spoke he turned the head of the canoe to the shore, which we soon
reached. Rose had crammed the handkerchief tight down into the mouth of
the prisoner, or he would to a certainty have betrayed us. Even now I
was afraid that we might have been seen, but no hail reached us. Making
as little noise as possible with our paddles, we soon reached the beach,
and, making a sign for Rose not to follow us, we landed, leaving her in
charge of the canoe. We both crept forward as cautiously as any Indians
could have done. As we approached the fire we heard the sound of
voices, and by getting a little nearer we could hear what was said.

"I wonder that fellow Jowl hasn't found us out yet," observed one of the
speakers; "we shall have a long tramp for it if he doesn't appear very
soon, and the captain and his people will be down upon us. Now that
we've got the black, I wish that we had let the girls alone, they'll
only cause trouble, for old Bracher won't know what to do with them."

"We'd better leave them, then, to shift for themselves, they'll find
their way home somehow or other; it matters little to us if they don't,"
answered another.

"But they'll betray the whereabouts of our train to the captain, and
he'll be after us with his people and demand satisfaction. If he proves
the strongest, he'll carry off the black, about whom we have had all
this trouble, into the bargain," observed the first.

"If he comes at all, it will give old Bracher an opportunity of shooting
him, that's what they'd like to do better than anything else," remarked
a third.

The men continued talking on the same subject, but they had said enough
as to the girls being carried off. From it I gathered that Mr Bracher
was travelling eastward with a waggon train, probably having failed in
the west, and that, finding himself in the neighbourhood of our new
location, he had despatched a party to try and recapture Dio, but that
meeting Kathleen and Lily, they had made prisoners of them with the
intention of keeping them as hostages until the slave was delivered up.
I also ascertained that Dio had fallen into their hands, and that
consequently my sister and Lily were of less value in their sight than
would otherwise have been the case.

Although we heard but three persons speaking, there might be many more,
but this we could only determine by getting nearer to the camp. I made
a sign to Mr Tidey to remain quiet while I crept forward. I stopped
wheneve