Part 18 (1/2)
Then through the silence there ca who has struck the scent, and next the loud, excited bark Too cautious to land on the suspected island themselves, some of the canoe-men had drawn near from the north side and thrown a cur on the island to find the whitehad, of course, struck the spoor and found the dark hiding, eue The gun from the launch fired, a yell rose from every side, and all the canoes near dashed forward
Mr Hume shoved out, and the Okapi slipped up-strea fro as near the banks as possible They were doing splendidly! The enee of their caution and resourcefulness, when, without any inti in mid-channel between two of the innumerable islands
”Back-water!” cried Mr Hume, at once
The boys obeyed without, of course, any knowledge of the course, and the Okapi slackened down
”Well met, my friends,” came a voice they knew; and the two looked over their shoulders
”Dished, after all!” muttered Compton, bitterly; then he snatched up his rifle
”Hassan thought you would co this way,” went on the junior officer--for it was he; ”but I doubted, and yet here you are”
”The praise be to Allah,” re his rifle
The Okapi had lost the little way she was an to move with the current away from the canoe Mr Hume suddenly spoke for the first time since his order
”Turn that canoe round!” he roared; and his Express leapt to his shoulder The boys followed suit
The paddle-men promptly ducked their heads, and one of theo that this was the slayer of crocodiles and of the great bull
”But, ether with Hassan and several Arabs in the stern of the canoe, cae me,” said the hunter ”Co, take the ht If they move their weapons, shoot”
Hassan snarled and turned a furious face to the Belgian ”This is your folly!” he hissed ”Why didn't you fire at once?”
Mr Huue, and the cowedcanoe round
”Now, keep straight on in silence, till I tell you to stop Follow them”--this to the boys, who ilanced back ”Come,” he said, ”this is not aht you in an ambush”
”And so your friend Hassan advised you, eh?” replied Mr Huht ould surrender at discretion You see, you were ain, or this rifle rowled out curses at this co of the tables upon him, but the natives bent to their paddles They bad no wish to be shot down in the cause of the slave-hunter, however ready they would have been to have fallen on the Englishe had been with thee procession passed up the channel to thread the intricate passages a islands In a few ht; but the very last thing Mr Hume wanted was to keep company
”Baleka!” he cried ”Quicker! I have your heads in one line One bullet would stretch you all dead Quicker!” he roared
The broad paddles flashed, the water churned fiercely, and the long canoe shot off into the dusk; and as it sped on the hunter pulled the wheel over, altering the course of the Okapi, and taking it towards the open water between the islands and the south bank
”By Jove! you did that splendidly,” said Cohed that little nervous laugh of his ”I wonder why they gave in like that?”
”We had the drop on then,” said Mr Hurimly; ”and we knew our own minds Now, then! up with the sail, and, dark or not, we et on”
Very smartly and silently the boys hoisted the sail, and as the Okapi beat up they heard a great uproar froe to the Belgian officer for not having alishmen” Then several rifle-shots were fired from the canoe, and answered fro for their prey But the Okapi slipped on,a reat wall of woods on the south bank, when she tacked away into the gathering darkness, feeling for the wind Down-river was the glare of fires at different spots, where the ht ahead through the whole vast width of the river, and they dare not even rig up their own laive The as fitful, and the direct progress was slow, so that when the gloent out of the sky they were still within hearing of the shouting Indeed, it seeained on the their place in the renewed pursuit, and directing other crews as to the line they should take