mp in and drown himself if he found that he was
likely to be overtaken, but apparently his escape had not yet been
discovered.

Maka was going on to tell something more about the wicked men, when
the captain interrupted him. "Can this friend of yours speak
English?" he asked.

"Only one, two words," replied Maka.

"Ask him if he knows the name of that band of men."

"Yes," said Maka, presently, "he know, but he no can speak it."

"Are they called the Rackbirds?" asked Captain Horn.

The shivering negro had been listening attentively, and now half rose and
nodded his head violently, and then began to speak rapidly in African.

"Yes," said Maka, "he says that is name they are called."

At this moment Ralph appeared upon the scene, and the second African,
whose name was something like Mok, sprang to his feet as if he were about
to flee for his life. But as there was no place to flee to, except into
the water or into the arms of Ralph, he stood still, trembling. A few
feet to the left the shelf ended in a precipitous rock, and on the right,
as has been said, it gradually descended into the water, the space on
which the party stood not being more than twenty feet long and five or
six feet wide. When he saw Ralph, the captain suddenly stopped the
question he was about to ask, and said in an undertone to Maka:

"Not a word to the boy. I will tell."

"Oh," cried Ralph, "you do not know what a lively couple there is out
there. I found that my sister and Mrs. Cliff had made up their minds that
they would perish in about two days, and Mrs. Cliff had been making her
will with a lead-pencil, and now they are just as high up as they were
low down before. They would not let me come to get them some water,
though I kept telling them they never tasted anything like it in their
whole lives, because they wanted to hear everything about everything. My
sister will be wild to come to this lake before long, even if Mrs. Cliff
does not care to try it. And when you are ready to come to them, and
bring Maka, they want to know who that other colored man is, and how Maka
happened to find him. I truly believe their curiosity goes ahead of their
thirst." And so saying he went down to the lake to fill a pail he had
brought with him.

The captain told Ralph to hurry back to the ladies, and that he would be
there in a few minutes. Captain Horn knew a great deal about the
Rackbirds. They were a band of desperadoes, many of them outlaws and