w strange shadows on the inky
surface of the water as it crept slowly to the sea. From time to time
the frogs broke into a sudden chorus of croaking, then grew silent
again; the heron cried from afar as some alligator or river-horse
disturbed its rest, and from high in air came the sound of the wings of
wild-fowl that travelled to the ocean. But to Leonard's fancy all these
various voices of nature were as one voice that spoke from the piles of
skeletons gleaming faintly in the uncertain starlight and cried, "Oh!
God, how long shall iniquity have power on the earth? Oh! God, how long
shall thy Hand be stayed?"

The darkness passed, the sun shone out merrily, and the travellers
arose, brushed the night-dew from their hair, and ate a scanty meal, for
they must husband such food as they had with them. Then, as though by
common consent, they went to the canoe, bailed her out, and started,
Leonard and Otter using the paddles.

Now it was that the dwarf's marvellous memory for locality came into
play. Without him they could not have gone a mile, for their course ran
through numberless lagoons and canals, cut by nature and the current
in the dense banks of reeds. There was nothing to enable them to
distinguish one of these canals from another; in truth they all formed
a portion of this mouth of the river. There were no landmarks to guide
them; everywhere spread a sea of swamp diversified by rush-clothed
islands, which to the inexperienced eye presented few points of
difference. This was the road that Otter led them on unfalteringly; ten
years had passed since he had travelled it, but he never even hesitated.
Time upon time they came to new openings in the reeds leading this way
and that. Then for a moment the dwarf would consider, and, lifting his
hand, point out which water-way they should choose, and they followed
it.

Thus they went on for the most part of that day, till towards evening
they reached a place where the particular canal that they were following
suddenly divided itself into two, one branch running north and one in a
southerly direction.

"Which way, Otter?" asked Leonard.

"Nay, Baas, I know not. The water has changed; there was no land here,
the cut went straight on."

This was a serious matter, for one false step in such a labyrinth meant
that they would be lost utterly. For long they debated which stream
to take, and at last decided to try that on the left hand, which Otter
thought ran more nearly in