ugh to climb.
When you're well up over their heads, let fly with your gun. I'll do
the same the moment afterwards, and between the two reports they'll be
so scared, I expect, that they'll cut for it straightway."

"Very well," said Frank, laughing, "I've no objection. We can but try,
any way." He carefully uncocked his gun, and began mounting the
branches as quietly as possible, while Nick distracted the attention of
the monkeys, by shaking his fist at them, and pelting them with
fragments of bark. Presently there came the double explosion, which
fully answered his expectations. Uttering a Babel of discordant
screams, they dropped their recently acquired treasures, and made off at
the top of their speed, bounding from tree to tree till they were lost
in the distance. Nick set himself to collect the various articles thus
restored, and had nearly repossessed himself of all of them, when Frank
descended from his elevation and joined him on the platform.

"You get into scrapes, Nick, more than most," he said, "but you've a
wonderful knack of getting out of them again, that's certain. Well,
come along, if you've got everything. The doctor is anxious to start,
if this Hottentot chap will let us, and you've still your breakfast to
get."

"The Hottentot let us start this morning!" repeated Gilbert. "Not if
he's to go with us himself, to be sure! To look at him last night, he
wouldn't be fit to walk again this side of Christmas. Perhaps he
expects us to carry him, as we did yesterday--do you really think that,
Frank?" continued Gilbert, stopping short, and eyeing his companion with
an expression of much dismay.

"No, I don't," returned Wilmore, again bursting into a laugh; "and if he
did expect it, he'd find his expectations deceive him considerably.
That's what _I_ expect, at all events."

"Well, here we are," said Nick, a minute or two afterwards, as they
reached the post. "Well, doctor, I'm sorry to be late, but Frank will
tell you that I have been in the hands of the swell mob, and have only
just contrived to escape them."

The doctor looked puzzled, but he had no time for explanations. "Eat
your breakfast, Gilbert," he said, "while we settle what is to be done
to-day. I suppose we are all agreed that it won't do for us to stop
here longer than we can help. Now Omatoko is not able to travel very
far, but he could walk a few miles if he went very slowly and had a rest
every now and then. He thinks so hi