Darkness soon came on, and as all seemed quiet they ventured to roll back the stone and crawl out. Far across the valley a faint glow was visible against the somber sky, probably from the smoldering embers of the burned village, while directly north of the cavern, in the vicinity of the pool of water where the lions had been encountered the previous night, a number of camp fires were twinkling merrily through the scattered boulders.
“This is the camp of the Abyssinians,” declared Canaris without hesitation. “One of us must spy into it and see if your friends are prisoners; another must go to the village for provisions, and a third man should remain here at the mouth of the cavern.”
This proposed division of the forces did not please Guy and Melton.
“Why must a man remain at the cavern?” demanded Chutney.
“To mark the place in case one of us is pursued and loses his bearings in the darkness,” was the Greek’s calm reply.
Guy saw the advisability of this and made no further objection. After brief discussion it was decided that he should remain on guard, while Canaris visited the village and Forbes reconnoitered the Abyssinian camp. Without any delay they started off on their respective missions, and Guy was left alone.
For a while he paced up and down before the cavern, his rifle in the hollow of his arm, and then sitting down on the round stone he reflected over his perilous situation and the strange train of events that had led up to it. The stars shining down on him from the blackness of the African sky seemed to whisper of his far-away English home and the friends he would probably never see again.
Then he thought of his comrades in India and the expedition he had so fondly hoped to join, that even now was fighting its way through the hills of Chittagong. His reverie was broken by a sharp “hist!” and Forbes glided swiftly out of the gloom.
“No, they have not been captured,” he whispered in response to Guy’s eager inquiries. “I was around the camp on all sides. The Abyssinians have secured some Galla prisoners, and among them the chief himself, Oko Sam, but none of our friends are there. I am terribly afraid they have been massacred, Chutney.”
“We will know when the Greek returns,” replied Guy, who did not care to admit his belief that Melton was right.