ring outward, and their cry was different to what it had
hitherto been. It now occurred to me that the moss had caught fire from
the wadding of my rifle; and this soon proved to be the fact, for the
smoke all at at once became illuminated with a bright blaze that seemed
to spread almost instantaneously over the surface of the ground. We saw
that it did not fully envelope the tree, but burned on that side where
we had thrown down large quantities of the moss.

"My companion and I scrambled out on the branches to the opposite side--
going as far as we could to avoid the smoke. We feared, all the while,
that the hanging mass, or even the tree itself, might catch fire, and
force us to leap into the midst of our enemies. Fortunately, however,
we had clean stripped those branches that hung directly over the blazing
heap; and as yet the flames did not mount high enough to reach the
others.

"When we had crawled beyond the blinding smoke, we could distinguish the
peccaries, standing in a thick mass at some distance from the tree, and
evidently somewhat terrified by the fire. `Now,' thought I, `we shall
be delivered from them. They will go off far enough to enable us to
escape through the smoke;' and with this intention, I commenced
reconnoitring the ground in the direction in which the thick clouds were
carried by the wind. I concluded that none of the animals had gone in
this direction; and I saw that if we could leap down without being seen,
we might make off through the trees. We were about descending upon a
lower limb to carry out this purpose, when a sound like the distant
yelping of dogs broke upon our ears. It filled us at once with a
terrible foreboding. We knew that it must be our own dogs; and we knew
that Harry or Cudjo, or perhaps both, would be coming close upon their
heels. I knew that the dogs would soon be killed by the herd, and then
poor Harry--he would be at once torn in pieces! This was a fearful
thought, and Frank and I paused a moment, with palpitating hearts, to
listen. Yes, it was the dogs! We could hear them yelping and barking
at intervals, and evidently coming nearer. The next moment we could
plainly distinguish voices, as of people following upon the track of the
dogs. The voices could be no other than those of Harry and Cudjo coming
in search of us. I was irresolute how to act. Should I allow them to
come on, and while the dogs might keep the peccaries engaged for a
moment, shout