hick undergrowth,
which afforded an effectual screen for anyone behind it. After going for
about a quarter of a mile they stopped to listen. There was a faint
throbbing sound in the air.

"Paddles!" Steve exclaimed.

"Ay, and native paddles, sir. Our men don't paddle like that, and I
fancy," he went on after listening again, "there is more than one canoe.
That settles it, sir. There isn't a chance of our ever seeing our mates
again."

"Oh, don't say that, Wilcox! Even if some have been killed, the others may
have been taken prisoners. I can't believe they have all been murdered."

"Well, I hope not, sir, but it looks very black. If they had pounced upon
them sudden, and there had been no fighting, they might have kept them
prisoners a day or two till they made a grand feast and killed them; but
that firing we heard settles it to my mind. I should say there ain't no
manner of doubt that our fellows will have killed some of the niggers, and
I expect that the two canoes closed in on them, and then it would be all
over in a minute."

When the canoes were within a quarter of a mile the rowers broke into a
sort of chant, with occasional wild shouts and yells.

"There they come," Wilcox said as two long canoes, paddling abreast,
rounded a turn in the river a short distance away. "There must be
something like fifty men in each canoe."

In a short time the canoes came along at a high rate of speed. The sailor
gave a sudden exclamation of fury.

"What is it?" Steve asked.

"Don't you see, sir, in the stern of each of the canoes, piled up by the
steering oar, there are some heads."

"I can't look at them," Steven said, drawing back from his peep-hole
through the leaves.

"They are whites," the sailor muttered. "There ain't no doubt about it. I
would give all my pay for the voyage to have the _Tiger's_ crew here, that
we might give them murdering villains a volley."

But Stephen did not hear him; he had thrown himself down, and the tears
were running down his cheeks. The loss of the second mate, who had always
been cheery and kind, and of his fellow apprentice, Joyce, completely
unnerved him. Up to now he had hoped, but what before had been doubt as to
their fate had now been converted into certainty.

"Don't give way, Master Steve," the sailor said, stooping over him and
laying his hand on his shoulder. "It is a bad job, there ain't no denying
it. What happened to them half an hour ago may happen to us before long;