deck of the steam launch that evening. "Then it will be
dark in half an hour or less, and we shall have to think of setting a
watch. Meinheer will take the first one. From seven to nine, Meinheer.
Dick will follow from that hour till midnight, and I shall take the
watch from the first moment of the new day till the light comes. That
will be about three o'clock. Now let us get our supper."

All day they had been steaming without adventure and without
interruption up the broad sweep of the river Pra, seeing nothing to
alarm them, and meeting with no difficulties. So far they had had
plenty of water beneath their keels, and an ample space through which to
steer. But there were signs that the river was narrowing, while all
felt as if the forest was hemming them in.

"Zis is noding do whad we shall have soon," the Dutchman said, with a
wave of his arm. "Zis forest--I have been for some miles into him
before, mine friends--sdredches for a long, long way. Id is tick, too.
See how ze drees shood up close togeder. And watch below. Ze creepers
are everywhere. Id would dake a day do cud a new road a mile long.
Yes. Id is dense. Bud we shall have no drouble. Ze river dakes us do
ze mine."

"For which I am only too thankful," added Mr Pepson. "Our journey
should occupy but three days, or at the most four. If we had to march
through the forest we should have to take an army of Fanti labourers to
cut a road. And then think of the fever."

"And of the machinery, too," exclaimed Dick.

"Yes, that is another point," agreed Mr Pepson. "This country has been
noted for its gold for many years. The Ashantis have carried on a trade
since they became a nation, and there is no doubt that there are vast
natural stores. You may ask, why have others not attempted to open
mines before this? They have done so. The beach at Elmina and at Cape
Coast Castle is strewn with rusting machinery, which has been landed
with a purpose, and then left to rot and rust simply because of the
difficulty of transport, and because of this forest. Luckily for us our
mine is near the river. But here's supper. Sit down, Van Somering."

It was delightful to be out there in the open, even though the air
hummed with myriads of mosquitoes. The launch and her three consorts
lay moored out in the stream some hundred yards or less from the left
bank of the river. About them, but for the buzz of the insects and the
ripple of the water, all was s