d the
bed of the river kept its normal declivity to the falls. As has been
said, it was the sudden sinking of the ground, and the attraction was
only felt three or four hundred feet above the cataract.

On the left bank were large and very thick trees. No light penetrated
their impenetrable curtain. It was not without terror that Dick Sand
looked at this territory, inhabited by the cannibals of the Lower
Congo, which he must now cross, because the boat could no longer
follow the stream. He could not dream of carrying it below the falls.
It was a terrible blow for these poor people, on the eve perhaps of
reaching the Portuguese villages at its mouth. They were well aided,
however. Would not Heaven come to their assistance?

The boat soon reached the left bank of the river. As it drew near,
Dingo gave strange marks of impatience and grief at the same time.

Dick Sand, who was watching the animal--for all was danger--asked
himself if some beast or some native was not concealed in the high
papyrus of the bank. But he soon saw that the animal was not agitated
by a sentiment of anger.

"One would say that Dingo was crying!" exclaimed little Jack, clasping
Dingo in his two arms.

Dingo escaped from him, and, springing into the water, when the boat
was only twenty feet from the bank, reached the shore and disappeared
among the bushes.

Neither Mrs. Weldon, nor Dick Sand, nor Hercules, knew what to think.

They landed a few moments after in the middle of a foam green with
hairweed and other aquatic plants. Some kingfishers, giving a sharp
whistle, and some little herons, white as snow, immediately flew away.
Hercules fastened the boat firmly to a mangrove stump, and all climbed
up the steep bank overhung by large trees.

There was no path in this forest. However, faint traces on the ground
indicated that this place had been recently visited by natives or
animals.

Dick Sand, with loaded gun, and Hercules, with his hatchet in his
hand, had not gone ten steps before they found Dingo again. The dog,
nose to the ground, was following a scent, barking all the time. A
first inexplicable presentiment had drawn the animal to this part
of the shore, a second led it into the depths of the wood. That was
clearly visible to all.

"Attention!" said Dick Sand. "Mrs. Weldon, Mr. Benedict, Jack, do not
leave us! Attention, Hercules!"

At this moment Dingo raised its head, and, by little bounds, invited
them to follow.

A moment