ould know what we had done, so that at the worst our names
should not perish with our bodies, but should go down to posterity
associated with the result of our labors.

It was an awesome thing to sleep in that ill-fated camp; and yet it was
even more unnerving to do so in the jungle. One or the other it must
be. Prudence, on the one hand, warned me that I should remain on
guard, but exhausted Nature, on the other, declared that I should do
nothing of the kind. I climbed up on to a limb of the great gingko
tree, but there was no secure perch on its rounded surface, and I
should certainly have fallen off and broken my neck the moment I began
to doze. I got down, therefore, and pondered over what I should do.
Finally, I closed the door of the zareba, lit three separate fires in a
triangle, and having eaten a hearty supper dropped off into a profound
sleep, from which I had a strange and most welcome awakening. In the
early morning, just as day was breaking, a hand was laid upon my arm,
and starting up, with all my nerves in a tingle and my hand feeling for
a rifle, I gave a cry of joy as in the cold gray light I saw Lord John
Roxton kneeling beside me.

It was he--and yet it was not he. I had left him calm in his bearing,
correct in his person, prim in his dress. Now he was pale and
wild-eyed, gasping as he breathed like one who has run far and fast.
His gaunt face was scratched and bloody, his clothes were hanging in
rags, and his hat was gone. I stared in amazement, but he gave me no
chance for questions. He was grabbing at our stores all the time he
spoke.

"Quick, young fellah! Quick!" he cried. "Every moment counts. Get
the rifles, both of them. I have the other two. Now, all the
cartridges you can gather. Fill up your pockets. Now, some food.
Half a dozen tins will do. That's all right! Don't wait to talk or
think. Get a move on, or we are done!"

Still half-awake, and unable to imagine what it all might mean, I found
myself hurrying madly after him through the wood, a rifle under each
arm and a pile of various stores in my hands. He dodged in and out
through the thickest of the scrub until he came to a dense clump of
brush-wood. Into this he rushed, regardless of thorns, and threw
himself into the heart of it, pulling me down by his side.

"There!" he panted. "I think we are safe here. They'll make for the
camp as sure as fate. It will be their first idea. But this should
puzzle 'em."