he crickets were broken into by
the sound of scramblings by night. A nightjar fled from the tree
overhead to the accompaniment of strange noises; and an unseen jackal,
who had crept up to the very huts pessimistically, in search of
anything awful, or offal, fled with a startled scurry. Apparently
something with claws was trying to scrape away the corrugated iron.

Came then a scrawling scrape, and a thump. Then silence. But after a
bit the noises began again--a fresh lot, and more violent. The pariah
dog, who had come to investigate with his tail in the air, went away
again, and quickly, with his tail between his legs; and in the same
moment the king's son's head appeared over the top of the corrugated
iron wall in silhouette against the staring, surprised moon.

Of course, and quite naturally, every sentry was asleep, or else even
they could not have failed to realize that the sounds of desperate
scratchings that followed were no ordinary phenomena, and might bear
looking into.

Presently the king's son's body followed his head, and he sat for a
moment, balancing clumsily on that narrow top, before vanishing
suddenly, to the accompaniment of a heavy thump that was the last sound
he made in the place.

Further and even more frantic scratchings followed, and anon the king's
daughter, who certainly meant to die rather than be left alone in the
hands of the foe, eclipsed the moon. A pause, and she, too, vanished
downwards with a thump that was the last sound she made there in that
place also.

A minute later, and she had joined her brother under the thorny guard
of a mimosa.

For a moment or two the pair stood rigid as rock carvings, looking
back, crouched a little, and deadly silent. Then the king's son turned
and led the way to the river at a loping trot, and his sister followed
in his tracks. They shook the dust--literally and daintily as a cat
shakes dew from her feet--of the hated captors' fastness from their
feet in little momentary halts as they went, and the place knew them no
more.

But there is one point I should like to insert here. Go and try to
climb over a corrugated iron wall nine feet high, and with nothing but
the bare earth to take off from, and see how you succeed. Further,
when doing it, remember that these royal children were so young as to
be little more than babies. Then you may tell how they accomplished
the feat. I do not know exactly to this day.

It is to be hoped that by t