time I will
not be flurried. He shall come on without a suspicion, and when he has
passed me I will leap on his back and there will be an end of the
matter."

His ferrety eyes gleamed with malice. He spat on the hand which was to
hold the knife, and then gripped it with all his strength. His limbs
arranged themselves till the man was poised on the tips of his toes and
fingers, till he sat crouched in a position to spring upon the back of
his unsuspecting foe. Then came the voice of the leader. Dick stared
into the jungle till the half-caste thought he must be seen. Then he
retired to the launch, inspected the faces of the slain, and went
aboard.

"My luck!" growled James Langdon. "But the chance will come again. Oh,
yes, my friend, Dick Stapleton, you will be sorry one of these days. As
for the men who have engaged you as their agent, they are fools. It
would be better for them if they had never met you."

He glared at the launch and her passengers as she steamed away, and
still continued to stare at them till they reached the far side of the
Pra; for a thought had struck this ruffian.

"Why not?" he asked himself. "They will be alone. There will be gold
in plenty. Why should I not have my share of that or take all that they
possess? If I have failed this time I shall succeed at the next
attempt."

The thought pleased him immensely, for his face lightened, the scowl
left his forehead, and for a moment James Langdon looked as if he were
not the villain he had proved himself to be. But he would not have
deceived Dick Stapleton. Had our hero been able to see him there in the
bush, he would have suspected the mischief that was brewing, and the
misgivings which now filled his mind would have been vastly increased.
As it was, he and his friends went on their way up the river, and their
adventure of the night almost forgotten in the passing scenes, and in
anticipation of the pleasures before them.

CHAPTER SIX.

FOREST DANGERS.

Two days passed without event as the steam launch made her way up the
river Pra, and each day the stream narrowed. Indeed, the expedition was
approaching the bifurcation of the river, and so far had not come upon
the tributary which they were to ascend.

"We shall know it by two enormous cotton trees, one of which has fallen
against the other," sang out Mr Pepson that evening, as the anchor was
dropped, and the trio sat down to their meal. "Remember, two cotton
trees,