Part 22 (1/2)

In addition to the keenness of the disappoint his last chance of ever getting hoain came the speculation as to what these wild-faced people meant to do with him, and there leaped to his mind a new and very terrible question

Was it possible that Bob had cos, and dispatched him before he had time to whip out his revolver? But no There was still that answering coo-ee to be accounted for Perhaps they had only bound him and made him prisoner till then, undecided what to do with hi Eustace's coo-ee he had dared the blacks, and attempted those three faint answers If so, they had cost him his life, and the ulti over the thought He could only keep his teeth frohtly in both hands

How long he lay lost in those hts he did not know

He was roused fro up, he found the woain She see that had strayed aible creature in her eyes, but she knew that he must at least eat to live

It was a ed to eat some; and all the driest portions of it he could extract unnoticed he slipped into his pockets, laying in provision for possible starvation next day

Then he lay down again and feigned sleep

He looked through half-closed lids with longing eyes at the peaceful Bolter Eustace wondered whether he too had heard those tantalizing coo-ees and ached to respond What would be poor Bolter's fate here? The blacks make the women of the tribes into their beasts of burden when shi+fting camp; they do not habitually use horses The chief was perhaps only keeping Bolter as a valuable addition to the larder when provisions ran short

Every thought that came to the boy was horrid He wished he did not have to think, and as dusk fell set hisawake after his captors had settled down for the night It would be fatal to sleep as he had done the night before

The chief had been away all day, and was not yet coment on the prisoner was suspended till his return

When the great man heard of the coo-ees and Eustace's attempt to answer, probably the boy's fate would be sealed Escape must be now or never

Eustace made up his mind that he would start off in the direction whence the coo-ees had couide he had, and a very poor one, as had already been proved by the first cry he had so unfortunately tried to follow

He waited just as long as he could bear, after silence fell on the cauarded as on the night before; besides, he would have et up and walk hi rass he radually pull his body, snakewise, little by little away froan his weird progress, quaking at every sound he made lest it should rouse those keen-eared sleepers so close around hirass beneath hi of a torrent

He was al hiainst one of those dark for One false s for him

CHAPTER XII

THE SECRET OF THE THICKET

The night was close and still with the silence that intensifies sound tenfold Eustace thought he could not have had worse luck

His temptation was to hurry; coed hi, andin his ht bolt, but where to in the dark? It was useless to dash headlong into trees and et as far away as possible in the dark, unheard, so that by daylight he would be out of sight, and able to quicken his pace to so, he pulled hireat beads of perspiration started on his forehead and trickled down into his eyes

The darkness was useful in one way, but it had its disadvantages

He had no idea what progress he was ainst what he thankfully realized was the bark of a tree Al, so vivid that for a fullcarasp the fact that he ithin the outskirts of the wood The crash of thunder alht him to his feet Noas the time to make some pace, in the dense darkness, under cover of that merciful noise

Eustace was not the least afraid of thunder and lightning; he was used to tre better than to stand out on the veranda to watch one raging round a Every flash showed him where he was, and he took care to have a tree trunk between hi the thunder bursts hecautiously like a blind e carumbled itself away into the distance he kneell out of sight of the camp, and he dared to sit down to wait for dawn Without the aid of the lightning it was folly to plunge farther into the scrub

In spite of a stern resolve not even to let hi with his back against a tree

There was just a first glie above when he opened his eyes with a sudden definite feeling of so roused him