As it came, rising and falling,
monotonous and rhythmical, the very plain song of desolation, Adams felt
his hair lift and his flesh crawl, till one of the porters, springing
erect from his crouching position, sent his voice through the trees--

"Ahi ahee!"

The song ceased; and then, a moment later, faint and wavering, and like
the voice of a seagull, came the reply--

"Ahi aheee!"

"Man," said the porter, turning white eyeballs and glinting teeth over his
shoulder at Adams.

He called again, and again came the reply.

"Quick," said Adams, seizing the arm of Berselius, who had risen, "there's
a native here somewhere about; he may guide us out of this infernal place;
follow me, and for God's sake keep close."

Holding Berselius by the arm, and motioning the other native to follow, he
seized the porter by the shoulder and pushed him forward. The man knew
what was required and obeyed, advancing, calling, and listening by turns,
till, at last, catching the true direction of the sound he went rapidly,
Berselius and Adams following close behind. Sometimes they were half up to
the knees in boggy patches, fighting their way through leaves that struck
them like great wet hands; sometimes the call in the distance seemed
farther away, and they held their pace, they held their breath, they clung
to each other, listening, till, now, by some trick of the trees, though
they had not moved and though there was no wind, the cry came nearer.

"Ahi, ahee!"

Then, at last, a dim red glow shone through the foliage before them and
bursting their way through the leaves they broke into an open space where,
alone, by a small fire of dry branches and brushwood, sat a native, stark
naked, except for a scrap of dingy loincloth, and looking like a black
gnome, a faun of this horrible place, and the very concretion of its
desolation and death.

He was sitting when they caught their first glimpse of him, with his chin
supported on his hand, but the instant he saw the faces of the white men
he rose as if to escape, then the porter called out something that
reassured him, and he sat down again and shivered.

He was one of the rubber collectors. He had reached this spot the day
before, and had built himself a shelter of leaves and branches. He would
be here for ten days or a fortnight, and his food, chiefly cassava, lay in
a little pile in the shelter, covered over with leaves.

The porter continued speaking to the collector, who, now rega