rnfully, using the language
they had mastered.

"Wow!" chimed in the chief, "they are timid people, the men; but the
time is at hand when those who will not fight will be set to do
women's work in the gardens."

The woman nodded her head grimly. "The time is at hand when the
reapers will work, not in the cornfields, but about the fires where
the men sit. Hassan is to be feared; but he can only enter if he is
helped from within."

"I listen, O wise one," said the son, sternly. "Even if I weed them
all out so that there are none left but Muata and these three white
strangers, your counsel shall be followed."

"It is well," said the mother, nodding her head.

"You seem to have little faith in your people," said Compton.

"Haw! They grow fat and timid. They have no fight in them. Once
before, when I was a boy, I beat them; but they have forgotten."

"I rather think, chief, that they would be as well off under Hassan
as under you."

"Hassan would yoke them in and drive them out through the forest
into the plains. A man must fight for his kraal. That is the law."

"It is the law," said the woman.

"And that is the Place of Rest?" said Venning, lingering on the
sight. "More like a place of trouble for some; but, at any rate, if
there are hills and open places, I shall be glad to get there. It
would be a real treat to have space enough for a trot. But, I say,
it is time you two slept."

"That is just what I have been thinking," said Mr. Hume.

The two boys took the levers, but Muata declined to rest. He said
there were two openings leading from the lagoon to the hills--one a
broad channel, commonly used, the other a smaller channel.

"We will take the little river," he said, "so that Hassan, who will
follow the other track, will not know of our going. But it is hard
to find this little water-path, and I must search for it."

"Don't go up a track that will not give water for the boat. Are you
sure that it will carry us?"

"Ow ay! there is water enough, great one. So sleep well."

For a couple of hours the boys worked the levers, and at the end
they came upon a thicket of reeds, along which the Okapi skirted,
while the chief and his mother kept a keen outlook. Twice they
plunged into the reeds on a false trail; and then, as they lay off
scanning the oily water for trace of a current, the woman held up
her hand.

"It is Hassan," said the chief.

Venning reached for his glasses, and far back over the shinin