ends; and my heart in the
terrible excitement kept on a heavy dull throb, which seemed to beat
right up into my throat.

The moments passed away, though, and at last I began to breathe more
freely. It was evident that the savages had quitted the hut.

In this belief I laid my hand upon the doctor's arm, and was about to
speak, when close by us, as it seemed, but really from within the wall
of the hut, there came the low muttering of a voice, and I knew that
some one had been left behind.

The doctor pressed my hand, and I shivered as I felt how narrow an
escape we had had.

We wanted, of course, to move, but it seemed impossible, and so we
stayed, waiting to see if the black had made any discovery.

After what seemed to me an interminable time I heard a slight rustling
sound, and almost at the same moment there was a hand upon my arm, and
directly after a warm pair of lips upon my ear:

"Jimmy no find um fader yet! Take um out o' place place! Put um
somewhere; no know tell!"

I placed my lips to his ear in turn and whispered that there was some
one left in the hut.

"Jimmy go see," he said softly; and before I could stay him he was gone.

"What is it?" whispered the doctor; and I told him.

The doctor drew his pistol--I heard him in the darkness--and grasped my
arm, as if to be ready for flight; but just then I heard a voice in the
hut which made me start with joy. Then there was a rustling sound, and
Jimmy came round the corner of the hut.

"All rightums!" he whispered. "Find somebody's fader!"

"You here again, my boy!" whispered a familiar voice.

"Yes!" I said, catching the speaker's arm; and then, "Doctor," I said,
"this is the prisoner who saved me--and set Jimmy free!"

"Doctor!" said the poor fellow in a low puzzled voice, as if his mind
were wandering. "Yes, I am the doctor! They made me their doctor
when--the fever--when--oh! my boy, my boy! why did you come back?" he
cried excitedly, as if his brain were once more clear.

"To fetch you and--the other prisoner!" I said.

"Mr Carstairs?" he said earnestly. "Hush, hush! They are coming
back--to kill me, perhaps! I must go."

He slipped away from us before we could stop him, and while we were
debating as to whether we had not better rush in and fight in his
defence, the savages crowded into the hut, and once more there was a
loud buzz of voices.

These were checked by one deeper, slower, and more stern than the
others, which we