ects which I took to
be canoes drawn up on the beach, and pointing to them I exclaimed to
Smellie:

"Are not those canoes? If they are, what is to prevent our seizing one
and making our way down the river without further ado?"

Our little Hebe glanced in the direction I had indicated, and seemed
quite to understand the nature of my suggestion, for she shook her head
violently and exclaimed rapidly in accents of very decided dissent, "Ve!
_Ve_!! Ve!!!" pointing at the same time to Smellie's and my own
untended wounds.

At that moment a loud confused shouting arose in the distant village,
strongly suggestive of the discovery of our flight. The sounds
apparently helped our guide to a decision as to her next step, for,
seizing our hands afresh, she led us straight into the river until the
water was up to our knees, and then turned sharply to the right or up
stream. Pressing forward rapidly, our way freshened very decidedly by
unmistakable shouts of pursuit emanating from the neighbourhood of the
village, we reached, after about a quarter of an hour of arduous toil, a
small creek some forty yards wide. Pausing here for a moment, our guide
made with her hands and arms the motion of swimming, pointed across the
creek, touched Smellie on the breast with the query "Yenu?" and then
rapidly repeated the same process with me. We took this to mean an
inquiry as to our ability to swim the creek, and both replied "Yes" with
affirmative nods. Whereupon our guide, raising her finger to express
the necessity for extreme caution, and uttering a warning "Ngandu" as
she next pointed to the waters of the creek, waded gently and without
raising a ripple into the deep water, Smellie and I following, and with
a few quiet strokes we happily reached the other side in safety, to
plunge forthwith into the friendly shadows of the forest. Had we known
then--what we learned afterwards--that the word "Ngandu" is Congoese for
"crocodile," and that it was uttered as an intimation to us that the
river and its creeks literally swarm with these reptiles, it is possible
that our swim, short though it was, would not have been undertaken with
quite so much composure.

Once fairly in the forest, it became so dark that it was quite
impossible for us to see whither we were going, but our guide seemed to
be well acquainted with the route, which, from the comparatively few
obstacles met with, seemed to be a tolerably well-beaten path, so we
crowded sai