ation of their appearance, for they all subsided at
last and once more sat round their fire.

The newcomers started a fire of their own, and their servants cooked
their food. The white men were in momentary danger of their lives. But
they sat on the ground before the fire and quietly ate their supper
while hundreds of savage eyes were fixed upon them in suspicious,
watchful silence.

The meal over the servants prepared a place for the travelers to sleep,
and while they were so doing, the young missionary was not idle. He
longed to speak to these poor, darkened heathen, but they could not
understand Chinese. However, he found several poor fellows lying
prostrate on the ground, overcome with malaria, and he got his guide to
ask if he might not give the sick ones medicine. Being allowed to do
so, he gave each one a dose of quinine. The poor creatures tried to look
their gratitude when the terrible chills left them, and soon they were
able to sink into sleep.

Before he retired to his own bed of boughs, the young missionary
sang that grand old anthem which these lonely woods and their savage
inhabitants had never yet heard:

All people that on earth do dwell,
Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice.

But these poor people could not "sing to the Lord," for they had never
yet so much as heard his name.

All night the missionary lay on the ground, finding the chill mountain
air too cold for sleep, and whenever he looked out from his shelter of
boughs he saw hundreds of savage eyes, gleaming in the firelight, still
wide open and fixed upon him.

Day broke late in the valley, but the travelers were astir in the
morning twilight. The mountain-tops were touched with rosy light even
while it was dark down in these forest depths.

The chilled white men were glad to get up and exercise their stiffened
limbs. There were several of their party who could speak both Chinese
and the dialect of these mountaineers, and through them Mackay persuaded
the chief of the tribe to take them to visit his village.

He seemed reluctant at first and there was much discussion with his
braves. Evidently they were more anxious to go on a head-hunt than to
act the part of hosts. However, after a great deal of chatter,
they consented, and the chief and his son with thirty men separated
themselves from the rest of the band and led the way out of the valley
up the mountainside. The travelers had to stop often, for, besides the
natural diff