savage Gcalekas. Four men advancing into the hostile country was an
uncommon sight. They did not want their expedition talked about, even
among their own countrymen, just yet. And now they were within two
hours of the object of their search.

The dangers they had gone through, and those which were yet to come,
were courted, be it remembered, not in search of treasure or riches, not
even out of love of adventure. They were braved in order to rescue a
friend and comrade from an unknown fate, whose mysteriousness was
enhanced by vague hints at undefined horrors, on the part of the only
man qualified to speak, viz., their guide.

For Josane had proved extraordinarily reticent as to details; and all
attempts to draw him out during their journey had failed. As they drew
near the dreaded spot this reticence had deepened to a remarkable
degree. The old Gcaleka displayed an ominous taciturnity, a gloom even,
which was in no degree calculated to raise the spirits of the three
white men. Even Eustace failed to elicit from him any definite facts.
He had been "smelt out" and condemned to "the Home of the Serpents" and
had escaped while being taken into it, and to do this he had almost had
to fly through the air. But the place would try their nerves to the
uttermost; of that he warned them. Then he would subside again into
silence, regardless of any further attempt to "draw" him.

There was one of the party whose motives, judged by ordinary human
standards, were little short of heroic, and that one was Eustace Milne.
He had nothing to gain by the present undertaking, nor had the others.
But then they had nothing to lose by it except their lives, whereas he
had not only that but everything that made life worth living into the
bargain. Again and again he found himself cursing Xalasa's "gratitude,"
from the very depths of his soul. Yet never for a moment did he swerve
in his resolve to save his unfortunate cousin if the thing were to be
done, although there were times when he marvelled over himself as a
strange and unaccountable paradox. A silence was upon them all, as they
moved at a foot's pace through the dense and jungly tangle, mounting
ever upwards. After an hour of this travelling they had reached a
considerable height. Here in a sequestered glade Josane called a halt.

"We must leave the horses," he said. "It is impossible to take them
where we are going. _Whau_!" he went on, looking upwards and snuffing
the