to time we stood still and shouted in a manner that would let our
lost friend know that we were in search of him, should he be within
earshot, but no answering cry came back to us; and we were beginning to
despair, when we came upon the footprints of a man in the soft soil of a
swampy spot we had to cross. It was a clear moonlight night, so that we
could distinguish them perfectly.

"Ho!" exclaimed our guide, as he stooped to examine the marks.

"Well, Mak, what do you make of it?" inquired Peterkin anxiously.

Mak made no reply for a few seconds; then he rose, and said earnestly,
"Dat am Massa Jack's foot."

I confess that I was somewhat surprised at the air of confidence with
which our guide made this statement; for after a most careful
examination of the prints, which were exceedingly indistinct, I could
discern nothing to indicate that they had been made by Jack.

"Are you sure, Mak?" asked Peterkin.

"Sartin sure, massa."

"Then push on as fast as you can."

Presently we came to a spot where the ground was harder and the prints
more distinct.

"Ha! you're wrong, Mak," cried Peterkin, in a voice of disappointment,
as he stooped to examine the footsteps again. "Here we have the print
of a naked foot; Jack wore shoes. And, what's this? blood!"

"Yis, massa, me know dat Massa Jack hab shoes. But dat be him's foot
for all dat, and him's hurt somehow for certain."

The reader may imagine our state of mind on making this discovery.
Without uttering another word, we quickened our pace into a smart run,
keeping closely in the track of Jack's steps. Soon we observed that
these deviated from side to side in an extraordinary manner, as if the
person who made them had been unable to walk straight. In a few minutes
more we came on the footprints of a rhinoceros--a sight which still
further increased our alarm. On coming out from among a clump of low
bushes that skirted the edge of a small plain, we observed a dark object
lying on the ground about fifty yards distant from us. I almost sank
down with an undefinable feeling of dread on beholding this.

We held our rifles in readiness as we approached it at a quick pace, for
we knew not whether it was not a wild animal which might spring upon us
the moment we came close enough. But a few seconds dispelled our dread
of such an attack and confirmed our worst fears, for there, in a pool of
blood, lay Jack's manly form. The face was upturned, and the moon,
which