nset there were few words
exchanged, except a remark now and then upon some exceptional feature of
the forest through which they were travelling.

At sunset the fugitives were obliged to halt, and seeing a dense jungle
clump before them, they sought an opening which led to it, which they
presently discovered, narrow and a little inconvenient, but it led them
into a delicious and secure resting-place. The camp, which they now
intended to make, was surrounded by an impenetrable hedge, about fifty
feet thick and about twelve feet high, of thorn and cactus, aloetic
plants, convolvuli, all-interlacing, embracing, twining round each
other, each leaf, or twig, or branch armed at all points with a myriad
thorns, through which a boa-constrictor might in vain attempt to pass, a
man never, were he armed in triple steel, least of all a rude savage;
while inside was soft, green, silken grass, and a small circular
depression in its centre like a "buffalo-wallow," which contained water.
Could anything have been more tempting than this? Surely not. Had the
most cunning Moto devised the best protection he could, he had never
conceived anything more formidable against naked man or beast! And the
two Arab boys laughed merrily, and rubbed their hands together, as they
thought how secure they were.

Simba, who had assumed the leadership, as though leadership was an
everyday thing to him, looking around, said:

"We are safe. No Watuta can find us here, but we are short of food, and
boys become hungry soon. In the morning we must look for food, as we
journey south. What dost thou think, Moto? is this forest likely to
last much longer?"

"I know not, friend Simba. I should think not; but the minute it
becomes thinner and more open we shall see game," replied that clever
woodsman, with so much confidence that Selim, Abdullah, and Niani began
to smack their lips, as if they already tasted the luscious, juicy meat
of fat game.

"Simba, I know this forest well," cried Kalulu; "but before I say
anything about it, I must know where thou dost intend to go."

"Ah! where?" asked Simba, looking at Moto, and speaking in a tone which
was more of a doleful echo than a question.

"Where?" said Moto, in the same tone, looking at Simba.

"I must know," said Kalulu. "We are far from pursuit now. Ferodia
might as well look for the honey-bird, hiding his head in a hole, as
look for us. Speak, Simba and Moto, where do ye both intend to go?"