ould depend. But all the same I could not
help feeling that my position was a very precarious one. But when I was
cool and calm I was ready to laugh at the idea about cannibalism, and to
think it was the result of imagination.

"No," I said to myself as I lay there, "I don't think they will kill us,
and I am certain they will not eat us. We shall be made slaves and kept
to work for them--if they can keep us!"

As I lay there listening to the different sounds made in the village
dropping off one by one in the darkness, I grew more elate. I was in
less pain, and I kept recalling the many instances Jimmy had shown me of
his power to be what he called "cunning-artful." With his help I felt
sure that sooner or later we should be able to escape.

Drowsiness began to creep over me now, and at last, after listening to
the hard breathing of the spear-armed savage whose duty it was to watch
me, I began to wonder whether Gyp would come that night.

"I hope he will," I said to myself. "I'll keep awake till he does."

The consequence of making this determination was that in a very few
minutes after I was fast asleep.

Just as before I was wakened some time in the night by feeling something
touch me, and raising my arm for the first time made the faithful beast
utter low whines of joy as I softly patted his head and pulled his ears,
letting my hand slip lower to stroke his neck, when my fingers came in
contact with the dog's collar, and almost at the same moment with a
stiff scrap of paper.

For a moment my heart stood still. Then, sitting up, I caught the dog
to me, holding his collar with both hands, touching the paper all the
while, but afraid to do more lest the act should result in
disappointment.

At last I moved one hand cautiously and felt the paper, trembling the
while, till a joyous throb rose to my lips, and I rapidly untied a piece
of string which tightly bound what was evidently a note to the dog's
collar.

Gyp whined in a low tone, and as I loosened him, grasping the note in my
hand, I knew that he gave a bit of a skip, but he came back and nestled
close to me directly.

I needed no thought to know that the note was from the doctor, who must
be near. Perhaps, too, Gyp had been night after night with that same
note, and I had been too helpless to raise a hand and touch his neck
where it had been tied.

The doctor was close by, then. There was help, and I would once more be
free to get back safe to