Contents

CHAPTERPAGE
PROLOGUE.[5]
I.THE STOLEN DESPATCHES.[9]
II.A STRANGE MEETING.[16]
III.THE ARAB’S WARNING.[23]
IV.THE ALARM.[30]
V.THE NIGHT ON THE ROOF.[38]
VI.A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH.[44]
VII.SOLD INTO SLAVERY.[51]
VIII.THE SEPARATION.[57]
IX.A CLOSE SHAVE.[62]
X.THE SLAVE PRISON.[68]
XI.CANARIS UNFOLDS A TALE.[76]
XII.A DARING MOVE.[83]
XIII.THE FLIGHT THROUGH THE TOWN.[91]
XIV.OVER THE WALLS.[99]
XV.THE PURSUIT.[106]
XVI.BESIEGED.[113]
XVII.A CLOSE SHAVE.[120]
XVIII.THE UNDERGROUND RIVER.[127]
XIX.A DARING EXPEDITION.[135]
XX.BY A HAIR’S BREADTH.[142]
XXI.CUT OFF FROM THE OUTER WORLD.[150]
XXII.AN UNWELCOME VISITOR.[158]
XXIII.A WONDERFUL ESCAPE.[165]
XXIV.SIR ARTHUR WAKES AT THE RIGHT TIME.[172]
XXV.THE JOURNEY ON THE LAKE.[179]
XXVI.THE ISLE OF SKELETONS.[187]
XXVII.ALL HOPE VANISHES.[195]
XXVIII.A DESPERATE FIGHT.[203]
XXIX.GUY SAVES SIR ARTHUR.[210]
XXX.A STRANGE DISCOVERY.[217]
XXXI.A TERRIBLE BLUNDER.[224]
XXXII.GOOD-BY TO THE LAKE.[232]
XXXIII.A TERRIBLE RIDE.[239]
XXXIV.MORE MISERY.[247]
XXXV.BILDAD DRINKS NEW LIFE.[255]
XXXVI.BILDAD TURNS CANNIBAL.[262]
XXXVII.THE END OF THE CAVERN.[270]
XXXVIII.CAPTAIN BECKER LOSES A WAGER.[278]
XXXIX.CONCLUSION.[285]

THE RIVER OF DARKNESS.

PROLOGUE.

It was November in London. The great city was buried under a dank, yellow fog. Traffic was temporarily checked; foot passengers groped their way by the light of the street lamps, and the hoarse shouts of the link boys running before cabs and carriages with blazing torches rang at intervals above the muffled rumble of countless wheels.

In the coffee-room of a quiet hotel on the Strand a young man stands by the window, looking pensively out on the misty street. He is quite young, with light hair that falls half over his forehead, and a drooping, golden mustache, and in rather startling contrast to these a deep-bronzed complexion that tells of foreign lands and tropical suns.

“Captain Chutney, sir?”

It is a hotel servant, with a big blue envelope in his hand, and, as the young man wheels round, he reveals the uniform and bright facings of a captain of hussars.