of hide round
the waist. They talked unceasingly, cracking their fingers and
making play with their hands, while all the time one or another of
the different groups was on his feet, stamping the ground, swinging
a club, and shouting at the top of his voice.

"Ah men," said Mr. Hume. "Not a woman or a boy among them."

"What have they done with their prisoners, if these are the same we
are after?"

What, indeed! Their eyes searched the shadows at the foot of the
knoll for trace of the unfortunate people who had been captured, but
they could neither see nor hear anything.

"Ugh, the brutes!" muttered Venning, with a shudder, as he brought
his rifle to the "ready."

Mr. Hume pressed the barrel down. "We'll have no night attack," he
whispered. "At the first note of danger they'd scatter like shadows,
when they would have the eyes and the ears of us. Well hear what
Muata has to say, and then wait for the morning."

"There are thirty-six of them," muttered Compton. A bull crocodile
roared from the water near at hand, and one of the black men
imitated the cry, drawing a yell of wild laughter from his comrades.
It was the wildest of scenes. The little circle of red fire threw
into light against an impenetrable wall of black the trunks of a few
trees, the trailing vines, and the forms of the savage men. That was
the one bit of the world visible, a space on which appeared some of
the lowest forms of the human race; but, though they could see not
an inch beyond the furthest reflection of the fires, they knew how
well the setting fitted the picture. It seemed only natural that in
that gloomy wilderness of wood these savage types should prevail,
for if man had to live there, he could only hold his own by a
cunning and ferocity greater than the beasts possessed. Every item
of the scene stamped itself on the minds of the boys as they stood
for a long time watching the antics of the savages.

It was a relief when Muata made his presence known by a cricket-like
chirrup.

"Are these the men we are after, chief?" asked Mr. Hume, when the
two scouts silently crept up. "They are the same, but the trail is
different." "Then they are already on another hunt, and have left
the women and children they captured elsewhere? Is that so?"

"As you have seen, they are warriors only. Such of the women and
children who yet live are hidden. These await the coming of the
other wolves."

"Oh oh! Then there is to be a great war-party?" "A gre