bly more than half the distance was passed.

They now began swaying their paddles less powerfully, for the feeling
was strong upon them that they had approached as close as was prudent
to the Murhapa village.

It was about this time, that they rounded a bend in the Xingu which
gave them sight of the river for fully half a mile before another
change in its course shut out all view. Naturally, they scanned the
stream in quest of enemies, who were now likely to be quite close.

The first survey showed them a canoe coming down stream. It was near
the middle and was approaching at a rapid rate.

Fred Ashman laid down his paddle and took up his binocular.

"It is Ziffak!" he exclaimed, passing the glass to Long.

"So it is and he is alone," was the reply of the astonished New
Englander, who added an exclamation of surprise that he should be
approaching from that direction. The only explanation was, that since
last seeing him, he had made a journey to his home and was now
returning to meet and convoy his friends to his own people.

Such proved to be the case, as he explained on joining them.

After the affair at the foot of the rapids, he paused long enough to
make clear to the Aryks that not one of them was to make another
offensive movement against the whites under penalty of the most fearful
punishment. He explained that these particular white men were the
friends of all natives, and that they never would have harmed an Aryk
had they not been forced to do so to save their own lives.

The cunning Ziffak dropped a hint that the newcomers were much better
persons than the couple that had made their homes among the Murhapas
for so many years. Then, having completed his business in that line,
he struck through the forest at a high rate of speed and soon reached
his own people.

He expected to find Waggaman and Burkhardt there, but they had not yet
arrived. He explained to his brother the king what had taken place at
the rapids of the Xingu and succeeded in gaining his promise of the
king that he would allow the white men to enter the village without the
sacrifice of their lives; but he was not willing that they should
remain more than a couple of days. Indeed he gave such assent
grudgingly and probably would have refused it altogether, but for the
earnest pleading of his beloved Ariel, who insisted that it would be a
partial recompense of the crime of three years previous.

This was the best that Ziffak, with