to the hut prepared for their reception, and lay down, as they
thought, for the night. Duff was soon asleep, but Ralph remained
wakeful.

To add to his restlessness he soon found his blankets alive with fleas,
from which these native huts are hardly ever free. After fighting and
scratching for an hour or more, he got up and returned to the open air
for relief.

The scene was both weird and dismal. The small clearing, densely
walled in by the forest where the trees sprang nearly two hundred feet
in the air, seemed to be stifling under the compression, though the
feeling was but the resulting languor of a tropic night without a
breeze. Sundry strange and melancholy calls issued in varying cadences
from the wilderness, and an occasional splash from the river denoted
the passage of some huge marine animal. Crocodiles were bellowing
sullenly up stream, and from the closed huts issued the sounds of heavy
slumber.

He was thinking it strange that no one should remain on guard amid a
life so savage and isolated as that of these simple people, when he was
aroused by a touch on his arm, as he sat musing on a log before the
embers of their fire.

CHAPTER XVIII.

A Brush in the Wilderness.

Ralph leaped to his feet and presented his ready rifle. But it was
only Ben. The sailor's rugged face wore a look of alarm.

"I'm glad ye're up," was his first remark. "I don't like the look of
things, though what's stirrin' is more nor I can make out."

"What have yon seen--or heard, for that matter? One can't see much
under this wall of woods all about."

"Divil a bit! So I pricked up me ears for list'nin. The crocydiles
kep' up such a hullabaloo I could hardly hear meself think, but somehow
I caught on to the sound of paddles a goin'. Hist now! Can't 'e hear
that?"

They were at one edge of the village, which was not defended by a
kraal, or stockade, as is often the custom where enemies are feared.
The dense forest undergrowth was not over thirty yards away.

They could now hear certain stealthy sounds, as of some one or
something moving within the timber.

"I will wake Mr. Duff," whispered Ralph. "You go back to the boat,
Ben. They may see us by the fire."

The sailor returned to his post. The lad soon had the mate awake,
listening to his explanation of their uneasiness.

"I will rouse the chief," replied Duff. "You had better rejoin Ben and
wait for me there. If some enemy is really prowling around