r was no other than Pullingo,
who had crept cautiously up to us. He did not speak, but his gestures
proved that he wished us to retreat as silently as he had approached.
As this was undoubtedly the wisest thing we could do, we moved
noiselessly away from the bush, stooping down as he was doing, so that
we might escape being seen by the old witch on the top of the mound.
Happily at that time her head was turned away from us, while she was
addressing those on the further side of the circle.

Pullingo led on without stopping for a moment, or venturing even to look
back, probably fearing that he might be discovered, and bring down the
vengeance of his countrymen upon himself. At all events, the fact of
his having followed us, knowing the danger in which we might place
ourselves, was a convincing proof of his fidelity. With unerring
sagacity he led the way through the forest, and not till we had passed
over the first range of hills did he stop to allow us to take breath.

"Bad!--mighty bad, Paddy!" he said, turning round to his friend, and
speaking with the accent he had learned from the Irishman. "If get
killed, others say Pullingo did it. Bad!--mighty bad, Paddy!" he
continued repeating, his limited stock of words not allowing him to
express his opinion of our proceeding in any other way.

"But if we had not gone, we should not have found out that the blacks
were thinking of attacking us," answered Doyle. "They might have been
down upon us during the night, and killed every mother's son among us
before we were awake in the morning; so you see, Mr Pullingo, our
journey has been of more use than you're inclined to suppose. And pray
how comes it, if you knew they were there, that you didn't tell us?"

"I tell by-and-by if dey come," answered Pullingo. "Now, on again;" and
once more moving forward, he led the way to the camp. He either took a
shorter route, or we got over the ground very much faster than when we
were going, as we arrived considerably sooner than I expected.

The account we gave my father made him hesitate about remaining where we
were. We had still four hours of daylight, and by pushing on we might
put a distance of ten miles or so between ourselves and the blacks.
From what we had seen, and the few words we had understood, we gathered
that the old hag, for some cause or other, was instigating her tribe to
attack us. Pullingo was consulted on the subject; and when he
understood that we proposed