l and pressed along with tolerable rapidity behind the
slender black and almost indistinguishable figure of our leader. The
pursuit, too, was hotly maintained, as we could tell by the occasional
shouts and the sudden _swishings_ of branches at no great distance from
us in the bush; but at length, after a most wearisome and painful tramp
of fully nine miles, we got fairly out of reach of all these sounds, and
finally, at a sign from our deliverer, flung ourselves down in the midst
of a thick growth of ferns at the foot of a giant tree, and, despite the
increasing anguish of our wounds, soon went to sleep.

We awoke at daybreak, to find ourselves alone: our guide of the previous
night had vanished. We were greatly disconcerted at this, for we felt
that we should like to have done something--though we scarcely knew
what--to mark our appreciation of her extremely important services of
the preceding night. Besides, somehow, we had both taken the notion
into our heads that in liberating us, she had committed an unpardonable
sin against her former friends, and that when she crossed the creek and
plunged into the forest with us she was virtually cutting herself adrift
from her own people and casting in her lot with us. In which case, if
we should succeed in making good our escape and finding our way back to
the ship, we had little doubt about our ability to make such
arrangements on her behalf as should cause her to rejoice for the
remainder of her life at having befriended us. However, it seemed as
though, having conducted us to a place of temporary safety, she had
returned to the village, doubtless hoping to escape all suspicion of
having had a hand in our liberation.

It was a glorious morning. The sun was darting his early beams through
the richly variegated foliage, and touching here and there with gold the
giant trunks and limbs of the forest trees. The earth around us was
thickly carpeted with long grass interspersed with dense fern-brakes,
and here and there a magnificent clump of aloes, their long waxy leaves
and delicate white blossoms standing out in strong relief against the
blaze of intense scarlet or the rich vivid green of a neighbouring bush.
The early morning air was cool, pure, and refreshing as it gently
fanned our fevered temples and wafted to us a thousand delicate
perfumes. The birds, glancing like living gems between the clumps of
foliage, were saluting each other blithely as they set out upon the