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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.
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.
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.
"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.
"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.
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.
"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."
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?"
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.
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.
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