, very
+sternly, in a whisper; then louder, "Good night, Venning."
+
+"Good night, sir," said Venning, convinced that the master was alive
+to the game, and more easy in his mind.
+
+As he dropped off to sleep he heard the wail of a jackal, and next
+he was awakened by the sound of a native chanting. It was already
+daybreak, and Mr. Hume stood on the verandah, having drawn the mats
+aside.
+
+The sun, striking under the thatch, shone on the hunter's tawny hair
+and beard, and Venning wondered how for a moment he could have
+doubted the courage of a man with such a lion-like head. But he was
+to receive another shock.
+
+"Silence, dog!" roared the hunter, addressing the singer, evidently.
+
+Compton, who was sitting on his hammock dressing, looked out.
+
+"By Jove," he muttered, "he's shouting at Muata!"
+
+Venning jumped down to the floor and looked out. Muata was still
+bound to the post, and, with his face to the sun, was chanting his
+words of greeting or of farewell in tones that lacked the deep
+chest-notes of his war-cry.
+
+One of the natives, hearing the order of the white man, flung a
+stick at the chief with an insult; but Muata, nothing heeding, sang
+on his slow song in a voice that was almost like a woman's.
+
+"Must white men lose their sleep because a robber is to die?" roared
+the hunter again.
+
+Venning snatched up a beaker of water and ran out barefooted. He
+held the water to the chiefs mouth. Muata turned his smouldering
+eyes on the boy, sucked in a mouthful of the water, and then shot it
+out over Venning's outstretched arm.
+
+Venning dropped the mug, and went back with a red face to see the
+two officers regarding him with sour faces.
+
+"Serve you right," shouted Mr. Hume, in apparent fury. "When will
+you learn to treat a black like the brute he is?"
+
+"Quite so," said the senior officer, showing himself. "I am glad to
+find you have no ridiculous sentiment."
+
+"Ah! good morning, my friend," said Mr. Hume, heartily. "As for my
+young comrade, you must pardon him."
+
+"He has his lesson," said the officer, dryly, as he pointed to the
+soaked pyjama.
+
+"The man woke me with his singing. I have seen men shot for less
+than that."
+
+"In good time," said the officer, with a sinister look, "the
+accusers will be here to-night, and to-morrow"--he made a gesture--
+"to-morrow you can also choose the two men you need for your boat's
+crew."
+
+After breakfast, Mr. Hume had an opportunity of speaking without the
+fear of being overheard, for they finished putting the Okapi
+together, and worked her out by the levers into the river, where she
+gleamed in the sun.
+
+"I dare say you think I am a brute," he said, "and I don't blame
+you; but if we mean to save Muata's life, we must appear to be
+altogether indifferent to his fate. Those men are keeping a close
+watch on us."
+
+"I know it," said Compton.
+
+"You do, eh?"
+
+"That Zanzibar boy was spying on us last night before you came, and
+he tried to get us to bribe him to free Muata."
+
+"I hope you were not so foolish as to fall into the trap?" said the
+hunter, sharply.
+
+"I kicked him out of the place," said Compton. "I told Venning you
+were playing a game for Muata's life."
+
+"You did me justice?" said Mr. Hume, with his gaze on Venning.
+
+"It seemed to me terrible to leave him without a word of
+encouragement," said the boy; "but I am awfully sorry I doubted you,
+sir."
+
+"You don't now, eh? Well, that's all right, and I think the chief
+knows too. That is why he spouted the water over you."
+
+"A strange way of showing his gratitude," laughed the boy, with a
+reddening face at the thought of the outrage.
+
+"Not so strange. He saw the Belgians, and did it to put them off
+their guard."
+
+"That ought to help us in our plans for his escape."
+
+"We have plans, have we?"
+
+"You have," said Compton, confidently; "and your plan is our plan."
+
+"Thank you," said the hunter, quietly. "If the plan is to succeed,
+it must work to-night. I do not fear these people here, but I must
+say I fear the Arabs who are expected this evening."
+
+"I understand that you will choose two of those Arabs as boatmen?"
+
+"The Belgians have arranged that, Compton, not I. Have you any
+suggestions to offer?"
+
+"I think, sir, that we should get all our things stored in the boat
+to-day," said Venning.
+
+"Eight; and then?"
+
+"And then," said Venning, his face all alight with ardour--"and
+then--why, sir, then you shoot one of the hippos over there on that
+little island. Shoot two; and while all the people in the village
+are cutting them up for a great feed, we could free Muata
+undetected."
+
+"That is not so bad," said Compton, judiciously.
+
+"Not at all," said Mr. Hume. "But when Muata is free, what is to
+become of him--suppose, that is, he can get away unobserved?"
+
+"I have it," said Compton. "The Zanzibar spy suggested it. Let Muata
+wait for us up the river, and we will pick him up."
+
+Mr. Hume stroked his beard for some moments in silence.
+
+"We'll, try that plan," he said finally; "but don't show any
+excitement. The native, remember, is a very keen observer. Now pull
+the boat in."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE FLIGHT
+
+In the afternoon the village hummed with excitement. The word had
+gone round that the new white man who had shot the crocodile would
+give a feast, and the people squatted in rows on the bank watching a
+couple of their stalwart fellows preparing a canoe for an expedition
+after the river-horse.  When Mr. Hume appeared with his Express in
+company with the Belgian officers, who were indifferent sportsmen,
+the people saluted him with a feeling of gratitude for favours to
+come in the shape of fat meat.
+
+"Good luck," said the junior officer, "but I back the animals; they
+are very wary and very fierce."
+
+"What is the betting?" cried the hunter.
+
+"Oh no, my friend!" exclaimed the senior. "Keep your money for to-
+night; and don't drown yourself. We must have one game, you know."
+
+"Very well. By the way, Compton?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"You and Venning may as well amuse yourselves by getting the stores
+on board in case we leave to-morrow."
+
+"That depends on how the game goes," replied the officer. "If you
+win, we must keep you for a return match."
+
+"That is only fair. But I may lose; so, my lads, go on with the
+packing."
+
+The boat went off up the river hugging the banks, and the whole
+village sat down to watch the stalk, all but a few who went to and
+fro between Venning at the house and Compton in the boat, carrying
+the stores. The two officers turned in, with mats drawn, to enjoy
+their siesta, and the guards on duty sought the shade of the trees
+by the bank to watch the hunt.
+
+The hunt was not a matter to be decided out of hand, by a swift
+paddle straight up to the sand-bank in the river, and a chance shot.
+
+The canoe crept up slowly and passed out of sight. The old hunters
+in the watching crowd took counsel together, and then the chief of
+them announced what would happen. The "slayer of crocodiles" would,
+he declared, get above the island and then slowly descend with the
+current upon the river-horse.
+
+"May he shoot straight and his powder be strong," shouted a river-
+man; "for it is the father of bulls who sleeps there--he who has
+eaten many canoes."
+
+"It is the same," said the old hunter; and, taking a pinch of snuff,
+he began to tell the deeds of the old bull hippo.
+
+So the drowsy afternoon passed lazily away to the watchers, and
+wearily to the white boys. Their thoughts were in the canoe, and,
+moreover, they were irritated by the slowness of the men who carried
+the parcels. No man would carry more than one package at a time, and
+after each journey he sat down to rest and discuss the chances for
+and against the feast.
+
+When the shadows were creeping across the deserted square--deserted
+save for the man bound to the post, Venning for the hundredth time
+looked across with an aching desire to rush over and cut the bonds.
+As his eyes ranged sadly over the bronzed figure, he detected a
+movement in the shadow of a hut opposite. Looking more attentively,
+he saw the round ears of a jackal, and then made out the sharp face
+resting between the outstretched paws, and the yellow eyes fixed
+intently on the chief.
+
+Muata lifted his head slowly, as if it were top heavy for the
+muscles of his neck, and his gaze went sideways to see if any
+watched.
+
+Venning nodded eagerly from the shelter of the room; made a movement
+with his hands as if he were cutting; pointed up the river and
+spread his arms like a swimmer.
+
+Muata let fall his head again, with his chin on his naked breast;
+and the carriers ranged up for the last load. A shout from the bank
+made them hurry. Several people who had gone to see about their
+fires rushed, yelling, across the square to the bank.
+
+"It was as I said," shouted the old black hunter. "See where he
+creeps down-stream on the bull." "Wow! he has hidden the canoe in
+leaves. It is as a tree floating."
+
+"Ow ay, we smell meat!" sang a big man, stamping his feet.
+
+"We smell meat--red meat, fat meat; the red meat of the fat cow for
+the women; the tough meat of the old bull for the men;" and the
+women clapped their hands.
+
+The Belgian officers were awakened, and stepped out of their
+darkened rooms. They found the village empty, save for Venning
+stooping over his last parcel, and Muata at his post with what
+looked like a yellow native our lying at his feet.
+
+"The bull opens his mouth!" chanted the old hunter. "He wakes from
+his sleep! There is the smell of man on the wind! He looks around!
+He sees a tree borne on the current! He will surely eat lead!"
+
+Venning picked up his parcel and followed the officers. Out of the
+comer of his eye he saw the seeming yellow cur lift its head and
+smell at the thongs which were bound about the prisoner's legs. Then
+he hurried on.
+
+"Wow! the bull drives, the cow into the water. He is cunning. Ow ay,
+he knows."
+
+"What does he know, old talker?" asked one of the officers.
+
+"The cow is fat," laughed the old man.  "The hunter would shoot the
+fat cow first, and so the bull makes her take the risk. He is wise."
+
+"He is shameless!" screamed the women.
+
+"See them?" said Compton, offering his glasses to Venning and
+pointing up-stream.
+
+Far up Venning saw three dark objects on the shining glance of the
+vast river. One, the canoe fringed with branches, slowly drifting
+upon the other two, raised but a few feet above the water on a
+gleaming yellow sand island. One hippo, with its huge head swinging,
+was standing up, looking not unlike an overfed prize pig. Then the
+other rose, and the two walked towards the water.
+
+"Wow! the old bull keeps on the safe side. I said it; he is wise."
+
+"Shameless!" cried the women.
+
+"Wherefore does the crocodile-slayer delay? Surely he knows the body
+will sink in the river if it reach the water."
+
+"The smoke! He fires!"
+
+"The cow is down! To the boats children--to the boats!"
+
+Men and boys made a rush, and, out of a tremendous uproar of
+splashing and shouting, half a dozen canoes were flying at full
+speed for the cow's meat, altogether indifferent to the future
+proceedings.
+
+"The smoke again! The bull has it! He is down; he is up; he is in
+the water! Wow! Look out, O 'slayer of crocodiles!'"
+
+"But the cow lies still!" cried a woman, anxiously.
+
+"Oh ay, there will be meat for the feast. But what of your man in
+the canoe if the bull seize him?"
+
+"It is his risk," said the woman, calmly.
+
+Venning dropped the glass, and he and Compton stood looking from the
+island to the old hunter, who seemed to know every point in the game
+better than they could follow through the glasses.
+
+"Ah, it is well. They tear the branches from the canoe. They row
+straight for the island. The white man jumps--the men tumble out--
+wow-wow!--the bull takes the canoe in his jaws. It will go hard with
+those who go for the meat if he get among them."
+
+"The white man leaps in the water!" shouted another. "But he holds
+his gun above him. He reaches the sand; the others crawl up also.
+They run! I do not see the bull!"
+
+"There are crocodiles!" shrilled a woman, pointing with an arm
+heavily ringed with brass bangles.
+
+"This is not their fight, mother."
+
+"But they will take our meat."
+
+"It is the bull I think of."  "Will he meet the canoes, or will he
+face the three on the island? The white man sees the canoes; he
+waves them to go back, but they smell meat; they keep on."  "What is
+this? He points his gun at them. They stop; they turn back."
+
+"A pity," said one of the officers, with a grin.  "We should have
+seen sport."
+
+"But the sport is not over," said the other. "I back the bull.
+Remember how he put you to flight, my friend. What is the meaning of
+this, old man?"--this to a hunter.
+
+"Surely, O great one, it means one thing. The white man is afraid
+the canoes would draw the bull away. He wishes the bull to land--to
+attack him."
+
+"More fool he, ay, my friend," said the officer, with a sneer.
+
+"One of the men on the island is pointing," said Compton, who had
+taken up the glasses again. "I see something in the water where the
+canoe went down."
+
+"I said it," shouted the old black; "the bull will fight. Stand,
+fast, O white man, for it is either you or he."
+
+Those watching saw the bull land and hurl himself with amazing
+swiftness at Mr. Hume.
+
+"Why doesn't he shoot?" yelled Compton.
+
+"Wow! the white man springs aside. The bull squeals; he staggers; he
+is down. Behind the ear. I say it. There the bullet went in. There
+will be much meat." The old man took snuff, and cast a proud look
+around as if he alone had done the deed.
+
+"By Jove!" muttered Venning, wiping his forehead. "It seemed a near
+squeak."
+
+The two officers went back to their cool rooms, and the crowd broke
+up, the women and children going off dancing to collect firewood.
+The little fleet of canoes descended on the island, and in a few
+minutes the carcasses were hidden by bands of naked men, who slashed
+and cut, while crocodiles, attracted by the blood, appeared from all
+directions. In a very short time the fleet returned, and Mr. Hume,
+standing in a heavily laden craft, ran a greater risk than when he
+faced the savage old bull, for the gunwales were flush with the
+water, and the men were utterly reckless as they dashed along at the
+head of the flotilla.
+
+As the men leapt ashore, women seized the meat, and the village at
+once entered upon the wild orgy of the feast, forgetting Mr. Hume
+and all else in the one desire to start their jaws on the half-
+cooked flesh.
+
+"Is all aboard?" asked Mr. Hume, as he jumped ashore.
+
+"Everything," said Compton.  "We watched your shot, sir; it was
+splendid."
+
+"Well, that part of the plan has gone off all right. It will be a
+more difficult job to free Muata and get away ourselves."
+
+Venning described how he had seen the jackal approach the chief, and
+as he and Mr. Hume went into the village, leaving Compton in the
+boat, they cast an anxious glance at the square already agleam with
+fires in the growing dusk. Muata was still at the post, his head
+drooping and his body relaxed.
+
+"That's bad," muttered the hunter; "he looks quite exhausted."
+
+"Perhaps he's shamming."
+
+"Let us hope so. In any case we may have to wait until past
+midnight, as I am afraid our hosts will not let me off. It would be
+better if we could get away early."
+
+Fortune favoured them, for as the Zanzibar boy approached  with a
+message from the officers, there arose the sound of rifle-shots from
+the forest beyond. The people in the square shouted a reply, and
+presently a party of men, dressed in long white robes, appeared.
+They halted in the square, and the leader came on alone. He stooped
+to stare into the face of Muata as he passed,  then approached.
+
+"Welcome, Hassan! My people are feasting; thanks to the skill of my
+friend here;" and the Belgian who had come forward indicated Mr.
+Hume.
+
+The Arab peered into Mr. Hume's face and salaamed, with an evil
+smile on his wide, thin-lipped mouth.
+
+"I am thankful," he said in the native dialect, "for your kindness
+in bringing back my slave"--pointing towards Muata.
+
+"It was a small thing," said Mr. Hume.
+
+"But it pleases me; and when you reach my zareba, all that is mine
+to command is yours."
+
+He looked at Venning, and the boy noticed that the pupils of the
+eyes had a white speck, which gave to them a sinister appearance.
+
+"Good," said the Belgian. "We will have a night. Pardon me for a
+short time while I discuss a little matter touching the reward for
+Muata with my friend Hassan."
+
+The two went off, the Arab casting a ferocious look back at the
+chief.
+
+Venning tugged at the hunter's arm.  "Look," he whispered.
+
+Muata was slipping down the post, as if his legs had utterly given
+way. The party of new-comers were stacking  their arms at the
+"indaba" house at the end of the square, and the village people were
+talking, laughing, and eating. Muata reached the ground, but not in
+a state of collapse, for the next instant the two watchers saw him
+crawl to the shadow of a hut, where he remained as if stretching his
+limbs.
+
+"Come," said Mr. Hume, in a fierce whisper, recovering from  his
+surprise; and the two went swiftly to the river.
+
+Compton had already cast off and was holding by the boat-hook.
+
+"Bring her in."
+
+The Okapi ran her stern into the bank, and the two stepped aboard,
+Mr. Hume going forward to the wheel, with his rifle in his hand.
+
+"Shove her off; run as silently as you can out of hearing, and then
+work the levers."
+
+Compton looked inquiringly at Venning as he picked up the oars, and
+then at the village, from which came a loud babble.
+
+"Is he free already?"
+
+Venning nodded.
+
+"Good;" and then they bent themselves to the oars with every nerve
+on the quiver, and their eyes on the shore.
+
+"Stop! Back-water!"
+
+Obediently they stopped the way of the boat and backed her,
+wondering what had gone wrong. A turn of the wheel sent them in
+among the canoes. There was a flash of steel, a plunge of the strong
+arm down into the boats, accompanied by a ripping noise. Then the
+hunter waded ashore, and with his great hunting-knife ripped up the
+boats lying on the bank. Quickly he was back at his place.
+
+"Now, off!"
+
+Again they pushed off, the boys with their excitement increasing
+after this interlude, which showed them the imminence of danger. A
+few long strokes took the Okapi well out; then she was put about
+with her nose up-stream.
+
+"The levers now, my lads!"
+
+They perched themselves on the saddle-seats, and at the clanking of
+the levers the beautiful craft slipped swiftly up-stream.
+
+Then out of the dark there rose the mournful howl of a jackal,
+almost instantly replied to by a similar call at a distance.
+
+"The chief calling to his jackal," said Mr. Hume. "Thank Heaven, he
+has got away. Now I will let him know we are also off;" and he, too,
+gave the jackal  hunting-cry.
+
+Back out of the darkness came the chief's exultant war-cry, and on
+it a furious shout from the village, followed by the discharge of a
+rifle, and the rolling alarm of a war-drum. Then shone out the glare
+of torches at the river bank, and a savage yell announced that the
+men had discovered the injury done to the canoes.
+
+One of the purchases made in London had been a lamp with very fine
+reflectors. This Mr. Hume fixed on a movable bracket within reach of
+his arm as he sat at the wheel, and when the lights at the village
+faded astern, he lit the lamp, in order to thread a passage by its
+light through the dark waters. As the noise of shouting, the
+drumming, and the report of fire-arms died down, other sounds
+reached their strained hearing--the booming of the Congo bittern,
+the harsh roar of a bull crocodile, and the cries of water-birds.
+
+Then Venning laughed--a little short nervous laugh. "We have done
+it," he said.
+
+"We have, indeed," said Compton.
+
+"But if we can only pick up Muata and his jackal, we should be all
+right. Just a nice party."
+
+The rudder-chains clanked; the boat set up a heavy wash as she
+turned from her course.  There was a splashing, and something
+snorted almost in Venning's face.
+
+"Nearly ran into a hippo!" sang out Mr. Hume. "We must keep out into
+mid-river; it's too risky inshore. Tell me when you are tired."
+
+"We're quite fresh yet," replied Compton. "It is easier than
+sculling."
+
+"Moves like clockwork," said Venning, gaily. "I could keep on all
+night."
+
+"We'll have to keep on all night and all to-morrow," muttered Mr.
+Hume; and in a few minutes he relieved Compton, making him put on a
+heavy coat before taking the wheel. "It's the chill that is
+dangerous. In an hour you will relieve Venning."
+
+Turn and turn the boys relieved each other at intervals, but Mr.
+Hume swang to his lever till the dawn, when the mast was stepped,
+the sail spread, and the spirit-lamp got out for the making of
+coffee. After breakfast the awning was spread, the mosquito curtains
+stretched round, and the boys were ordered to sleep. They demurred
+at first, but the hunter rather sharply insisted, and no sooner were
+they stretched on the rugs than they were asleep. The yoke had been
+slipped over the rudder, and, using the lines, Mr. Hume sailed the
+Okapi single-handed, taking her across the lake-like width till he
+was under the wooded hills of the south bank, where he beat about
+for an hour or so in the hope that Muata might have covered the
+distance at the native's trotting-pace. It was, he told himself, not
+likely, however, that the chief could have done so, after being for
+hours bound to a post; and after a time he beat out again into mid-
+stream afar off, so that no village natives should spy upon the
+craft. He did not share in the triumph of his young companions.  Too
+well he knew that they had risked everything by their secret
+departure; but he could not see that any other course was open to
+them, as if they had remained it would have been difficult for them
+to prove that they were not concerned in Muata's escape.  He knew,
+too, that if he had abandoned the chief, as the price of security,
+the boys would have lost all faith in him.
+
+What, however, he did feel was, that the responsibility rested on
+him. If a mistake had been made it was his mistake, and if the boys
+suffered from it the blame would be his.
+
+So he beat out into mid-stream, where the sail of the low-lying
+craft would be but a speck when viewed from the shore, and with a
+beam wind laid her on a course which she kept almost dead straight,
+with a tack at long intervals only.  In the shade of the awning the
+boys slept the dreamless sleep of the healthy, and he let them sleep
+on till the sun stood almost above the mast, sending down a blaze
+that scorched. Then he beached the Okapi on the shelving shore of a
+sand-spit, without vegetation of any kind to give shelter to
+mosquitoes, and awoke them.
+
+"All hands to bathe!" he shouted; and the three of them were soon
+in, and no sooner in than out; for, according to the hunter, the
+virtue of a bathe was not in long immersion, but in friction. "With
+their heads well protected, but their bodies bare to the sun, the
+friction was obtained by rubbing handfuls of the dry, clean sand
+over limbs and body till the skin glowed.
+
+"Now I will snatch a few winks while you work the levers, until the
+wind springs up again."
+
+Mr. Hume stretched himself forward under the awning after unstopping
+the mast; and the two friends, after tossing a bucket of water over
+the canvas awning, took their seats, clad in pyjamas and body-belts
+only, and bent gaily to the levers which "click-clanked" merrily.
+Their feet were naked, for Mr. Hume had taught the lesson that the
+feet should be cool and the head protected; their arms were bare to
+the elbow, of a fine mahogany hue; their movements were brisk; but
+the best evidence of health was in the clearness of their eyes.
+Fever shows its touch in the "gooseberry" eye, dull and clouded; in
+the moist pallor of the skin, and in a general listlessness. Even if
+they are free from fever, white men in Central Africa often grow
+listless because of insufficient nutriment. Their flesh-diet is
+chiefly the white meat of birds, and their blood-cells are really
+starved by the small amount of nitrogenous matter. A deficient diet
+in its turn is a frequent cause of diarrhoea and constipation, two
+of the most common complaints among new chums. In his hunting
+expeditions Mr. Hume had learnt his lesson from experience, and he
+accordingly was a martinet on the rules of health. All the drinking-
+water was first boiled. The boys could wear as little as they liked
+during the heat of the day, so long as they protected their heads
+and necks, but on the approach of evening they had to get into warm
+and dry under-garments; they had to keep a sharp watch for the
+striped "anophele" mosquito, were taught to spray the puncture, if
+they were tapped by the mosquito lancet, with chloride of ethyl, and
+had to submit occasionally to a hypodermic injection of quinine. The
+nitrogen they got from condensed meat juices.
+
+"This is very much more like what I expected," said Venning, looking
+from the broad river to the distant wooded banks, and from the dark
+forest to the blue sky.
+
+"I can see two string of duck, a whole crowd of ibis on a little
+island, a crocodile and a hippo."
+
+Compton, who was facing the stern, glanced over his shoulder, then
+directed his gaze aft again.
+
+"We seem to be traveling slowly," he growled.
+
+"There's no hurry, is there?"
+
+Compton raised his head a little, and looked under the shelter of a
+hand.
+
+"They're coming," he said briefly.
+
+"Eh?"  Venning stopped, and looked back.  The water glimmered under
+the sun like a vast silver sheet. "I can see nothing."
+
+"Don't you see a dark smudge. Well, that is the smoke from a
+steamer. I thought at first it came from a land-fire. But it does
+not. Send her along."
+
+Venning quickened up, and for some minutes pedals and levers worked
+at almost racing speed.
+
+"We cannot keep this up. Give him a call!" Venning shouted, and Mr.
+Hume looked round.
+
+"Bid you call?"
+
+"They are after us," and Venning jerked his head back, while still
+bending to his work.
+
+The hunter loosened the canvas awning, and stood up for a long look
+aft. Then he faced about, and threw a quick glance up-river.
+
+"Keep her straight for that wooded island," he said, pointing ahead
+towards the south bank; and Venning pulled the steering-line to
+place the Okapi on a new course.
+
+Mr. Hume took in the awning and packed it away. "Now, my lads," he
+said, "we'll just face the position. That's the fort launch racing
+up, and she could overhaul us in two hours. If we surrender we
+should be safe from violence, but they would probably confiscate our
+boat or detain us for weeks. If we resist they would be justified in
+running us down. What shall we do?"
+
+"Escape," said Compton.
+
+"Of course," Venning chimed in.
+
+"By attempting to escape," continued Mr. Hume, "we as good as admit
+that we aided and abetted Muata, and, if captured, they would make
+it harder for us."
+
+"At any rate, we meant to free Muata."
+
+"Besides, we must escape," said Compton, with  determination.
+
+The perspiration was rolling off their faces, for, as soon as they
+worked at high pressure, they felt the pull of the screw.
+
+"Come forward, both of you," said Mr. Hume, rolling up his sleeves.
+"Compton, you take the wheel, and Venning, you get out the guns."
+
+They obeyed him, and he, kneeling on the aft-deck between the two
+levers, grasped one in either hand, and got more speed out of the
+Okapi than they had by their united efforts. The muscles stood out
+like ropes on his brawny arms, and the levers smoked in the slots.
+
+"Keep her to the north of the island."
+
+The boat hummed along, drew up to the nose of the island, skirted
+its reedy side, where stood a hippo eating at the rank grass, and
+then dropped it astern.
+
+"Good," said Mr. Hume, with a great grunt of satisfaction,  as he
+swept his eyes over the river.
+
+"See those dark spots ahead? They must be the first of the thousand
+islands that stretch away right up to the Loanda river. If we can
+get into them we are safe."
+
+"Can I help?" asked Venning, having set out the rifles in the well,
+with the ammunition handy.
+
+"Whistle for a wind.  That's all. Fix your eyes on the islands,
+Compton, and slip in where they are thickest."
+
+"Ay, ay," muttered Compton, frowning under the stress of his
+excitement.
+
+Venning searched for the field-glasses, and as the island they had
+passed sank low astern, he swept the river for sign of the pursuing
+launch.
+
+"By Jove!" he muttered, with a start.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"She has shifted her course. I can see the white of her hull right
+under the trees on the south bank."
+
+"She must have gained a lot, then," grunted Mr. Hume, "if you can
+see her hull."
+
+"She's making out again. Perhaps she put in to speak a native
+village, and maybe they have not seen us; we are low in the water."
+
+"They'll see us soon enough. Tell me when she passes the island we
+just left."
+
+"She's making across. No, she's turning. Ah, now she's pointing
+straight for us. I can see several people in her bows."
+
+"Now turn your glasses on the islands ahead."
+
+Venning turned round, and looked up-stream.
+
+"Is the launch nearer than the islands?"
+
+"I can see a stork standing on the edge of the water. The first of
+the islands is nearest." He turned again to watch the launch.
+"There is more smoke--they are stoking up."
+
+The launch was unquestionably coming up hand over hand, and it was
+not long before Venning could see the foam at her bows, and the flag
+of the Congo Free State flying at her stern. Then he saw a ball of
+smoke.
+
+"She is firing!" he yelled.
+
+Compton never took his eyes off the little cluster of reeds ahead
+that marked the first of the thousand islands.
+
+"Keep her going!" he shouted.
+
+Mr. Hume smiled grimly, for he was doing the work of two men.
+
+"They are loading the gun!" cried Venning. "Oh, if I only could
+help!" He buttoned and unbuttoned his coat, then picked up the
+sculls, and fell to rowing with fierce energy. "The smoke!" he
+cried. Then, a moment later, "What's that noise?" as a menacing
+sound with a shrieking whistle to it smote on his ears.
+
+There was no need for an answer. The shot struck the water about a
+hundred yards short, and skipped by, wide of the Okapi, but still
+too near to be pleasant.
+
+"Keep on!" shouted Compton, fiercely.
+
+The levers clanked furiously, and Venning, who had suspended his
+sculling under the menace of the shot, tugged again at his work.
+
+The steam-whistle of the launch sounded a series of sharp, jerky
+calls, followed by the firing of a Mauser bullet. Venning's heart
+was pumping blood at express speed under the violence of his
+efforts, and his eyes in a wild stare were fixed on the approaching
+craft, which had now brought its living freight within recognizable
+distance. He could distinguish the two Belgian officers and the
+swart face of the Arab chief, Hassan. He could see the men with
+rifles, aiming, as it seemed, straight at him, and then he ducked
+his head as he saw the smoke once more belch from the seven-pounder.
+At the same moment he was nearly capsized by the sudden swerve of
+the Okapi, as she almost turned on her keel. The shot struck the
+water so close that the spray drenched them. Compton looked round
+and shouted aloud--
+
+"They're aground! Hurrah!"
+
+Venning, recovering himself, saw the men on the launch hurled to the
+deck.
+
+"Hurray!" he shouted.
+
+"Keep on!" shouted Compton; and, after another five minutes' burst,
+the Okapi swept behind one island and passed in between two others.
+"Now," he said, "give me the levers."
+
+"You're welcome," said Mr. Hume, wiping the moisture from his brow
+and taking a huge breath.
+
+He went forward to the wheel, and threaded the Okapi through narrow
+passages between islands of all shapes and sizes, until after having
+got into such a fastness as would be impracticable for the launch to
+reach, he ran the boat on a shelving sandbank. Then, before anything
+else was attempted, the awning was fixed, and they settled down for
+a needed rest. Next the boys smacked each other on the back.
+
+"Was it by accident or design, Compton, that you led them into the
+shallows?"
+
+"I saw we could not reach the shelter of the island, and was feeling
+bad, when I caught a ripple on the water to the right. I edged the
+Okapi on after the first ball shot was fired, and as we drew nearer
+I was sure there was a long sandbank. When I made that sharp turn as
+the second shot was fired, I could see the outline of the bank just
+under water, and turned to avoid it."
+
+"It was a mercy you altered our course just at that moment,
+Compton."
+
+"Wasn't it? It was touch and go. We stood to be run down or knocked
+into smithereens in another minute;" and Venning shook Compton's
+hand.
+
+"Did you see them go over like ninepins," laughed Compton, "when
+they struck? But I'm not claiming any credit, you know. If it had
+not been for Mr. Hume----"
+
+"We all did our share," said the hunter, "and we have every cause to
+be thankful; but we must not imagine that the chase is over."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE THOUSAND ISLANDS
+
+They shoved off again, and Compton, being the least tired, took the
+sculls and pushed on slowly in search of an anchorage for the night.
+They passed many likely places, but Mr. Hume had one objection or
+another to them, and the spot that finally satisfied him was a small
+wooded island flanked by others of larger size, and so placed that
+if they were menaced from any side there would be an opening for
+escape in the opposite direction. The channel into which they
+steered was so narrow that the branches of the trees joined
+overhead, and when they tied up, the Okapi was completely hidden.
+Before forcing their way into the leafy tunnel, they had taken down
+the awning, but now, after having broken away many branches, they
+refixed the canvas roof and drew the mosquito-curtains round, after
+which they sought out and killed all the insect pests that remained
+within the nets. There was no danger in showing a light, and
+accordingly the lantern was hung amidships, the spirit-lamp lit, to
+prepare a nourishing and at the same time "filling" soup. They made
+a hearty meal, got into warmer clothing, oiled the rifle-barrels,
+arranged their rugs, and prepared for the night, which came on them
+with a rush, heralded by the noise of birds seeking their accustomed
+roosting-places. Such an uproar the boys had not before heard. It
+seemed as if the Zoological Gardens had emptied its noisiest
+inhabitants.  Parrots flew across the river, every one talking at
+the top of its voice, while colonies of ibis croaked out the news of
+the day in gruff, discordant notes; cranes flying laboriously, with
+long legs trailing, emitted their deep "honks;" frogs lifted up
+their voices from out the reeds, and at intervals came the booming
+cry of the shovel-beaked bittern, and the harsh, baboon-like bark of
+the green-crested toucan. The noise of the home-going of the winged
+multitudes ceased as the night drew its black mantle over the river.
+
+Out of the spell of silence there grew presently other voices, soft
+whisperings, deep sighings; mysterious sounds telling of things
+stealthy and oppressed by the stillness; abrupt splashings that
+startled by their suddenness: grunts, rumblings, and the roar of
+bull crocodiles. It must not, however, be supposed that there was a
+continuous succession  of sounds. Each noise had its own place, and
+there would be often long intervals between one sound and another.
+
+Venning, who had the first watch, found this out. He would hear a
+startling splash, followed by a snort and the snap of jaws; then all
+would be quiet for several minutes, when, from another direction,
+would come perhaps a heavy sigh; then another interval of silence,
+again a splash, and so on until the impression grew on him that the
+beasts and reptiles who made the noises were working slowly towards
+him in a circle.
+
+It was his first night on guard in the wilderness, and he felt the
+uneasiness of the hunter who discovers how limited are his senses
+compared with those of the wild creatures about him. Man, himself
+the most secret, the most cunning, the most deadly, and, if truth
+must be told, the most bloodthirsty, for he kills too often for the
+love of killing, is the most helpless in the dark. His sense of
+hearing, of sight, and of smell, fail him--thanks to a wise
+provision of Nature in the interests of her other children--for if
+man had the eyes of a cat, the nose of a wolf, and the hearing of a
+deer, he would have cleared the earth of its creatures, who would
+have had no rest night or day.
+
+All the time, too, the river talked, as it rolled its great flood
+along, sending up a soft volume of song from the innumerable sounds
+produced as it washed along the islands and foamed against the rocks
+of the shores. Presently, down the narrow channel, there came a rush
+of water which rocked the boat, and next Venning heard close at hand
+a strange noise, which he took to be made by a large animal cropping
+at the river-grass. He looked about for a weapon, and, picking up
+the long boat-hook, lashed his hunting-knife to the iron hook at the
+top, converting it into a lance. He had read of hippos swamping
+boats by seizing the narrow bows or keel in their vast jaws, and he
+wished to be prepared for a possible attack. Presently the boat
+again rocked as another animal took to the water, then the new-comer
+dislodged the other with a snap of the jaws, and the first, with a
+complaining grunt, surged down the channel. Venning could see
+nothing in the inky blackness, but he knew the beast had seen the
+Okapi from the short note of alarm it sounded. Immediately the alarm
+was repeated. Snorts and splashes arose from all sides. Some great
+beast who had been standing unnoticed within a few yards of the
+boat, crashed through the bushes into the water with an uproar that
+woke the sleepers.
+
+"What is it?" cried Compton.
+
+Mr. Hume made a dart for his rifle.
+
+The Okapi rocked and heaved, was lifted at the bows to fall back
+with a splash.
+
+"Hippo," gasped Venning, making a drive with his weapon through the
+mosquito curtains. "Got him!--no!--missed!"
+
+"What's that you've got there, Venning?"
+
+"Sort of harpoon."
+
+"By gum!" said Mr. Hume, taking the weapon, "I'm glad you missed the
+beggar. I would not give much for our chances if he turned crusty in
+this place."
+
+The hippo reappeared aft with a snort, and, much to their relief,
+continued down the channel into the wider waters.
+
+"Find the watch pleasant?" asked Compton, sleepily, as Mr. Hume
+turned in.
+
+"Awfully cheerful," said Venning, earnestly; "but I'm not selfish,
+and you can take your turn at it on the tick of the hour."
+
+Compton dived for his rugs, and Venning once more returned to his
+duties with his harpoon over his knees, and a string of winged
+visitors entering joyously by the hole he had made in the curtain.
+He pinned his handkerchief  over the rent to stop further free
+entrance, then made war on those which had entered--an amusement
+which carried him well into the fourth and last hour of the first
+watch.  Then he sat up to listen for the old sounds--the groans and
+the snorts--but they had ceased. A mist, like a wet blanket, had
+settled down over the Okapi, over the islands and the river; and,
+though any sounds made on the water were startlingly distinct,
+confined as the sound-waves were by the mist, the creatures had
+evidently gone to sleep. There was, however, one visitor faithful to
+him. The light of the lantern, which showed the rolling wreaths of
+the mist, just reached the water, and in the reflection he saw two
+greenish points. After long looking, he made out that these were the
+eyes of a crocodile, whose body was half in and half out of the
+water, the tail end of him being anchored on the little island. At
+eleven o'clock he roused Compton by dragging at his ankle.
+
+Compton sat up, rubbed his eyes, and drew his rug over his
+shoulders.
+
+"What's the countersign, comrade?" he asked, with a yawn.
+
+"Countersign?"
+
+"Yes; when the watch is relieved he has to say something or other,
+as a guide to the new man."
+
+"Oh, I see. Well, let me introduce you to the companion of  your
+watch. See those green points out there?"
+
+"Yes--like dull glass."
+
+"That's your new chum. He's been there an hour without moving, and
+it's no good trying to stare him down."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Crocodile. Good night. Wish you joy;" and Venning crept  under his
+waterproof sheet with a sigh of relief.
+
+Neither of the two boys smoked, taking the advice of Mr. Hume, who
+persuaded them that tobacco acted as a poison when used too early,
+and spoiled good hunting. It lowered the action of the heart,
+affected the hearing and the sense of smell. In place of a pipe,
+therefore, Compton found comfort in chewing, not tobacco, but a meat
+lozenge. As he chewed he watched the two little dull green spots,
+and the crocodile watched him with the deadly patience that so often
+brings grist to the mill, or, rather, food to his jaws.
+
+It was not a pleasant companionship, and Compton, after a long
+attempt to stare the reptile down, turned his back to it and watched
+the efforts of several large moths to get at the light through the
+mosquito curtains. He could not so much see them as hear them, from
+the way they bumped into the net, and the little soft splash they
+made as they dropped into the water. By-and-by there came another
+sound, made by some large fish, who had also been attracted by the
+light, and then by the fat moths.
+
+The news that these were good eating quickly spread under water, and
+presently there was quite a gathering about the boat. Then Compton
+turned to look at his unwelcome watcher. He was still at his post,
+his eyes still fixed in an unwinking stare, but seemingly brighter
+than before. Yes, he was evidently nearer. He was moving! Compton
+picked up the boat-hook with its dagger-ended spear, and prepared
+for the attack. Slowly, almost without a ripple, the reptile
+slithered into the water; then came a rush, a snap of jaws, a swirl
+of waters, and something heavy and wet came right through the
+mosquito nets, landing in the well of the boat with a tremendous
+whack.
+
+"Look out," yelled Compton; "keep out of his reach."
+
+"What the dickens is it now?" roared Mr. Hume, as a series of
+resounding thwacks arose out of the well.
+
+Compton drove his harpoon into the well, and held on like grim
+death, as the impaled thing lashed out to free itself.
+
+"A crocodile!" he shouted. "I can't hold him down much longer."
+
+"Crocodile be blowed!" shouted Mr. Hume, unhooking the  lantern and
+directing its light into the well. "It's a fish."
+
+"But," said Compton, "I saw the crocodile. It came straight for the
+boat. Venning saw it too."
+
+"It was over there," said Venning, peering into the dark.
+
+"Then the fish must have jumped aboard to escape the crocodile.
+Anyway, we can have fish-steak for  breakfast," and Mr. Hume quieted
+the fish with a blow on the head.
+
+"I made sure it was the crocodile," said Compton, in an aggrieved
+tone. "Look at the hole in the curtains; there'll be tons of
+skeeters aboard."
+
+"You turn in and I'll smoke," said the hunter, who smoked enough for
+three; and, with his pipe filled and lit, he took up the watch.
+
+Once more the little party settled down to pass the night, and this
+time there was no disturbance until, in the chill of the early
+morning, the sleepers were awakened to get in the awning, to make
+all shipshape aboard, and to prepare breakfast. The fish was not
+handsome-looking, but he cut up into really good steaks, which were
+grilled on a gridiron fitted over the stove, and, with hot coffee
+and a biscuit apiece, they ate a meal which made them proof against
+the depressing surroundings.
+
+Both Compton and Venning, as soon as there was light enough, took a
+careful look around for the crocodile; but though that wily brute
+was probably near, he did not show himself. They could, however, see
+the track made by the hippo when he had broken through into the
+water, and Mr. Hume, stepping ashore, went up this track to spy
+around. He returned with the report that the natives were signaling
+from village to village by columns of smoke sent up from fires fed
+with damp wood to make a heavy smoke.
+
+"They will be keeping a sharp look-out, and we had better remain
+here."
+
+"It seems to me," said Compton, "that we have been here already a
+week."
+
+"Quite that," said Venning.
+
+"The time has seemed long because you have been receiving new
+impressions."
+
+"I thought it was a fish I received," murmured Compton.
+
+"Each impression," continued the hunter, "is a sort of milestone in
+your memory, so that an hour crowded with several of these
+milestones will appear to be longer than a whole blank day. You will
+get used to such interrupted nights--that is, if our journey does
+not end here."
+
+"Oh, come, sir, we have dodged them beautifully."
+
+"The feeling of security is the beginning of disaster," said Mr.
+Hume, oracularly. "The rule of the bush is to keep your eyes
+skinned."
+
+"What is the order of the day, then?"
+
+"The order of the day is to watch and wait. Venning will crawl on to
+the little island on our right and watch the south hank. You,
+Compton, will take the head of the large island on our left, and I
+will watch from the other end. If any of us see danger, we will give
+the whistle of the sand-piper. Each will take water and food, and
+each, of course, will keep himself hid."
+
+"We take our guns, of course?"
+
+"Best not. A gunshot would bring a host down upon us. Don't be
+discouraged," continued the hunter, as he saw the boys' faces drop.
+"We have got the advantage of position, and we've got grit--eh?"
+
+He nodded cheerfully, and they smiled back, and then each crept out
+to his allotted post. The first part of the watch was by no means
+bad--so the boys decided when they had settled down, Venning under a
+bush palm and Compton behind a log. There was a pleasant freshness
+in the air; and as the broad river uncoiled under the mist, it
+disclosed fresh beauties, till the lifting veil revealed the wooded
+heights and the tall columns of smoke, grey against the dark of the
+woods and black against the indigo blue of the sky. They marked
+where the hippos stood with their bulky heads to the sun, and saw
+the crocodiles on the sands of other islands lying motionless with
+distended jaws. And then the birds came to the hunting. Strings of
+dark ibis, of duck, and storks; small kingfishers all bejeweled, and
+greater kingfishers in black and white. The air was full of bird-
+calls, of the musical ripple of waters, of the hum of the forest
+moved by the morning wind.
+
+By-and-by, however, the sun got to work in earnest, and the pleasure
+went out of the watching as the air grew hot and steamy. The sand-
+flies and the mosquitoes found them out, and blessed the day that
+brought two tender white boys into their very midst. They gathered
+to the feast in clouds, but these boys were not there for the fun of
+the thing. They drew gossamer veils over the brims of their felt
+hats, and gathered them in about their necks. They pulled their soft
+high boots up to their knees and secured them there; and, moreover,
+they smeared an abomination of grease and eucalyptus oil over their
+hands. The mosquitoes set up a shrill trumpeting that could be heard
+ten paces away, and held a mass meeting to protest; whereupon the
+father of all the dragon-flies, a magnificent warrior in a steel-
+blue armour, saw that a conspiracy was afoot, and swept into the
+midst with a whirr and a snap, a turn here and a flash there, that
+scattered the host in a twinkling of a gnat's eye.
+
+The islands shimmered in the glare as if they were afloat; the
+hippos took to the water, and a deep and drowsy silence fell upon
+the great river. But man, ever restless, was astir, and through the
+stillness there was borne to the three a soft continuous humming,
+that merged quietly into the short, clamorous throbs of an engine at
+work under pressure.
+
+The launch was afloat again! Mr. Hume caught the trail of the smoke
+first, and Compton next. They marked the course under the north bank
+right up to a bend about six miles off, and they judged that the
+launch had stopped there, as the smoke went up in a straight thin
+column. Then Venning saw a canoe dart out from the south bank,
+followed by two others from different points. The sun struck like
+fire on gun-barrel and spear-head, and gleamed on the wet paddles.
+He moistened his parched lips with a taste of water from his filter-
+bottle, and gave the call. The answer came, and he drew his friends
+to him with a low whistling. As they came crouching, he pointed
+upriver.
+
+"Three canoes put out. Two are hidden behind that outside island,
+and there is the other creeping round the end."
+
+"Oh ay," said Mr. Hume. "If they're after us, they will have placed
+outlooks in the tallest trees;" and with his glass he swept the
+forest.
+
+"They could not see us at that distance."
+
+"But they could see our boat as soon as we appeared in open water.
+We'll stay where we are."
+
+"Then we shall need our guns."
+
+"It is not our guns that will save us, my lad, but strategy. Any one
+could fire off a rifle, but it takes nerve to keep cool in readiness
+to do the right thing at the right time."
+
+"But," said Compton, obstinately, "we don't want to be caught
+undefended."
+
+"Leave this matter with me," said the hunter, sternly. "See that
+crocodile asleep on that stretch of sand? He's our best protector.
+Why? Because he is asleep. The natives, seeing him, would think we
+were not near. We will, however, keep watch together."
+
+They returned to the boat, made all ready for an instant departure,
+in case they were discovered, then settled down to wait and watch
+once more. Gradually the strain wore off, the old silence fell upon
+the scene, and their eyes grew heavy from sheer monotony. The night
+had seemed long, bat the day was worse.
+
+Then the boys rubbed their eyes and lifted their heads. Where there
+had been a bare stretch of water white under the sun between two
+islands a quarter of a mile off, there appeared a long canoe, with a
+tall spearman standing in the bows, and a full crew behind.
+
+The man in the bows looked straight down the channel to their lair,
+where in the narrow cut the Okapi lay hidden behind a screen of
+leaves. Then he moved his hand to the right, and the canoe,
+silently, without a ripple almost, skirted the island on that side,
+into whose reedy sides the men darted their glances. Again the hand
+was moved, and the long boat crept across to the island on the left,
+which was swept by the sharp suspicious eyes of the natives. Again
+the bowman directed his gaze into the narrow opening, and this time
+he looked long. There was one small island to pass, and if the canoe
+kept on the north side, it would have to come right into the hiding-
+place; if it kept to the south, it would reappear at the end of the
+passage by which the Okapi had entered.
+
+In either case, the danger of discovery seemed certain. The three
+pairs of eyes from behind the tall grass were glued to the man's
+face. They saw him start, then move his hand to the left, and as the
+canoe went stealthily out of their view round the south side, they
+heard the sullen plunge made by a crocodile as, disturbed from his
+sleep, he took to the waters.
+
+Then the three crept back to the boat. "Pull her through the
+screen," whispered the hunter, as he caught up his rifle, "but make
+no noise;" and he took up another position ashore, this time facing
+the other end of the channel.
+
+With great caution the boys coaxed the Okapi through the trailing
+branches, so that she would be hidden from view if the natives
+looked up the channel. Then they waited and waited for ages before
+the hunter showed himself.
+
+"Well?" they asked in a whisper.
+
+"They have passed on."
+
+"And?" they said, watching his face.
+
+"I don't quite like it. They may have no suspicions, but I think
+they have; for one man pointed up in this direction."
+
+"If they suspected anything they would have stopped surely."
+
+"Perhaps not. The native doesn't like the look of a trap, and it
+maybe that they passed on with the intention of returning at night.
+Or they may have gone for the other boats." Mr. Hume stood up to
+glance shorewards.
+
+"Would it not be better to move on?" said Venning.
+
+"If we could be sure that we should not be seen from the land, that
+would be the move." He stroked his beard. "I guess we'll move," he
+said, "just about dusk, for I'm pretty sure in my mind that they did
+take particular notice of this channel, and my policy is always to
+listen to your instincts."
+
+"Instincts," muttered Compton; "call them nerves."
+
+Mr. Hume laughed. "About the time you were born, Dick, I was playing
+a lone hand in Lo-Ben's country as trader and hunter, when a loss of
+nerve would have meant loss of life. See! So just leave this to me,
+and shove her along."
+
+Compton grinned back at the hunter, and tugged at his oar, for the
+levers clanked too loud for this work. They crept along to another
+berth a little way off, and tied up in the shadow of the bank; and
+they had scarcely settled themselves when they heard again the beat
+of engines. The launch was returning, and was returning in answer to
+a signal that the game had been found! A pungent smell of smoke
+suddenly reached them, and, standing up, they saw over the reeds
+that a fire had been made on one of the neighbouring islands.
+
+That was the signal!
+
+Glancing shorewards they saw that more canoes were putting off--dark
+smudges on the water, but growing clearer as the crews dashed the
+paddles. But there were enemies even nearer. As they pulled the
+Okapi closer into the shadows a boat swept into view, and, evidently
+obeying directions given from the island where the fire was, took up
+a position overlooking the first hiding-place of the Okapi.  All the
+time the launch drew nearer, racing evidently to take advantage of
+the brief spell of light before the dark, and the canoes raced from
+the shore to take part in the great man-hunt. As they drew near, the
+fleet scattered, some going up-stream, others down, and the
+remainder dashing straight on in among the islands.
+
+As they scattered to take up their positions, there came a report
+from the launch's gun.
+
+It was the signal for the drive to begin, and as the echo rolled
+away, a deep silence followed the previous uproar. The savage look-
+out men, standing erect in the sharp bows of the long canoes,
+motioned to the paddlemen to  stop, and all heads were turned to the
+wind to catch any sound in case the hunted should attempt to move
+away. Fierce eyes were directed towards one spot, where the fire
+blazed on the island over against the place where the Okapi had laid
+up.
+
+Not a whisper had come from the three in the boat. After they had
+first seen the signal smoke, which told them so plainly that Mr.
+Hume's suspicions were justified, they had crouched low, watching
+every move that was visible to them.
+
+A canoe rounded their hiding-place and crept stealthily by towards
+the narrow passage with its screen of bushes, every man fixing his
+gaze directly ahead, the broad nostrils quivering, and spears
+grasped in the hands that were not busy with the paddles.
+
+Then through the silence there came the sharp yap of a dog who has
+struck the scent, and next the loud, excited bark. Too cautious to
+land on the suspected island themselves, some of the canoe-men had
+drawn near from the north side and thrown a cur on the island to
+find the white men in their supposed hiding. The dog had, of course,
+struck the spoor and found the dark hiding, empty, but suspicious-
+looking. In his fear he gave tongue. The gun from the launch fired,
+a yell rose from every side, and all the canoes near dashed forward.
+
+Mr. Hume shoved out, and the Okapi slipped up-stream  undetected
+under the uproar, darting from one island to another, and keeping as
+near the banks as  possible.  They were doing splendidly!  The enemy
+was behind; it seemed that they must reap the advantage of their
+caution and resourcefulness, when, without any  intimation of
+danger, they came right upon a canoe lying in mid-channel between
+two of the innumerable islands.
+
+"Back-water!" cried Mr. Hume, at once.
+
+The boys obeyed without, of course, any knowledge of the course, and
+the Okapi slackened down.
+
+"Well met, my friends," came a voice they knew; and the two looked
+over their shoulders.
+
+"Dished, after all!" muttered Compton, bitterly; then he snatched up
+his rifle.
+
+"Hassan thought you would come along this way," went on the junior
+officer--for it was he; "but I doubted, and yet here you are."
+
+"The praise be to Allah," remarked Hassan, piously, as he glanced
+along his rifle.
+
+The Okapi had lost the little way she was making, and began to move
+with the current away from the canoe. Mr. Hume suddenly spoke for
+the first time since his order.
+
+"Turn that canoe round!" he roared; and his Express leapt to his
+shoulder. The boys followed suit.
+
+The paddle-men promptly ducked their heads, and one of them called
+out in his lingo that this was the slayer of crocodiles and of the
+great bull.
+
+"But, my friend----" began the Belgian, who now, together with
+Hassan and several Arabs in the stern of the canoe, came under the
+levelled barrels.
+
+"Oblige me," said the hunter. "Compton, cover that Arab Hassan with
+your rifle, and Venning, take the man to the right. If they move
+their weapons, shoot."
+
+Hassan snarled and turned a furious face to the Belgian. "This is
+your folly!" he hissed. "Why didn't you fire at once?"
+
+Mr. Hume repeated his orders in the native tongue, and the cowed
+men, using their paddles, turned the long canoe round.
+
+"Now, keep straight on in silence, till I tell you to stop. Follow
+them"--this to the boys, who immediately picked up their sculls.
+
+The Belgian glanced back. "Come," he said, "this is not amiable.
+See, we could, had we liked, have caught you in an ambush."
+
+"And so your friend Hassan advised you, eh?" replied Mr. Hume; "but
+you thought we would surrender at discretion. You see, you were
+mistaken. Now just listen to me. Do not look back again, or this
+rifle may go off. Out with the sculls, lads."
+
+Hassan growled out curses at this complete turning of the tables
+upon him, but the natives bent to their paddles. They bad no wish to
+be shot down in the cause of the slave-hunter, however ready they
+would have been to have fallen on the Englishmen if the advantage
+had been with them.
+
+The darkness was coming on fast as the strange procession passed up
+the channel to thread the intricate passages among the clustering
+islands. In a few minutes the canoe would be almost hidden from
+sight; but the very last thing Mr. Hume wanted was to keep company.
+
+"Baleka!" he cried. "Quicker! I have your heads in one line. One
+bullet would stretch you all dead. Quicker!" he roared.
+
+The broad paddles flashed, the water churned fiercely, and the long
+canoe shot off into the dusk; and as it sped on the hunter pulled
+the wheel over, altering the course of the Okapi, and taking it
+towards the open water between the islands and the south bank.
+
+"By Jove! you did that splendidly," said Compton. "I thought it was
+all over."
+
+Venning laughed that little nervous laugh of his. "I wonder why they
+gave in like that?"
+
+"We had the drop on then," said Mr. Hume, grimly; "and we knew our
+own minds. Now, then! up with the sail, and, dark or not, we must
+get on."
+
+Very smartly and silently the boys hoisted the sail, and as the
+Okapi beat up they heard a great uproar from the left. Apparently
+Hassan was using violent language to the Belgian officer for not
+having ambushed the "dogs of Englishmen." Then several rifle-shots
+were fired from the canoe, and answered from the people down-stream,
+who were still searching for their prey. But the Okapi slipped on,
+making a musical ripple under her bows, until she beat up under the
+great wall of woods on the south bank, when she tacked away into the
+gathering darkness, feeling for the wind. Down-river was the glare
+of fires at different spots, where the men had landed from the
+different canoes; but there was no light ahead through the whole
+vast width of the river, and they dare not even rig up their own
+lamp to get what little guidance it could give. The wind was fitful,
+and the direct progress was slow, so that when the glow went out of
+the sky they were still within hearing of the shouting.  Indeed, it
+seemed that the shouting gained on them, as if the men in Hassan's
+boat were keeping their place in the renewed pursuit, and directing
+other crews as to the line they should take.
+
+Then the sail napped idly against the mast as the wind died down,
+and as they unstepped the mast before depending on the screw, a fire
+sprang out right ahead, sending up a tall column of flame that flung
+its reflection far across the waters.
+
+"We must make out into the islands again," said Mr. Hume; but, as
+the boat pointed on the new course, an answering flame sprang up,
+and then another and another at brief intervals, until from the fire
+on the bank there was a semicircle of flame from island to island
+barring their advance.
+
+"There must be an army out," muttered Venning.
+
+"It is one canoe, but most likely Hassan's, firing the dried reeds
+as they pass from island to island."
+
+"Then the flames will die out soon."
+
+"Yes, they will die down; but in the mean time other canoes will
+come up, and if there are men on the shore waiting, they will see us
+outlined against the reflection."
+
+Even as he finished there came a shrill cry from the shore, followed
+by the wild beat of the war-drum, and next by the sound of paddling.
+
+"Shall we make a bolt for it?" asked Compton.
+
+"Not yet," said the hunter; and he brought the Okapi stem on for the
+deep shadows under the bank.
+
+The oars moved softly, covered by the noise of the paddling, and the
+Okapi slipped out of the reflection into the darkness, while the
+canoes dashed straight on, passing about one hundred yards behind
+her stem.
+
+"Easy now," whispered Mr. Hume, "and keep quite still."
+
+The oars were drawn in as the Okapi, caught in a current,  was borne
+right into the bank at a spot where the trees came down to the
+brink. Mr. Hume caught a branch, and the stern swung round. Before
+them, about a quarter of a mile off perhaps, was the great fire they
+had first seen, still fed by natives, whose dark figures stood out
+and disappeared as they moved about. Out on the river they could
+hear the noise of paddles, and of men calling to each other.
+
+Near them on the bank something moved, and above the swishing of the
+current they heard the low whine of an animal.
+
+Mr. Hume pricked his ears at the sound, and crept into the well,
+where the boys sat anxiously watching.
+
+"Put on your coats," he muttered.
+
+Again there came the whine, then the sound of an animal scrambling,
+and next the patter of feet.
+
+"A dog," whispered Venning.
+
+"I advise keeping on," said Compton.
+
+"And I," replied Mr. Hume, "advise that we have something to eat.
+Will you serve us, Venning?"
+
+They ate hungrily, for through the day they had been too much
+excited to think of food. And as they feasted their eyes were on the
+move, and their ears on the stretch. Their manoeuvre had apparently
+succeeded, for the canoes were all beating up towards the fires
+under the belief that the Okapi had kept on, and there was no
+suspicious movement  by the people on the shore. So they remained
+where they were, keeping themselves in position by holding  on to
+the branches. To the boys it was a weird scene, with the blood-red
+glow on the waters and the sense of vastness and of wildness. They
+were not afraid, but they could not help a feeling of weariness, and
+they edged nearer the hunter for the comfort of his presence. For a
+long time they watched, sitting silent; and by-and-by the fires on
+the islands died down one by one, until only the flare on the bank
+remained as a beacon to those on the river. Then the sound of
+paddling drew near again.
+
+Again the whine came from behind the screen of trees, and there was
+a rustling among the branches.
+
+Taking a bit of the dried meat he had been eating, Mr. Hume tossed
+it through the leaves. There came a sniff, a snap of the jaws, and a
+whimper. The hunter shifted his rifle till it pointed through the
+boughs.
+
+"Peace," said a low voice.  "It is Muata and his beast. They hunt me
+yet."
+
+"Us also, O chief!"
+
+The canoes came rushing in. Already some of the crews had landed
+near the fire; but others were coming down-stream, hugging the banks
+for safety, or, maybe, having a last look for the Englishmen.
+
+"It is Muata!" cried Venning, in a joyous whisper. "Muata and his
+jackal. What luck!"
+
+"S-sh!"
+
+A canoe went by some distance out, after it another, and as they
+swept into the darkness, a third announced its presence, coming more
+slowly and closer in. While it was nearly opposite the hiding the
+howl of the jackal rose from out the bush, wringing a startled
+exclamation from the two boys by its suddenness.
+
+"What devil's noise is that?" sang out a voice they recognized as
+that of the Belgian officer.
+
+A sharp order was given, the paddles ceased, and the canoe, looming
+long and black on the water, drifted towards the Okapi.
+
+"I have heard that cry before," said a rasping voice. "Be ready with
+your weapons. Allah the merciful may yet deliver those we seek."
+
+"What would they be doing here inshore?" asked the Belgian.
+
+"They would be here because it is here they would not expect us to
+search. I think I see something gleam."
+
+In the water by the shore there was a faint splash, and again the
+jackal whined.
+
+Mr. Hume pressed his hand on Compton's shoulder, forcing him into
+the well; and he did the same by Venning.
+
+"Surely," said the Belgian, "it is something. Shall we call in the
+other canoes, and guard the place till daylight?"
+
+"I will have them now," said Hassan, with fury.
+
+"They will not look on another sun;" and he gave the order to his
+men to kill when they closed in. "It is they who let free the thief
+of the forest--the dog Muata."
+
+"You lie, O woman stealer; Muata freed himself;" and out of the
+water, out of the blackness, came the voice, without warning, "Muata
+is here, by your side, man-thief."
+
+The Arab fired, and the flash from his discharged rifle flamed into
+the water, into which he peered with features convulsed.
+
+"Kill him!" he yelled.
+
+"Muata!" cried the paddlers. "Haw! To the shore, to the shore, or we
+perish! The water-wolf, he!"
+
+"Yavuma!" cried the voice from the water; and the canoe heeled over
+as the chief rose under the sharp bow. "Yavuma!"--he wrenched a
+paddle from one of the men and hurled it at the Arab. The crank
+craft rolled as some of the excited men in the stem tried to use
+their spears. "Yavuma!"--this time with a triumphant whoop, and the
+canoe turned over!
+
+With a couple of powerful strokes the swimmer had his hand on the
+Okapi.
+
+"O great one," he cried, "Muata is come to work and to watch--to be
+your shield and your spear."
+
+Mr. Hume reached out a strong hand and pulled the chief on board.
+
+Muata gave a low cry, and with a frightened whimper the jackal shot
+out from the bank and lighted on the deck. Then the Okapi slid out
+silently into the river.
+
+"By Jenkins!" gasped Venning.
+
+"It beats all," laughed Compton. "Well done, Muata."
+
+As the capsized crew struggled to the shore they yelled abuse and
+threats, but their power for mischief had gone with the loss of
+their weapons. Some of them went off down the bank shouting for the
+canoes that had gone on, and others made their way to the fire; but
+Mr. Hume and Muata took a spell at the levers, heedless of the noise
+made, and under their powerful arms the boat was soon far out in the
+waste of waters--safe, at any rate, for that night.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE BULLS AND THE WILD DOGS
+
+After an hour or so Muata was sent forward as look-out, and with his
+jackal by his side, apparently aiding him in his task, he showed
+such eyes for the night that they kept on safely till the morning,
+when the sail was hoisted, and by breakfast-time they judged they
+had covered about forty miles--quite enough for safety. They ran the
+Okapi in among the islands which still stretched away as far as they
+could see, and made fast, to eat and to sleep. The noon heat woke
+them. They sat up under the awning and talked of the great drive, of
+Muata's escape, and of his wonderful luck in finding them--though he
+made out that there was nothing strange about it, since from the
+woods he had seen the preparations for the hunt, and had, too, made
+out the Okapi in the dusk. For the rest, his jackal had scented out
+the white man's lair, and all he, the chief, had to do was to upset
+the canoe of the Arab.
+
+"That was no great work for Muata--the otter, the water-wolf," he
+said.
+
+"And how did the chief escape?"
+
+"Before the shouting arose that Muata was gone, he found a calabash
+of fat for the cooking, by the door of a hut. Some fat he rubbed on
+the soles of his feet to kill the scent. Then he sent the jackal
+into the woods and crawled into a hut, being stiff from the binding.
+In the hut he remained, rubbing the fat into the joints, till the
+people came back to the feast."
+
+"The feast was made by us, so that while the people ate we could
+loosen your bonds."
+
+"Wow! Never yet have I known any to give such thought to a
+stranger."
+
+"It is our way to stand by those who stand by us."
+
+"It is a great word that;" and the chief turned the thought over in
+his mind. "Ow aye! They came again to the feast, and Muata went out
+into the woods in peace."
+
+"And was that all?"
+
+"There was a man gathering fruit in the morning as I passed through
+a garden, and his knife I took."
+
+"And what did the man do?"
+
+"He took a message to my father, the chief," said Muata,
+enigmatically. "The chief's son has been like a hunted dog. His
+stomach hungers for red meat. His spirit thirsts for the hunt. Wow!
+O hunter, set your shining boat for the shore, and let us follow the
+trail. There be buffalo in the lands beyond the hills which line the
+river."
+
+"That's a splendid idea!" cried Venning.  "I'm beginning to get
+mouldy. A trip ashore would be ripping, now that we have distanced
+our pursuers."
+
+"I second that motion," said Compton, with a longing glance
+shorewards. "Do you know, sir, that we have not shot a thing since
+we entered the Congo?"
+
+"I have no objection," said the hunter. "And we must have a good
+supply of biltong before we enter the forest; but we cannot afford
+to take risks. Just examine the shore for a creek, and at dusk we
+will run across."
+
+The boys passed the afternoon searching the south bank for signs of
+a creek, and in the evening the Okapi shaped her course across to a
+likely spot they had marked out. But though they found a creek, it
+was not one that commended itself as a hiding to Mr. Hume, and it
+was not till after a wearisome hunt for hours in the dark that they
+found a channel leading through the hills which he agreed to follow
+up; and then, when they had entered about a mile, Muata, with his
+jackal, was landed to "feel" around for native paths or villages.
+Muata, after a long absence, reported all safe as far as he could
+judge, and they tied up. In the morning they found themselves in the
+thick of the woods, and pushed on down a dark and sluggish stream
+strewn with fallen timber, till they came to a pool in a gorge. Here
+they resolved to leave their boat.
+
+They took the Okapi to pieces, stowed them away in a dry cavern in
+the krantz, covered them with the tarpaulins, and pushed on down
+through the gorge on foot, emerging beyond the hills which bordered
+the Congo into a rolling country, park-like in appearance. They
+studied the land well before they continued, first for signs of
+native villages, and next for game. Smoke rose far away to the
+right, but nearer, the country seemed deserted, and as plenty of
+game appeared in sight, they determined to camp on the slopes of the
+hill. So they looked about for a good pitch, and made choice of a
+sunny spot at the foot of a rocky cliff, not far from the stream
+they had followed, and well screened from view by a thicket of bush
+in the front. They stowed away their blankets in a small cave at the
+base of the cliff, and then started off for the first hunt, the boys
+in a fine state of excitement. They struck into a game-path leading
+through thick scrub, and five minutes from the start there was a
+sullen snort, a tremendous crashing in the woods, as if, at least, a
+herd of elephant were stampeding. Mr. Hume dashed down the game-
+path, and before the boys could see what manner of beast it was, he
+had fired and bowled it over with a bullet behind the ear.
+
+"A bit of luck," he said, as they reached him.
+
+"What is it?" asked Venning, glancing around with bright eyes.
+
+"A buffalo, over there."
+
+The two boys saw a dark form on the ground, half hidden by a bush,
+and were running forward.
+
+"Quietly," said the hunter. "Always approach dangerous game
+cautiously when they are down--especially buffalo;" and with his
+finger on the trigger he went up slow-footed.
+
+But the buffalo was stone-dead--a great bull with an immense boss
+between the bend of his sharp horns.
+
+"It's the luck of hunting," said Mr. Hume, as the boys walked round
+the great beast. "Some days you never get a shot, and other times
+you find game at your back door, so to speak. One of you boys will
+stay with Muata to skin and cut up. It will be a good lesson."
+
+The two looked at each other, and then away over the plain. Skinning
+and cutting up was not exactly amusing.
+
+"All right; I'll stay," said Venning.
+
+"Each in his turn," said the hunter. "Come along, Compton;" and they
+went off, as Venning turned up his shirt-sleeves.
+
+It was hard work, this cutting up, but Muata was a master at the
+job, and Venning learnt his lesson thoroughly.
+
+The great hide was taken off in one piece without a slit; then long
+strips of meat were cut off and hung over the branches of a tree.
+When the rest of the meat had been stripped off, they packed it all
+away in the hide, slung the bundle to a sapling, and, with each end
+of the pole on a shoulder, they slowly carried the whole to the
+camp. Venning hoped that his labours were over; but they had only
+completed one task.  They had now to build a scaffolding on which to
+hang the strips, after each had been well peppered to keep off the
+flies, for the drying and smoking. This took another slice out of
+the day; and when Venning had washed in the river, and cooked and
+eaten his buffalo-steak, he resigned himself to the study of insects
+in place of the pursuit of game, while Muata, who had melted down
+the fat from the kidneys, sat and rubbed the oil into his limbs till
+his skin shone.
+
+"Have you seen many buffalo?" asked Venning, with a keen eye on a
+bit of crooked stick that had seemed to move.
+
+"Many."
+
+"And you understand their ways?"
+
+"I have watched as you watch the stick that is not a stick."
+
+Venning picked up an insect--a strange creature which had adapted
+itself to its surroundings by pretending to be a dried twig.
+
+"Tell me what you saw."
+
+"I saw the twin bulls when they were calves, and I saw them when
+they led the herd, and when they lost the leadership. I watched
+them. Ow aye, I knew their ways. Sometime, when I was yet a boy, I
+could understand what they said."
+
+"What they said, chief?"
+
+"See, the creatures are like men in their ways, and men are like
+animals--each man like to one kind of animal. Haw! So I judged what
+the buffalo would say if he could talk like men."
+
+"And what was the talk? Tell it me; for I also have given speech to
+animals when I have watched alone."
+
+"I will tell you what I thought when I was young, and watched the
+things of the forest. The wisest among the people I have met is a
+woman; and among the things of the forest, the wisest were even a
+buffalo cow who never had calf, and the mother of the yellow pack,
+who had white eyes in her long head. Haw!
+
+"Now, the pack hunted on the same veld where a troop of buffalo
+grazed, but the bull who led the troop was wise. He took counsel
+with the old cow that was calf-less, and the pack could never find
+the fat heifers or the younger calves unguarded. In the troop were
+two young bulls--brothers; and these I had watched grow--watched
+from my hiding. They were strong and fierce, and they eyed the old
+bull full. Scarcely would they turn from his path. Wow! One morning
+the old bull stood in the game-path, considering in his mind how it
+came to happen that the earth had been fresh turned. While he stood,
+the young bulls pressing behind suddenly put their horns to his
+flanks and urged him forward. Mawoh! The old bull stepped on to the
+newly turned earth, and went down into a pit that the hunters had
+dug. He called to the troop to run from the danger, and they crashed
+through the wood to the open glade.
+
+"Haw! A young dog of the pack heard the bellow from the earth, and
+creeping near, he looked down upon the great bull. Then, with his
+nose to the ground, he ran upon the trail of the troop till he saw
+them in the opening. The young bulls moved among the cows. They
+pushed the old cow aside, and later went through the tall grass into
+a shallow vlei, where they wallowed in the mud. Then the young dog
+ran back to the pack. This is what he said, as I understood--
+
+"'Behold, O mother,' he said, 'the great bull, even the leader, is
+fallen in the trap made by man in the path.'
+
+"Who leads the troop now--the old cow or the two brothers?"
+
+'The young bulls, O mother, and they lie in the mud.'
+
+"Then the she-dog called the pack together. I heard the call, and
+knew there would be hunting. She called them and made a plan. I saw
+afterwards the plan she made. The young dogs she sent round to the
+far side of the vlei, and she came with the biggest of the pack to
+the side nearest the forest. From the edge of the wood she looked
+out on the open. The old cow stood alone, with her head turning now
+this way, then that way. The others grazed with their calves. The
+heifers stood foot-deep in the water near the bulls.
+
+"The old dog turned to the pack. 'This comes of the folly of the
+young,' she said; and her white eyes ran from dog to dog. 'Those two
+lie like pigs. We will eat buffalo to-night. Scatter and wait.'
+
+"Three dogs went to the right of her and three to the left. They
+stretched themselves in the grass. The old cow blew through her
+nostrils. She struck the ground, and the cows with the young calves
+ran to her. They gathered in a bunch, heads out. From beyond came
+the hunting-cry of the young dogs. The heifers moved, but the bulls
+kept still.' It is but a dog yapping after a hare,' they said.
+'Stand you still.'
+
+"But the hunting-cry drew nearer. The cows lowered their heads,
+bellowing, and the heifers ran. Wow! The young dogs cut one out, and
+raced her right to where the great mother of the pack crouched. As
+the heifer came by, the white jaws snapped at her belly, and bit
+deep, so that blood flowed, and on the scent of the blood the pack
+went into the forest. They ate buffalo that night.
+
+"The young bulls rose from the mud. They ran to and fro in the open;
+their eyes were red, and the foam dripped from their black lips.
+Wow! they were angry, Ow aye, they were covered with shame and mud.
+The old cow moved away, and the cows with young followed her. The
+heifers, trembling in their limbs, would have followed also, but the
+bulls headed them off. There was much talk in the forest over this.
+They said the bulls had learnt wisdom. No dog would take a member of
+the troop again. The bulls tossed their horns. 'If a lion comes,'
+they said, 'we would beat him off.'
+
+"The pack tried again, and were beaten off; but the old she yawned.
+'In a few days, my children,' she said, 'we will eat buffalo, even
+of the meat of the young bulls. There never were two leaders in a
+pack'--and her white eyes went to a dog who had hopes of the
+leadership--'never; and in a day, or two days, these brothers will
+fight. They will fight hard; and when the fight is done the pack
+will steal upon them. When they stand panting, with lowered heads
+and feet wide apart, we will bite at the softness of their bellies.'
+She licked her lips, and the tongues of the pack curled over their
+lips also. So the young dogs were set to watch upon the brothers;
+and it came to pass as the old mother said--the brothers fought. It
+began in play. One swung his head at the other, and the other swung
+back.
+
+"When a grown bull swings his head, O white boy, who picked me out
+of the sea, it is like the blow of a falling tree. There is the
+weight of his head with the heavy horns, the arch of his neck, and
+the power in his shoulders where the muscles lie. The blows roused
+the fury in them. They looked sideways at each other, then their
+tails went up, and they came together. Wow!! The noise rang far. The
+hunting dogs ran swiftly to the pack, and as they ran there followed
+them the noise of the fight.
+
+"I stole near to watch. It was a battle. The ground was torn up as
+in the hoeing, where their hoofs clung for a footing under the
+pressure. First they pushed, head to head, nose near the ground, red
+eyes looking into red eyes. The heifers stood in a cluster watching.
+It was a still battle. They saved their breath, and as they breathed
+the dust flew. For many minutes they pushed, swaying, one losing
+ground for a time, then gaining it back. The foam gathered on their
+lips and dropped to the ground. The sweat ran under their bellies.
+Then one slipped, and the other struck under the shoulder. From the
+lower rib to the back there ran a white mark. The white mark turned
+black, and blood came out. At the pain of it the stricken bull
+grunted and struck up.  His horn struck under the body, and with the
+cracking of his joints he heaved the other over. Haw! He rolled him
+right over and sprang at him. Wow!! He struck and stood back. The
+other was on his feet swiftly. With the swiftness of a little cat he
+gained his feet. So they stood with their heads up, staring with red
+eyes. Again they came together. Again they shoved and strained, and
+the dust caked on the blood that covered them. The ground beneath
+them that was dry, was now muddy from the trampled blood. Then they
+swung their heads and struck, grunting at the blows, and stood
+apart, and came together, till the blood started from their ears.
+Their breath came in gasps, and the silence was broken. From their
+lips, all blood-covered, there came a moaning. Ow aye, the moaning
+of a mother over her dead. The heifers ran forward, then back; they
+ran round and galloped away, afraid--galloped into the forest.
+
+"In my heart, O white friend, I was sorry for the brothers. The
+moaning was the cry of sorrow that one felt for the other. 'O my
+brother, I must slay you,' that was the meaning of the moaning.
+Their tongues rolled out, swollen; their legs shook, their eyes were
+covered with mist. Yet they swung their heads, and each time the
+horns were wet with blood, and the moaning came always. Then they
+came together, and went on their knees. Their muzzles were in the
+mud; their hind legs were wide apart.
+
+"Ow aye, I looked away and saw the white eyes of the mother of the
+pack. She was creeping up. Her lips were wet; the hair on her neck
+stood up. Behind her came others. I gave the low growl of a lion--
+the cry he makes when he is angry at being disturbed. She threw up
+her head and sniffed the air. Then she growled in her throat, for
+there was no taint of lion in the air, but the taint of man! Her
+white eyes found me out where I sat in a low tree, and there was
+death in them. So I gathered the air in my lungs and shouted. A
+man's shout is as much dreaded as the lion's roar. The dogs jumped
+up, but the old mother called to them, and they crouched down.  The
+brothers stood moaning head to head. I shouted again; I whistled.
+Then the bulls drew apart. One fell slowly on his side; the other
+smelt at the fallen one. Then he tried to bellow, but his tongue was
+thick in his mouth. The she-dog crept forward, and I whistled loud.
+This time he flung up his head and looked around. He saw the white
+eyes above the grass; he saw the round ears everywhere around. Then
+he smelt at his brother. Wow! He smelt at him; he licked the blood
+from his nostrils.
+
+"This is the law among the wild things--when one is down he is down.
+The weak are driven forth by their fellows; the hurt are left. The
+bull smelt at his brother; then again he flung his head up to look
+at the white-eyed one, and he moved away for the vlei, moaning as he
+went. The dogs let him pass; their eyes scarcely went to him, for
+they were fixed on the fallen. They moved upon him in silence, a few
+steps at a time, then crouched with hanging tongues; then a few more
+steps; and as they closed in the fallen bull watched those he could
+see. Meat for dogs! He a chief in the forest, who could toss the
+largest dog the height of a tree! Wow! He gathered his hind feet
+under him and lifted. Slowly he reached his feet, and the white-eyed
+mother ran in open-mouthed. She gripped the sinews of his hind leg
+and held on. The pack crowded in. Haw! It was no fight. The bull
+looked after his brother, who was slowly moving to the vlei, moaning
+as he went. Then, but for a little time, he fought as a chief should
+fight when his foes are on him. With a swing of his head here, and a
+swing there, he stove in the ribs of two of the pack; then he sprang
+on another, flung him, as a boy would a stone, into the air, watched
+him go up, watched him come down, then flung him up again, and fell
+forward on his knees with his nose on the ground, and the pack
+snapped the flesh from him in mouthfuls. The other bull turned not
+at the howling of the pack. He walked on slow and straight to the
+vlei, drank deep, and made a bed in the mud. He covered his wounds
+with mud, and when his wounds were healed he was an outcast. The
+troop had another leader, and the old cow led them all to another
+grazing-ground."
+
+"And what became of you, Muata?"
+
+"Muata stayed in the tree. Mawoh! Muata was afraid. The mother of
+the pack had not forgotten. Even while she ate she looked at him,
+and when the milk-mothers with their young came to the forest,
+having been called, she lay off and watched, with her evil eyes on
+me. The jackals, smelling blood, howled, sitting on their haunches,
+and a lion came up growling in his throat. But he did not come right
+up; he stood a way off, watching,  and presently he stretched
+himself on his stomach to wait. Haw! Even the lion will not attempt
+to drive the pack from its kill. Ow aye, it is so. The old mother
+never turned her eyes to watch the lion, but when the pups played,
+having eaten their fill, she stood up. The pack looked at her and
+moved off; then the lion rose and came forward. The old one stood
+her ground, and the great one, when he was within three bounds of
+her, also stood. The white eyes turned away from the yellow eyes--
+they turned to me; then she yapped and went off after the pack. The
+lion looked after her; then he stretched himself on the ground again
+and stared. He lifted his head to the wind and sniffed. Mawoh! Well,
+I knew the old mother had told him of my presence; but the lion
+never looks up. It was well for me, for his mind was uneasy. A long
+time he lay, while the jackals sat howling. Then he crept round the
+tree and the carcase. Twice he crept round; then, as the smell of
+the meal was too much, he trotted up to the carcass and growled at
+his feast. His back was toward me, and I fled."
+
+"And did you meet the white-eyed mother again?"
+
+"The wisest among the people I have met," said Muata, gravely, "was
+a woman; and among the creatures of the forest, the wisest was a
+she-dog. It is in my mind that the leader of the pack was umtaguati.
+Ow aye, she was a wizard; and it is not well to make war against
+such."
+
+Venning looked at the chief with curiosity.  "Are there many wizards
+in the forest, Muata?" he asked with a smile.
+
+"By day and night, many; but most by night. Our people will not
+venture forth in the darkness of the forest for fear of the wizards
+and the bad spirits that watch from behind the trees and follow
+stealthily; but a spell was given to Muata. He could walk in the
+night."
+
+"Have you seen these--eh--spirits, Muata?" Muata put the question
+aside. He rose and pointed to the east.
+
+"The sun dies away and the hunters return."
+
+"I don't hear them. Where are they?"  "The birds cry out and fly.
+That is the sign that man is on the move; for hear, you who split up
+the shining boat, birds will scold at a leopard or a great snake,
+hovering around as they scold; but they fly from man. From nothing
+else will they fly. From an eagle they will hide after giving the
+warning call; but from man they fly."
+
+A few minutes later the two arrived, Mr. Hume carrying an  antelope
+on his shoulder.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+A LION'S CHARGE
+
+They turned in very early after banking up leaves over the fires
+under the biltong strips, to give them a good smoking during the
+night, but in the small hours, when the night is at its quietest,
+the moonlight, shining on Venning's face, woke him. The fires were
+glowing bright, altogether too bright for safety, and he rose to
+cover the glare with some green leaves. He looked at his sleeping
+companions, for all, tired out by disturbed nights, slept on, except
+the jackal, which had one eye open.
+
+Venning sat awhile looking down upon the dim uncertain shadows that
+came and went, as a fleecy mist-like cloud passed overhead.  Beyond
+the fitful murmur of the wind there was no sound but the hooting of
+a great homed owl somewhere from the woods above. Drawing his
+blanket round him, and picking up his gun, he walked to a point on
+the right overlooking the bed of the little river, and there he sat
+down with his back to a rock and his gun over his knees. Scarcely
+was he seated when the jackal startled him by its sudden appearance
+at his side. He scratched its ears, and it sat close to him, staring
+fixedly down on the river. Just below there was a stretch of sand in
+the bed gleaming white under the moonlight, and Venning watched this
+with the eye of a naturalist, in the hope of seeing some of the
+great forms of animal life. And he had his hope, for several
+creatures crossed the white patch, and each time the jackal was the
+first to see them. The round ears would suddenly prick forward, the
+sharp nose would twitch, and then Venning would dimly discover
+something down there in the uncertain light. A porcupine he made
+out, its quills gleaming and rustling as it went down to the water;
+then a great wart-pig  with curved tusks; and next, after a long
+interval, a fine buck with long powerful horns. A water-buck he
+judged it to be from the length of its horns, and it stood there
+long with its face up-stream, motionless, save for the constant
+twitching of the large ears. He rested his elbows on his knees as he
+sat and aimed at the shoulders, but did not fire, for fear of
+alarming the camp; and  presently the buck, even as he watched,
+vanished as softly and silently as it came. Then Venning's eyes
+closed, his chin dropped, the gun settled between his knees, and he
+was asleep.
+
+He was asleep, and he was awake again so suddenly that he did not
+know he had slept until he saw the position of the gun. The jackal
+plucked at his blanket. He remembered that something had disturbed
+him, and he judged that the jackal had done the same thing just
+before. He yawned and patted its head; but, instead of sitting down,
+it ran a few yards, sniffed the air, whined, came back, glanced long
+over its shoulder into the riverbed,  looked into Venning's face,
+then ran off in the direction of the camp. As soon as it was gone
+Venning felt lonely. He stood up, thinking to return to the camp,
+then sat down again, for he heard the sharp stamp that an antelope
+makes when alarmed, and he hoped to see it come into the moonlight.
+So he settled down to watch again, and drowsiness fell upon his
+eyes. He could see the white patch of sand, and as his heavy lids
+were lowered and lifted between the drowsy intervals, he became
+dimly conscious that there was something on the sand.  Yes; there it
+was, something grey, short, and thick. A donkey, he told himself.
+He smiled sleepily. A donkey! It was strange to see the old familiar
+form out there in the wilderness. He wondered dreamily where it came
+from; then a shadow cast by the moon on a passing cloud blotted out
+the river-bed. He rubbed his eyes, and when the cloud had gone there
+were two animals--donkeys, unmistakably--one larger than the other,
+both with their heads turned upwards towards him. Another cloud
+sailed by, and when it had passed he missed them, and, his curiosity
+roused, he rubbed his eyes again for a closer scrutiny. Surely that
+was not a bush on the bank? No! it moved. The donkeys were coming
+towards him. One of them, the larger, moved forward quickly, then
+stopped. Then a chill ran through him, his heart grew weak, his
+breathing grew sharp, and the sweat suddenly started out all over
+his face and body. That was no donkey standing there, with its huge
+head now sunk almost to the ground, now lifted high, as it tried to
+make out what manner of living creature it was crouching there by
+the rock above!
+
+Venning felt the hair stir on his head as the two animals stood
+gazing at him, and then he knew. The one behind sank to the ground,
+and with long steps began to creep round to the right. The moon
+struck along its side, and showed the tawny hide and the whitish
+under-parts of a lioness. The other, then, was a lion! With a sort
+of gurgling in his throat he turned his eyes to it, and he saw it
+trotting up straight for him, its shaggy mane giving to its head and
+shoulders an enormous size. He felt spell-bound, incapable of moving
+hand or foot. It was the silence of the ferocious beasts that
+paralyzed him. Then the jackal howled behind him, and his blood
+rushed through his veins. His tongue no longer clave to the roof of
+his mouth, and when the great beast was within ten yards of him, he
+let forth a terrific yell and jumped to his feet, with his rifle in
+his hands.
+
+The lion stopped suddenly in its charge with a low harsh grunt of
+surprise. Never before in its hunting had it heard such a wild
+uncanny noise. In one motion it stopped in its charge and swerved to
+the right, and as it swerved the boy fired. The lion gave a mighty
+bound, he heard it strike the ground with a heavy thud, and then it
+seemed to disappear, though he knew it was near from the low
+growling it set up.
+
+From the camp there came a confused shouting, followed by the sound
+of a man running.
+
+Venning moistened his lips. "Look out," he shouted, "there is a lion
+here."
+
+"Where are you?"
+
+"Here, by this rock."
+
+"Stay there, and keep quite still."
+
+The growling increased, and once more the same paralysis attacked
+the boy so that he could scarcely breathe. Then some one stood at
+his side, and the fear went from him at once.
+
+"He's over there, somewhere; but I can't see him."
+
+"I can. Get round the rock, my boy. He's lying flat with his head
+between his paws, and it's a mercy you did not fire again and draw
+his charge."
+
+Venning moved round the rock, and Mr. Hume slowly followed. He
+stopped awhile to listen to the incessant growling.
+
+"You've hit him, but not, I think, mortally; anyway, we'll leave
+him, if he will leave us. Move on towards the camp quietly--don't
+run."
+
+"No, sir," said Venning; but it required an effort not to make a
+bolt for it when he saw the friendly gleam of the fire.
+
+Mr. Hume followed slowly, with his head over his shoulder, towards
+the place where the growling came from. When he reached the fire he
+gave a great sigh of relief.
+
+"Thank God. Now tell us what happened, my boy;" and he put his hand
+on Venning's arm.
+
+Venning started violently, for just then from the river there came a
+harsh, growling call; and no sooner had it ceased than the ground
+shook to a terrific roar.
+
+"The lion answers the lioness," said the chief, calmly.
+
+"Throw a little wood on the fire, Muata.  Now, my lad."
+
+Venning told his story, and Compton listened with intense
+excitement; but the hunter treated the whole thing calmly, with set
+purpose. He had in his experience seen the effect of a terrible
+shock, in the complete breakdown of the victim, and, personally, he
+had known one man die from the shock to his system caused exactly by
+the sudden and unexpected appearance of a lion at night. He kept
+Venning's thoughts off the mental picture of the charging lion until
+dawn, when all hands prepared for the hunt.
+
+"If you hit him hard he will be lying near, and I guess it will be a
+different matter meeting him by daylight--eh, my lad?"
+
+Venning looked into the hunter's calm eyes, and felt strong. He went
+straight to the rock against which he had crouched, and pointed to
+the deep scars made in the hard ground by the sharp claws as the
+lion had stopped his charge and wheeled.
+
+Compton measured the distance from the rock to the claw-marks.
+
+"Fifteen feet! By Jove! it was a narrow squeak. I would have yelled
+like fits."
+
+"I did yell."
+
+Muata pointed to the ground.
+
+"Blood spoor, eh? You did hit him. Put the jackal on the track,
+chief," said Mr. Hume.
+
+The jackal took one sniff at the ground, stared sharply around, then
+peered up into his master's face.
+
+"Search," said the chief, in his own tongue. "Follow the great one,
+O little friend. The trail is laid; the great one has sought out a
+moist spot; he lies angry and sore in the shade. Search and find."
+
+The jackal looked intently into the chiefs face, sniffed at the
+ground, ran forward a few yards, stopped, sniffed again with lifted
+mane at a spot where the grass was pressed down, threw up his head
+with eyes half closed, then ran down towards the river, stopping on
+the bank to look back.
+
+"That is where he joined his mate.  There is the spoor on the sand
+going and returning. That is the round pad of the lion; just note
+and compare it with the pads of the lioness over there. Just look,
+and read the writing."
+
+The two boys looked at the marks in the sand, and followed them down
+to the moist ground on the edge of the water.
+
+"They entered the river side by side," they said.
+
+"That is plain; but the writing tells another story. See, this
+footprint here is faint--very faint, eh? He did not rest his weight
+on his left fore-foot.  Why, eh?"
+
+"Because the bullet struck the left front leg," they both said.
+
+"They learn the signs, Muata. They will be hunters yet. Tell them if
+the lion be hard hit, chief."
+
+Muata waded into the river, which reached to his armpits at the
+deepest, and bent over something on the further shore. They
+undressed, and waded through to him.
+
+"Congela," he said, pointing to the bank. "The great ones came out
+here. The great, great one was not sore hurt, for he came right
+through, using all his feet to swim."
+
+"It will be luck, then, if we find him," said the hunter.
+
+"Bad luck," muttered Compton to Venning, with a grin.
+
+"Forward, little friend!" cried Muata. "Search and find. It is a
+great hunt this day. We follow the hunter of all things."
+
+They slipped into their clothes and followed at a trot after the
+jackal, which ran straight on, its bushy tail held low. It followed
+the river down for a mile or so, then stopped, looking back at its
+master.
+
+Mr. Hume and the chief stood silently inspecting the hard ground,
+then they walked on a few yards. The same thoughts seemed to come to
+each, as the boys judged from their actions; for from the ground
+their eyes ranged over the land, then were turned skywards. Muata
+pointed a finger at a ringed crow flying with bent head.
+
+"They killed," said Mr. Hume.
+
+"Oh!! They killed."
+
+"You see," said the hunter to the two boys, "the pair crouched here;
+these circular marks in the sand were made by the swing of the
+tails. They sighted game. One of them--the lioness, no doubt--worked
+round to drive the game towards the lion."
+
+"It is a guess," said Compton. "Perhaps the lion stopped because of
+his hurt."
+
+"No; the bleeding has stopped. They not only sighted game, but the
+lioness drove it from the river-bed towards the lion, and the lion
+brought it down."
+
+"Oh, come," said Compton. "How can you tell that?"
+
+"From the spoor"--laconically. "He sprang twice--here, where he
+alighted the first time; and the second spring landed him on to the
+neck of an antelope powerful enough to struggle on into that thicket
+of reeds. There the two of them pulled it down."
+
+"And there he is!" shouted Venning.
+
+He pointed to the right of the reeds, and there was a great
+yellowish beast walking away at a slow walk, with its head sunk.
+
+"The lioness," said the hunter. "Venning, keep by me, but a little
+behind. Compton, when I whistle, fire into the reeds."
+
+Compton nodded his head, and the two went off, while Muata sat down
+as a spectator.
+
+Mr. Hume walked steadily up to within fifty paces of the reeds on
+the upper side, then whistled. Immediately Compton fired.
+
+The lion was there. He signified his presence by a low growl, but he
+did not move. Compton fired again, and this time the reeds shook,
+and a great shaggy head appeared, with its yellow eyes fixed on the
+boy. Mr. Hume made a slight noise, and the great head turned at once
+in his direction. For a moment the lion exchanged glances, then with
+a growl he turned into the reeds to reappear further on, going
+slowly in the direction of the lioness.
+
+"It is your shot, Godfrey; take him just behind the shoulder."
+
+Venning's heart was thumping against his ribs; but he steadied
+himself for the shot, and fired. The lion sprang forward, snarling,
+and faced about towards his enemies. Then up went his tail, and with
+a savage growl he charged straight down to within about thirty feet,
+when he stood for a moment, as is the way of the charging lion if
+his enemy stands fast. The pause was enough; and before the huge
+muscles of the flanks and backs could be set in motion to hurl the
+great body forward, a bullet, crashing into his breast, laid him out
+helpless in the throes of death.
+
+"Your first lion, Godfrey."
+
+"But you killed him," said Venning, pulling himself together with a
+great effort; for he had been through a very severe ordeal.
+
+"The first hit counts. See here, your bullet last night struck him
+above the elbow, just missing the bone, and your second shot hit him
+low down in the ribs."
+
+"My word," said Compton, as he came up, his eyes blazing with
+excitement, "it was grand to see that charge. Yes, and to see how
+you two stood. My heart was in my mouth."
+
+"It's a simple shot," said the hunter. "All you have to do is to
+keep perfectly cool and wait for the lion to come to his stand."
+
+"Very easy," muttered Compton, with a grimace, as he looked at the
+white fangs and the cruel-looking claws, finishing off that mighty
+weapon the lion's forearm, capable  of battering in a man's head at
+one blow.
+
+The chief stood looking from the lion to the hunter. "Ye be
+brothers," he said, "ye two; both great men of the hunt; chiefs by
+your own right wherever you go."
+
+"When I was young," said Mr. Hume, "I shot lions for the pride of
+the victory; but long since I gave that up, and only when a lion
+seeks me have I gone out to kill him."
+
+"Ye be brothers," said the chief. "The great one stands alone, for
+he is merciful in his strength. The spotted one kills for the love
+of killing. He will kill, if the chance comes, many times more than
+he can eat. The warrior will slay of his enemies all his spear can
+reach. The great one eats and is satisfied. The rest may live till
+he be hungry. I know, for I have met him face to face in the path. I
+say to him, '''Inkose' (chief), the path is yours.' I have stood
+aside, and the 'inkose' has gone on his way in peace.'
+
+"If you carried a rifle, chief, it might be otherwise. Take the
+claws, Venning; we cannot find room for the skin."
+
+The claws were cut off, and they returned to the camp for breakfast.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A NIGHT IN THE REEDS
+
+It was good to sit around the glowing embers where the buffalo-steak
+sizzled and threw out an odour that made their mouths water, good to
+sip the hot coffee and to look out upon the great wilderness rising
+up to the distant watershed of the lower bank of the Congo. From the
+cliff above starlings flew out to seek their feeding-haunts where
+the big game fed; and there was a familiar visitor near them in the
+black and drab stone-chat, whose scolding chirp they had so often
+heard in England among the gorse and bramble. The metallic cry of
+guinea-fowl down by the little river had a farm-yard ring; but the
+chatter of parrots flying overhead was still new, and so with many
+other calls, so that they sat munching in silence, with eyes and
+ears too much engaged for speech, even if the buffalo-steak had not
+given their mouths other occupation. They saw the vultures speeding
+from out the uttermost reach of the blue vault to feed upon the
+carcass of the dead monarch, the whereabouts of the feast having
+been detected from their distant haunts by a keenness of sight which
+for swiftness outdoes wireless telegraphy. They swept on like
+frigates of the sky, heads thrust down, and the vast wings seeming
+to bear them on without beat or motion.
+
+After breakfast the two boys left the camp for a little hunt on
+their own account, while Mr. Hume remained to help the chief cure
+the buffalo hide. They struck out down the river, passed the reeds
+out of which the lion had sprung, saw the cluster of vultures
+standing round the body of the lion, and then they saw a troop of
+antelope  grazing in a patch of mimosas. After a careful stalk,
+Compton fired, and the herd dashed off together, with the exception
+of one, which took its own course at a slower gait.
+
+"You hit him, Dick."
+
+"Yes; and we'll get him. You go to the left, and I'll keep him away
+from the river."
+
+The two dashed off, each on his own line, and for several minutes
+the stricken animal led them through fairly open country, with every
+promise of a speedy run, for it was evidently hard hit. Then, taking
+advantage of an old watercourse, it turned to the right, and when
+Compton recovered the track he had lost touch with Venning. He gave
+a "coo-ee," and then getting a view of the antelope making down to
+the water, he turned it with another shot, and sprinted to overtake
+it. Yard by yard he gained in this final burst, and shifted his
+rifle to his left hand in order to have his right free to use the
+hunting-knife. Another effort and he was almost within touch; but
+the buck also had a reserve of power, and, gathering its quarters,
+it made a couple of bounds, which carried it into the shelter of a
+thin sprinkling of reeds. Compton responded, and in a few strides
+was so near that he flung himself forward in an effort to get
+astride the animal's back. The buck slipped forward, letting him
+down, and, when he rose he saw the white tail whisking round a
+corner in the reeds. On he dashed down a narrow path, which twisted
+and turned so sharply that he could only see a few yards ahead; but
+he was never in fault, as when he could not see the game he could
+hear it plainly, so he never slackened. The chase went on always
+with the prospect of success tantalizingly before him, until at last
+he was at fault in a little clearing where the reeds had been beaten
+down, and from which there branched several lanes. He stopped to
+listen, but the buck had stopped too. Then he searched for the
+blood-trail, and, finding it, set off once more, and this time,
+after another chase lasting about ten minutes, the buck was
+overtaken and despatched. Then he threw himself on his back and
+panted for breath. When he had recovered he sat up and wondered, for
+his hands and bare arms were bleeding from a number of cuts that
+began to smart most painfully. The sharp saw-like edges of the reeds
+bad cut into his flesh, and in the excitement he had not noticed the
+injuries.  Thanks, however, to the regulations enforced by Mr. Hume,
+he carried in the pouches of his belt a little store of quinine,
+vaseline, and meat lozenges. He rubbed the vaseline on the cuts,
+mopped his face, and felt all right. Then he put his hand to his
+mouth and gave a "coo-ee." The call was strangled in the reeds. He
+called again, fired off his gun, and waited, but he could hear
+nothing but a soft whispering.  The reeds reached above his head,
+and he could see nothing but the matted stems around him and the
+blue sky overhead. He gave a grunt of impatience, lifted the buck,
+hoisted the body on his shoulder, brought the fore legs round on one
+side, the hind legs on the other side, and secured them before him
+with his handkerchief. Then he stooped for his rifle, and plunged
+into a path with the object of tramping straight through to the
+outer edge, when he would get his bearings for the camp.
+
+This was more easily intended than carried out; for the reeds closed
+in so as to hamper his movements, and in a short time the path ran
+into other tracks, which doubled here and there without any decided
+direction, and led him into little dens. In one of these there was
+the bleached skull of a buffalo, and he sat down on this to
+consider.
+
+He got the direction of the sun from the shadows, made a rough guess
+at the points of the compass, and then started off again, picking
+out a path that seemed wider than the others, and which led in the
+right way. After steady tramping, he found himself back at the very
+spot where he had killed the antelope. It was a nasty shock, but, in
+no way dismayed, he tried to pick up his old spoor, and after a
+patient search he hit it off, and went on with a little laugh. He
+hesitated when he entered another little open space, but finally
+kept on in the same direction, and finding the way easier, stepped
+out confidently, although the weight of the buck was beginning to
+tell, combined with the closeness of the air in these long aisles.
+At last the reeds thinned, and he stepped out into the open. He
+slipped the legs of the buck over his head to stretch himself, and
+then a little cry of disgust broke from his lips, for the place he
+had come to was not the outskirts of the reeds at all, but merely an
+open space, larger than any he had met before, with a little grass
+mound in the centre. Mounting this, he could see a run of trees in
+the distance, and in between a sea of green leaves, giving back
+myriad points of light under the rays of the sun. Queer soft noises
+came out of the white rows of reeds all around, and from the vast
+expanse a continual murmur that was something like the moaning of
+the wind in the pines.
+
+He fired his gun off and listened. A faint far-off answer he thought
+he heard; but when he fired again he could detect no sound but the
+whispering murmur. He cut a couple of stout reeds, fitted one into
+the other, tied his handkerchief to the top, and planted the pole on
+the mound. Then he placed the buck at the foot of the pole, covered
+it with an armful of reeds, took a long look around, and started off
+once more. He was resolved to keep straight on, path or no path, but
+after a tussle with the serried ranks of reeds, with their razor-
+like leaves, he soon gave up that idea as hopeless, and took again
+to the paths--going very slowly, and taking his direction at
+intervals. But, try as he would, there were the kinks and twists in
+the paths which turned him out of his course. The endless game-
+tracks formed a worse snare than any he had been in of human
+contrivance; and at places, moreover, the ground was boggy, catching
+hold of his feet, and exhausting him by the heavy going. Several
+times animals broke cover and crashed away unseen. At one spot in
+the ooze he saw the form of a huge crocodile, and at another place
+the menacing head of a python was reared above the tops of the
+reeds, with his forked tongue  flickering about the blunt nose.
+These sights, and the sudden snorts from unseen beasts, bred in him
+a growing feeling of uneasiness, which in turn weakened his powers
+of reasoning,  so that he blundered hither and thither in a sort of
+reckless fury, until he went flat, face downwards, in black mud,
+that gripped him at every point. If he had struggled he would have
+been hopelessly bogged, but luckily he recovered his wits, and set
+himself slowly to extricate himself. His left foot was in up to the
+knee, and his left arm was sinking each moment, when he steadied
+himself and drew his knife. Beaching out, he cut a swathe of reeds,
+drew them towards him with the knife-blade, packed them under his
+chin and breast, then rolled over on to this firmer support, after a
+strong and steady pull. Repeating the performance, he managed to get
+one knee on to a bedding of reeds, then with one violent effort
+freed himself and reached hard ground.
+
+This incident shook him up so, that coming, after another effort, to
+the open where he had left the buck, he gave up the struggle, seeing
+that he must think of some other plan if he wished to get alive out
+of this prison.
+
+First he rested until his strength came back, then he cleaned his
+mud-covered rifle, and scraped the black ooze off his clothes with
+the knife. Then he heard a murmur in the reeds--a snap, then a
+rustle; a long pause, then a rustling again. He stood up with rifle
+ready, and he saw a reed shake about ten yards away, then heard it
+snap. He shouted, and the rustling ceased, to break out after an
+interval on the other side. Again it was resumed in the front, and
+in a little while it seemed to him that the reeds were alive with
+the stealthy rustlings of beasts and reptiles, all moving towards
+him. A reed bent again a little way off, and he fired in the
+direction. There was a crash and a growl, followed by a peculiar
+moaning from the opposite side. From somewhere deep in the sea of
+green there came the hoarse bellow of a bull crocodile. Nothing now
+could have induced him to enter that bewildering labyrinth again,
+and he looked about with a shudder, for the day was sinking to its
+close, and the night would soon be upon him. There was only one
+thing that could protect him in the night, and that was fire. With a
+feverish energy, regardless now of the rustlings about his little
+island, he began to cut the tallest of the reeds that were hard and
+sapless, and these he banked in six heaps round the base of the
+mound; and when the task was done he reared a bigger pile in the
+centre as a reserve.
+
+Then the black of the night swept over the reeds quick almost as the
+shadow of a cloud, and with the dark came a sad rustling, as of a
+thousand whisperings. It was still and not still. Up in the sky was
+the quietness of a still night, the stars watching and brooding over
+the silence; but down below, in and out of the miles and miles of
+avenues, stretching every way through the millions of smooth
+gleaming stems, came a whispering as if creatures were moving tip-
+toe, moving up nearer and nearer, treading  carefully, watching and
+listening. An owl brushed like a shadow overhead, and his loud
+"whoo-whoo" floated away in sadness and sorrow.
+
+He sat with his back to the reserve heap of reeds, and waited with
+his rifle over his knees for the signal to fire his first pile.
+There was as yet no clear meaning in those mysterious whisperings.
+What he listened for was a sound that he could interpret, and it
+came very soon in the grunt of a leopard, harsh and grating. The
+reeds rustled just before him, and then there came a sound, regular
+and strange--a thump and a swish, then a thump and a swish. Creeping
+forward, he put a match to the heap, then went back; and as the red
+flame crackled through the hard shining stems, he saw a dark form
+crouching beyond, the green eyes blinking in the reflection, and the
+tufted tail nervously jerking from side  to side. It was that made
+the strange noise. As the flame  grew, the leopard sprang up and
+turned away, stopping for a  long stare over its shoulder.
+
+Light fragments from the burning pile floated high up like fire-
+flies, and far over the white sea of leaves shone the reflection.
+Others saw it from the far outer edge, and through the night came
+the report of a gun, and then faintly the echo of a "coo-ee." He
+shouted back hoarsely, and though he knew his friends could not
+possibly force the way to him through that barrier, impenetrable
+except by the devious game-tracks, he was greatly cheered.
+
+His mind was taken off his loneliness for a time, and he suddenly
+found that he was fearfully hungry. So with his handy knife he
+stripped the skin from a hind leg of the antelope, cut off a fine
+steak, and scraping out a layer of glowing embers, placed the meat
+on. With the cooking and eating of his supper the time went
+cheerfully; but meantime the flame had died out, and something
+alighted with a thud just behind. He whipped round, but could see
+nothing, and moved to the fire to kick some of the live coals to the
+next heap. In that instant the antelope was seized and carried off
+in a couple of bounds just inside the reeds, for he heard plainly
+the tearing of the flesh, the snarls, the growling, and the
+crunching of bones. He crouched near the fire, for it was not
+pleasant to think of that stealthy approach and that bold foray, and
+wondered whether the buck would satisfy the pair of fierce
+creatures. The fire flared up, crackled fiercely, sending up, as
+before, its fiery messengers into the air, then gradually died down
+to a glowing heap; and the leopards were still at their meal,
+purring now, a monstrous cat-like purr. There was comfort in it,
+however, for it seemed to him to tell of hunger satisfied, and by-
+and-by they indeed went off, grunting to each other.  Then there
+came a long spell of silence. He gathered the unburnt fragments that
+fringed the two heaps of embers and piled them on one of the heaps.
+They blazed up, and by the light he rearranged the other stacks of
+fuel. He realized that he could easily be struck down by a leopard
+if he ventured away from a fire, and he hit on the idea of building
+his fires in the shape of a cross, one at the top, one at the
+bottom, one on each side, and space inside for him to lie down.
+Inside he made a bed of reeds, from which he could draw supplies as
+they were needed. He fired the top pile, and then, after a long
+wait, the bottom one, and when that had burnt down to embers, and
+the night was far advanced, he stretched himself out, protected by
+four smouldering heaps of ash, that glowed like four red eyes in the
+dark.
+
+He looked up at the stars for a long time as he rested in his lonely
+camping-ground, and then dropped into an uneasy sleep. Something
+awoke him very soon, and his eyes opened on the dark vault above. A
+booming noise reached him. It was the grunt of a lion this time, but
+far off--a deep monotonous sound made by the lion on the trot, with
+his mouth near the ground. It was very far off, and with a sigh of
+relief he closed his eyes. And then he heard the sound again, and
+knew it was not the lion that had awakened him. He rose on his elbow
+and peered about, but the darkness came right up to the ash-heaps,
+looking white now instead of red. He placed a handful of dry reeds
+on the nearest heap and blew. There was a glow, a flicker, and then
+a flare. In the reflection he saw dimly a patch of white, then
+another patch next it. This roused him, so that he set all the four
+fires going again, and, with his rifle ready, he stood up to see
+what manner of visitors these were with the white marks.
+
+He had heard slight noises as he fed the fires, and now the reeds
+rustled, but he could see no living form. Sitting down, he laid a
+few handfuls of reeds ready to each fire, then waited with shaken
+nerves, for there was something mysterious about this visitation.
+The fires flared up and sunk back to red embers, and yet there was
+no sign. The embers took on a covering of grey ash, then the
+rustling began anew, and the white objects reappeared. He turned his
+head, and saw that they stretched right round! What the dickens were
+they? He strained his sight, and, at first indistinctly and then
+clearly, he saw the gleam of eyes above each white patch. Softly he
+laid a few reeds on the embers, and as they crackled he saw one of
+the white objects move. As the flame mounted up, he made out an
+animal with round ears and brindled hide, staring nervously at the
+fire. It was a wild-dog! Only a dog, and with a "shoo!" he thought
+to scare the creature off. The yellow eyes went from the fire to his
+face, a red tongue slithered out over the black nose, and the dog
+sat down again. All round were the white breasts of the pack, as
+they sat in silence and stared. He searched about for a missile,
+found an empty cartridge, and threw it. A dog leapt up and sniffed.
+The circle seemed to close in.
+
+He shouted at them, and they gave back a yelp, but never stirred.
+
+"All right," he said grimly, then aimed at a white breast and fired.
+The pack scattered into the reeds; there was a beating and kicking
+noise, followed by a wild rush, a savage snarling and snapping of
+teeth. Dog was eating dog; and, with a feeling of disgust and
+contempt, he prepared himself to rest. A little later the white
+circle was complete again, and the silent inspection was continued.
+This got on his nerves, and, springing over the fire with his rifle
+clubbed, he gave two sweeping blows. The dogs slipped away from his
+front, only to reappear with threatening growls on his flank. He
+leapt back to safety and fired; but the light was bad, and he
+missed. Piling on a few more reeds, he emptied his magazine rapidly,
+facing all parts of the circle, and making some hits, as he judged
+from the howling that went up.
+
+"There!" he shouted savagely, "will that satisfy you?" The pack fell
+upon the wounded, and was back again into position, coming closer
+and closer as the fires died down.
+
+Then he remembered the stories he had heard of the persistence of
+the wild-dogs--how they would drive off even a lion from his prey--
+and he fell to counting his cartridges. There were only five left.
+He counted the dogs. There were more than fifteen, as far as he
+could reckon; and if he reduced them to ten, he could not hope to
+withstand the final rush of ten big-jawed and active animals. Even
+if he could keep them off in that open space, he could not stay
+there another day; and if they tackled him in the reeds, he would
+have no chance. He began to rack his brain for a scheme; but while
+he thought, the circle closed in until quite plainly he could
+distinguish the staring eyes all centered upon him. He piled on more
+fuel, and as the flames sprang up they fell back. As the flames died
+down, they advanced as by a given signal. He kept on adding to the
+fires until his fingers, groping for fresh reeds, found none, and
+the sweat broke out on his forehead. In one hour at least there
+would not be light enough from the smouldering heaps for him to see
+a mark, and then--something had to be done!
+
+No doubt the watchful eyes saw the sign of fear in his face. At once
+the circle closed in, and this time he could see that several of the
+dogs were not sitting, but standing, as if ready for the final
+spring. He fingered a cartridge, then suddenly flung it into the
+topmost heap of glowing ash. The eyes of the pack followed the
+missile, and for a second each dog looked at the heap. As they
+looked there was a report, and a mass of live embers was scattered
+high and wide, over them, over the opening, into the fringe of
+reeds. With wild yelps of fear and pain the pack broke, and Compton
+groveled on the ground with his hands before his face, for he had
+flattened himself just in time to escape being blinded by the
+burning dust, some of which, however, did get into his eyes. A
+little fly in the eye, as many a cyclist has found to his cost, is
+enough to engage the entire attention for five minutes, but a
+handful of ash gives more anguish to the square inch; and when
+Compton succeeded in opening his inflamed vision upon the scene, a
+transformation had happened in the writhing interval. The air was
+full of a sharp crackling and little explosions, and the first thing
+he saw was a slender tongue of flame running up a tall reed, and
+quivering for a moment high above. Other flames ran in and out among
+the withered white sheaths that had dropped off, and mounted up the
+smooth stems, and then there came a wandering puff of wind, which
+rustled over the bending tops and fanned the little serpent-tongues
+of fire into one devouring flame.
+
+He had no wish to be roasted. Once more using his knife to cut down
+a sheaf of stems, he made a flail of these, and beat out the fire to
+windward. And as he worked on the one side of the little clearing
+the fire grew on the other side, and then raced along, leaving
+behind in the blackened area many separate fires, where masses of
+reeds had been beaten down. And the smoke went up in a growing cloud
+that blotted out the sky--went up and fortunately rolled away
+towards the great river under the sufficient strength of the wind;
+otherwise he would have been suffocated. The cracking of the reeds
+was like rifle-fire breaking through the roar of the flames, and now
+and again the crashing of animals on the stampede could be heard. He
+looked out upon his work with awe, stood and gazed spellbound,
+wondering if such a sea of flame could ever be stopped, fearing that
+it would spread out into the bush beyond, and run up into the forest
+and devour every tree until stopped by the mighty river itself. As
+he looked, he heard some creature before him writhing in the
+blackened track of the fire, and presently he made it out--a great
+crocodile convulsively lashing its powerful tail. Going near with
+cautious steps, he put it out of its misery with a ball under the
+forearm; then he went on over the scorched ground very slowly, for
+the burnt reeds were like sharp stakes to the feet. And as he
+followed, the fire died out before him, and began to eat its way
+right and left, working back through the reeds against the wind.
+Then he heard the report of a gun, and as he stepped from the burnt
+area on to the short grass that had offered no fuel for the fire,
+something came springing around him, and before he could pull
+trigger it was off with a yelp into the darkness under the canopy of
+smoke. "Coo-ee--coo-ee! Compton--ahoy! Compton!"
+
+Compton croaked and hobbled on.
+
+Then the creature yelped about him again, and his friends were
+shaking him by the hands.
+
+"You know," he said with a croak, "I didn't mean to set fire to the
+place."
+
+"Thank God, my boy, you did," said Mr. Hume, fervently.  Then he
+lifted the boy up in his arms.
+
+"I can walk," said Compton; and, to prove it, his head rolled
+helplessly on his shoulder.
+
+Mr. Hume strode off to the river, and washed the layer of soot off
+the blackened face, laved the red eyes, and moistened the cracked
+lips and parched tongue. Then he gave the boy a soothing drink,
+rubbed oil on his feet and face; rolled him in a blanket, and
+carried him up to the camping-ground under the precipice.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A TRAP
+
+In the morning they packed up and made their way upstream to the
+place where they had left the sections of the Okapi, for such a
+banner of smoke as was still mounting  from the smouldering reeds
+was bound to attract inspection from the natives. They found the
+hiding-place undisturbed, and, after putting the boat together, went
+on down to the Congo. Slipping out upon the great river in the dusk,
+they went on slowly for several miles, tied up till the early dawn,
+and spread the little sail to the morning breeze. The boat had a
+singular appearance, for  strips of biltong were suspended from the
+awning, not  having been quite cured, and the buffalo-hide was
+hanging  over the side, in soak, to soften it for the final
+treatment that would take the hair off and leave it soft  and
+pliant.
+
+Compton was allowed a day off, and slept the sleep of the tired; but
+the others were all occupied--one keeping watch, another steering,
+and the third cleaning up. The jackal, like Compton, was unemployed,
+and curled itself up by his feet, opening one eye occasionally to
+see that all was shipshape. Through the morning they went, and into
+the afternoon; then Venning, who was outlook-man, gave tongue--
+
+"A sail--a sail!"
+
+"Where--away?" yelled Compton, waking up.
+
+"On the port bow, hull down, paddle showing."
+
+"Then it's a canoe, you duffer, not a sail."
+
+"A canoe it is, sir; single-handed, and bearing right down upon us.
+Shall we speak her?"
+
+"Luff--luff! and we'll pour a broadside into her lee scuppers," said
+Compton, ferociously.
+
+"She's signalling," returned Venning; "distress signal, I think."
+
+Mr. Hume went forward and took a look through his glasses. A
+solitary canoe was certainly in view, with a single boatman aboard,
+who was frantically waving his paddle. Then he swept the shore for
+signs of life.
+
+"There are some people squatting just by that tall palm," he
+muttered. "Have a look, Venning."
+
+Venning made out several persons at the spot. "They can't do us any
+harm," he said, and brought the glasses to bear on the canoe. "The
+chap appears to be in a stew about something, from the way he
+glances over his shoulder."
+
+They sailed down towards the lonely paddler, who was soon alongside
+--thanks to an extraordinary agility. He appeared to be greatly
+pleased at the meeting, grinned continuously, and at once prepared
+to get aboard the Okapi.
+
+Mr. Hume, however, kept him off with a "not so fast" and a hand
+against his breast.
+
+"Talk to him, Muata. Ask him what he wants, who he is, and all the
+rest."
+
+Muata stepped into the canoe, caught up the paddle, and sat down to
+palaver. A line was made fast to the canoe, and it drifted astern of
+the Okapi, which kept on her course.
+
+The canoe-man's grin faded away, and his eyes rolled as Muata
+ordered him to sit. He seemed to be a river tribesman, with only a
+loin-cloth on.
+
+"Don't eat him, chief," sang out Compton; for Muata had a very ugly
+look on his face as he eyed the stranger.
+
+The man himself seemed to think there was cause for this plea on his
+behalf, for, to the amazement of all, he responded in broken
+English--
+
+"Oh yeh-es, he eatee me. Poah black man come to white master for
+heiup, not to wild black man."
+
+"By Jove, he talks English! Let the poor beggar come aboard, sir."
+
+"He's all right where he is," said Mr. Hume.
+
+The man did not think so, and began hauling on the rope, when Mr.
+Hume drew his knife and made as if he would cut the canoe loose. He
+ceased from pulling, and, after a despairing look, crouched down.
+
+"We will talk," said Muata, courteously, poising the paddle in his
+hand. "How is your venerable mother?"
+
+"She has a wonderful dish of fish and manioc for her son's guests.
+You will do her the favour to eat of that dish," said the stranger,
+humbly.
+
+"And is your venerable mother's kraal up the river?"
+
+"A sun's march distant, by a garden of bananas. Also there is a fat
+goat."
+
+"And what does her excellent son so far from the village?"
+
+"There were tales of bad men," said the stranger, plucking up
+spirit, "and these tales drew me away, for the price offered for
+their capture was great, and my  fetish told me where they were
+hid."
+
+"And the little son was greedy? He kept this word of his fetish from
+the honourable ears of his mother, so that he would have the price
+to himself, eh?"
+
+"Truly a great chief," murmured the boatman, with reverence. "It was
+as you say."
+
+"And it fell out that, when you came to the place where the boatmen
+were hid, they were on their guard, so that you fled?"
+
+"O great chief, it was even so. I fled in a canoe."
+
+"And seeing this our canoe of shining metal, you found courage to
+leave the reeds wherein you hid to come to us for help?"
+
+"Oh, wonderful!" said the canoe-man, turning up his eyes. "When
+these eyes saw your shining canoe, they were gladdened, for I said,
+'Here come helpers.'"
+
+"And you will take us to where these men are hidden, so that we may
+share the price that is on their heads?"
+
+The man grinned. "You can have all the prize--all," he said, "and
+after we will go to my venerable mother, and eat fish and goats'
+meat."
+
+Muata smiled gently. "All the price?"
+
+"Did I say all?" said the man, with a swift look at the chief. "I
+did wrong to my people--a portion to them and a portion to me."
+
+"That is fair," said Muata.
+
+"Oh, good words. See, I beat my mouth for the ill word I spoke;" and
+he struck his mouth. "But see, O chief, we move on, and the bad men
+will see us going, and make a plan to escape."
+
+"Let it be so. If they see us they will see we are passing on, and
+be comforted. And who will pay the price that is set on their
+heads?"
+
+"They have the price with them," said the man, with a cunning look,
+"in ivory, in palm-oil, and in many things they have robbed from the
+villages."
+
+"And what avails them, all those things--which are heavy things--if
+they have no canoes to carry them in to the traders?"
+
+"Did I say they had no canoes? A great fleet they have waiting in
+hiding, till all the band come together from the hiding, waiting on
+the other shore. It was because I saw the fleet of canoes on the
+river, crossing to the far side, that I hoped to surprise the few
+who were left."
+
+"And when may those canoes return?"
+
+"The men collect their goods for the going; the time must be short
+before they leave."
+
+"And where do the others lie hid?"
+
+"By the great palm-tree, over there."
+
+"Where there were men sitting watching? It was because they had no
+canoes that they did not follow you? Shall I tell you what was in my
+thought? This, that you and they were friends, and that you were the
+bait to draw us into the trap."
+
+The man grinned nervously, and glanced at the water. "Would a little
+man trust himself in the power of such great chiefs, if his heart
+was crooked. I came for help, but if it pleases you to continue to
+the village, and to leave these bad men, it will please me also."
+
+"And if we attack these men," asked Muata, after a pause, "what plan
+have you made for us?"
+
+The boatman was relieved. His eyes brightened again. "See, we would
+land beyond that point ahead, and in the dark steal upon the
+robbers."
+
+"We are too few," said Muata, after turning the matter over. "Now,
+if you could bring some of your friends to help, it might be done."
+
+"I am alone, and you are great warriors. Your name has gone abroad."
+
+"How? You know us, then?"
+
+"All white men are the same in battle," said the other, quickly.
+
+"Think over my words--that some men are wanted. There must be men to
+guard our canoe, others to watch for the return of the robbers from
+across the river. You must get men, otherwise we do nothing."
+
+The canoe-man pondered, then he clapped his hand over his mouth.
+
+"Yoh! The fear of death confused me, and drove from my thought that
+my brother is near with warriors protecting the gardens."
+
+"Good, then.  Go to your brother. Bring him and his warriors to the
+point you spoke of, light a fire there to guide us, and in the dark
+we will join you."
+
+Muata hauled on the rope, boarded the Okapi, and set the canoe
+adrift.
+
+"Do as I have said--gather the men quickly, light a fire, guide us
+to the hiding-place, and in the morning we will share the riches.
+Hurry!"
+
+"And is that the word of the white chief also?" asked the man,
+suspiciously.
+
+"Did not the white chief leave this palaver to me? Go! for there is
+no time to waste."
+
+The paddle flashed as the man sped for the shore near the point he
+had referred to, which was several miles above the spot where he had
+been taken in tow.
+
+"Well?" said Mr. Hume, glancing at the chief, "He goes to collect
+men to meet us this night."
+
+"So."
+
+"Wow! There are bad men--robbers--to be attacked, and much ivory to
+be taken."
+
+"We want no ivory, nor quarrels either."
+
+"But I gave my word we would help him. It is a good thing to fall
+upon robbers."
+
+"If there is to be a shindy, I'm in for it," said Compton.
+
+"Who are the robbers?"
+
+Muata laughed, and snapped his fingers. "You saw the man in the
+canoe?"
+
+Mr. Hume nodded, and looked after the paddler with knit brows.
+
+"And you?"--to Compton.
+
+"I have eyes, chief."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"I saw him first," said Venning.
+
+"And he was a stranger?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+Muata laughed. "White men know many things, but not all. Haw! Who
+are those to be eaten up?" He touched his naked breast, and then
+pointed at each in turn.
+
+"They would attack us," roared Mr. Hume.
+
+The chief nodded. "Now you know who that stranger was who came with
+his long story."
+
+"One black chap is like another," muttered Compton.
+
+"Who was he?" asked Mr. Hume.
+
+"The servant of the white chiefs who bound me."
+
+"The Zanzibari boy!" exclaimed Venning. "My Jenkins!"
+
+"Why didn't you knock the beggar overboard?" said Compton. "What
+cheek!"
+
+"Does he know you recognized him?" said Mr. Hume.
+
+"The dog was afraid; but at the last he went away, thinking he led
+Muata by a rope, as he would lead a goat. Had Hassan, the wolf,
+tried to blind Muata so, then----" The chief touched the hilt of his
+knife.
+
+"Let us hear the story."
+
+Muata repeated the whole conversation with much byplay, even
+imitating the tones, the nervousness, and the sly glances of the
+Zanzibar spy, for nothing had escaped his keen glance.
+
+"And those men whose presence he suddenly  remembered, and who are
+to meet us to-night, will be Hassan's slave-robbers, too?"
+
+"Ow aye," said Muata, with a ferocious gleam in his eyes.
+
+"So, then, they have been waiting for us?"
+
+"On both sides of the river they have been waiting;" and the chief
+looked out over the brown flood towards the north bank.
+
+"It was well you talked to the man, for he was skillfully
+disguised, even to me, who am no child in these matters."
+
+"Muata is old in cunning," said the chief, quietly. "If he were not
+wise, he would not be dreaded by the Wolf."
+
+"I never recognized the beggar," said Venning, "and even now I
+cannot recall a feature that was like the Zanzibar! How did you
+discover him, Muata?"
+
+"Wow! He wore nothing in his ears, there were no marks on his body,
+he had rubbed the dark juice of the chewing-leaf over his skin, and
+there was a lie on his tongue, and in his eyes. Ho!--white men, this
+is my word, that we fall on them to-night." The chief picked up a
+Ghoorka knife. "This is my weapon."
+
+"We are not man-hunters," said Mr. Hume.  "We will, however, hang
+about till evening, so that they may think we have no suspicions,
+and then in the dusk we will push on."
+
+"Wow!" said the chief.  "My plan would be to land above, to creep
+down and take them unprepared."
+
+"And the canoes from the other side would steal across and cut you
+off. No; we will leave them."
+
+"The canoes from the other side," said Compton, starting up. "I
+rather think I saw one shoot into that island--the big one with the
+palm-tree in the centre."
+
+"All right," said the hunter, quickly. "Don't look that way; take in
+the sail. If they are there, we don't want to draw their attack now.
+Get out the sculls, Venning, and keep her towards the sandbank
+ahead. Just keep her moving."
+
+The sail rattled down, and the Okapi lazily moved nearer the shore,
+leaving about a mile of water between her and the island, towards
+which Mr. Hume, lying flat, was directing his glasses. The others
+were looking ostentatiously shorewards.
+
+"You are right, Compton; canoes are gathering under that island."
+
+"Congela," said the chief, "there is a man watching  us from the
+land."
+
+"Signal to him," said Mr. Hume. "You see, what we want is to keep
+those canoes where they are till night; and they probably won't move
+till they have a signal from their friends ashore."
+
+Muata called out, and a man who was skulking behind a bush stepped
+out.
+
+"Why do you watch, my friend?"
+
+"O chiefs," shouted the man, "all goes well. The men will be here at
+nightfall, and the fire will be lit to guide you."
+
+"It is good," said Muata. "We will wait."
+
+The man stood for some time watching, then went into the bush, and
+the crew of the Okapi, to divert suspicion, got out fishing-lines
+and fished; but all the time Mr. Hume, lying under the awning,
+watched the distant island, which shielded an unknown number of
+their watchful foes.
+
+"Woo!" said Muata, "the great one was right; and Muata is still a
+boy. Haw! Truly, if we had landed, our journey would have ended
+here."
+
+"Suppose the canoes dash out before dark?" said Venning.
+
+"Then we will make a run for it."
+
+It was a long, long afternoon. Anxiously they waited for the sun to
+set, and the boys marked the slow creeping of the shadows over the
+river thrown by the ridge on the south bank, and anxiously Mr. Hume
+watched the island and the broad sweep ahead--for the danger was
+ahead. If the enemy had taken precautions to send a portion of the
+fleet up-river, they stood a chance of being intercepted.
+
+At last the hour had come. The sky was turning grey, the shadows
+reached right across, and the evening wind was rustling the leaves.
+The Okapi began to move. She crept away from the shore, and then
+turned again with her bows to the bank.  So she waited a few minutes
+while the darkness deepened, then, as a flame broke out on land, the
+sail was run up; she came round once more with her bows up-stream,
+and slipped along. Looking back, they saw the fire spring up at the
+appointed landing-place, and, listening intently, they caught the
+crackling of the burning wood.
+
+"They move," said Muata.
+
+The others bent their heads, and presently they too heard the sound
+that had reached the keener sense of the warrior--a rhythmical beat
+and hum made by many paddles as the man-hunters, who had hidden
+behind the island, were dashing forward in hot haste to catch the
+Okapi, which they expected would be landing its crew. But the Okapi
+slipped on, and had a very good lead when Hassan and his slave-
+hunters set up a terrific outcry on finding that once more they had
+been tricked. They made right across in a long beat for the north
+bank, then working the screw in turns, with the great lamp at the
+bows to scare off the hippos, they made good progress till sunrise.
+For five days thereafter they kept steadily on their way, meeting
+with no adventure, and keeping out in mid-river to avoid the
+attention of the villagers. When, at intervals, they did land to buy
+goats'-milk, bananas, and manioc, they took precautions to approach
+clearings where there were only a few huts.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE MAN-EATERS
+
+On the fifth day they turned from the mighty Congo into a tributary
+that threaded the dark mysterious forest, whose depths had never
+been trodden yet by white men, whose dark retreats and sombre
+avenues, into which no ray of sunlight struggled, were the haunt of
+the gorilla, of pigmies, and of cannibals, dreaded most of all.
+After the broad Congo this was a mere thread, no more than a few
+hundred yards across, a gloomy opening in the gloomy woods that
+marched right down to its shores; that sent out huge branches in a
+leafy roof over the water near the banks, making dark retreats, in
+which lurked watchful crocodiles. The stir and bustle of the great
+river found no echo in this silent byway.  Nowhere was there any
+trace of man. The forest seemed  impenetrable, beyond all his puny
+efforts to make a footing.
+
+There seemed no room enough for a man to set his foot, so close was
+the foliage from the ground to the topmost bough of the tallest
+tree. Mile after mile they went on, without a sign of life, then
+from the shore an arrow whistled, pierced the awning, and rang on
+the metal deck.
+
+Compton put the wheel over, and the Okapi slid away from that
+dangerous screen. Then they slowed up and looked, but there was no
+sound and no sign from the hidden enemy. Doubtless, fierce eyes were
+glaring out upon them, but they could see nothing, and with a long
+uneasy look all around they kept on for a mile or so, when they came
+upon a clearing that spoke of man. It spoke of man, but there was
+nothing living in the few acres that had been hewn out of the woods.
+A ring of black embers showed where huts had stood, a dug-out canoe
+lay half in, half out the waters, a broken clay pot, a rusty hoe,
+and a litter of bones were gathered forlornly in one spot, and a
+strip of cloth fluttered from a scarred post. They ran the Okapi in,
+and Muata, with his jackal, leapt ashore to decipher what this
+writing in the forest meant. The jackal showed none of the delight
+that a dog would have shown under similar conditions, but at once
+vanished into the wood, with his nose to the ground, bent on the
+serious business of life--that of nosing out the enemy, while his
+master, with his favourite Ghoorka knife in his hand, rapidly
+inspected the ground.
+
+Instinctively they all felt the need for caution. The boys had the
+edge taken off their rash ardour long before, but that sinister
+warning from the forest in the shape of the arrow had driven home
+again the lesson that it was necessary to be always on guard.
+
+The forest, in its silence and in its gloom, was menacing.  They
+glanced up the river. It stretched away like an avenue cut out of a
+solid mass of vegetation, and all the length to the spot where the
+banks seemed to run together, as if the river had ended, there was
+no sign of living thing.
+
+Suddenly an animal darted across the clearing and crouched behind
+Muata. It was the jackal, the hair on its neck erect, and its body
+quivering with fear, or excitement.  Then a branch snapped with a
+startling report, there was a violent shaking of leaves, a short
+bark-like roar, and then a noise of shaking gradually decreasing.
+
+Muata had fallen back to the river's brink at the roar, but now he
+turned his attention once more to the clearing.
+
+"What was that?"
+
+"Man-monkey," he said quietly.
+
+"Gorilla! By Jove!" and the boys stared into the forest, and then at
+each other. "Perhaps he's gone to call up the others. Will he come
+back, Muata?"
+
+"Not he," said Mr. Hume.  "He's just about as frightened as we were.
+What are the signs, Muata?"
+
+"Wow! Bad--bad signs. These be the bones of men;" and he turned over
+the ashes with his foot. "They were few who made a home here, and
+the man-eaters marked them for their own. In the night they fell on
+the village, killed the men, and rested here while they feasted--
+rested till the last was eaten; then with the women and the children
+they went back. That much the signs tell me."
+
+"Does he mean," asked Venning, in horror, "that they were
+cannibals?"
+
+Mr. Hume nodded his head.
+
+"The brutes," muttered Compton, turning white.
+
+"I don't wonder," said Venning, in a whisper. "This place is enough
+to breed any horror."
+
+"It will be safe to land," said the chief, quietly.
+
+"But what of the arrow?"
+
+"That was not shot by a man-eater. It was the arrow of a river-man;
+maybe the same man loosened it as tied the fetish cloth to the pole,
+for one has been here since the man-eaters left."
+
+He put two fingers in his mouth and produced a shrill whistle.
+
+There was no answer; and after a time they all landed to stretch
+their legs, but the associations of the place, with those grim
+remains of the cannibal feast, were too terrible, and they did not
+stay long. As the Okapi resumed her voyage up the sombre defile, a
+faint whistle sounded on the opposite bank. Muata replied in the
+same fashion, and called out.
+
+Back from the shadows came a quavering answer. Muata called again,
+and out from under the roof of leaves, formed by the overhanging
+branches, shot a tiny craft, with two men in her. The Okapi slowed
+down, and the little canoe, with many a halt, timidly drew near till
+the occupants could be clearly seen. One--he who wielded the paddle
+--was a young man, black as soot, with a shaggy head of frizzled
+wool, and wild, suspicious eyes. The other, who appeared to be
+urging the other to more speed, was an old man, whose head was
+covered by an Arab fez.
+
+"Peace be with you," said Mr. Hume, in Arab.
+
+"And with you, also," replied the old man, in a thin voice. "Haste,
+my son!"--this to the paddler. "They are white men, such as I have
+spoken of."
+
+The canoe gradually drew near, and the old man held out a shaking
+hand to be helped on board the larger boat; but the wild man
+remained in his dug-out. The old man told his story slowly in a
+strange dialect understood by Muata, and the purport of it was that
+the cannibals had surprised the village at dawn, killed all the men
+with the exception of themselves, and had gone off with the women.
+
+It was a familiar story to Muata, and he related it coldly; but his
+indifference did not last very long. It was plain that the old man
+was not of the same race as his companion, and when the two had
+eaten, Compton asked the old chap how he came to wear a fez and
+speak Arabic.
+
+"It is the speech of my fathers, effendi," he said, turning his
+smoke-bleared eyes on the young face.
+
+"And how came it that an Arab was dwelling with the river-people?"
+asked Muata. "Sooner would I have looked for an old wolf living at
+peace with the goats."
+
+The Arab withdrew his gaze from Compton and fastened it on the otter
+outlined on the chiefs breast. With a skinny finger he pointed at
+the chief.
+
+"Allah is great," he said. "This is his work; and you will follow on
+the track of the man-eaters."
+
+"Save your speech, old man, for we work not for river-people; and
+you forget the arrow that was loosed at us."
+
+"This one loosed it in rage at the loss of his wife, mistaking you
+for wolves; but, even so, it was as Allah willed, for the arrow
+warned you of our presence."
+
+"You speak in circles, my friend," said Compton. "Show us the finger
+of Allah in this matter?"
+
+"This," said the old man, solemnly, placing his finger on Muata's
+breast, "is he they call the River Wolf, the son of the wise woman,
+the warrior who will follow the track of the man-eaters."
+
+"What know ye of the wise woman?" demanded the chief.
+
+"We talked together, she and I, at the village that is burnt, of the
+days when Muata was a babe in her arms, when these limbs of mine
+were strong to do service for a white man, whose voice was the voice
+of the young effendi."
+
+"And where now is the wise woman, old man?"
+
+"It is four days since the cannibals left.  Tell me where they would
+be, O warrior, for the forest is your hunting-ground."
+
+Muata lowered his eyelids, and took the news of his mother's capture
+by the cannibals in silence; but Compton was burning with excitement
+at the reference to the white man.
+
+"What white man was that you spoke of? I look for such a one."
+
+"Men search not for the dead, effendi."
+
+"But for signs of the dead--for the place of his burial, for the
+book he wrote, for the things he left."
+
+The old man nodded. "Allah is great. Is it not as I said; you have
+been guided hither?"
+
+"But tell me of the white man," said Compton, impatiently.
+
+"We two, the wise woman and I, talked of the white man; and she
+knows all. See, I am old, and the past is like a mist, through which
+old memories pass quickly like shadows; but the wise woman can blow
+the mist away. Find her, and you will learn all of my white man."
+
+More than this the old man could not say, and presently  he fell
+asleep; but from the wild man Muata learnt that his mother had
+indeed been at the village.
+
+"And you will want to leave us, chief?" said Mr. Hume, when the
+story had been straightened out.
+
+"Ow aye. Shall a son leave the mother who bore him through the
+dangers of the wood? I will follow;" and his eyes lingered on the
+Ghoorka knife.
+
+"The knife you can take, chief, and food; but we will miss you. Put
+him up some biltong, Venning."
+
+Venning hesitated.
+
+"Put up some for me too," said Compton, peremptorily.
+
+Mr. Hume raised his brows.
+
+"I mean it so, sir. You will remember that my great hope was to find
+some trace of my father; and who can this white man be if he is not
+my father? Will you take me with you, chief?"
+
+The chief shook his head. "This river-man and I go together on the
+trail."
+
+Compton stormed and begged; but the chief remained silent, with his
+eyes on Mr. Hume.
+
+"What's all the fuss about?" put in Venning. "We have come here to
+explore and hunt, not to crawl for ever up a river. What is to
+prevent us all from following on the track of the cannibals?"
+
+"If Compton had made that suggestion," said Mr. Hume, "we could at
+least have considered it calmly in the interest of the whole party;
+but he has thought only of himself."
+
+"I am awfully sorry," said Compton, firing up. "I did not think."
+
+"No," said the hunter, drily; "otherwise you would have known that I
+would not permit you to leave us."
+
+"Of course I could not break up the party," said Compton, eagerly;
+"but you will think over Venning's proposal, won't you, sir? We have
+come to explore the forest. Let us begin now when we have such a
+good reason."
+
+"Do you hear, Muata; the young men say that we should all follow on
+the trail?"
+
+"It is my quarrel," said the chief, not jumping at the offer.
+
+Mr. Hume smoked in silence.
+
+"Yet the man-eaters are strong," Muata said presently.
+
+"They have also guns given by the man-stealers. The great one and
+the young lions would be worth many men; but the forest is dark, the
+way is hard, and not fit for white men."
+
+Mr. Hume grunted.
+
+"When Muata goes on the war-path, he fights his own way, on his own
+plan. On the war-path Muata is chief."
+
+The hunter turned his calm eyes on the wild river-man.
+
+"Chief of one."
+
+"Of one or none, it does not matter, great one; since to be chief is
+to do what is best."
+
+"Your plans are your own. Consider. If we go, we will do nothing to
+spoil those plans; but, in the end, if you want help to rescue the
+wise woman--your mother--then we will be ready to help you."
+
+"It is a good word; but consider also, great one, that those who
+walk the forest must know the forest, and those who know the forest
+must lead, lest there be divided counsels, and wanderings that lead
+nowhere but to death."
+
+"Am I, then, a boy at this work?"
+
+"Wow! That was not my thought; but the lion hunts in the open land,
+the tiger in the bush.  If the lion roared in the forest, see, the
+evil ones would hear and prepare a trap for him."
+
+"Well, chief, hear this. In all things I will take your advice. If
+it is good, we will follow it; if bad, you can go your own way."
+
+"It is well," said the chief, slowly. "I and this man will follow on
+the trail to find whither it leads. Tomorrow we will return, and if
+the great one is then of the same mind, we will start."
+
+"Good. In the mean time we will find a place where we can leave the
+boat, with such things as we do not need."
+
+Muata glanced at the old Arab, then said softly, "When you have
+found your hiding-place, see that ye three only know of it." He
+nodded his head. "I would trust no man with the secret. I should not
+like to know of it myself, for the things you have would make one of
+us rich."
+
+With a little packet of food, his Ghoorka knife, and his jackal,
+Muata entered the dug-out, and landed again on the clearing. They
+waved their hands to him, and then turned their attention to the old
+Arab, who was sipping a cup of coffee with every sign of
+satisfaction.
+
+"Old man, we go soon on the trail of the cannibals into the forest
+where you could not follow. What shall we do with you?"
+
+"As Allah wills," was the resigned reply.
+
+"Think. Is there any village where you would be safe until we
+return?"
+
+"Few who enter the forest ever return.  A day's journey in a canoe
+there is a path in the wood that leads to a village. If I could
+reach the path, it would do; but----"
+
+The Okapi straightway continued up the dark river, through the
+silence of the sombre woods, and the old man drank his coffee, and
+then gave himself up to the pleasure of tobacco, with his dull eyes
+fixed on Compton.
+
+In the afternoon he pointed to a palm-tree. "There is a path," he
+said.
+
+"Is there anything you would like?" asked Compton.
+
+"Coffee is good, and tobacco is a great comforter."
+
+They made him up a packet of these luxuries, and added a blanket.
+
+"Allah is good," he muttered.
+
+"After we have recovered the wise woman, maybe we will search you
+out, for we look, then, for the Garden of Rest."
+
+"Ay, so he called it.  The Garden of Rest, and the gates thereof.
+Ay, I would see the place again."
+
+"You know it?" Compton said eagerly. "Then you must have known my
+father."
+
+"A white man I knew, effendi. The good white man, many years ago;
+and my old eyes told me that you were of his blood. If the forest
+gives you up, search for this path and follow it; and if I be alive,
+I would go to that place in the clouds. Allah be with you."
+
+"And with you."
+
+The Okapi was driven into the bank, and the old man stepped ashore.
+
+"See that you keep your counsel, my friend," Said Mr. Hume.  "We
+want no prowlers about our camp."
+
+They turned the Okapi down-stream again, and considered  where they
+should hide her, for that was a thing to be done with the utmost
+care. It was, however, very difficult to decide; for in the screen
+of the wood, all along the banks, every spot seemed the same, and
+there were many reasons against tying up in some dark retreat and
+leaving the precious craft to its fate, at the mercy of the rising
+or falling water, and at the risk of discovery by prowling
+fishermen.
+
+"We must get her aground," said Mr. Hume; and they poked into the
+banks here and there in search of a likely landing, ultimately
+finding a spot where a huge tree had fallen bodily into the river,
+dragging away with its roots a mass of earth. They marked the place,
+and returned to the clearing to camp for the night. By the light of
+a fire and of the lamps they went through the stores, and made up
+five packages, one for each man to carry. Sheets of oiled canvas
+were left out, rubber boots, and oilskin coverings for their hats
+and shoulders. In the morning Compton was left behind in the
+clearing in charge of the packages, while the other two took the
+Okapi down to her berth, which was about half a mile down on the
+same side. They drove the boat into the little natural dock, then
+with their Ghoorka knives cleared a little place in the forest, and
+next, with a small pioneer spade, dug a trench in the soft mould
+more than large enough to hold the boat. Then a foundation was laid
+of saplings; the walls were also lined with tough wood, and the
+Okapi, lightened of her cargo and steel deck, was bodily dragged up,
+and, after a long effort, safely lowered into the dry dock.
+Everything was made trim, a layer of branches placed over all, then
+the leaf-mould restored, and all leveled down. Working unceasingly,
+the job took them till well on into the afternoon, when they rested
+a while; then, with their knives in hand, set off to work their way
+back to the clearing. All they had to do was to follow the river. It
+was simple enough in theory, but in practice it was a tough job, as
+they had to struggle every foot of the way, squirming and crawling.
+When they heard Compton's hail they had come to the conclusion that
+the forest was a trap, its mysteries a delusion, and its general
+qualities altogether disgusting.
+
+"You have been a time!" shouted Compton, as the two, hot, red-faced,
+and tattered, stepped out and straightened themselves up with hands
+to the small of the back.
+
+"I'm as hungry as three, and have been under a terrific strain to
+keep from eating the finest and fattest baked 'possum you ever saw.
+Come on."
+
+"'Possum?" said Venning, hurrying forward. "There are no 'possums in
+Africa."
+
+"Well, it's something."
+
+"Smells nice."
+
+"Sit down--sit down, and we'll find out what it is afterwards."
+
+They sat down with sighs of relief, and the "'possum" disappeared
+without a word being spoken.
+
+"Beggar was eating earth-nuts over there, and I bowled him over with
+a stick. See, there's his skin--long tail and sharp face."
+
+"Monkey," said Mr. Hume.
+
+"Prehensile tail," muttered Venning, examining that appendage.
+"Anyway, it was good. See anything more?"
+
+"Lots. One crocodile, and about one million ants and insect things.
+Finished your job?"
+
+"We buried the boat on the bank, and you youngsters had better be at
+great pains to take your bearings, in case anything happens; and for
+a sign we'll lash that pole and its bit of rag to the top of a tree.
+Up you go, Venning, and make it fast."
+
+The pole with its dirty flag was lashed to a tall tree, and then
+they waited for Muata. The jackal was the first to make its
+appearance, but the chief was not long after, and the river-man, a
+few minutes later, looking quite  exhausted. The chief first ate,
+then he washed, then at last he condescended to take notice of
+things, and then to give particulars. He had followed the trail of
+the cannibals. It led straight into the forest. They could follow in
+the morning.
+
+With the morning came a heavy white mist that made travelling
+impossible, and all they could do was to wait in the mugginess
+until, through a window in the sluggish clouds which hung low
+overhead, the sun shot its rays and sucked up the moisture. Then
+they started, and a minute later they were in the silence and the
+gloom of the most tremendous extent of unbroken wood on the face of
+the earth--a Sahara of leaves, stretching away to the east for five
+hundred miles, and reaching over the same extent north and south.
+Trackless, the forest was, to any one not acquainted with its
+secrets; but there were paths through it, and the villagers had made
+their own approaches to the main system of thoroughfares, so that
+the going was not difficult, especially as the direction up to a
+certain distance had been decided upon by the previous day's
+tracking.
+
+They had, however, to walk in single file, with much care to their
+steps, for the obstacles were ceaseless in the way of trailing
+vines, saplings, and fallen trees. The narrow and tortuous avenue
+they threaded was gloomy in the extreme, affording scarcely any
+glimpse of the sky, and opening out no vistas between the serried
+ranks of steins, each clothed in a covering of velvet moss, and all
+looped together by the parasitical vines, whose boles were often as
+thick as cables.
+
+As they plunged deeper into the woods over a yielding surface of
+leaf-mould, which sent up a warm smell, the silence was as the
+silence of a huge cavern, into which is borne the hollow rumbling of
+the waves, the sound in place of that being the continual murmur of
+the sea of leaves moved by a breeze ever so slight, so soft that no
+chance breath of it found its way below.
+
+Yet the place was not really silent, and by-and-by, as their ears
+grew attuned to the new surroundings, the boys detected the sounds
+made by living things large and small, far and near--sounds which
+seemed a part of the silence, because they were all soft and a
+little mysterious, with a pause in between, as if the insect or
+creature which made them was listening to find if any enemy had
+heard him. They were little detached sounds, as if an insect would
+start out to sing its song, and then suddenly think better of it;
+and even when some large animal made its presence known by the
+snapping of a branch, or a sudden scurry in the undergrowth, the
+noise ceased almost as soon as it began.
+
+"It gives me the creeps," muttered Venning, after a long silence.
+
+"That's just it," said Compton; "everything appears to be creeping."
+
+"Even the trees. They seem to watch and whisper and wait, and the
+news of our coming has been carried right away for miles. Shouldn't
+wonder if the trees were to close in and shut us up."
+
+"Oh, come, now; that's a bit too fanciful."
+
+They shifted their loads to relieve aching shoulders, and kept on
+through the unending avenues in another long spell of silence.
+
+"Reminds me of the reeds again," said Compton; "only this is worse."
+
+"By Jenkins! just imagine the blaze and the scorch if this forest
+caught afire like your reeds."
+
+"Couldn't--too damp. We've been tramping for two hours, and I have
+not seen a bird, or an animal, or a reptile; nothing but snails and
+ants. Don't see where the game comes in."
+
+"We're not after game; we're after cannibals."
+
+"By Jove! yes, I suppose we are--that is, if they are cannibals. I
+thought the species had died out."
+
+"It will be a long time before cannibalism dies out," said Mr. Hume,
+who was bringing up the rear, "particularly  in those parts where
+the people find a difficulty in getting flesh-food; but, at the same
+time, scarcity of flesh-food does not always turn a tribe to
+cannibalism. What does happen is this--that people who live in a
+poor district become small In the Kalihari you find the bushmen, in
+the forest you find the pigmies."
+
+"Then the forest is poor in animals?"
+
+"It has its types, but I should say they must be very few. You see,
+animals want sun, And where would they find it here? No! what
+animals haunt the forest will not be found on the ground."
+
+"I see," said Compton, with a grin; "they fly."
+
+"I know," interposed Venning, triumphantly; "they live in the tree-
+tops."
+
+Compton looked up at the matted roof of leaves and branches.
+
+"Well, all I hope is that a tall giraffe will not fall through on
+top of me."
+
+"There is one thing that should give you comfort," said Venning,
+solemnly.
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"It would be the giraffe who would suffer."
+
+"Wait till I have got rid of these parcels, young 'un," said
+Compton. "Are you getting tired?"
+
+"Well, I am," said Venning--"tired and stuffy."
+
+"Glad to be back on the boat again--eh? Well, if it's any comfort to
+you, I'm tired too. Haven't got my land-legs yet."
+
+Mr. Hume cried a halt, to their great content, and though there were
+some hours yet to evening, he set them to work to make the camp. The
+work was the same they undertook each evening they were in the
+forest. First they cleared a circle about twenty feet in diameter,
+with an outer ring of large trees, and, using the trunks as posts,
+built a fence with the saplings and young trees. A hole was dug in
+the soft ground for the fireplace, and another fence built round to
+screen the glare of the fire. Next their waterproof sheets were
+arranged, the sheet of canvas stretched overhead, and, when all was
+shipshape, the three white members of the party went through a
+course of massage, which prepared them for the one good meal of the
+day. Then they overhauled their clothing, repaired any tears, oiled
+the rifles, and entered up the log-books. There was always something
+to do, and according to the man-of-war discipline observed, every
+man had to do his share of work--a rule which gave the mind
+employment, and kept it from dwelling on the monotony and the
+depressing silence of the woods. While the camp was springing into
+existence out of the tangled woods, the jackal kept guard, circling
+at a distance, like a well-trained collie herding a flock of sheep.
+
+The first night was a repetition of many others. When the night came
+down, as it did long before darkness set in on the wide river, where
+the afterglow was reflected from the waters, it was black beyond
+thought, so black that a few yards from the fire the sharpest pair
+of eyes could not see a hand held a foot away. And with the darkness
+came a sense of mystery, a hollow murmur as of the surf heard a long
+way off, which intensified the brooding stillness; and at times the
+groaning of the trees.
+
+"What noise is that?" asked Venning, hearing the sound.
+
+"The trees talk," said Muata, gravely.
+
+"Eh?  The trees talk!  Wonderful!" muttered Compton, sarcastically;
+but, nevertheless, he listened with open mouth and staring eyes.
+
+"What do they say, chief?"
+
+"The young ones ask for room; they shove and push to reach up into
+the air, to feel the touch of the rain, to enjoy the warmth of the
+sun."
+
+"And the big trees?"
+
+"They cry out against the young, who come thrusting their branches
+up from below, who crowd in upon the old people."
+
+"And the squeaking noise?"
+
+"That is made by one branch rubbing against another. Wow! It is
+nothing. Hear them talk when a wind is blowing; then it is as if all
+the great ones were gathered together roaring to the four comers,
+with the voice of the storm booming from the skies, and the
+bellowing of a great herd of bulls, and in between the cries of
+women in fear and the screaming of tigers. Mawoh! It is then a man
+would hide in a hole. Now it is quiet; they but whisper among
+themselves half asleep, but in the morning they will stretch their
+limbs."
+
+"Of course," said Compton, "and yawn!"
+
+"How will a tree grow if it does not stretch? It bends this way and
+that, to loosen the bark, to make its body and its arms supple and
+tough, so that it can bend to the blast and yet spring back straight
+again. Tell me what would happen if the young tree were bark-bound.
+It would die--as these old ones die smothered by the creeping arms
+around them. Ow aye, they stretch in the morning and grow."
+
+So they talked in the night, and listened to the strange sounds that
+came mysteriously out of the brooding silence.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE TREE-LION
+
+The next day they came to the end of the trail that Muata had
+followed with the river-man; but the scent was still on the ground,
+and for a mile or so the jackal led the way, slinking along like a
+shadow with his nose down and his bushy tail drooping. Then he
+stopped, and, after a look up into the face of his master, stretched
+himself out, as much as to say his part was over.
+
+"They have gained on us," said Mr. Hume.
+
+"They rose early and travelled fast," said Muata. "The scent is
+cold, but there is the trail marked on the tree;" and he pointed to
+a slight cut in the bark, from which had oozed a thick juice, now
+caked hard.
+
+"Some one pierced the bark."
+
+"It is the sign of the wise woman, and she made it, maybe, with a
+wire from her armlets."
+
+They went on more slowly, guided only by the faint cuts at intervals
+on tree-trunks, all of which "bled," giving out a milky sap; and
+then again the sign failed. About them were the trees in endless
+columns, overhead was the roof of leaves, and on the ground was a
+tangle of undergrowth and decaying vegetation, that gave out a moist
+earthy smell, which set the lungs labouring for oxygen.  The boys
+were uncomfortable.  Their skins were clammy, their eyes were heavy,
+and their limbs languid. Mr. Hume was glad to sit down, and even
+Muata showed the effect of the muggy atmosphere in a dulling of his
+skin. The river-man, sullen and silent, was alone apparently
+unaffected; but they did not reckon him one of the party, for no one
+of them had broken through his apathy.
+
+Muata began patiently to make casts in that labyrinth that seemed to
+hold no living thing but themselves, and as he went slowly through
+the undergrowth, the boys went off to sleep, from which they awoke,
+heavy and unrefreshed, at the cry to "fall in."
+
+The trail had been recovered fifty yards further on, the intervening
+ground having been covered apparently by the cannibals without
+leaving a sign. Venning blundered on a little way before he
+discovered that he had left his bundle behind.
+
+"I'll wait for you," said Compton, sitting down on a tree-stump,
+while Mr. Hume, who had left his position in the rear to consult
+with Muata, had his back turned.
+
+Venning recovered his bundle, and turned to retrace his steps, but
+for the time his heavy eyes were no longer faithful guides, and,
+instead of taking the right direction, he entered a likely looking
+opening through the trees to the left and hurried on. When he had
+covered a distance that should have brought him to Compton, he
+stopped.
+
+"Halloa! halloa!" he cried.
+
+There was no answer.
+
+"Compton! I say, no larks. Where are you?"
+
+A little in advance he heard the rustle of leaves, and went on
+quickly. When he reached the place where the sound came from there
+was nothing there, and he gathered his wits together. With a little
+laugh at his carelessness, he began to retrace his steps, but there
+was a problem to be dealt with at every step, for he could see
+nothing familiar. In that multitude of trees, planted so close
+together, each tree seemed alike. He put his hand to his mouth and
+uttered a long "coo-ee." The call seemed to be shut in, sounding in
+his ears very weak and quavering.
+
+"Coo-ee!"--and again "coo-ee!" Ah, that was an answer; and with a
+glad shout he set off in the direction whence came an answer to his
+call, forced his way through the undergrowth, tripped and fell over
+a dead branch with a thud that made his head throb so that he was
+glad to sit back with closed eyes.
+
+When he opened them again he heard a rustling of the leaves, and
+moved his lips to call out. "Compton!"
+
+There was unmistakably the sound of some one jumping  aside as if
+startled.
+
+"Over here!" said Venning; and then he closed his eyes again with a
+feeling of languor. Compton, in the meanwhile growing impatient,
+walked a few steps in the direction his chum had taken. The rest of
+the party had moved on, thinking, no doubt, he was following, and he
+knew that neither he nor Venning could pick up the spoor if they
+lost touch. He peered through the scrub for some time without seeing
+any one, and then he heard a low cry--a strangled sort of cry, as if
+Venning were calling in a very feeble voice. Unshipping his Lee-
+Metford carbine from the loop, by which it hung at his side, he
+dashed forward, fully expecting to find his friend in the hands of
+man or beast.
+
+But at the last stopping-place there was no sign of his friend; and,
+with head bent, he listened for some sound, his mouth firmly set,
+and his dark eyes glancing from under his well-marked, brows.
+
+He could hear the beating of his heart, and the innumerable creeping
+sounds that seemed to have no origin. He was about to shout, when
+again he heard a thin cry, and, suppressing the shout, he began to
+advance cautiously from tree to tree, planting his steps carefully.
+In the soft mould he saw now the footmarks left by Venning as he had
+hurried, the print of his heel at one spot, a little further on a
+broken branch, and next, some dislodged moss from a huge tree. He
+peered round this, examining the ground ahead, then stepped out into
+a little clearing, across which Venning had walked.  He started as
+he looked down, then threw up his gun, with a quick glance round,
+for on the ground, side by side with the footprints, were the pugs
+of a lion or leopard.
+
+Venning was in danger, then! With an involuntary action he pressed
+his hat down firmly on his head, then moved forward, swiftly and
+silently, to another tree beyond.  Looking round this, he saw at
+once through the twining tendrils the form of an animal, moving
+slowly, with flattened ears and twitching tail.
+
+This did not surprise him, for he was prepared by the spoor; but
+what surprised him was to see that the brute was advancing towards
+him--not retreating. For a moment he felt sick at the thought that
+he was too late, that his friend had been already attacked, and that
+the beast had left Venning for the new-comer.
+
+The brute was unmistakably stalking some one. Its body was stretched
+out, the forearms reaching out in long stealthy strides, the round
+head sunk low, with a fixed snarl that bared the white teeth. A
+leopard it was in form, but without the black rosettes on a grey
+ground, the colour being of a uniform yellow along the sides, with
+black markings down the muscular shoulders, and a streak of white
+from the throat under the belly. The eyes were large, and of a
+greenish hue. They were fixed in a steadfast stare on some spot to
+the left. Compton glanced in that direction, and, to his joy, he saw
+Venning, alive, seated with his chin on his breast, and his back to
+a fallen stump. As Compton looked, the boy's eyes opened, and his
+head turned as if he had heard some noise.
+
+Compton's distress left him. A feeling of great thankfulness  swept
+over him when he saw that he was not too late, that his friend
+lived; and with firm nerves he stepped clear of the tree to shoot.
+The movement caught the notice of the leopard. It had crouched down
+as Venning turned, but now it lifted its round head to view the new-
+comer. With a low growl it made a sudden leap forward, covering an
+incredible distance, which brought it nearer to Compton, and as it
+gathered itself together he fired, then sprang aside. There was a
+rush through the air, a thud, and a tearing noise. There, almost
+within reach of him, with the blood running over its face from a
+scalp-wound, and its fore-paws tearing the moss from a tree, was the
+leopard; and, swift as thought, Compton fired from his hip at the
+shoulder. The leopard rolled over, growling, then tried to drag
+itself by its powerful paws towards Compton, its mouth wide open. He
+fired again, into the gaping jaws, the muscles relaxed, the beast
+fell, and he ran towards Venning.
+
+"Are you all right, old chap?"
+
+Venning held on to his friend's arm, and as they stood, the leopard
+screamed.
+
+"He is quite done, old fellow. Come and see."
+
+Venning went forward quietly, as if still in a daze, and they looked
+down on the leopard, struggling in the death-throes. It raised its
+torn head, and again the scream rang out from its red jaws--a
+terrible cry, and out of the forest came the answer, shrill and
+fearsome. With a low growl the leopard fell forward, dead; but they
+could hear an animal advancing rapidly, with fierce grunts; though
+from what direction it was impossible to tell.
+
+"It must be the mate," said Compton, with an anxious look at
+Venning. "How do you feel?"
+
+"I'm all right now;" and he passed his hand over his forehead. "I
+can help you this time. If it is the mate, it will go first to its
+dead."
+
+"Then we'd better crouch down by that tree."
+
+They knelt side by side a little way off, with their rifles ready;
+but, though the noise made by the advancing animal grew louder, they
+could see no movement whatever.
+
+Then an extraordinary thing occurred. A bough above shook heavily,
+and a large flattened body shot down from one branch to another,
+tail, neck, and legs at the full stretch, alighting easily on the
+rounded branch. It paused for a moment, then flew right across from
+one tree to another, a distance of about thirty feet, when again it
+gathered itself together for another flying leap to the ground,
+alighting with singular ease within a few paces of the spot where
+the dead leopard was lying.
+
+With outstretched neck and twitching nose, it stepped to its mate,
+sniffed, then threw its head up with bristling hair and emitted a
+terrible scream of rage, ending in a harsh cough.
+
+As Compton pressed the trigger it bounded aside, as if it had seen
+him, and an instant later had reached the trunk of a tree.
+
+"Where is it?"
+
+"Went up that tree," said Venning, rising and stretching  his neck.
+
+"You take that side, I this."
+
+They moved slowly, finger on trigger and eyes swiftly scanning the
+branches, but they made the circuit of the tree without a glimpse of
+the yellow and black body that had so swiftly come and gone.
+
+"Where the dickens has it gone?"
+
+"Maybe into a hole up there."
+
+They stood staring up in bewilderment, but there was not a movement
+anywhere, and presently they wandered around examining the trees
+near. The beast had vanished as completely as if it had been no
+bigger than a fly.
+
+"Well," said Compton, with a short laugh, "I'm going to take the
+skin off the dead one, before it disappears too."
+
+They set to work stripping the skin off the muscular body, stopping
+often to listen and glance around. The work, however, was completed
+in peace, and then, suddenly remembering their position, they
+hastened to retrace their steps. Slowly they hit off the trail, and
+finally arrived as far as the place where Venning had first missed
+his bundle.
+
+"It's after us, Dick!"--in a whisper.
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Up among the branches. I saw it spring across as I looked back."
+
+They looked up into the trees, and then at the dark shadows before
+them, for the afternoon was slipping away.
+
+"I don't like it.  The beggar may spring on us at any moment."
+
+"Or it may wait bill it is too dark for us to see."
+
+"Yes, by Jove!"
+
+"It is bad; but I am afraid we do not know the worst."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Mr. Hume must have missed us a long time back; and he would have
+come after us if----"
+
+"I see," said Compton, gravely. "You think that something has
+happened to them?"
+
+Venning nodded. "It's all my fault, Dick."
+
+Compton was glancing up into the trees. "We must dispose of that
+brute first. But how?"
+
+"I have an idea," said Venning, after a long pause. "One of us will
+go on. Animals can't count. Seeing one of us moving, he may show
+himself to the other, who remains hidden."
+
+"Good. I will go on;" and at once Compton, taking the more dangerous
+post, advanced slowly, leaving Venning standing against a tree.
+
+A few moments later the watcher saw a dark form flitting through the
+branches high up, without, however, offering a ghost of a mark, and
+there was nothing left for him but to follow Compton and explain.
+
+"And I suppose it's watching us now?" said the latter, gloomily.
+"Any good to climb up a tree?"
+
+"I should think not. Why, it's at home up there. You can see that
+from the length of the claws, and the length of the tail, which acts
+as a steerer, a balancing-pole, and a brake. You see when it brings
+the tail down---?"
+
+"No, I don't; but I do see that we are in a fix, and that the others
+must be in a worse position."
+
+"I cannot imagine Mr. Hume being caught in a trap, especially when
+he has the jackal."
+
+"And Muata!"
+
+"And the black chap!"
+
+"By Jove! suppose that fellow has proved treacherous;" and the two
+turned this unpleasant thought over in their minds until a light
+sound attracted their notice. Looking up, they caught the glare of
+fierce green eyes.
+
+"We've got him now!" yelled Compton. "Round that side."
+
+Venning dashed round the tree, and three shots were fired in rapid
+succession at a vanishing object.
+
+"Missed again!"
+
+"By gum, yes; and if we go on playing hide-and-seek any longer,
+we'll be missing ourselves. We've got to build a camp at once.
+That's the place, between those three trees. I'll cut, and you
+build."
+
+Compton, rolling up his sleeves, cut down saplings, and Venning
+built a low roof, using the long tendrils of the creepers to bind
+it. Then the spaces in between the trunks were filled in, and large
+chunks of tinder were cut out of a fallen tree and placed at the
+entrance, a fire of dry wood being made in a hole inside. There was
+enough water in their flasks for a "billy" of tea, and by the time
+they had finished their meal the darkness was on them. No sooner had
+they settled down to watch than their foe was down, sniffing out the
+position, and they were thankful they had acted in time. They beard
+it at the back first, then overhead, and next at the side, its
+presence indicated by low growls. Then it was in the front, and
+Compton fired at a momentary gleam of two luminous spots. It bounded
+right on the roof, which shook to its weight, then clawed up a tree,
+detaching fragments of moss, and again leapt to the ground, emitting
+this time a ferocious roar. It seemed as if its long patience were
+exhausted, and that it was lashing itself into a fury, for it was
+here and there with lightning quickness, striking blows at the
+fence, and at times seizing a branch in its teeth, but so quick that
+they could not move their weapons smartly enough to cover the point
+of attack.
+
+It was nervous work for the watchers. Every moment they expected to
+find themselves under the claws and teeth of the maddened beast,
+with the odds all against them, for in such a small enclosure they
+would be helpless. It was bad enough when the brute was emitting his
+terrible roars and screams, but the spells of silence were worse.
+
+In one of these spells Venning felt for the raw skin of the
+slaughtered leopard, and threw it out into the darkness. There were
+stealthy footsteps, the noise of sniffing, followed by the sound of
+an animal rolling on the ground, and they fired together. With a
+snarl the leopard bounded right to the very mouth of the opening,
+knocking over the smouldering tinder and sending out a shower of
+sparks. Venning fired. Compton lunged forward with his big knife,
+and the leopard leapt aside.
+
+"Hit him that time, I bet," muttered Venning, who was shaking with
+excitement.
+
+Then followed a weary time of waiting in complete silence, broken
+only by the soft melancholy murmur of the forest. They refilled the
+magazines of their carbines, built up the tinder fire, and stretched
+their ears to catch the first warning note of danger. Then the
+whisperings swarmed in upon them. A creak of a branch, the turn of a
+leaf, the scraping of creeping insects, the whizzing of moths, and
+the murmur of the forest, all seemed to them the whisperings of
+stealthy foes. Every now and again they moistened their lips, which
+dried after the repeated spells during which they held their breath,
+while intently listening for the footfalls of the enemy.
+
+Then, with a feeling of relief, they heard an unmistakable  wouf!
+That, at least, was a tangible sound--the sound of a startled
+animal.
+
+Presently they heard its footsteps, as it came cautiously forward, a
+little way at a time. Once more the fingers coiled round the
+triggers, and the barrels were raised.
+
+Then came a yelp, this time of fear, followed by the leopard's
+terrible scream.  Some animal darted by the opening, so close that
+they could see the gleam of its eyes as it glanced in upon them, and
+after it with a bound went a larger form. They listened to the
+dwindling noise of the chase, and Compton stirred up the fire.
+
+"What's up now, eh?"
+
+"It," said Venning, referring to the leopard, "is after something,
+don't you think?"
+
+"I hope to goodness it will have a good run, then."
+
+But even as he spoke the sound of the chase grew; the smaller animal
+flashed by again with the savage pursuer at its heels, flew round
+the trees, and leapt inside--leapt in and pressed itself down behind
+the two of them.  With a snarl, the leopard stopped before the
+smouldering logs, and then sprang on to the roof, at which  it
+struck two or three tremendous blows before bounding off again.
+
+"Where's my knife?" yelled Compton.
+
+Venning felt a warm tongue on his hand, and drew it away with a cry,
+as if he had been stung.
+
+"Use your knife, man. I'm blinded."
+
+"All right," gasped Venning.
+
+"Feel for it first, or you'll be hitting me. Quick! I say."
+
+"What is it?" cried Venning, alarmed at the sudden change in
+Compton's tones from rage to alarm.
+
+"Something's pulling me. It's got its arm through the side."
+
+There was a sudden fierce yap and a snapping of jaws. Compton's
+shirt gave way with a tear, and outside in the dark the leopard
+screamed. Inside the cry was answered by the howl of a jackal.
+
+"It's our jackal," shouted Venning.
+
+"Where--what?"
+
+"Here;" and Venning laughed hysterically. "Poor old chap!" then,
+"Good old jacky!"
+
+"Nonsense!" said Compton; but his band groped out in the dark, and
+when he felt the rough tongue, he joined in the laugh. They were as
+pleased as if Mr. Hums or Muata had returned.
+
+"Did the brute really hook you?"
+
+"Forced his paw through," said Compton, shuddering, "but the jackal
+bit him."
+
+The jackal's tail thumped the ground, then they felt it stiffen, and
+were again on the alert. Venning ran his fingers lightly along the
+jackal's back till he reached the nose, which was pointing straight
+up. Without a moment's delay he raised his rifle and fired.
+
+At the same moment the saplings forming the roof snapped and fell in
+upon them with an added weight, which knocked them flat. They were
+dimly conscious of a tremendous struggle, but when they had crawled
+out of the litter, they were thankful to find that each was still
+alive. After the first hurried words, they faced the darkness
+apprehensively, for their shelter was gone, and their rifles were
+under the branches.
+
+"Quick!" said Compton, "help pull the branches away."
+
+Guided by the tinder, they felt for the branches and pulled, but let
+go at once and fell back, for a fierce growl greeted them almost in
+their faces.
+
+"By Jove!" muttered Compton, "it's all over now. Don't run; let us
+stick together."
+
+"I'm not running," said Venning. "We've got our sheath-knives."
+
+They drew their knives, and, holding each other by the disengaged
+hand, fell back step by step, till they found the support of a tree-
+trunk, when they waited for the attack. From time to time the low
+growls gave warning of the enemy's close presence, and to them each
+sound was as a death-knell; for what were their knives against a foe
+so powerful, who had, too, the advantage of sight?
+
+For perhaps two hours of awful suspense they stood, and then Compton
+lost patience.
+
+"I can't stand this," he said. "That brute's playing with us, and
+I'm going to finish it."
+
+"Wait; when the morning comes we can see."
+
+"Will it ever come? No."
+
+Compton struck a match, cradled it in his hand till it caught, then,
+with his face showing rigid by the reflection, he moved forward.
+Venning went too, shoulder to shoulder. Each held his knife, point
+up, every muscle on the strain. A snarl greeted each step, and
+presently they saw two glowing spots before the match went out.
+Another match was struck by a steady hand, and this time the spots
+blazed out from the blackness.
+
+Venning felt for his log-book, tore out a sheet, screwed it up, lit
+it, and held the flame up.
+
+There, less than six feet away, was the leopard, its mouth open, the
+gleaming fangs showing their full length--a sight so forbidding that
+he dropped the paper and sprang back.
+
+"Light another," said Compton, steadily.
+
+This was done. He went down on his knees, reached out, seized the
+butt of a rifle, and drew it forth. A second later a bullet crashed
+into the brain of the leopard, and then, worn out by the strain they
+had been under so long, they sat with their backs to the trees.
+
+"I'm going to sleep," said Compton.
+
+"I wonder what's become of the jackal?" muttered Venning, drawing up
+his knees with a sigh of relief.
+
+"Don't know, and don't care, for he's better off than we are. Good
+night."
+
+"Good night, old chap; and it was awfully good of you to turn back."
+
+Snore! Venning yawned, and in five minutes they were both asleep in
+the forest, without so much as a twig to cover them. But they were
+not altogether unprotected, for when they rubbed the sleep out of
+their eyes in the morning, they found the jackal curled up at their
+feet, with one ear cocked and one eye open.  But a very different
+jackal he was from the graceful animal they knew so well.  His body
+was distended to enormous proportions, and it was clear how his
+absence was to be accounted for. While they had stood in the dark,
+expecting  every moment to be pounced upon, he had been gorging  on
+the dead leopard. They now looked at their foe of the night, and
+found why it was that it had left them uninjured. There were three
+wounds on the body--the bullet-hole in the forehead, a fleshy wound
+on the hind leg, and a hit on the spine, which had disabled it just
+as it was in the act of springing down upon the roof.
+
+"It's your bag," said Compton. "To think that we stood shivering and
+shaking for two mortal hours, while all the time the beggar was
+helpless!"
+
+Venning did not echo the complaint; he was too much occupied
+examining his prize, and taking exact measurements with a tape,
+which he entered in his log' book, together with a description of
+the markings.
+
+"It's a new species," he said, with the pride of an explorer who
+discovers a new mountain. "I will call it a tree-lion--leo
+arboriensis Venningii--that is, if you don't wish it called after
+you."
+
+"Call it anything you like, old fellow; but I should say it was just
+an ordinary leopard."
+
+"You never saw a leopard with those markings."
+
+"And no one ever saw a climbing lion."
+
+"It has adapted itself to changed conditions.  The markings match
+the colouring of the branches, and there has been a change in the
+formation of the claws"--holding  up a huge paw--"while the forearm
+is a little curved, and the skin between the elbow and the body
+bears a resemblance in its growth to that found on the so-called
+'flying-squirrel.'"
+
+"It's a tough customer, whatever it is, and I hope that it is the
+last of its kind. Do you know that we have no more water?"
+
+"I shall examine the contents of the stomach, and I fully expect to
+find that its usual prey is the monkey."
+
+"It had a great hankering for white man, at any rate. Did you hear
+me say there was no water?"
+
+"Its hind legs are very much longer than the fore legs--another
+proof of an arboreal existence.  It's a most important find. I wish
+Mr. Hume were here."
+
+"So do I," said Compton, heartily, stirring the jackal with his
+foot.
+
+That sagacious animal rose slowly, stretched itself, one leg at a
+time, sniffed at the dead leopard, or tree-lion, whatever it was,
+and then curled itself up again.
+
+"Coo-ee--coo-ee!" came out of the woods.
+
+"Coo-ee!" replied Compton, to the glad sound. "Coo-ee!" and he fired
+off his gun.
+
+Muata's shrill whistle pierced through the files of trees, and the
+jackal slunk away.
+
+"Hurrah!" yelled Compton, taking off his cap. "Hurrah! Here we are--
+all safe!"
+
+"All safe, thank God;" and Mr. Hume hurried forward, with his eyes
+beaming. "Thank God."
+
+"It is as I thought. Here is the hind leg of a monkey, with some of
+the hair still attached;" and Venning held up a disgusting-looking
+object.
+
+Mr. Hume looked at the dead animal, the broken hut, and back at
+Compton.
+
+"We shot it last night, and its mate in the afternoon."
+
+Then he pulled Venning to his feet and shook him. "Believe he's gone
+off his head."
+
+"I've not," said Venning; and he held out a blood-stained hand to
+Mr. Hume, who took it with a great happy laugh. "Have you seen a
+beast like that before, Muata?"
+
+"Any one would think," said Compton, "that nothing had happened--
+that we had not been lost, and that he had not brought us into this
+mess."
+
+"Steady," said Mr. Hume, with a smile.
+
+"Dick is right, sir. If it had not been for him, I should have been
+dead. I am a little bit excited now; but I will tell you all soon.
+Well, Muata?"
+
+"Wow!" exclaimed the chief, who had been talking with the river-man.
+"One of these I have seen, and he also. It was a great thing to kill
+two; of all things that walk they are the fiercest."
+
+"And I am very thirsty," said Compton.
+
+"Their home is in the trees," continued Muata.
+
+Venning nodded. "Leo arboriensis."
+
+"Venningii," added Compton, as he took his lips from a water-bottle.
+"And now we'll have breakfast, if you don't mind."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE OVERHEAD PATH
+
+"We were stopped by ants," said Mr. Hume, in explanation.
+
+"By ants!"
+
+"No less. I missed you not long after we had started, and passed the
+word on to the others to turn back. And in the mean time an army of
+marching ants had cut the line of communications.
+
+"Couldn't you sweep them aside, or jump over?"
+
+"I did not venture to try, my boy. I did try climbing across from
+tree to tree, but their skirmishers were everywhere. As for jumping
+across, I took the chiefs word for it, that the feat was impossible.
+Once that kind of ant gets a grip, he does not let go, except with
+the morsel he has fastened on to. And there were millions!"
+
+"I can hardly imagine you were stopped by ants," said Compton.
+
+"The ground before us was alive as far as we could see, and red.  It
+was like standing on the bank of a river, and the myriads went on
+through the day until dusk. I have seen swarms of locusts on the
+march in the voetganger stage, and a large swarm will cover a length
+of three miles, but never would I have believed so many living
+things could gather together."
+
+Compton laughed again. "Held up by an army of ants! I can't get the
+idea."
+
+Mr. Hume rolled back his sleeves, and there were red marks from
+wrist to shoulder.
+
+"And that was done only by the scouts on the tree I attempted to
+climb. Muata says they have put whole villages to flight."
+
+"Eweh," said the chief, "and even the elephant will turn from their
+path, else would they get into his ears, his trunk, and to the soft
+parts between his legs, biting each a little piece of skin. They
+fear nothing. Death to them is nothing. I have seen them stop a fire
+by the numbers of dead they heaped upon it in their march."
+
+"So we had to wait, and it was not a pleasant time for me. But,
+thank goodness, you are safe--aye, and safe, thanks to your own
+pluck."
+
+"Dick did it all," said Venning. "I seemed to get dizzy all at
+once."
+
+"I am not surprised," said Mr. Hume, looking grave; "and I think we
+ought to go back.  The air is too heavy."
+
+"After a good sleep I shall feel better," said Venning.
+
+"It would be too bad to turn back."
+
+"It would be too bad if you fell ill."
+
+"What do you say, Muata?"
+
+Muata lifted his hand. "Those who would cross the forest must be of
+the forest. Who are the people of the forest? Not those who live in
+the plains. Even the river-people are afraid to go far in. What are
+the creatures of the forest? They are those born among the trees,
+and those who dwell in the open seldom enter into the darkness and
+the quiet of the wood."
+
+"Yet," said Compton, "there are people of the forest, and animals
+also, and they live." "For them are the trees."
+
+"But when they go about they must travel under the trees."
+
+"That is your word," said the chief. "But it must be so."
+
+"Muata is right," said Mr. Hume. "We have only entered the fringe,
+and already we are different people. The lungs cry for pure air."
+
+"Yet there is a way," said Muata; and his eyes fell upon the tawny
+hide of the tree-lion. "How, chief?"
+
+"On top of the trees, not under!" cried Venning, who had seen that
+the chief was working up to some point.
+
+Muata spread out his fingers gravely. "Even so," he said. "There are
+paths on the tree-tops known to the little people, and made by them.
+Maybe they will let us travel also by them."
+
+The others stared at the chief in amazement; and even Venning, in
+spite of his intelligent anticipation, was too surprised to speak.
+
+"There you can look upon the sky; there the wind blows fresh."
+
+They looked up at the roof of branches, and then around into the
+sombre aisles.
+
+"And where are the little people?" Muata smiled.  "Who knows?  They
+come like shadows, and like shadows they go. Even now they may be
+near watching to see if we are friends or enemies."
+
+"You would not tell us an idle tale, chief. Let us hear what is in
+your mind."
+
+"Stay here, my friends, while I seek the little men. Maybe, if I
+find them, they will put us on our way; but if I fail, then my word
+is that you go back to the river, lest the sickness of the woods
+come upon you."
+
+"We will wait; but I have seen no signs of the little men. They may
+be far and difficult to find."
+
+"They have watched us all the way," said Muata, calmly; "and it was
+in my heart that they had fallen upon the young chiefs in the
+night."
+
+"Glad we didn't know," said Compton, thoughtfully.
+
+Muata went off on his self-appointed task, and the white men felt,
+as they saw him disappear, how impossible it was for them to cope
+with the mystery of the forest. They were even more helpless than
+castaways at sea without a compass; for at sea in the day there is
+the clear sweep to the horizon miles away, while in the forest all
+they could be certain of was a little circle with a radius of less
+than fifty yards. Beyond that was the unknown, because unseen--a
+vague blur of trees that might be sheltering wild animals or savage
+men. And what made their helplessness the more felt, was the
+knowledge that Muata knew so much, and that others--the mysterious
+pigmies--knew still more. If there had been open glades, stretches
+of greensward, rippling brooks, or even a hard clean carpet such as
+is found under a pine forest, they would have been undismayed; but
+this gloomy, shrouded fastness, without glimpse of sunbeams, was
+becoming a nightmare.
+
+Yet it would never do to become a prey to depression, for there is
+no danger so fatal to the explorer as low spirits, the forerunner of
+sickness.
+
+By common consent they fought against a strong fit of the blues. Mr.
+Hume and Compton held a consultation over Venning, examined him,
+doctored him, and put him through the ordeal of a Turkish bath
+roughly made with the aid of the oil-sheets. After that he was
+rolled up in blankets and left to slumber. Compton was next treated
+in the same way, and then Mr. Hume busied himself with his note-
+book.
+
+When the boys woke up in the afternoon, much refreshed,  Muata had
+returned.
+
+"Fall in, lads."
+
+"Has he found them?" and the boys were up and glancing round for the
+pigmies.
+
+"Yes; we are to go 'upstairs' at once."
+
+"But where are they?"
+
+"The little people have gone on," said Muata. "They will spy out on
+the man-eaters."
+
+"You really did find them?"
+
+"Ow aye; they know Muata. They and I have been on the path before,
+else they would have fallen on the young chiefs in the night--for
+they saw. The killing of the fierce ones much rejoiced them. It
+opened their lips about the upper way."
+
+"We are ready," said Compton, "for the upper way--for the trapeze
+and the aerial flight."
+
+Muata struck off into the woods, and the rest crowded on him,
+glancing up at every tree for signs of the new track.
+
+"Behold the road," said the chief, showing his white teeth in a rare
+smile, as he caught in his hand a trailing vine that swung clear
+from the neighbouring growth, and reached up forty feet or so to a
+thick branch.
+
+"Are we to swarm up that?"
+
+Muata nodded.
+
+"And what will you do with the jackal?"
+
+The chief turned a look of disgust at his bloated ally. "He will
+follow underneath;" and reaching up, tie went hand over hand, using
+his toes very much like fingers to help. Then he lowered a rope
+which he had coiled round his waist; and Mr. Hume, putting the loop
+under his arm, trusted his weight to the swaying vine. Venning and
+Compton followed, with the help of the rope, but the river-man
+declined. He preferred to travel on the firm ground with the jackal.
+From the branch the four passed to the fork of the tree and held on.
+
+"I don't see any path," said Venning.
+
+"Nothing in the shape of a foot-bridge that I can see; and it would
+not be quite safe to fall, would it?" replied Compton, as he glanced
+down.
+
+Muata went on up into the topmost branches, and, when they followed
+him, they found a small platform of saplings lashed to the branches
+by vines, and from this vantage they looked out over a wonderful sea
+of leaves, reaching unbroken as far as eye could reach, with billows
+and hollows, patches of light and shade, and splashes of colour
+where red flowers gleamed. And it was good to see the domed sky, the
+white clouds racing low, with shadows moving swiftly over that sea
+of leaves; to see the flight of birds, and to hear the voices of
+living things.
+
+The tree on which they stood was very tall, but there were others as
+tall, standing up like rocks out of the sea; and when they grew
+accustomed to the strange surroundings, they saw something peculiar
+in the shape of these tree islands. They were cleft through the
+centre, leaving a narrow passage, quite distinct to any one standing
+in line--as they were, for instance--with the domed head of a tall
+tree about three hundred yards away.
+
+"That is our way," said Muata.
+
+"But where is the foothold?"
+
+Muata pointed to notches cut in a lateral branch, and walked to the
+end of it, steadying himself by holding to a guiding branch above;
+then passed over the slight intervening distance between the last
+notch and the next tree by swinging on a vine tendril, otherwise a
+"monkey-rope."
+
+The others followed very gingerly, for the feat was like walking on
+a yard-arm, but each in turn reached the farther tree. After a
+little, as they went on, now walking,  now swinging, they all were
+able to pick up the singular track by the notches, by the lay of the
+lateral branches, and by the absence of projecting twigs along the
+course. These had all been cut back, leaving a sort of tunnel, not
+easily discernible, however, because of its  undulating character to
+accommodate itself to the varying height of the trees. They very
+soon found two obstacles in the way of easy progress, due to the
+small size of the engineers who had designed this extraordinary
+road. In the first place, the notches on the branches were too
+small; and in the next, the tunnel was too low for their height, so
+that they had to stoop; while it was also evident that the overland
+swing-bridges between the trees were too frail for their weight.
+They quickly, therefore, resorted to their Ghoorka knives and to the
+rope. Venning, being the lightest, crossed over first by the monkey
+vine-bridge, when he made the rope fast to his end. It was then
+secured at the other, enabling the heavy weights, Mr. Hume and the
+chief, to pass next, Compton bringing up the rear with the rope
+round his waist, to guard against a fall in case of accident.
+Naturally, their progress was at first very slow, though not so much
+slower than it would have been had they to force a way through the
+undergrowth below; and the river-man found his work cut out to keep
+pace underneath when at times he encountered dense thickets.
+
+By the time they had covered the three hundred yards and reached the
+next platform, they were finding their "tree-legs."
+
+They stopped a while to take their bearings, looking out on the same
+unbroken expanse of tree-tops, tossed up into all manner of
+inequalities, and then recommenced their acrobatic, performance,
+making for the next "station." With a few slips, a few scratches,
+and bruised shins, they kept on until they had covered about a mile,
+when the growing dusk warned them to form camp.
+
+"We'd better go down below," said Mr. Hume.
+
+"Not I," said Venning.  "I had enough of down below last night; I'm
+going to sleep on deck, sir."
+
+"Ditto," said Compton, emphatically; "and I don't see why we all
+should not camp out aloft. We could easily widen the platform, rig
+up the waterproof sheets as a tent, and haul up some mould to make a
+fireplace."
+
+The idea was acted upon vigorously, the platform widened and
+strengthened, the roof pitched, the mould hauled up in a bag made
+out of one of the leopard skins, and the fire lit upon a foundation
+so made. They roosted high and secure, but they could not claim in
+the morning that they had passed a pleasant night, for the bed was
+hard, the space cramped, and each one dreamt he was falling off a
+tremendously high perch.  Moreover, sound travelled more freely up
+above, and, in place of the brooding silence of the under-world,
+there were many strange noises up aloft, the most menacing being an
+occasional booming roar, which they recognized as the cry of the
+gorilla.
+
+The morning was wet as usual, and heavy clouds trailed over the
+forest like a leaden mist on the sea. They crouched under the tent,
+listening to the drip, drip, drip, and filling their water-bottles
+from the tricklings. About ten the clouds lifted, and then the sun
+drove his arrows through until, almost in a twinkling, the great wet
+blanket rolled itself up and vanished swiftly into the horizon,
+leaving behind the sparkling of myriad raindrops on the leaves. Then
+for an hour the forest steamed, as the sun licked the drops off the
+roof and chased the moisture along the boughs. When the way was
+dried for them, they went on, going barefooted this time, for the
+better grip to be obtained.
+
+Other creatures had waited for the drying of the leaves beside
+themselves, and whenever they passed the white-grey branches of a
+wild fig tree, they were treated to a scolding from green parrots on
+the feed, and heard frequently the clapping report of the wood-
+pigeons as they brought their wings together, and the harsh cry of
+the toucans. Oh yes, there was life and there was death.
+
+Venning, going on ahead, saw below him in the fork of a tree the
+face of a monkey, with the eyes closed as if in sleep. He stopped to
+look, stooping his head, and his eyes caught a slight movement. Then
+he saw that the sleeping monkey was cradled in the coils of a python
+resting in the forks of the tree, its head raised a little, and its
+tail gripping a branch. The head of the monkey rested peacefully on
+one of the black and yellow coils, for death had come upon it
+swiftly.
+
+"What do you look at?" asked Muata, bending forward.
+
+"Shall I shoot?
+
+"So," muttered the chief. "It is the silent hunter. Let him be; let
+him be, and pass on. No other looks at man as he looks. It is his
+kill; pass on."
+
+They passed on, leaving the "silent hunter" with the monkey, that
+looked as if he slept, and silent and motionless he remained as each
+one paused to glance down, his dull, unwinking yellow eyes showing
+like coloured glass in the lifted head.
+
+"Look well," said Muata, warningly; "where there is one, there will
+be another near. The silent ones hunt in couples."
+
+"Would they attack men?"
+
+"Ask the 'little' people."
+
+"But they are no bigger than monkeys."
+
+"There is the monkey bigger than man, and he, too, must give way to
+the silent hunter."
+
+"What! Is the gorilla afraid of the python?"
+
+"Between the ape and the serpent there is always war. See where you
+place your foot then, for you travel the monkey-path, and we go hand
+and foot like monkeys. Look well where you place your hand, for a
+straight branch may be the body of the silent hunter."
+
+Venning went on with renewed caution, studying the branches above
+and below, for, lover as he was of all manner of live things, he had
+the common repugnance to the serpent-kind. But the trees were
+innocent of guile, and presently some other object claimed his
+absorbed attention, no less than an old man gorilla, who thrust his
+black head above a tree-top a little way off, and violently shook
+the branches. At the noise every one stopped and peered out.
+
+"Look!" he shouted.
+
+"By Jove, a gorilla!" cried Compton, from the rear.
+
+The great head was thrust forward, with its low black forehead and
+blacker muzzle; then they saw the whites of the eyelids as the
+fierce creature swiftly raised and lowered its brows; then the gleam
+of the great tusks as the mouth opened to emit a tremendous roar.
+The branches cracked under its grip as it shook them again before
+disappearing. Mr. Hume unslung his rifle and planted himself firmly,
+for, from the sound, it seemed as if the great ape were coming
+straight for them. But the noise of its progress ceased, and, after
+a long wait, the march was resumed. They kept a very keen outlook,
+and at times stopped to listen, but apparently the gorilla had
+vanished. Yet many were the startled looks whenever the least sound
+broke on their ears, for the face of the great ape, suddenly thrust
+into view, was a terrifying object.
+
+"Halloa!" said Venning, pulling up, "the path seems to end here.
+See, the branch is broken off; and there is no swing-bridge. Yet the
+track did go straight on, for you can see the old marks across
+there."
+
+"Wow!" said Muata, as his dark eyes swiftly took in the details.
+
+"If I climbed up that branch, I think I could get into the other
+tree, and you could then use the rope."
+
+"What is it now?" asked Mr. Hume.
+
+"They have cut the track," said the chief; "and it is as I thought,
+they have gone down from this tree to the ground, maybe to climb up
+further on."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Maybe a man has fallen to the ground here--who can say; or the
+stinging ants have made a home. That tree beyond is taboo to the
+little people, and we also will go down here."
+
+"What's the good?" said Venning, beginning to climb up.
+
+"No, no," said Mr. Hume. "We must leave this to the chief;" and he
+turned to descend.
+
+Venning, however, was standing well placed for a swing, and he let
+himself go, reaching out with his left hand for another hold, and
+gaining the other side easily. Compton, of course, followed, and the
+two stood examining the tree for sign of the path. The track
+certainly had gone through that tree, but there were no signs of
+recent passage, and moss had grown over the branches. They called
+down that they were going on, and, passing across several trees,
+found themselves once more cut off from the next tree, on which the
+well-beaten track once again ran on.
+
+"Here's the place," they shouted, to guide the others; then looked
+about to see how they were to cross.
+
+"We'll have to shin down," said Compton, "for there's no crossing
+here."
+
+Venning sat down astride a branch with his back to the trunk.
+
+"May as well rest awhile till they come up."
+
+"That's a queer-looking branch underneath," said Compton, following
+suit, and dropping a piece of bark on a bough that had attracted his
+attention. "It's covered all over with little squares of velvet
+moss. See!"
+
+"Suppose we lower our guns by the rope, then we can swarm down
+easily," replied Venning, who had seen too many branches to be
+interested; and passing the rope round the two rifles, he lowered
+them to the ground, letting the rope follow.
+
+"I believe it's moving, or else I've got fever or something."
+
+"What's moving?"
+
+"That;" and Compton pointed down.
+
+"By Jenkins!" muttered Venning; and the two knitted their brows as
+they peered down into the shadows, for the branch certainly was
+moving, and moving away as if it meant to part company with the
+trunk. Their glances ran along the branch outwards, and then their
+eyes suddenly dilated, and their bodies stiffened.
+
+So they stood like images, their hands clasping a branch, their
+heads thrust forward, and their eyes staring. On the same level with
+their heads and about twelve feet off was the head of that moving
+"branch," square-nosed, wedge-shaped, with the line of the jaws
+running right round to the broad part under the eyes, and a black-
+forked tongue flickering through an opening beneath the nostrils, It
+was the fixed stare of the lidless eyes, and the rigid position of
+the grim head poised in mid air on a neck that began like the
+muscular wrist of an athlete, thickening to where it was anchored on
+a branch three feet away to the size of an athlete's leg. And while
+the head, with the three feet of neck remained rigid, the body was
+gliding out and up, finding an anchorage in the forks of the tree on
+a level with the head, in readiness for the attack.
+
+With an effort they drew their eyes away from that cold glance that
+held them almost paralyzed and glanced down. Beyond, the light
+branches shook as the huge coils passed over them. Such coils! As
+they moved into the sunlight they saw the glitter of the scales and
+the ridges of the muscles, and the movement was like the movement of
+several serpents instead of one.
+
+Venning looked again at the motionless head. "When it has gathered
+its length behind and above its head," he said slowly, "it will
+strike."
+
+"And you dropped the guns!"
+
+"No one can stare a snake out--no one," said Venning; and his eyes
+were fixed.
+
+"How far can it strike?"
+
+"It has no lids to its eyes. It just looks and looks. Compton!"
+
+Compton took Venning by the arm and shook him. "Come on," he cried.
+"What are we standing here for?"
+
+But as he spoke his eyes went up involuntarily, and his pupils
+expanded.
+
+"It's coming closer," he whispered.
+
+"And its eyes are brighter." Venning shut his eyes, and gripped his
+companion.
+
+They swayed, and just managed to save themselves from a headlong
+fall by grasping a branch. The shock restored them, and the next
+minute they had swung themselves up on to the branch, and from that
+to the next. It was done in an instant, but when they cast a
+breathless look down, they saw the unwinking eyes looking  up at
+them from the very spot they had just left. The snake had a double
+coil round the branch that had supported them, while the huge body
+bridged the distance to the branches from which the blow had been
+delivered just a moment too late.  As they looked, the hinder part
+of the body fell with a thud against the tree-trunk, and began to
+ripple up.
+
+"Back," said Compton, "to the next tree."
+
+They darted to the vine-bridge, swung over, then stopped to see if
+the snake would follow.
+
+"The monkey-rope would never bear its weight," said Venning.
+
+"Can you hear it? By Jove, I feel all of a jump. I felt as if I had
+to stand there and watch it come right up."
+
+"Ugh!" said Compton. "It was awful. Get ready to run. I see it--over
+there--just opposite; it's going up--no, down. I say, it will chase
+us from underneath. Come on!"
+
+Venning went a little lower, the better to see the ground.
+
+"Hi! underneath, Mr. Hume! Muata! Hi! Coo-ee!"
+
+"Halloa! What is it?"
+
+"A snake! He's going down the next tree to this. Look out!"
+
+"All right; but you will find it safer down here."
+
+They were of that same opinion, and were down with a run, that took
+some of the bark off their shins, as well as off the trees.
+
+"And where are your guns?"
+
+"Dropped them," said Compton.
+
+"I see. Dropped them first, and discovered your danger after."
+
+"Rub it in, sir. We ought to have followed you; and we have had a
+fine fright. It's big enough to scare any one."
+
+All the time, they had their eyes turned up on the watch for the
+slightest movement, but the tree was as quiet as if it had not
+harboured anything more dangerous than a caterpillar.
+
+"Where's Muata and the other boy, sir?"
+
+"Gone after a red bush-pig.  I think I hear them breaking back."
+
+They heard the hunting cry of the jackal, then a sound of crashing,
+and an animal, brick-red--a strange hue for the sombre shadows of
+the forest--darted into view, and seeing them, halted with snout
+lowered, and the bristling neck curving up grandly to the high
+shoulders. A moment it stood there facing them, defiant, its little
+eyes gleaming, its tusks showing white, and the foam dripping from
+its jaws. A moment, and then it sank to the ground, and was hidden
+under a writhing mound of coils. Swift as an arrow the python had
+swooped at the prey, fastened on the neck with its jaws, and then
+overwhelmed it by the avalanche of its enormous length. There
+followed a sickening crunch of bones, and next a wild cry from the
+jackal, repeated by Muata and the river-man.
+
+Mr. Hume advanced with his Express ready, but Muata, running round,
+begged him not to fire.
+
+"It is the father of the wood-spirits. He took the red pig instead
+of one of us."
+
+"Not for the want of trying," said Venning. "He nearly had us both,
+Muata."
+
+"But he took the pig," said Muata. "It is his hunt, and it means
+well for us that he took the pig."
+
+"It certainly does; but how are we to get our guns, if we don't
+shoot him?"
+
+Muata placed his weapon on the ground and advanced. The python had
+completed its work so far. Two vast coils were round the crushed
+body of the boar; the head rested on the upmost coil, with the eyes
+fixed on the intruders, and the rest of the body reached away into
+the shadows.
+
+Muata advanced with the palms of his hands open, and his eyes
+downcast, as if he were in the presence of some great chief. Yet he
+showed no fear, never faltered, but walked up to the guns, picked
+them up within a foot of the spot where the length of the serpent
+had formed a loop, and returned. The lidless eyes watched, but not a
+coil moved.
+
+"It is well," said Muata, gravely, as he returned the rifles. "He
+means well by us."
+
+"You would not have said that if you had been up the tree with us,
+and with him," grumbled Compton.
+
+"The tree is taboo. I said it."
+
+"Do you mean that he lives here? I should think he would starve."
+
+"That would be your word, young great one. But, see, look at my
+father there. He is big, very big, very heavy, very old. He does not
+care to move far. Yet he is wise. So he has chosen his hunt; and he
+has chosen well."
+
+"I cannot see it. The little people give him a wide berth, and a pig
+might come along once a year."
+
+"Such is your wisdom, little great one. But, see, in the trees above
+there is a roadway, and on the ground below there are other paths
+for the things of the forest who neither fly nor climb. These trees
+lie in the way of such a road. On the ground, if you had looked you
+would have seen the spoor of the red pig and other things of the
+forest."
+
+"By Jove, yes!" and the boys stared at the unfamiliar spoor of
+animals. "But why do they use this particular part of the forest?"
+
+"That we shall see, for our way lies now along this ground-path. The
+little people have done their tracking. The man-eaters are near."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+FIGHT WITH A GORILLA
+
+"The man-eaters," said Venning, blankly. "I had forgotten  about
+them."
+
+"And there is another thing you have forgotten," said Mr. Hume,
+sternly, "you and Compton. You have forgotten to obey orders. My
+orders were to descend from the tree. You both kept on, and by so
+doing ran a very great risk. Understand now, that you will do
+exactly what I wish."
+
+Compton looked rebellious, and opened his lips.
+
+"Not a word!" said the hunter, in a roar, with a hard look in his
+eyes, that gave a fierce expression to his face.
+
+The two boys stared at him dumfounded.
+
+"You understand?" he said.
+
+"I do, sir," replied Compton, gravely; for, high-spirited as he was,
+he was in the wrong, and had the courage to admit it.
+
+That night they saw the fires of the man-eaters, who had encamped on
+a knoll comparatively free from trees and entirely bare of
+underwood. Beyond the knoll was the gleam of water, and at the same
+time they heard the familiar trumpeting of the mosquito hosts, whose
+attentions they had been free from ever since they left the river.
+They anointed their faces and hands with an ointment that contained
+eucalyptus oil, while Muata and the river-man went off to scout.
+Then they stood in the shadow of a great tree and watched the weird
+scene in the thick of the forest. There were several fires, and
+about each squatted a ring of wild black men.  Their skins glistened
+like ebony from the fat they had liberally rubbed in, and their
+teeth and eyes gleamed in the reflection of the fires. Their hair,
+fizzled out in mops, had the appearance of fantastic Scotch bonnets;
+but apparently all their vanity had been lavished on their heads,
+for of dress they wore nothing but anklets and a strip of hide round
+the waist. They talked unceasingly, cracking their fingers and
+making play with their hands, while all the time one or another of
+the different groups was on his feet, stamping the ground, swinging
+a club, and shouting at the top of his voice.
+
+"Ah men," said Mr. Hume. "Not a woman or a boy among them."
+
+"What have they done with their prisoners, if these are the same we
+are after?"
+
+What, indeed! Their eyes searched the shadows at the foot of the
+knoll for trace of the unfortunate people who had been captured, but
+they could neither see nor hear anything.
+
+"Ugh, the brutes!" muttered Venning, with a shudder, as he brought
+his rifle to the "ready."
+
+Mr. Hume pressed the barrel down. "We'll have no night attack," he
+whispered. "At the first note of danger they'd scatter like shadows,
+when they would have the eyes and the ears of us. Well hear what
+Muata has to say, and then wait for the morning."
+
+"There are thirty-six of them," muttered Compton. A bull crocodile
+roared from the water near at hand, and one of the black men
+imitated the cry, drawing a yell of wild laughter from his comrades.
+It was the wildest of scenes. The little circle of red fire threw
+into light against an impenetrable wall of black the trunks of a few
+trees, the trailing vines, and the forms of the savage men. That was
+the one bit of the world visible, a space on which appeared some of
+the lowest forms of the human race; but, though they could see not
+an inch beyond the furthest reflection of the fires, they knew how
+well the setting fitted the picture. It seemed only natural that in
+that gloomy wilderness of wood these savage types should prevail,
+for if man had to live there, he could only hold his own by a
+cunning and ferocity greater than the beasts possessed. Every item
+of the scene stamped itself on the minds of the boys as they stood
+for a long time watching the antics of the savages.
+
+It was a relief when Muata made his presence known by a cricket-like
+chirrup.
+
+"Are these the men we are after, chief?" asked Mr. Hume, when the
+two scouts silently crept up. "They are the same, but the trail is
+different." "Then they are already on another hunt, and have left
+the women and children they captured elsewhere? Is that so?"
+
+"As you have seen, they are warriors only. Such of the women and
+children who yet live are hidden. These await the coming of the
+other wolves."
+
+"Oh oh! Then there is to be a great war-party?" "A great killing! I
+went near, round by the riverside, where also there is a fire as a
+signal. I heard their talk. Others will join them in the night or
+the morning, and together they will go in the war-canoes."
+
+"And who are they that are expected?"
+
+"I said we had not done with the thief-of-the-wood and the river,
+the man-robber, the slayer of babes."
+
+"Hassan! Do you mean that the Arabs are coming?"
+
+"Even so, O great one. They are well matched, the man-eaters and the
+man-stealers."
+
+"And whom do they go against?"
+
+"What should bring Hassan here but one thing, and that the fear of
+Muata?"
+
+"Humph!" muttered Mr. Hume.
+
+"They go against my people, so that when Muata returns there will
+not be one left--man, woman, child, or dog--to greet him, not one
+hut left to shelter him, not a single manioc-root for him to eat.
+Hassan will let in the waters upon the Garden of Rest."
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"That is his word. He has sworn it in his beard, and these jackals
+howl it out. They talk of new fish that are to come to their nets."
+
+"New fish?"
+
+"Oh aye. When the water is let in, they will stand on the sloping
+banks of the Garden of Rest and net the drowned."
+
+"These are strange words, Muata. What are you talking about?"
+
+"I talk of the plan that is made by Hassan to destroy utterly my
+people in the Garden of Rest," said the chief, gloomily--"the secret
+hiding whence I went forth against the man-stealers. Hassan comes
+hither in the morning, and with these eaters of men, these jackals
+of the wood, he will go on his way."
+
+"I see," said Mr. Hume, slowly. "They are not on our trail."
+
+"Let us go for them now," said Compton, who had been eagerly
+listening.
+
+Muata paid no heed to the words.
+
+"There must be a new plan, chief," said Mr. Hume.
+
+"And what says the great one?"
+
+"There is only one good plan, Muata, but you have yourself opposed
+it."
+
+"What is the plan, my father?"
+
+"We should get to the Garden of Rest in advance of the enemy, and be
+ready to beat them off. That would be the best way, but you have
+said you would not lead us to your secret hiding."
+
+"It is the plan," said Muata.
+
+"What!" cried Compton, "would you run away from these swabs without
+firing a shot? What do you say, Venning?"
+
+"I am willing to listen to all sides," said Venning, judiciously.
+
+"We must not fire a shot,"' said the hunter, with decision; "we must
+withdraw without Hassan knowing of our presence. If they learnt we
+were hereabouts, they would be on their guard, and, having the
+'legs' of us by reason of their canoes, and the advantage by reason
+of their numbers, they would push on, and arrive at the hiding-place
+before us. If they do not suspect our presence, they will take
+matters easy, and give us time."
+
+"But what of Muata's mother?"
+
+"That is the chief's matter," said Muata.
+
+"And what of the Okapi?" asked Venning. "This is my word. You will
+go back in the morning," said the chief, "marching quickly; and when
+you have found the shining canoe, you will move fast up the river to
+the place where the first little river from the forest joins it on
+the right bank. There you will find me."
+
+"And if we don't find you?"
+
+"Haw! What Muata says, that he will do."
+
+"And how are we to find our way back through the woods?"
+
+Muata drummed his fingers against the stretched skin of his cheek,
+making a hollow noise.
+
+"Behold," he said, "there is your guide."
+
+They looked around in the dark, but could see no one.
+
+"Do not look hard, for he is afraid of the white man's eyes."
+
+"If we knew what we were expected to look at," said Compton, "we'd
+know where we were; but--oh----"
+
+He broke off, and stared at a little figure that barely reached up
+to Muata's waist.
+
+"A pigmy, by Jenkins!"
+
+"By Jove! yes."
+
+Mr. Hume unhooked a steel chain from his belt, with a knife
+attached, and offered it to the little man, who, at a word from
+Muata, grabbed at it, and, after a minute inspection, hung it round
+his neck. Muata said a few more words to the new guide, then,
+lifting his hand, gave the farewell salutation to his friends, and
+disappeared with the silent river-man. The little man, taking one
+end of the rope, led them away from the camp of the cannibals, and
+after a brief rest, without the comfort of a fire, they were early
+on the march; but it was not until the sun was well out that they
+saw what manner of man their new guide was. A strange monkey-figure
+--very black, with wrinkled skin about the elbows, thin arms, knobby
+knees, a bulging stomach, and round bright eyes! He carried a little
+bow, a sheaf of tiny arrows, and wore the glittering chain and knife
+round his neck. He took the "upper road," and was very like a monkey
+in the ease and agility with which he manoeuvred the branches.
+Presently he was joined by two companions, who appeared apparently
+from the tree-tops--one was black, the other lighter in colour, and
+of vast pigmy stature, reaching a height of quite 4 ft. 6 in. It was
+found advisable to give these two some badge of office, for when
+they had become accustomed to the white men, they stopped the march
+for a violent discussion about the glittering jewel worn with such
+outrageous pride by the first man. The present of a red silk
+handkerchief to one, and of a tin box that had held meat tabloids to
+the other, restored peace.  The handkerchief was converted into a
+turban, the box into a decoration for the breast, and then, chatting
+like a treeful of monkeys, the three guides went on at a quick pace.
+There was no midday rest, no halt for coffee-making; they had
+evidently been told by Muata to hurry, and whenever their white men
+showed a tendency to slacken, they frowned, cracked their fingers,
+and capered about. Towards night, however, they descended from the
+upper road.
+
+"Thank goodness, they'll have to stop when it grows dark," sighed
+Venning.
+
+The little men gave a long rolling call by moving the hand before
+the mouth; then two of them slipped away, and presently an answering
+call came out of the wood. A little later the travellers stood on
+the edge of a small clearing, surrounded by little round huts made
+of leaves, and in the centre stood the gigantic warrior with the tin
+box, and his proud companion with the flame-coloured head. They were
+grinning from ear to ear as they beckoned their "white men" to
+advance within the circle of that forest city! Stepping over one of
+the leafy buildings, and just avoiding knocking down the pillars of
+an edifice that was probably the town hall, they entered the
+opening, piled their outfit, and started a fire to prepare the
+evening meal. The town had appeared deserted, except for the three
+little guides; but as the giants sipped from their pannikins little
+forms flitted nearer, and quaint little faces peered at them from
+every point.
+
+"Take no notice of them," whispered Mr. Hume, as he handed a
+pannikin to the first guide.
+
+As that sooty imp sipped, with a loud indrawing of his breath in
+dread of scalding, and a loud outward blowing in token of
+satisfaction at the comforting taste, the other two guides took the
+proffered pannikins from the boys, and the entire population crept
+closer and closer, with many a timid jump. When, however, these
+strange visitors from the strange outer world, where there was no
+roof of trees to keep off the shooting stars and other dangers--when
+these queer people began to massage each other in turn, to rub and
+to thump, to slap and knead the limbs and muscles, then, in their
+intense curiosity, even the children forgot their timidity and
+crowded round. A pickaninny--the queerest little mite--even ventured
+to poke a tiny finger into the ribs of one of the three. After that
+there was a great pow-wow. Mr. Hume, with a man in the palm of each
+hand, a boy on each shoulder, and a couple hanging from each brawny
+arm, sent the spectators into shrieks of amusement, and they there
+and then christened him "The Gorilla," in token of esteem--a piece
+of flattery which was to have a startling sequel. As night fell the
+little people lamented the disappearance of the sun with a long,
+melancholy, dirge-like wail; but when darkness was upon them they
+built up the fire and prepared their evening meal from the body of a
+red pig they had killed. When the three travellers wrapped
+themselves up in their blankets, their hosts were still busily
+engaged in eating and talking, and long into the night, whenever
+they glanced up through half-closed lids, there were the little
+forms still about the fires. But in the morning, behold, they were
+alone with the three guides! The huts remained, and the town house,
+with its posts, at least six feet high; but the little doors were
+open, and the huts were empty.
+
+"They've gone," said Venning, much disappointed. "And they have
+stolen nothing," said Mr. Hume, after a careful inspection of the
+kit.
+
+The guides pointed to the trees, and once more they were traveling
+the upper road through the moist leaves, glistening under the sun
+from the myriad drops of condensed mist. It was more than they could
+do to keep pace with the agile leaders, and time and again the
+little men had to wait for the big-limbed, awkward-footed strangers
+to come up.  As on the previous day, they stuck to the work,
+grudging even a few minutes' rest in the heat of the burning noon,
+and they only relaxed their efforts to introduce a peculiar sporting
+event, which nearly put an end to the party. The quick eye of the
+light-coloured guide saw some object in the tree-tops, and miming
+out lightly to the end of the branch, he gave a peculiar bark. In
+response there came the familiar barking roar of a gorilla, followed
+by the appearance of the black face at a little distance.
+Immediately the three little men grossly insulted the great monarch
+of the woods, whose undisputed sway no denizen of the forest cared
+to dispute, who had been known to break the back of a leopard, and
+to outstare some chance lion prowling on the outskirts. They made
+"monkey faces" at him, and no monkey can stand that. They raised
+their eyebrows, grinned, shot out their jaws, made little grunting
+noises; and when the great ape imitated them unconsciously in his
+rage, they broke into unseemly laughter. The gorilla took up the
+gage of battle and advanced, snapping the branches as a sign of what
+he would do when he laid a hand or a foot on his enemies. The little
+men doubled back and put themselves under the sheltering bulk of the
+hunter's powerful frame, while the two boys sat astride of a big
+branch, the better to handle their carbines. The gorilla, however,
+did not push his attack home. They heard his surly grunt as he
+stopped to take stock of them, and as he did not venture closer,
+they had to resume the march, not, however, without a very distinct
+feeling of uneasiness. For when they had got into the swing once
+more, the gorilla dogged them. Like a hungry shark about an open
+boat at sea he came and went, now following steadily behind, now
+ranging up on the starboard quarter, now forging ahead, again coming
+up mysteriously from the depths below, and now breaking cover on the
+port side, but never giving a chance for a shot, and always
+reappearing at a new point after a long interval of silence.
+
+"I don't like the game of hide-and-seek," said Mr. Hume, stopping.
+
+"It's the fault of those little beggars," said Compton. "They appear
+to enjoy the joke."
+
+The guides pointed to the ground and started to descend, pausing,
+however, to see if they were followed.
+
+"I suppose we may as well go down?"
+
+The little men laughed when they saw the others descending, and,
+sliding to the ground down slender vine-ropes, they immediately set
+to work insulting the gorilla again by a series of rapidly emitted
+cries. This brought the brute up with a charge, just as the three
+white men had their attention occupied, and their hands engaged, by
+the descent. From the branches above there dropped a huge black
+hairy object, with apparently four pairs of hands.
+
+"By the Lord," cried Mr. Hume, who was the first to see the enemy,
+"drop!"
+
+He shinned down on top of Compton, who in turn descended on Venning,
+and the whole three of them reached the ground together in a jumble.
+The gorilla lighted on all fours a few feet away, then, instead of
+springing on his helpless victims, he slowly raised himself to an
+erect position, and so standing on short bow-legs, emitted a
+tremendous roar, beginning with low mutterings, increasing to the
+deep-throated bark, and then dying away in hoarse grumblings.  A
+terrible object he was truly, with his fierce grey eyes, formidable
+dog-teeth projecting from his powerful jaws, which rested without
+the interval of anything like a neck on the curve of a chest that
+swept out vast on the well-founded ribs, wrought in strength to
+support the weight of the protruding stomach.
+
+One arm was raised with the palm of the hand on the chest, the other
+hung down, a truly fearful weapon, reaching to the crooked knee, and
+ending in great flattened fingers, that were bent inwards. After the
+roar the fierce creature lowered itself on to the knuckles of its
+arms, and seemed as if in another instant it would spring on its
+foes, still scrambling for a footing, when a piece of mould struck
+it on the cheek.  It made a side-spring at the sooty guide, who
+nimbly jumped out of reach, and, when it turned, Mr. Hume was on his
+feet swinging his rifle-strap over his head. Quick as a trained
+boxer the long black arm shot out and sent the rifle flying through
+the air, but as its fierce eyes followed the whirling flight of the
+weapon, the hunter, putting forth all his great strength, smote the
+animal full on the ear, a blow that would have felled the strongest
+man. Then he leapt back, just in time to escape a terrific sweep of
+a hooked hand that would have disembowelled him, as the monster,
+after a shake of the head, delivered its favourite blow at the
+abdomen of its adversary. Going down on its knuckles again, it leapt
+high into the air, and as it descended thrust a long black arm round
+a tree to seize Mr. Hume, who all the time was calling out for a
+weapon. The flat fingers hooked under the leather belt, and with a
+fierce grunt the gorilla put forth its strength to draw the white
+man closer, while the latter, with his feet braced against the tree,
+resisted. Then Compton and Venning, who had unslung their rifles,
+but who had been confused by the rapid movements of the great ape,
+found their opportunity and fired. Both bullets took effect, and the
+gorilla, loosening his hold, turned with a roar upon his new foes.
+His aspect as he faced them was truly ferocious, and his strength
+was apparently unimpaired, for the thin pencil-like bullets had
+merely bored two little holes through a fleshy part. A moment his
+terrible eyes glared at them, and then with a mighty bound he leapt
+towards them. They fired hastily, and then in stepping back the one
+stumbled against the other, so that they both fell. They were at the
+gorilla's mercy!  One step forward and he would have struck the life
+out of them with a couple of blows, but fortunately habit was too
+strong for him, and he raised himself erect to give out his defiant
+challenge. A little man tugged at Mr. Hume, who stood transfixed
+with horror. Looking down, the hunter saw the haft of his Ghoorka
+knife. He acted at once.  Seizing it, he ran forward, and raising
+himself up, brought the heavy blade down on the monster's skull just
+as the last guttural bark was emitted.  The boys, with their hands
+lifted in a despairing effort to ward off the danger, saw the gleam
+of metal, heard the rushing swish and the dull sound as the keen
+blade bit through skin and bone; and then they saw the monstrous
+black form suddenly sink to the ground. The next second they were
+snatched up and tossed aside out of reach, and as they regained
+their feet they heard the report of a rifle as Mr. Hume fired into
+''  the hairy body. With its last effort the dying ape seized the
+hunter by the leg and hurled him to the ground, his fall being
+luckily broken by a decaying branch, which was crushed under his
+weight. Bruised and shaken, the three travellers stood by the
+carcase, over which the little men were singing a song of triumph,
+as if they had been the chief actors instead of intensely interested
+spectators. One of them was tugging at the knife to free it from the
+skull, and as he could not move it, the second, and then the third,
+had a try, all laughing with much merriment.
+
+"It's fun for them," said Venning, rubbing a bruised arm.
+
+"I believe," said Mr. Hume, sourly, "they contrived the whole thing
+as a gladiatorial spectacle for their amusement. I don't think I was
+ever so near death;" and he shook hands gravely. "If you had not
+fired when you did, he would have had me."
+
+"And what about us?" said Compton. "I never saw anything so awful,
+and never felt so helpless, as when it stood over us."
+
+"A good job for us he did stand," said Venning, taking out his tape.
+"I should like to have his measurements. Just straighten him out."
+He passed the tape over. "Length, 6 ft. 2 in.; round the chest, 55
+in.; round the abdomen, 60 in.; length of arm, 44 in.; biceps, 14
+in.--not so very huge; forearm, 15 in.; calf, 13 in. His power is in
+the muscles of the shoulders, chest, and back."
+
+"And jaw," said Compton. "Look at the sweep of the jaw-bone. He
+would crack a man's thigh with ease."
+
+"And just think," said Venning, "that he has practically four hands,
+that he can spring like a lion, climb like a leopard, walk like a
+man, swing like a monkey, bite like a hyaena, and strike like a
+battering-ram. I guess I've had enough of gorillas."
+
+When Mr. Hume signalled to the guides to continue, they expressed by
+signs their astonishment that the white men did not sit down to make
+a meal off the gorilla; and when they really did gather that the
+feast was to be abandoned, one remained behind, and another
+disappeared into the trees, while the third resumed the journey with
+backward looks of regret. About an hour later they met the entire
+pigmy tribe on the way to the feast, and as they swarmed over the
+tree in passing, the little people greeted Mr. Hume with much honour
+as the "father of all the gorillas."
+
+The next day the travellers reached the opening whence they had
+started on the trail of the cannibals a few days before.  They
+parted with the sooty guide, giving him a handful of sugar, a stick
+of tobacco, a small tin of salt, and a cartridge-case.  The latter
+he placed proudly in a hole in the lobe of his ear; the other things
+he stowed away in his little sack, made from the skin of a small
+monkey.
+
+When he had gone, the three plunged into the wood to follow the
+river down to the spot where the Okapi had been docked. After
+leaving many shreds and patches of clothing on the thorns, Mr. Hume
+and Venning discovered the spot by the "blaze" on the trees
+adjoining made by the axe. If it had not been for those signs, they
+would not have recognized the place, for they had expected to find a
+clearing, and, instead, there was already a thicket of young shoots,
+which had sprouted from the buried saplings. Cutting away this
+growth, they soon removed the soft mould and the covering of
+branches. Then they cut a way down to the river, and ran the Okapi
+out into the water.  The chains were greased, the deck riveted in
+position, the mast fixed, and the boat washed down. That done,
+Venning put into effect a scheme he had been turning over in his
+mind for a regular hot-air bath that would steam all the ague,
+rheumatism, and fever out of them.
+
+"What we must do," Mr. Hume was always insisting, "is to keep the
+circulation active."
+
+"We're going to have a Turkish bath," said Venning, firmly--"a real
+one--one that will clear all the germs put at a run, and remove this
+continual singing in the ears."
+
+"Does your head sing?" asked Compton, pressing his forehead. "My
+brain seems to be on the shake as if it were jelly."
+
+"That's the feeling," said Venning; "and I've got a notion. See the
+well? Good; that's to be our hot-air bath. We'll rig the oil-sheets
+over it by means of a couple of bent saplings. We'll put the lamp
+inside, bank loam around it, moisten the loam with water, leave it
+until it steams, then pack one of us in. I'll be the first, to show
+that it is safe."
+
+"Good," said the hunter, gravely. "And when you have been steamed,
+we'll knead you, wash you down with warm water, and shave your
+head."
+
+They did it. Venning went under the sheet; he went in nearly black,
+and very heavy in the head. He came out brown and white, with a
+feeling of lightness; and when he had been shaved, shampooed,
+thumped, whacked, and kneaded, he felt "pounds better." Compton and
+Mr. Hume each underwent the hot-air cure, with the same good
+results; and then, clothed in clean underwear, and protected by a
+dose of quinine, they manned the levers, and went skimming along the
+river, glad to be back in their good boat.
+
+"We must call for the old Arab," said Compton, "now that we are
+bound for the Place of Rest."
+
+"He'll be in the way," growled Venning; "and we have no time to
+lose."
+
+"We will call for him," said Mr. Hume. "If we miss Muata, the old
+chap could act as guide."
+
+So they put in where the tall palm grew, and while Venning guarded
+the boat, the other two went up the path to find the village. They
+found it in ruins, and on a post was the head of the old Arab with a
+lot of Arab writing.
+
+Compton read it out. "Hassan has been.  Those who are silent when
+they could talk remain silent for ever."
+
+"So," muttered Mr. Hume, staring around under frowning brows,
+"Hassan has been."
+
+"Poor old harmless chap," said Compton; "and he knew my father. I
+should like," he added sternly, "to meet that Hassan, Mr. Hume." "So
+should I, my boy."
+
+"He certainly tried to get some news of us from the old Arab, and
+failing, lolled him."
+
+"Ay, ay. That's the whole story, lad." They took the head of the old
+man, who, they believed, had been faithful to them at the cost of
+his life, and gave it reverent burial. Then they returned to the
+boat, and pushed off.
+
+"Not there?" asked Venning.
+
+"Ay, he was there, but Hassan has been before us, and the old man
+was dead."
+
+"He must hate us very much to pursue us so relentlessly," said
+Venning, when he had heard the story.
+
+"He is not bothering about us," said Mr. Hume. "I take it that he
+has heard of Muata's hiding-place, this Garden of Rest, and wants it
+for his own use. Now, lads, is this to be our quarrel? There is no
+call upon us to interfere, and we should escape a lot of trouble if
+we did not interfere. I put the matter to you. Shall we 'bout ship,
+and go down past the Stanley Falls towards the Zambesi and the
+south, where there is good hunting."
+
+"We'll keep on, sir, if you don't mind."
+
+"Oh, it's all the same to me," said the hunter.
+
+"Don't tell me," said Compton. "You are not indifferent about it,
+for you said you would like to meet Hassan."
+
+"So I would, lad. I would rather shoot a man like that than a lion.
+The animal kills for food, the man slays for the savage lust of
+power."
+
+"Then we keep on," said Compton, "and no more speeches from the
+captain to the crew on the score of turning back."
+
+"There's one thing," said Mr. Hume; "this Garden of Rest, if we find
+it, may turn out to be a complete naturalist's preserve."
+
+"Hurrah!" cried Venning. "Give me the beetles, and you can have the
+gorillas. Let's hope we shall have a real rest in this wonderful
+place."
+
+"Won't be much rest while Hassan is around," said Compton; "but
+we'll have the pull of him if we can get there first."
+
+"Without his knowledge," added the hunter. "The advantage of a
+surprise is everything in native warfare, as you have gathered in
+listening to Muata's yams."
+
+"We'll have to lie up to-night, I suppose, or else we shall overrun
+the spot where we are to meet Muata."
+
+"It cannot be very far. I take it we are now travelling on the short
+leg of a triangle, the long leg being the track we made through the
+forest, and the other leg the tributary stream down which Hassan
+went to pick up his cannibal allies."
+
+"All we want, then," said Compton, "is a few hours' start, for we
+can show a clean pair of heels to any canoe afloat."
+
+"That is right enough; but you have to reckon with a cunning foe,
+and it is more than probable that Hassan has left some of his men
+ahead to keep watch. We'll hug the shore, and keep on as long as
+possible."
+
+The levers clanked merrily, the little screw lashed up the dark
+waters. One reach of the river was very much like another, but the
+silence and the absence of life which at first had depressed them
+now gave them comfort, for in this gloomy waterway a strange human
+being meant a possible enemy.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+ACROSS THE LAGOON
+
+As the night came stealthily creeping over wood and water, sending
+hosts of birds with loud scoldings to their chosen roosting-places--
+for out of those myriads of trees only certain trees were selected--
+the boat was put in near the right bank. The levers were muffled,
+and the "lookout,"  with a bill-hook ready to fend off any snag, and
+a bull's-eye lantern to shoot a sudden light, took up his position
+in the bows. She crept on slowly through the pitch darkness, the
+crew easing off at times to listen as some loud noise broke the
+silence--the plunge of a hippo, the snort of an angry bull, the
+swirl of a fish, or the cry of an otter from the bank. In one of
+these silences a whisper came from the bows.
+
+"Look," said Venning; and he flashed the bull's-eye on the bank.
+
+The others, glancing along the streamer of light, saw reflected two
+bright eyes, a gleaming muzzle, and the tips of curved horns.
+
+"A buffalo," whispered Mr. Hume.
+
+As the boat drifted slowly past, they watched the bright eyes, and
+the eyes of the animal followed them. Out of the intense blackness
+only those points were visible--the luminous eyes, the shining
+muzzle, and the tips of the horns. The rest was left to the
+imagination; yet the picture seemed to stand out of a shaggy forest
+bull, his fore feet on the brink of the water, and his head thrown
+up.
+
+"What a picture for a flash-light photo!" muttered Venning,
+longingly.
+
+"What a mark for a shot!" sighed Mr. Hume. "And red meat would be
+very welcome."'
+
+As they slipped away the buffalo snorted, crashed into the forest,
+and battered his way on a course parallel to them to get another
+view of that mysterious light, for presently they heard his snort
+again. A little further on a bull hippo charged at them, but the
+glare of the light full in his eyes stopped him, and he remained
+open-mouthed, so that all they saw was a yawning gulf bristling with
+ivory. Mr. Hume, who had picked up his Express at the first snort,
+laid it down again with a laugh.
+
+"Took the fight out of him that time, Venning; but it's a little
+risky."
+
+"Keeps one wide awake, at any rate," said Compton.
+
+"We'll continue for an hour or so and then tie up, for we may have a
+heavy day to-morrow."
+
+For a couple of miles the boat felt its way through the dark without
+incident, and then the look-out signalled another discovery.
+
+"Light ahead!"
+
+The Okapi was brought broadside on, so that the crew could have a
+clear view of the river; and they sat for some time in silence,
+looking at the strange object--a tiny but steady glow of fire.
+
+"Shut off the bull's-eye, Venning. We'll make for mid-stream, and
+approach the fire with caution."
+
+The boat moved out into the current, then worked up very tenderly
+while Venning steered, with his eyes fixed on that little speck of
+red. Slowly they advanced, cautiously were the levers pulled over
+and shot back, so that there should be no noise, and silently the
+smooth craft cut into the darkness. But light travels far, and they
+seemed to get no nearer.
+
+"I believe it's a light in a boat," muttered the lookout.
+
+The others slowed up, and they listened, but they heard no sound of
+paddles, only innumerable stealthy whisperings from the woods.
+
+"It is stationary," said Mr. Hume, "and ashore, as you may see from
+its fixity. Beep her away. We can't be too careful."
+
+They made a long reach down, going very warily, and taking care not
+to keep their eyes solely upon the fire; for a light is a good lure
+to draw the careless into an ambush, unless they are on the look-out
+for danger in a different quarter.
+
+"I can't see any one about," said Venning, who was using the night-
+glasses.
+
+In complete silence they came at last opposite the fire, but no
+sooner had they passed it than it went out.
+
+"Put her round," whispered Mr. Hume.
+
+The boat answered her helm like a well-trained horse, and they went
+back on their course to see if they could fetch the light again.
+
+"Yes, there it is."
+
+"Then it's a signal," muttered Mr. Hume; "only to be seen by some
+one coming up-stream."
+
+"Suppose it is meant for us?"
+
+Mr. Hume went forward with his Express, and relieved Venning at the
+helm.
+
+"We'll creep nearer in this time, but be ready to make a dash if it
+proves to be one of Hassan's watch-parties."
+
+This time the Okapi hugged the shore, and stopped when it came
+opposite the light.
+
+Out of the darkness came a low laugh. "I have been awaiting you, O
+great one; but you came so softly that I should not have known
+except for these wise ones here."
+
+"Welcome, Muata!" The boat was run in now without further pause, and
+Mr. Hume leapt ashore with the line. "And who are the wise ones,
+chief, that could smell us out in the dark?"
+
+"Who but the jackal and the wise woman?"
+
+"You found your mother, then! I'm very glad--very glad. And what
+about Hassan?  He has passed this way, and made his sign at the
+village where we left the old Arab."
+
+"The Arab thief comes up the little river with many canoes and the
+whole pack of man-eaters. So we three will get into the shining
+canoe, if the great one wills, and make good the time before
+sunrise."
+
+"The boat is ready."
+
+Muata called. The fire was put out, and presently two figures
+appeared within the range of the bull's-eye lantern--a woman and the
+jackal. The woman halted to speak a few words to Muata, then she put
+a hand on the hunter's shoulder and peered into his face. She
+laughed and said something.
+
+"What says the wise woman, Muata?"
+
+"Lion--not gorilla. Haw! We heard the story from the little men how
+the great one cleft the skull of the gorilla; and how they called
+you my father, after the man-monkey. But I told her you were more
+lion than ape, and she has judged for herself."
+
+Mr. Hume laughed, and held a hand to help the woman into the boat;
+but she stepped aboard unassisted, and moved forward, the jackal
+following very humbly.
+
+"And the river-man?"
+
+"He struck the trail of three man-eaters, and followed them, seeing
+red. Maybe he slew them and was slain, for there was much noise, and
+he did not return. So we here are all till we reach the hiding-
+place."
+
+The boat was pushed off, and Muata took one of the levers.
+
+"Let the young lions sleep," he said. "We can have no better watch
+than we now have. See! the jackal smelt you while you were still
+afar, and the chiefs wife heard the noise of the boat before I did.
+Wow! We are safe while they watch."
+
+"Does the chiefs wife smoke?" "Ow ay! tobacco would please her
+heart." Mr. Hume passed a pipe and tobacco to the woman, and Compton
+gave her a lighted match. She took them as if they were ordinary
+objects of her life, lit the pipe, and by the flame of the match
+leant forward to peer into the boy's face as she had stared at Mr.
+Hume. And she spoke a word or two before turning her face to the
+bows for the long watch.
+
+"The river runs into the sea; but the river is always full. That is
+her word, young lion."
+
+"Which means?"
+
+"I told her you were the white man's son, and she has seen for
+herself. Maybe her words mean that when the father is gone the son
+takes his place. But in time you will know, for her meaning is
+sometimes hard to understand. Now sleep, you two, for there is great
+need for us ahead."
+
+Without more ado the two "young lions" rolled themselves in their
+blankets and enjoyed the rare luxury of an untroubled sleep, and
+when they awoke they were in a vast lagoon, out of which stood the
+bleached skeletons of dead trees, with gaunt bare branches, in all
+manner of fantastic shapes. But it was only the trees that were
+dead, for the astonished eyes of the boys rested on such a
+multiplicity of animal life as they had never before seen. Birds
+roosted on the aforesaid dead branches--sooty ibis, white pelicans,
+crows, kingfishers, and here and there, like sentinels on the
+topmost branches, a white-headed eagle, with his hooked bill,
+dominating the scene. Wheeling through the air were strings of duck
+and wisps of snipe in battalions, rows of cranes with their long
+legs trailing, and on the surface of the smooth water, on scores of
+small islands, formed originally by uprooted trees, and under the
+water, there were yet innumerable creatures. It was certainly grand
+hunting for all. There were flies and gnats for the frogs, tadpoles
+and the spawn of frogs for the little fishes, little fishes were
+preyed on by the ducks and the big fishes, while the birds and the
+big fishes in turn provided breakfast, dinner, and supper for the
+crocodiles. Apparently the crocodiles were too tough, too musky, and
+too powerful, to serve as food for any other animal higher up in the
+scale; but it is not to be supposed that they had merely to open
+their jaws to snatch a meal, for there were shallows all about where
+the waders could go to sleep in peace, standing on one leg. And
+there they stood, regiments of them--crested cranes, blue cranes,
+black ibis, pink ibis, flamingoes, and wild geese.. And the noise
+was tremendous!
+
+The Okapi sailed under a gentle breeze right into the thick of this
+sportsman's paradise, and from the low islands armies of mosquitoes
+gaily advanced to meet her until they formed a moving cloud around
+her, only kept off from eating up the crew by the merciful
+intervention of the canvas awning and mosquito curtains.
+
+"What a magnificent specimen of the spoonbill bittern," groaned
+Venning. "If we had only brought an air-gun--for I suppose we cannot
+fire."
+
+"Look at those fat geese in a row," said Compton.  "What a stew they
+would make.  Just one shot, sir."
+
+"It won't do," said Mr. Hume. "A single shot would raise noise
+enough to wake the seven sleepers."
+
+"There is another way," said Muata.
+
+"What way?"
+
+"A line such as you used for fish--see." He shaved off some thin
+shreds of buffalo biltong, chewed it, and dropped it astern. An
+inquisitive teal watched him keenly, and, as the boat went by, made
+a swoop for the fragment. The incident was noticed, and a big
+gander, curiously tame, came sailing up, arching its neck in
+imitation of the swan. The boys were at the lockers in a flash, drew
+out a couple of lines, bent on a large hook, buoyed it, by the
+advice of Mr. Hume, between two floats, baited the hooks, and payed
+the line over the stem, while Muata dropped over a few more pellets.
+There was a flotilla of duck and geese following in the wake of the
+Okapi, and in less than a minute there were two bites. Compton had
+the black and grey gander, while Venning had a fat duck in tow. The
+Okapi was backed full speed astern and the astonished fowl pulled on
+board before they knew what had happened. The geese sheered off at
+once, speaking to each other in subdued tones, but in the next
+quarter of an hour three more ducks were added to the bag. Then a
+piratical craft appeared in the very thick of the peaceful convoy,
+opened its broadside, as it were, and engulfed a couple. There was a
+swirl in the water, a resounding smack made by a long scaley tail,
+and a third fowl went the way of the others. Beating their wings,
+the duck rose with loud quacks to seek the safety of a shallow, and
+the leery green eyes of the piratical crocodile appeared above the
+disturbed water.
+
+"You old thief!" cried Venning.
+
+"It is his hunting-ground," said Muata, with a chuckle, as he passed
+the birds to his mother, who began at once to pluck them.
+
+"Out with the big pot and the preserved vegetables," said Compton.
+"We'll have one big feast, even if we go hungry for a week."
+
+The pot was got out, water from the lagoon was boiled, strained, and
+boiled again, then, as each bird was cleaned, it was cut up and
+placed in the pot, the offal falling to the share of the jackal. It
+was a great meal, of soup, game, cabbage, potatoes, onions, and
+carrots, all mixed up, and when it had been eaten down to the last
+drop, with a dose of quinine for safety, and a cup of coffee for
+comfort, they were all shiny and happy. The oily fat from the birds,
+which formed a layer on the top while the mess was boiling, had been
+carefully removed, and when it had cooled, Muata and his mother
+rubbed it over their faces, necks, arms, and hair until they
+glistened.
+
+"Well, I'm sugared!" said Compton.
+
+"Fat very good for the skin," said Muata, showing his teeth. "You
+try."
+
+"Better for the guns, chief.''
+
+"Wow! and for the big knife;" and the chief polished up his Ghoorka
+blade, while the boys greased the rifles and stared at the chief's
+wife, thinking, as they stared, of the adventures which she had been
+through since she fled from the kraal of her husband, driven out by
+the slave-hunters. They had seen old black women at the villages,
+wrinkled old crones, phenomenally thin; but this woman was not much
+wrinkled, and she was not thin. Neither was she ugly as those others
+had been, for she carried herself straight, and there was a dignity
+about her actions whenever she moved her long bare arms. But they
+came to the conclusion that she was not a person to sew on buttons,
+for there was a hard look about the eyes, and the whole cast of the
+face was set and stem. It did not seem possible that she could
+smile, and, remembering the careless laughter of native women, who
+were amused at anything or nothing, she was a mystery to them. So
+they very soon gave up trying to make anything out of her, and
+turned their attention to the lagoon, which stretched away a good
+ten miles on either hand to the dark fringe of forest. Evidently the
+forest had grown where the shallow waters now were, as the dead
+trees testified.
+
+"The land has sunk about here," said Venning, "and underneath there
+must be a coal-bed in process of formation. Now, if there were hills
+around, and a nice clean sand-beach, I should like to spend months
+here."
+
+"Too many mosquitoes!"
+
+"Besides," said Mr. Hume, striking in, "there are hills."
+
+"Where? Over there? Why, that's a cloud!"
+
+"Perhaps so; but the cloud rests on a hill-top. Isn't that so,
+Muata?"
+
+"Those be the gates to the Place of  Rest."
+
+"By Jimminy! How far?" This was something to be excited about.
+
+Muata held up five fingers. "So many suns will rise and set."
+
+"And does the forest lie in between?"
+
+"Between and beyond."
+
+"And the Place of Rest, is that forest also?"
+
+"The sun shines there all day," said the chief; "and a man can see
+his shadow lengthen. The little ones play on the white sand, the
+women and the girls work in the gardens on the open slopes of the
+hills, and the men----"
+
+"Well, what about the men?"
+
+"They lie in the sand like lizards, and talk like parrots."
+
+It was the chief's wife who spoke scornfully, using the language
+they had mastered.
+
+"Wow!" chimed in the chief, "they are timid people, the men; but the
+time is at hand when those who will not fight will be set to do
+women's work in the gardens."
+
+The woman nodded her head grimly. "The time is at hand when the
+reapers will work, not in the cornfields, but about the fires where
+the men sit.  Hassan is to be feared; but he can only enter if he is
+helped from within."
+
+"I listen, O wise one," said the son, sternly. "Even if I weed them
+all out so that there are none left but Muata and these three white
+strangers, your counsel shall be followed."
+
+"It is well," said the mother, nodding her head.
+
+"You seem to have little faith in your people," said Compton.
+
+"Haw! They grow fat and timid. They have no fight in them. Once
+before, when I was a boy, I beat them; but they have forgotten."
+
+"I rather think, chief, that they would be as well off under Hassan
+as under you."
+
+"Hassan would yoke them in and drive them out through the forest
+into the plains. A man must fight for his kraal. That is the law."
+
+"It is the law," said the woman.
+
+"And that is the Place of Rest?" said Venning, lingering on the
+sight. "More like a place of trouble for some; but, at any rate, if
+there are hills and open places, I shall be glad to get there. It
+would be a real treat to have space enough for a trot. But, I say,
+it is time you two slept."
+
+"That is just what I have been thinking," said Mr. Hume.
+
+The two boys took the levers, but Muata declined to rest. He said
+there were two openings leading from the lagoon to the hills--one a
+broad channel, commonly used, the other a smaller channel.
+
+"We will take the little river," he said, "so that Hassan, who will
+follow the other track, will not know of our going. But it is hard
+to find this little water-path, and I must search for it."
+
+"Don't go up a track that will not give water for the boat. Are you
+sure that it will carry us?"
+
+"Ow ay! there is water enough, great one. So sleep well."
+
+For a couple of hours the boys worked the levers, and at the end
+they came upon a thicket of reeds, along which the Okapi skirted,
+while the chief and his mother kept a keen outlook. Twice they
+plunged into the reeds on a false trail; and then, as they lay off
+scanning the oily water for trace of a current, the woman held up
+her hand.
+
+"It is Hassan," said the chief.
+
+Venning reached for his glasses, and far back over the shining lake
+he saw little black specks emerging, as it were, out of the forest.
+
+"Canoes," he said; "a great many."
+
+If they did not find the outlet soon they would be sighted. Muata
+and his mother spoke a few words rapidly, and then he signalled to
+the crew to enter the reeds. This done, and the boat screened, he
+slipped into the water and disappeared shorewards. For some time he
+was away, during which the flotilla of canoes came into view like a
+flock of ducks, still so far off that the boys could not hear the
+sound of paddles. Presently Muata splashed back, and, towing the
+boat, made across a barrier of reeds that had been banked up,
+forming a sort of natural breakwater, and most effectually hiding
+the mouth of the stream he sought. Mr. Hume was awakened, and the
+entire crew, taking to the water, managed to hoist the boat over the
+barrier. This done, they climbed on board again, and were soon in
+the mouth of a dark river, almost overhung by great trees.
+
+"That is well done," said Muata. "Now we can sleep, great one; for
+the other river runs far from this, so that Hassan's men will not
+hear us."
+
+They were soon asleep. Even the chief's wife stretched herself out
+with the jackal at her feet, and the two boys were left in sole
+charge. They had been toughened by the rough-and-tumble of their
+strange experiences, and inured to the brooding silence and dark
+avenues of the forest; but they entered into a scene that tried
+their nerves. The trees closed in as they advanced, and very soon
+they entered a leafy tunnel, lit up by a faint light that barely
+showed up the slimy banks, covered by a network of snake-like roots.
+The little waves churned up by the screw splashed softly upon the
+roots, making the only sound that disturbed the sombre silence of
+the place. So low was the leafy roof at places that branches rustled
+on the awning.
+
+"Fix up the big lantern in the bows, old man," said Compton, who was
+facing up-stream. "There is not light enough to steer by. Better sit
+up there with the bill-hook while I work the levers."
+
+Venning went forward, and soon a shaft of light pierced the gloom.
+
+For a mile or more they threaded this tunnel, and not a sign of life
+was there the whole way. When they emerged from the darkness into
+comparative space and light, the boys wiped their faces, which were
+clammy with moisture.
+
+"A few more experiences like that, Dick, and we cross the river for
+good."
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"Why, man, it's the Styx. It has given me the shivers."
+
+"Quinine," said Compton; and they dosed one another there and then.
+"I say, I'd give the whole five hundred miles square of this forest
+for one little glade in Epping."
+
+"Bother!"
+
+"Of all the squirmy, snaky, gloomy, airless, sunless, moist,
+decaying masses of misery, I think this is the worst."
+
+"It is, Dick; it is. There's not a butterfly even."
+
+"Thunder! It's raining fire! No; it's an ant S It's raining ants, by
+gum!"
+
+"You ass, you've hooked the bill into a nest. There--that round,
+black thing--like a football. They're running up the bill-hook."
+
+There was a splash as the boat was shoved off, then muttered
+exclamations and a yelp from the jackal: Many scores of ants had
+invaded the Okapi, and each ant, full of murderous rage for the
+wanton attack upon the nest, seized hold of the first soft thing it
+came across, and once it gripped it held on like a bull-dog. War was
+waged on the invaders, and when the last had been discovered and
+crushed, there was no sleep in the savage eyes of the awakened.
+
+Incidents like these alone varied the monotony of the dreary days
+they spent in that mournful slough, and if it had not been for the
+regular exercise at the levers, and the hope of a speedy release
+from their surroundings, the young explorers must have succumbed. As
+it was, they lost colour, became pale, languid, and heavy-eyed; and
+Mr. Hume, noting the signs of the dreaded wasting sickness with
+anxiety, did not spare himself or Muata when it came to their turn
+to work the levers.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE PLACE OF REST
+
+The chiefs wife urged them on. Neither night nor day did she seem to
+rest, for whenever one of the boys, in a feverish sleep, tossed his
+arms about, she was at his side with a drink compounded of herbs,
+that kept the fever away. She took her spell at the levers, her long
+round arms moving with unexpected power, and only the hunter himself
+could tire her out. As for him, he was not happy unless he was
+working, and at times he made the screw spin again under his fierce
+strokes, whenever his eyes fell on the wan faces of his young
+companions stewing in the insufferable heat. He shortened the
+journey by twenty-four hours, for on the afternoon of the fourth day
+the woman, for the first time, showed signs of joy.
+
+"Lift up your heads, O young lions," she cried; "let the light come
+into your eyes, and the strength into your limbs, for we are at the
+gates! You will catch the cool wind in your mouths. Your nostrils
+will sniff the air of the hills; your feet will tread the open way;
+your eyes will see the white clouds afar. Awake, my children, we are
+at the gates."
+
+They lifted their heads, throbbing with the touch of fever, and
+before them they saw a sheet of clear water; beyond that a
+glistening wall of rock, and following up higher and higher, they
+saw the deep blue of the sky.
+
+"We are out at last," said the hunter, in his deep tones. "Off with
+the awning, Muata; let us breathe again."
+
+The awning was thrown back, and the boys sat up, drawing in the air
+in great gulps.
+
+"This is but the beginning," said the woman. "A little further and
+your eyes will rest on the gardens below and the hilltops above. You
+will skip like the he-goat from rock to rock. You will shout and
+rejoice. I know. I was young, too, and I also came through the dark
+way."
+
+"Where now, Muata?" asked the hunter.
+
+"If the great one cares to leave the canoe, we could reach the top
+to-night, and sleep far above the woods. None come here.  The water
+is 'taboo,' and the boat would be safe."
+
+"Let us go up," urged Compton.
+
+"Yes; up out of this stagnation," cried Venning, with a longing look
+up.
+
+Mr. Hume ran the boat in, and Muata leapt ashore. As his feet felt
+the firm ground he raised one hand high and broke into a chant, the
+woman joining in at intervals. As he chanted he stamped his feet on
+the sand; and this song was of himself--of his deeds in the past, of
+his triumphs in the future.
+
+"Wow!" he said, when he had finished. "There were many days that
+Muata thought never to look upon these walls again; many times, when
+his heart was dark, when his blood was like water; and lo! he stands
+against the walls of his home."
+
+"Of his resting-place," corrected the woman. "His home lies beneath
+the setting sun."
+
+"I know how you feel, Muata. If I were to see again the cliffs of
+old England, I would sing too."
+
+"It must be like finding a new beetle," said Venning.
+
+"We are not out of the woods yet," chimed in Mr. Hume, grimly, "so
+just give your attention to our stores. We must carry up as much as
+we can, for, 'taboo' or not 'taboo,' I do not like the idea of
+leaving all our things here."
+
+They made up in parcels as much of the stores as they could carry,
+and the woman strode off first, erect and graceful, with the largest
+parcel on her head. Venning followed, carrying only his carbine,
+blanket, and bandolier; then Muata, with sixty pounds' weight on his
+head, then Compton, and, last of all, Mr. Hume, with an ample load.
+A fairly open path, over a lattice-work of roots, mounted up through
+the trees, and the hunter "blazed" the path by chipping a slice of
+bark off every fifth tree. Up and up the woman swung with free
+strides, her short leather skirts, trimmed with beads, rattling as
+she went; and after many a breather, for the sake of the whites, she
+strode out, one thousand feet above the lake, on to a rock-strewn
+slope, free of trees. A glance back showed the evening mist rolling
+like a huge curtain over the sombre forest, so that they seemed to
+be looking down upon a silent sea.
+
+"A little more, my children--a little more, and you will sleep under
+a roof."
+
+She swung off, balancing the load easily, and the others followed in
+and out among great rocks that had an unfamiliar look, bending their
+bodies to the steep and labouring for breath; and as they went Mr.
+Hume drew marks on the ground, as a guide, with the point of his
+knife, for he trusted no man in the wilderness, except himself.
+After another thousand feet of climbing, they entered into a gorge,
+that narrowed at the summit to a mere cleft, and from that cleft
+they stepped out on to a broad platform, which dominated a wide
+valley rimmed with cliffs.
+
+"Behold the Place of Rest, O white men; and ye, O great one, who
+marked the trees below, and whose glance went ever back to note the
+way so that you should know it again, know that we have led you to
+the hiding, whose secret was our refuge."
+
+"Ay, mother," said Mr. Hume, quietly, though surprised she had seen
+his actions; "and remember that we are here to help you keep out the
+wolf from your refuge. I marked the trail, as ye saw, for it is well
+that a man should know his way out as well as in."
+
+"He is right, O wise one," said Muata, bearing down his mother's
+suspicious look. "Should Hassan prevail in the fight, there would be
+no Muata to guide these our friends to safety."
+
+"He prevail!" cried the woman, sternly; then her finger shot out,
+and her form seemed to increase in stature. "Look, O warrior of
+feeble words; see how it greets the chief;" and her eyes blazed as
+she followed the flight of a great bird that swept out of the mist.
+"A sign--a sign, my son."
+
+"A black eagle," said Venning. "Maybe it has its nest somewhere
+about here."
+
+"As this is the Place of Rest," said Mr. Hume, "it would do us all
+good to sit down. Where is the hut you spoke of, mother?"
+
+"Shall I carry you, little one?" said the woman, with a loud laugh.
+"A few steps only. A little way, and you can eat and sleep."
+
+She passed to the right under shelter of a cliff, and came very
+quickly to the door of a wide cave, that ran back some thirty feet.
+
+"Here is your home, and in the morning the sun will look in at the
+door, and from the threshold, when you awake, you may sit and feast
+on such a sight as will gladden your eyes, for now the shadows hide
+it."
+
+They threw their packages on the floor and sat down on a carpet of
+clean white sand.
+
+"A little further there is water. Muata, my son, for the last time
+do woman's work and light the fire, while I go below for food."
+
+"Say nothing to the people of my coming," said the chief. "Presently
+I will go down secretly, and see how the men bear themselves."
+
+"Wow! I see now it is the chief, and not a carrier of wood."
+
+She went off into the gathering gloom, but was back in the hour with
+a great bunch of yellow bananas, a calabash of goats'-milk, and a
+young kid, showing no signs of weariness for all her toil. Those
+bananas, growing with an upward curve against the stem to relieve
+the dead weight on the branch as they grew, were just then a finer
+sight than the most magnificent scenery, and the travellers made a
+great feast, which done, they stretched themselves out on the clean
+dry sand up there in the clean, crisp air, and slept till the sun
+next morning streamed into the open cave.
+
+They woke up to find themselves alone, but not forgotten; for
+outside there lay a little heap of good things, including fresh
+eggs, a calabash of milk, sweet potatoes, and a bundle of firewood.
+
+"By Jove!" cried Compton; "look at the view. Isn't it splendid?"
+
+"Well, it won't vanish," said Mr. Hume, "so we'll have breakfast
+first."
+
+Further on along the ledge there was a little cascade, falling into
+a bath-like opening evidently, from the signs, of human
+construction, and here, in ice-cold water, they refreshed
+themselves. After breakfast they were like new men. The keen air put
+to flight the beginnings of malaria contracted in the noisome
+atmosphere of the dark water-course they had last travelled, and
+brought the sparkle into their eyes, and a smile to the lips.
+
+"Now for the view--for a good long look at the Garden of Rest."
+
+"Not yet. We'll first overhaul our rifles and stock of ammunition.
+This is no picnic, you know. We may be fighting for our lives to-
+morrow; so to work!"
+
+Orders had to be obeyed, and the ammunition was sorted out--
+providing 150 rounds for the Express, 250 rounds each for the three
+carbines, and 175 rounds for the shot-gun.
+
+"That is a short supply, boys. We must be careful not to throw away
+a single shot; for, remember, we've got to go a long way before we
+reach safety, even after this business of Hassan's is done. We must
+try and do with fifty rounds apiece in this little affair."
+
+"Little affair!" muttered Venning, remembering the flotilla of
+canoes and the mob of fierce-looking cannibals.
+
+"Big or little, we can't afford to indulge in reckless firing. One
+bullet, one man, is my motto."
+
+"But we cannot all shoot like you," grumbled Venning.
+
+"A matter of habit," said the hunter, quietly. "All you have to do
+is to get the advantage of position, and then it is no merit to
+shoot straight. Drop three men out of a hundred, and you will stop
+the remainder; drop thirty out of a thousand, and the same thing
+happens. If there are only a hundred, and you have the upper ground,
+let them come within two hundred yards; if the enemy is in great
+numbers, open at five hundred yards; and anywhere down to fifty
+yards according to his dwindling strength. Shoot straight every
+time, and the plan answers like clockwork."
+
+"Have you tried it?"
+
+"Many times, but only in self-defence. Now we'll just examine our
+position, for it is always good to have open a line of retreat."
+
+They walked along the ledge to the mouth of the gorge up which they
+had ascended, saw that the ledge ended there, then retraced their
+steps past the cave and the bath to a spot where a break in the
+ledge opened up a way down into the valley.
+
+"Just take note of that path," said the hunter, "and follow it
+down."
+
+"What a beautiful spot!" said Compton.
+
+"It does the eyes good to look on it," said Venning,
+enthusiastically. "See how the sun shines on the broad leaves--
+banana-leaves, I think--bordering the silver stream."
+
+"Never mind the silver stream," broke in Mr. Hume, testily. "Fix
+your attention on this path. Get it into your mind. See how it drops
+down to that solitary palm."
+
+"Now remember that if you are down there, and have to run, you are
+to make for that palm, ascend here, and cut along to the gorge. Have
+you got that fixed? Good. Now we will go back."
+
+At last, with their feet dangling over the edge of the ledge before
+the cave, they were at liberty to satisfy their longing to take
+their fill of the beauty outspread before them. Perhaps it was by
+contrast with the monotony of the forest that the scene below them
+seemed to them all to be the most beautiful that had ever gladdened
+the eyes of men.  Imagine a valley about five miles in length,
+narrowing at each end, and opening out about the centre to a width
+of two miles, the sides of grass sloping up to a buttress of rock,
+and rippling along the whole length into folds, with little valleys
+in between--narrow at the summit, where they joined the rock-wall,
+and wide at the base, where they opened out on the parent valley,
+through which flowed a broad stream, fringed its whole length with a
+border of pale green banana-leaves with stems of gold. In the little
+valleys were gardens, showing up like a chessboard pattern in neat
+patches of green, red, and brown, according to whether there was
+ripening millet, young maize, or new-turned mould. Halfway down the
+valley was a village of beehive-shaped huts, with an open space in
+the centre, adorned with one fine tree, under whose spreading
+branches they could see distinctly the forms of men. In the strong
+white light every object could be easily picked out--goats browsing
+among the rocks at the base of the cliffs; flocks of birds circling
+above the gardens; fowls walking among the huts; tiny little black
+forms toddling in the sun, and their mothers squatting with their
+faces turned to the council tree.
+
+"No women in the gardens," said Mr. Hume, "and that always means
+war."
+
+Venning readjusted his glasses. "There is something I can't quite
+make out at the back of the village. Looks like men lying down."
+
+Mr. Hume took the glasses and turned them on the spot. "Humph!" he
+muttered, while his brow clouded. "They are dead men."
+
+"Five," said Compton.
+
+"Yes, five. Muata has been at work!"
+
+"Muata? He was sitting here quietly eating last night."
+
+"Maybe it was either he or they, and he happened to be first to
+strike."
+
+"It is awful!" muttered Venning.
+
+The discovery destroyed their pleasure in the gentle beauty of the
+scene below, and they fell to discussing Hassan's probable plan of
+attack, arriving at the conclusion that the chances of success were
+with him, when they contrasted his force with the small band of men
+down below.
+
+"While they are talking," said Compton, "Hassan will be seizing the
+best positions. Why on earth don't they do something?"
+
+"Perhaps they are at work already," said Mr. Hume. "There is a small
+party coming down the valley from the left. Muata said something
+about Hassan's determination to drown the people of the valley. He
+could only flood the valley by damming the stream at its outlet,
+which would lie to the left, and I guess those men have been seeing
+to the defence."
+
+"The leading man has plumes in his head. A chief, I suppose."
+
+"It is the chief himself, Dick."
+
+"So it is. I can make out his Ghoorka knife. Let's give him a
+shout;" and the two sent a loud "coo-ee" ringing down the slope. The
+sound reached the ears of the little band of warriors, for they
+stood to look up; it also reached the people in the village with a
+startling effect. The men jumped up from the ground, women snatched
+up children and scuttled hither and thither like ants disturbed.
+From the depths below a cry came up clear and crisp--the marvellous
+voice of the native, trained through long centuries to speed a
+message of war or peace, of victory or disaster, from hill to hill.
+
+"Ohe! Ohe! my brothers, the chief awaits you."
+
+"Does he?" said Mr. Hume, dryly. "Then he may wait until he sends up
+a proper escort.  Oh, here they come, I suppose," as half of Muata's
+body-guard detached themselves and advanced towards the palm-tree.
+
+"Shall we go down?" said Compton, rising.
+
+"Sit still, my lad. No chief ever hurries; and, you understand, we
+are all chiefs."
+
+"Are we, though?"
+
+"We take rank with Muata, if he is the head chief; not out of pride,
+you understand, but out of policy. So just keep cool. Just look as
+if you were a sixth-form boy approached by a deputation from the
+kids. See?"
+
+"I'll be as cool and haughty as a----"
+
+"Freshman in a bun-shop," interposed Venning. "Me, too;" and he put
+on a high and mighty look.
+
+"Don't overdo it, my boy," said Mr. Hume, with a grave smile.
+
+There were seven men coming up, and they breasted the slope in
+single file at a walk which quickly got over the ground. On reaching
+the ledge they advanced at a trot up to within a few feet, when they
+suddenly halted, grounded their spears with a clang, and raised the
+right hand with the fingers spread.  They were fine lads, straight
+of limb, supple and lithe, without, however, much show of muscle.
+Their quick glances, with a certain quality of wildness in the eyes,
+ranged over the three seated and silent whites.
+
+"Greeting, O white men from out the forest, and the water beyond,
+and the father of waters beyond that." The spokesman stepped
+forward. "Greeting from the great black one, the river-wolf--he who
+met the wild man of the woods alone; he who crept in at the gate and
+slew the man-hunters; he the chief Muata. Greeting to the lion-
+killer, the cleaver of heads, the maker of plans, who came out of
+the mist in a shining boat. Greeting to the young lions who slew the
+tree-lion."
+
+"What is your word?"
+
+"The great chief awaits at the war council."
+
+"Go down and tell your chief we will descend when we have made war
+medicine."
+
+"Wow!" The spokesman fell back into the ranks. The seven warriors
+stood for a time in silence; then, at a word from the spokesman,
+they went through a salute, turned, and marched back in single file,
+chanting a war song as they went, as an accompaniment to a dancing
+stride.
+
+"What is the war medicine we are to make, sir?"
+
+"Just the remains of our breakfast and supper, with a dose of
+quinine to finish up."
+
+"And those chaps will be telling the people down below that we are
+making strong medicine, warranted to kill Hassan at sight, and ward
+off spears, bullets, mosquitoes, and Arab swords."
+
+"Well, it will give them courage, if they think all that," said Mr.
+Hume, coolly, as he inspected the rations.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE FIGHT IN THE DEFILE
+
+In the afternoon, having hidden away the reserve ammunition, they at
+last went down to the war council assembled under the tree in the
+village. Mindful of the instructions of Mr. Hume, the two boys were
+quite self-possessed and incurious, though it was a great effort to
+restrain expressions of surprise when they were face to face with
+Muata.
+
+If they were under the necessity to play a part, so in a greater
+measure was he. The men about him were a mixed lot--of adventurers
+who had been compelled to seek a harbourage from revengeful enemies,
+of fugitives who had escaped from the slave gangs--and they were of
+several tribes. Only a strong hand could keep them in order, and
+Muata could not afford for a moment to sacrifice his authority. He
+was master in that valley, or nothing. Hence he received the
+greeting of his old white friends without a sign of cordiality.
+
+His naturally fine face was hideous in war-paint, two lines of
+yellow extending to his ears from the comers of his mouth, and
+another black line running from the centre of the forehead down
+between the eyes. Two long black feathers were secured in his head
+circlet, and about his throat he wore a necklace made of the teeth
+of the gorilla and the claws of a lion.  His eyes were fierce and
+bright, and the quivering of his nostrils showed also that he was
+labouring under suppressed excitement. Mr. Hume recognized at once
+that he was face to face with a crisis, and instinctively he
+realized that it depended on him to save the situation, not only for
+himself and his young companions, but for Muata also. His calm eyes
+travelled over the ring of black faces behind the chief. He saw
+there were two parties. On one side were the young warriors, men of
+the chiefs age, who probably had been brought up in the valley; on
+the other was a larger number of older men, whose lowering looks
+told a tale of distrust and incipient revolt.
+
+"Behold," he said, making up his mind to the role he would play, "we
+are the chief's 'white men.' We have made strong medicine. Shall I
+speak, O black bull of the forest?"
+
+"Speak," said Muata, who had caught the hunter's eye when he
+acknowledged himself to be the chief's white man.
+
+"Thus says the medicine," said the hunter, in his deep tones. "There
+are wolves on the way to eat up the people of this place."
+
+"Eh--hum!" sneered the older men. "We know."
+
+"We are ready for them," shouted the young warriors.
+
+"Ye know--yes; but thus says my medicine--that you are not agreed
+among yourselves."
+
+"Er--hum!"
+
+The hunter paused, and his strange eyes dwelt on the faces of the
+old men so that they looked away.
+
+"There are some among you who would make terms with the enemy. There
+were some who had sent secret word to Hassan. Go ye a little way up
+the slope and ye will see the bodies of some of those slain in their
+treachery!"
+
+"Wow!" The older men exchanged uneasy glances, and a woman's voice
+rang out exultingly, "Ye speak the truth, O lion."
+
+"Thus says my medicine. If ye do not stand together, the enemy will
+enter at the gates, and not one will be left alive, for Hassan will
+slay those whose hearts were with him as he will those who were
+against him."
+
+One of the older warriors interrupted, shooting a finger at Muata.
+
+"Great one, give us the word that we may slay this dog who comes to
+make trouble. Is this the counsel of a wise man on the coming of the
+enemy?"
+
+"What would you do with him?" asked Muata, suavely.
+
+"Send him after those others;" and the man pointed up the hill.
+
+"You stand alone in your words," said the chief, doubtfully.
+
+The spokesman, with a look of fierce triumph, looked around.
+
+"These also I speak for."
+
+"Haw!" said the chief, slowly, running his eye over the old men.
+"All men of wisdom! Do ye all hold with these words? Be not hasty.
+Ye have heard the words of the white man. Think well before ye
+speak."
+
+"How do we know that he is not Hassan's man?" said the first
+spokesman, fiercely. "He was summoned to the council when the sun
+was young, and he has only now come. Who vouches for him?"
+
+"I--Muata, the chief. Yet Muata does not give face to him or to you.
+Ye have heard both sides. Think well and decide quickly, for the day
+is passing, and we must be at the gates this night.  First let me
+know"--and the chief's voice was very mild--"do we agree in
+resisting Hassan, or is it that we differ about the white men?"
+
+"We will fight against Hassan," said the spokesman, quickly; "but
+this white man has spoken evil words. We know him not; and if thus
+early he begins to make mischief, what will happen when the fight is
+fierce? Stand by me, friends, so that the chief may see our mind."
+
+"Nay," said an older man, who had been watching the chiefs face--
+"nay, let us talk the matter over."
+
+But it was too late, and the spokesman stepped aside, drawing with
+him a score of men.
+
+"Is that all?" asked the chief, quietly, and his eyes ran keenly
+over the faces of the other warriors. "I will consider, for it is
+well that we should have no differences."
+
+"Hark to the wisdom!" shouted the warriors.
+
+"We must stand together," continued Muata, "or we fall. And I am
+glad of this thing; it has shown our weakness." He stood a moment,
+then, with a sudden glance back at his young men, he bounded
+forward, and with one stroke of his terrible knife struck the leader
+of the band to the ground.  "Hold!" he roared, as the young men,
+with a terrific shout, sprang forward. "Let a man move but a hand,
+and he is dead."
+
+There was one breathless moment, during which men stood with
+upraised spears, their eyes glaring, their breasts heaving, and
+their breath coming in quick gasps. A woman laughed and the tension
+slackened.
+
+"Back--back!" and before the fierce word of command the young
+warriors drew off.
+
+"One is enough," growled Muata, transformed, terrible in his fury,
+and glaring at the small band who stood around the fallen body. "If
+I thought that ye were in the counsels of this dog who lies there,
+not one of ye would be spared. It was in his heart to betray us to
+Hassan."
+
+"We knew it not, great black one," muttered the men, humbly.
+
+"If I thought ye knew," growled the chief, with a terrible look,
+"there would be an end to you. See that ye carry yourselves well."
+
+The three travellers had stood fast during this scene, and now
+Muata, having wiped the blood from his knife, turned to them.
+
+"It is the law," he said, as if in explanation. "Haw! when I
+descended into the valley, in the night, I heard evil words spoken
+round the fire. It was time to act, and as it was seen by your
+medicine, the law was done."
+
+"Ohe! the law was done," chanted the young warriors. "In the dark he
+came--the great strong one--silently out of the woods, and in the
+morning he smote."
+
+"It is the law. If any of you feel a thorn in the foot, you cut it
+out. Good; we are now whole."
+
+"We are whole, O chief," cried all the warriors together. "Good;
+then we will go up to the gateways to be ready. In three companies
+we will go, and with each will so one of the chief's white men. Ye
+have seen how strong is the white man's medicine. If any hold back,
+the medicine will tell."
+
+The chief divided the men into three equal numbers of about fifty
+each, which left over some twenty-five of the older men who had
+sided with the slain man.
+
+"Ye," he said, addressing them, "will stay here with the women; and
+if it chance that the enemy prevail, take the women and the flocks
+to the foot of the rocks above, where the white men were. O
+Inkosikase! (chieftainess)."
+
+Muata's mother came forward, armed with spear, and behind her came
+other women carrying bows and arrows.
+
+"These men, O mother, will stay by the kraal. They have learnt
+wisdom; but if they weaken, send a messenger to me."
+
+"There will be no messenger needed, O son," said the woman, as she
+eyed the cowed men. "So go forth to the battle, for your scouts upon
+the heights call. They see the man-eaters and the women stealers."
+Her long arm shot out, and every man stared to the far end of the
+valley.
+
+Muata gave a few sharp orders, and the first band of fifty young men
+went off up the valley at a trot.
+
+"O great one, you said the word that helped betwixt me and my men. I
+go forward with the next band--do you follow with the others; so
+that when Hassan presses us back, as he must, being the stronger,
+you will let a part of his men pass through the gate; then stop the
+rest, and we who ran will deal with those who got through."
+
+"Is that your plan?"
+
+"It is a good plan. When the leopard is caged his cunning goes. Your
+men will know where to hide; I have overlooked the place."
+
+"Good. The plan will be carried out."
+
+"There is also a second plan;" and Muata fixed his eyes on Compton.
+"Some men will be hidden within the valley, to fall upon those who
+enter. I wish the young lion to remain with them."
+
+"I should like that," said Compton, quietly.
+
+"Very well, my lad," said Mr. Hume; "and I think Venning had better
+go with you. I prefer it. And hark! if the plan fails, you know the
+way to the boat. Shake hands."
+
+They shook hands, and the two lads placed themselves beside Muata as
+he went off with the second band. Mr. Hume, with the last company,
+followed at a slower gait, along a path that skirted the river with
+its fringe of banana trees, whose broad leaves shone in the sun.
+After a couple of miles, the river entered the defile through which
+long since it had cut its way out of the valley. It was at the
+entrance to the defile that an ambush was formed by Muata of fifteen
+men, with Compton and Venning. The warriors were already in position
+behind fallen rocks, the two lads being higher up the slope. They
+showed themselves as Mr. Hume came up, and waved their hats to him.
+
+"Good luck!" they shouted, with a lump in their throats, for they
+loved the "great one," and they feared the task allotted to him was
+full of danger.
+
+"Take cover," he said cheerily; "take good aim; and remember the
+palm tree, if things go wrong."
+
+"And remember," they cried, "that we want you back safe and sound."
+
+"I'll take precious care of myself," he said with a smile, and
+followed his men into the dark defile.
+
+"I wish we were going with him," said Venning.
+
+"The next best thing is to do our part as well as we can."
+
+They stretched themselves out each behind a rock and waited.
+
+"There is one thing," muttered Venning, after fidgeting about; "we
+cannot wait long, for it will be dark within an hour."
+
+"The sooner they come the better."
+
+They watched the shadows creeping across the valley--already over
+the river and halfway up the opposite slope; they watched the light
+on the cliffs above; but, most of all, they watched the young
+warriors crouching below them.
+
+"They hear something," said Venning; and his finger curled round the
+trigger.
+
+"Keep cool, old chap. Remember, we don't fire until after these men
+have given the sign. They are coming!"
+
+Sure enough, they were coming. The crouching warriors were quivering
+with excitement, as their gleaming eyes sought the mouth of the
+defile, out of which came a confused murmur. From a murmur to a
+hoarse rumble, then swiftly to the sound of fierce cries, the noise
+grew, and then a man leapt into view, and after him a score, all
+running as if for life. The plan was working, but was it not working
+too thoroughly? Would those men in whom was the panic of flight be
+able to stand? Muata came last, the long feathers streaming from his
+head; and as he ran, he shouted at his flying men words of insult.
+He cleared the defile, and at his heels there grew a fierce and
+growing clamour. Then, like a pack of wolves on the heels of a deer,
+the wild men of the woods burst into view. Close together they ran,
+and when they saw the valley stretching green and peaceful before
+them, they halted to drink in the sight. They feasted their eyes on
+the gardens, on the little flocks of goats, on the huts, on the
+women and children streaming up the slope on the right. Then they
+shouted in their joy of the promise of blood, of loot, of feasting--
+shouted and bounded forward. As they were in their stride once more,
+a wild yell rang out of the defile--a yell of fear and warning, that
+reached them, and that brought them up with a jerk. They faced round
+impatiently towards the defile again, and, behold, the mouth was
+held by a party of the enemy! But only a small party, less than half
+their number. With a yell they charged, and then they halted, and
+then they broke, and in a twinkling they had lost their cunning and
+were themselves the fugitives; for at the first step two of their
+leading men had fallen, and into the thick of them, from a distance
+of a hundred yards, came an accurate and unexpected rifle-fire. A
+trap! They shouted to each other, then broke streaming across the
+river in a frantic search for hiding. In vain they fled, for the
+valley seemed alive with men, Muata's band having scattered
+purposely; while keen-eyed boys, standing in tree-tops, marked down
+the fugitives, and shouted directions to the hunters.  Even the
+women, led by the chief's mother, came down to join in the pursuit.
+
+This work was not to the taste of the two white boys. They had
+played their part, and now they entered the defile to seek their
+companion.
+
+Compton went ahead into the shadows, following the river, and
+thinking of nothing but the fight that they knew from the sounds was
+raging somewhere before them. As he turned a corner made by a
+projection in the wall, a dark hand seized him by the neck, and he
+was on his back, with a roaring sound in his ears, and a feeling of
+suffocation.
+
+"What's the matter?" he gasped presently, when the grip on his
+throat relaxed.
+
+"Can you stand?"
+
+"Yes, of course." Compton got up. "You look queer."
+
+"Feel queer," said Venning. "Enough to make a chap queer to see you
+go down like that with a big black on top of you."
+
+"Where is he?" and Compton hunted for his rifle.
+
+"Shot him; but, for all I knew, I might have shot you. He fell in
+the river. Perhaps there are more of them hiding."
+
+"You shot him?"
+
+"Yes--go along; but for goodness' sake don't let another one jump on
+you."
+
+Compton gripped his friend's hand, then went on, very cautiously
+this time, for a little way, until he heard the crack of the
+Express, followed by the Hunter's bull voice calling on the men to
+"stand fast." He dashed on.
+
+"We are coming," yelled Venning, in a voice that sounded very
+youthful; but keen ears heard the high treble, and to them it
+brought comfort.
+
+"The chiefs white men," was the cry that rose, that reached Mr. Hume
+as he fought coolly, warily, in a crisis of the battle, knowing
+that, if he gave back an inch, the men behind him would bolt, and
+Hassan's horde would swarm into the valley.
+
+"Hurrah, my brave lads!" he roared. "You there behind, meet the
+white men and lead them up to the place where I first stood."
+
+"Yebo Inkose! (yes, chief)" cried a Zulu of the Angoni.
+
+Thus the chief's "white men" were met in the gorge by a dark figure
+panting heavily, who led them through other dark forms, some lying
+groaning, others silent--led them up to a ledge that overlooked the
+enemy.
+
+"What now?" asked Compton, looking at the Zulu, and in the better
+light noticing the wounds on his head and left arm.
+
+The Zulu pointed down. "Fire, O white men, between that tree and the
+rock. There they are thickest."
+
+The two rifles flashed out simultaneously.
+
+"Hurrah!" roared the Hunter from below. "Give them the whole
+magazine."
+
+"Empty the magazines," said Venning between his teeth; and the Lee-
+Metfords poured out a little rain of thin bullets into a space
+between the tree and the rock.
+
+"Yavuma!" cried the Zulu.
+
+"Yavuma!" roared the Hunter. "Stand firm, my children!"
+
+The Zulu knelt on the brink of the ledge and peered down into the
+gloom, out of which came the shouts of the enemy, thrown into
+confusion, when apparently all was going well with the attack. An
+arrow struck on the rock, then another.
+
+"The tree," he said, pointing into a great tree-top. "Let one chief
+fire into the tree and the other at the white spot."
+
+"I see the white spot," said Compton; and again he emptied his
+magazine, while Venning riddled the tree-top, out of which at the
+discharge men dropped in haste.
+
+"Cease firing," came the command from below. "Now, my children,
+forward once more. They run."
+
+"They run!" shouted Muata's men, as they swept out from the defile
+after Mr. Hume.
+
+"At the white spot," said the Zulu, gripping Compton by the arm.
+"Fire; ye will not hurt our men. There are men with guns where the
+white is; and, see, others join them. Quick! Shoot, white men, or
+they slay our friends."
+
+A flame spurted out from the gloom down where the white specks
+gathered, and the Lee-Metfords were not idle. The little bullets
+rang into the place where those white-robed Arabs were waiting with
+their rifles, and before they could play their part, the beaten van
+of their assaulting party broke upon them in their flight. The
+battle was over! Muata, returning from the killing of the men he had
+decoyed into the valley, raised the shout of victory, and the two
+boys went down into the gorge to join in the throng of exultant and
+excited warriors.
+
+"Way for the chief's white men!" cried the Angoni Zulu, staggering
+from his hurts.
+
+"Bayate! to the white men," shouted the warriors, rattling their
+spears.
+
+"We are no chiefs men," said Compton, proudly.
+
+"Ohe!" said Muata, overhearing the words. "Lion's cub, I hear. Ye
+shall have the chief's feather; and the great one, where is he?"
+
+Out of the darkness beyond came the chant of deep voices--the song
+of the men who had held the gate, "The great one," "Lion-throated,"
+"He whose roar filled the valley," and so on, until they recognized
+the form of their chief, when very wisely they directed their praise
+to his deeds.
+
+Mr. Hume, bare-armed, reeking of battle, hoarse from shouting,
+stepped up and gripped hands with the boys.
+
+"We go to our house on the hill, chief," he said.
+
+"There will be feasting to-night, my brothers, and your places will
+be beside the chief," said Muata.
+
+"'Sot for us. Feast well; but watch well also, for Hassan has not
+had his fill. Come, lads."
+
+They left Muata giving directions for guarding the gate, and went
+back through the gorge into the valley, and down towards the
+village, where they were met by a band of women carrying torches and
+singing. The women formed a ring about them, and in this the chiefs
+mother danced, stamping her feet, and clapping her hands, while she
+sang of the battle.
+
+"We go up to the cave," said Mr. Hume, when the dance was over.
+"Send us food, mother."
+
+"In plenty, O shield of my son!"
+
+"And hark to this, wise woman--see that the warriors drink
+sparingly, for the wolf is most dangerous when he comes to the kraal
+a second time secretly."
+
+"Wow!  That is my thought also; but men are foolish. If the horn is
+filled, they would empty it without thought of the morrow. Ohe! you
+will eat well;" and she issued orders to some women, who returned to
+the village, and other orders to a couple of boys, who were only too
+glad to lead the popular white men up to the cave, to light the
+fires and bring water. And almost as soon as they were at the cave
+the women arrived with meat, fruit, and milk.
+
+The Hunter stretched himself at once on the blankets. "I am not so
+young as I was," he explained.
+
+"That won't do," said Venning, lighting the lamp. "You must not go
+to sleep without having had your supper." He turned the light on.
+"Why, you're wounded!"
+
+"I dare say, lad. It was pretty hot down there at one time."
+
+"Oh, you know this is not fair to us! I say, Dick, come here."
+
+"What is it?" asked Compton, coming in from attending the fire.
+
+"Mr. Hume has got himself wounded, and he never told us."
+
+"Don't bother about me, lads; I'll be all right in the morning."
+
+But they did bother about him--washed the blood from his face,
+cleansed and treated a jagged wound on the skull and fomented a
+swelling on the right wrist, and then insisted on his taking food.
+
+"Now, you go to sleep," said Venning; "and in the morning, perhaps,
+you'll tell us all about it."
+
+They were very silent, until the Hunter fell into a deep sleep, when
+they tiptoed out to the fire, and sat long into the night listening
+to the noisy shouts of rejoicing that floated up from the village
+below, where the fires gleamed brightly, too anxious themselves to
+even discuss Mr. Hume's injuries.  In the morning, however, when
+they opened their drowsy eyes, they were gladdened by the sight of
+the Hunter returning from the bath, with the drops still glistening
+on his tawny beard.
+
+"Now tell us," they said, when the breakfast was prepared, "all
+about the fight."
+
+"It is soon told. I let the enemy pass in pursuit of Muata, as
+arranged, but when it came to our part in the plan--that of closing
+the defile--we found the job tougher than we anticipated. Those
+cannibals are hard fighters. They fell back as we unmasked our
+ambush; but they rallied quickly, and delivered one assault upon
+another. I tell you, we were at our last gasp when your arrival
+decided the matter."
+
+"You must have come to close quarters?"
+
+Mr. Hume nodded his head. "I received the blow on the wrist guarding
+my head from a club, and the cut on the head from a spear."
+
+"And you used your knife?"
+
+"I dare say I did my share," said the Hunter, who had held the
+defile alone at one time, his staunchest supporter, the Angoni Zulu,
+having fallen back exhausted.
+
+For a trying spell his undaunted spirit had stood between the valley
+and destruction, and the wild men went back to Hassan with a tale of
+a terrible white man who had struck down their bravest with a great
+blade.
+
+"That Ghoorka knife," he said, "is a great weapon;" and with that
+summing-up of the struggle in the gloom of the defile he lit his
+pipe, and sat down to gaze upon the valley, so peaceful in
+appearance, so charged with the everlasting tragedy of life.  "If
+those people were whites, or Arabs, they would now be following up
+the enemy to crush him while he is disorganized. But being blacks,
+they don't look further ahead than their noses, which were made
+short for the purpose."
+
+"Let us go down and offer to lead an expedition in pursuit," said
+Compton.
+
+"I guess not, Dick. They'd leave us to do all the fighting
+ourselves; and there's no sense in that. What we have to think about
+is how to get away."
+
+"Surely there is no difficulty about that. We will go when it suits
+us."
+
+"I'm not so sure," said Mr. Hume, gravely.
+
+"But Muata is our friend."
+
+"Muata cannot do what he likes, and, if he could, you've got to
+remember this--that Muata in the Okapi, dependent on us, is another
+person to Muata the chief in his own kraal."
+
+"I don't think he would be treacherous," said Venning.
+
+"He need not go so far as that to upset our plans. Maybe he would
+find it convenient to keep us here as his 'white men' until it suits
+him to let us go. You see, he has got to think of himself as chief
+and of his people first."
+
+"I don't think he would treat us unfairly," said Compton, warmly,
+"especially as they owe so much to us."
+
+"That's nothing."
+
+"But, sir, these people were kind to my father; and Muata stood by
+us all along like a brick."
+
+"Well," said Mr. Hume, lighting his pipe, "I always find it pays to
+keep your powder dry and your eyes skinned. So whether Muata
+continues friendly or not, be always on your guard."
+
+Muata was friendly. He paid them a visit, and he proclaimed them
+chiefs with full right to offer council at the Indabas under the
+title of "The Old Lion," "The Young Lion," and "The Spider," the
+last distinction falling to Venning, because of his fondness for the
+pursuit of insects. Muata then dismissed his body-guard and joined
+his newly appointed chiefs at the fire. He sat a long time silent,
+his eyes bloodshot, his brows bent, and when he did speak, his words
+veiled a hidden meaning.
+
+"The place is yours," he said, "to go and to come, to eat and to
+drink, to take and keep. Choose any place, and the people will build
+huts for you."
+
+"This cave is dry and comfortable. We want no huts, chief."
+
+"It is well enough now, but in the rains it is not good."
+
+"We shall be well on our way before the rains set in, chief."
+
+"Wow! The Spider has seen how the ants live."
+
+The Spider admitted that he had studied the ways of the ant.
+
+"Good. There are strangers in the house of the ant."
+
+"Oh yes; you mean what are called the 'cows' of the ants."
+
+"Haw! That was the word given them by the white man who was here
+before. They enter the house of the ant, but out of it never do they
+pass."
+
+"Is this, then, the house of the ant?" asked Mr. Hume, quietly.
+
+The chief turned to the Hunter an impassive face. "My people can
+build ye good huts, and there are many places thereunder near
+running waters, with well-grown gardens. Choose which ye like, my
+brothers."
+
+"We will examine and select," said Mr. Hume, with assumed unconcern.
+"And what of Hassan?"
+
+The chief rose. "He will return like the badger to a bee-tree when
+the bees have quieted down."
+
+"And you wish to keep us to help you drive him from the honey again?
+Is that it?"
+
+The chief looked down upon the valley.  "A child I came here, O
+great one; a boy I herded goats among the hills; and while yet other
+boys kept the birds off the grain, I went alone into the darkness of
+the woods beyond to seek the man-hunters. Now they seek me. Ye have
+helped in one great fight. All the time Muata has been at war--the
+hunter and the hunted."
+
+He turned his face again towards them, and there was in it a touch
+of dignity. He broke into a kind of chant.
+
+"Ye may hear the laughter of the little ones. There are no such at
+the door of Muata's hut, for a man cannot take unto himself wives
+and keep his arm strong to cast the spear, his eyes clear to follow
+the trail, and his heart strong to face the dangers that come out of
+the forest.
+
+"Ye hear the voice of the young men and maidens singing in the
+dance. Ye may see the mothers about their work, and the old men at
+the fire. For them the cloud is past. They sit in the warmth of the
+sun, and heed not the shadows that gather in the trees. The boy who
+sits in the tree to frighten the birds from the grain has his turn
+at the dance. But the chief, he watches always; for Muata there is
+no rest in the Place of Rest."
+
+"You are the first chief ever I heard take that weight upon his
+shoulders," said Mr. Hume, with admiration he could not restrain.
+
+"Why don't you resign?" said Compton.
+
+"Haw!"
+
+"Let some one else be chief."
+
+Muata's nostrils quivered in disgust. "Wow! I am a chief, and the
+son of a chief. Who is there to take my place?"
+
+"But you were a long time away."
+
+"Ohe! and, as ye have seen, men conspired to let Hassan and his man-
+eaters in upon the valley. So my word to you, my brothers, is, to
+choose ground for huts;" and the chief stalked away.
+
+"I don't envy him his post," said Mr. Hume, looking after him; "but
+I was right, you see."
+
+"Well, when we want to go we will go," said Compton. "In the mean
+time we will make the best of these quarters and this valley, which
+is a good enough place for a holiday. And remember I have to find my
+father's journal."
+
+Leaving the Hunter at the cave, the Young Lion and the Spider went
+off on an excursion, and, of course, turned their steps first of all
+to the gorge, to see the place where the great stand had been made.
+They were greeted by a small band of warriors, who were squatting on
+the ledge from which they had fired, and who apparently were on
+guard. They found themselves on the outer slope of the crater,
+looking down once more on the interminable reaches of the forest,
+with just a gleam of water showing at intervals to mark the course
+of the river up which Hassan's flotilla of canoes had sailed after
+leaving the wide lagoon. Descending from the ledge to the level of
+the gorge, they saw the place where the Hunter had made his stand--a
+little square of rock opening on to the wood path, up which the wild
+men had rushed to the attack. This path, as they saw, was nothing
+else than the dry cataract of a river, strewn with boulders, and
+then they suddenly turned to each other with an exclamation at the
+thought, "What had become of the river?"
+
+"It's queer!" said Venning. "Where is the water?"
+
+On looking around, they beard for the first time a peculiar
+subterranean rumbling, and going back a few feet, saw the river
+disappear in a smooth, green slide down into a wide fissure. They
+stood looking down, fascinated at this mysterious, silent, and
+stealthy disappearance of the waters that come with such a sparkle
+out of the bright valley; then dropped stones down, and stooped
+their heads in vain to catch even the slightest sound out of the
+depths. The fissure was about twenty feet wide, with a sloping lip
+on the near side, and a straight wall on the far or forest side. The
+slope seemed to carry the water to the left, and with a desire to
+discover its course, they tugged at a large post which stood against
+the wall of the gorge and rolled it into the fissure. It whizzed
+away down into the dark, and nearly dragged Compton after it, for
+the sleeve of his coat caught on a projecting point, and he was
+jerked on to his knees, being saved from further danger by the coat
+tearing.
+
+"Thanks," he said, looking a little white; "I am quite satisfied
+that the water disappears."
+
+"I rather think," said Venning, "that we have pulled up a gate-post.
+See, there is one on the other side. A few tree-trunks thrown across
+would make a fine barricade. Come on back into the valley."
+
+They went back slowly, looking up at the dark walls of the rocky
+gorge, and Venning stopped.
+
+"See that rock up there?"
+
+"Looks as if it would drop at any moment."
+
+"Remember what Muata said about Hassan drowning out the valley."
+
+"One of his figures of speech."
+
+"S'pose that rock fell; it would just about fill up this passage,
+river and all. And if it did not quite, a few men working from the
+ledge, which you see would be behind the dam, could easily fill up
+the cracks. Then the river could be dammed and the valley flooded."
+
+"They'd have to blast the rock, and the task would be too
+troublesome."
+
+They returned slowly through the defile, stopping at the place where
+the warrior had sprung out on Compton, and on reaching the valley,
+went down among the rustling bananas and among the gardens, where
+the women stopped their work to shout out merry greetings, and to
+offer them earth-nuts, wild cherries, sweet cane from the maize
+patches, and a thick porridge-like beverage made from the red
+millet. They watched the little pickaninnies basking in the sun, and
+as they strolled, rejoicing in the brightness and in the beauty of
+this little island of rest, set within an ocean of trees, they were
+followed by an admiring company of lads, each carrying his hurling-
+stick. Coming to a little patch of reeds in the far corner of the
+valley, the black boys, with shouts, gave chase to a long-tailed
+finch, clothed in a beautiful waistcoat of orange. The two white
+chiefs threw aside their dignity, and when, after a breathless
+chase, the bird, hampered by its streaming tail-feathers, was
+caught, each chief stuck a feather in his hatband. They worked round
+the valley, seeing many strange birds and curious insects, back
+towards the cave, arriving on the ledge at dusk. At once they opened
+out on Mr. Hume with a description of where they had been and what
+they had seen.
+
+The Hunter listened patiently, but he was evidently preoccupied.
+
+"We have seen all the valley, sir, and if we do have to stay here
+longer than we thought, it is a consolation to think that it is a
+jolly place."
+
+"I have been away myself," said Mr. Hume, "and I made an unpleasant
+discovery. At first I thought it best to keep it from you, but I
+know you would not like that."
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"The boat has gone!"
+
+"Gone!"
+
+"Clean gone; stolen or hidden away. I went down shortly after you
+had left, found the path by the marks I had made, never saw a living
+soul or any spoor but our own; and I tell you it was a great shock
+when I saw at the first glance that the boat was not there."
+
+"I wonder----" began Venning.
+
+"It is no good wondering," said the Hunter, testily. "Muata or his
+mother has had a hand in this."
+
+"We can soon put that right," said Compton, "by demanding that the
+boat be produced within a certain time."
+
+"That would mean war," said Mr. Hume.  "I had thought of that, and
+so no doubt has Muata. The odds are in his favour by force of
+numbers, for he could starve us out in a week. Violence is no use.
+Our best plan is to remain friendly, but watchful."
+
+"Don't you think," said Venning, thoughtfully, "that we are on the
+wrong scent? Suppose the boat was stolen by Hassan's men."
+
+"It may be--it may be, lad; and yet, if Hassan's men did find the
+boat, it seems to me they would have let it alone to disguise the
+fact of their presence. Anyway, we will make a further search to-
+morrow."
+
+They had cause now for uneasiness, and the boys for the first time
+began to entertain suspicions about Muata's faithfulness, for the
+loss of the Okapi in the very thick of the forest meant to them what
+marooning is to the sailor man. They sat discussing the matter long
+into the night, and when morning came they looked out on the valley
+with other feelings than before. It was to them a prison, lovely
+still, but changed; and their eyes went to the spot where they had
+seen the bodies of the men upon whom Muata had fulfilled the law as
+he understood it, the terrible law of swift vengeance upon any who
+opposed the will of the chief. There were armed men on their way to
+the gorge from the village, and very soon, before the dew had dried
+on the grass, and while the morning clouds hung white on the
+hilltops, the chief himself came up with his headmen. And the reason
+of his coming was none else than to make Mr. Hume vice-chief, with
+full power, in his absence, over life and property in the valley;
+for, said he, "I go upon the trail myself, and who should have
+authority when I am gone but you, my friend?"
+
+The headmen expressed themselves delighted.
+
+"But," said the Hunter, troubled by this upset of his theory that
+Muata would think only of himself, "our boat has been taken."
+
+"The water there is taboo," said Muata, without showing any
+surprise. "No one would go there but that one who may go. If the
+boat is gone it will be returned at the appointed time. See, my
+friend, I give you my seat under the council tree; have you also
+trust in Muata, the lone hunter."
+
+"Do you go alone?"
+
+"Ay, alone with the silent one--he of the four legs;" and a faint
+smile lit up the chiefs sombre and stern countenance, as he glanced
+at the jackal now reappearing after good eating.
+
+Mr. Hume went aside with Muata to dissuade him from his purpose, but
+the chief was determined, having in his mind a plan to destroy
+Hassan's canoes, as he had learnt from his spies that the Arab was
+arranging for another attack. So while the Hunter went down to be
+formally received by the clan, the two sub-chiefs, the Young Lion,
+and the Spider, went off on a reconnaissance of their own to the
+water that was "taboo," to all but one, as Muata had hinted. They
+picked up the trail from the marks that Mr. Hume had renewed on his
+last trip, and arrived on the banks of the unruffled pool. By
+contrast with the open valley bathed in sunshine, this sheet of
+water at the foot of the perpendicular cliffs was gloomy and creepy.
+There was, too, a mystery about it, for it had no visible source.
+There was no ripple on its smooth surface, no trace of a current,
+except in the centre, where, from time to time, bubbles appeared and
+disappeared, leaving just a trace of foam. They tossed pebbles in to
+judge the depth from the sound which ranged from the "splash" of the
+shallows to the gurgling "plop" of the deeps, and followed the
+pebbles with rocks, till at last the sluggish pool was stirred and
+furrowed with waves. And in the very midst of their sport a black
+hand appeared above the waters, and with a heavy roll the body
+itself floated before them, dead and stark.
+
+The boys stood with their hands arrested, staring at this startling
+apparition.
+
+Slowly it drifted away, the strong white teeth set in a grin, a dark
+oily stain trailing from numerous wounds on the body and limbs.
+
+"It's a cannibal," said Compton, in a whisper.
+
+"How did he come to be here?" muttered Venning, with a fearful
+glance around.
+
+They stepped back to the shelter of a tree, and listened, for if one
+cannibal had found his way to the pool, it was pretty certain that
+others had. But there was no sound down in those shaded depths. The
+little waves on the pool quieted down, the surface recovered its
+glassy smoothness, the bubbles reappeared in the centre, and broke
+with a faint noise audible yet in the stillness. The pool had
+yielded up one of its secrets, and the poor body was now come to the
+end of its voyage, anchored apparently against a log of wood which
+had grounded against the bank.
+
+"We can't leave it there!"
+
+"No, Dick."
+
+But the sudden, unexpected, ghastly upheaval from the deep of that
+stark body had naturally badly shaken them, and they stood where
+they were in nervous expectation of some other horror. If this place
+was "taboo" except to one yet unknown to them, it might be that
+solitary priest or priestess of the pool was now watching them, even
+if there were no other cannibals near at hand. So they lingered yet
+a little longer behind their tree, advancing a foot again and again,
+only to withdraw it at some fancied noise.
+
+At last Compton stepped out with his carbine at the ready, stood on
+the shore a moment then went on till he was opposite the dead man.
+There Vending joined him.
+
+There was a movement in the water among some reeds, then a ripple
+like that made by a heavy fish, and the body, leaving its moorings,
+went slowly away.
+
+"Crocodile," muttered Venning, whose nerves had never quite
+recovered the shock caused the night the lion charged.
+
+Compton frowned and shook his head.
+
+The dark body went straight on, stopped a spell at a cluster of
+reeds, then moved on across, moved by some volition not its own, and
+not due to the current.
+
+"It's very queer, Venning."
+
+"It's horrible."
+
+Compton's glance came back from the gruesome spectacle to the log,
+and with a start of surprise he stooped down to pick up something.
+
+As he did so, Venning, with a yell of terror, gripped him by the
+shoulder. Looking up and across, Compton saw the dead man stand
+erect in the water, his head and shoulders above the surface, and
+his face towards them! He felt the moisture break out on his brow
+when the horrid thing began to advance without movement of its own.
+
+Venning pointed a finger across. "It's coming," he gasped, turned
+and ran; and Compton felt no shame in running after.
+
+They flew from the dark pool and its nameless horror; but when from
+the height they paused breathless and gasping to look down, there
+was no stain, or blot, or ripple on its calm face.
+
+"Ugh!" said Compton, "it looks what it is--' Deadman's Pool.'"
+
+Venning shuddered, turned his back upon the sheer drop with the
+still water at its bottom, and did not stop again until he had the
+peaceful valley at his feet, when he took off his hat.
+
+"Thank goodness, we came out with our wits whole."
+
+"It was a trick," muttered Compton, abstractedly.
+
+"But who could play a trick like that?" asked Venning, in trembling
+excitement. "No human being!"
+
+Compton put his hand on the other's shoulder. "We've both had a rare
+fright, old man, but neither you nor I will let a thing like that
+upset our appetite. Mr. Hume promised us a treat in green mealies
+for tea, and I smell some strange dish."
+
+"Hulloa, lads, I was just thinking of starting out after you. Seen
+anything?"
+
+"We've had a scare," said Compton, lightly, with a meaning look at
+Mr. Hume; but already the observant eyes of the Hunter had seen that
+Venning was upset.
+
+"All right; just try this roast mealie;" and the strong hand
+steadied the boy to his seat.
+
+Mr. Hume talked, while they ate, about the ceremony of his
+initiation as vice-chief and of the long, wordy arguments he had
+listened to in a case at law concerning the ownership of a monkey,
+to which there were two claimants, the boy who had caught it, and
+the man who owned the garden where it had been caught.
+
+"Now," he said, when they had eaten, "you have something to tell me.
+Go ahead."
+
+They related the incident, which lost nothing of its repulsiveness
+by the relation:
+
+"And you saw no one."
+
+"No one alive, but I believe there was trickery. There must have
+been," said Compton, with knit brows.
+
+"I think so too, but the trick was horrible enough to produce the
+effect desired. I must say I felt a creepy sensation when I was down
+there yesterday."
+
+"But we saw no one," said Venning, with a shudder.
+
+"By Jove! I forgot this;" and Compton produced a fragment of cloth.
+"I took that from a post in the pool."
+
+"A bit of rag," said the Hunter.
+
+"Yes; but a bit torn out of my sleeve yesterday over there in the
+defile."
+
+Venning snatched at it. "I have it," he shouted.
+
+"I see you have; but you need not yell."
+
+"The blind river! It comes out under the pool!"
+
+Compton stared.
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Mr. Hume.
+
+"Why, sir, we dropped a tree stump into the opening which swallows
+the river over there. As it slipped from our hands, it caught Dick's
+sleeve, tearing out the bit of cloth, and nearly taking him down
+too."
+
+"Well, what then?"
+
+"Why, the stump turns up in the pool a thousand feet below, and so
+must the river! You see, after entering the fissure, it twists back
+underground, to emerge down there at the bottom of the cliff."
+
+"Of course," said Compton, eagerly; "and that body must have
+followed the same course."
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"That accounts for the appearance of the pool and of the dead man,
+but it does not explain the trickery."
+
+"Perhaps it does," said Venning, who, now that he saw a cause for
+things, recovered his nerve and his spirit. "There is a subterranean
+passage. The formation here is volcanic. The valley is an extinct
+crater, the hills are the walls.  Well, in volcanic formations,
+there are usually enormous caverns.  Now, then, how do we know that
+the Okapi has not been taken into one of those caverns opening on to
+the pool?"
+
+"Good; go on to the trickery."
+
+"The person who hid the boat, if it is hidden, would probably be on
+the watch to scare off any who tried to find out what had become of
+it.  Well, then, if we admit that, it is easy to admit the rest--
+that a good swimmer could play the trick played on us."
+
+"Let me find him," said Compton, angrily.
+
+"Yes--yes," muttered Mr. Hume; "there's a lot in that, and we'll
+follow it up, but not without a good plan."
+
+He filled his pipe, and stared into the fire for some time.
+
+"Clearly," he said, "what we should do first is to find out if any
+one leaves the valley for the pool. As far as we know, there is the
+gorge up which we came, but there may be openings direct from the
+valley into the underground passages. We will leave the pool alone,
+as if we had had enough of it, and examine the interior cliffs."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE MAKER OF LAWS
+
+The discovery made as to the source of Deadman's Pool gave a new
+interest to the valley, and the boys played the role of detectives
+under an arrangement to report the results of their investigations
+at night. Each spent a day of careful observation, and at the camp-
+fire each wore a look of preoccupation.
+
+"Any success?"
+
+They nodded their heads.
+
+"I met the chief's mother at the council tree," said Mr. Hume, "and
+she said she would pay us a visit in the morning.  She has been ill,
+or she would have come before."
+
+"Well," said Venning, "I met a boy five minutes after I left the
+cave, and he stuck to me like a leech."
+
+"One followed me also," muttered Compton.
+
+"Seems to me we are under police inspection."
+
+"Yes; there were boys everywhere."
+
+"Anyway, I found a 'splash' beetle."
+
+"Eh!"
+
+"A beetle that has developed the protective instinct till it looks
+like a splash of white on a rock. Here it is;" and Venning displayed
+his find.
+
+"Doesn't help us much."
+
+"No; but when I took it off the rock I could hear a faint rumbling
+from below, over here to the left, between our gorge and the canon
+where the river disappears."
+
+"Come, that's something."
+
+"Yes; but as far as I could make out, there was not an opening in
+the cliff on that side big enough to hold a swallow's nest."
+
+"Better luck to-morrow. Now, lads, if that old woman puts any
+leading questions about the pool, don't give yourselves away."
+
+But when the chief's mother came up the next day, she never breathed
+a word about the pool. She talked of the "good white man" who had
+lived in the cave when Muata was a boy.
+
+"Often have I sat here and talked with him, and well do I remember
+his teaching."
+
+"Let us hear, mother," said Compton.
+
+"He taught us how to till the land, so that it would produce other
+crops than manioc. The men he showed how to win iron from the rock,
+and how to forge the spear-heads and the hoes for the tilling.
+Medicine he made from the leaves and the juices of the trees, and he
+bade the women keep clean the huts and the place around the village.
+But the thing he said most was that living here in peace, in a place
+set aside for the weak, it was well we saw that no strangers who
+came in should ever leave. For, said he, the strong will take from
+the weak."
+
+"This is a small place," said Venning--"too small for any people to
+fight over."
+
+"I thought I heard the sound of battle in the valley but two days
+since."
+
+"It might serve Hassan as a robber's den; but I spoke of other
+people--white men, mother."
+
+"Since I had ears to hear the meaning of words," she said, "the talk
+was ever of white men, and one 'white man' warned us against those
+very men who eat up the land and the waters."
+
+"But what use would this little spot be to them? In a short time it
+will be too small for your own people."
+
+"When that day comes, O Spider, we would be free to go to the land
+of my fathers, where my son will find his kraal."
+
+"You will want many canoes, mother, when that day comes."
+
+"And they tell me," said the woman, with a keen glance, "that you
+white men are good boat-builders. Aye, I have seen your boats on the
+great river, with wings and with fire."
+
+"Our boat--the one you sat in--the boat down in the pool, has
+wings," said Venning, innocently.
+
+"Muata the chief tells me the boat has gone. Wow! The place is
+taboo; I knew the spirit people would take it; but you can build
+others."
+
+"We have no tools."
+
+"Wow! You could make them."
+
+"We have no skill in such work."
+
+The wise woman pondered. "He, the white man who lived here,
+consulted a familiar he carried much with him; he would find from it
+how to build boats and to forge iron."
+
+Compton produced his log-book. "See, mother, was it like that?"
+
+"Wow! It was like."
+
+"Bring me the 'familiar' of the white man, for he was my father, as
+you know, and you will hear his voice again. Maybe we will learn
+from it how to make tools for the building of boats."
+
+"I will search, O son of my white man."
+
+She sat awhile, then produced a cob-pipe, and, after getting a fill
+of tobacco, went off smoking with the bowl against her cheek.
+
+"Humph!" said Venning. "Wants to keep us as boat-builders. I bet
+she's taken the Okapi as the first of the fleet for the great
+exodus."
+
+"And intends that we should be the navigators as well as the
+builders."
+
+Mr. Hume was of the same opinion when he joined them later on and
+was in possession of the wise woman's remarks.
+
+"She is the power behind the throne," he said musingly, "and I have
+been wondering for some time what was her object. Now I see. I have
+been giving my consent as chief to laws which are framed evidently
+to keep us here."
+
+"Making laws?"
+
+"Been doing nothing else. There was a law making it a crime for any
+man to leave the valley without the consent of the people. Another
+law calling on all--men as well as women--to work for the good of
+the clan. Another making it a crime to withhold knowledge that would
+be for the general good. There was another declaring that the vice-
+chief must have at least two wives."
+
+"But you have not one wife."
+
+"That is easily remedied," said the Hunter, with a groan.
+
+"What do you mean, sir?"
+
+"See that?" and Mr. Hume pointed at a spot in the valley where many
+women were at work.
+
+"They are building a hut," said Venning.
+
+"My hut!" Mr. Hume filled his pipe with great deliberation, took a
+coal from the fire, and stared at his two companions till his hand
+was scorched. "I am to be married at the full moon!"
+
+Venning sniggered.
+
+"You can't mean it, sir," said Compton.
+
+"It's true enough," said the Hunter, solemnly. "I was passing the
+acts, as it were, without paying much attention when the women
+clapped their hands. 'What was that last law?' I said to the chief
+councillor, whose duty it is to keep the laws in his mind. 'The
+great chief,' he said, 'will take to himself two wives at the full
+moon.'  'I repeal that act,' I said; but they would not understand.
+A law was a law when it became a law, and no one could alter it, but
+considering my position they would build my hut for me. And, as you
+see, they are building it."
+
+He stared gloomily down into the valley; while Venning and Compton
+made singular grimaces in the effort to keep becomingly grave.
+
+"It is a great honour," said Compton, presently.
+
+"And two of them!" said Venning. "I don't know, I'm sure. I'm no
+lawyer, but I rather think that you, as an Englishman, would not be
+allowed to take two. Polygamy would become bigamy."
+
+"I never thought of that," said the Hunter, brightening up.
+
+"On the other hand," went on Venning, with a judicial air, "as you
+have been sworn in as a member of the clan, you become of course
+amenable to the laws, and it may be that two wives will not meet the
+requirements of your exalted rank."
+
+Mr. Hume leant forward, and caught Venning by the ear.
+
+"It is no joking matter," he went on. "When will the moon be at the
+full?"
+
+"In three weeks from to-day," said Compton, grinning.
+
+"Then before that we must be well away, or we may find ourselves
+life prisoners. Have you made any discovery to-day?"
+
+"None! We were 'shadowed,' as before, by boys."
+
+"So. Well, I will take measures to-morrow to put an end to this
+spying. They have had their fun out of me as chief, but I will have
+my turn."
+
+Next day the vice-chief had his turn. He declared the next three
+days to be a period of work. Some of the men were to build a boom
+across the river in the defile, others were to construct a stone
+wall across the gorge leading from the Deadman's Pool; while he
+started the women and children on a new set of huts, having
+condemned the old village as unfit for habitation. Further, he
+passed a law that any man, woman, or child found wandering about
+idle during the three days, would have to pass a night on the banks
+of the "tabooed" pool tied to a tree; and, finally, he appointed
+himself and the two sub-chiefs, the Young Lion and the Spider, as
+overseers, with right to appoint substitutes in their place.
+
+"Those be the new laws," he said, in a roar, when the astounded
+council had listened to the end. "If any one disputes them, I will
+tie them head to heels and throw them into the river to learn
+wisdom."
+
+No one so much as murmured, for they did not like the look of those
+yellow eyes.
+
+"Then see that ye begin your appointed work at sunrise," he said,
+"for I will make medicine to see these laws are obeyed."
+
+Then he returned to the ledge, and spent the afternoon with the two
+boys making rockets, using stout reeds as cases. In the dark these
+were fired off with great and awe-inspiring' effect on the
+villagers, who scuttled into their huts, and remained hid for the
+rest of the night, convinced that the "strong medicine" would indeed
+find them out if they did not obey this strange new law.
+
+"I think I have fixed them for a time," said the Hunter, grimly, as
+he described his new feat as a lawmaker. "For three days we should
+have liberty to fully inspect the side of the valley above the
+pool."
+
+In the morning, at sunrise, the entire clan started out promptly to
+their allotted tasks, and Mr. Hume inspected each gang. The women
+and children went to the far end of the valley, where the reeds
+grew, and the wise woman was appointed inspector.
+
+"What is this new law, O great one?" she asked quietly, having been
+much subdued by the fiery rockets.
+
+"You made the law, mother, that all should work, and I have honoured
+it. See that you honour it also."
+
+"Yebo, great one. We women do not complain. It is a joy to us to see
+the men work also. Maybe in time," she added significantly, "the
+great one will do his turn also."
+
+"Each in his turn, mother."
+
+He went on up to the gorge, where Venning was on duty, remained a
+few minutes inspecting the work of wall-building, which should have
+been done before for defence, then appointed one of the headmen as
+overseer, and went on with Venning to the river outlet, where
+Compton was in charge. An overseer was appointed there, and Compton
+went on a tour of inspection from gang to gang, while the other two
+made a close investigation of the cliff for an entrance to the
+caves. The two following days they each in turn acted as general
+inspector of the works, while the two disengaged made a close
+inspection of the cliff; but at the end of the third day they had no
+success to report.
+
+"The only thing to do now," said Mr. Hume, "is to visit the pool,
+and make a close examination of the walls."
+
+"We could not examine the wall without swimming in the pool," said
+Venning, "and before I do that I am prepared to stay here a very
+long time."
+
+"I cannot say I relish the idea myself, but I see no other way out
+of the mess. We must have the Okapi before the full moon. I will
+take a look at the pool alone to-morrow."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE SECRET WAY
+
+But when day dawned the vice-chief was summoned to hear a message
+from Muata, who had reported that Hassan had discovered the dark
+river leading up to the tabooed pool, and was sending up a strong
+fleet of canoes, while still more canoes were gathering on the other
+river by which he had made his first attack. His orders were that a
+body of picked men were to join him to take part in an attack on the
+first body of the enemy. Mr. Hume was fully occupied in carrying out
+these instructions, but on the chiefs mother suggesting that the
+chosen band should be accompanied by the Young Lion, he emphatically
+declined to allow this.
+
+"As you wish to keep us here," he said, "we will stay here; and,
+take notice, we have already seen what was in the mind of the chief
+by taking steps to protect the entrance above the tabooed water."
+
+The chiefs mother desisted, but she went up to interview the two
+young chiefs.
+
+"The great one," she said, "has very strong medicine?"
+
+Compton nodded his head gravely.
+
+"He was consulting with the spirits in the night when he sent forth
+those fire-devils?"
+
+Another nod.
+
+"Wow! And the spirits told him to build a wall across the entrance,
+and to make a fence across the river?"
+
+"That was wisely done, as you see, mother."
+
+"Haw! Tell me why the spirits told him to move the village to a
+place which is further from this cave;" and she looked through
+narrowed eyes.
+
+"Ohe!" said Venning, "that was also wise.  The old village stood on
+low ground, the new village is on high ground."
+
+"And a tall man sees over the head of a small one," she answered,
+with a scornful laugh.
+
+"Wait, mother of wisdom. If the enemy secured the gates and flooded
+the valley, which would be safer--the village on low ground, or the
+village on a hill?"
+
+"Yoh! It is strong medicine." She sat looking at them for some time
+in silence.  "It is only the great one who can make medicine?"
+
+Compton looked thoughtful.
+
+"Come," she said, in a wheedling tone, touching him with a finger,
+"make medicine for one who carried food to the good white man."
+
+"What would you like to know, mother?"
+
+"Tell me, O son of him who taught us--tell me, O lion's cub--tell me
+if the chief will find his own kraal."
+
+"That would need strong medicine--very strong."
+
+"Only a little.  Consider; it was these hands who carried the good
+white man water and wood. Only a little word, his son."
+
+"A little word, mother; but it requires much thought, and how can a
+son make medicine without his father's 'familiar'--the thing he
+consulted, the thing you promised to bring to me?"
+
+"I will fetch it," said the woman, rising.  "In the morning you
+shall have it;" and she went in the direction of the gorge.
+
+"Seems to me, Dick, the old lady is at the bottom of this mystery.
+You'd better be very careful how you deal with her."
+
+"I want to get my father's book," said Compton.
+
+"Of course you do; but you want to get back the Okapi as well, and
+if you offend her it may turn out more awkward for us."
+
+"Well, then, suppose we follow her now?" and Compton, always ready
+to act, jumped up.
+
+"What's the good? Remember how she spotted Mr. Hume the day he
+'blazed' the trees. Believe she's got eyes in the back of her head.
+No; but I learnt a trick from a keeper in dear old Surrey that will
+do what we want."
+
+In the dusk Venning put the trick into effect with the help of his
+companions. It was simple enough. He drew fine linen threads from a
+handkerchief, stained them black and stretched them across the track
+down the gorge at five different intervals, and at the height of a
+few inches from the ground.
+
+In the morning, at sunrise, the chief's mother was at the cave.
+Seeing Mr. Hume, she promptly begged a pipe of tobacco, and sitting
+down, expounded at great length the laws of the clan, together with
+those which had been passed during the past few days.
+
+"The chief's hut," she said, "will be ready at the round of the
+moon, and the people look forward to much feasting."
+
+"They had better be preparing to meet Hassan and his wolves, lest
+they themselves be food for the pot."
+
+She snapped her fingers. "Hassan will die within the gates, and his
+wolves will perish in the uttermost depths."
+
+"What depths are they?"
+
+She laughed, and, with a glance at Compton, went off down towards
+the village, bearing on her head a square-shaped package.
+
+"Your book, Compton! Better follow her. Evidently she wants to speak
+to you alone, Keep her engaged while Venning and I go back on her
+trail."
+
+Compton overtook her below the ledge, where, as if expecting his
+coming, she was waiting; and while they were engaged, the others
+went off on the trail.
+
+"Hurrah!" said Venning, pointing to the ground as they turned into
+the gorge; "the first string is broken. She came out this way."
+
+They went on, keen as hounds on the scent, and both pointed to the
+snapped ends of the second string. Passing over the stone wall just
+built which here crossed the defile, they came to the third cotton--
+broken also. The fourth was, however, intact, and so was the fifth.
+
+"Thank goodness!" muttered Venning.
+
+"Bad luck, you mean."
+
+"No, sir; good luck. I was beginning to think that she had gone
+right on down to that dismal pool."
+
+They went back to the broken strand, and Mr. Hume brought the broken
+ends together. "Just hold them in position." He climbed on the wall,
+and, with the gorge opening away between the enclosing cliffs, he
+took his line from the spot where Venning kept his fingers on the
+broken ends.
+
+"Good," he said, returning. "The cotton was broken at a point two or
+three yards out of the straight track. She must have gone towards
+the wall on our right."
+
+Venning's eyes went to the cliff; but the Hunter examined the
+ground, and expressed his satisfaction at what he saw in a low
+chuckle.
+
+"What do you see?" asked Venning, breathlessly, glancing quickly at
+Mr. Hume's face, and back at the wall of rock.
+
+"I should like Muata to be here. It is a good point."
+
+"What, sir--what?"
+
+"A woman's skirt on the dew, lad. See, a man would pass through
+those two rocks there and leave no mark; but a woman, with the swing
+of her skirt, wipes a spread of dew off on either side. You can see
+the dark smudge in the glister of the dewdrops."
+
+"I see," said Venning, starting forward towards two rocks with a
+passage between.
+
+"Steady, lad. Follow me."
+
+He went forward to the rocks, which were almost under the right
+wall, and inch by inch examined the stony ground.
+
+"The direction should be there," he said, pointing ahead; "but
+there's nothing but a dead wall."
+
+They ranged up and down in a fruitless attempt to pick up the lost
+spoor, and came back to the two rocks.
+
+"Maybe she did not pass this way, sir."
+
+"A sign is a sign, and a spoor a spoor. She passed between these
+rocks this morning."
+
+"Then she must have come down the wall;" and Venning, stepping
+forward, placed his hand on the rock. He started back and stared up
+at the rock. Then he touched it again, with a curious look in his
+face, and next placed his ear against it. "Come here, sir."
+
+Mr. Home went forward, and, placing his hand on the rock, felt it
+vibrating. Then he placed his ear to the rock.
+
+"What do you hear?" asked Venning.
+
+"A noise like the roar of the sea."
+
+"Or the rush of a great body of water."
+
+"Seek ye the honey-bee, O Spider."
+
+They whipped round at the mocking voice, and saw the Inkosikase
+standing a few feet off, having come upon them with great quietness.
+
+"Where is the young chief?" asked Mr. Hume at once.
+
+"Be not afraid, great one. He sits over the 'familiar' of his
+father, learning wisdom and strong medicine. And is your medicine at
+fault, great one, that you should set snares in the path for a
+woman, as boys do for the coneys?"
+
+She laughed, and the great one caught hold of his beard, as he eyed
+her, wondering whether the time had come to make her speak.
+
+"Is it honey ye seek, O Spider, young chief who watches always?"
+
+"It is honey, mother." Venning tapped the rock. "Ye may hear the
+bees humming within. We would enter the hive."
+
+She laughed again. "Ohe! ye are too wise for me, ye two. If I did
+not show you the way, I see ye would find it."
+
+She stepped past them, walked a few paces, then, with one hand
+upreaching to a knob of rock, and a naked toe in a notch, she
+climbed up the height of a man, stepped to a ledge, and held a hand
+down to Venning. A few steps along the ledge, when they stood by her
+side, brought them to a depression in the cliff. Removing a few
+stones, she said with a look of sadness--
+
+"Behold the depth that was my secret, and is now yours."
+
+A gush of moist air came out of the dark opening, bringing with if
+the sound of hoarse mutterings. Now they had found the opening, they
+did not know what to do, far; it was not inviting, and they stood
+looking at it warily:
+
+"You would have me enter first," she said quietly. "Come, then, for
+it is not all dark within."
+
+She disappeared, and Mr. Hume followed next, with a whisper to
+Venning that they must not let her get out of sight. A little way
+they passed along a narrow passage, facing a rushing current of
+moist air, and then stepped out into a cavern dimly lit by a shaft
+of light that crept through the roof. The woman crossed the floor,
+and they followed her down another passage, into another cavern
+larger than the first. This, too, was dimly lit, and as they stood
+with a feeling of mystery and uncertainty that comes to men when
+they quit the surface bathed in light fop the-dark underground, they
+felt the floor vibrate under their feet, and heard, as if the source
+of the uproar were near at hand, a great booming with a shrill note
+at intervals.
+
+"Would ye enter further?" asked the woman.
+
+"Have ye entered further, mother?"
+
+"Yebo, 'Ngonyama (lion)."
+
+"Then lead on."
+
+"Listen, Ngonyama; listen, Indhlovu (elephant). There is a path for
+the lion in the veld, and another for the elephant in the forest;
+but this path is only for those who know it, and are welcome to
+those who made it. The sun shines without. It were better if
+Ngonyama and the Spider blinked their eyes in the light Mid the
+warmth."
+
+"If ye have trodden the way, so will we.  Lead on."
+
+"Ye lose your wisdom, great one; but see, I go;" and she went from
+the cave into a vaulted passage, in which they encountered the blast
+laden with moisture, that made the walls slimy and the floor a
+series of puddles.
+
+The way was dark, and they splashed and stumbled in growing
+discomfort in the footsteps of the leader, who kept on at a quick
+walk, showing a thorough familiarity with the passage. Sometimes, as
+they could tell from the sound, the roof of the passage extended to
+great heights; at others it closed in till they had to stoop their
+heads. But their guide kept on without a pause, and presently, to
+their great relief, they saw ahead a faint reflection of the light
+upon a wet slab of rock. Hurrying on, they emerged from the passage
+into a vast chamber, across which, though there was light enough to
+distinguish each other, they could not see. Mr. Hume took a step
+forward, with his face turned up, in an effort to see the roof
+through the films of vapour that floated overhead.
+
+"Stop, Ngonyama--see to your footing;" and the woman's hand
+restrained him.
+
+He started back involuntarily, for at his feet there was a yawning
+abyss, out of which came the sound of rushing waters, and the
+curling wraiths of vapours, but so deep and so dark that the eye
+could detect no gleam of the flood beneath.
+
+"Thanks, mother."
+
+"Ohe! Ngonyama, remember I stood between you and death that time."
+
+She moved away to the right, and they followed, going on a ledge
+which skirted the yawning abyss.
+
+It was a perilous passage, and both of them would have been glad to
+turn back after they had gone a few steps, if the woman had
+suggested it. A feeling of vertigo seized them, so that they had to
+stop, leaning away from them for fear of falling over out of sheer
+dizziness. When they did move again, they groped for a footing with
+a complete feeling of helplessness, expecting every moment to slip
+on the slimy rock, and the further they advanced the worse they
+felt, for it would be as bad to turn back as go on. Looking back,
+Mr. Hume at one pause saw a little splatter of flame. Venning had
+groped for a match and struck a light; but before he could see
+anything by its reflection, Mr. Hume blew it out, and placed his
+heavy hand on the boy's shoulders to steady him.
+
+"Worst thing you could do," he said.
+
+"It's so dark," muttered the boy.
+
+"Dark enough, but she's gone ahead safely enough."
+
+They stood for some time, and seemed to gather comfort from the
+touch of each other's hands.
+
+"I am ready now," said Venning.
+
+"That's good.  Keep your eyes raised and your shoulder to the wall.
+Forward!"
+
+They crept rather than walked round that fearful gallery, traversing
+the unknown height with the roar of waters coming up from the unseen
+depth, and the silent wraiths of vapour making the darkness visible
+as they curled upwards to disappear into the vast vault.
+
+"If I can only get safe out of this," thought Venning at each step,
+"I will never try to leave the valley again by this way."
+
+The valley was only a few hundred yards away, but it seemed to him
+that he must have left it ages ago. Every second had been charged
+with a new sensation since he left the brightness outside, and each
+slow, wary, suspicious movement he made had in it a whole sequence
+of fears. Would he slip? "Would his foot fall on firm rock? Would
+something--he knew not what--grab him from out that awful pit? Would
+some one or something--he was sure there was something creeping
+behind--would it spring on him? Would that woman's hand suddenly
+shoot out from some crevice and hurl the both of them headlong? Was
+it never coming to an end? And the rock was shaking worse than ever!
+It would be easier to crawl! Of course it would. He went down on his
+hands and knees and laughed, because it was so easy. There was
+something on his back, something that jogged about and hit him on
+the side of the head, that gripped him round the chest! What was it?
+He felt gingerly, and laughed again. His carbine! What was the use
+of a carbine there? No good, of course. What a joke to throw it down
+and hear the splash, or, better, to fire it off and hear the echoes!
+
+"Venning!"
+
+The boy chuckled as he sat on the ledge tugging at the buckle.
+
+"Why, lad!"
+
+The great hands closed on the boy, lifted him up, and bore him
+lightly as the man felt his way with his feet. He counted his steps,
+assuring himself that before he came to seventy-five they would be
+at the end.
+
+"Ngonyama!" cried a voice, quite close.
+
+"We are coming, mother."
+
+"Ngonyama! Ngonyama! Ngonyama!" and the voice grew fainter.
+
+"Wait--wait, O mother of chiefs, for the way is dark, and we move
+slow."
+
+"Slower fast, slower fast, Ngonyama, it matters not."
+
+"It is far, mother! Are we near the end?"
+
+"Near the end--very near! Is it the dead ye carry, Ngonyama?"
+
+"Nay, mother; the boy is but sick. But where are you, that ye see
+and are not seen, that your voice is near and yet far?"
+
+The woman laughed.  "So ye grow afraid, O great one? Said I not,
+Indhlovu, that this was not your path? Death is around."
+
+Mr. Hume went forward steadily, counting his paces to keep his mind
+from wandering, and to his great joy he came suddenly on an opening
+in the wall which led towards welcome light, away from the horrors
+of that unfathomable pit. The woman waited for him there, looking
+very tall against the light.
+
+"The boy is sick, mother--a little water."
+
+"It is water now. Outside it was the honey he asked for. Set him
+down, Ngonyama--the child is weakly; set him down, and see to
+yourself."
+
+"What words we these, woman?"
+
+"Woman, yes; but master here, Ngonyama; and my words are easy to
+understand. Let the child be, and I will bring you out of this."
+
+"Bring me water," he said sternly.
+
+"There is plenty beyond. Carry him to the water if ye will, but the
+water will have you both." She laughed shrilly.
+
+Mr. Hume went on towards the light, and found himself in another
+cavern reaching far up to a roof, from which hung long stalactites
+glistening white. There was light enough reflected from these
+hanging pillars to see, and he looked anxiously into Venning's face.
+The boy's eyes were closed.
+
+"Water," he said.
+
+"Ohe! there is water beyond;" and she pointed ahead.
+
+Again he went on without a thought about the marvels that disclosed
+themselves in the cave in the shapes of crystals and cones of
+sulphuric origin; but, as he advanced, he was aware of strange,
+intermittent sounds resembling explosions. Pushing on, he saw the
+white spray of falling water, then the gleam of wet rock, and
+stopped at the edge of a cataract, milk white from the churned foam.
+He soaked a handkerchief in the water and bathed the boy's face.
+
+The woman was at his side. "Leave him; he belongs to the water.
+Leave him and follow, lest ye also go down."
+
+"He Is only weak, mother. In a little time he will be ready to
+follow."
+
+He applied himself to the task of bringing the boy round, and when
+he looked up again the woman had gone. Then for the first time he
+glanced around him, and saw that he stood in a small cave opening
+into a noble vault, lit up from top to bottom by a broad fan of
+light that streamed through a fissure in the roof. Opposite to where
+he stood, and a little above, the river emerged from its
+subterranean passage in a long green slide, to break into white
+where it fell upon the rocks before its headlong rush at his feet.
+In the rock above the point where the river emerged there were
+several round holes, and at intervals of a few seconds, columns of
+water spurted through these with loud reports.  They shot far out,
+then broke into fine spray, on which the light produced wonderful
+colour effects. He could scarcely take his eyes off these blow-
+holes, so strange, so fascinating was the sight, and it was only the
+faint sound of a sigh that called his attention to his patient.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+A VOICE FROM THE DEAD
+
+Compton had found his father's book. When the woman gave it to him
+he sat down for an hour turning over the leaves, closely filled with
+neatly written handwriting interspersed with many sketches. To him
+it was a message from the dead--a priceless treasure; and as he read
+and saw how valuable it was as a record of close and intelligent
+observation in a new field, he was seized with an eagerness to be
+off with it out of the wilderness. He hurried to the cave, but, of
+course, there was no one there. Then, still carrying the priceless
+book, he ran on to the gorge, where the warriors whose task it was
+to guard that part were gathering. Some of them were examining the
+broken lengths of cotton, and drew his attention to them.
+
+"It is medicine," he said briefly. "Have ye seen Ngonyama?"
+
+They had not seen him since in the early morning one had noticed the
+great chief and the Spider enter the gorge.
+
+"And it is not meet," they added, "that we should seek to find out
+where the chiefs had gone, since the place below was taboo."
+
+"It is well," said Compton; and he returned to the cave to wait with
+as much patience as he could summon, under the impression that his
+friends had, of course, gone down to the pool in search of the
+missing boat.
+
+The afternoon, however, passed quickly, for he was poring over the
+Journal, and it was almost dark when a step without attracted his
+attention.
+
+"I say," he shouted, "come and see."
+
+But it was not Venning who entered, but the chiefs mother. She
+looked tired, and her short skirt was stained with mud and moss.
+
+"Halloa, it's you, is it?"
+
+She squatted before the fire with her eyes on the book. "Ye will
+make medicine now, son of the wise man. Ye will teach our men how to
+build swift boats, and how to make the 'fire that kills."
+
+"You are wet; you have been in the water."
+
+"Oh! it is a little thing."
+
+"I thought you were the great one, or the Spider. I have not seen
+them since the morning."
+
+"Maybe they have gone a journey. What says the medicine?"
+
+"It says that until they return safe as when they went, it will not
+speak," said Compton, with a chill suspicion growing in his mind.
+
+She laughed. "Look again, son of my friend. Maybe they will not
+return except the things be done that must be done."
+
+"What things?"
+
+"I have said. The things that will make our people strong for the
+going out--the swift canoes and the shooting fire. That is my word."
+
+"And this is my word. If any injury befall them, the medicine that
+is here"--and he tapped the book--"will work against yon and yours."
+
+He looked at her very sternly, attempting to carry the matter with a
+high hand, for he judged from her words that something had happened
+to his friends.
+
+"Wow! Are my people so few that a boy can talk to me in this way?"
+She snapped her fingers.
+
+"And what stand would you and your people have made against the wild
+men but for Ngonyama? What will they do when Hassan comes again, if
+the great one is not at hand to help?"
+
+"Ohe!  Little chief," she laughed, "you cannot frighten me with
+tales of Hassan; and think well over my word."
+
+She went away down towards the new village that had been built
+beyond the river, and her voice rose in a chant as she went--a chant
+that was taken up and thrown back by the women returning home from
+the gardens. Compton built up the fire, and then walked up to the
+mouth of the gorge, restless and consumed with anxiety. Those words
+of the woman, "maybe they will not return," haunted him. They seemed
+to him ominous of danger. All night he patrolled up and down the
+ledge, between the cave and the gorge, fearing they would not come,
+and yet expecting to hear their voices at any moment; and in the
+morning he was heavy-eyed from want of sleep. The night-guards from
+the gorge trotted by, their places having been relieved.
+
+"Have ye seen Ngonyama and the Spider?"
+
+"There is smoke," they said.  "Maybe the white chiefs make the
+fire."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Beyond the water that is taboo."
+
+He hurried off with his glasses, and from the gorge saw smoke rising
+far down the forest; and the sight gave him hope, for it might mean
+that his friends had followed the river down from Deadman's Pool on
+the trail of the missing boat. Bidding the men keep a good watch,
+and report any new development to him at once, he went back to the
+eave to breakfast and to renewed study of the journal. As he read,
+his attention became riveted on a series of sketches which laid bare
+the subterranean passages under the south-west portion of the cliff,
+between the gorge and the canon giving outlet to the river. As he
+read, too absorbed to think of anything else, he came upon the
+following note:--
+
+"If it chance that understanding eye should fall on these notes, let
+my directions be carefully observed.  No stranger--certainly no
+white man--would be permitted to leave the valley once he discovered
+its existence, by setting foot within its encircling cliffs. Let him
+not try to escape by the gorge on the south, for though apparently
+undefended, it is really guarded by a band of women who have the
+right to kill any person--not taboo--who passes through. These
+women, victims of a dark and degrading superstition, are recruited
+from the village, and once they quit the valley they are never seen,
+for they live about the shores of the pool beneath the cliff and in
+caverns adjoining, which form the lower or basement rooms of a
+series of stupendous vaults produced by volcanic agency. By night
+they prowl about the slopes above the pool; by day, some of them
+keep watch over the passage through the gorge and through the canon
+from loopholes to which they have access from the lower vaults. I
+know, because I myself tried to escape by this passage, and only
+escaped owing to the vigilance of the chief woman in the valley, who
+exercises control over the band, and who had her own purpose to
+achieve in saving my life. I was useful to her. When ultimately,
+after much labour, I discovered the only safe way out, I was, owing
+to repeated attacks of fever, too weak to avail myself of the
+discovery. My hope is that my efforts may be of service to some one
+--if, unhappily, any should follow in my footsteps--who would be
+better prepared to face the dangers and the difficulties of the
+forest beyond.  Listen, then, to these instructions; On the ledge
+skirting the south cliff, and leading up to the gorge, there is a
+cave, which may be recognized from the existence near it of a bath
+hewn out of the lava by human hands. That cave is the key to the
+underground passage."
+
+Compton looked up with shilling eyes.  "The very  place I am in," he
+muttered.
+
+"For many months it was my home--if I may so misuse a word so
+charged with bitterness to me. Not a day passed but my thoughts went
+in sickness of spirit to my home, to my wife and little one; and it
+was when I was thinking of them that I thought I heard them calling
+my name from the cave. A sick man's fancy! But there had been a
+sound, and on entering to the far end of the cavern, I heard it
+repeated--a faint droning, such as would be produced by a shell held
+to the ear. There was, too, a current of air, and, feeling in the
+darkness, I found the crack through which it emerged. With a spear-
+head I easily broke the rock away, for it was a mere envelope.
+Thrusting the spear in, I felt there was an opening beyond. When I
+had satisfied myself that the passage extended for some distance, my
+first precaution was to find a slab of rock to fit the opening I had
+made."
+
+Compton laid down the book, looked out to see that no one was near,
+and crept to the far end of the cave. Pressing with his hand, he
+soon found the rock yield. Satisfied, he returned to the journal
+with renewed eagerness.
+
+"My first careful examination of the passage disclosed the welcome
+fact that it extended a great distance in a westerly direction, but
+without lights I saw it would be dangerous to attempt a thorough
+investigation. Accordingly, I occupied myself for several days in
+making a supply of candles, using the barrels of my gun as a mould,
+and mixing beeswax with oil clarified from the fat of animals, such
+as monkeys and coneys. Provided with two such candles, I began my
+explorations underground, and after many failures discovered a way
+of escape, which others may   benefit by. The passage, in an
+uninterrupted course, dips under the gorge and enters the south-west
+cliff, which is completely honeycombed.  After dipping under the
+gorge, it branches in several directions, but care must be taken to
+follow the extreme right-hand passage. This follows the outer shell,
+skirts what I have called the Hall of Winds, dips down through a
+long tunnel, and emerges on the outer slope at a point near the spot
+where the river disappears. The passage is safe, but can only be
+taken provided a candle or torch is used. If these directions should
+come under the notice of some unhappy traveller, let him accept my
+earnest wishes for success in his efforts to escape from a place
+which to me was first a haven of rest and then a hateful prison, and
+there is a feeling I have that I have not written this in vain."
+
+The son of the lonely Englishman who had written the foregoing in
+sadness of spirit, but in hope for others, sat long staring before
+him with a lump in his throat.
+
+"Not in vain, my father--not in vain did you labour," he murmured.
+Again he read over the directions, then very carefully he packed the
+journal and strapped it on his back, to be with him wherever he
+went. Noticing how the time had passed while he had been receiving
+the message from the dead, he hurried to the gorge to see if there
+were any signs of his friends, and his eyes went to the dark walls,
+and to the silent pool far below, with a feeling of intense
+repugnance at the thought of the ghoulish women who lurked unseen,
+but seeing all.
+
+"Have you seen Ngonyama?"
+
+"The smoke ascends no longer, Inkose; but we have seen the signal
+answered."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Another smoke arose yet further off, and yet another, and beyond
+that another, till the word of the fire-makers was passed back even
+to the wide waters."
+
+"Then it was not Ngonyama who made the fire."
+
+"It was made by the enemy, Inkose."
+
+"Have you sent out spies?"
+
+"Of what use, lion's cub? Muata, the black one, hangs on their
+trail, and when the time has come he will spring.  Wow! They are
+fools to come up by that path."
+
+He went back deep in thought, and made up his mind to see the wise
+woman again.  So he passed down into the valley, crossed the river
+to the new village built on a small flat-topped hill, and found the
+chief's mother sitting before his hut.
+
+"I want my brothers," he said at once.
+
+"The valley is open--search for them. You are a chief; put the men
+to the search. Why come to me?"
+
+"Because you only know."
+
+"Haw! If they are not in the valley they are out of the valley, and
+once they are out they have broken the law. Who am I that you should
+ask, since the law is made by the men?"
+
+"Maybe, mother, they are not in the valley or out of the valley."
+
+She threw a startled look at Compton, which he was keen to notice;
+then, with an expression of puzzlement, she nodded her head.
+
+"Your meaning is dark, lion's cub. See, the valley is kraaled in
+like the goat-pen, and if the goats be not in the kraal they are
+outside the kraal. As for Ngonyama, see where the women build his
+hut against his coming."
+
+"I see," said Compton. "Perhaps he was sent for by the chief, and
+has gone a journey, for the enemy are on the move."
+
+"That is plainer to me," she said quickly. "It must be so, for the
+chief loves Ngonyama."
+
+"Yes; that must be the reason. It lifts a load off my mind, mother."
+
+"Ow aye I did not like to see your face clouded; and now you will
+make medicine for me?"
+
+"I will; bat there are a few things I require. I am young at this
+work, mother, and cannot do without all the aids."
+
+"Oh ay, I know," and she nodded her head with a fierce look in her
+eyes. "The blood of a man, the heart of a kid, and the tongue of a
+crocodile."
+
+"No, no; a calabash of fat and a little wax.  Only that."
+
+"Your medicine is not like mine," she said musingly; "but I have it
+in my mind now that the good white man used much fat in his
+medicine."
+
+She went into her hut, and returned presently with a calabash filled
+with fat and a square of wax.
+
+"And ye will build fast canoes?"
+
+"We will do great things, mother," said Compton, taking the things.
+"But it is not well that people should pry in upon one who is making
+medicine. He must have quiet."
+
+"Wow! No one shall pass your house in the rocks, O wizard of mine."
+
+He hurried up to the cave, passing the reed patch on his way to cut
+several stout stems, and began without delay his preparations for
+making candles. While the fat and wax were melting in a couple of
+"billies," he cut down the canes into sections of about six inches
+each, and buried them on end with the mouth up in soft ground near
+the bath, with a length of stout cord strung down the centre of each
+tube, and secured by a cross-piece. When the stuff had melted, he
+filled up the moulds, twelve in all, and left them to cool off. Then
+taking a stout cane left over, he cut away one of the joints,
+leaving a socket, thus converting it into a very handy candle-stick.
+Next he made up a parcel of food and medicine, carefully oiled his
+rifle, to protect it against the damp underground, and then went off
+up to the gorge to have a last look for his friends.
+
+The warriors were buzzing about the barricade, evidently in a state
+of great excitement, and Compton saw the cause of this in the person
+of a solitary man ascending the slope from the direction of the
+pool.
+
+"It is the chief's runner," said the men as the man came plainly
+into view.
+
+Up he came, breasting the steep ascent with a look behind at
+frequent intervals as if he feared pursuit, and when he reached the
+wall, he drew a great breath of relief.
+
+"Mawoh!" he grunted. "I saw the dead water heave, and there was a
+laugh from nowhere."
+
+"What message?" asked one of the headmen.
+
+"It is for Ngonyama," said the runner.
+
+The headman fell back and looked at Compton, who then stepped
+forward.
+
+"Give the message to me."
+
+"Wow! This, then, is the chief's word. 'Say to Ngonyama, the great
+white one, that the enemy will come against the valley up from the
+dead water. Ngonyama will let them advance until they are in the
+jaws of the rocks. Then will Muata, the black one, fall on the rear
+and eat them up.' So said the chief."
+
+Compton tamed to the headmen. "Where are the white chiefs?"
+
+"We do not know, Inkose," they said uneasily.
+
+"Ye will take the orders of your chief yourselves then, for unless
+my brothers are restored in safety, I will not help you."
+
+"Maybe," said a man in a whisper, "the wizards have taken them to
+themselves to learn wisdom."
+
+"Who are these wizards?" demanded Compton, sternly.
+
+"Haw! Inkose, how shall we know?" But their eyes went fearfully to
+the silent walls of the gorge.
+
+"Who does know?"
+
+"We know not, Inkose.  These things are not for us."
+
+"I know;" and Compton eyed them sternly. "It is a woman who is chief
+in this place. Say to her the words of the chief, and bring me her
+reply."
+
+They hesitated, muttering.
+
+"Ye know the black one," said Dick, quietly. "He has asked for
+Ngonyama. Let the woman produce Ngonyama or give her authority, lest
+the black one turn his anger on you."
+
+"The lion's cub says well," answered an old man. "I will go."
+
+As he went off, Compton bade the indunas see to the defence, "For,"
+said he, "without the white men, you will have to fight hard for
+your kraal." The indunas laughed as they gave their orders, saying
+that all they wished for was a good fight. Compton retired to his
+cave, and it was not long before the chiefs mother herself came up
+with her bodyguard of women, armed with bow and arrows.
+
+"Ye sent for me, O great chief?" she cried, with a little mocking
+laugh.
+
+"You have heard the chiefs message?"
+
+"And this is my answer," she replied, pointing to the women. "We
+will meet the enemy."
+
+"And Ngonyama?"
+
+"Ngonyama! I have heard that name too often. See, young one, there
+is not room in a kraal for two strong bulls."
+
+She nodded her head with a very hard look in her eyes.
+
+Compton kept down his rising wrath at this ominous speech.
+
+"Very well, mother," he said quietly. "You know best. I will now get
+about my work, if ye order that I am left in silence."
+
+"I will see to that," she answered; "and see to it that you do all I
+have asked, lest you also go to those wizards you spoke of to the
+men."
+
+She looked at him meaningly, and went on with her escort.
+
+Compton watched them out of sight, then ran to his moulds. Taking
+out the canes, he split them down in turn, disclosing a dozen
+candles, roughly moulded, and very greasy, but he hoped suitable for
+his venture. One he fixed in the socket of the torch, the others he
+packed away carefully in an oilskin bag. Then slinging on his
+carbine, bandolier, haversack, and making them all secure by
+strapping a belt over all, he crept through the opening at the far
+end of the cave, replaced the rock, and lit his candle. After much
+spluttering and a great deal of smoke, the flame caught, and he
+started on his tour, breathing a fervent hope that it would lead him
+to his lost friends.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+A TERRIBLE NIGHT
+
+We will return now to Mr. Hume, who was left supporting the
+unconscious form of Venning on the brink of the rushing river, with
+the vast vault above him, and the roar of sharp explosions bellowing
+at intervals through the hollows. As he stooped over his young
+companion, he caught a fluttering of the eyelids, and placing the
+boy on the ground with a pillow made by his rolled-up coat, he
+unfastened the little medicine-bag which each always carried, and
+gave him a strong restorative. Then he chafed the cold hands, took
+off the wet shoes, and did the same to the feet, which were like
+marble. As the blood circulated under the friction, Venning regained
+his colour, and suddenly looked about him.
+
+"I'm here, lad," said Mr. Home, cheerily. "You grew a little dizzy,
+but you're all right."
+
+"What's that noise?" asked the boy, breathlessly. Mr. Hume picked
+him up, and carried him to the door of the vault.
+
+"Magnificent, isn't it? Aren't you glad we came? One of the wonders
+of the world; and you've got the crow over Dick this time."
+
+Venning sighed. "It's rather awful," he muttered. "It's grand, lad,
+grand! See how the water juts out like a column of steam with the
+roar of a big gun, and how the light falls upon it in a thousand
+hues, as the fine spray falls."
+
+Venning's eyes opened wide as they looked up. "Like golden rain at a
+display of fireworks."
+
+"The very thing, lad," answered the hunter, enthusiastically.
+
+Venning's eyes ranged slowly down to the well of green water arching
+out from the black wall, and then to the snow-white flood where the
+foam hissed in its giddy descent.
+
+"Where is she?"
+
+"She'll be back soon. But we cannot wait for her here---there is too
+much moisture. We'll get back to a drier place."
+
+Still carrying the boy, he made his way back to the great chamber,
+lit up mysteriously by those pale cones and glistening columns. Here
+he found a dry place in a comer, and after placing Venning on the
+ground, he struck a match.
+
+"Here's a find," he said, pouncing on a piece of driftwood.
+
+With his Ghoorka knife he soon split it up, and in a short time a
+fire was blazing, throwing a red reflection on the stalactites. It
+was an eerie place, echoing to the thunders of the explosions, with
+pitch-dark comers, and those ghost-like forms in the misty heights,
+but Mr. Hume would not allow his patient time to brood over the
+surroundings. He shaved off fragments of biltong for him to eat,
+talking cheerfully all the time, and at last had the satisfaction of
+seeing the overwrought nerves of the lad quieted in sleep. Then the
+anxiety that had filled him all the time appeared in the expression
+of his face, and he stepped away a few yards to send a call for the
+woman ringing up into the vault. The cry ran away mournfully in a
+series of diminishing echoes, but no answer came, and he looked to
+his weapons, built up the fire with other fragments of wood that had
+been evidently borne in at times of flood, and explored the cave.
+There was no sign of the woman anywhere, but he found three exits.
+Relinquishing any idea of following them until Venning was fit to
+walk, he returned to the fire, and sat down with his back to the
+rock waiting for the woman's return. If he felt doubt or fear, he
+fought against it, resolving that, come what would, his first care
+was to save his companion, but that there was cause for doubt he
+knew very well from the remarks and bearing of the woman. Probably,
+he thought, the secret of the underground was hers only, and she
+might well have a motive sufficiently strong to  preserve that
+secret even at the sacrifice of their lives. Full of these thoughts,
+he began another examination of the cave, confining himself this
+time to a search of the floor. Going down on hands and knees, and
+carrying a lighted stick, he minutely inspected the thin layer of
+dust which had settled since the last flood-waters had rushed
+through. Traversing slowly the width of the cave, he found his own
+spoor and the spoor of the woman. Then working round with the object
+of finding which of the three openings she had taken on leaving, he
+came upon a calabash and a kaross made of goats'-skin. The calabash,
+from the smell, contained goats'-milk. Leaving the fire-stick to
+mark the spot to which he had carried his search, he went back to
+place the kaross over the sleeping boy. Then taking another stick
+from the fire, he took up the spooring from the place he had left
+off, and crawled inch by inch, till he came to the first exit. Here
+he saw his spoor entering together with the footprints of the woman,
+both very plain from the mud which had adhered to their feet. The
+woman, however, had not passed out. That, at any rate, was one point
+settled, and he went on with a feeling of distinct relief at the
+thought that there might be another way out than by the fearful
+track they had followed on entering. On nearing the second exit he
+paused, startled by what seemed to him the sound of shrill voices
+borne suddenly in a pause between the bellowing of the water-jets
+in the neighbouring vault. When he listened he could, however,
+distinguish no sound in the mutterings and the boomings that was
+human, and repressing a desire to cry out, he groped along up to the
+second exit. Here, however,  there were no footprints. The surface
+was smooth rock, and he was passing on when something about the rock
+attracted his attention again. Leaving one of the sticks again to
+guide him on his return by its glowing end, he returned to the fire,
+rebuilt it, waited till it was fairly blazing, then with another
+glaring torch he ran to continue his search. He found what he had
+half expected, that the rock had been polished by the passage of
+many feet, which had worn out quite a marked depression. He also
+satisfied himself that the woman had not passed out there, for as
+her feet had been wet she must have left some trace on the smooth
+surface. There remained now the third and last exit, and as he edged
+away to the left, he saw that the beaten track also led in the same
+direction. He rose and walked, feeling for the opening with his
+right hand, and, coming to it, he was glad, but not surprised, to
+make two discoveries, first, that the well-marked path entered the
+opening, and second, that the woman had also passed that way. There
+was the spoor of one foot clearly outlined in particles of moist
+dust.
+
+"That's good," he muttered, standing up. "But I don't like the look
+of that path. Means people. But what sort of people? And the kaross
+and the goats'-milk. People again. No good taking risks."
+
+He went back to the fire, drew the sticks away, thrust the burning
+ends into crevices, and left the comer in darkness once more. Then
+he sat down by Venning with his rifle across his knees and waited.
+He had no thought of moving a foot from the cave until Venning was
+fit to move; he would let him have his sleep out, and if he was no
+better, well, then, he would carry him. So he sat waiting and
+watching, listening to the hoarse rumblings which all the time
+ascended from below, and to the tremendous reports, a little dulled
+by the intervening wall, made by the spurting water. He watched the
+coming of the night, marked the gradual fading of the sheen on the
+stalactites, until softly the shadows sank and merged into the
+darkness of the cave, leaving nothing visible but a faint gleam
+where the nearest sulphur cone stood.
+
+Eerie it was in the dim light, eerier it was now in the dark, with
+those hoarse mutterings from beneath, and those thunderous
+reverberations pealing at irregular intervals through the unknown
+spaces above. He had his pipe, but his habitual caution deterred him
+from seeking its comfort, and he was glad he had abstained, and glad
+at having extinguished the fire, when suddenly he heard the sound of
+shrill laughter. A sullen roar from the water-hole beyond drowned
+the sound, but he knew in every fibre that he had not been mistaken.
+There were others beside him and Venning in the vaults, but not for
+a moment was he pleased at the thought. Instinct or the association
+of the place warned them of danger. For a long spell, however, he
+could distinguish nothing human in the hurly-burly of sounds, and
+then again, nearer and plainer, the shrill peal rang out exultant,
+with a note in it of some savage beast flinging back the news to the
+pack that the scent was hot.
+
+Slowly he stooped his head to hear if Venning slept, for he dreaded
+what would happen if the boy awoke in the pitchy darkness and heard
+that demoniac cry. The boy's breathing came at regular intervals,
+and with a muttered prayer that he would sleep on, the Hunter felt
+for the trigger.
+
+"Ngonyama!" From the height a voice calling to him dropped soft as
+the flight of a bat, faint as a whisper, yet clear as a bell in all
+that turmoil.
+
+He smiled grimly, but did not answer. This was some trick of the
+woman. If she was friendly, why had she left them?
+
+"Indhlovu! "--again it fell as from afar.
+
+He ran his hand over the bandolier, loosened the cartridges, and let
+his fingers curl round the trigger again.
+
+A gust of wind blowing through some fissure shrieked amid the
+heights as if terrified at having wandered into such a prison, then
+for a long time the old sounds continued to make sport in the vaults
+and tunnels without any interruption.
+
+Then Venning suddenly woke, and Mr. Hume was in a fever to keep the
+boy's mind occupied, and to get him asleep again.
+
+"Drink this," he said, picking up the calabash, "and go to sleep
+again."
+
+Venning took a long drink, "I dreamt I was by the sea, listening to
+the waves. It was almost as good as being home again."
+
+"That's right. It's the sound of water. Go to sleep again and dream
+of old England, the best medicine you could have."
+
+"I think I will," said Venning; and, with a sigh, he pulled the
+kaross over him, being too tired out to wonder how it came there.
+
+"Sleep well, lad, sleep well;" and the big hand rested on the boy's
+shoulder to comfort him with its touch, but the man's face was
+turned with a straining expression towards the exit which he had
+last inspected, for it seemed to him that he had seen a streak of
+light, such as would be thrown in advance by a torch.
+
+To his relief. Venning dropped off once more into a deep slumber,
+and he bent forward, alert in every fibre. He was not mistaken.
+There was a light over in the dark, not a light that sparkled, but a
+greenish glow, not unlike the eye of an animal as seen at night in
+the reflection of a bull's-eye lantern. It moved, too, like the eye
+of an animal, and presently other lights gathered around and at the
+back, giving off no radiance, not bright enough to throw up into
+relief the objects that produced them, but watchful, like the eyes
+of a pack of wild-dogs regarding their prey. The Hunter tried an
+experiment. Feeling for his great knife, he struck a stone, and
+watched to see if there was any movement of surprise which would
+indicate that there were living creatures aware of his presence.
+There was no such movement. Like bits of dull green glass with a
+light behind, these mysterious points remained as they had been,
+moving gently as if to the action of respiration. He raised his
+rifle, tempted to fire under the feeling of nervous suspense that
+tried his iron nerves, but lowered it at once, with a glance down at
+the dark form at his side. He would wait; and he sat watching the
+things, whatever they were, that seemed to be watching him with such
+cold and silent intentness. Then he made out that they were not
+animals.  The eyes of animals blink, and these did not. Moreover,
+any animal, however fierce, would turn its eyes away at times; but
+these remained staring. What were they? He had seen fungus glow like
+that in the forest, but never so many together. And then he strained
+his ears to gather from any sound an inkling of their nature, but,
+beyond the bellowings and the sullen roar, he could hear nothing.
+How long could he stand the suspense? Already he felt a strong
+impulse to jump up, to shout, to break up that fixed regard, to come
+to the death-grapple, if need be, rather than sit there in doubt.
+The minutes slipped by slowly; each slowly spun its time out, as if
+every minute were an hour, each hour a week, and the moisture
+gathered on his brow, when at last the tension was broken.
+
+"Sisters, I smell smoke!"
+
+"Thank God," was the man's thought, "they are living." The suspense
+fell from him. He pulled himself together, and was ready for
+anything.
+
+"Smoke!" The voice reached him in sharp shrill accents that pierced
+the continual growling of the waters. "Who is here?"
+
+"Ngonyama!" was the reply uttered by several.
+
+"He is terrible, sisters. Hear the thunder of his voice. Let us fly,
+lest he tear us." And the speaker laughed.
+
+"That is not his voice! He is afraid; he crouches like the panther
+in the trap, trembling. His strength has gone from him."
+
+"I heard a lion was in the plains, and the cows ran together in a
+cluster, for they were afraid."
+
+A shrill laughter was the response, but the dull lights remained
+where they were, and again there was a long spell of silence, as far
+as the voices were concerned. Then the lights went out. The Hunter
+stooped forward, listening, but he could hear no footfall. He put
+the gun down, and grasped the knife in his right hand, for he could
+use it with better effect in a sudden assault.
+
+"I smell meat!"
+
+The voice came now from another quarter, and then the lights shone
+out one after another.
+
+"What meat is this, sister?"
+
+"Indhlovu."
+
+"Wow! There are fat pickings on the bones of the great one; but he
+is powerful. I hear his trumpeting."
+
+"Haw! it is the voice of the unseen, mother. Indhlovu has fallen
+into the pit that was set for him. His power has gone."
+
+Again the voices ceased, again the strange lights were dimmed; but
+the Hunter was ready, for he knew now they were quartering the cave
+in search of him. He had no fear, only a feeling of intense disgust,
+coupled with a determination to scare the lives out of these ghouls,
+if they ventured on an attack.  By-and-by he beard faint rustlings,
+and then breathings; but it was impossible to see, and he sat
+perfectly still. Then the voices broke out again at another point.
+
+"He is here, my sisters."
+
+"Wow! We are hungry; let us eat. We are thirsty; let us drink."
+
+"Sisters, terrible is the power in the arm of Indhlovu. He strikes,
+and lo! as a falling tree sweeps a passage through the forest, so
+would he sweep us away. Let him weaken; let hunger fasten on his
+vitals, and fear trouble his brain."
+
+"We are wolves; we would tear him down in his strength, while his
+blood is red."
+
+"Terrible is the trunk of Indhlovu, and terrible is the arm of
+Ngonyama. In his hand is a broad knife, and with one stroke will he
+split a head. Let the darkness hold him."
+
+"We hunger, and he will go. The wizard will claim him for his own;
+the dark waters will drag him down. Give him to us."
+
+"He watches over his cub, and who so fierce as the lion who protects
+his young? The cub will sicken. The sound of the waters will trouble
+his brain; his spirit will fly before the terror of the darkness.
+Wait, my sisters, till his cub be dead."
+
+"Demons!" cried the Hunter, his patience gone in a storm of fury.
+"Away!" He sprang forward with a roar, and his knife, whistling
+through the air, fell upon the gleaming cone, and struck from it
+sparks of fire.
+
+With cries of fear the women--if women they were--fled, their lights
+showing again from the second exit, where was the beaten footway,
+and then out of the dark tunnel came a peal of fiendish laughter.
+Then silence, or, rather, a relief from the mocking voices; but
+there was a reminder of their presence in one of those pale greenish
+lights. He strode towards it, saw it had been dropped, picked it up,
+and found that it came from some substance held in a bag of open
+network. With a short laugh he saw it was fungus, a discovery that
+took all the mystery out of the recent performance, and since it
+appeared that the only thing formidable about his persecutors was
+their trickery in making the most of the terrors of the dark, he
+remade the fire, for there was no mistaking the chillness of the
+air. As he thought over the fantastic doings of the visitors, he
+laughed again, and presently feeling the warmth of the fire, he
+yawned and closed his eyes.
+
+"Only a parcel of women," he muttered, and was asleep.
+
+And as he slept, believing there was no danger, the shadows closed
+in as the fire dwindled--closed in, taking queer shapes. Across the
+smooth, gleaming surface of the cone these shadows came, like
+stooping forms, with long lean arms. There were whisperings, too,
+"clicks" made by the tongue, and Venning, opening his eyes, suddenly
+heard these sounds at once, notwithstanding the walls of the cavern
+trembled to the hollow thunder of the waters. His eyes fell upon
+something beyond-the fire. He did not move, or cry out, or wonder
+where he was; his mind was focussed like his wide-opened eyes on
+that object. It was like a face, and yet he could not make out
+whether it was the face of man, or bird, or beast, or reptile. One
+glance at the thing by any one else would have been more than
+enough, so terrible it was; but Venning's overpowering  curiosity as
+a naturalist mercifully blotter-put the horror. He was trying to
+identify it, and made mental notes such as these:--
+
+"Forehead low, receding; brows contracted; eyes small, deep-set,
+venomous; lower part of face banded black, and undecipherable; neck
+long, skinny, vulture-like;  rest of body not visible."
+
+"Snake, or wild-cat," he said.
+
+"Eh?" said Mr. Hume, waking at once.
+
+There was a ring of metal, a sudden babel of fierce cries, the flash
+of a rifle-shot, and the clap of the report, followed by shrieks.
+
+"It's all right, lad," shouted Mr. Hume, as Venning straggled to
+rise; "keep down."
+
+There was a sharp hissing. Something struck the rock above the
+Hunter as he was stooping over Venning, and fell down into the fire.
+It was a barbed arrow. He fired again, scattered the fire with a
+kick, and crouched over the boy. Several arrows rang viciously
+against the rock. He felt for Venning's carbine, swung it round with
+one hand, and emptied the magazine, firing at different points. With
+yells of disappointment, rage, and fear, the creatures of the night
+fled once more.
+
+"Are you all right, my boy?"
+
+"Yes; but what does it mean? What were they? I thought the thing was
+a snake."
+
+"What did you see?"
+
+"Something staring out of the shadows. I could not make out what it
+was, and as you awoke it seemed to jump forward and strike."
+
+"Ay, the blow fell on my belt. Thank God, you warned me; but it was
+my fault. I should have kept awake. They're only women, lad. Don't
+let any fancies come into your head."
+
+Venning sniffed. "Smell anything? Seems to me like sulphur."
+
+"It's the gunpowder fumes, hanging low."
+
+Venning sat up. "What is that booming noise?"
+
+"The sound of falling water."
+
+The boy was silent for some time, while the Hunter reloaded the
+carbine and his Express.
+
+"So---we are still down below."
+
+"But I know the way out, and as soon as it is daylight we'll get
+back into the valley. Have no fears."
+
+Venning's hand went out to feel for his companion. "I must have
+given you a lot of trouble. You've got your coat off."
+
+"I didn't want it, and it came in handy as a pillow."
+
+"Put it on," said Venning, "and give me my gun."
+
+Mr. Hume laughed cheerily. "Feeling yourself again--eh? Well, that's
+good. And now we'll put an end to this nonsense."
+
+"I certainly smell sulphur," said Venning; "and what is that blue
+streak there?" He took a step towards the smooth cone.  "It is
+sulphur!" he cried. "See, it's burning."
+
+Mr. Hume stepped to his side, and saw the unmistakable blue flame
+given off by burning sulphur, while a whiff of the fumes made him
+choke.
+
+"You're right; it's a mass of sulphur. The burning wad front the
+cartridge must have set it alight." He sliced off the burning patch
+with his knife. "We don't want to be fumigated, or to die of
+suffocation. Now, if you feel strong enough, we'll explore the
+cave."
+
+"Is it safe? I mean, are there any chasms?"
+
+"Smooth as a floor. Keep close by me."
+
+They examined the cavern carefully by means of the strange lantern
+filled with fungus, and Mr. Hume halted by the second exit.
+
+"This is where they enter," he said, "and I think our best plan will
+be to build a fire in the mouth. We should then have the advantage
+over them, as we should see them once they came into the
+reflection."
+
+They set about collecting wood, when Venning had a thought.
+
+"Which way does the draught set in the tunnel--away from the cavern
+or into it?"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because, if the current of air blows away from us, we can easily
+keep them out."
+
+"It blows from the cave into the tunnel. I found that out before."
+
+"Then we have got them, whoever they are. Make the fire in the
+passage, pile up blocks of this sulphur on the inner side, and the
+wind will carry the fumes down into the tunnel."
+
+"A splendid plan," said Mr. Hume; and very soon it was carded out, a
+couple of shots being fired into the dark passage as a warning to
+the enemy to keep off. As the flames caught the sulphur, a thick
+smoke rolled away. "That will stop them; and now we can wait in
+peace till the morning."
+
+The rest of the night passed for them in peace as far as their
+assailants were concerned, but the chilling damp of the vaults got
+into their bones, and Venning was pinched and shivering when the
+first ray of sunshine struck slanting down through the mist-laden
+atmosphere, bringing with it a message of hope from the bright outer
+world.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THROUGH THE VAULTS
+
+They shared the goats'-milk remaining in the calabash, and at once
+entered the first exit, that was to lead them, as they ardently
+hoped, into the warmth and light of the day. Venning went first,
+carrying only the strange lantern, and Mr. Hume a foot behind, ready
+to support the boy with a helping hand if he were again overcome by
+dizziness. Their progress was slow, owing to the dark, but the going
+was easy enough with a gradual ascent. What pleased them very much
+was the dwindling of the hubbub made by the waters--a sign that they
+were going away from that source of danger. In silence and in
+darkness they kept on up to a point where the walls widened out, and
+where there was a familiar hut-like smell, necessitating a pause for
+investigation. Mr. Hume struck a match--for the fungus-lamp shed no
+ray--and holding it up, disclosed a slab of rock with a pile of
+white ash on it. Blowing upon this, he started a glow from the still
+live embers beneath, and placing on a few half-burnt sticks, soon
+made a fire. By its light they saw a couple of rush-mats, such as
+the natives make, on the floor, and these, added to the fire, made a
+blaze which lit up a cavern bearing evidence of frequent use; for
+there were other mats on a ledge, together with several calabashes,
+and an earthen pot of native make. Seeing where the passage
+continued, they hurried on, for these human belongings reminded them
+forcibly of the existence of beings they had no wish to meet in
+those dark passages.
+
+"How do you account for people living down here?" asked Venning.
+
+"They may be outcasts from the village, afflicted either by disease
+or madness, or they may be members of some dark superstition."
+
+"Ugh! I wonder if the Inkosikasi has any connection with them?"
+
+"I rather think so, and when we get out we will have a word with
+her."
+
+"When we get out! But it will be fine to see old Dick again, and to
+see the birds and insects on the move in the sun. Halloa! the path
+turns again--bends to the left."
+
+"Keep on slowly."
+
+As they went the noise of waters again reached them, growing in
+volume; and when the path turned abruptly to the right, they looked
+out through a small opening on billows of mist that rolled upwards
+out of sight.
+
+"Seem to have reached a spot above last night's resting-place."
+
+The wall on their left was very thin, and shook to each report; but
+presently the passage made a bend to the right, which took them away
+once more from the mist-laden vault, and then, through a narrow
+doorway, opened into one of the best-lighted caverns they had yet
+entered. The light which streamed in from the wall beyond was very
+welcome to them, but the taste of earth in the air blowing through
+the crack was better. The first thing they did was to run across to
+the crack and look out.
+
+"The river--and the valley!" cried Venning.
+
+Below them was the green of the valley bathed in sunshine, the river
+glittering like silver, and the scene like a glimpse of Paradise
+after the gloom of their vast prison.
+
+"There goes the eagle we saw when we first arrived, and right away
+yonder I can see a flock of goats among the rocks."
+
+"Perhaps we could get through and climb down." Mr. Hume thrust an
+arm through, and spread his fingers to the wind. "We are on the
+south-west side of the cliff, nearly overlooking the entrance to the
+canon."
+
+"It is very steep there. We should want a rope--and a long rope,
+too."
+
+"Yes, I am afraid we must keep on; but, at any rate, it is a comfort
+to know where we are."
+
+They stepped back and turned to examine the cavern. The floor was
+dry, the roof high, and it would have made a good room. And a room
+in occupation it was; for, now they took stock of it, there were
+signs of the occupants everywhere--a stack of wood in one corner,
+several karosses rolled up, sleeping-mats, cooking-pots, wooden
+spoons, a bundle of reeds for arrow-making, and a half-shaped  bow,
+and other odds and ends. But what fixed their attention were a
+number of white objects on a ledge.
+
+"Look like ostrich eggs," said Venning, reaching up "No, they're
+not. Skulls--Ethiopian."
+
+"Pah! Drop it," said Mr. Hume.
+
+"Why?" said Venning, who had no qualms in these matters. "You can
+see it is Ethiopian from the receding forehead, the high cheek-
+bones, the heavy under-jaw and strong teeth. No white man ever has
+teeth like that."
+
+"Drop it," said Mr. Hume, sternly.
+
+"But why?"
+
+"Look at this." Mr. Hume pointed to a square block in the centre of,
+the room--a block all stained with dark streaks that came from a
+basin in the centre. Venning approached it. "Blood--perhaps a
+sacrificial stone."
+
+"And this," said Mr. Hume, pointing to a bone projecting from one of
+the pots. "They are man-eaters."
+
+Venning put down the skull and looked with a white face at his
+companion.
+
+"Cannibals! That is why they tried to kill us last night."
+
+The Hunter nodded his head. "I did not want to tell you, but I could
+not stand a lecture on skulls."
+
+"Let us go."
+
+"First let us take a couple of these mats. Cut up, they would serve
+as torches at a pinch." He tied one on Venning's back and one on his
+own. "Forward!"
+
+When they wished to proceed, however, they could not find the
+continuation of the passage, and, to their dismay, it seemed as if
+they would have to retrace their steps in search for another way
+out, when behind a hanging mat in the left-hand corner they found a
+narrow opening. It was not inviting, but they were glad of any path
+that led away from that evil place, and away also from the lower
+depths. So, though the way became more and more difficult as they
+advanced, they continued to press on, now up, now down, at another
+place going on their hands and knees, and further on having to
+wriggle between cracks which sorely nipped the Hunter as he forced
+his heavy frame through. And in the end they came out on the verge
+of the vast vault, which appeared to fill so much of the space
+below; emerged on a wind-swept platform, with a sudden din after the
+quiet of the tortuous passage as of demons shrieking through the
+air.
+
+Here Venning gave up. He had been now over twenty-four  hours
+underground without one good meal, except the drain of goats'-milk,
+and after the shock of the previous afternoon, when he hung in mid-
+air, the disappointment at coming upon another forbidding pit was
+too much for him. He crouched back against the rock, and sat down.
+
+Mr. Hume spread the mat under the boy, wrapped the kaross over him,
+and made him comfortable as could be, and then he looked anxiously
+about. Little comfort did he gain. They had evidently pursued a
+false trail, and the platform was the end, standing sheer on the
+edge of that very vaulted space, down which, far down, the jets of
+water shot out through the blow-holes. Their windings had brought
+them, after all, to an impasse, and the only retreat was through the
+chamber of the skulls, where perhaps the savage beings of the
+underground vault were already collected. Looking over and down, he
+could see the jets of water shooting out to fall in a mantle of
+spray, on which the arrow-like shafts of sunlight sparkled in
+iridescent hues, and through the spray he could see the white waters
+of the cataract. Above his head there was a jutting rock, which shut
+out the wall immediately above, but outside the rock he saw the roof
+of the vault, gaunt ribs of rock pierced at intervals by fissures,
+through which shone the blue of the sky. Turning to Venning, he saw
+that the boy's eyes were fixed on those openings with a longing in
+his look that wrung the man's heart.
+
+Clearly there were only two courses open. They must either go back
+by the path they had entered by--making up their minds to cross that
+dizzy ledge in the darkness--or he would have to leave the boy
+somewhere while he went for help. He gave up the latter alternative
+at once, and set his mind on the first.
+
+"We will rest for an hour," he said. "Then we will go down."
+
+"To look for another way?" asked the boy, wearily.
+
+"Or to follow the track we entered by."
+
+"I couldn't," whispered the boy.
+
+"Then we will try another passage--the one 'they' went down by. Of
+course"--and the Hunter's voice gained in cheeriness--"that is our
+plan, and if we hurry we shall be outside in no time."
+
+"Very well," said the boy, jumping up with a sudden flush in his
+cheeks, showing a return of feverishness.
+
+"Rest awhile, lad; it is morning yet. See how the sun's rays slant
+towards the west. At noon they will be vertical, and then we shall
+have the whole afternoon."
+
+They sat down with their eyes turned up to the specks of blue, and
+watched the sun-shafts dip from the west towards the centre till
+they poured their white light straight down. Then they started for
+the long downward track, Mr. Hume this time leading the way with his
+rifle ready.
+
+When they came again to the cavern of the skulls, the Hunter paused
+before pushing the mat aside. For some seconds he stood listening;
+then, cautious still, with the point of his knife he forced apart a
+couple of the rush strands and peeped through. The place seemed as
+it had been, and he was about to step in when he remembered that
+Venning had placed the skull on the block of stone. There was the
+block, but there was no skull upon it.  Standing back, he whispered
+to Venning to keep where he was; then, with his rifle ready, he
+quietly moved the mat aside.
+
+There was a howl, as some creature, squatting on the floor, turned a
+lined and hideous face towards the corner, and then scuttled out of
+view. Mr. Hume leapt to the floor, and ran to seize the creature who
+had taken refuge under a hanging mat. His hand, however, met with no
+resistance, and, brushing the mat aside, he saw an opening leading
+down.
+
+"It went down there," he said, as Venning, showing a startled face
+at the opening, called out to know what had happened.
+
+Venning jumped down, and looked into the new outlet. "Let us
+follow," he said eagerly.
+
+Mr. Hume shook his head. "We know one has gone. There are probably
+others; and we don't know that it would lead us out. The other way
+would."
+
+"It makes me ill to think of the other way," said Venning,
+vehemently.
+
+"It looks like a rabbit-hole."
+
+"I'll go first."
+
+"It may mean another night, if it takes up much time."
+
+"I'm sure it's right," persisted the boy.
+
+"Very well, here goes;" and the Hunter submitted against his
+judgment, because he feared beyond anything the breakdown of the
+boy's nerves.
+
+He was obliged to slide down this black opening, and when he found a
+footing in a dark, cellar-like place, he at once struck a match
+under the belief that he stood in a mere pit and nothing else, but a
+puff of wind blew the match out.
+
+"Come along; there is an opening."
+
+The opening they found, and, as they entered it, they heard a
+shuffling noise behind.
+
+"It's that hag gone up into the room," cried the Hunter, "and she'll
+give the alarm. We must go after her."
+
+Venning, however, pushed on.  "This is the way," he said wildly; and
+Mr. Hume could do no less than follow, frowning as he went.
+
+But it did seem that the boy was right. The little black hole of a
+passage suddenly opened out into light that almost blinded them by
+its brilliancy.  It was a broad track. On the right was the wall of
+the cliff pierced with little holes, through which they looked down
+again on the canon itself, the opposite walls seeming very near.
+
+"Wasn't I right?" asked Venning, with an excited laugh. "We can't be
+very far above.  I fancy I can hear the river."
+
+"Well, there is this about it, if the worst comes, and we can't find
+a way out, we can signal from one of these holes to people in the
+valley."
+
+"And Dick would find a way to rescue us--Dick and Muata. Hurrah!
+Then we won't have to go down into that awful darkness."
+
+"No; but we may as well see where this leads to."
+
+They had to skirt a Y-shaped fall in the track, and this
+accomplished, their course, after many windings, terminated at a
+totally unexpected spot, no less than a point high up the face of
+the cliff rising sheer up from the Deadman's Pool. They stepped out
+from the passage into broad day, and raised their hats to let the
+wind blow upon them, but they found that they were as far off from
+escape as before. Below, the cliff sank hundreds of feet; above, it
+rose like a wall without foothold; but they were thankful for the
+sunlight, for the far view over the dark forest, for the privilege
+to look once more on the unruffled sky. Now that they were in the
+light, they could take stock of each other, and found it in their
+hearts to start a feeble laugh at the covering of mud, smoke, and
+green mould that almost disguised their identity.
+
+But it was a comfort to stretch their aching limbs in the sun, to
+take the pure air into their lungs, to look restfully away over the
+trees that marched unbroken to the uttermost horizon. They dozed
+under the influence of the sunlight, blinking their eyes like cats,
+and when Mr. Hume stirred at last, the sun was slipping down the
+western slope.
+
+"We must be going," he said, looking down.
+
+"I suppose so," said Venning, wearily.
+
+"There's something astir down there. Men are moving up the slope
+towards the gorge--and, by George, they are Hassan's men too!"
+
+Venning stood up, and looked down upon a file of little figures
+breasting the slope.
+
+"Good thing I had that wall built.  Dick will be having his hands
+full. Come along; we may get out in time yet to take a share in the
+fight, for his sake."
+
+Venning remained staring down, with a look in his face that brought
+the Hunter back.
+
+"What do you see?"
+
+"Of all the idiots," said the boy--"of all the miserable,
+shortsighted, thick-headed, addle-pated duffers and asses we are the
+worst! We took pains to find a way into a fiendish maze of tunnels,
+pits, and caverns, occupied by vampires and enveloped in darkness,
+in search of a thing that was never there."
+
+"As what?"
+
+"Look there!" and the boy pointed down. "There's our boat--down
+there, out in the broad daylight."
+
+"You're mistaken, lad."
+
+"There--straight down--in that patch of reeds on the right of the
+pool."
+
+"That's her, right enough," said Mr. Hume, excitedly.
+
+"And to think we've been wandering about in fear of our lives on a
+false scent."
+
+"It makes me feel bad; but the mistake has been made, and now we've
+got to get out, and get out in time to help Dick."
+
+"Oh, Dick's all right," said Venning, crossly. "He's got plenty to
+eat, and a warm bed."
+
+"Chew this;" and the Hunter handed his last bit of biltong.
+
+Venning took it, and followed on into the passage, chewing and
+growling over their folly.
+
+"We will laugh over our troubles," said the Hunter, patiently, "when
+we get out."
+
+"When we get out! I don't believe there is a way out. Anyhow, I am
+not going a step further beyond the place where we found the
+loopholes."
+
+Mr. Hume made no reply.
+
+"I have been thinking over it," Venning went on.
+
+"The place cant be very high above the level of the ground outside.
+We could easily attract attention by filing a shot out. Then we
+would make a rope out of the rushes in these mats, lower it with a
+bit of stone at the end, on which we could write directions to Dick
+with a bit of burnt stick, to hitch on a rope. We would haul in the
+rope, make it fast, and then shin down."
+
+"But suppose Dick is busy beating off the attack of Hassan's men?"
+
+"Then we'll wait. I'm not going further--not a foot. If you like,
+sir, you can go, but I will stay. I am not going down into those
+horrible caves." His voice rose to a shout.
+
+"All right," said the Hunter, soothingly. "In any case, I am afraid
+we have left it too late."
+
+"Late or early, I'll not go on."
+
+When they did reach the loopholes, they found on looking out that
+the valley on that side was already in the shadow.
+
+"We will stay, then," said Mr. Hume. "Let me unstrap the mat from
+your shoulders."
+
+Venning had already sat down with a dogged look in his face, and Mr.
+Hume had to lift him up to loosen the mat. The boy--there was no
+disguising the matter any farther--was ill, and it would clearly be
+dangerous to excite him by opposition.
+
+After making the boy comfortable, Mr. Hume sat smoking his pipe, the
+first time for many hours, in lieu of food. He himself was feeling
+the effect of the long period of anxiety, for he had scarcely eaten
+a mouthful, beyond his drink of milk, as he had given his little
+store to his young friend, who was in more need of it. But it was
+not of himself he thought. He had a new anxiety about Dick, and
+bitterly blamed himself for having so blindly followed the woman
+into this horrible place, that was one succession of death-traps.
+
+"I'm very thirsty," muttered the boy.
+
+Mr. Home leaned over him. "Keep quiet," he said, "and I'll bring you
+some water."
+
+Taking only his Ghoorka knife and his match-box, the Hunter went on
+to the Cave of Skulls. Luckily for the denizens of that ominous
+place, none of them were there to bar his entrance, for he was in a
+grim mood, so making a bonfire of some of the mats, he looked about.
+One calabash contained water, and this he carried back, together
+with something equally precious--a bunch of bananas that were black
+with smoke, yet fit to eat by any one who was very hungry or did not
+see them. The boy was sitting up waiting with burning eyes.
+
+"You were so long," he muttered.
+
+"But I won't go away again, old chap. I've brought you quite a
+feast."
+
+Venning took a long drink, ate the bananas, and fell back on his
+pillow, while the Hunter resumed his seat to watch through another
+night. It seemed as if they were to be left in peace. Since that
+solitary, withered, and scared creature dived out of the cave they
+had seen no one. But still he sat on guard as the hours slipped
+slowly by, and then there came a surprising thing.
+
+Just the tinkle made by a drop of water falling into a pool!
+
+It came at regular intervals, incessant, musical, and he began to
+count it, wondering at the height it fell, and marvelling at the
+noise it made.
+
+And then he leapt to his feet, and stood a moment in breathless
+amazement. A single drop of water to be heard above all that
+multitudinous clamour! What did it mean? It meant a silence so
+profound that from the black depth of the yawning cavity the tiny
+tinkle could reach him. It meant that the roaring torrent was
+stilled!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+LETTING IN THE RIVER
+
+The river was no longer thundering through the underground  passage,
+and as the sudden silence following the stopping of engines on a
+passenger steamer will awaken every sleeper even more quickly than
+the roaring of a gale, so this lull in the tremendous din aroused
+Venning.
+
+"What is the matter?" he asked, starting up.
+
+"The river has stopped."
+
+They sat straining their ears for the swift roar of the waters, but
+out of the slumbering depths below there came only the regular
+splash and tinkle of the falling drops.
+
+"I don't understand it," muttered the Hunter.
+
+"I do," said Venning, with a shout. "Hassan has blocked up the mouth
+of the canon."
+
+"Nonsense, boy; how could he?"
+
+"Look out of the loophole."
+
+Mr. Hume put his face to the hole. "The water has risen, I think,
+from the noise."
+
+"You remember what Muata said about the drowning of the valley?
+Well, that is what is happening. The Arab has blocked the mouth by
+blasting a mass of rock which overhung the river. That's what!"
+
+They pondered over this new phase.
+
+"If we had food, this would be the safest place, after all, then."
+
+"Food, Dick, and a way out."
+
+"Dick, of course. Anyhow, sir, it is a relief to have silence; the
+noise made my head throb so, I did not know what I was doing."
+
+Before, they had to shout into each other's ears, now they spoke in
+low tones, but even so the echoes seemed to people the dark with
+whispers, and they desisted from talk. In the silence they heard
+presently the swirl and lapping of waters out in the canon, then the
+sound of men talking, and, what was strange, a noise as of paddles,
+These outside  sounds were muffled and indistinct, but as the night
+went on they heard a laugh ring out from below, loud and shrill,
+followed by a confused murmuring, which quickly gained distinctness
+in the form of a wild chant. The denizens of the underground world
+were on the move. Looking down over the parapet they saw a spurt of
+flame, and as the fire made for itself a ring of red light far down
+in the dark, they could make out dimly the forms of people sitting
+round in a circle. Then the smell of smoke reached them, and, after
+an interval, the strong odour of burning flesh.
+
+"Go to sleep, lad," said Mr. Hume; "they will not disturb us. They
+have other prey, found, perhaps, on the scene of the fight in the
+gorge."
+
+Venning shuddered, and sought his mat, while the Hunter continued to
+look down on the unholy feast in the bowels of the earth, with an
+itch to send a bullet smashing into the midst of the circle.
+
+"Come and rest," said Venning.  "Don't you ever feel tired?"
+
+"Tired enough, lad; but I don't like this news about the river
+rising;" and ha went to the loophole.
+
+"We're safe enough, sir--safe enough for to-night. There are six
+miles at the back of the dam, and it would take a lot of water to
+rise a foot an hour in the canon, and we are more than thirty feet
+above the normal level, I dare say. Do rest."
+
+Mr. Hume sat down, and closed his eyes, but when he heard the
+regular breathing of the tired boy, he was up again. It was the
+thought of Dick that filled him with sleepless anxiety, and he leant
+on the parapet, fuming over plans in his mind with wearying
+reiteration. He was staring straight before him, when a light
+appeared on his own level, accompanied by the ring of metal on rock.
+Instinctively his rifle was levelled, and, with his finger on the
+trigger, he sighted a foot below the light, which was now quite
+stationary, but, obedient to a sudden overmastering impulse, he as
+quickly lowered the rifle.
+
+A moment the light remained fixed; then it was raised, lowered, and
+moved from side to side as if the holder were examining the ground;
+then it advanced.
+
+"Stop!" thundered Mr. Hume. "Stand back. There is a chasm at your
+feet."
+
+He had suddenly remembered the platform on which he and Venning had
+emerged on their first attempt after leaving the Cave of Skulls, and
+somehow he felt that the person who held that light had strayed to
+that very place in ignorance.
+
+He heard a startled exclamation, saw the light fall from the
+person's band, and marked its swift descent, before the flame was
+extinguished by the rush of air; then it was his turn to fall back.
+
+"Who are you?"
+
+"It's Dick," shouted Venning, with a sob in his voice.
+
+"Dick," muttered the Hunter, cold to the heart at the thought of the
+falling light.
+
+"Hurrah!" There was no mistaking that shout. "Where are you? How can
+I get to you?"
+
+"For God's sake, don't move!" cried the Hunter, in a shaken voice.
+"Stay where you are. We'll join you."
+
+From below there came a shrill clamour, but the Hunter, never
+pausing to give the creatures a thought, lifted Venning in his arms
+and felt his way to the cave, clambered up through the hole, found
+the other exit hidden by the mat, and crept down the broken passage
+beyond. In a turn of the passage they saw Compton's face peering out
+under a lighted candle, the one visible object in the darkness, set
+in a strained expression, in which were blended joy, anxiety, and
+wonder.
+
+They gripped hands in silence, then--
+
+"We've found the boat," said Venning.
+
+"What is that noise down below?" asked Dick.
+
+"Have you got any food?" This from Mr. Hume.
+
+"A sackful."
+
+"Then let us eat first of all."
+
+They sat down there and then and ate, and when they had eaten they
+were silent, because the creatures below were silent too, and Mr.
+Hume knew that then they were dangerous.  He went back to stand
+behind the mat knife in hand, ready to attack, for now that he had
+got his two boys back, he said to himself grimly that he would stand
+no nonsense. Back in that dark passage Dick sat with his friend's
+head on his shoulder, and one limp hand grasped in his, marvelling
+much at the mystery of the place and at the providential meeting. He
+had cause to wonder how Venning had borne the horrors of the
+underground as well as he had, for towards the morning it seemed as
+if those ghouls of darkness vied with each other in producing the
+most appalling shrieks, howls, and bursts of mirthless laughter.
+They played ventriloquial tricks in the passages and caverns, making
+the sounds come from different points after varying intervals of
+silence; and all the time, as could be gathered from occasional
+words in the incoherent gabble, uttering threats against the white
+men.
+
+Then, at the very break of dawn, after a couple of hours of silence,
+the plot they had formed was put into shape.
+
+"Ngonyama!"
+
+Mr. Hume stepped out on to the platform. "Who calls?"
+
+"It is I, the Inkosikase."
+
+She was standing at the very parapet where he himself had leant when
+he saw the light borne by Dick on the spot where he now stood. She
+stood up boldly on the canon side of the great cavity, about fifty
+yards away.
+
+"Your life was forfeit, Ngonyama, but I spared you--I spared you."
+
+"I hear."
+
+"You are but a mouse in these earth runs, Indhlovu."
+
+The Hunter laughed, and the unseen creatures took up the laugh,
+flinging it back till the hollow places rang with the wild noise.
+
+"Hear, and take heed.  Take heed lest they fall on you. Wow! Ye have
+seen my power and the strength of my medicine in the stilling of the
+waters."
+
+"It was Hassan who stilled the waters. Say on."
+
+"Yoh!" The woman paused, taken aback. "See, my medicine tells me you
+came here to search for the shining canoe. Maybe I can tell you
+where it is hid by the wizards."
+
+"I know, wise woman. Say on."
+
+"Wow! But," she said triumphantly, "ye do not know the way out, and
+ye are helpless till I tell you."
+
+"I know."
+
+"Then why do you stay here?"
+
+"Enough! I know the way out.  What is your message to me?"
+
+His confidence staggered her, and it was some moments before she
+could speak.
+
+"But there is the young chief. Ye would save him. I will make a
+bargain with you for his life."
+
+"He is here, woman."
+
+Dick stepped out from the shadows, and she threw up her arms with a
+wail.
+
+"Say what you have to say," said Mr. Hume, sternly, "for I see you
+would have some service of me, and had hoped to buy me with news I
+have no want for."
+
+"Ngonyama, great white one, I am but a woman, and ye are too strong
+for me."
+
+Mr. Hume nodded.
+
+"I am a woman; only a woman."
+
+"Was it a woman's task to set those ravens upon me and the young
+chief?"
+
+"I am a mother, Indhlovu, and a mother's heart is strong for her
+child. I feared you because of my son. You were strong, and he
+trusted you. He was away, and you were left to do as you wished--to
+take his place, to destroy him.  It is the way of men to use power
+for themselves."
+
+"It is not my way."
+
+"O great white one, give me counsel. The Arab thief has truly
+stopped the river, and the waters rise in the valley--rise among the
+gardens; and when Muata returns he will see water where there was
+grass."
+
+"Ay, Muata will ask how this thing happened. And they will answer,
+because a woman interfered with his plans. The son will know that it
+was his mother who brought this evil on the place because she
+thought she could do better than Ngonyama."
+
+"It is true; it is true," she wailed, beating her breast. "So tell
+me, great one, how this evil may be put right, but it must be done
+quickly, for the Arab has brought canoes up, and his men are in the
+valley ready to seize the women and children."
+
+This was startling news indeed.  "Canoes in the valley?"
+
+"In the valley itself; and our men are scattered here and there on
+the ridges at the mercy of these wolves, though they fight hard.
+Ngonyama, tell me!"
+
+"There is only one thing to do," said Venning, joining in.
+
+"I listen," she cried, leaning forward. "Quick, wise one.  You who
+played with the little ones at the huts, you who talk to the ants,
+tell me."
+
+"The one thing to do is to let the water in."
+
+"Ye mock me," she cried fiercely.
+
+"Let in the water, and the canoes will be dashed to pieces; the
+women and the little ones saved." "But how can this be done?"
+
+"You know this place and the secrets of it. Those holes behind you
+that look out on the valley were made by hands. Is there no place
+where the wall is thin?"
+
+The woman lifted up her hands and shouted a cry of exultation, then
+she ran swiftly, and they saw her presently standing above the V-
+shaped wedge in the wall, a deep scar in the cliff made by the fall
+of a portion of the rock. With wonderful agility she climbed down to
+the apex and set to work on the face of the rock with a kind of
+maniacal fury. When she climbed out to the top they saw she had
+drawn a square, with a mark at each corner plainly visible.
+
+"Ngonyama, for the sake of the little ones and the women, for your
+own sakes, if ye wish to live, send a bullet to each mark."
+
+"By Jove!" said Venning, "that's a good notion. The rock must be
+thin there, and the force of the bullet should crack it."
+
+"Quick, white one. I can hear the death-song of our warriors. Quick,
+if ye would see the sun again."
+
+Mr. Hume raised his Express. He saw the need as well as she for
+swift measures, and he planted each smashing shot on the little
+white mark at each corner of the square.
+
+The square was starred with cracks from side to side, and before the
+echoes of the reports had ceased to roll and rumble through the
+vaults, there was a dark stain on the rock.
+
+The water was coming through, but the woman, in her mad impatience,
+could not bear the delay. Clambering down, she worked feverishly at
+the cracks with a spear-head, and with a sharp hiss a stream of
+water like steam shot out.
+
+"Climb up," roared Mr. Hume.
+
+"Another thrust, Indhlovu, and a woman will have won. One blow for
+the sake of my child--the chief." Her long sinewy arm flew back, and
+she drove the spear-head into the crack.
+
+Then came a tremendous report. The block of loosened stone flew out
+as if propelled from a big gun, whizzed far out, and after it, with
+a deafening roar, flashed a white column, that widened as it leapt
+forward. Spreading his arms, the Hunter threw himself back, bearing
+his companions with him, as a mass of water struck the platform on
+which they had stood. As the flood poured through the opening,
+tearing and screaming like a thousand furies, other fragments of
+rock were torn out and sent whirling down, to increase the terrible
+din rising up from the cauldron below, where the waters once again
+rushed and boiled through the dark tunnels, after their terrific
+leap. The whole upper space of the great vault was filled with a
+mist, which condensed and fell in a fine rain upon the three
+crouching figures, deafened by the uproar, and expecting every
+moment to be involved in one complete break-up of the interior walls
+under the smashing blows of the flood. As they crawled back into the
+passage for safety, some solid object crashed against the rock near
+them, and the broken blade of a canoe paddle shot past them into the
+passage.
+
+It was sign of the terrible fate that must have overtaken those of
+Hassan's men who had entered the valley by canoe. It served as a
+spur to urge them to escape.
+
+They crept into the Cave of Skulls, and there finding some relief
+from the uproar, Mr. Hume asked Compton if he knew the way out.
+Compton nodded, lit the last of his candles, and, guided by marks he
+had made on the wall, led the way out and down to a spot where he
+pointed to a hole several feet above the ground. They passed through
+that, and after a long and wearying march--during the last part of
+which the Hunter again carried Venning--they crawled out into the
+old cave, and through that on to the ledge overlooking the valley.
+
+A glance took in the position. Muata's people were gathered on the
+tableland where stood the new village, watching the sinking of the
+river, as unaccountable to them as had been the swift rising in the
+night that had cut them off and marked them out as easy victims to
+the men in the canoes, which Hassan, in his great cunning, had
+brought up to complete his plan for the complete destruction of the
+community. Of Hassan's men, and the canoes, carried up through the
+forest with so much labour, there was no trace. Men and canoes must
+have been sucked into the canon, dashed to pieces, and swept down
+into the dark, probably to emerge in the Deadman's Pool.
+
+Mr. Hume gave a hail to the people below. "Bayate!" they shouted,
+recognizing him. Some of the men swam across and came up.
+
+They made a humble salute to the white men. "Great ones, the people
+are afraid. The earth shook and the water arose, and out of the dark
+came men in canoes. We were afraid. It was witchcraft. Again the
+earth shook, the waters sank, and the canoes were swept away."
+
+"Say to the women they may go about their work in peace, for the
+white chiefs keep watch, and all is well. And say to the headman to
+send up food, fruit, milk, and the flesh of a kid."
+
+These orders were promptly obeyed, and the three were soon busy at a
+good meal, that put life and strength into them, so that when they
+feasted their eyes upon the wonderful beauty of-the garden-valley,
+the horrors of the underground world swiftly faded into the
+background, phantoms of reality.
+
+And while they rested in the afternoon, Muata came out of the gorge
+chanting his song of triumph at the head of the picked warriors who
+had gone down into the forest to hang on the trail of the wild men.
+
+His song died away as his eye fell upon the still swollen river, on
+the sheen of pools gathered where the ground was flat, on the banks
+of debris showing the highwater mark far up the little side valleys.
+
+"Greeting, Ngonyama!"
+
+"And to you, chief."
+
+"My brothers have not slept."  The young chief's eagle-glance dwelt
+swiftly on the three friends. "They have looked on great trouble."
+
+"You have come from victory, chief; your men are fresh."
+
+"Ohe! they are fresh, for the fight was short."
+
+"Then send some of them up the cliff on the other side, so that they
+may overlook the place where the river goes under."
+
+Muata looked down into the valley again, and asked the question
+which he had been burning to ask all the time, but could not for
+fear of showing anxiety.
+
+"So Hassan has tried to drown out the valley?"
+
+"The river rose and the river fell! While he sent some men to attack
+the gorge, he found the river-gate unguarded, and seized it, blocked
+the course of the river with a great rock loosened from above, and
+then, as the water rose, lowered canoes on the inside, and sent his
+men forward to eat up your village."
+
+"Where was Ngonyama when the gates were unguarded?"
+
+"In the caverns under the cliff."
+
+"Wow!"
+
+"The wise woman led us there. She left us there, fearing I,
+Ngonyama, would supplant you, her son; and on the second morning,
+when she found that Hassan was too cunning, she came with an offer
+of liberty if we would destroy his plan. We told her the way. It was
+to let the water in."
+
+"It was a good plan. Haw!"
+
+"She let the water in to save the people of the valley, and Hassan's
+men were lost utterly; but the first victim was your mother, Muata."
+
+"It was a good death," said Muata, after a long pause.
+
+"Ay, it was a good death, chief. Now send your men up the cliff, so
+that they overlook the river-gates."
+
+"I will see to it, Ngonyama;" and Muata went down with his band to
+the village once again, chanting the deep-chested song of victory.
+
+The jackal, who had accompanied Muata on the new trail, remained
+with his white friends. He was thin, he was famished, and he sat
+with his left front paw lifted. Venning, who had a fellow-feeling
+for one in distress, being himself worn out, took the paw,
+discovered a nasty cut on the pad, washed it out with warm water,
+treated it with carbolic, bound it up, and gave the animal the pot
+to dean, which he did, polishing it out with his long red tongue.
+
+The boy and the jackal stretched themselves on a kaross to the sun,
+while Mr. Hume and Compton went away off to make sure about the
+Okapi; for, as they said, they were in no mind to lose the boat,
+after all their exertions, just because they were a little tired.
+
+In the drowsy noon the tired boy slept, and through the afternoon,
+opening his eyes for a moment occasionally as the voices of the
+women rose to a higher pitch in a mournful dirge they were singing
+over the missing, and at intervals the jackal would raise his sharp
+muzzle and sniff the air. There was some note in the dirge that
+disturbed the boy, and there was some taint in the air that made the
+jackal uneasy. Once it stood up as if to explore, but the sight of
+its bandaged foot brought a pucker to his brows, and it curled
+itself up again after an intent look into the face of his human
+companion.
+
+For the rest of the day the dirge went on, rising and sinking like
+the murmur of the sea in its flow and ebb on a still day. At dusk
+the two came back from their long march to the Deadman's Pool,
+bringing the report that they had recovered the missing boat, and
+concealed it in a place of their own choosing this time. Venning
+awoke to hear the news, but he heard it without enthusiasm, just as
+they had imparted the news in tones of weary indifference.
+
+The sickness of the forest was on them all--its monotony, its
+vastness, and its brooding silence--and it caught them when they
+were most liable to the attack; that is, when they were tired out,
+with all the spring gone from mind and sinews.
+
+"My poor father!" muttered Compton, as he sat down with his back to
+the rock. "No wonder he looked upon this as a prison, placed as it
+is in this wilderness of trees."
+
+Mr. Hume nodded, and sat with his arms resting on his knees,
+smoking, and staring at nothing.
+
+Muata joined them, but his coming did not rouse them.
+
+"I have looked down on the gates, Ngonyama. As you said, the river
+was blocked by Hassan; but there is no sign of the thief, only some
+canoes dropped by his men in their flight."
+
+He sat down and smoked, too, with the same listless look on his
+face.
+
+The jackal rose at his master's coming, and stood whining and
+sniffing the air.
+
+No one took any notice of him but Venning, who coaxed him to him,
+and placed an arm round his yellow neck.
+
+"Why don't they sing something else?" said Compton, irritably, as
+the mournful wail dinned its misery into his ears.
+
+Muata looked at the white men. "It is the rains," he said.
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"The rains are coming. Maybe that is why Hassan struck so soon, for
+when the rains come, every warrior is like the bow-string that has
+been soaked in water. They hide the sun, they breed chills and
+sickness. I can feel the breath of them in my bones. It is the
+rains."
+
+He shivered, and threw a stick on the fire. "In the morning," he
+said, "we must find a new home, for the rains blow in at the mouth
+of this cave. The clouds hang low on the hills."
+
+"We have found our boat, chief; we will go on our way," said the
+Hunter, bluntly.
+
+"That way would be the way of death," answered the chief, slowly.
+"It is bad here, but in the woods it is like the spray blown off
+from the rushing waters. Every tree is a rain-cloud, every leaf
+drops water, and the air you breathe in the woods is wet. If you
+would live, great one, you must stay here. Wet when you sleep, when
+you eat, when you sit you sit in wet, when you stand the water runs
+off; wet, all wet in the rains down in the woods."
+
+"Ugh!" said Venning, with a shudder; and Compton put on another
+stick.
+
+"We will see," said the Hunter.
+
+They sat in silence, pondering over this new source of worry, then
+turned in to sleep. They slept heavily, having taken great care
+first of all to block up the entrance to the underground passage,
+and as they dropped off to sleep, they heard the women chanting
+still in the village below. The fire glowed red in the entrance,
+making the roof look like beaten gold, but the air blew chill, and
+the sleepers were restless. A hand would reach out to the firewood
+for another log, or to tuck the blankets under the body, so that the
+cold could not sift under.
+
+The jackal was as weary as the rest. Several times he ran to the
+entrance to look out with pricked ears, then back again to stare
+into a sleepy face; but as his human companions gradually sank into
+heavy sleep, he crouched on the floor with his sharp nose resting
+between his forepaws, the one sound, the other bandaged.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+THE CRY IN THE NIGHT
+
+As the fire-sticks snapped under the heat, the jackal would open his
+yellow eyes and start back with his gaze fixed inquiringly on the
+fire, whose mystery he could never solve. One of these starts roused
+Venning, who, seeing the cause, threw out a hand and drew the animal
+to him. He felt nervous, and the company of the jackal comforted
+him, and the jackal in its turn forgot its uneasiness in the warmth
+of the blankets. With a little sigh it curled up and went to sleep.
+
+The boy was the only one awake, and out in the wide space beyond he
+heard a voice calling--
+
+"Ngonyama'"
+
+He held his breath, and his throat grew very dry, for it was the
+voice he had heard in the cavern, only sad this time, and not
+mocking as before.
+
+"Ngonyama!--yama!" It came thin and melancholy, with a long
+lingering on the last syllables.
+
+He put his hand out to rouse Mr. Hume, then drew it back ashamed of
+his fancies; but the movement awoke the jackal. It lifted its head,
+snuffed the air, then sprang up with the ruff on its neck erect, and
+its sharp white teeth gleaming. Several moments it stood so, then
+with many a look out, curled itself up again.
+
+Venning had watched it breathlessly, now he patted it to sleep, and
+dozed off himself, only to wake up in a violent tremble, with that
+sound quivering plaintively in the air--
+
+"Ngonyama! Ngonyama!"
+
+He brushed his hand across his forehead, and found his face burning
+hot. He removed his blanket from his shoulders and sat up, still
+patting the jackal. The fire was before him, and the dark ring of
+the cave's mouth; but his eyes dilated as he looked, for within the
+glare of the fire was that same awful face he had seen down in the
+darkness.
+
+He would have cried out, but his voice would not come; and with an
+effort--for all the blood seemed to have left his limbs--he slowly
+moved his hand to Mr. Hume's.
+
+The Hunter made no sign; but Venning, with his face turned still in
+a frozen stare towards the entrance, caught a change in the
+breathing, and knew that his touch had answered its purpose. To the
+boy they were acting over the scene in the cavern again. He was
+waiting for the shrill laugh, the sudden treacherous thrust of steel
+in the dark, and then the ring of metal on the rocks.
+
+Then, without any sign having been given that he was awake, the
+jackal in a bound was over the fire, swollen to double his size by
+the bristling hair, and uttering as he charged a fierce yelp.
+
+Muata seemed to awake and spring forward all in one movement. A
+moment he paused in the glare of the light, stooping forward, the
+glare showing red on his blade, and the next he was gone with a war-
+whoop, and in his place stood the Hunter, crouching also with the
+broad blade in his hand. Between the fierce yelp of the jackal and
+the spring of the Hunter only a few seconds had passed. The three of
+them less than half a minute since had been asleep; and now, out of
+the darkness on the ledge beyond came the ring of metal and the
+savage grunts of men fighting for their lives.
+
+Venning remained where he was, too ill to rise; and Compton, not yet
+trained to act on a sudden emergency, sat up, bewildered by the
+noise.
+
+"Mr. Hume--Godfrey--what is it?"
+
+"The witches," said Venning, "out of the underground. I saw one
+looking in."
+
+"Eh?"
+
+Compton felt for his carbine, and, gathering his wits, ran out,
+receiving promptly, on getting within the ring of light, a blow on
+his arm, followed by a clutch at his throat. Driving the muzzle of
+his gun forward into something soft which emitted a grunt, he freed
+himself from his assailant, and sprang aside. He heard the whizz of
+weapons, the clash of blows, and saw dark forms indistinctly moving
+rapidly this way and that; then his rifle flashed as he saw a
+crouching form stealing upon him.
+
+"Yavuma!" cried the Hunter's voice, giving the Kaffir war-cry as he
+swung his terrible weapon at a foe.
+
+"Yavuma '" cried Muata, with the jackal snarling by his side. "Fire,
+little great one, into the thick."
+
+It was very well to say fire, but Compton could not tell friend from
+foe until, bending low, he made out that while two men had their
+backs to the cliff there were others around them in an enclosing
+ring. Judging these were the enemy, though he could make out no
+distinguishing point, he went down on his knee and fired rapidly.
+
+A man dashed by him towards the gorge, and the rest who could
+followed. One gave a slashing left-hand stroke with a long sword as
+he went by the kneeling marksman, and Compton went down in a heap.
+The man paused to finish his work, but with a savage roar the Hunter
+leapt forward and bore him to the ground.
+
+At the heels of the flying men went the jackal, and after him, soft-
+footed, went Muata, still-voiced.
+
+The fight was over. Mr. Hume picked Dick up and carried him into the
+cave.
+
+"A light," said the Hunter.
+
+Venning, with his head throbbing, crawled feebly to where the
+lantern was, lit it with trembling fingers, and, sitting up, threw
+the light on the two forms--on the one face, beaded, working still
+with the fury of the fight; on the other, still, white, and blood-
+stained.
+
+The boy's hand shook more violently, and in his weakness he sobbed.
+
+"Put the lantern down," said Mr. Hume, fiercely.
+
+Quickly he staunched the flow of blood, cut away the hair, and then,
+with an impatient look at the sobbing boy, lowered the head he was
+supporting, and searched for liniment, ointment, and restoratives.
+
+Bending over his task, he worked with skilful fingers, and then,
+with a sigh, watched the white face intently. Then he went outside
+to listen, to bend over the figures lying still in the darkness, and
+returning, built up the fire.
+
+Venning watched him return to Dick, saw the long, anxious scrutiny,
+and then burst out crying as he saw a look of relief come into the
+rugged face.
+
+"Don't worry, lad; he'll pick up."
+
+"I know you think I'm no good," was the boy's heartbroken reply.
+
+Mr. Home was at his side. "Nonsense, lad. I know what it is to have
+a touch of fever; and besides, I believe it was you who gave
+warning."
+
+"I heard some one calling Ngonyama," said the boy, in a whisper,
+"and I saw the face in the entrance--the same face I saw down under
+there.  Were they the witches?"
+
+"It was Hassan and some of his men. They must have escaped from the
+river and remained in hiding. I felt your hand in the night, and it
+woke me. So, you see, you did your part. Now rest, there's a good
+chap."
+
+Mr. Hume made the boy a cooling drink, with a dose of quinine.
+
+"I would have helped, if I could."
+
+"You did help," said the Hunter, earnestly. "If it had not been for
+you we should have been killed while we slept. You saved our lives,
+just as you saved the valley by your thought of letting the water
+out."
+
+Venning was comforted. He rose up on his elbow to have another look
+at Dick, saw that the colour was coming back into the white face,
+and leant back on his pillow.
+
+In the morning Muata came into the cave, staggering like a drunken
+man from loss of blood, and at his heels limped the jackal with his
+tongue out.
+
+"Well?" said the Hunter.
+
+"The last fell on the shores of the dead pool, and the last was
+Hassan himself."
+
+The chiefs bloodshot eyes roamed over the cave, until they rested on
+Venning's startled face.
+
+"On the brink of the pool he fell, and where he fell there, too, was
+the Inkosikase." It seemed as if he were addressing the remark to
+Venning.
+
+"I heard her call 'Ngonyama' in the night," whispered the boy.
+
+"Wow!"
+
+"So the young chief told me after you had gone," said the Hunter.
+
+Venning nodded his head.
+
+The chief accepted the explanation. "The Inkosikase waited for the
+wolf by the water's edge," he said simply, "and I smote him behind
+the ear. So her spirit is at rest."
+
+"Let me see to your wounds, chief."
+
+"Wow! It is well my people should see them;" and the warrior went
+down with unsteady steps to the village, leaving a trail of blood;
+and when the people had shouted in triumph at his story of the last
+fight, the medicine men took him into their charge, when his life
+was in danger of escaping through one of those gaping cuts made by
+Arab swords on his body.
+
+For a fortnight Mr. Hume nursed his young friends back to health,
+and for a week they sat and walked in the sun, slowly regaining
+strength; and then came the first forerunner of the rains in a day
+of pelting showers.
+
+"It is the beginning," said Muata, who was proud of his newly healed
+scars. "You must come down into the valley."
+
+"There was something said about the full moon," said Mr. Hume,
+suspiciously.
+
+The chief laughed. "It was the wish of the Inkosikase; but now she
+is gone, it is in my heart to take the wives to myself. But there
+are others, Ngonyama."
+
+"No, chief," said the Hunter, quickly. "How do you live in the
+rains, chief? Is there much discomfort?"
+
+"Wow! it is the red pig's life--mud all about; and there is much
+sickness, for the people crowd together in the huts."
+
+"I suppose we must stay and make the best of it; but the huts are
+small."
+
+"They are the best we can make."
+
+"I don't know," said Venning, thoughtfully, with his eyes on the
+opposite cliff. "I see there are trees up there. Is there a way up?"
+
+"There is a goats'-track. What is in your mind, young wise one?"
+
+"We will climb up that goats'-path, chief," said Venning, "with all
+the men, cut down many of those trees, and roll them over the cliff
+into the valley. Then will we build a great house, and the women
+will gather grass and reeds for the thatching of it."
+
+"It would be a good plan, if it could be done."
+
+"We'll do it," said the Hunter; "but if we are to stay here, we must
+bring up the boat, and you must let us have some of your men."
+
+"All," said the chief; and that day the Okapi was brought up in
+sections.
+
+Then Venning's scheme was taken in hand, the cliff scaled, a hundred
+trees felled, and rolled over as they fell, with all the branches
+on.  Then they returned to the valley, drew the fallen trees out,
+lopped off the branches, shaped the poles, dug holes, and got the
+uprights into position.  Then followed the ridge-poles and the
+sideposts, and the roof took shape, to the wonder of the women, a
+noble span covering some thousands of square feet, with a length of
+one hundred and fifty feet, and a height of fifty feet. As the
+supporting rafters were laid, the women climbed up and set to work
+at the thatching, using long bands of bark for the binding. And
+while the women worked at the roof, the men built up stone walls,
+under directions of the architects. The great house built, a smaller
+one was made for the women, to serve as a general kitchen, with
+great stacks of wood piled up all round for the fires. The entire
+population was kept hard at it for a week, and when the work was
+done, there was a grand ceremony over the wedding of Muata; and then
+one morning they awoke to find a low grey canopy drawn over the
+valley, from which fell a steady drizzle of rain. The next day was
+like the first, and so on for nearly three months there was a
+perpetual mist in the valley, a long dismal succession of leaden
+skies hanging low. One of these days the three white friends, in
+company with Muata, paid a visit to the underground world to obtain
+a supply of sulphur to serve as a disinfectant and purifier--another
+idea of Venning's. They found the dark passages thundering to the
+fall of the water, but they found no signs whatever of living
+creatures. With their loads of sulphur they very soon left the
+forbidding place, and for some days after the unhappy people of the
+village had to submit to the terrors of fumigation. As the
+"medicine" was undoubtedly strong, and as it certainly stopped the
+progress of sickness that had broken out, the "Spider" rose in the
+estimation of the people as a great wizard.
+
+At last the curtains were drawn, the blue of the sky appeared, and
+the valley glittered in the brilliant sunlight.
+
+Then the women went singing to their gardens, the men prepared for
+the hunt, and the white chiefs got out their shining canoe from its
+wrappings, rubbed it with fat, and polished it with wood-ashes till
+it shone like a looking-glass.
+
+"Ton will go, then?" said Muata.
+
+"If your men will carry the pieces down to the larger river below
+the gates, we will thank you."
+
+The men went off singing, six men to each section, and in the
+afternoon the Okapi was once more in her proper element.
+
+"And which way will you go, Ngonyama?"
+
+"We have thought it over during the rains, chief. We will go back
+through the open water, back past the place where we landed in the
+forest, back into the great river, and then south, even to the
+farthest reaches of the Congo, when we shall be among people I know.
+There we will get carriers to take the boat to the waters of another
+great river, the Zambesi."
+
+"Towards the setting sun," said Muata. "And you will want a man?"
+
+"Two men, we would ask; and one of them, the Angoni warrior, who did
+so well in the fight, for his country is to the south."
+
+"Only one man you can have," said the chief, shortly.
+
+They had said their good-bye to the people in the valley, who had
+wept at their departure, for the white men had done much for them,
+and never before had they borne the visitation of the rains with so
+little discomfort.
+
+Now they said good-bye to the chief, the man who had shared so much
+of danger with them, whose shield had been their shield, whose spear
+had been theirs to command.
+
+It was difficult to say good-bye, for he seemed moody, answered them
+in monosyllables, and at last, after a curt nod, left them long
+before they were ready to go. And when at last they were heading
+down the broad river to the old pleasant music of the clanging
+levers, the edge of their joy was blunted by the thought of the
+warrior's lowering looks.
+
+"I'm sorry," said Mr. Hume, for the third time.
+
+"I believe he has had something on his mind for days past," said
+Venning; "and yesterday I saw him arguing with the headmen."
+
+"Yet he never opposed our going. I have never seen him like that
+before. Hang it all, I can't bear to think we have left him looking
+so down;" and Compton banged the lever over.
+
+They went on in silence for a mile, still thinking over Muata, when
+the Angoni, who was on watch, cried out--
+
+"Congela!"
+
+"What do you see?"
+
+The man pointed a black finger at the river, and on it they saw two
+black spots. The man's teeth gleamed in a smile and his black eyes
+sparkled.
+
+They stood up to look, and then Mr. Hume motioned to the boys.
+
+"Let her have it," he said; and they made those levers smoke in the
+slots, for they saw in those black spots the long face of the jackal
+and the head of Muata!
+
+They were helped dripping on board, the chief with nothing else than
+his Ghoorka blade.
+
+Mr. Hume waited for an explanation, and the chief gave it in his
+calm way, without a smile.
+
+"You wanted two men, great one. I am the second."
+
+"But we go far, while the moon is many times at the full."
+
+"You go towards the setting sun, Ngonyama, and there also goes the
+son of the Inkosikase."
+
+"But your people?"
+
+"I have said my say with them. They are in peace, and they can live
+in peace; but is Muata a goat that he should live in a kraal? Wow! I
+am a Hunter, like this little one;" and he patted the jackal on the
+head.
+
+"We are only too glad to have you, chief, if your mind is fully made
+up?"
+
+"See, Ngonyama, I thought to live in ease and grow fat, but the
+spirit of my mother called out upon me--ay, it fought within me--and
+I go for the hills and the open plains. Behold, I am no longer
+chief." He took the long blue feather from his head, and let it
+glance to the water. "My shield is your shield."
+
+He sat down in the bows with his face toward the river, and the boys
+laughed as they worked the levers.
+
+"Ripping!" said Compton, feeling quite happy, as he touched his
+precious journal.
+
+"As good as finding a new butterfly," said Venning.
+
+Mr. Hume nodded his head gravely several times, and then a smile
+came into his eyes.
+
+"I guess," he said, "we'll have some good hunting."
+
+And good hunting they had after they had passed the Stanley Falls
+and were in the game country, stretching for hundreds of miles to
+the Zambesi. Some day, perhaps, we may hear of the adventures they
+had in their long voyage before at last, a thousand miles off, they
+touched bottom in the shallows where the mighty Congo narrowed down
+to a stream that could be crossed at a jump. From the Congo they
+marched to a tributary of the Zambesi, and at the Victoria Falls,
+after having gathered a store of ivory, they found an ox-wagon,
+which took them to Bulawayo; and near Bulawayo the two boys, now
+stalwart young men, took possession of a farm owned by Mr. Hume, to
+wait for the return of the Hunter from England, whither he had gone.
+On his return they would go north, in order to keep their promise to
+pick up Muata, whom they left at an Angoni kraal, on another hunting
+expedition.
+
+
+
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