It has given me the shivers."

"Quinine," said Compton; and they dosed one another there and then.
"I say, I'd give the whole five hundred miles square of this forest
for one little glade in Epping."

"Bother!"

"Of all the squirmy, snaky, gloomy, airless, sunless, moist,
decaying masses of misery, I think this is the worst."

"It is, Dick; it is. There's not a butterfly even."

"Thunder! It's raining fire! No; it's an ant S It's raining ants, by
gum!"

"You ass, you've hooked the bill into a nest. There--that round,
black thing--like a football. They're running up the bill-hook."

There was a splash as the boat was shoved off, then muttered
exclamations and a yelp from the jackal: Many scores of ants had
invaded the Okapi, and each ant, full of murderous rage for the
wanton attack upon the nest, seized hold of the first soft thing it
came across, and once it gripped it held on like a bull-dog. War was
waged on the invaders, and when the last had been discovered and
crushed, there was no sleep in the savage eyes of the awakened.

Incidents like these alone varied the monotony of the dreary days
they spent in that mournful slough, and if it had not been for the
regular exercise at the levers, and the hope of a speedy release
from their surroundings, the young explorers must have succumbed. As
it was, they lost colour, became pale, languid, and heavy-eyed; and
Mr. Hume, noting the signs of the dreaded wasting sickness with
anxiety, did not spare himself or Muata when it came to their turn
to work the levers.

CHAPTER XVII

THE PLACE OF REST

The chiefs wife urged them on. Neither night nor day did she seem to
rest, for whenever one of the boys, in a feverish sleep, tossed his
arms about, she was at his side with a drink compounded of herbs,
that kept the fever away. She took her spell at the levers, her long
round arms moving with unexpected power, and only the hunter himself
could tire her out. As for him, he was not happy unless he was
working, and at times he made the screw spin again under his fierce
strokes, whenever his eyes fell on the wan faces of his young
companions stewing in the insufferable heat. He shortened the
journey by twenty-four hours, for on the afternoon of the fourth day
the woman, for the first time, showed signs of joy.

"Lift up your heads, O young lions," she cried; "let the light come
into your eyes, and the strength into your limbs, for we are at the
gates! You will catch