ugh we naturally went rather slowly, the
excitement I felt was so great that it seemed a very little while before
Jimmy stopped short to listen.

"Hear um talkum talkum," he whispered.

We could neither of us hear a sound, but I had great faith in Jimmy's
hearing, for in old times he had given me some remarkable instances of
the acuteness of this sense.

"Jimmy go first see!" he whispered; and the next minute we knew that we
were alone with Ti-hi, Jimmy and the dog having gone on to scout.

"I detest having to depend upon a savage!" muttered the doctor; "it
seems so degrading to a civilised man."

"But they hear and see better than we do."

"Yes," he said; "it is so."

There we waited in that dense blackness beneath the trees, listening to
the faintest sound, till quite an hour had elapsed, and we were burning
to go on, when all at once Ti-hi, who was behind us, uttered a faint
hiss, and as we turned sharply a familiar voice said:

"All rightums! Jimmy been round round, find um Mass Joe fader!"

"You have found him?" I cried.

"Not talk shouto so!" whispered Jimmy. "Black fellow come."

"But have you found him?" I whispered.

"Going a find um; all soon nuff!" he replied coolly. "Come long now."

He struck off to the right and we followed, going each minute more
cautiously, for we soon heard the busy hum of many voices--a hum which
soon after developed into a loud chatter, with occasional angry
outbursts, as if something were being discussed.

Jimmy went on, Gyp keeping close to his heels now, as if he quite
understood the importance of not being seen. We had left the dense
forest, and were walking in a more open part among tall trees, beneath
which it was black as ever, but outside the stars shone brilliantly, and
it was comparatively light.

The voices seemed so near now that I thought we were going too far, and
just then Jimmy raised his hand and stopped us, before what seemed to be
a patch of black darkness, and I found that we were in the shadow cast
by a long hut, whose back was within a yard or so of our feet.

Jimmy placed his lips close to my ear, then to the doctor's, and to each
of us he whispered:

"Soon go sleep--sleep. Find Mass Joe fader, and go away fast. All top
here Jimmy go see."

I quite shared with the doctor the feeling of helpless annoyance at
having to depend so much on the black; but I felt that he was far better
able to carry out this task than we were, so stood lis