What, indeed! Their eyes searched the shadows at the foot of the knoll for trace of the unfortunate people who had been captured, but they could neither see nor hear anything.
"Ugh, the brutes!" muttered Venning, with a shudder, as he brought his rifle to the "ready."
Mr. Hume pressed the barrel down. "We'll have no night attack," he whispered. "At the first note of danger they'd scatter like shadows, when they would have the eyes and the ears of us. Well hear what Muata has to say, and then wait for the morning."
"There are thirty-six of them," muttered Compton. A bull crocodile roared from the water near at hand, and one of the black men imitated the cry, drawing a yell of wild laughter from his comrades. It was the wildest of scenes. The little circle of red fire threw into light against an impenetrable wall of black the trunks of a few trees, the trailing vines, and the forms of the savage men. That was the one bit of the world visible, a space on which appeared some of the lowest forms of the human race; but, though they could see not an inch beyond the furthest reflection of the fires, they knew how well the setting fitted the picture. It seemed only natural that in that gloomy wilderness of wood these savage types should prevail, for if man had to live there, he could only hold his own by a cunning and ferocity greater than the beasts possessed. Every item of the scene stamped itself on the minds of the boys as they stood for a long time watching the antics of the savages.
It was a relief when Muata made his presence known by a cricket-like chirrup.
"Are these the men we are after, chief?" asked Mr. Hume, when the two scouts silently crept up. "They are the same, but the trail is different." "Then they are already on another hunt, and have left the women and children they captured elsewhere? Is that so?"
"As you have seen, they are warriors only. Such of the women and children who yet live are hidden. These await the coming of the other wolves."
"Oh oh! Then there is to be a great war-party?" "A great killing! I went near, round by the riverside, where also there is a fire as a signal. I heard their talk. Others will join them in the night or the morning, and together they will go in the war-canoes."
"And who are they that are expected?"
"I said we had not done with the thief-of-the-wood and the river, the man-robber, the slayer of babes."