ed the whites so roughly. Bippo and his comrades had
shown a loyalty from the first which gave their employers the fullest
confidence in them.

The canoe was almost against the bank, where something of the
bewilderment of Ashman seemed to enter the head of Bippo. He spoke to
his companions and the three ceased paddling. Ashman had done so a
moment before and was scanning the bank with a searching but vain
scrutiny.

"You must have been mistaken," he said in a low voice; "they could not
have swam the river and they had no other way of crossing."

"We seed 'em--motion dat way," and the native beckoned with his right
arm, just as a person would do when signaling another to approach.

"I can't understand it," replied Ashman, with a shake of his head.

His doubts were confirmed, when he recalled that the professor and
Jared Long had gone up the bank of the river with the purpose of
learning the extent of the rapids. It followed, therefore, that if
they had made their way to the other shore, it must have been at a
point so far above the angry waters that there was no danger of being
caught in the furious current.

He was turning over these troublous thoughts, when Bippo, who was
facing the bank they had left, uttered an expression of dismay and
extended his arm toward the shore behind them.

Ashman turned his head, and there in the moonlight he saw Professor
Grimcke and the New Englander standing on the land and motioning to
them to return.

"Yes--dat de way he do--he move arm like _dat_," said Bippo; "we hurry
to go to him, den he ain't here--but _dere_."

Ashman could not doubt that the servant believed the extraordinary
assertion he had just made, and such being the case, the startling
truth was manifest; they had seen two strangers whom they mistook for
their own friends, and these strangers had beckoned them to paddle the
canoe to the other shore where they were awaiting them.

If such were the fact--and he did not doubt it--a new mystery
confronted him.

Who were the white men and strangers? and why had they disappeared when
approached by the canoe and its occupants?

Ashman ordered the servants to turn the craft about and return to the
shore they had left with all speed. While doing so, and while Grimcke
and Long were doubtless wondering what had got into the heads of the
others, the young man wrought himself into a most uncomfortable
condition of mind.

He questioned Bippo more particularly as to