a
sharp sound came from the depths of the jungle. It was the snapping of
a dried twig, a crisp and startling noise which caused both to look up
suddenly.

"They are not so far away, I think," said Dick, in a low voice.
"Wouldn't it be better if we moved away, sir? We are in the full blaze
of the moon's rays here, while they are in the shadow. That's how that
robber managed to get away from me down at the coast."

Hardly had the words left his lips when a single shot rang out,
startling the silence, while the flash of the weapon lit up the
immediate surroundings of the bush, and showed a dozen dark figures
perhaps, all in the act of running forward. Dick noticed that in the
twinkling of an eye, and heard also the click of the missile as it
struck a hanging bough some feet in front of him. Then there was a dull
thud, that thud which in the old days of large calibre rifles and heavy
bullets told unmistakably of a hit. A second later a heavy splash and a
sickening gurgle told the young Englishman the horrid truth. His
comrade had been struck and had fallen into the shallow water.

It was a terrifying position, and for a second Dick stood rooted to the
spot with consternation. Then his courage returned, and with the memory
of that glimpse of charging figures which the flash of the rifle had
given him, he stooped, clutched his fallen friend, and staggered to the
boat. Half throwing him into it, he leaned across the thwarts, seized
his rifle, and extracted a cartridge from the bag. He had still a
moment to spare, for the patter of feet and the snap of many a twig told
him that the enemy were not yet quite at hand.

"They are bound to kill us both here in the light," he thought, as the
prominence of their position flashed across his brain. "I'll get into
the shadow."

He had always been noted for his agility, and on this fine night our
hero surpassed himself. Fear gave him strength, or else he could hardly
have lifted his comrade as he had done. And now the same stimulus
seemed to have sharpened his wits. He leaped at the gunwale of the boat
and pushed the craft into deeper water. Then with a parting thrust of
his leg he scrambled aboard, while the boat, impelled by the push he had
given it, shot across the moonlit shadows, and burst its way into the
deep shade of an overhanging tree. Dick clutched a bough and arrested
its further progress. Then leaning his shoulder against the same
friendly limb of the t