276 A CLEVER STRATAGEM. 



to them, they had a way of lingering over their mea which prolonged it indefi 

 nitely, until it seemed to the spectator that they must be genuine epicures. 



The cooks had helped themselves as well as the rest several times, until but little 

 remained of the original supply. 



"Well, I'll be hanged!" 



This muttered exclamation was caused by what was certainly an extraordinary 

 discovery : Dick counted the savages once more, and this time there were only 

 eight ! 



" I haven't seen any of them leave," he thought ; " and yet two have vanished 

 since I first looked upon them. I wonder if those cooks are running in their fel- 

 lows on the others so slyly that no outsider can see it. Will they keep it up till 

 there's only one left, and what then will he do ? " 



Had Dick Brownell possessed the acumen of Jack Harvey he would have seen 

 in this mysterious disappearance of a couple of natives a most significant warning 

 that would have sent him flying, without an instant's delay, from the spot. 



It certainly had a meaning which that veteran Indian campaigner would have 

 been quick to penetrate. 



With a strange feeling of awe the lad counted them once more. 



This time there were eight : the ebb of the tide had probably been reached. 



" I would give a good deal to know where those others went without any one " 



At that moment Master Richard Brownell ascertained whither they had gone. 



Without the slightest noise his arms were suddenly seized with a power that he 

 could not shake off. Uttering a gasp of terror, he turned his head, and found in 

 the dim light which reached the spot that he was immovably griped by two of the 

 wild men. 



The lad was not mistaken in suspecting that, by some means beyond his power 

 to understand, one of the cooks learned of his presence near them. He acquainted 

 the others so quietly that the listener never held a suspicion of the truth. 



Then a couple of the warriors, with admirable cleverness, slipped off in the 

 jungle, and, getting behind him, made him prisoner with a deftness and skill that 

 could not have been surpassed by a brace of American Indians. 



