the man who opposed him.

"You shan't give him another cut," said Disco between his teeth, as he
seized the driver by the throat.

"We don't intend to do so," said Marizano coolly, while the driver
released himself from poor Disco's weakened grasp, "he won't need any
more."

The Englishmen required no explanation of these words. A glance told
them that the man was dying.

"Cut him out," said Marizano.

One of his men immediately brought a saw and cut the fork of the stick
which still held the living to the dying man, and which, being riveted
on them, could not otherwise be removed.

Harold and Disco lifted him up as soon as he was free, and carrying him
a short distance aside to a soft part of the bank, laid him gently down.

The dying slave looked as if he were surprised at such unwonted
tenderness. There was even a slight smile on his lips for a few
moments, but it quickly passed away with the fast ebbing tide of life.

"Go fetch some water," said Harold. "His lips are dry."

Disco rose and ran to fill a small cocoa-nut-shell which he carried at
his girdle as a drinking-cup. Returning with it he moistened the man's
lips and poured a little of the cool water on the raw sores on each side
of his neck.

They were so much engrossed with their occupation that neither of them
observed that the slave-gang had commenced to pass through the swamp,
until the sharp cry of a child drew their attention to it for a moment;
but, knowing that they could do no good, they endeavoured to shut their
eyes and ears to everything save the duty they had in hand.

By degrees the greater part of the long line had got into the swamp and
were slowly toiling through it under the stimulus of the lash. Some,
like the poor fellow who first fell, had sunk under their accumulated
trials, and after a fruitless effort on the part of the slavers to drive
them forward, had been kicked aside into the jungle, there to die, or to
be torn in pieces by that ever-watchful scavenger of the wilderness, the
hyena. These were chiefly women, who having become mothers not long
before were unable to carry their infants and keep up with the gang.
Others, under the intense dread of flagellation, made the attempt, and
staggered on a short distance, only to fall and be left behind in the
pestilential swamp, where rank reeds and grass closed over them and
formed a ready grave.

The difficulties of the swamp were, however, felt most severely by the
chi