and it seemed that at last his pursuer had given him 

 up, for that day at least. As he sat in the shade of 

 the high bank, however, with the river only a few 

 yards from his feet he heard again a faint chattering : it 

 came from the river-side beyond a turn in the bank, and 

 it was too far away for the bird to have seen Jantje 

 from where it called, so he had no doubt about this 

 being a new bird. It seemed to him a glorious piece 

 of luck that he should find honey by the aid of a 

 strange bird and be able to take half of it back to the 

 hive he had emptied the day before and leave it there 

 for the cheated bird. 



There was a beach of pebbles and rocks between 

 the high bank and the river, and as Jantje walked along 

 it on the keen look-out for the bird, he spotted it 

 sitting on a root half-way down the bank some twenty 

 yards ahead. Close to where the chattering bird 

 perched there was a break in the pebbly beach, and 

 there shallow water extended up to the perpen- 

 dicular bank. In the middlej.of this little stretch 

 of water, and conveniently placed as a stepping- 

 stone, there was a black rock, and the bare-footed 

 Jantje stepped noiselessly from stone to stone towards 

 it. 



An alarmed cane-rat, cut off by Jantje from the 

 river, ran along the foot of the bank to avoid him ; but 

 when it reached the little patch of shallow water it 

 suddenly doubled back in fright and raced under the 

 boy's feet into the river. 



Jantje stopped ! He did not know why ; but there 

 seemed to be something wrong. Something had 



35 





