! But I don't know; perhaps I can get on without them,
for it isn't as if the poor chap was bad of a fever. Fever there is, of
course, but it's only the fever that comes from a wound, and wounds heal
by themselves. So I'm not going to despair.

"I'm sure of one thing," he continued, after a little more thought, "as
I'm so much better I don't want any doctoring, and it's my duty to
attend to poor old Dick, and I'm going to do it. It's very horrible to
be in such a hole as this, but I know that the first luff won't rest
until he has found every one of his party, and the captain won't rest
till he has found his officer, and--"

Frank Murray's cogitations were at an end, for just as he had come to
the conclusion that matters were far better than he expected, and that
all he had to do was to devote himself to his comrade's recovery, which
was already on the way, he started suddenly, for he was conscious of a
slight rustling noise somewhere apparently at the back of the hut, a
sound as of some animal forcing its way through the dense growth which
shut the building in upon three sides.

Murray's heart began to beat fast as he listened, for the noise was
repeated, and though there was caution connected with the movement, the
sound was of such a nature that he was not long in doubt as to its
cause.

It was, as far as the lad could determine, a man forcing his way through
the jungle at the back; and then, just as it came close at hand, so
close that the rough walls of the hut seemed to quiver, the sound ceased
again, and in the midst of the deep silence which ensued, the lad felt
convinced that he was being watched by some one who was peeping through
the wall opposite to where he crouched over his sleeping companion; and
he waited in agony for some fresh movement, ready to spring up with his
cutlass gripped in his hand.

His excitement seemed to grow till he could bear it no longer, and he
rose to his feet, and stepped softly to the side of the door, just as
there was a louder rustle than ever, and some one bounded out of the
thicket right to the front of the doorway, stared into the darkness for
a brief moment, and then turned and ran along the edge of the rough
plantation, disappearing amongst a clump of maize-stalks. Murray was
beginning to breathe freely, in the hope that in the brief glance he had
not been seen in the darkness within, when his heart sank once more, for
he recalled the hole he had hacked in the that