is wrong.
You promised me not to betray me."

Yes, it was indeed Hercules, who had risked his life to save Dick
Sand. But he had done it, and his modesty would not allow him to
agree to the fact. Besides, he thought it a very simple thing, and he
repeated that any one of his companions would have done the same under
the circumstances.

This led Mrs. Weldon to speak of old Tom, of his son, of Acteon and
Bat, his unfortunate companions.

They had started for the lake region. Hercules had seen them pass with
the caravan of slaves. He had followed them, but no opportunity to
communicate with them had presented itself. They were gone! they were
lost!

Hercules had been laughing heartily, but now he shed tears which he
did not try to restrain.

"Do not cry, my friend," Mrs. Weldon said to him. "God may be
merciful, and allow us to meet them again."

In a few words she informed Dick Sand of all that had happened during
her stay in Alvez's factory.

"Perhaps," she added, "it would have been better to have remained at
Kazounde."

"What a fool I was!" cried Hercules.

"No, Hercules, no!" said Dick Sand. "These wretches would have found
means to draw Mr. Weldon into some new trap. Let us flee together, and
without delay. We shall reach the coast before Negoro can return to
Mossamedes. There, the Portuguese authorities will give us aid and
protection; and when Alvez comes to take his one hundred thousand
dollars--"

"A hundred thousand blows on the old scoundrel's skull!" cried
Hercules; "and I will undertake to keep the count."

However, here was a new complication, although it was very evident
that Mrs. Weldon would not dream of returning to Kazounde. The point
now was to anticipate Negoro. All Dick Sand's projects must tend
toward that end.

Dick Sand was now putting in practise the plan which he had long
contemplated, of gaining the coast by utilizing the current of a
river or a stream. Now, the watercourse was there; its direction was
northward, and it was possible that it emptied into the Zaire. In that
case, instead of reaching St. Paul de Loanda, it would be at the mouth
of the great river that Mrs. Weldon and her companions would arrive.
This was not important, because help would not fail them in the
colonies of Lower Guinea.

Having decided to descend the current of this river, Dick Sand's first
idea was to embark on one of the herbaceous rafts, a kind of floating
isle (of which Cameron has often spok