perceived a few boats and canoes plying hither and
thither upon that portion of it which flowed past the town. Also, while
he was watching, his attention was attracted to two figures in the plain
below; and by bringing his glass to bear upon them he was able to
distinguish that the leading figure was a Spaniard carrying what
appeared to be a hawk upon his wrist, while the individual who followed
him was either an Indian or a negro, he could not distinguish which, but
he saw that this person was carrying something suspended from a pole
over his shoulder, which looked like and doubtless was a bunch of dead
birds. The pair walked straight to the margin of the stream, about
three-quarters of a mile above the city, the stream being at that point
about twenty yards wide, and when the Spaniard reached the margin he
halted, turned and said something to his follower, at the same time
pointing to the ground, whereupon the black carefully deposited the pole
and its burden upon the ground, then stooped low, and allowed the
Spaniard to seat himself astride upon his shoulders. Then, rising to
his feet with his burden, the black stepped into the stream, waded
across, deposited the Spaniard upon the bank, and, as the latter strode
off towards the town, returned, picked up his load, waded across again,
and followed the footsteps of his master. Now, there was nothing _very_
remarkable about this, but there were _two_ points connected with it
which attracted George's notice, one of them being that when the black
stepped into the stream with his master upon his shoulders, a single
stride sufficed to carry him into water deep enough to submerge him to
his waist, and that depth was maintained all the way across until within
about two yards of the bank. The other point which George considered
worthy of note was that about a hundred yards below the point where
those two persons had crossed the stream, there grew a clump of bamboos
sufficiently large to screen the entire party from observation, if they
could reach it undetected by people in the town. He called Lukabela to
him, told him what he had seen, explained the scheme that had developed
in his mind while watching the passage of the two men across the stream,
and finally indicated the clump of bamboo, asking whether there was any
possibility of reaching it after dark without being detected. The
Cimarrone thereupon studied the features of the country below and around
him long and inte