eady
expecting every moment to see a herd of savages rush in upon us, for
that the sounds were produced by natives we could have no doubt. We
quickly made Toby spring to his feet.

"What's all that noise about?" asked Guy.

"He-he-he, ho-ho-ho! dat corroborree," answered Toby who did not appear,
as we expected would be the case, at all astonished at the uproar.

Bracewell at length awoke and confirmed what Toby had said, that the
savages were indulging in one of their native dances.

"I should like to go and see it," I exclaimed; "can we do so without
risk of being discovered?"

Taking Toby to guide us, while Bracewell remained in camp, we set out.
We were scarcely prepared for the strange and weird sight which we saw
as we looked over some low bushes we had just reached. Before us was an
open glade, beyond which the moon was rising brightly. In the centre of
the glade burned a fire. Seated on the ground were a number of figures
rattling sticks together. Suddenly there burst forth out of the
darkness a score of skeleton-like figures who threw themselves into
every possible attitude, now stretching out their legs, now springing up
and clapping their hands, and all the time shrieking, laughing and
singing, and following a big black fellow who acted as fugleman and
stood on one side with stick in hand to direct the proceedings.

Not for a moment did they cease, though every now and then we might have
fancied that they had disappeared had we not distinguished their black
backs turned towards us. We watched until we grew weary of the sight,
but the dancers appeared in no way tired; and as we saw no chance of
their giving in, we retreated to our own camp, pretty well tired out and
assured that they would not molest us during the night.

CHAPTER TWO.

The night passed as Bracewell had predicted, without a visit from the
natives; and as he assured us that they were not at all likely to attack
four armed men in the day-time, we, being anxious to become better
acquainted with them, agreed before setting off to pay a visit to their
camp. They were sure indeed to find ours out; so that it would be as
well to show that we had no fear of them, and to gain their friendship.
On examining the birds we had cooked the previous evening we found they
had been nearly devoured by the white ants, a large nest of which we
discovered a short distance from the camp. We had therefore to look out
for some fresh provisions. Bra