ng. There was now no doubt as to the efficacy of the missile.

Day after day Oomah roamed the forest and the sandbars for some sign of
his quarry, but there was not the slightest trace to be found. Either
the Black Phantom had departed to some distant place or had vanished
from the earth. At night he squatted with his back to some giant
tree-trunk and a blazing fire before him; and between naps he listened
for the roars that never came.

Food had been plentiful but was constantly becoming more difficult to
procure. The turtles had finished their laying and had returned to the
water; their eggs, buried in the hot sand, were now unfit to eat.
However, there was still an occasional partridge, a monkey or a
turkey-like curassow and when one of them was secured Oomah ate
sparingly so that the meat lasted several days.

After a while the long and fruitless tramps and the nightly vigils began
to show their effects on the youth. His stolid nature gave way to a
restlessness that caused him to start in his slumber, and to stop
suddenly in his tracks to listen for sounds that never came. At first he
could not understand the new feeling. And then the truth came upon him
in a flash. Unheard feet were treading in his own footsteps; unseen eyes
were watching his every movement. He was being followed and observed by
an invisible enemy.

Oomah was sure of it, so sure that he swerved out of the forest and
walked along the edge of the bar where the sand was softest and after he
had gone a distance of fifty paces returned to the forest. He continued
along in the deep shadows apparently without concern for the greater
part of an hour. Then he turned and retraced his steps. On the sandbar
he found the confirming evidence. Huge feet had left their imprints
besides those of his own. Some monstrous creature had dogged his every
step, was doubtless even now watching him from a place of concealment in
the dense cover. And of the identity of that creature there was little
question. It could be none other than the Black Phantom.

A thrill came over Oomah--not of fear but of the anticipation of
success. He had at last found his quarry and would lay a neat trap that
the shadowy one would all unsuspectingly enter. His victory was assured.

The youth entered the forest and continued on his way. He walked mile
after mile without turning to look back and then gradually altered his
course so that it took him to the river. Emerging from the wall of
t