on the table; and at
the conclusion of the meal Sir Reginald Elphinstone, Colonel Lethbridge,
the professor, and Colonel Sziszkinski took their rifles and left the
ship upon what they termed a preliminary exploration of the forest in
their immediate vicinity.

They very soon discovered that any attempt to penetrate the forest
without the aid of axes and bush-knives would be utterly useless. Let
them go in what direction they would, a few yards of laborious
struggling through the dense undergrowth was certain to bring them to a
spot where the thicket became so dense and so inextricably tangled that
further progress became impossible. As a last resource, therefore, they
tried the river, and here they got on very much better, the water being
so low that much of the bed was dry; and by scrambling over boulders and
great piles of drifted tree-trunks and tangled scrub that were
encountered at frequent intervals, with, here and there, a few yards of
clear gravel or sand, upon which the going was perfectly easy, they
eventually reached an open space of some twenty acres in extent. This
during the rainy season was undoubtedly a pool; but it was now merely a
chaotic agglomeration of rocky outcrop, boulders, coarse shingle, and
sand, in which lay, half buried, further tangled masses of tree-trunks,
branches, and undergrowth, with thread-like streams of water twisting
hither and thither through it and occasionally widening out into broad,
shallow pools. The important fact in connection with this spot,
however, was that, upon careful examination, it was discovered that
several well-defined tracks through the forest converged here, the
imprints upon the soil of which showed that the various denizens of the
forest, for many miles round in every direction, used this spot as their
regular drinking-place. It was obvious at once to them all that this
was the most favourable spot for an ambush that they could possibly wish
for; and at length, after careful examination of several promising
positions, they chose a pile of rocks near the centre of the open space,
and against which a great heap of tangled debris had been piled during
flood-time, as the spot where they would lie in wait for such game as
might come down to drink. They improved the natural advantages of the
place so far as they could in the limited time at their disposal, and
then hastened back to the _Flying Fish_ to report themselves and make
their preparations for the co