ld not understand _him_. But he deemed it wiser to make a
reply of some kind, however unintelligible, than to stand like a post
and say nothing.

Again the negro spoke, and again Glynn made the same reply; whereupon
the black fellow turned round to his comrades and looked at them, and
they, in reply to the look, burst again into an immoderate fit of
laughter, and cut a variety of capers, the very simplest of which would
have made the fortune of any merry-andrew in the civilised world, had he
been able to execute it. This was all very well, no doubt, and
exceedingly amusing, not to say surprising; but it became quite a
different matter when, after satisfying their curiosity, these dark
gentlemen coolly collected the property of the white men, stowed it away
in the small canoe, and made signs to Glynn and Ailie to enter.

Glynn showed a decided objection to obey, on which two stout fellows
seized him by the shoulders, and pointed sternly to the canoe, as much
as to say, "Hobbi-doddle-hoogum-toly-whack," which, being interpreted
(no doubt) meant, "If you don't go quietly, we'll force you."

Again the young sailor's spirit leaped up. He clenched his fists, his
brow flushed crimson, and, in another instant, whatever might have been
the consequence, the two negroes would certainly have lain recumbent on
the sward, had it not suddenly occurred to Glynn that he might, by
appearing to submit, win the confidence of his captors, and, at the
first night-encampment, quietly make his escape with Ailie in his arms!

Glynn was at that romantic age when young men have a tendency to think
themselves capable of doing almost anything, with or without ordinary
facilities, and in the face of any amount of adverse circumstance. He
therefore stepped willingly and even cheerfully into the canoe, in which
his and his comrades' baggage had been already stowed, and, seating
himself in the stern, took up the steering-paddle. He was ordered to
quit that post, however, in favour of a powerful negro, and made to sit
in the bow and paddle there. Ailie was placed with great care in the
centre of the canoe among a heap of soft leopard-skins; for the savages
evidently regarded her as something worth preserving--a rare and
beautiful specimen, perhaps, of the white monkey!

This done, they leaped into their large canoe, and, attaching the
smaller one to it by means of a rope, paddled out from the bank, and
descended the stream.

"Oh! Glynn," ex