A paling of split canes was soon surmounted, and once more we found ourselves in the long street of Benin.
CHAPTER LV
THE FORMOSA.
"If once we are free from the town," said Hartly, "we can find concealment during the day, and by travelling at night may reach the coast. Then, if we can but obtain a canoe, and pass over to one of the little isles in the Bight, we might remain there snugly enough, till some ship ran in on the same unlucky errand which brought poor Baylis here."
"I pray it may end as you say."
"Courage, Jack! Energy and faith will work miracles!"
"But I imagine——"
"Don't talk of imagination; it may only paralyse you by the fears it fashions, the danger it suggests; but hush!"
At that moment the fire before the idol flared up broad and redly, and then the mingled roar of many voices swelled upon the night air.
High above the hedge-rows or kraals for containing cattle, and the lines of countless huts, formed of turf, of wickered cane, and other rude materials which the wild vines, creepers, and convolvuli concealed, rose the lurid flame that blazed before the misshapen god of Benin; and far across the flat city it cast the shadows of the tall giraffe trees, which grew in rows around the palace wall.