ld
have butchered another ox, but as the boat would now hold no more, Duff
with difficulty made him stop.

As the whites were pushing off he came running down to the landing,
bearing on his shoulder a human leg severed from the body at the hip.

"Take!" he shouted, but Ralph made haste to shove the boat off. "Take!"

Seeing that they would not return, he heaved the toothsome delicacy at
the lad, who, instead of catching it, knocked it into the river,
whereat the chief became highly excited, and evidently somewhat wroth.
The last they saw of him, he and others were trying to recover it by
the aid of a pole.

"Isn't it horrible?" said Ralph, feeling nauseated at the idea and the
sight. "They seem friendly enough, yet--they eat one another. Pah!"

Duff, at the tiller, laughed. Ben shook his head as he took a fresh
quid.

"Many of these coast tribes are cannibals I've heard," commented the
mate. "In times of famine they eat the old folks and the girl babies.
Queer world, isn't it?"

By the time the firelight had disappeared, and only the stars afforded
a relief to the darkness, the wall of forest on either hand grew vague
and indistinct.

Having the current with them, their progress was more rapid than their
ascent of the stream, and by the time daylight appeared they were well
on their way towards the mouth of the river.

Once, as they were rounding a bend, and were nearer the shore than
usual, a deep, harsh, though distant roar met their ears. Ralph and
Ben wondered what it was, but the mate replied by one significant word:

"Lions."

"I would like to see one," said Ralph. "But I thought lions were found
mostly in Central and Southern Africa. At least so I've read."

"Right you are. But now and then they frequent the Gold Coast. I have
heard them in Natal, and down about the diamond regions. Once you hear
a wild lion roar, you never forget the sound."

As the sun mounted above the forest, the odorous mists that infest
those regions were drawn upward, giving out as the air grew warm a
sickening and malarious influence. Vast and gloomy cypress, bay, swamp
palm, ironwood, and other tropical woods reared their columnar trunks,
from out a dark and noisome undergrowth, to an immense height. In
those leafy depths no sun ever shone, and the absence of bird life was
noticeably depressing.

"I hardly wonder the captain wants to get away as soon as possible,"
remarked Duff, as they at last neared the n