anchor here at daybreak."

"I will go with you, uncle. I will run in and see the chief, first,
and get leave off for the day. I have earned a holiday, for I have
been at work pretty well morning, noon, and night for the last two
months. You see, I have not only the duties of aide-de-camp, but of
interpreter; and have helped both the quartermaster's department
and the commissariat in making their arrangements with the natives.
I daresay I shall be able to help to hurry your business on,
quicker than you would be able to get it done, alone."

The general at once granted Stanley leave, and he went with his
uncle down to the commissariat office, and introduced him to the
senior officer.

"We shall be glad to do all in our power to help you, Mr. Pearson,"
the officer said. "We have been expecting your arrival for the last
week. Of course, we heard from Calcutta that you had the contract
for two thousand head; at least half of these were to be delivered
by the tenth of February. We were getting rather anxious about it.
The force will probably want to start, before that time; and we
shall have to victual both the land and water columns. Of course, I
did not know that you were a relation of Mr. Brooke, or I should
have mentioned to him that you were likely to come."

"I should like to get off as soon as possible," Tom Pearson said;
"for by the time that I get back to Ramgur, the rest of the cattle
will be in readiness for me."

"I will write you an order for four large boats, at once. If you
had come three weeks sooner, you might have been kept waiting some
days; but such a number of native craft have, of late, come down
the rivers that we are enabled to get sufficient for our work."

The officer gave him a note to the one in charge of the landing
arrangements.

"It is lucky that you have come just at this moment," the latter
said. "We have just made our last trip with the baggage of the
47th, and I have six boats disengaged. You may as well take them
all."

The craft in question were some of those that had been
captured--unwieldy craft, that took fish and salt up the river.
They were almost as large as the dhows in which the cattle had been
brought down, but drew very much less water. They were towed off to
the dhows, one by one, by two captured war canoes, each having
thirty rowers. One was taken to each dhow, and the work of
transhipping the cattle began at once. These were in good condition
for, although closel