s and to enable us to carry some with us for the next
day's journey. Then shouldering our muskets, we set out with our faces
to the hill, the two blacks accompanying us.

"Perhaps Pullingo is, after all, sorry for having intended to desert us,
and will still continue our guide," I observed.

"Not much chance of that," answered Mudge. "Depend on it, he'll take
French leave whenever it suits his convenience."

Still, I was inclined to believe that the native would prove faithful.
Neither he nor his son, however, offered to carry our packs; though
Pullingo chatted as usual, and seemed in a particularly merry mood.

In the afternoon, after having stopped for dinner,--when we fed our
attendants with the produce of our guns,--we were already among the
spurs of the mountains, amid which the trees were of even more gigantic
growth than lower down. Instead of ascending abruptly, we found
ourselves in a valley with a gentle slope, penetrating far into the
range.

As the sun was now setting, we agreed to camp under a tall tree by the
side of a stream flowing down the valley, which would supply us with
water. We had shot some birds on our way, so we at once set to work to
collect bark for our hut and wood for our fire. Pullingo and his son
assisted us; but we observed that they did not put up a lean-to for
themselves. We were busily engaged in preparing our birds for supper,
when, after we had spitted them, on looking round we found that our
black companions had disappeared.

"I suppose they will come back for their share," observed Mudge.

Even when the birds were roasted they did not return, so we ate our
supper and prepared to take our rest. The moon, by this time, had risen
high in the sky, and was shedding her beams on the precipitous side of
the valley a little way below us. I was on the point of dropping off to
sleep, Mudge having agreed to keep watch, when I was aroused by a chorus
of strange, unearthly cries.

"Depend upon it, these must proceed from our black friends, who are
paying their respects to the cavern of the moon," observed Mudge. "I
thought just now I caught sight of some figures moving over the ground.
Probably Pullingo and his son are among them. Let us go and see what
they are about."

I willingly agreed. Strapping on our packs, which we were too wise to
leave behind, we proceeded in the direction from which the sounds came,
knowing that the light of the fire would enable us to find our