you would have
arrived in time, for they were cutting brushwood for a fire on which they
intended to roast us. Fortunately he was not so tightly bound as we were,
and so managed to free himself and us."

"I cannot say how thankful I was when I heard your voice. Of course we
were proceeding only by guesswork, and could only hope that we should find
you at the top of the hill. If they had carried you any farther away we
could not have followed. I was turning this over in my mind as we
advanced, when we heard the rushing of a large number of men down the hill
towards us, and we at once concluded that you had escaped and that they
were in pursuit, and as soon as the negroes appeared we opened fire."

"Well, all is well that ends well. It was very foolish of me to wander
away from the men. Of course there was nothing whatever to tell us that we
were being watched, but I ought to have assumed that there was a
possibility of such a thing and not to have run the risk. I'll be mighty
careful that I don't play such a fool's trick again. It was lucky that
Dimchurch shouted when he did to the watering-party, otherwise we should
have lost the whole of them, and with ten gone you would have found it
very hazardous work to land a sufficiently strong party."

"I should have tried if I had only had a dozen men. I concluded that it
must have been negroes who had carried you off, and my only thought was to
rescue you before they set to work to torture you in some abominable
manner."

"Well, I expect it would soon have been over, Harman, but certainly it
would have been a very unpleasant ending. To fall in battle is a death at
which none would grumble, but to be burnt by fiendish negroes would be
horrible. Of course every man must run risks and take his chances, but one
hardly bargains for being burnt alive. It makes my flesh creep to think of
it, more now, I fancy, than when I was face to face with it. When I was
lying helpless on the hill, there seemed something unreal about it, and I
could not appreciate the position, but now that I think of it in cold
blood it makes me shiver. I will take your watch to-night; I am quite sure
that if I did get to sleep I should have a terrible nightmare."

"I can quite understand that you would rather be on deck than lying down
and trying to sleep. I am sure I should do so myself, and even now the
thought of the peril you were in makes me shudder."

For a time _L'Agile_ cruised off the shore of Cu