frantic struggle to escape from the grasp of those who held
him back from following his father,--the same loud cry of agony on
finding that his efforts were vain, and then, the wide-open mouth, the
close-shut eyes, and the awful, prolonged silence--suggestive of fits--
that betokens the concentration of mind, heart, and lungs into that
tremendous roar of unutterable significance which appears to be the
safety-valve of the human family, black and white, at that tender period
of life.

Poor Obo! his sobs continued to burst out with steam-engine power, and
his eyes to pour cataracts of tears into Yohama's sympathetic bosom,
long after the hunting party had left the hills behind them, and
advanced into the almost impenetrable jungles of the low grounds.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

DESCRIBES A HUNTING EXPEDITION WHICH WAS BOTH EXCITING AND SUCCESSFUL.

Down by the reedy margin of a pretty large lake--where wild-fowl
innumerable made the air vocal with their cries by day, and frogs, in
numbers inconceivable, chirped and croaked a lullaby to men who slept,
and a symphony to beasts that howled and growled and prowled at night in
bush and brake--Kambira pitched his camp.

He did not indeed, select the moist level of the fever-breeding marshes,
but he chose for his temporary habitation the dry summit of a wooded
hill which overlooked the lake.

Here the natives of the neighbourhood said that elephants had been
lately seen, and buffaloes, zebras, etcetera, were at all times
numerous.

After two long days' march they had reached the spot, and encamped late
in the evening. Next morning early the business of the expedition
began. Various parties of natives, armed with bows and arrows and
spears, were sent out in different directions, but the principal band
was composed of Kambira and his chief men, with Harold and his party.

They did not go far before game was found. Guinea-fowl were numerous,
and those who were aimed with bows soon procured a goodly supply of
these, but our travellers did not waste their energies or powder on such
small game. Besides these, monkeys peeped inquisitively at the hunters
from among the trees, and myriads of turtle-doves were seen in the
covers. As they advanced, wild pigs, elands, waterbucks, koodoos, and
other creatures, were seen in herds, and the natives dropped off, or
turned aside in pursuit of these, so that ere long the band remaining
with Kambira was reduced to about forty men.

Comi