THE YELLOW DEVIL'S NEST Sundown came, and, as on the previous night, the three travellers camped upon an island waiting for the moon to rise.

They had caught two flapper-ducks in some weeds, and there was a talk of lighting a fire to cook them by.

Finally Leonard negatived this idea.

"It is dangerous," he said, "for fires can be seen from afar." So they made a wretched meal off a little dried meat and some raw duck's eggs.
It was fortunate that his caution prevailed, since, as the twilight was dying into dark, they heard the stroke of paddles and made out the shapes of canoes passing them.

There were several canoes, each of which towed something behind it, and the men in them shouted to one another from time to time, now in Portuguese and now in Arabic.
"Lie still, lie still," whispered Otter, "these are the slave-men taking back the big boats." Leonard and Soa followed his advice to the letter, and the slavers, paddling furiously up stream, passed within thirty feet of where they crouched in the rushes.
"Give way, comrades," called one man to the captain of the next canoe; "the landing-place is near, and there is rum for those who earn it." "I hope that they will not stop here," said Leonard beneath his breath.
"Hist!" answered Otter, "I hear them landing." He was right; the party had disembarked about two hundred yards away.
Presently they heard them collecting reeds for burning, and in ten minutes more two bright tongues of flame showed that they had lit their fires.
"We had better get out of this," said Leonard; "if they discover us----" "They will not discover us, Baas, if we lie still," answered Otter; "let us wait awhile.