id Arthur. "We can still,
I think, push our way across these fern-like leaves."

We pressed forward, though so enormous were the leaves of which he
spoke, that a single one was sufficient to hide him from my sight as he
made his way among them. Duppo and True followed close behind me, but
True could only get on by making a succession of leaps, and sometimes
Duppo had to stop and help him through the forked branches, by which he
ran a risk every instant of being caught as in a trap.

"I think I see the mouth of the inlet close ahead," said Arthur. "If we
push on a few yards more we shall reach it. Get the axe from Duppo and
hand it to me; I must cut away some sipos and bushes, and then we shall
get there."

I did as he requested. I had broken down the vast leaves which
intervened between us, when I saw him beginning to use his axe. He had
made but a few strokes when a loud savage roar, which came from a short
distance off, echoed through the wood. His axe remained uplifted, and
directly afterwards a sharp cry reached our ears. "That is a woman's
voice," I exclaimed. "Where can it come from?" Duppo, as I spoke,
sprang forward, and endeavoured to scramble through the underwood, as
did True.

"Cut, Arthur, cut," I exclaimed. "Unless we clear away those sipos we
shall be unable to get there."

Arthur needed no second bidding, and so actively did he wield his axe,
that in a few seconds we were able to push onwards. Again the savage
roar sounded close to us, but the cry was not repeated. "Oh, I am
afraid the brute has killed the poor creature, for surely that must have
been a human being who cried out," exclaimed Arthur.

We dashed on, when, reaching the water, we saw, scarcely twenty yards
off, on the opposite bank, a canoe, in which were two persons. One lay
with his head over the gunwale; the other, whom I at once recognised as
our friend Illora, was standing up, no longer the somewhat retiring,
quiet-looking matron, but more like a warrior Amazonian--her hair
streaming in the wind, her countenance stern, her eyes glaring, and with
a sharp spear upraised in her hands, pointed towards a savage jaguar,
which, with its paws on the gunwale, seemed about to spring into the
canoe. It was too evident that her husband had been seized, and to all
appearance killed. What hope could she have of resisting the savage
creature with so slight a weapon. That very instant I dreaded it would
spring on her. Poor Duppo