8 AFRICAN ADVENTURE STORIES 



porters, one by one, roll up in their blankets by 

 the dying embers of their camp-fires. Contrary 

 to the invariable rule so early in the evening, not 

 a sound came from the village. It was so quiet 

 one could almost hear oneself think, and, true 

 to the old saying, it proved to be "the calm 

 before the storm." 



Suddenly a man slipped into the enclosure and 

 skulked toward the fire where two of the ser- 

 vants were sleeping. S. sprang from the cot, 

 snatched the rifle, and levelled it at the fellow, 

 but at the same instant saw that the black was 

 unarmed. He watched the native lean over and 

 shake the slumbering boys, and then the three 

 entered into conversation. The hunter heard 

 one of them say: 



"We had better tell our master at once!" 



"What is it, Charley?" he asked. 



The caller proved to be a boy who had been 

 hunting with them that morning and had been 

 given a liberal supply of meat. He had come 

 to inform his friends that the women had all 

 been sent from the village and he feared there 

 was going to be an attack. 



If this were true there could be but one in- 

 terpretation: the chief meant mischief. Step- 



