nced back. "Come," he said, "this is not amiable.
See, we could, had we liked, have caught you in an ambush."

"And so your friend Hassan advised you, eh?" replied Mr. Hume; "but
you thought we would surrender at discretion. You see, you were
mistaken. Now just listen to me. Do not look back again, or this
rifle may go off. Out with the sculls, lads."

Hassan growled out curses at this complete turning of the tables
upon him, but the natives bent to their paddles. They bad no wish to
be shot down in the cause of the slave-hunter, however ready they
would have been to have fallen on the Englishmen if the advantage
had been with them.

The darkness was coming on fast as the strange procession passed up
the channel to thread the intricate passages among the clustering
islands. In a few minutes the canoe would be almost hidden from
sight; but the very last thing Mr. Hume wanted was to keep company.

"Baleka!" he cried. "Quicker! I have your heads in one line. One
bullet would stretch you all dead. Quicker!" he roared.

The broad paddles flashed, the water churned fiercely, and the long
canoe shot off into the dusk; and as it sped on the hunter pulled
the wheel over, altering the course of the Okapi, and taking it
towards the open water between the islands and the south bank.

"By Jove! you did that splendidly," said Compton. "I thought it was
all over."

Venning laughed that little nervous laugh of his. "I wonder why they
gave in like that?"

"We had the drop on then," said Mr. Hume, grimly; "and we knew our
own minds. Now, then! up with the sail, and, dark or not, we must
get on."

Very smartly and silently the boys hoisted the sail, and as the
Okapi beat up they heard a great uproar from the left. Apparently
Hassan was using violent language to the Belgian officer for not
having ambushed the "dogs of Englishmen." Then several rifle-shots
were fired from the canoe, and answered from the people down-stream,
who were still searching for their prey. But the Okapi slipped on,
making a musical ripple under her bows, until she beat up under the
great wall of woods on the south bank, when she tacked away into the
gathering darkness, feeling for the wind. Down-river was the glare
of fires at different spots, where the men had landed from the
different canoes; but there was no light ahead through the whole
vast width of the river, and they dare not even rig up their own
lamp to get what little guidance it could give. Th