coming. The crouching warriors were quivering
with excitement, as their gleaming eyes sought the mouth of the
defile, out of which came a confused murmur. From a murmur to a
hoarse rumble, then swiftly to the sound of fierce cries, the noise
grew, and then a man leapt into view, and after him a score, all
running as if for life. The plan was working, but was it not working
too thoroughly? Would those men in whom was the panic of flight be
able to stand? Muata came last, the long feathers streaming from his
head; and as he ran, he shouted at his flying men words of insult.
He cleared the defile, and at his heels there grew a fierce and
growing clamour. Then, like a pack of wolves on the heels of a deer,
the wild men of the woods burst into view. Close together they ran,
and when they saw the valley stretching green and peaceful before
them, they halted to drink in the sight. They feasted their eyes on
the gardens, on the little flocks of goats, on the huts, on the
women and children streaming up the slope on the right. Then they
shouted in their joy of the promise of blood, of loot, of feasting--
shouted and bounded forward. As they were in their stride once more,
a wild yell rang out of the defile--a yell of fear and warning, that
reached them, and that brought them up with a jerk. They faced round
impatiently towards the defile again, and, behold, the mouth was
held by a party of the enemy! But only a small party, less than half
their number. With a yell they charged, and then they halted, and
then they broke, and in a twinkling they had lost their cunning and
were themselves the fugitives; for at the first step two of their
leading men had fallen, and into the thick of them, from a distance
of a hundred yards, came an accurate and unexpected rifle-fire. A
trap! They shouted to each other, then broke streaming across the
river in a frantic search for hiding. In vain they fled, for the
valley seemed alive with men, Muata's band having scattered
purposely; while keen-eyed boys, standing in tree-tops, marked down
the fugitives, and shouted directions to the hunters. Even the
women, led by the chief's mother, came down to join in the pursuit.

This work was not to the taste of the two white boys. They had
played their part, and now they entered the defile to seek their
companion.

Compton went ahead into the shadows, following the river, and
thinking of nothing but the fight that they knew from the sounds was
raging s