n came a few scattering reports,
some savage yells, and silence. Baynes was frantic in his endeavors to
advance more rapidly, but there the jungle seemed a thousand times more
tangled than before. A dozen times he tripped and fell. Twice the
black followed a blind trail and they were forced to retrace their
steps; but at last they came out into a little clearing near the big
afi--a clearing that once held a thriving village, but lay somber and
desolate in decay and ruin.

In the jungle vegetation that overgrew what had once been the main
village street lay the body of a black man, pierced through the heart
with a bullet, and still warm. Baynes and his companion looked about
in all directions; but no sign of living being could they discover.
They stood in silence listening intently.

What was that! Voices and the dip of paddles out upon the river?

Baynes ran across the dead village toward the fringe of jungle upon the
river's brim. The black was at his side. Together they forced their
way through the screening foliage until they could obtain a view of the
river, and there, almost to the other shore, they saw Malbihn's canoes
making rapidly for camp. The black recognized his companions
immediately.

"How can we cross?" asked Baynes.

The black shook his head. There was no canoe and the crocodiles made
it equivalent to suicide to enter the water in an attempt to swim
across. Just then the fellow chanced to glance downward. Beneath him,
wedged among the branches of a tree, lay the canoe in which Meriem had
escaped. The Negro grasped Baynes' arm and pointed toward his find.
The Hon. Morison could scarce repress a shout of exultation. Quickly
the two slid down the drooping branches into the boat. The black
seized the paddle and Baynes shoved them out from beneath the tree. A
second later the canoe shot out upon the bosom of the river and headed
toward the opposite shore and the camp of the Swede. Baynes squatted
in the bow, straining his eyes after the men pulling the other canoes
upon the bank across from him. He saw Malbihn step from the bow of the
foremost of the little craft. He saw him turn and glance back across
the river. He could see his start of surprise as his eyes fell upon
the pursuing canoe, and called the attention of his followers to it.

Then he stood waiting, for there was but one canoe and two men--little
danger to him and his followers in that. Malbihn was puzzled. Who was
this