The search party, headed by Salifu himself mounted on his horse, was coming along at a rapid pace, and was now within a hundred yards of the tree. All the members of the party were armed to the teeth, and in an excessively bad humour; Salifu, at the loss of his prey, and the five men who accompanied him, at being hustled along in the wake of the trotting horse. “We must soon overtake them now,” I heard Maháma say, as he wiped the sweat from his face with his wide sleeve. “They cannot have gone much farther. Canst thou see if they have crossed the stream?” “Yes,” grunted Salifu, standing up in his stirrups, “I can see the footmarks of the infidel pig on the other side, and the girl’s, too. Hast thou put plenty of slugs in thy gun?” “It is loaded with a double charge,” replied Maháma. “It is good,” exclaimed the old rascal viciously. “When we overtake them, give me the gun, and I will blow the pig-faced Nazarene ape into kabobs.” Having announced these benevolent intentions, the old gentleman urged his horse forward and splashed through the water, followed by his retainers, while I held my hands firmly over Aminé’s mouth to prevent her giggles from betraying our whereabouts. As soon as our pursuers had passed, I turned out the contents of the retort-like bird’s nest, and we proceeded to breakfast on the shell-fish; and while I was opening the mussels with my knife, Aminé popped the snails whole into her mouth, and crunched them up in a manner that made my flesh creep. When we had satisfied our hunger, Aminé commenced to while away our vigil by pouring out an unending stream of chatter, but this I had to stop (as she could not remember to speak softly) by sternly forbidding her to speak; upon which she yawned plaintively, and presently, to my relief, curled herself up on the soft tindery floor of our cell and fell asleep. The hours dragged on interminably. The sun rose to the zenith and glared down upon us until I was sick with the heat, and Aminé moaned and stirred in her sleep. A belated parrot came and looked at us, and fluttered away screeching with fright; down in the plain a herd of harnessed antelopes sauntered about picking up here and there a stray blade of grass and sniffing the air suspiciously, and just below the tree a black monkey sat at the edge of the stream and dipped up little draughts of water in the hollow of his hand. I looked on at these various occurrences dreamily and listlessly, keeping awake with difficulty, and watching the shadows slowly lengthen on the arid ground, until at last, late in the afternoon, I heard the welcome sound of voices and the noise of a horse’s hoofs, and presently a splashing in the water told me that the party was crossing the ford. “It is a strange thing,” I could hear one of the men say. “I cannot understand it. They did not leave the hill, for I walked all round it.” “They were not on the hill,” said Maháma, “for I searched every part of it.”