ed race; and
though at present we have nothing more than the merest surmise to help
us to their identification, I have little doubt that the result of our
explorations and investigations will be to satisfy us that we have in
very deed found in these ponderous ruins the remains of Ancient Ophir."

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

A NATIVE CHIEFTAIN'S VISIT TO CLOUDLAND.

The travellers, safely shut up in that impregnable fortress, the hull of
the _Flying Fish_, passed the night in peaceful slumber, undisturbed, in
the confidence begotten of a sense of perfect security, by the weird
cries of the night birds, the incessant howling of the jackals, the
maniacal laugh of the prowling hyena, the occasional roar of the lion,
the loud _whirr_ of myriads of insects, the croaking of bull-frogs, and
the other multitudinous nocturnal sounds which floated in through the
open windows of their state-rooms. They were early astir in the
morning, eager to commence their investigations as are school-boys to
plunge into the enjoyments of a long-anticipated holiday. Moved by a
common impulse, they all went out on deck to witness the ruins under the
effect of sunrise previous to their plunge into the matutinal bath; and
it was whilst they were admiring the exquisite beauty of the scene that
the keen-eyed colonel became conscious of the fact that they were
beleaguered by a host of lurking savages.

"Umph!" he commented, "I expected as much."

"You expected as much as what? What is it, Lethbridge?" asked Sir
Reginald.

"Look there," was the reply; "and there, and there, and there. Do you
notice anything peculiar in the appearance of the undergrowth about us,
especially where it is thickest?"

"N-o, I can't say that I do--unless you refer to those occasional quick
gleams which come and go here and there. What are they? At first I
thought it was the flash of the sun on the dew-laden grass and leaves as
they wave in the wind, but it can hardly be that, or we should see more
of it."

"No," said the colonel, "it is not that; it is the occasional glint of
the sun on a native spear-head. I have been through the Kaffir war, and
have seen the same thing before, though not so distinctly as now, our
present towering height above the ground giving us an advantage in that
respect which we sadly lacked before. We are beset by the natives. You
cannot see _one_, I know, but they are all about us, all the same. Ah!
look there, just behind that magnol