s none he hopped off again and
chattered away louder than ever.

Jack now descended in the same way that he had got up. His first care
was to cut a thick stick to serve as a weapon of defence, for he thought
to himself, "If the tigers about here are so bold as to carry off a
black man, they are just as likely to attack me." He accordingly kept
his eyes about him, and, steering as well as he could by the sun, he
pushed away towards the north. He could not help expecting to see a
tiger spring out towards him, and every now and then he was startled by
a snake crawling across his path; while the cawing of parrots and
parrakeets, and the chattering of monkeys, made him feel like one of
those knights in fairy stories, who have to traverse a forest haunted by
evil spirits, who do their utmost to turn him from his gallant purpose
of rescuing a lovely princess from the enchanted castle in which she has
been shut up. Jack, however, was not to be turned from his intention of
getting down to the banks of the river. He forgot that he would have to
cross through a mangrove swamp, unless he could hit upon one of the few
paths used by the negroes for the purpose of crossing it. Night was now
rapidly approaching. He saw that unless he would run a very great risk
of serving as the supper of some hungry wild beast, he must get up into
a tree and pass it there. He was getting very hungry also, and he had
but a few scraps of the biscuit he had shared with the monkey. Still,
as long as there was daylight, he was anxious to push on, for he was
sure that the boats would be sent in to look for him the first thing in
the morning, and he wanted to be near the river to signalise to them.
So he pushed on, beating down the bushes with his thick stick. Many a
snake, lizard, and other creeping or crawling thing hissed or croaked at
him as he passed. At last he saw before him an open space. "Ah! now,
at all events, I shall be able to push on rapidly," he thought to
himself. So he did, and he went on some way, when on a sudden he found
himself in front of a pailing with some grotesque-looking figures carved
in wood grinning above it, and within it a bamboo-leaf-covered hut,
before which stood a remarkably big ugly-looking blackamoor. Jack
looked at him, and he looked at Jack, and uttered some words which
clearly were meant to express, "Hillo, youngster, where are you hurrying
to?" Jack followed a very natural impulse, which was to run as f