No, massa; no shot at wild beast. De wild beast hab bin here too, but
dey come for to eat mans after he dead."

"Come, let us see the spot," said Jack.

Makarooroo at once led the way, and we all followed him to a place not a
hundred yards distant, where there were evident traces of a fight having
taken place. Jack seemed to be much distressed at the sight.

"There can be no question as to the fact," he remarked as we returned to
our fire; "and at any other time or in any other place I would have
thought nothing of it, for we know well enough that the natives here
often go to war with each other; but just at _this_ time, and so near to
our friend Mbango--I fear, I fear much that that villain has been before
us."

"No been long, massa," said Makarooroo earnestly. "If we go quick we
ketch 'im."

"We _shall_ go quick, Mak. But in order to do that, we must eat well,
and sleep at least an hour or so. If we push on just now, after a hard
day's journey, without food or rest, we shall make but slow progress;
and even if we did come up with the slave-dealer, we should not be in a
very fit state for a battle."

This was so obvious that we all felt the wisdom of Jack's remarks; so we
ate a hearty supper, and then lay down to rest. Peterkin declared the
frog to be excellent, but I could not at that time make up my mind to
try it.

An hour and a half after lying down, our guide awakened us, and we set
forth again with recruited energies.

That night the lions and hyenas roared around us more than was their
wont, as if they were aware of our anxious condition, and were desirous
of increasing our discomforts. We had to keep a sharp lookout, and once
or twice discharged our rifles in the direction of the nearest sounds,
not in the expectation of hitting any of the animals, but for the
purpose of scaring them away.

Towards morning we came out upon an open plain, and left these evil
prowlers of the night behind us.

About daybreak we came within sight of Mbango's village, but the light
was not sufficient to enable us to distinguish any object clearly. Here
again we came upon traces of war, in the shape of broken arrows and
daggers, and human bones; for the poor wretches who had been slain had
been at once devoured by wild beasts.

Hurrying forward with intense anxiety, we reached the outskirts of the
village; and here a scene presented itself that was well calculated to
fill our breasts with horror and with the dee