your escape. Where is he living now?"

It was pitiable to watch the relief depicted upon the face of the
fugitive as he heard the words. He knelt upon the deck and looked about
him as though he could hardly believe his ears. He might have been a
culprit who expected discovery at any moment, and who suddenly found
that suspicion had passed over his head and had settled upon some other
individual. He sighed, stood up, and then began to answer.

"It is a long tale, but I can tell it shortly," he said. "I was in the
village when the enemy came upon us, and with many others was taken
prisoner. Here is the mark of the wound which I received as I
endeavoured to escape. I was taken towards Kumasi, the place where
slaves are killed in the house of execution, and I knew that death was
before me. Like many another I longed to effect an escape, and it
happened that I succeeded with the help of the white chief. Yes, chief,
he was a prisoner also, being dragged towards Kumasi, and it was he who,
as we lay side by side one night, bit through the lashings which secured
my arms and legs. Then I set him free and we stole away to this place
where the white chief had once been. None suspected that we were there,
and we had hoped to find another white chief at the mine, and boats in
which to make down the river. But there was no stockade. The place had
been burned, and the boats were gone."

"How long ago is this?" demanded Dick. "When did you meet the white
chief?"

The native counted the days off on his fingers and thought for a moment.
Then he stretched out his hands and lifted his ten fingers into the air
four times in succession.

"It is so many days, perhaps more," he said. "I cannot say. The days
were so much alike. We lived in terror of our lives, for the enemy were
on the river and about the mine. We hid in the forest, living on yams
and plantains. Then the chief fell sick, and for a little while I
thought he would die. But he recovered, and bade me go down the river
with this scrap of linen. He lies there near the creek, chief."

"Yes, but that does not explain how you managed to make this journey,"
interposed our hero. "How did you obtain the boat?"

"I stole it. At night I crept through the forest close to the water,
till I came to the camp of the enemy. Then I searched and found a boat.
After that I fled, and the chief knows what happened. He saved my
life."

It was a simple tale of escape, an