He entered his hut, and sat down upon the great, padlocked chest. There, he took the dog's head between his knees. She was a Great Dane, and even larger and more powerful than the majority of her kind.
"Do you know this, Gyp," said he: "de Costa can't be trusted? Fortunately, you and I, Gyp, know a way to make him hold his tongue."
At that, the man laughed softly to himself.
Meanwhile, in the other hut, the quick brain of Captain Crouch was not idle. He had learnt much that night; but the secret was still unsolved. He had not been slow in discovering the weak point in Cæsar's line of defence: the little half-caste could be induced to speak the truth. That the man was not an ivory trader, Crouch was fully convinced. Indeed, he could be no sort of trader at all, because there was no direct line of communication from Makanda to the Coast. Try as he might, Crouch could find no answer to the riddle; and in the end, like Cæsar, he resolved to bide his time.
Before he went to sleep, he awakened Max.
"Max," said he, "I want you to keep watch till daybreak. Keep your eyes open, and if any one enters the hut, give him 'hands up' on the spot."
"Have you discovered anything?" asked Max.
"Nothing," said Crouch, "except that de Costa's our friend's weak point. Given half a chance, I will find out the truth from him. But Cæsar suspects us, as much as we suspect him; and, from what I have seen of the man, I'm inclined to think that he'll stick at nothing. We must never cease to be on our guard. Keep on the alert, and wake me up if you see or hear anything suspicious."
At that Crouch turned over on his side, and this time actually fell asleep.
Max Harden sat with his back to the wall of the hut, his loaded revolver in his hand. Through the doorway, above the rampart of the stockade, he could see the march of the tropical stars, as the Southern Cross dropped lower and lower in the heavens. As it drew nearer to daybreak, the sounds of the jungle ceased. Even in these latitudes there is a time, about an hour before the dawn, when all Nature seems hushed and still; the great beasts of prey retire to rest, foodless or with their appetites appeased--more often the first, and it is not before the first streaks of daybreak are visible in the eastern sky that the large minor world, of beast and bird and reptile, awakens to the day.