us animal rose slowly, stretched itself, one leg at a
time, sniffed at the dead leopard, or tree-lion, whatever it was,
and then curled itself up again.

"Coo-ee--coo-ee!" came out of the woods.

"Coo-ee!" replied Compton, to the glad sound. "Coo-ee!" and he fired
off his gun.

Muata's shrill whistle pierced through the files of trees, and the
jackal slunk away.

"Hurrah!" yelled Compton, taking off his cap. "Hurrah! Here we are--
all safe!"

"All safe, thank God;" and Mr. Hume hurried forward, with his eyes
beaming. "Thank God."

"It is as I thought. Here is the hind leg of a monkey, with some of
the hair still attached;" and Venning held up a disgusting-looking
object.

Mr. Hume looked at the dead animal, the broken hut, and back at
Compton.

"We shot it last night, and its mate in the afternoon."

Then he pulled Venning to his feet and shook him. "Believe he's gone
off his head."

"I've not," said Venning; and he held out a blood-stained hand to
Mr. Hume, who took it with a great happy laugh. "Have you seen a
beast like that before, Muata?"

"Any one would think," said Compton, "that nothing had happened--
that we had not been lost, and that he had not brought us into this
mess."

"Steady," said Mr. Hume, with a smile.

"Dick is right, sir. If it had not been for him, I should have been
dead. I am a little bit excited now; but I will tell you all soon.
Well, Muata?"

"Wow!" exclaimed the chief, who had been talking with the river-man.
"One of these I have seen, and he also. It was a great thing to kill
two; of all things that walk they are the fiercest."

"And I am very thirsty," said Compton.

"Their home is in the trees," continued Muata.

Venning nodded. "Leo arboriensis."

"Venningii," added Compton, as he took his lips from a water-bottle.
"And now we'll have breakfast, if you don't mind."

CHAPTER XIV

THE OVERHEAD PATH

"We were stopped by ants," said Mr. Hume, in explanation.

"By ants!"

"No less. I missed you not long after we had started, and passed the
word on to the others to turn back. And in the mean time an army of
marching ants had cut the line of communications.

"Couldn't you sweep them aside, or jump over?"

"I did not venture to try, my boy. I did try climbing across from
tree to tree, but their skirmishers were everywhere. As for jumping
across, I took the chiefs word for it, that the feat was impossible.
Once that kind of ant gets a grip, he does not let