r
they had eaten nothing since midday; but they were also exceedingly
tired; and it was not long before they forgot their hunger in profound
sleep.

Probably they would not have slept so soundly had they known that they
had unwittingly entered a trap. But they had; for the Indians whom they
had encountered shortly before knew that part of the river perfectly,
and were fully aware that the difficulties of navigation were such that
the fugitives could not possibly proceed very far in the darkness, and
they also knew that the spot where Dick and Phil had landed was the only
one within many miles where an upstream landing was possible. They
therefore conjectured shrewdly that, since the white men would arrive at
this spot just about nightfall, they would be certain to land there, and
they took their measures accordingly. First of all, to make everything
quite sure, they sent a messenger on to the next village, some fifteen
miles up the river, to inform the cacique of the presence of the two
white men in the neighbourhood, and to request that a watch for them
should be kept, with a view to their capture. They requested further,
that in the event of the white men being captured, they should be sent
back down the river to pay the penalty for having caused the death of
seventeen Mayubuna Indians. Then, having by this means ensured the
capture of the fugitives, in the event of their succeeding by any chance
in forcing their way up the river in the darkness, they launched and
manned four canoes, each containing ten men, and these four canoes,
spreading themselves right across the river, so that nothing could
possibly pass downstream undetected, proceeded to make their way
cautiously up the river to the spot where they knew it was morally
certain that the white men must and would land. It was nearly eight
o'clock at night when the four canoes arrived at the spot for which they
were bound, and it was then of course much too dark for them to see
anything. They therefore troubled themselves not at all to search for
signs of the white men's presence, but assumed that they were there
somewhere, and at once, with infinite precaution, proceeded to surround
the open plateau, cunningly concealing themselves in the long grass.
Half a dozen of them lay immediately beneath the overhanging branches of
the ceiba tree; but they arrived there so silently that, even if Dick
and Phil had been awake, they would have heard nothing.

Now, the