themselves, some of the canoe-men had
drawn near from the north side and thrown a cur on the island to
find the white men in their supposed hiding. The dog had, of course,
struck the spoor and found the dark hiding, empty, but suspicious-
looking. In his fear he gave tongue. The gun from the launch fired,
a yell rose from every side, and all the canoes near dashed forward.

Mr. Hume shoved out, and the Okapi slipped up-stream undetected
under the uproar, darting from one island to another, and keeping as
near the banks as possible. They were doing splendidly! The enemy
was behind; it seemed that they must reap the advantage of their
caution and resourcefulness, when, without any intimation of
danger, they came right upon a canoe lying in mid-channel between
two of the innumerable islands.

"Back-water!" cried Mr. Hume, at once.

The boys obeyed without, of course, any knowledge of the course, and
the Okapi slackened down.

"Well met, my friends," came a voice they knew; and the two looked
over their shoulders.

"Dished, after all!" muttered Compton, bitterly; then he snatched up
his rifle.

"Hassan thought you would come along this way," went on the junior
officer--for it was he; "but I doubted, and yet here you are."

"The praise be to Allah," remarked Hassan, piously, as he glanced
along his rifle.

The Okapi had lost the little way she was making, and began to move
with the current away from the canoe. Mr. Hume suddenly spoke for
the first time since his order.

"Turn that canoe round!" he roared; and his Express leapt to his
shoulder. The boys followed suit.

The paddle-men promptly ducked their heads, and one of them called
out in his lingo that this was the slayer of crocodiles and of the
great bull.

"But, my friend----" began the Belgian, who now, together with
Hassan and several Arabs in the stern of the canoe, came under the
levelled barrels.

"Oblige me," said the hunter. "Compton, cover that Arab Hassan with
your rifle, and Venning, take the man to the right. If they move
their weapons, shoot."

Hassan snarled and turned a furious face to the Belgian. "This is
your folly!" he hissed. "Why didn't you fire at once?"

Mr. Hume repeated his orders in the native tongue, and the cowed
men, using their paddles, turned the long canoe round.

"Now, keep straight on in silence, till I tell you to stop. Follow
them"--this to the boys, who immediately picked up their sculls.

The Belgian gla