the difficulty was that all the dresses proved
too long for him. Finally it was found necessary to cut one down by the
primitive process of laying it on a block of wood and chopping through
it with a sabre.

When this change of garments had been effected, and their own clothes
with the spare arms were hidden away in the rushes on the somewhat
remote chance that they might be useful hereafter, they prepared for a
start on foot across the marshes. By an afterthought Leonard fetched the
bag of gold and put it in his pocket. He felt few scruples in availing
himself of the money of the slave-driver, not for his own use indeed,
but because it might help their enterprise.

Now their road ran along marshes and by secret paths that none save
those who had travelled them could have found. But Otter had not
forgotten. On they went through the broiling heat of the day, since
linger they dared not. They met no living man on their path, though here
and there they found the body of some wretched slave, whose corpse had
been cast into the reeds by the roadside. But the road had been trodden,
and recently, by many feet, among which were the tracks of two mules or
donkeys.

At last, about an hour before sunset, they came to the home of the
Yellow Devil. The Nest was placed thus. It stood upon an island having
an area of ten or twelve acres. Of this, however, only about four and
a half acres were available for a living space; the rest was a morass
hidden by a growth of very tall reeds, which morass, starting from
a great lagoon on the northern and eastern sides, ran up to the low
enclosure of the buildings that, on these faces, were considered to be
sufficiently defended by the swamp and the wide waters beyond. On the
southern and western aspects of the camp matters were different, for
here the place was strongly fortified both by art and nature. Firstly,
a canal ran round these two faces, not very wide or deep indeed, but
impassable except in boats, owing to the soft mud at its bottom. On the
further side of this canal an earthwork had been constructed, having
its crest stoutly palisaded and its steep sides planted with a natural
defence of aloes and prickly-pears.

So much for the exterior of the place. Its interior was divided into
three principal enclosures. Of these three the easternmost was the site
of the Nest itself, a long low thatched building of wood, in front and
to the west of which there was an open space or courtyard,