Niger

dition—it was as though, from the ebbing vitality
of his companions, he drew fresh reserves of ruthless
strength. He resolved to march again on the
morrow. _ . . ,
That morning dawned in ram, but clearea
towards eleven o’clock. Mungo helped Alexander
into the saddle, and walked beside him, holding
him there. Isaaco, invaluable Isaaco, saw to the
baggage asses. A sick soldier was mounted on
Mungo’s horse. A little way into the forest Mungo
came on a soldier who was in charge of an ass
carrying a load of gunpowder. The soldier had
fallen down, unable to proceed. Mungo drove on
the ass ; the soldier he never saw again.
All that day, till early afternoon, the caravan
straggled through the slushy forest tracks, a
caravan of men dying and doomed, dropping y
the way members who perished alone and far from
either attendance or comfort. At half-past two
Anderson’s strength failed him. Mungo dismounted
him from the horse, and sat down, waiting for him
to die. He could not abandon Ailie’s brother.
But Alexander did not die that day. In late
afternoon a breeze came sighing through the trees,
reviving him. Mungo helped him up on the horse
again, and then urged forward that animal at a
spanking pace. They had not gone very far being
by themselves and the rest of the caravan nowhere m
sight, when Mungo heard a noise like the barking of
a great dog, c but ending in a hiss like the fuf of a
cat ’ He thought it the noise of a monkey, and joked
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