trailed off into a few
mutterings which resulted in the men beginning to descend.

"They were grumbling about having to go down there, weren't they, Joe
Carstairs," said Jack Penny in a whisper.

"Yes," I said.

"And 'nough to make 'em," he said. "I don't like it; even Gyp don't
like it. Look at him, how he's got his tail between his legs. I say,
can't we wait till daylight?"

"And be shot by poisoned arrows, Penny?" said the doctor quietly.
"Come: on with you! I'm sure you're not afraid?"

"Afraid! What! of walking along there?" said Jack, contemptuously.
"Not likely. Was I afraid when I hung over the waterfall?"

"Not a bit, my lad; nor yet when you so bravely helped us to defend
ourselves against the savages," said the doctor quietly. "Come along.
I'll go first."

The blacks were all on ahead save Aroo and Jimmy, who followed last, I
being next to the doctor, and Jack Penny and his dog close behind me.
We had to go in single file, for the ledge was not above a yard wide in
places, and it was impossible to avoid a shiver of dread as we walked
slowly along, assuming a confidence that we did not feel.

The path rose and fell--rose and fell slightly in an undulating fashion,
but it did not alter much in its width as we journeyed on for what must
have been quite a mile, when we had to halt for a few minutes while the
bearers readjusted their loads. And a weird party we looked as we stood
upon that shelf of rock, with the perpendicular side of the gorge
towering straight up black towards the sky, the summit showing plainly
against the starry arch that spanned the river, and seemed to rest upon
the other side of the rocky gorge fifty yards away. And there now,
close to our feet, so close that we could have lain down and drunk had
we been so disposed, rushed on towards the great fall the glassy
gold-speckled water.

I was thinking what an awful looking place it was, and wondering whether
my father had ever passed this way, when Jack Penny made me jump by
giving me a poke with the barrel of his gun.

"Don't do that," I said angrily, for I felt that I might have slipped,
and to have fallen into that swiftly gliding water meant being borne at
headlong speed to the awful plunge down into the basin of foam into
which I had looked that day.

"Oh, all right!" whispered Jack. "I only wanted to tell you that it
must be cramp."

"What must be cramp?" I replied.

"Don't speak so loud, and don't let the docto