e ago, but they
are watching too closely now."

"Let's open again," suggested the New Englander.

"Better wait awhile; they can be stampeded easier then than now," was
the reply of the Professor.

During this lull, when it may be said the defenders were becoming
accustomed to the siege, they had time to give a few minutes' thought
to their absent friends, Fred Ashman and Ziffak, regarding whom it was
natural to feel great curiosity.

They believed themselves warranted in hoping for the best, so far as
Ashman was concerned. He had probably strolled some distance, and must
have been warned by the firing of the Professor's Winchester from the
front, of the serious danger in which his friends were involved. If
all had gone well with the youth up to that time, he ought to be wise
enough to get away without an instant's delay. What was feared was,
that in his anxiety to help his comrades, he would run into a peril
from which he could not extricate himself.

The real hope for the youth was centered on Ziffak. Believing he had
gone forth to look after Ashman, they were confident he would speedily
get upon his track. If so, he would not permit him to return to the
village.

From what the reader has been told, it will be seen that the defenders
were not far off in their conjectures.

But, when they came to speculate upon the part that the head chieftain
was likely to take, affecting Grimcke and Long, they were all at sea.
It would ever be a source of wonder that he had been transformed from a
relentless enemy into the strongest of friends, but they fully realized
that such friendship must have its bounds.

Ziffak might not shrink from using very plain speech when talking face
to face with his brother, but it was hardly to be supposed that he
would raise his arm against his authority. At the time Ziffak made
known the probability that the explorers might be compelled to take
their departure that evening, he gave no intimation of any purpose of
helping them to resist such an order.

Accustomed as he was to lead the warlike Murhapas in battle, he might
well hesitate to ask them to turn their weapons against the king, and
if he should presume on such treason, all the probabilities were that
such weapons would be turned against the head chieftain himself.

CHAPTER XXIX.

ACROSS THE LAKE.

A few minutes after passing the bend in the stream, which hid the rock
and the sleeping sentinel from sight, Fred Ashma