Inspired by this news, which certainly, after all they had gone through,
was well calculated to produce joyous emotions within them, they tramped
along this road at a rapid rate, and visions of home, though still far
away, came vividly to the minds of the Arab boys, and they unconsciously
pictured their mothers looking out of the lattice-windows of their
homes, ever-gazing towards the continent and ever-wondering where their
absent boys were.

A couple of hours before sunset they arrived in a thin forest. They
formed their camp, and surrounded it with brushwood to guard against
beasts of prey, and proceeded to warm what fish they had left. It was
such a very small morsel for hungry men that Kalulu proposed that he
should sally out with his bow and endeavour to pick up something more.
He was strongly dissuaded not to go by Simba and Moto; even Selim and
Abdullah begged him to remain with them, as they could well afford to be
without more food until morning; but Kalulu laughed merrily, and told
them not to be alarmed, he could take good care of himself. Seeing that
he was determined, they said no more.

As Kalulu left the little camp, he threw out, for a last remark, that
they might expect him shortly back with something fit to eat. He chose
the road before him--the road that his companions would have to take
next morning. He looked keenly to the right and the left, searched
every suspicious place, and allowed nothing to escape him. The thin
forest thinned once more to a small plain sprinkled with dwarf ebony and
a species of blue gum-thorn. Numbers of ant-hills also dotted the
plain, whose grey tops presented a strong contrast to the young grass of
the plain. Beyond this loomed a forest thickening again; it was but ten
or twelve minutes walking; success might meet him there, he thought, and
he proceeded towards it, arriving there by smart walking a few minutes
earlier than he anticipated.

He still marched on, hoping that something might meet his eye which
might be broiled over a comfortable fire, and enliven the little society
of wanderers with whom he found himself; and thus arguing with himself,
he proceeded still further. Suddenly he saw smoke. There is nothing
specially dangerous in smoke, he thought; but what smoke could this be
in the forest? There was no cultivation about, therefore it could not
be a village. What was it? Kalulu was a true son of the forest--a true
hunter; his instincts were on the