doing, but they heard a suggestive crash and a sharp
exclamation.

Had they been able to see, they would have understood the situation well
enough without the aid of language.

Two of the natives, who were dark-skinned and almost naked savages, had
come to the place where the track had been broken away. They gazed at
the profound depths on the left and the inaccessible cliffs on the
right, and then glanced at each other in solemn surprise.

No doubt the creeping plant would in a few seconds have attracted
special attention, had not an incident turned their minds in another
direction. While the foremost savage was craning his neck so as to see
as far round the projecting cliff as possible, the piece of rock on
which his advanced foot was dislodged, and he had the narrowest possible
escape from plunging headlong after the rock, which went bounding and
crashing into the gulf below.

Instantly the faces of the two men gleamed with intelligence; they
nodded with energy, grinned with satisfaction, and pointed to the abyss
in front of them with the air of men who had no doubt that their enemies
were lying down there in quivering fragments.

Something of this James Ginger did indeed manage to see. Curiosity was
so powerfully developed in that sable spirit, that, at the imminent risk
of his life, he reached out by means of a branch, and so elongated his
black neck that he got one of his brilliant eyes to bear for a moment
upon his foes. He appreciated the situation instantly, and drew back to
indulge in a smothered laugh which shut up both his eyes and appeared to
gash his face from ear to ear.

"What's wrong with you, Ebony?" whispered Mark Breezy, who was in
anything but a laughing mood just then.

"Oh! nuffin', nuffin', massa; only dem brown niggers are sitch asses dat
dey b'lieve a'most anyting. Black niggers ain't so easy putt off de
scent. Dey tinks we's tumble ober de precipis an' busted ourselbes."

"Lucky for us that they think so," said Hockins, in a soft tone of
satisfaction. "But now, what are we to do? It was bad enough
clamberin' up here in blazin' excitement to save our lives, but it will
be ten times worse gettin' down again in cold blood when they're gone."

"Time enough to consider that when they _are_ gone," muttered Breezy.
"Hush! Listen!"

The sounds that reached their place of concealment told clearly enough
that a number of the savages had descended the cliffs, presumably to
look at t