of the red pygmies."

"Yes," said Mr. Anderson gravely, "it is our duty to save them."

And so the airship mounted into the air, our friends waving
farewells to the simple-hearted blacks, who did a sort of farewell
war-dance in their honor, shouting their praises aloud, and beating
the drums and tom-toms, so that the echoes followed for some time
after the Black Hawk had begun to mount upward toward the sky.

The craft was in excellent shape, due to the overhauling Tom had
given it while making the repairs. With the propellers beating the
air, and the rudder set to hold them about two thousand feet high,
the travelers moved rapidly over clearings, forests and jungles.

It was agreed that now, when they had made such a good start in
collecting ivory, that they would spend the next few days in trying
to get on the trail of the red pygmies. It might seem a simple
matter, after knowing the approximate location of the land of these
fierce little natives, to have proceeded directly to it. But Africa
is an immense continent, and even in an airship comparatively little
of the interior can be seen at a time.

Besides, the red pygmies had a habit of moving from place to place,
and they were so small, and so wild, capable of living in very tiny
huts or caves, and so primitive, not building regular villages as
the other Africans do, that as Ned said, they were as hard to locate
as the proverbial flea.

Our friends had a general idea of where to look for them, but on
nearing that land, and making inquiries of several friendly tribes,
they learned that the red pygmies had suddenly disappeared from
their usual haunts.

"I guess they heard that we were after them," said Tom, with a grim
smile one day, as he sent the airship down toward the earth, for
they were over a great plain, and several native villages could be
seen dotted on its surface.

"More likely they are in hiding because they have as captives two
white persons," said Mr. Anderson. "They are fierce and fearless,
but, nevertheless, they have, in times past, felt the vengeance of
the white man, and perhaps they dread that now."

They made a descent, and spent several days making inquiries from
the friendly blacks about the race of little men. But scarcely
anything was learned. Some of the negro tribes admitted having heard
of the red pygmies, and others, with superstitious incantations and
imprecations, said they had never heard of them.

One tribe of very larg