understanding each other.
At length, however, 'Msusa turned to his friends and explained the
situation to them, with the result that the four white men were
ultimately invited to enter the village, partake of refreshments, and
remain there for the night, upon the understanding that a guide to the
river would be furnished to them the next morning.

"All right," agreed Sir Reginald. "We will go to their village and
sample their hospitality. But as to remaining with them for the night,
I must confess I do not at all like the idea. Our friends aboard the
_Flying Fish_ will already have suffered several hours of cruel anxiety
on our account, and I am unwilling to prolong that anxiety a moment
longer than is necessary. Why will they not let us have a guide
forthwith? Surely the river cannot be so very far away!"

Von Schalckenberg tried 'Msusa again, but without success.

"The fellow speaks such a barbarous dialect that I find it almost
impossible to understand him," explained the professor; "but he informs
me that, for some reason or other, it is out of the question for us to
go forward to-day."

"Hm!" commented Sir Reginald. "Do you think, Professor, that these
people are to be trusted; or is there some deep scheme to get us into
their power behind this reluctance to help us to go forward this
evening?"

"I don't know," answered the professor. "'Msusa speaks fairly enough,
but one can never tell. Treachery, so far from being a crime, almost
amounts to a virtue, under certain circumstances, with all these African
savages; and I must confess that I have noticed one or two little things
that, to me, seemed to bear rather a sinister significance. But what
can we do? We cannot take 'Msusa by the scruff of the neck and insist
upon his becoming our guide to the river."

"Can we not?" cut in Lethbridge, dryly. "I am by no means so sure of
that. But an idea has just occurred to me. Mildmay will have been on
the look-out for some sign of us, at least from breakfast-time to-day,
and, if I know anything of him, he is still looking out, and will
continue to do so until darkness sets in--perhaps even later. Now, my
idea is this--and I am sorry that it did not occur to me earlier in the
day. Here are we, four lost men, in a fine open space, with ample room
to light four fires at a considerable distance apart. The evening is
fine; there is no wind; and the smoke from those fires would rise to a
considerable height in